Senate Republicans Warn Reid of Nuclear Option If Tax Cuts, Budget Aren't Dealt With First

The Republicans in the Senate sent a letter the the Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warning him that the Republicans will throw a monkey wrench in his agenda, if the extension of the Bush's tax cuts and a federal budget isn't passed before even discussing the liberals' wishlist:

Dear Leader Reid,

The nation’s unemployment level, stuck near 10 percent, is unacceptable to Americans.  Senate Republicans have been urging Congress to make private-sector job creation a priority all year.  President Obama in his first speech after the November election said “we owe” it to the American people to “focus on those issues that affect their jobs.”  He went on to say that Americans “want jobs to come back faster.”  Our constituents have repeatedly asked us to focus on creating an environment for private-sector job growth; it is time that our constituents’ priorities become the Senate’s priorities.

For that reason, we write to inform you that we will not agree to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to any legislative item until the Senate has acted to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase that is currently awaiting all American taxpayers.  With little time left in this Congressional session, legislative scheduling should be focused on these critical priorities.  While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate's attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike.

Given our struggling economy, preventing the tax increase and providing economic certainty should be our top priority.  Without Congressional action by December 31, all American taxpayers will be hit by an increase in their individual income-tax rates and investment income through the capital gains and dividend rates.  If Congress were to adopt the President’s tax proposal to prevent the tax increase for only some Americans, small businesses would be targeted with a job-killing tax increase at the worst possible time.  Specifically, more than 750,000 small businesses will see a tax increase, which will affect 50 percent of small-business income and nearly 25 percent of the entire workforce.  The death tax rate will also climb from zero percent to 55 percent, which makes it the top concern for America’s small businesses.  Republicans and Democrats agree that small businesses create most new jobs, so we ought to be able to agree that raising taxes on small businesses is the wrong remedy in this economy.  Finally, Congress still needs to act on the “tax extenders” and the alternative minimum tax “patch,” all of which expired on December 31, 2009.

We look forward to continuing to work with you in a constructive manner to keep the government operating and provide the nation’s small businesses with economic certainty that the job-killing tax hike will be prevented.

###
SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

This is going to be a bit of a risky move for the Republicans. The left has already leaped onto this claiming that the Republicans are obstructionists. However, I believe that this will ultimately be seen as a bold, but needed move by most of Americans.

The tax cuts and the budget are far more urgent than repealing DADT, START, DREAM Act, or anything else that the Democrats can up with in between now and the end of the year.

Business, especially small businesses, are waiting to hear from Washington. Until they do, they will know how much their taxes will be next month, and they will be holding off on doing any major hiring until they know exactly how much taxes will should be taken out of their hiring budget.

Businesses aren't the only ones that will have their taxes go up in January, if nothing is done. The taxes of ALL Americans will go up in less than a month. Since we're already two months into the fiscal year, the budget is already way past due, too.

Considering that for a bill to pass it must go through the House, Senate, and Congressional Reconciliation before it even gets to the White House, there is only a limited amount of items that can actually be achieved in just three weeks. They won't be able to address them all, no matter how much they say otherwise.

The only reason why they are pushing for the more liberal bills to be passed ahead of the tax or budget bills is because it'll be much harder for them to pass it in a month, when the Republicans gain the House and a few seats in the Senate. If the election results were reversed, and the Democrats would have huge gains, it would be a completely different story. The Democrats would be waiting until January for all of those non-essential bills. They are playing politics and pandering to their base at the expense of our economy and all of our livelihoods.

Palate Cleanser: Rep. Steve Buyer to Rep. Richardson: This Is Why the People Have Thrown You Out

Here's a palate cleanser from Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN). The Democratic Speaker of the Committee Laura Richardson must have the same definition of bipartisanship thay Nancy Pelosi does:

Obama Master of the Obvious: You Know Maybe I Didn't Work With GOP Enough Over Last Two Years

Obama played the role of Captain Obvious, during the slurpee summit:

Obama and the Senate Republicans all described the talks as civil and frank. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia said he was encouraged that Obama acknowledged that he should have reached out more to Republicans in his first two years in office, and that Tuesday's meeting would be the first in a series of discussions on working together.

