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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on March 01, 2013, 07:34:46 AM
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;D
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Lol. Obama blames. . Z a
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Great day!!!!
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Senator: Obama's Golf Weekend With Tiger Cost As Much As 341 Federal Workers Furloughed
"There is nothing just or virtuous about protecting a stale welfare state that is failing the people it is supposed to help."
1:52 PM, Mar 1, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER
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In a sharply written statement, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama blasts President Obama for campaigning and not governing. He calls Obama's response to the sequestration "the most cynical behavior I have seen during my time in Washington."
Adds the senator, "Replacing the sequester would require the President to save $85 billion out of a $3,500 billion federal budget. One would think that any President would leap at the opportunity to make government more effective and responsive. But what does the President do instead? He says Republicans are ‘cutting vital services for children’ in order to ‘benefit the well-off and well-connected.’ This has been the strategy now for years: block any attempt to reform the government and then relentlessly attack the reformers. Does any lawmaker, reporter, or citizen believe that the only way to save taxpayer dollars is to hurt children, that every government program is effective and helpful and not one penny is wasted?"
Sessions is the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.
"While the White House operatives may think this attack is clever, it betrays an astonishing elitism: the federal government is perfect and requires no reform. That is why they have no plan to make our government leaner and more efficient. The President had 18 months to develop reforms to improve the government, but instead he announced furloughs of federal workers as a political cudgel. Yet, his golf weekend at the yacht club with Tiger Woods cost taxpayers over a million dollars—enough money to save 341 federal workers from furlough," Sessions writes.
"These workers know firsthand how much waste and inefficiency exists in the government. Our Budget Committee office will look for a way to solicit federal employees to send suggestions for how to save money in their departments, agencies, and divisions. What is better? To furlough someone or to empower them to make their office more efficient?
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"Now, we learn that the President is going to submit his budget plan—which contains his recommendations to Congress, the reason the law requires it to be submitted early in February before our budget work begins—on March 25th. Yet he will be submitting it after the House and Senate have produced a budget proposal and adjourned for Easter. So while the President speaks of his deep concern for American workers and families, he fails to even submit to Congress his financial plan to help those workers and families. Why then doesn’t the President furlough his entire 500 person staff at the Office of Management and Budget instead of threatening teachers and law enforcement personnel? The budget deals with more than just deficits. It is the chief executive’s plan for American prosperity. What does it mean that he doesn’t want to lay that out? He is the CEO of the Executive Branch and every cabinet official and government employee answers to him. It is his duty to the American people to be the person advancing reform, not blocking it.
"Also at issue is the fact that our massive federal government is, right now, creating poverty and hurting families. Look at cities like Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. Raising taxes—instead of reforming government—denies struggling Americans the help they need. There is nothing just or virtuous about protecting a stale welfare state that is failing the people it is supposed to help. President Obama is defending the bureaucracy at the expense of the people.
"It is time for the President to end the permanent campaign and work with both parties to make this government work better."
- See more at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/senator-obamas-golf-weekend-tiger-cost-much-341-federal-workers-furloughed_704915.html#sthash.dbJBY1FM.dpuf
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These cuts are killing me!! You guys are heartless bastards!!!!!!! >:( >:( >:(
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Obama To AP's Julie Pace: 'Give Me An Example Of What I Might Do' (VIDEO)
Posted: 03/01/2013 11:58 am EST | Updated: 03/01/2013 1:46 pm EST
Barack Obama , Video, Obama AP, Julie Pace, Obama Associated Press, Obama Julie Pace, Obama Reporters, Obama White House Reporters, Media News
Notably jocular President Obama sparred with White House reporters during his press conference about the budget sequester on Friday.
Obama's most notably tense moment came with his first question, the AP's Julie Pace.
"It sounds like you're saying this is a Republican problem, not one that you bear any responsibility for," she said to him.
"Well, Julie, give me an example of what I might do," Obama shot back. "Just trying to clarify," Pace said.
"Well, I'm just trying to clarify your question," Obama said.
The Republicans, he said, didn't want to increase revenues in any deal. "So, what more do you think I should do?" he asked the room at large. When there was silence, he said, "I just wanted to clarify. Because if people have a suggestion — this is a room full of smart folks."
Obama also riffed with the Washington Post's Zach Goldfarb, telling him, "I never want to make myself 100 percent clear with you guys." He also told CNN's Jessica Yellin, "I'm not a dictator. I'm the president."
