Rep. Goodlatte Would Support Defunding Obamacare if Repeal Effort Unsuccessful

It was never really about Loughner [Darleen Click]
The speed and viciousness of the Left’s coordinated reaction to the Giffords’ shooting in blaming - not Mitt Romney or John McCain or Olympia Snow - Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Talk Radio and FoxNews, is illuminating in the way it clearly demonstrates that the Left - including many so-called liberals and Democrats - don’t respect Elections when they lose. They will use anything, including a totally unrelated act of evil, and use their poodle Main Strea...

Republicans Denounce Republican Health Care Plan
Tim Noah on Republican outrage over high risk Health Insurance pools: Of all the arguments Republicans have been waging against ObamaCare as the House of Representatives prepares to vote for its Repeal, none is harder to take than their criticism of the federally subsidized high-risk pools the law created to provide immediate relief to the Uninsured. In May, the House Republican Conference complained that these high-risk pools would be unfair to people currently enrolled in existing state-run r...

Today in Congress
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip: THE NIGHTLY WHIP: TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2011 TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK The House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business. The House is expected to consider one resolution honoring Representative Giffords and honoring those who have fallen, including Federal Judge John Roll and Gabe Zimmerman, a member of Congresswoman Giffords' congressional staff. A recorded vote is not expected on the resolution. *Members are advised, the H...

Why Are They Doing This?
It’s a rhetorical question, to be sure, that I pose at the end of the post below: why the fact-free blood Libel, from the L.A. Times or any other lefty? Again, I won’t insult your intelligence by answering the question — but just to confirm that you’re on the right track, I commend to you these Quotes of the Day from Hot Air. Every single one is about how the Republicans really need to tone it down — especially when seeking to Repeal Health Care. When they turn back...

After Arizona, How to Return to Politics and When?
Susan Walsh/Associated Press President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and government employees observe a moment of silence on South Lawn of the White House. The normal course of politics in Washington remains frozen this week, as President Obama travels to Arizona on Wednesday and members of Congress gather to honor the Victims of Saturday’s shootings and to consider enhancing their own security. Debates about Health Care, raising the nation’s Debt Limit, Spending Cuts and...

Obama highest approval in nearly a year: poll
President Obama’s Approval Ratings has climbed to its highest point in nearly a year and opinions of Congress are up too, a new poll Wednesday found. Fifty-three percent of Americans surveyed for an Associated Press-GfK poll released Wednesday said they approve of how Obama is doing his job. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 In November, just after the Election Day in which the president said Democrats got a “shellacking,” his approval rating in the same poll ...

What the health reform repeal effort says about the 112th Congress
Members of the House of Representatives will vote next week on a bill to Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, the health reform law that aims to cover the Uninsured through state Health Insurance exchanges, an individual coverage mandate, and an expansion of the Medicaid program, among other provisions. While the measure will probably pass the House, it is unlikely to be approved by the Democrat-controlled Senate, and even if it were to pass both chambers, the President has threatened t...

Lame Duck Dems Hike Illinois Taxes 66%
From an approving New York Times: Illinois Legislators Approve 66% Tax Increase By MONICA DAVEY January 12, 2011 Chicago — With only hours left before new state lawmakers were to take over, Illinois’s State Legislature narrowly approved early on Wednesday an increase of about 66 percent in the state’s Income Tax rate. The vast size of the increase, the rarity of such increases here — the last one came two decades ago — and the hour of the vote (in the wee hours of Wednesd

House Resolution Would Condemn Giffords Attack (Full Text)
Members of Congress and staff members observe a moment of silence for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and other Shooting Victims, Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, on the East Steps of the Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) The House of Representatives on Wednesday will vote on a resolution declaring that the House "condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack" in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead, a congresswoman in critical condition and 13 ot...

Words That Are Too Dangerous To Be Used Anymore Starting With Job “Killing”
Super Genius Chellie Pingree, Congresswoman (D-ME), has spotted a potential danger: A word that could lead to Murder. Save us congreswoman, save us! A good place to start a more civil dialog would be for my Republican colleagues in the House to change the name of the bill they have introduced to Repeal Health Care reform. The bill, titled the "Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law Act," was set to come up for a vote this week, but in the wake of Gabby's shooting, it has been postponed at least ...

Chamber Will Support Repeal Effort After Saying It Would Stay Out
When the Affordable Care Act passed last March, the powerful Chamber of Commerce initially ruled out any future efforts in support of Repeal. "If people want to try and repeal, let them," Thomas Donahue, the Chamber's president, told the Wall Street Journal. "We're not going to spend any capital on that." During the Midterm Elections, however, the Chamber ran more than 25,000 ads, almost all of them against Democrats and most of those demonizing the Candidates' support for Health Care reform. No...

Geithner warns Beijing on currency policies
China's currency is substantially undervalued and Beijing is moving too slowly to fulfill its promise to let it rise, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday. Geithner said it's in China's own interests to accelerate the pace of currency reform. He said the undervalued yuan is increasing the risk of Inflation that will harm Chinese growth. Geithner's comments came in a Speech previewing the administration's policy positions in advance of Chinese President Hu Jintao visit to Washington...

