“The Most Dangerous Credit Card in the History of the World”

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)
Photo by Michael Ruhl

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called congressional voting cards “the most dangerous credit card in the history of the world”, because then enable Congress and the president to engage in reckless spending. This was not Boehner's first criticism of Obama, but his statement came on the 101st day of the Obama Administration, a time which Boehner has criticized as being pock marked with excessive borrowing, reckless spending and a massive growth in government.

Boehner said that Democrat’s “record on spending and debt is staggering, but our economy is growing weaker, and it’s not going to get any better by growing the size of the government here in Washington.”

Boehner believes that the Democratically controlled Congress has enabled and contributed to the recklessness, and thinks it is up to the Republicans to put a stop to it. Republicans must be “the party of better solutions” if they are going to stand up to the Democrats in Congress, Boehner said, adding that he hopes Democrats will be committed to a bipartisan policy approach..

Citing the elections of 2008, Boehner said “out brand has been tarnished”, but to help the party serve the American people, Republicans must stand up to the Obama Administration when disagreements arise, and to offer alternative solutions.

Leader Boehner applauded President Obama on his strategy towards Afghanistan and Iraq, but showed concern at Obama’s greater national security policy.

“The big question continues to be: what is the Administration’s overarching plan to fight terrorism? Judging from their recent decision to release 30 terrorist detainees with no plan on where to put them, it continues to beg the question,” referring to Obama’s closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center without knowing where the detainees will be sent.

Clinton Grilled Over Abortion Views At Committee Hearing

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, answered questions for almost four-hours on foreign policy priorities in the Obama administration in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing today.

Upon entering Clinton was met with protest signs from Code Pink asking the State Department to begin talks with the Palestinian government even if it did include Hamas, as they were democratically elected to their positions. One protester held a sign which read, “It is called the ‘state’ not ‘hate’ department.”

During the hearing Clinton made it clear that talks between the Obama administration and Hamas. She said, “The President’s policy...is very clear, we will not deal with, nor in any way fund, a Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless and until Hamas has renounced violence, recognized Israel and agreed to follow the previous obligations of the Palestinian authority. That is our policy, but we want to leave open the door so that can happen.”

This was Clinton’s first appearance to the House since her confirmation hearings earlier this year. In her opening statement she spoke of the progress she had made nearly 100-days into her new role. Clinton reiterated the Presidents goals in Afghanistan and and Pakistan and stated the administrations “core goal to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda, to prevent their return to safe havens in Afghanistan or Pakistan.”

On Iran Clinton said, “We are deploying new approaches to the threat posed by Iran, and we are doing so with our eyes wide open and with no illusions. We no the imperative of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons after years, during which the United States basically sat on the sidelines, we are now a full partner in the P5+1 talks.”

Before taking questions Clinton told the committee, “We are in this together. We have to row in the same direction for the benefit of our country and our children.”

From the Republican side, Clinton was asked multiple questions on her thoughts relating to abortion around the world. Congressman Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) led the talk by asking whether “the Obama administration would be seeking in any way to weaken or over-turn pro-life laws and policies in African and Latin American countries either directly or through multilateral organizations.” Clinton told the committee, “It is my strongly held view that you are entitled to advocate and everyone who agrees with you should be free to do so anywhere in the world and so are we. We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health and reproductive health includes access to abortion, that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.”

Clinton told the committee that during her time as First Lady helped create the campaign against teen pregnancy which saw the rate of teen pregnancy decrease. She said, “I am sad to report that after an administration of 8-years that undone so much of the good work, the rate of teenage pregnancy is going up”. To which she received applaud from members of the public listening at the hearing.

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) continued on the topic of abortion stating, “I don’t believe we should use American foreign policy to export abortion.” He feared it would “undermine” foreign relations with other countries. Congressman Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) also asked about abortion, asking Clinton her views on forced abortion in China. To which Clinton repeated her stance as First Lady stating this was “absolutely unacceptable.”

The hearing also saw clear partisan disagreement from the members on President Obama’s handshake with President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. Congressman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said he was “not amused” by these pictures and called Chavez a “Catro wannabe in the region”. Congresswoman Shelley Berkely (D-Nev.) addressed Pence’s during her statement, stating, “as an American I would have been mortified if our President had done anything other than what he did.” Addressing this argument Clinton said, “

Another area of partisan division lay in the decision to investigate some detainee tactics used during the Bush administration. Clinton repeated Obama stating, “No-one will be prosecuted who acted within the four corners of the legal advice that was given, following that advice to perform that function, that, that person believed was legal. However those who formulated those opinions and gave those orders should be reviewed and the President has referred that to the Attorney General.”

Asked by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) whether they she would be in favor of releasing documents that Dick Cheney has requested be released. Clinton responded, “It won’t surprise you that I don’t consider him a particularly reliable source of information.”

