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Subscribe to RSSHouse Speaker John Boehner, when asked about the way forward after Plan B went down to defeat, said, "God only knows."
Today, in the opening prayer at the start of the House session at noon ET, the House chaplain made a rare appeal to the heavens for compromise.
"May an imperfect compromise, when viewed from the perspective of our differences, not be undermined by a desire for political victory," House Chaplain Patrick Conroy implored.
Here's what he said in full:
"Let us pray. Eternal God, we give you thanks for giving us another day, a new year. The political struggles of the past year have revealed the divisions that exist in our nation. There are many American citizens who are angry, frustrated, and anxious for the future. This day is a day of history. Send your spirit upon the members of the people’s house. May an imperfect compromise when viewed from the perspective of our differences not be undermined by a desire for political victory. This is difficult for all. Give each member the grace and courage to forge a constructive solution for the greater good of the nation and all Americans. Help us to trust that no matter what, you will not abandon us. May all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory. Amen."
After Plan B, Boehner pointed at the president and the Senate to get something done. "Now, it is up to the president to work with Senator Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff," he said then in a statement.
Now, it is up to Boehner whether he puts the bill, which passed the Senate 89-8, on the floor for a vote.
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GOD? Are you kidding me? We have to ask the invisible one for help? We're screwed. WTF do we need to look up in the sky? Don't we have PEOPLE that make decisions for us here right now? How much dicking around do these morons need to do before they piss us all off? You go talk to a "burning bush" and hear the tale of a 900+ year old guy, we need to get this done NOW!!!
Since God is irrelevant, what is your contribution to fix anything? Looking down no doubt.
Didn't God's Son talk about helping the poor and less privileged? The republicans have perfected the act of hypocrisy.
next move = the rain dance!
hyah, hyah, hyah, hyah....!!!
I think God is mad at the TPGOP for using His name too much in trying to gain political advantage. I dont think God likes when the TPGOP claims to know what He is thinking. The TPGOP better watch out. God is ready to smite them.
Ah, the GOP circle quirk continues. It's nice to see the party of the pathetic old racist " I know better because I'm white" party starting to go through it's death throes. After the 2020 census they can take their rightful place as a historical footnote. As John Huntsman said, if all you've got to sell is fear, you don't have a chance. Kantor still has a knife at the speaker's back.
We in the Tea Party are bombarding members of Congress with emails demanding that they reject this idiotic deal.
NO TAX INCREASES!!!
Reduce the budget back to FY2008 level and restrict annual increases to the rate of inflation while seeking to end many of the socialist programs like EPA, OSHA, Food Stamps, Unemployment Insurance, FCC, FTC, Dept of Labor, Dept of Transportation, Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Health & Human Services.
why didn't you mention the largest welfare group our government writes checks to.. the likes of Big oil, Big Pharma, Insurance Industry, Government No-Bid contractors.
why didn't you mention The Pentagon who say's it doesn't need more money but the republicans want to give it to them anyway.
When I look at the Constitution, national defense is mandated. None of those marxist programs I listed fall under the authority given to Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.
I do agree that there is probably ways to cut 5-10% from the Defense budget without jeopardizing our national security.
As to industries, most of the industries you listed earn smaller profit levels than attorneys, hollywood, or other leftist industries-
Show me in the budget where welfare checks are issued to any of those industries. Or do you want to exempt them from the normal business deductions all other industries are allowed? And explain how that is constitutional.
The "deal" from the Senate is junk and everybody knows it. The Dems are using fear tactics to run it through. There are plenty of tax hikes, but no spending cuts. SPENDING must be cut. End of story. I hope the Republicans in the house vote it down. No more kicking the issues down the road. We need real solutions. This country is bankrupt and our President does not seem to understand that. Cut spending in all areas by 10%. Then we can discus tax hikes on ALL groups, not just the 1%.
