Arizona Lawmakers React to Court Decision

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Arizona lawmakers from both parties released statements in response to Judge Susan Bolton’s decision to curtail some of the more controversial provisions in the Arizona immigration bill, SB 1070.

Republican senators John McCain and Jon Kyl released a joint statement condemning the court’s decision. 

“We are deeply disappointed in the court’s ruling and disagree with the court’s opinion that the Arizona’s law will unduly ‘burden’ the enforcement of federal immigration law,” the two senators said, “Instead of wasting taxpayer resources filing a lawsuit against Arizona…Obama Administration should have focused its efforts on working with Congress to provide the necessary resources to support the state”

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-4th), on the other hand, was satisfied with the decision. 

“I am pleased with U.S. District Court Judge Bolton’s decision to issue a preliminary injunction that will prevent the core provisions of Senate Bill 1070 from taking effect,” said Pastor in a statement. “The implementation of these provisions would have seriously interfered with federal immigration enforcement causing irreparable harm to the people of Arizona.”

Congressman Jeff Flake (R-6th) said that it was “frustrating to have the federal government actively preventing states from addressing immigration enforcement, when the federal government has shown that it’s unwilling to address immigration reform on its own,” and that it is “going to take comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level to successfully address this issue.”

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-1st), while opposed to SB 1070, supported the attention that it brought to illegal immigration.  Kirkpatrick was rather pessimistic in her statement, concluding that, “there are no winners here – no matter what the courts ultimately decide, we will still have wasted millions of dollars and our borders will still not be secure.”

Congressman Harry Mitchell (D-5th) joined his collegues in harshly criticizing the Obama administration for suing Arizona, saying that “today’s ruling should not provide Washington any kind of excuse not to address the issue.  Arizonans are justifiably fed up with the federal government’s failure to secure the border and fix our broken immigration system, and are fed up with of all the political posturing and grandstanding on this issue.”

DoD Official Assures Skeptical McCain On START

By Rob Sanna - Talk Radio News Service

Multiple members of the Senate Armed Services Committee today expressed deep concerns over elements of the new START Treaty, saying they have doubts regarding the trustworthiness of Russia.   

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited a Russian unilateral statement, which said the nation would pull out of the treaty if there is any build up in U.S. missile defense. McCain also pointed to a statement issued by U.S. officials promising to deploy missile defense to protect against nuclear attack. 

“I still don’t know how you reconcile those two statements,” McCain told Dr. James N. Miller, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense under Pentagon chief Robert Gates.

Miller replied that the current U.S. missile defense system is far from a threat to Russia.

“We have 30 ground to air interceptors, we have a long way to go before we have any capability that’s close to affecting the strategic stability of the balance. They will have over 1000 warheads with new START.”

Miller praised the treaty, arguing that it will promote stability and transparency within U.S-Russian strategic relations. He added that it would allow the U.S to deploy non-nuclear global strike capabilities.

New START would not affect the U.S.’ ability to renew and rebuild nuclear enterprise, nor would it affect the ability to improve ballistic missile defense capabilities, Miller added.

Arizona Duo Introduces Bill Aimed At Decreasing America's Debt

By Brandon Kosters
Talk Radio News Service

On Thursday, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) introduced the Debt-Buy Down Act, a bill that will allow taxpayers to put 10% of their federal income tax liability toward reducing the national debt.

The bill would have the IRS include a checkbox on the annual tax returns taxpayers receive. "It then will require that the Congress cut a commensurate amount of spending in the following year," said Flake. "If Congress fails to do that, then there will be a sequester of funds."

McCain has backed some of the previous iterations of this bill that have been proposed since 1992, and he anticipates that taxpayers will embrace it, given the nation's record-breaking debt level of over $13 trillion, not to mention growing concerns among Americans over federal spending.

'We've finally found an earmark that we can both support," said Flake, "allowing individuals to earmark a portion of their taxes to pay off the debt."

Israel Will Conduct "Credible Investigation;" BP To Pay Gov't $69 Mil, Says Gibbs

By Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs delivered remarks Thursday afternoon on Israeli-Palestinian relations, the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, and immigration reform.

Gibbs was questioned on the heated and controversial conflict between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian supporters on the Gaza flotilla Monday. He addressed the death of the pro-Palestinian American citizen who was killed in the attack.

"We have called for... a full and credible investigation so that we have all the facts about what happened; that is tremendously important."

However, Gibbs later conceded that, "It's an Israeli investigation ... that could include international participation," leaving some questioning the accountability of the report.

When asked about the government's response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf, Gibbs assured reporters that the Federal government will, "hold BP responsible throughout this process."

"The Federal government will, at some point today, send...a bill for 69 million dollars of expenses incurred up to this point to BP," Gibbs said.

Gibbs expressed the President's position that states' individual handling of immigration law has been the result of a lack of action on the part of the Federal government to reform its own laws, but stated that he doesn't think the nation can, "deal with comprehensive immigration reform and the circumstances around the border without dealing with Arizona."

The Press Secretary touted Senator John McCain (R-AZ) as being "instrumental" in bringing immigration reform into the spotlight and stated that he doubts the U.S. can develop comprehensive immigration reform legislation without McCain "doing what he did" in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Measure To Reform Fannie And Freddie Fails

A trio of Senate Republicans failed in their quest to put an end to the days of taxpayer bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise) Bailout Elimination and Taxpayer Protection Amendment, sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), would have forced the government to relinquish control of the two government-backed mortgage giants within two years.

Recently, Fannie Mae, which lost $13.1 billion during the first quarter of this year, asked the government for an additional $8.4 billion to stay afloat. Similarly, Freddie Mac asked the government for $10.6 billion in funds after reporting a loss of $8 billion for the quarter. Combined, the two companies have borrowed $145 billion from the Treasury Department since the government took complete ownership of them during the heart of the nation’s financial collapse in 2008.

"We are not saying that Freddie and Fannie have to go out of business. We're saying we want them to be a business that is on a level playing field with other private sector competitors," said McCain to reporters today, hours before his amendment went down in a 56-43 vote.

Though most Republicans supported the item, it had its fair share of skeptics.

First, critics, including many Democrats in Congress, believed the measure would unwind Fannie and Freddie so quickly that it would create chaos throughout the entire housing market. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who has said he supports reforming the two GSE’s, called the amendment a huge gamble.

“Simply to abolish Fannie and Freddie...and not do anything to replace the functions they are now performing with a conservatorship, would be a disaster for housing, and therefore for the economy as a whole,” he said last week.

Furthermore, the liberal Center for American Progress recently referred to the legislation as “The Credit Crunch Restoration Act of 2010,” arguing that by abolishing a large chunk of the mortgage backing industry, millions of Americans would lose access to credit.