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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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Didn't God's Son preach about helping the poor and less fortunate and taking care of the elderly.
The republicans have perfected the art of hypocrisy.
The republicans are the modern day equivalent of the money changers that Jesus threw out of the temple.
I see able bodied men buying better food than me and my wife with food stamps. I see women with five or six kids buying better food than me and my wife with food stamps. These poor you refer to are abusing the system and in my view no longer want to work. Jesus also preached hard work; something white liberals always fail to mention.
And how have the Repubs hurt the poor and elderly again? Stupidist replayed comment depraw, got anything new to rant about?
Continue to slap GOD in the face, and "We the People" will face continued blows just as the Jews and other nations did around 735BC, until this nation is destroyed. Keep playing "high and mighty" and placing yourselves above the creator.....GOD blessed this nation for decades, he got kicked out. We now face "The consequences".
But it's fun slapping god in the face, he keeps turning the other cheek! God...what a wimp!
You are spot on. As a nation we have told God to leave us alone. He can no longer Bless America! Yet he will continue to Bless those that have put their faith in his son Jesus. It is just a matter of time, within the next ten years, before America becomes a third rate power and economy.
There is not supposed to be a 'House Chaplain'. There is supposed to be a separation of church and state. 'God' cannot help, 'God' does not exist! neither should the catholic priest in congress.
You can say prayers in congress but not in our schools..................go figure.
GOP stand your ground. $630 Billion in new taxes; we need at least $630 Billion in Spending Cuts. Federal waste is the real issues. As a federal manager, I see the extreme waste everyday. America you are being financially raped every day by General Officers, Senior Federal Executives, and 90% of federal employees that don't care about the American taxpayer or our nation's fiscal situation.
As for GOD; America has taken Jesus out of the picture. We have become a "Godless" nation; Christ can no longer bless America. Our SINS surpass anything Sodom and Gomorrah ever did. Perhaps Obama is our judgement and America will continue to fall into a financial abyss for voting in this inept despot.
zip......
first paragraph............true.
second paragrah.............you should of zipped it.
Don't like how our country is doing? well this is the kind of country you get when you remove GOD. this country was founded by the belief of GOD. and like it or not he does exist. need proof read the book of daniel and revelation of the holy bible. it's happening now. it's started. and just think the leftwing is making it happen.so keep standing behind your president. this country is gonna run down hill faster than you can shake a stick at it. and the when the anti christ shows up, you'll be decieved. then he'll make things a lot better, you'll trust him. don't say you won't. you trust nobama and he's all about decieve. so" go ahead" keep crying" because there was a prayer being said. the way congress and nobama runs this country. GOD and the son JESUS CHRIST is all were gonna have to help us through it. how can a non believer be helped? they don't believe!
Maybe it would work better if the chaplain prayed to his imaginary friend for fewer teabaggers in the House?
Is it more stupid that someone prays to god to solve a political problem, or that hundreds of politicians also think the same way, that all their problems can be solved by praying to some imaginary being ?
This would of course be the SAME imaginary being that DIDN'T prevent various natural disasters from hitting the same US of A as these politicians are from. The SAME imaginary being that can't (or won't) solve world hunger, instead preferring to let thousands of children (and adults) starve to death every year. The SAME imaginary being that has inflicted various diseases on us like AIDS, Ebola, Leprosy, Polio and so on and hasn't cured ANY of them despite the probably hundreds of millions of prayers he must have received over the years.
The SAME imaginary being that watches as "his" children fight wars and murder each other, in "his" name, because he supposedly told each side that they were his "chosen" ones. The SAME imaginary being that supposedly created all of us then decided to murder all but a handful by drowning them.
Yet some people, a lot of people, are STUPID enough to think that if they pray to him, he will solve their political and financial problems ?
And those stupid people ARE RUNNING your country !!!!!!!
It was a simple prayer people. If you don't believe than it's your choice if you believe in God then by all means join in. I see Pig is at her hating and ranting, along with others who hate. What's the big deal?
charles......the republicans say they are christian and are asking for God's help. name one christian or Godlike provision in their budget. they don't care about the poor. they don't care about anybody less fortunate. they just want to give to haves and forget the have nots. nothing christian about that.
and they believe in guns. a good portion of their campaign contributions come from the NRA. how unGodlike is that. Do you really think God would support guns. Oh yeah.i hear it now.........guns don't kill. wrong! name one single person who can kill 30 people from 300 yards in less than 3 seconds. bet you can't. give that person a gun and the gun can perform that function. so the person didn't kill them. the gun did. now you will probably say the bullets killed them. not the gun. ok..........i am going to give you 300 bullets. and i will let those 30 people stand 10 feet from you. now throw the bullets at them. how many people did you kill?
depraw, again you rant with no facts. Guns are the second amendment, things will get changed dude. Take a freakin' breathe and go for a walk.
If you godders promise not to preach in our schools, we promise not to think in your churches.
Deal, now quit ranting please.
Ranting?? while I admit that I do rant from time to time, what I'm doing tonight is simply interjecting a little humor into the conversation here and there while advancing my worldview. I'm afraid I must question your grasp of the word "rant."
Social Security is NOT an Entitlement as Congress wants you to believe. It is funded by the employee and the Employer match. When President Johnson and Congress took Social Security from a TRUST to the General Fund to hide the cost of the Viet Nam War they also began to borrow from the Billions collected for the workers who put the funds there. Now Congress does NOT want to pay the funds back and has given funds to people who did not put one cent into the trust ever. The rules should never have changed and now they want everyone to be penalized for what Congress has done. Congress has borrowed billions and now they have to pay it back and they do not want to. Social Security is a fund that worked when it was in a trust and invested wisely until the banks wanted to get in on investing and making money for themselves etc. Don't let Congress try and call Social Security and Entitlement, it is NOT and never will be. Congress needs to put SS back into the trust and pay back the funds they have squandered and spent. Vote all old Congress members OUT next election. We need all Legal US Citizens to pull the lever for a NEW Congressman or woman.....before they spend it all.....