Boehner also said Obama conceded not spending enough time working with Republicans.

A senior administration official told CNN that Obama told the GOP leaders "he had to do better" and added, "the president is ready to do his part."

In remarks to reporters after the event, Obama said he already invited Republican and Democratic leaders to meet with him again several times in the future, including one summit at Camp David.

Obama didn't reach out enough to Republicans. Duh! Maybe, he's finally starting to understand, or he's just posturing. My bet is a little of both.

He's not going to be too accommodating to Republicans. Pelosi won't let him. However, he'll have to make some token consolations to Republicans. He knows that he'll be in huge trouble in 2012, if he stays on the far-left course that Pelosi has been heading down. He's has to start acting like the moderate, post-partisan president that he had campaigned to be, when he was running for the job, if wants to have any shot at being re-elected for a second term.

Pelosi Has New Mission in Life: Stop Obama From Compromising With Republicans

Here’s further proof that the message that should be learned from the election hasn’t been received by the Democrats. Over the next two years, Pelosi has, apparently, made it her mission in life to keep President Obama from being able to reach any form of compromise with Republicans:

But Pelosi's mandate is diverging from the president's at a critical time, with potentially damaging consequences for Obama's ability to cut deals with Republicans in the new Congress.

Their partnership is strained after an election in which Pelosi and many Democrats feel the White House failed them by muddling the party's message and being too slow to provide cover for incumbents who cast tough votes for Obama's marquee initiatives.
Pelosi will lead Democrats "in pulling on the president's shirttails to make sure that he doesn't move from center-right to far-right," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a co-chair of the liberal Progressive Caucus in the House. "We think if he'd done less compromising in the last two years, there's a good chance we'd have had a jobs bill that would have created real jobs, and then we wouldn't even be worrying about having lost elections."

Behind Democrats' decision to keep Pelosi as their leader after historic losses lies intense concern among liberals who dominate the party's ranks on Capitol Hill: They fear Obama will go too far in accommodating the GOP in the new era of divided government, and they see Pelosi as a counterweight.

That’s rich. Nancy thinks that they compromised with Republicans too much over the past two years, and that’s why they lost in a tsunami this past November. Republicans ran successfully against her nationwide. She was in campaign ads in districts where she had probably never even stepped foot in her life. She has become a symbol of hyper-partisanship everything that is wrong with Washington today.

CIA Chief Panetta Claims Cheney Wishes America Attacked "In Order to Make His Point"

CIA chief Leon Panetta made some dubious statements regarding Dick Cheney's recent criticism of Obama's stance on terrorism:

Panetta told The New Yorker for an article in its June 22 issue that Cheney "smells some blood in the water" on the issue of national security.

Cheney has said in several interviews that he thinks Obama is making the U.S. less safe. He has been critical of Obama for ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, halting enhanced interrogations of suspected terrorists and reversing other Bush administration initiatives he says helped to prevent attacks on the U.S.

Last month the former vice president offered a withering critique of Obama's policies and a defense of the Bush administration on the same day that Obama made a major speech about national security.

Panetta said of Cheney's remarks: "It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."

It's, also, "dangerous politics" to accuse anyone of wanting America to be hit by a terrorist attack. That is the kind of divisive politics is exactly what Americans are tired of hearing about all of the time. Many voted for Obama because they believed that he was post-partisan. Unfortunately, it has been business as usual since the beginning of his term. The president has been blaming Bush for everything that is wrong in America. Now, his CIA chief is claiming that the former vice-president wants Americans to be killed or hurt "in order to make his point." People will grow tired of this rhetoric quickly, if they haven't already.