Nothing has changed- Unless the US Govt gets it's act together and dramatically reduces spending in the next 60 days we are going down. Greece will seem like a model of fiscal responsibility to the US Govt which is addicted to spending money it doesn't have while trying to see how close it can come to seizing everything we earn.
The Federal Govt is treasonous to the Constitution. Neither the Executive nor the Legislative Branch have any view of obeying the Constitution they swear to defend and uphold.
Either secession or dissolution of this government are the only real choices going forward since most Americans have proven they are either ignorant of the Constitution or like the politicians they vote for, disdainful of it's very existence.
Hugo LaFayette Black, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, 1937-1971:
"The form of government which was ordained and established in 1789 contains certain unique features which reflected the Framers' fear of arbitrary government and which clearly indicate an intention absolutely to limit what Congress could do.
"The first of these features is that our Constitution is written in a single document. Such constitutions are familiar today and it is not always remembered that our country was the first to have one. Certainly one purpose of a written constitution is to define and therefore more specifically limit government powers. An all-powerful government that can act as it pleases wants no such constitution - unless to fool the people. England had no written constitution and this once proved a source of tyranny, as our ancestors well knew. Jefferson said about this departure from the English type of Government: Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
"One Man's Stand For Freedom" - Mr. Justice Black and the Bill of Rights - Hugo LaFayette Black: A collection of his Supreme Court opinions - Published 1963 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair.
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28
I wasn't aware that we had a house chaplain.Maybe he should pray to God that these buffoons don't get reelected next go around.
The first legislation passed by Congress after the passage of the Bill of Rights was to appoint paid Chaplains to both the House and Senate. We have never had a day without Congress being opened in prayer by Christian Chaplains.
Good info Larry, ty, and to it I SMH. Did they get a raise today too?
The Marxists in both parties are destroying our country. we are bankrupt!!
We have a dept level that is impossible to pay. This deal only makes it worse. The tax revenues from this cover about 5 days of the interest on the debt, while the debt continues to increase.
Obama sent his Treasury Secretary last week to Congress asking to remove all debt level restrictions.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves, at will, money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority votes for candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, usually followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through certain definite sequences. From courage by revolution to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to apathy, and back to dependency."
-Alexander Tyler, 18th Century English Professor, writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic
Well said!
If you think Congress, Wall Street, or the President cares about God, we wouldn't be in the spot we are today. God is about people serving one another, and there is too much greed in our leadership for them to make a choice that serves the people who got them where they are. Let's face it our country is lost when it comes to God. The problem with our country begins with the family. If we had healthy families, then our good choices would begin within the walls of our homes, and overflow from there into the world. We as a nation have forgotten about God, and the history of countries who have forgotten and turned there backs on him, has always resulted in self destruction. What makes our country different? Nothing! We are doomed to repeat history.
Congress is wise opening their session seeking God's favor and wisdom. While men argue and position from the standpoint of their own futile pride, only those who seek and hear from God will lead us out of the debacle we have made for ourselves -- Democrat and Republican alike.
The only good news is that God has not forgotten about us!
Time to pinch the peasants again so they can keep on spending. Stop spending.........That is the only answer! Why do you all insist on destroying America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have nothing against religion, but this is what you get when you throw reason and common sense out the window. Thanks, Republicans. You make my middle school students look like geniuses.
So much for separation of church and state.
I thought you said you were a history teacher John. One of the first legislation after approving the bill of rights was to appoint paid chaplains to the Senate and House. We have never had a session of Congress that wasn't opened with prayer
On April 25, 1789, the Senate elected its first chaplain, Samuel Proovost, an Episcopalian bishop. On May 1, the House followed suit, electing Congregationalist William Linn. Later, on September 25, Congress passed a statute setting the salaries of various Congressional officials, including the chaplains, at $500 per year.47 As many commentators have noticed, and as the Marsh court stressed, this last act occurred only three days after Congress reached final agreement on the Bill of Rights.
By 1789, the chaplaincies were by law established under the new Constitution, and thus our focus moves from the debates about their existence to the practicalities of their operation. By statute, the House and the Senate are to elect chaplains of different denominations. We have NEVER had a non-Christian House or Senate Chaplain.
