[CNBC] As the partial shutdown of the federal government hits the two-week mark, a new worry has emerged: the possibility that some tax refunds may be delayed.
Congress and President Donald Trump have been in a standoff over funding for a border wall, while about 800,000 federal employees are furloughed or working without pay.
The House, now led by Democrats, passed legislation Thursday night to end the shutdown; the president, however, could still veto it even if the Senate acts to approve it.
#3
Refunds of every stripe are being held up during this 'government shutdown'. Further, the IRS instituted new fraud procedures last year that will hold up refunds if there's a mismatch of W-2 information. I'm still chasing one refund from last year for a client - that's been going on for nine months now.
#4
But they are still taking in taxes, so that’s ok. We always send ours in return receipt, but that might be more important this year to document that they did indeed get it, assuming the House Democrats stick to their guns that long.
[DW] Police detained three people after a blast damaged the office of the far-right AfD party in the German city of Döbeln. Anti-terror Sherlocks see the blast as an escalation following other acts of anti-AfD vandalism.
German authorities may soon release three suspects who were detained following a blast near the AfD's local office in Döbeln, officials said on Friday.
The men, local Germans aged 29, 32, and 50, are suspected of detonating an "unknown substance" in the street on Thursday evening.
The kaboom damaged the door and windows of the AfD office and set fire to promotional materials inside, prompting firefighters to deploy to the scene. Nearby cars were reportedly also damaged. No injuries were reported.
On Friday, prosecutors said they suspected the three men were behind the attack, but added that they would not request their detention because there was insufficient grounds to do so.
"The attack against the AfD office in Döbeln is extraordinary given that the kaboom meant accepting that people could be harmed," the state police said. A task force for investigating extremism and terrorism, it added, was probing Thursday's incident.
Police said there had been a series of attacks against AfD offices in the eastern state of Saxony in recent weeks, but added that most of them were limited to vandalism.
ATTACKS 'HELPS THE AFD'
Saxony's Interior Minister Roland Wöller said the state would not tolerate such attacks and pledged a severe response.
"We are dealing with a completely new level of violence against politicians," he said.
Martin Dulig, Saxony's deputy prime minister and a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), condemned the attack Friday morning on Twitter.
"There's no justification for the attack on the AfD office in Döbeln," he wrote. "Violence is not a means of democracy. The AfD must be fought politically and not with explosives. This attack helps the AfD and hurts democracy."
[CNN] Washington - Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican Rep. Francis Rooney proposed a Constitutional amendment on Thursday that would impose term limits on members of both houses of Congress.
The amendment, co-sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and David Perdue (R-Ga.), would restrict senators to two six-year terms and House members to three two-year terms. A similar amendment was proposed by Cruz in January of 2017.
"For too long, members of Congress have abused their power and ignored the will of the American people," Cruz said. "Term limits on members of Congress offer a solution to the brokenness we see in Washington, D.C. It is long past time for Congress to hold itself accountable. I urge my colleagues to submit this constitutional amendment to the states for speedy ratification."
The concept of term limits has gained traction in both parties -- notably, former Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a potential 2020 hopeful who ran against Cruz for the Senate, has called for term limits for Congress earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has voiced his support for term-limits for members of Congress, tweeting in April of last year that he met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and he endorsed their efforts.
#2
Good idea, but it would have a better chance of passage if they tied it to net worth instead of time served. You can't run for the House after you've made your first $1 mil, Senate $5 mil.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/05/2019 10:34 Comments ||
Top||
#6
He is right. Maybe 2 terms of 6 for senate, and 6 terms of 2 for the house to even it up. Pelosi and McConnel and Schumer and McCain would have been gone a long time ago and the nation would have been better off for it.
#7
Not sure about better off. They might be replaced by a bunch of Occasional Cortex'es.
Democrat Voters are stupid that way.
Pelosi, Schumer, and the rest of the parasites at least know that you shouldn't completely kill the host...
#8
A better way would be the Instapundit plan of putting a time-limit on how long before an ex-politicians can become a lobbyist combined with a salary cut of 50% (perhaps they can get free room and board at a Congress Dorm or something). We'd see less opportunists and more folks willing to take a personal loss to fix the country.