You have a point, John. Unfortunately the Government has, for several decades and under both parties, been treating Social Security as a slush fund and now all we have in the lock-box is a mountain of IOU's. If not for mismanagement at the top there would be an extra trillion dollars in Social Security today. But now that the money is spent and our baby-boomers are reaching retirement those IOU's are coming due and they are a drain on the Federal Government. Congress never should have had their hands in the cookie jar and modest reforms should have begun thirty years ago. But that is all money under the bridge now.
So what to do about it? The GOP wants to slash, privatize and burn. The Democrats want to raise taxes instead. It seems to me that neither approach is very practical. The one dismantles the safety net for our elderly and leaves those who fall through to starve in the streets, the other makes one worker in the future pay for five. Clearly some middle ground is called for, and soon. But given the toxic far right in Congress which would rather gut-shot our economy and toss the body over the fiscal cliff rather than compromise, it seems that future low-income seniors are doomed. No wonder the approval rating of Congress is at historic lows.
And don't get me started on the unfunded Bush medicaid prescription benefit which will shortly dwarf the Social Security obligations. Both parties have a lot to answer for.
-Science_1
the Medicare Part D which most Conservatives like myself opposed (and liberals should love) has only cost the US 94 Billion. It represents less than 1/10 of 1% of the deficit
Medicare prescription drug spending dropped by 12% to $44 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
When the program started, the Congressional Budget Office had predicted it would cost $74 billion a year by 2008. Medicare actuaries predicted even higher costs. Seniors have seen savings, too. The monthly premium for basic drug coverage was $26.70 in 2008 — a third less than forecast.
"The program's been a success," says David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP, a senior advocacy group that offers Medicare drug plans. "After the initial confusion at the launch, it started delivering many benefits people need."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-30-medicare_N.htm
Raising taxes on the rich is a solution. It is only returning taxes to a rate before all the Bush tax cuts took the country into debt with several tax cuts and with two wars that cost trillions of dollars. Now it is time for taxes to go up on the wealthy. The wealthy are the ones who can afford more taxes and they are the ones who can easily afford the tiny difference in the increase in taxes.
What gives you the right Vickie to decide how much someone else should be allowed to keep of their earnings?
Like most liberals you support others paying for your handouts.
The Bush Tax cuts produced record tax revenues and as a percentage of GDP higher than under Eisenhower. Tax revenues increased by 39% during the Bush years
Tax Revenues as % of GDP
Eisenhower=17.52
Reagan 18.18
GW Bush 17.63
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals
(sigh)
It shouldn't take an act of God to prevent the GOP from tipping us into a recession. SHeesh!
Throughout the history of humanity how many times have prayers been sent to a deity asking for HIS/HER almighty intervention? Trillions I would imagine, given that 85% of the world believes in a GOD. It doesn't work because GOD only exists in the imagination of humans! Religion is the cruelest joke humanity has played upon itself.
And what factual evidence do you offer up for that opinion? Your imagination? I imagine you are a democrat?
The way that we personify god kind of gives it away Joe. Man made god in his own image.
Since when is factual evidence needed for an opinion? There is no factual evidence in any God yet there are plenty of opinions on that subject. Where has your GOD been thoughout the history of humankind in times of peril, war, disaster, extermination, holocausts, famine, floods, mass murder, disease, etc. You get the point, or maybe you don't. The point is there has not been an intervention by a GOD in those situations throughout the history of man-that's a fact-and the probability of an intervention in the matter of our "fiscal cliff" is laughable when you think about it in a logical manner. The only facts I offer are science and evolution.
There's just as much evidence for your god as there is for invisible pink unicorns.
Oh god........
Really, as a man of God... why wouldn't you pray the day after the election????????? Instead of waiting until the eve the decision has been postponed by man???????
Now is not the time for superstition. Focus on the facts.
This is news? Pathetic.
Really, praying. Who else should we bring into this mess. Unbelievable!!!
GOD help us all!!!!
Well, we know it wasn't the Godless Demoncrats asking for help. They threw God out of the Demoncrat party at their convention. They sure don't believe God helps those who help themselves, they think the federal government should help everyone.....to the money that we, the taxpayers, not the 47%, worked so hard to make.
Are you F'n kidding me. Whata F'n joke. This county is going to @!$%#.
I am thankful that this fine man did pray for the cooperation to do what is good and not what is politically a win. What a good man who knows the country is waiting for these people to do their jobs.
what god are they asking for help??????????????????
Come off it. They are talking about God who is the God to most people. God the creator, God the father, the son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the "House chaplain" should first concentrate on restoring "...under God..." to our AMERICAN "Pledge of Allegiance". This great country was founded on such principles & the House Chaplain should not now pray for what appears-to-be selfish goals "late in the game"...Those proclaiming "separation of Church & State" are performing stretched/inappropriate logic in this "discussion".
You might want to learn a little more about the pledge of allegiance, which was written by a socialist and originally had no mention of any imaginary friends.
Actually it was founded on secular government. No mention of your imaginary friend or your bible-babble in our constitution or any of our laws.
The House has a Chaplain? If he gets paid a nickel or gets any benefits then we need to seriously reconsider that position - we are supposed to be shrinking our government, right? Talk about unnecessary.
Even if he doesn't get paid that is pathetic. How about we give the House some work and some clear punishment when they fail (and they will fail) to get anything done?