Obama Cabinet Member Issues Stern Warning to Congress

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  1. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    Obama Cabinet Member Issues Stern Warning to Congress

    By Jack Lew | Huffington Post | 07/28/2013 4:15 pm EDT
    Excerpts:

    By The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON – “Congress needs to raise the debt limit and take away the "cloud of uncertainty" about the nation's ability to pay its bills, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

    "The fight over the debt limit in 2011 hurt the economy, even though, in the end, we saw an extension of the debt limit. We saw confidence fall, and it hurt the economy," Lew said on NBC's "Meet The Press." :Congress needs to do its job. It needs to finish its work on appropriation bills. It needs to pass a debt limit."

    Senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to come up with must-do legislation to keep federal agencies running after Sept. 30 and prevent the possibility of a government shutdown.

    At issue is what is normally routine: a plug-the-gap measure to fund the government for a few weeks or months until a deal can be worked out on appropriations bills giving agencies their operating budgets for the full 2014 fiscal year, that begins Oct. 1.

    However, some Democrats don't want to vote to continue to fund the government at new, lower levels mandated by the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration. And some conservatives are making a last stand against President Barack Obama's new health care law. In addition, Senate Democrats are resistant to a $20 billion spending cut sought by many Republicans.

    The issue has divided Republicans between those who think it's appropriate to use the threat of a government shutdown as a negotiating tactic, and those who don't.

    Rep. Peter King, R.-N.Y., said Republicans should be searching for ways to de-fund or repeal the Obama health care act. But he called threatening to shut down the government "terror politics" and said the strategy wouldn't work. Others have worried that the gamesmanship could cause Republicans to lose control of the House.

    Some observers say it's an idea doomed to fail anyway, since Obama brings both a veto pen and the White House podium to the battle.

    "We should not be closing down the government under any circumstances," King said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

    Lew maintains that the president won't negotiate over the debt limit.

    "The mere fact of negotiating over the debt limit, after 2011, would introduce this notion that somehow there's a question about whether or not we're going to pay our bills, whether or not we're going to protect the full faith and credit of the United States," Lew said on ABC's ‘This Week.’ "Well, it's not OK to default. Congress can't let us default."

    "Congress has to stop looking for what's the last possible moment," Lew told "Fox News Sunday." "They should get back after they take their time off in August and they should finish their work and get it done so that there's no uncertainty about America's ability to pay its bills."

    Separately, Lew said no federal bailout is in the works for the city of Detroit, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection.

    Pressed as to why the government chose to bail out big banks, the auto industry and others, but isn't assisting the city, Lew said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the government has been giving Detroit technical advice and has made resources available to help take down blighted properties through federal programs.

    But Lew said that the situation during the financial crisis that warranted the other bailouts was "unique," and that the current problems that Detroit has with its creditors, "it's going to have to work out with its creditors."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/jack-lew-congress_n_3666957.html?ref=topbar
    .......

    IMO: As the once renowned republican party appears to be having an epiphany concerning their wholesale losses in Congress, and trying to sneak out by blaming it all on the Democrats, they must sooner or later own up to what they have done to America, its people, our world prestige, and their party enjoys a certain notoriety that is not pleasant to watch.

    After they agree on some legislation, the republicans renage on every issue and try to change it either by subterfuge, intimidation, or actual threats which the American citizens look on with amazement, horror and disgust; and have decided that this must stop.

    The popularity polls now register Congress at a dismal 12%.
    Congress: you are not fooling the American public anymore. Try doing something for the country instead of for your political party.
     

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