#10
I doubt that term limits legislation will go anywhere? Where's the money in that. Probaby the only way would be thru a Constitutional Covention.
1. Term limits has worked well at the local level.
2. Term limits should weaken the death grip of the DS.
3. TLs should discourage lobbying.
4. TLs should aim at limiting life time jobs of politicians.
5. TLs should discourage corruption in government.
6. TLs should stop multiple-dipping retirement in goverment.
Being elected should not be the golden goose or golden parachute.
#13
Term limits work well enough at the presidential level, in states in the executive and legislative branches. Its time we put limits on the federal legislators.
I wish there was a way to term limit high-level GS appointees.
[Market Watch] Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says there’s one common goal that can unite the Democratic Party as the new session of Congress opens: pushing back against what he says is President Donald Trump’s mistreatment of American families.
’I believe that Donald Trump is hurting ‐ screwing ‐ working families.’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
The New York Democrat spoke with the New York Times’ "the Daily" to discuss the era of divided government, the partial shutdown and other issues, and told the Times that "strong medicine" is needed against Trump’s policies.
"That I think can unite our Democratic Party in a very, very strong way," he said.
Schumer’s interview came as the shutdown entered its 13th day, with a resolution nowhere in sight. It also came as House Democrats including Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said they’d vote against a rules package for the new Congress, exposing a rift with Democratic leadership.
#3
Under Trump: Highest number of Americans employed ever. December: +312,000, +3.2 increase in wages.
The people who are getting screwed are the New York bankers and Washington politicians who arbitrage the difference in US and Chinese wages to the detriment of 90% of Americans for the past 25 years.
#4
The people who are getting screwed are the New York bankers and Washington politicians who arbitrage the difference in US and Chinese wages to the detriment of 90% of Americans for the past 25 years.
#6
>The people who are getting screwed are the New York bankers and Washington politicians who arbitrage the difference in US and Chinese wages to the detriment of 90% of Americans for the past 25 years.
[WashingtonExaminer] Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has narrowly surpassed fellow Democrat and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her Twitter following, with almost 1.9 million followers.
Ocasio-Cortez now has 1,884,235 million followers, compared with Pelosi’s 1,852,397 million. Other freshman congresswomen, such as Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., lag far behind Ocasio-Cortez, with a comparatively small 370,000 and 183,000 followers, respectively.
Ocasio-Cortez trended on the social media platform on Thursday after now-deleted account "AnonymousQ" shared a video of the congresswoman from her Boston University days dancing like the students who let loose in the movie "The Breakfast Club."
"Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is," AnonymousQ had captioned the tweet. The video first gained popularity among the populist right and followers of the "QAnon" conspiracy theory. But it soon went viral as many jumped to Ocasio-Cortez’s defense.
In response, Ocasio-Cortez released her own video Friday, which is now the best-performing tweet on her account in the last seven days.
"I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous," she captioned her tweet, in which she dances in front of her office in the Capitol building. "Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too!"
The video has since gained over 100,000 shares and garnered almost 500,000 likes. The next 2 years are going to be sitcom in The House!
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is floating an income tax rate as high as 60 to 70 percent on the highest-earning Americans to combat carbon emissions.
Speaking with Anderson Cooper in a “60 Minutes” interview scheduled to air Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez said a dramatic increase in taxes could support her “Green New Deal” goal of eliminating the use of fossil fuels within 12 years — a goal she acknowledges is ambitious.
“What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?” Ocasio-Cortez asked. “There’s an element where yeah, people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes.”
Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that in a progressive tax rate system, not all income for a high earner is taxed at such a high rate. Rather, rates increase on each additional level of income, with dramatic increases on especially high earnings, such as $10 million.
When Cooper pointed out such a tax plan would be a “radical” move, Ocasio-Cortez embraced the label, arguing the most influential historical figures, from Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt, were called radical for their agendas as well.
[IsraelTimes] Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos, Rudy Boschwitz who fled the Nazis as a toddler and Ileana Ros-Lehtine, who escaped Cuba as a child, were all refugees.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on her first day on the job as a congresswoman, posted a list of firsts that her class represents.
