Senators Urge House To Pass China Currency Bill

By Andrea Salazar

A day after the China currency bill passed the Senate, a bipartisan coalition of senators urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the White House to join them against China’s currency manipulation. 

“China has a callous disregard for the rule of law,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “They cheat at every turn. They steal intellectual property, they counterfeit goods affecting our defense industries and they manipulate their currency. We don’t have this kind of discussion with normal nations. We don’t have this kind of discussion with democracies. You’re having this kind of discussion with a communist dictatorship with a command and control economy that’s acting like the mob.”

Graham echoed those sentiments and dismissed worries about China’s reaction to the currency bill.

“I’m not worried about the Chinese response because at the end of the day they need us as much as we need them, if not more so,” Graham said. “I’m worried about the idea that American politicians are going to let threats coming from China stop what, I think, is a rational approach to dealing with this.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he expects the bill to pass, despite opposition from leadership.

“We have tried to keep this as non-political, frankly, as possible,” Schumer said. “That’s because we believe in this. I just believe in my bones that this is one of the five ways… to keep America number one over the next several decades.”

Retirement Age Would Jump To 70 Under New GOP Social Security Measure

By Anna Cameron

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah.) unveiled their substantive plan to reform Social Security Wednesday, a proposal that would raise the retirement age to 70 by 2032.

“Without question, Social Security is broken,” said Sen. Paul. “If we do nothing, entitlements and interest will crowd out all spending and will occupy the entire budget within a little more than a decade.”

The plan is structured to reduce publicly held debt by $6.2 trillion by 2085, eliminate the current discrepancy between benefits promised and benefits delivered, and create a “solvent and sustainable” system that is fully functioning without an increase in taxes.

However, according to the Senators’ proposition, such accomplishments will require sacrifice.

Based on this, the Graham, Paul, and Lee initiative proposes a gradual increase in the retirement age, which would reach 70 years in 2032. The plan also incorporates means testing into benefit distribution.

“If we’ll adjust the age to 70, and act today and not wait another five years, we can protect more Americans than if we wait,” said Graham. “If we do what Harry Reid suggested - ‘call me in twenty years’ - you’re going to have to put the retirement age far beyond 70, and you’re going to have to start means testing benefits for people who make less than $43, 000.”

According to the Social Security Trustees’ report, the program is expected to start permanently paying out more than it takes in by 2015. Experts also project complete trust fund exhaustion by 2037.

President Obama is expected to address the public on his plan for deficit reduction Wednesday afternoon. Sen. Graham called on the president directly, applauding him for re-engaging in talks over entitlement reform, and urging him to put such reform on the table.

“If the President today will put entitlement reform on the table, we intend to work with him … because Social Security is a meaningful program that’s going to fail if we do nothing,” Graham said.

Landmark Civil Rights Hearing Reprimands Recent Rise In Anti-Muslim Bigotry

By Anna Cameron

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) chaired the first-ever Congressional hearing on the civil rights of American Muslims Tuesday, a response to a charted rise in discrimination over the past year.

“This is a hearing that we need to have, quite frankly,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who also sits on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights Subcommittee. “[Freedom of religion] means that I have to stand up for your right to pursue your religion, because if I don’t stand up for your right, you wont stand up for mine.”

In his opening statement, Sen. Durbin spoke out against rising instances of discriminatory attacks on Muslims, including claims that there exist “too many mosques” in America, and that Islam is “wicked” and “evil.”

“Those who use this type of rhetoric, who burn Qurans and who engage in other forms of bigotry and discrimination may be few in number, but their bigoted conduct and remarks violate the spirit of our Bill of Rights,” said Sen. Durbin.

Adding to the Senators’ remarks were the testimonies of Muslim civil rights leader Farhana Khera, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and former Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta.

“While nearly a decade has passed since 9/11, we continue to see a steady stream of violence and discrimination targeting Muslim…communities,” noted Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. “In each city and town… I have been struck by the sense of fear that pervades their lives - fear of violence, of bigotry and hate.”

Perez asserted that the Department of Justice continues to work to protect American Muslims from hate crimes as well as other forms of injustice, including employment discrimination, education discrimination, limits on the use of land for religious purposes and denied access to public facilities.

Though Sen. Graham emphasized the importance of the protection of religious freedoms, he stressed that attention be paid to the increasing threat of domestic Islamist radicalization.

“The front lines of this war are in our own…neighborhoods,” Graham said. “To the American Muslim community: I will stand with you as you practice your religion and you exercise your rights under the Constitution, but I am asking you to get in this fight as a community.”

The hearing comes less than three weeks after Rep. Peter King’s (R-N.Y.) controversial hearing on Islamic radicalization.

Senate Republicans Wary Of Possible Climate Change Pledge In Copenhagen

Meagan Wiseley - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

While President Barack Obama is taking the Environmental Protection Agency's ruling of the dangers and the toxicity of CO2 emissions and greenhouse gasses (GHGs) to Copenhagen climate change conference, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) told reporters Thursday that the Senate must ratify any proposed climate change pledge that President Barack Obama will make during his visit.

“Any action that would be binding on the U.S., in the form of an international agreement, will of course have to be ratified by the U.S. Senate,” Kyl said at a press conference Thursday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) spoke out against the possibility of the EPA and President Obama making any law on CO2 emissions or climate change.

“We’re not going to allow the Executive Branch or the Environmental Protection Agency, through the Clean Air Act or any other act, appropriate themselves the power to make laws to govern the people of the U.S.,” Graham said.

Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she will file a resolution of disapproval in hopes of stopping the EPA from regulating GHGs.