LMFAO!!!!! Ha ha ha !!!!!
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Obama To AP's Julie Pace: 'Give Me An Example Of What I Might Do' (VIDEO)
Posted: 03/01/2013 11:58 am EST | Updated: 03/01/2013 1:46 pm EST
Barack Obama , Video, Obama AP, Julie Pace, Obama Associated Press, Obama Julie Pace, Obama Reporters, Obama White House Reporters, Media News
Notably jocular President Obama sparred with White House reporters during his press conference about the budget sequester on Friday.
Obama's most notably tense moment came with his first question, the AP's Julie Pace.
"It sounds like you're saying this is a Republican problem, not one that you bear any responsibility for," she said to him.
"Well, Julie, give me an example of what I might do," Obama shot back. "Just trying to clarify," Pace said.
"Well, I'm just trying to clarify your question," Obama said.
The Republicans, he said, didn't want to increase revenues in any deal. "So, what more do you think I should do?" he asked the room at large. When there was silence, he said, "I just wanted to clarify. Because if people have a suggestion — this is a room full of smart folks."
Obama also riffed with the Washington Post's Zach Goldfarb, telling him, "I never want to make myself 100 percent clear with you guys." He also told CNN's Jessica Yellin, "I'm not a dictator. I'm the president."
LMFAO!!!!! Ha ha ha !!!!!
this article actually shines positive light on Obama, he is asking a rhetorical question stemming from the inability of him and congress to work together. The GOP will have no revenue in the deal while Obama wants cuts and revenue.
The deficit is shrinking at the fastest rate in history amongst other positive economic signs.
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Oh dear.......
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Thankfully the Fed issued $80 billion in debt today totally offsetting an entire year of cuts in less than a single day.
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this article actually shines positive light on Obama, he is asking a rhetorical question stemming from the inability of him and congress to work together. The GOP will have no revenue in the deal while Obama wants cuts and revenue.
The deficit is shrinking at the fastest rate in history amongst other positive economic signs.
this fact is completely overlooked by most people on this board
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this fact is completely overlooked by most people on this board
"Shrinking" to what, exactly?
Take it for what it's worth but in its 10 year forecast the CBO predicts the fiscal deficit will be above 1 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of Obama's 2nd term.
Obama's own budget would have the U.S. running a 901 billion dollar deficit.
You use the word "shrinking" in such a way as to make it seem like the President is really vaporizing our fiscal woes at an astounding rate and that simply isn't true.
And with GDP flat-lining you can make a safe bet that tax revenues won't be growing enough to make those CBO predictions accurate.
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the libtard delusions on this board are causing epic face palms...
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I find it amusing that Obama is blaming the Republicans for all of this just days after Jay Carney admitted that the Sequester was an idea that originated from the White House. Funnier still, he blamed (shocking!) it all on the Republicans because they didn't want to give in on closing loopholes for "millionaires and billionaires" ( ::) ::) ::)) which is interesting because that is exactly what the Republicans wanted to do a few months ago but Obama shot it down.
He wants more revenue. That is the crux. The Democrats "solution" to the Sequesters would add almost around 50+ billion to the deficit.
His speech was incredibly misleading and disingenuous.
Again, when the illusionist tells you to pay close attention to his left hand you better ignore that and watch the right hand, instead.
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"Shrinking" to what, exactly?
Take it for what it's worth but in its 10 year forecast the CBO predicts the fiscal deficit will be above 1 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of Obama's 2nd term.
Obama's own budget would have the U.S. running a 901 billion dollar deficit.
You use the word "shrinking" in such a way as to make it seem like the President is really vaporizing our fiscal woes at an astounding rate and that simply isn't true.
And with GDP flat-lining you can make a safe bet that tax revenues won't be growing enough to make those CBO predictions accurate.
http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/112012-634082-federal-deficit-falling-fastest-since-world-war-ii.htm
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I find it amusing that Obama is blaming the Republicans for all of this just days after Jay Carney admitted that the Sequester was an idea that originated from the White House. Funnier still, he blamed (shocking!) it all on the Republicans because they didn't want to give in on closing loopholes for "millionaires and billionaires" ( ::) ::) ::)) which is interesting because that is exactly what the Republicans wanted to do a few months ago but Obama shot it down.
He wants more revenue. That is the crux. The Democrats "solution" to the Sequesters would add almost around 50+ billion to the deficit.