Not only that, it is sweet irony that liberals and atheists love to spout the supposed hostility of Jefferson and Madison to Christianity, yet both attended church services in the House Chambers while they served as president
“It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church. Within a year of his inauguration, Jefferson began attending church services in the House of Representatives. Madison followed Jefferson's example, although unlike Jefferson, who rode on horseback to church in the Capitol, Madison came in a coach and four. Worship services in the House--a practice that continued until after the Civil War--were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary. Preachers of every Protestant denomination appeared. (Catholic priests began officiating in 1826.) As early as January 1806 a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience." Throughout his administration Jefferson permitted church services in executive branch buildings. The Gospel was also preached in the Supreme Court chambers.”
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html
But John CO, the best we're hearing from you comes in the form of a simple minded insult to a political party. Do you really think that our most profound problems or solutions stem from political ideology, and not from the heart of man which so consistently seeks its own interests? Pride, the need to be right, to have the answer seen as the "right answer", is at the heart of our most profound problems. Total separation of church and state is a ridiculous, terrible idea that has never, and should never, be fully implemented. I don't believe that religion should dictate our laws, but to exclude the power of even the idea of God and the moral implications that come with those ideas completely from government is a terrible idea. Religion, and Christianity in particular, has always been at the core of the social fabric of our country, and it brings out the very best in our natures.
Nothing has changed- Unless the US Govt gets it's act together and dramatically reduces spending in the next 60 days we are going down. Greece will seem like a model of fiscal responsibility to the US Govt which is addicted to spending money it doesn't have while trying to see how close it can come to seizing everything we earn.
The Federal Govt is treasonous to the Constitution. Neither the Executive nor the Legislative Branch have any view of obeying the Constitution they swear to defend and uphold.
Either secession or dissolution of this government are the only real choices going forward since most Americans have proven they are either ignorant of the Constitution or like the politicians they vote for, disdainful of it's very existence.
Hugo LaFayette Black, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, 1937-1971:
"The form of government which was ordained and established in 1789 contains certain unique features which reflected the Framers' fear of arbitrary government and which clearly indicate an intention absolutely to limit what Congress could do.
"The first of these features is that our Constitution is written in a single document. Such constitutions are familiar today and it is not always remembered that our country was the first to have one. Certainly one purpose of a written constitution is to define and therefore more specifically limit government powers. An all-powerful government that can act as it pleases wants no such constitution - unless to fool the people. England had no written constitution and this once proved a source of tyranny, as our ancestors well knew. Jefferson said about this departure from the English type of Government: Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
"One Man's Stand For Freedom" - Mr. Justice Black and the Bill of Rights - Hugo LaFayette Black: A collection of his Supreme Court opinions - Published 1963 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair.
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28
Greece did exactly what the republicans are trying to do. trying to solve the problem by austerity measures. we can all see where these austerity policies got Greece. and what got Greece in trouble the first place was trickle down policies. so yes....if you want to go down the same path as Greece put all the republican austerity policies in place. we can all follow Greece's yellow brick road..........but guess why it is yellow.
we are already past the bankruptcy of Greece. Each American owes more than double what Greek citizens owe there govt.
And we are headed down the same path as Greece with the Socialist Welfare Redistribution State. Greece lacks revenue because everyone is on the Govt dole.
From a European Study Group on the Greek Debt problem
It is rather generally agreed that a root-cause of the ongoing Greek fiscal crisis was not only the soaring public deficit in the last couple of years, but also the opacity of public accounts.
Despite the fact that the Greek economy attained high growth rates throughout the last decade, fiscal imbalances were never effectively brought under control. One can find many explanations for high deficits. In the first instant, one could draw attention to the incompetence of the government to control expenditures and to collect budgeted revenues. The most fundamental reason, however, has
been the weak institutional framework of budgeting and tax administration. A basic weakness of the Greek fiscal system is the poor mechanism of setting up the budget, and the lack of any systematic monitoring of its implementation.