Obama Approval Continues to Rise
A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds 53% of Americans approve of how President Obama is doing his job -- his best numbers since the vote on Health Care reform 10 months ago. Also interesting: "Democrats generally are back to being viewed in a positive light by most Americans -- 53% favorable to 45% unfavorable. That's better than at any point during the height of the 2010 campaign. Views of the Republican Party are evenly split at 48%." ...

Poll: Obama, GOP Improve Standing
WASHINGTON — Americans give higher marks to President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans after a Holiday Season of Compromise paid dividends for both, according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll. At the start of the divided government era, the survey found that 53 percent of Americans approve of how Obama is doing his job, his best numbers since the divisive Health Care vote 10 months ago. And, compared with just after the November Elections, more now express confidence tha...

New Website: Repeal Obamacare, No More Obamacare
American Solutions has started a new website to push the anti-Obamacare issue. Obviously the House will likely do a good job pushing Repeal measures but the problem will be the Senate. This site will focus on those recalcitrant Senators that might try to hamper the movement to repeal....

Did Palmetto State Armory Break Law in Ad for You Lie Assault Rifle Part?
In comments on a post I wrote in response to the Free Times story, I noted the presence of a seal in the photograph of Wilson and McCallum and wondered whether it is legal to use such a seal in an advertisement for a product, since it creates the impression of government Endorsement. Getting no response to the question, I then found the relevant law (scroll down to section 713). Looking carefully at the photograph (it is reproduced in my post from Tuesday night, Palmetto State Armory has pulled ...

As the population grows older, legislature's Committee on Aging gains new stature
State Sen. Edith G. Prague took her accustomed place as co-chairman of the General Assembly's panel on aging Tuesday, with one important difference: It is now a full-fledged legislative standing committee. Prague, Williams and members of the new standing committee "We've been waiting a while to become a regular committee," a grinning Prague said at a news conference afterwards. The change means that the Committee on Aging can send bills directly to the House or Senate floor. As a select commit...

Rep. King smarting over subcomittee snub
AP Photo/Susan Walsh In happier times, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio re-enacts the swearing in of Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Jan. 5 on Capitol Hill in Washington. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, once the heir-apparent for the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, is now taking second chair to another immigration hawk with a lower profile, Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif. King did not mince words about being passed up for the post that he had very publicly had predicted wa...

Illinois Lawmakers Approve 66% Income Tax Hike...
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) - By a single vote, Illinois lawmakers approved a 66 percent increase to the Personal Income tax, and soon, your paycheck will be shrinking. But as CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, state lawmakers say the tax hike is necessary to get the state’s outstanding bills paid. Lawmakers also say cuts and spending limits will be part of the plan. Around 1 a.m. Wednesday, the Illinois State Senate approved the tax hike by a vote of 30 to 29. The state House...

SC House Republican Caucus Unveils 2011 Agenda
The Repeal amendment noted at the end of the first video caught my ear.  This is the first I’ve heard of states colluding to pass a Constitutional Amendment to Repeal an unfunded mandate from the feds.  I imagine this is centering around ObamaCare. I’m going to make a particular point to follow up on this because I’d definitely like to hear more about this. I also like what they discussed in the second video regarding education funding.  Part of their funding cha...

Detroit News writer so far in the tank for ObamaCare, she's about to be crushed by hydrostatic pressure
I don't know a lot about Marisa Schultz, but based on her writing she is so far into the tank for ObamaCare that the hydrostatic pressure is about to crush her into the size of a pea. She took it upon herself to release the result of a biased, partisan report from a supposedly non-partisan organization that most never heard of to put out the canard that repealing the Unconstitutional ObamaCare law would hurt Michigan. This was apparently so important that she wrote it twice with 2 different hea...

NH GOP succumbs to distraction
One of the knocks that the Republicans leveled on the Democrat-controlled Legislature in New Hampshire last year was that its work on the Budget was distracted by attention to other legislative matters. They cited the time legislators spent considering Social Issues such as Gay Marriage and legalizing Medical Marijuana. So you have to wonder how Republicans, now that they're in charge of the House and Senate, defend their attention on Democratic Rep. Michael Brunelle. House Republicans want Brun...

Wonkbook: NCLB reform coming; Boehner opposes new gun laws; John Kerry's speech; oil spill recommendations
Obama wants to revise No Child Left Behind, reports Nick Anderson: "President Obama will mount a fresh attempt this year to rewrite the No Child Left Behind education law, a top administration official said this week, and key congressional Republicans said they are ready to deal... Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of a subcommittee on elementary and secondary education, said there is Bipartisan consensus that the 2002 law should be overhauled...[but] some Republicans say a big bill could ...

Repeal vote postponed, but will Giffords shooting change debate?
House Republican leadership immediately postponed the vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act after Saturday's shootings that killed six and left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically injured. Congressional Quarterly's Congress.org is hopeful that the Rhetoric in the debate once Congress takes it back up will "settle down." “There will be a time of introspection,” said Rep. Michael C. Burgess of Texas, a physician and vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on ...

House moves forward on ObamaCare repeal
In a procedural vote on Friday, the House of Representatives moved forward on plans to Repeal ObamaCare by instructing committees to begin marking up Legislation to replace the law passed in March of last year: The vote was 236-182 in favor of approving the rule, which is a House requirement setting the parameters of debate on underlying legislation. Usually, the rule is approved the same day as a final vote on legislation, but in this case, the vote on the bill won’t occur until next week...