His speech was incredibly misleading and disingenuous.
Again, when the illusionist tells you to pay close attention to his left hand you better ignore that and watch the right hand, instead.
what I find just sad is that we arent even talking about cuts in spending were talking about reductions in future spending increases.
Not only do the libtards think we cant reduce spending without adverse effects they think we cant reduce future increases in spending without adverse effects.
I MEAN COME THE FUCK ON!!!!
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http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/112012-634082-federal-deficit-falling-fastest-since-world-war-ii.htm
10 year projections are bad when it relates to cuts, when it relates to nebulous deficits 8 years post obama it is ok.
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what I find just sad is that we arent even talking about cuts in spending were talking about reductions in future spending increases.
Not only do the libtards think we cant reduce spending without adverse effects they think we cant reduce future increases in spending without adverse effects.
I MEAN COME THE FUCK ON!!!!
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Oh Happy Dayyyyyy! Ohhhhh Happy Dayyyyyy!!
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;D
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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57572180/u.s-capitol-official-obama-wrong-on-janitors-pay-cut
Obama lied - go figure.
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DHS plans to release 5,000 illegal immigrants due to sequestration
March 5, 2013 | 1:45 pm
Joel Gehrke
The Washington Examiner
✉ Email AuthorE@JoelmentumDJoel on FB
House investigators learned Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials developed plans to release about 5,000 illegal immigrant detainees, although Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has denied responsibility for the decision.
“An internal document obtained by the House Judiciary Committee shows that Administration officials at ICE prepared cold calculations to release thousands of criminal aliens onto the streets and did not demonstrate any consideration of the impact this decision would have on the safety of Americans,” committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced.
The ICE document contains a table that proposes “reduc[ing] invoiced daily population by 1,000 weekly.” Between February 22 and March 31st, this plan would drop the number of detainees from 30,748 to 25,748.
“The decision to release detained aliens undermines the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to keep our homeland secure and instead makes our communities less safe and more vulnerable to crime,” Goodlatte said. “[R]egardless of sequestration, DHS actually has plenty of funding to pay for the detention of criminal aliens. Unfortunately, it seems Administration officials are more interested in using sequestration to promote their political agenda than as an opportunity to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.”
Napolitano said that it wasn’t her decision, even though ICE is part of DHS. “Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field,” she told ABC.
She also confirmed that the releases would continue. “We are going to manage our way through this by identifying the lowest risk detainees, and putting them into some kind of alternative to release,” Napolitano said at a Politico event, per The Daily Caller.
The New York Times profiled a “low risk” detainee released by ICE. The detainee was taken into custody “when it was discovered that he had violated probation for a conviction in 2005 of simple assault, simple battery and child abuse, charges that sprung from a domestic dispute with his wife at the time.” NRO’s Jim Geraghty asked, “If convictions for ‘simple assault, simple battery and child abuse’ make you ‘low-risk,’ what do you have to do for Janet Napolitano to consider you ‘high-risk’?”
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DHS plans to release 5,000 illegal immigrants due to sequestration
March 5, 2013 | 1:45 pm
Joel Gehrke
The Washington Examiner
✉ Email AuthorE@JoelmentumDJoel on FB
House investigators learned Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials developed plans to release about 5,000 illegal immigrant detainees, although Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has denied responsibility for the decision.
“An internal document obtained by the House Judiciary Committee shows that Administration officials at ICE prepared cold calculations to release thousands of criminal aliens onto the streets and did not demonstrate any consideration of the impact this decision would have on the safety of Americans,” committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced.
The ICE document contains a table that proposes “reduc[ing] invoiced daily population by 1,000 weekly.” Between February 22 and March 31st, this plan would drop the number of detainees from 30,748 to 25,748.
“The decision to release detained aliens undermines the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to keep our homeland secure and instead makes our communities less safe and more vulnerable to crime,” Goodlatte said. “[R]egardless of sequestration, DHS actually has plenty of funding to pay for the detention of criminal aliens. Unfortunately, it seems Administration officials are more interested in using sequestration to promote their political agenda than as an opportunity to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.”
Napolitano said that it wasn’t her decision, even though ICE is part of DHS. “Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field,” she told ABC.
She also confirmed that the releases would continue. “We are going to manage our way through this by identifying the lowest risk detainees, and putting them into some kind of alternative to release,” Napolitano said at a Politico event, per The Daily Caller.
