January 29, 2014

Lindsey Graham Says 'The World Is Literally About To Blow Up'

TOM KLUDT – JANUARY 29, 2014, 7:48 AM EST

After listening to President Obama's lay out a foreign policy vision during the State of the Union address on Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) walked away with a nightmarish vision. Just how dire is the situation?

“The world is literally about to blow up,” Graham said, as quoted by Roll Call. From Obama's vow to veto any new sanctions for Iran to the ongoing crisis in Syria, Graham said the world as he knows it "was not remotely described" in the State of the Union speech.

Graham has a penchant for using apocalyptic rhetoric when discussing foreign policy and national security. After Obama said last year that the war on terrorism must come to an end, Graham warned of an explosive outcome.

"Our allies are more afraid than I have ever seen," Graham said. "I support the concepts that the president talked about in many ways, but if he does not change his policy, the Middle East is going to blow up and we are going to hit again here at home to matter how hard we try."

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/lindsey-graham-world-blow-up
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As another commenter wrote:

"The world is scary!! Be afraid!! We have to kill everyone who doesn't like us or we're all gonna die!!! BENGHAZIIIII!!!!!"

January 29, 2014

The Four Republican SOTU Responses Couldn't Agree On What To Say

DYLAN SCOTT – JANUARY 29, 2014, 6:00 AM EST

There was no unified opposition at the conclusion of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night. Instead, four different Republicans -- representing, in some ways, four different factions of the Republican party -- had something to say to the nation.

They shared some of the same talking points: Obamacare is a disaster and Obama's economic agenda is ruining America's future. The GOP is trying to offer some kind of alternative to the electorate. But the similarities largely stopped there, in yet another display of the fractured Republican Party that has a chronic inability to present a coherent and singular vision to the country.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) spoke for the party's establishment, with the added bonus of being a woman in leadership at a time when the party's standing with women seems shaky. Sen. Mike Lee (UT) was the self-appointed leader of the tea party, who rebutted the president while attempting to represent that nebulous constituency that has so influenced the party since 2010. Sen. Rand Paul (KY) more or less represented himself, the lone 2016 aspirant to speak Tuesday night, and also gave voice to the libertarian sect. And Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) addressed the Spanish-speaking audiences on behalf of the party's leadership, another attempt to reach a population with whom Republicans have been unpopular.

That just about covers everybody. Each constituency had a messenger, and ascendant members of the party had an opportunity to showcase themselves in the national spotlight.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-sotu-response

January 29, 2014

Former GOP Guv: A Woman Delivering SOTU Response Won't Solve Everything

CAITLIN MACNEAL – JANUARY 28, 2014, 5:59 PM EST

Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Whitman (R), the only other Republican woman to ever give the State of the Union response, shed some light on the GOP's decision to tap House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) to give the party's rebuttal to the speech on Tuesday.

"It's hard for me to phrase this politely. Sometimes Republicans think that just putting a woman up front means somehow that women are going to feel good about the party. It is not about the messenger. It's about the message," she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Tuesday.

"And until we figure that one out, while it's nice that we have a woman as a spokesperson, if the message itself doesn't get changed a bit, it's not going to work."

Whitman still said she was pleased to see a female spokesperson for the party.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/whitman-mcmorris-rogers-sotu-response-women-voters

January 29, 2014

GOP Strategist Says Obama Speech Like Sex: 'Worst There Ever Was' Still Excellent

CATHERINE THOMPSON – JANUARY 28, 2014, 11:03 PM EST

Veteran GOP strategist Alex Castellanos said Tuesday that he viewed President Barack Obama's State of the Union address in terms of sex.

"I think I've said before that I think a speech by Barack Obama is a lot like sex. The worst there ever was is still excellent, and I thought he gave a very competent performance tonight," he said during CNN's post-speech coverage.

"One of the things working with candidates and political leaders is when they're in a weak political position, sometimes they confuse volume and loudness with strength," he continued. "And that's what I felt the first half of the speech, that he was willing himself to demonstrate strength and confidence. But he did it with optimism, and that is the rare gift a president has. The president is the only guy in that top job who can say, 'We're going to some place better, follow me.' I think it's going to help him, it's going to help the Democrats."

As for the speech's drawbacks, Castellanos added that he thought Obama's policy talk was "too small for the moment."

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/alex_castellanos_obama_sotu_like_sex

January 29, 2014

Four Supreme Court Justices Skip State Of The Union Address

DYLAN SCOTT – JANUARY 28, 2014, 9:14 PM EST

Four Supreme Court justices did not attend President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday.

Justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotamayor weren't not in attendance for the speech.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scotus-sotu

January 29, 2014

Obama: I'll Act To Restore The Fading American Dream

SAHIL KAPUR – JANUARY 28, 2014, 10:20 PM EST

Underlying the optimistic rhetoric of President Barack Obama's annual State of the Union speech was a palpable fear about the fading American dream -- an uneasy concoction of eagerness to solve the problems plaguing America and a masked fatalism about the Republican blockade of his agenda.

But he morphed the fatalism into hopefulness, vowing that if they refuse to work with him, he'll do everything he can to take action on his own.