Clinton also answered questions relating to safety on the Mexican border, human rights in Cuba, terrorism, and Africa and Iraq amongst other top political issues. -

Miller: Middle class will suffer under the Obama budget

By Suzia van Swol-Talk Radio News Service, University of New Mexico
Congressman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) talks with TRNS correspondent Suzia van Swol at the 2009 House Republican Radio Row about the budget and federal spending. He says that we need to get taxes under control and that the best way to do that is with a fair tax. Miller says that even though the American middle class is making sacrifices now, they won't even know sacrifice until the President gets this budget passed and he tries to start funding some of the issues that are in it. (9:41)

Congressional budget still part of “same family”

By Suzia van Swol-University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag said today that the budget proposals under consideration in the House and Senate Budget Committees "are from the same family as the President’s budget." "The resolutions may not be identical twins to what the President submitted, but they are certainly brothers that look an awful lot alike,” said Orszag, speaking to reporters on a conference call.

In response to Republican criticism of the proposal, Orszag responded that it is “easy to lob criticisms, but part of governing, or part of the policy process, needs to involve putting forward alternatives.” He said that he hasn’t seen an alternative budget proposal on the Senate side and his understanding is that there won’t be one. “It seems off to be criticizing, without putting forward an alternative,” stated Orszag.

The tax gap in the budget proposal amounts to a figure around 300 billion a year, and Orszag says that there are some proposals in the budget to start to reduce this number. However, Orszag stated that “there is widespread concern, frankly, that perhaps even the 300 billion dollar estimate is too low because of the complexity of some of the transactions that are involved.”

Orszag said that he takes issue with the objecture that there is “spiraling debt.” He stated that “we are inheriting a budget situation that is a mess and that we are working our way out of, and under both budget resolutions, the deficit is reduced in reduced in half—by more than half—by 2013.”

Orszag went on to explain that the only constraints on the task force are that there can be no tax increases during 2009 or 2010 and that the proposal should not raise taxes on American families making less than $250,000.

Orszag said that in regards to the committee using reconciliation this year,“reconciliation is not where we would like to start but we are not willing to take it off the table. There clearly are some differences between the Senate and the House on this topic and that will be worked out, assuming that both resolutions are adopted by the respective bodies; that would be something that would be worked out in conference.”

Pelosi: “New, Subject, New Subject, New Subject"

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) held a press conference this morning, but appeared to have no desire to talk about the AIG bonuses at length with reporters.

Pelosi opened the conference by talking about the Iraq war. She said: “On this day in 2003, the President called for the initiation of hostilities into Iraq. Here we are six years later, six years later in Iraq. The good news is that our new President has called for an end to the war and a timetable to bring our troops out of Iraq.”

The Speaker then went on to talk about the President’s budget. She called it “an outline of transformation” and an “outline for the future” and a “budget that is the statement of our values, as a Federal budget should be.”

Third on Pelosi’s list of talking points was the news of the AIG bonuses. She said: “We see the outrage of the American people in terms of bonuses paid by AIG and perhaps others who have received TARP funds and on the floor of the House today we will present legislation to address the concerns of the American people. To bring some justice to the situation and to get the taxpayers money back.” Pelosi added that as a result of the scandal “legislation may be written in the Judiciary Committee that relates to the contracts.”

Opening up to the questions, the issue of top priority for journalists was the AIG scandal. Pelosi made clear that the issues of bonuses with AIG could be linked back to the previous administration and refuted an accusation from one reporter who claimed she was being blamed for the AIG bonuses scandal. Pelosi said: “You are the first person to tell me I am being blamed for this.” Pelosi added: “I think you go right back to September 16th, when the announcement was made by the Chairman of the Fed, that they would be making this big infusion of cash into AIG...the question is why were there even bonuses in the first place.” Pelsoi further commented that “we are sweeping up after them,” when taking about the Bush Administration's handling of TARP contracts with CEO’s.

Talking about a loophole in the legislation that stemmed from Conference Committee, Pelosi stated that this ‘was language discussed on the Senate side, that was never in any Conference that we agreed with or disagreed with.” Pelosi did not want to comment further on the loophole, deferring journalists to speak to the Senate about this matter.

Pelosi observed that “The public interest knows no date, the authority to look into these bonuses or in our case today to tax them exists if the public interests is not served and nobody can hide behind a contract, or a date, or a conversation, that may or may not have taken place.”

Speaker Pelosi then refused to answer any further questions on the AIG matter. Stating, “New subject, new subject, new subject or else....” She took one question on the budget and then cut the press conference short. As she left, members of the press were shouting for further questions on foreign policy, federal reserve, immigration and issues on the floor, but she would not respond to answer any further questions.