The New York Times profiled a “low risk” detainee released by ICE. The detainee was taken into custody “when it was discovered that he had violated probation for a conviction in 2005 of simple assault, simple battery and child abuse, charges that sprung from a domestic dispute with his wife at the time.” NRO’s Jim Geraghty asked, “If convictions for ‘simple assault, simple battery and child abuse’ make you ‘low-risk,’ what do you have to do for Janet Napolitano to consider you ‘high-risk’?”
I knew you would be the first person to complain about the results of spending cuts
the very cuts you've said many times that you want
you're getting exactly what you've said you wanted so how about you
STFU
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Why can't Oh-Shit! cut the obamaphones off or stop the $450 million to Morsi? ?
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Why can't Oh-Shit! cut the obamaphones off or stop the $450 million to Morsi? ?
maybe because there is no such thing as Obamaphones
how about we stop paying Congress until they come do a deal
how long do you think it would take to come to an agreement
I'd bet they'd have it done before dinner time today
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maybe because there is no such thing as Obamaphones
how about we stop paying Congress until they come do a deal
how long do you think it would take to come to an agreement
I'd bet they'd have it done before dinner time today
How about we cut off Obama's endless trips on AF1 too?
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maybe because there is no such thing as Obamaphones
how about we stop paying Congress until they come do a deal
how long do you think it would take to come to an agreement
I'd bet they'd have it done before dinner time today
Now THAT's a plan that can bring Republicans & Democrats together. ;D
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Now THAT's a plan that can bring Republicans & Democrats together. ;D
I dont think any of them should get paid anything to begin with.
Should be a volunteer position that meets only rarely. Do a budget and go home.
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How about we cut off Obama's endless trips on AF1 too?
good lord you're an idiot
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White House cancels tours over sequester cuts, as lawmakers call decision political (ya think?)
FoxNews.com ^ | March 5, 2013 | Fox News
Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2013 5:48:20 PM by LUV W
Sorry, Washington-bound spring-breakers. Your White House tours have been canceled.
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will cancel all tours starting this weekend, due to sequester cuts. The move prompted swift condemnation from Republican lawmakers, who described the decision as the latest attempt to make the sequester seem worse than it is.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/05/white-house-cancels-tours-citing-sequester/#ixzz2MhycOBzj
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
LMFAO!!!!!! More free time for Obama to snort lines of coke and choom.
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White House cancels tours over sequester cuts, as lawmakers call decision political (ya think?)
FoxNews.com ^ | March 5, 2013 | Fox News
Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2013 5:48:20 PM by LUV W
Sorry, Washington-bound spring-breakers. Your White House tours have been canceled.
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will cancel all tours starting this weekend, due to sequester cuts. The move prompted swift condemnation from Republican lawmakers, who described the decision as the latest attempt to make the sequester seem worse than it is.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/05/white-house-cancels-tours-citing-sequester/#ixzz2MhycOBzj
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
LMFAO!!!!!! More free time for Obama to snort lines of coke and choom.
more free time for you to spend here on GB.com making essentially the same posts every day
seriously dude, I will pay for a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation if you will posts the results here
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he's changing the world one post at a time ;D
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http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/342244/congressman-no-golf-obama-until-wh-tours-resume-andrew-stiles
Good - end obama's dithering and leisure
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Government
White House Email: The Sequester Needs to Be as Painful as We Said It Would Be
Mar. 5, 2013
If any observers thought the White House was bluffing in its dire, even sadistic predictions about the outcome of the sequester, they may be disappointed. A new internal email discovered by the Washington Times suggests that, even if the negative effects of the budget cuts known as “sequestration” can be blunted, the White House has precisely no interest in doing so, most likely because it would undermine their bargaining position with Congress.
The Washington Times reports:
In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked “if there was any latitude” in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections.
He said he was discouraged by officials in Washington, who gave him this reply: “We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.”
“This email confirms what many Americans have suspected: The Obama administration is doing everything they can to make sure their worst predictions come true and to maximize the pain of the Sequester cuts for political gain,” said Rep. Tim Griffin, Arkansas Republican.[...]
The administration earlier had warned that supplies of beef, pork and poultry could drop this year because slaughterhouse inspectors will have to be furloughed, and under federal law meat can’t be processed without inspectors present.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has, of course, studiously denied the idea that the administration is sacrificing its flexibility in order to make its dire predictions about the outcome of the sequester self-fulfilling prophecies. Nevertheless, the email raises some questions about just how much that flexibility is being applied, even if the person behind it might just be a disgruntled lower level official.