The American ideal of work hard, get ahead has "suffered some serious blows," Obama said before a packed House chamber of legislators, cabinet officials and other guests on Tuesday night. Indeed, surging income inequality has cast a dark cloud over Americans at the lower rungs of the economic ladder, and social mobility has flatlined in the last decade.

"Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled," the president said. "The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all. Our job is to reverse these tides."

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obama-state-of-the-union-inequality-american-dream-2014

January 29, 2014

Obama Calls Gender Pay Gap An 'Embarrassment'

CAITLIN MACNEAL – JANUARY 28, 2014, 9:51 PM EST

President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress and the business community to provide equal pay to women and to make it easier on mothers and fathers in the workplace.

"Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it's an embarrassment," he said in his State of the Union Address. "A woman deserves equal pay for equal work." Obama said it's time to end "workplace policies that belong in a 'Mad Men' episode."

"[A woman] deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too," he said.

Obama's call for equality for women in the work force comes after former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said that the government should not help women who cannot control their "libido" at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting and House Republicans were given advice on running against female candidates.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-sotu-women-workplace-equality

January 29, 2014

A new report suggests the embattled governor doled out Sandy relief funds for questionable purposes

Did Christie use Sandy funds to secure a Democratic mayor’s endorsement?

A new report suggests the embattled governor doled out Sandy relief funds for questionable purposes

ELIAS ISQUITH

According to a new report from the Star-Ledger, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie helped direct $6 million in federal aid for Superstorm Sandy to a project in Belleville that long predated any damage from the storm.

The project in question is an $18 million senior center and housing complex in Belleville, supported by Belleville Mayor Raymond Kimble, and intended to ensure the town’s seniors don’t leave. Of the project’s $18 million cost, a full third is coming from the $1.8 billion given to New Jersey by the federal government in order to repair damage wrought by Sandy.

The Star-Ledger reports Christie administration officials claiming the Belleville senior center will aid people in the surrounding area who were displaced by the storm, and was approved due to its already being far along in planning. But the Star-Ledger found that during the project’s unveiling, Christie and other government officials said precious little about Sandy or Sandy-related relief.

The funds for the project were approved by the Christie administration less than two weeks before Belleville Mayor Raymond Kimble formally endorsed Christie’s reelection.

More from the Star-Ledger:

more of the Salon article:
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/28/did_christie_use_sandy_funds_to_secure_a_democratic_mayors_endorsement/

January 29, 2014

Louie Gohmert: Raise taxes on poor people because they can pay with welfare

By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 28, 2014 16:04 EST

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) has proposed raising taxes on the poorest Americans even if the only money they have to pay is money that they get from government programs like welfare.

At a Tea Party Patriots event in South Carolina earlier this month, Gohmert said that he had his own plan to address income inequality.

“There’s not a blessed thing this president has proposed that will change the situation of his buddy, Warren Buffet, paying a lower percentage than his secretary,” Gohmert told the crowd. “I know that folks that are big on the fair tax, I just want a simple tax. I think it would be easier to get to a flat tax. And then, maybe a fair tax someday.”


The Texas Republican recalled that he had enlisted his friend, publisher Steve Forbes, to convince the Republican Party that “fair share” really meant “flat tax.”

“You make more, you pay more; you make less, you pay less,” he said. “And everybody needs to have skin in the game, don’t they? Everybody does. You need to own a piece of this government so you’ll do something about it. Everybody should.”

Gohmert said that he had “wrestled” with what to do with people who were so poor that they barely got by on government assistance.

“What if you’re so poor the only money you have is what the government gives you? And I’ve wondered, you know, isn’t that wasted money, you give it and you take it back? No, it gives you an investment in the country. And we need that.”

Watch this video from Tea Party Patriots, broadcast Jan. 20, 2014:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/28/louie-gohmert-raise-taxes-on-poor-people-because-they-can-pay-with-welfare/

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Full article posted with permission

January 29, 2014

Obama Pushes To Expand Tax Breaks For Workers Without Children

SAHIL KAPUR – JANUARY 28, 2014, 9:18 PM EST

President Barack Obama on Tuesday night will announce his support for expanding the tax advantages available to workers without children.

As sketched out by senior administration officials before his State of the Union speech, the president has decided to support an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for Americans without kids, including non-custodial parents.

"There are other steps we can take to help families make ends meet, and few are more effective at reducing inequality and helping families pull themselves up through hard work than the Earned Income Tax Credit," Obama will say, according to prepared remarks. "Right now, it helps about half of all parents at some point. But I agree with Republicans like Senator Rubio that it doesn’t do enough for single workers who don’t have kids. So let’s work together to strengthen the credit, reward work, and help more Americans get ahead."

The EITC -- a refundable tax credit available to workers with low to middle incomes -- is significantly more generous to those with children. The maximum benefit for the childless is $500, while the benefit for families with children can exceed $6,000, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The president's proposal is an effort to level that playing field, the officials said, pitching it as an effort to combat poverty and reward hard work.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obama-expansion-eitc-workers-without-children