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/hellenicObservatory/pdf/GreeSE/GreeSE48.pdf
From the OECD analysis
The crisis opens a ‘window of opportunity’ for Greece to engage in deep fiscal structural reforms, rather than relying too much on one-off temporary measures, as has often been the case in the past. Tax collection needs to be improved by fighting tax evasion and simplifying and widening the tax base. Control over government spending needs to be strengthened by improving administration, reducing the publicsector wage bill, and more strictly controlling public entities (including in the health system) and lossmaking state enterprises. Measures need to be taken to substantially reduce the increase in public pension outlays in the years ahead, including bringing Greek pensions more in line with OECD best practice and introducing measures to increase the effective retirement age. Greece should also embark on reforms of wage bargaining, which remain too rigid, and of product markets, which remain over-regulated and insufficiently innovative. In fact, Greece has been slow in taking advantage of the potential of the knowledge and green economies, with innovation indicators consistently lagging those of other advanced economies.
The Greek government has already set out ambitious reforms, including its updated Stability and Growth Programme. These initiatives should bring important fiscal structural benefits, including a more efficient and modern tax system, improved budgetary process and monitoring and more reliable Greek statistics. But Greece should consider putting these measures into a broader framework of longer-term reforms to address its structural weaknesses.
http://www.oecd.org/greece/44785912.pdf
Better pray for more than that
I think they are spelling pray "prey"
Whether it's God, ET or even SpongeBob (depending on what you do or do not believe in), we certainly need some manner of divine intervention to get these greedy, corrupt, self-serving traitors in DC to start doing the right things.
Short of that, I can't see the fools doing anything more than continuing the ruination of America.
I pray for these egotistical, self serving jerks everyday. Will they ever realize they were elected to do the right thing for the country, and not themselves. Not to promote special interest groups, or the promotion of one business over another, or give up America's independance or liberty to other countries or the mess they call the UN.
For crying out loud!! If "God" actually gave a rat's behind for this Country, the entire house and Senate would have quietly passed away in their sleep already.
For you bithering bible thumpers who keep voting for these con artists, Jesus said; "My Kingdom is no part of this world", yet with your minimum wage jobs and backwoods intellegence you actually vote for these anti-Americans because they keep yelling "God".
The has said in his heart "there is no God".
That is, The fool has said in his heart "there is no God".
I am literally so sick of this I could vomit. How do we expect a bunch of 'good ole white boys' to agree on jack? They are not businessmen....they continue to run this country into the ground year after year after year.... and we sit back and take it. WTF is wrong with the American public? These guys couldn't balance a freaking checkbook much less a country's budget? By all means get those taxes up for those making more than $450,000 annually because there are so many of them that won't even notice the increase.... God...you are calling on God???? OMG!!! Sincerely....we are in a world of hurt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rhamilt, you think younger people of color or women can do better than the good ole white boys? What makes you think so? And why are you so outraged that people would call on God for grace and courage to forge a constructive solution for the greater good of the nation and all Americans? Sounds like a very reasonable thing to seek after given our circumstances... Just because you may believe in Gd doesn't mean that others don't know better. Billions around the world have been doing this same thing for millennia.
The chaplain made a mistake when he was praying to God. He was in fact praying to the devil for these greedy bastards that don't care about their fellow man. I am so sick of hearing about this fiscal cliff. Take everything you want and in the end you will be judge and sent straight to hell all of you that are being @!$%#s.......
I hope the entire GOP ends up in Heaven... No back room deals, no payouts, no hookers...... They're gonna be miserable...
We don't need divine intervention, we need the IDIOTS in congress to do there damn job ASAP!!!!!
They should all be fired!!! We need term limits, these Morons are out of touch with the american people.
Oh yeah and their retirement is not Social Security, imagine that.
Just wait till "god" introduces his "plan G." Will anyone have the guts to vote no on it?