Allies of the administration have been pushing less than likely estimates of the sequester’s impact since before the policy took effect. Most notably, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) predicted that the sequester would cost 170 million jobs, a statistic notable for its mathematical impossibility.
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Let's see the Obama worshippers' explanation for this one.
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Capitol janitors making ‘ends meet’ with overtime? Nope
Posted by Glenn Kesslerat 06:00 AM ET, 03/06/2013
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(Carolyn Kaster/AP)
“You know, those Capitol janitors will not get as much overtime. I’m sure they think less pay, that they’re taking home, does hurt.”
— Gene Sperling, director of the White House economic council, on ABC News’ “This Week,” March 3, 2013
“On the issue of the janitors, if you work for an hourly wage and you earn overtime, and you depend on that overtime to make ends meet, it is simply a fact that a reduction in overtime is a reduction in your pay.”
— White House spokesman Jay Carney, news briefing, March 4
At a news conference last Friday, President Obama claimed that, “starting tomorrow,” the “folks cleaning the floors at the Capitol” had “just got a pay cut” because of the automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester.
The president very quickly earned Four Pinocchios for that statement, especially after senior officials at the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), the federal agency that employ janitors on the House side, and the office of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA), which employs janitors on the Senate side, issued statements saying the president’s comments were not true.
Still, the White House has kept up its spin offensive, claiming that a cut in “overtime” was a de facto pay cut and thus the president was right — or at least not wrong.
So, we wondered: How much overtime do Capitol Hill janitors actually make?
The Facts
First of all, we should note that the White House’s story kept evolving as we reported last week’s column. It’s almost as if the president’s aides had to scramble to come up with reasons why the president could be correct, without actually knowing the facts.
So, when we forwarded to White House aides an AOC memo saying no furloughs were planned, White House aides latched onto a line about overtime reductions. For a couple of hours, we were also told that the janitors were on contract — and contracts were being curtailed. But that line of reasoning turned out to be incorrect. Then, after the statements from the Capitol were issued, there was no longer any response.
But, as seen by the quotes above, the talking point about “overtime” did not fade away.
AOC officials declined to discuss janitor compensation, but SAA officials were willing to share details. Given that the AOC and SAA janitors essentially work side by side, it is reasonable to assume that the pay statistics are roughly similar.
Bret H. Swanson, assistant sergeant at arms for operations and the manager of cleaning technicians, said 27 people are employed on the night cleaning shift and 16 people on a day shift; a majority of the cleaning takes place at night. There is a differential for the overnight shift, so the night janitors earn an average of $51,644 a year and the day janitors earn an average of $49,481.
And the overtime pay? It averaged $304 per employee in fiscal year 2012 and $388 per employee thus far in the current fiscal year. “Cleaning technicians do not earn what I would consider to be a great deal of overtime pay,” Swanson said.
In other words, overtime amounts to only pittance of the overall pay — about $6.50 a week on top of wages of $1,000 a week. That’s much different from Carney’s claim of having to “depend on that overtime to make ends meet.”
Indeed, even before the sequester was implemented, Capitol Hill janitors have already earned more overtime pay than they did in all of last year. Swanson said the higher amount so far this year is because of “the demands of beginning a new Congress and hosting a presidential inauguration during a weekend that also included a federal holiday.”
Swanson said that, as reported, SAA would work on trying to drive down overtime requirements for employees for the rest of the year. But, for the rest of the sequester, the janitors are already ahead of the game.
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The Pinocchio Test
We don’t try to play gotcha here at The Fact Checker. When Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was ridiculed for saying last week that 170 million jobs would be lost because of the sequester, we dropped our inquiry when we realized she had corrected her statement — to the official Congressional Budget Office estimate of 750,000 jobs — later in the same news conference. Everyone makes mistakes, and that’s understandable.
The quicker the mistake is cleaned up, the better. As Education Secretary Arne Duncan showed this week, a little humility, even a bit late, can be a good thing.
But a clean-up brigade shouldn’t simply try to deflect and obfuscate. Apparently, the president assumed — incorrectly — that the janitors on Capitol Hill would get a pay cut. Rather than admit an error, White House aides doubled down on their talking points about overtime being essential to their livelihood, without actually knowing the truth.
Clearly, the sequester is hurting segments of the government and will cut the pay of some government workers. It would be better to focus on those people rather than imaginary victims
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/capitol-janitors-making-ends-meet-with-overtime-nope/2013/03/05/f07a4f8c-85f9-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_blog.html
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chief-white-house-calligrapher-gets-paid-96725-year_706521.html
3 Caligraphers making a total of almost 300k a year.
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Sequester won’t interrupt collection of taxes from 'ObamaCare'
By Bernie Becker and Sam Baker - 03/06/13 05:00 AM ET
Implementation of the taxes and fees from President Obama’s healthcare law is on track despite the cutbacks at the IRS from sequestration.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted in 2010 and derided by Republicans as “ObamaCare,” contains the broadest set of tax changes enacted in some two decades — more than 40 alterations in all, including penalties on people who choose not to purchase insurance.
But while IRS and Treasury officials have warned of reduced services as employees are furloughed under the sequester, neither agency has expressed any concern that the automatic spending cuts would delay the rollout of the healthcare overhaul.
A spokesman for the IRS declined to comment any further on the agency’s concerns about sequestration.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers also haven’t raised the issue though major tax changes from the law are just seven months away.
“The silence is deafening,” said Chris Condeluci, a former tax counsel for Senate Finance Committee Republicans who is now at Venable law firm.
Condeluci argued that the response from the IRS to the sequester cuts shows that getting the healthcare law off the ground is a top goal for the agency and that the government would shift resources to ensure the law goes into effect.
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But because the sequester’s $85 billion in cuts for the rest of fiscal 2013 were meant to be unwieldy and harsh, agencies have limited leeway in putting them into effect.
“ACA implementation is a priority,” Condeluci told The Hill. “Their silence with regard to the sequester indicates that they won’t let anything get in the way of implementation, sequestration or otherwise.”
The tax changes from the healthcare law will have a broad impact on the public. Spotting an opportunity, the tax preparation firm H&R Block is already running advertisements offering to help individuals navigate the law’s requirements.
But while the individual mandate is arguably the highest-profile piece of the Affordable Care Act for the IRS, the agency’s biggest undertaking is a more immediate challenge: setting up the new subsidies to help people buy private insurance.
Roughly 15 million people will likely be eligible for the subsidies, which will be administered as tax credits. The IRS not only has to dole out the credits but also build a complicated system to determine who is eligible and how much they should receive.
People who are eligible for subsidies can begin selecting plans in October that would start in 2014, putting the IRS under a time crunch to get its systems in order.
The IRS has more breathing room when it comes to the mandate, which takes effect in 2014. That means the agency won’t have to actually comb through returns and enforce the law’s penalty for going uninsured until 2015.
But even with those daunting tasks ahead, few in Washington seem concerned that the sequester will hurt the implementation of the healthcare law’s tax changes.
Steven Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, didn’t bring up implementation of the healthcare law at all in his memo to staff shortly before the sequester went into effect on March 1.
Miller did tell employees that the sequester could require between five to seven furlough days — to start this summer, after the current filing season was over — and that the IRS would cut travel, training and supply costs.
“It is essential that we prepare for whatever events may unfold and continue to look for opportunities to reduce expenses,” Miller wrote.
Earlier in February, Neal Wolin, then the acting Treasury secretary, told lawmakers that the furloughs would eat into the IRS’s customer service capabilities and the agency’s ability to prevent fraud.
Treasury’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism would also take a hit, Wolin said.
Meanwhile, the National Taxpayer Advocate, an in-house IRS watchdog, has long said that Congress was making a mistake by limiting the agency’s budget, saying that would reduce the amount of revenue the government collected.
But the advocate, Nina Olson, has shown few specific concerns about the healthcare law.
Democrats on both Capitol Hill and in the White House have decried the effect of the sequester, warning that the cuts could cause longer lines at airports and impact the country’s food inspections.
But with the full effects of the cuts — which the Congressional Budget Office says could cost 750,000 jobs this year — not likely to be felt for some time, Democrats have softened their tone.
“One way or another, I think the administration will find a way to implement ACA,” Rep. Sandy Levin (Mich.), the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Hill. “But if the sequester were to go seven months, there’d be all kinds of ramifications.”
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans continue to search for ways to roll back the law. But Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, said his concerns about the law did not stretch to IRS implementation.
“I constantly hear the refrain that they need more resources,” said Boustany, whose panel held a Tuesday hearing on the healthcare law’s tax implementation.
“Well, my reply to that is, No. 1, the tax code is too complicated. And secondly, there is a significant amount of waste in IRS operations.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/286423-sequester-wont-interrupt-taxes-from-healthcare-law#ixzz2Mm41cQ8B
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
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Politics
DHS plans to release 5,000 illegal immigrants due to sequestration
March 5, 2013 | 1:45 pm
516Comments
Joel Gehrke
Commentary Writer
The Washington Examiner
House investigators learned Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials developed plans to release about 5,000 illegal immigrant detainees, although Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has denied responsibility for the decision.
“An internal document obtained by the House Judiciary Committee shows that Administration officials at ICE prepared cold calculations to release thousands of criminal aliens onto the streets and did not demonstrate any consideration of the impact this decision would have on the safety of Americans,” committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced.
The ICE document contains a table that proposes “reduc[ing] invoiced daily population by 1,000 weekly.” Between February 22 and March 31st, this plan would drop the number of detainees from 30,748 to 25,748.
“The decision to release detained aliens undermines the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to keep our homeland secure and instead makes our communities less safe and more vulnerable to crime,” Goodlatte said. “[R]egardless of sequestration, DHS actually has plenty of funding to pay for the detention of criminal aliens. Unfortunately, it seems Administration officials are more interested in using sequestration to promote their political agenda than as an opportunity to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.”
Napolitano said that it wasn’t her decision, even though ICE is part of DHS. “Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field,” she told ABC.
She also confirmed that the releases would continue. “We are going to manage our way through this by identifying the lowest risk detainees, and putting them into some kind of alternative to release,” Napolitano said at a Politico event, per The Daily Caller.
The New York Times profiled a “low risk” detainee released by ICE. The detainee was taken into custody “when it was discovered that he had violated probation for a conviction in 2005 of simple assault, simple battery and child abuse, charges that sprung from a domestic dispute with his wife at the time.” NRO’s Jim Geraghty asked, “If convictions for ‘simple assault, simple battery and child abuse’ make you ‘low-risk,’ what do you have to do for Janet Napolitano to consider you ‘high-risk’?”
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Politics
DHS plans to release 5,000 illegal immigrants due to sequestration
March 5, 2013 | 1:45 pm
516Comments
Joel Gehrke
Commentary Writer
The Washington Examiner
House investigators learned Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials developed plans to release about 5,000 illegal immigrant detainees, although Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has denied responsibility for the decision.
“An internal document obtained by the House Judiciary Committee shows that Administration officials at ICE prepared cold calculations to release thousands of criminal aliens onto the streets and did not demonstrate any consideration of the impact this decision would have on the safety of Americans,” committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced.
The ICE document contains a table that proposes “reduc[ing] invoiced daily population by 1,000 weekly.” Between February 22 and March 31st, this plan would drop the number of detainees from 30,748 to 25,748.
“The decision to release detained aliens undermines the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to keep our homeland secure and instead makes our communities less safe and more vulnerable to crime,” Goodlatte said. “[R]egardless of sequestration, DHS actually has plenty of funding to pay for the detention of criminal aliens. Unfortunately, it seems Administration officials are more interested in using sequestration to promote their political agenda than as an opportunity to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.”
Napolitano said that it wasn’t her decision, even though ICE is part of DHS. “Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field,” she told ABC.
She also confirmed that the releases would continue. “We are going to manage our way through this by identifying the lowest risk detainees, and putting them into some kind of alternative to release,” Napolitano said at a Politico event, per The Daily Caller.
The New York Times profiled a “low risk” detainee released by ICE. The detainee was taken into custody “when it was discovered that he had violated probation for a conviction in 2005 of simple assault, simple battery and child abuse, charges that sprung from a domestic dispute with his wife at the time.” NRO’s Jim Geraghty asked, “If convictions for ‘simple assault, simple battery and child abuse’ make you ‘low-risk,’ what do you have to do for Janet Napolitano to consider you ‘high-risk’?”
Hey Moron - you're in favor of this remember so how about you wash the sand out of your vagina and STFU
how is it you have the time to still make all the posts everyday
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maybe because there is no such thing as Obamaphones
how about we stop paying Congress until they come do a deal
how long do you think it would take to come to an agreement
I'd bet they'd have it done before dinner time today
+1