"The #116thCongress has SO much to be proud of," Omar said Thursday on Twitter.
Among them, naturally enough, is what she and her colleague, Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., represent ‐ the first Moslem women elected to Congress.
But there’s a glaring error: Omar, who was born in Somalia, lists herself as the first refugee elected to the body.
Seffi Kogen, the Global Director of Young Leadership for the American Jewish Committee, counts at least four other politicians who in their lifetimes had refugee status, and two of them are Jewish:
* The late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who made human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... a hallmark of his leadership on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
* Former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., who as a toddler fled Nazi Germany with his family for the United States and who also has played a prominent role in human rights advocacy.
* Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., just retired, who is of Jewish descent, arrived in Florida as a child of a family fleeing Cuba.
* Rep. Joseph Cao, R-La., the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress, served one term (2009-2011).
I’d add former Republican Florida Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, also born in Cuba to a family who fled after Fidel Castro seized power.
Two more errors on Omar’s list: Tlaib, whom she lists as the first Paleostinian American; is preceded by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and former Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is the youngest woman ever elected, at 29, but there have been plenty of younger men, starting with Richard Bland Lee, who was 28 when he joined the First Congress in 1789.
In other words, if they really do get rid of President Trump, President Pence will continue his policies. Life just got even more interesting.
[PRESSTV] US Vice President Mike Pence has thrown his full support behind President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's position on funding a wall on the US-Mexico border, warning congressional Democrats that "if there's no wall, there's no deal" to end the partial government shutdown.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Pence said the White House had no plans to back down from Trump's demand for $5 billion border wall funding, even if it involved keeping the government partially closed for a long time.
"The president has made it very clear: No wall, no deal," Pence said. "We’re here to make a deal, but it’s a deal that’s going to result in achieving real gains on border security, and you have no border security without a wall. We will have no deal without a wall."
The US vice president also said the Trump administration was "completely focused" on building the border wall and passing legislation that provides "resources and tools" for those who enforce immigration laws in the country.
Pence made the comments just hours after the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. Formerly Speaker of the House, but it's not her fault they lost. Really. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace... said Democrats in the lower chamber of Congress would refuse to give Trump funding for his border wall project.
"We're not doing a wall. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with a wall which is an immorality between countries. It's an old way of thinking. It isn't cost effective," Pelosi told news hounds late on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11137 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In other words, if they really do get rid of President Trump, President Pence will continue his policies. Life just got even more interesting.
...You can say that again. On the one hand, Pence is a strong Christian who tries hard to walk the walk. That alone will make heads explode across DC. On the other hand, the thinking on the Donk side of the house seems to be that for nebulous reasons that no one has been able to state, when Trump is run out of the White House, 'Pence will have to go too'.
That means either they'll start trying to mug him too the minute he takes the oath (and likely long before), or they'll refuse to acknowledge his succession (for reasons) and demand that the Speaker of the House - untainted by scandal and with motives as pure as the driven snow - take office....
I wish I was kidding. I wish that was a fantasy for a novel. After the last few days though, I'm truly beginning to wonder.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/05/2019 6:27 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If your standard of living has been damaged by subsidising immigration then you should vote Trump.
#3
That Mike is known historically as a coup. That by act would be a declaration of a one party system. They could never allow another party in such a position to do it to them in the future.
#9
Trivia: What do you get with Trump and Pence impeached? President Pelosi.
Posted by: Andy Jush7808 ||
01/05/2019 13:09 Comments ||
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#10
They have stated that as their end goal. Trump would only be the first step. If they can combine the impeachments into one go it would be a win-win for them.
I think the Berlin Wall was extremely effective and the Iron Curtain as a whole performed remarkably well. The Israelis have a wall around Gaza and without it they'd probably have to kill a whole bunch of Gazooks to keep from being killed themselves. Then there's the Great Wall of China.
But, hey, I think we could secure our border a lot better and a lot more cheaply too. Just put machine gun nests every quarter mile along the border and when anybody steps across the line shoot 'em.
The alternative is to forget about the United States.
So, yeah, Uleresing Unereger5082, if you wanna live in that kinda chaos, just keep voting for Nancy Pelosi.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/05/2019 15:19 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Troll
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2019 18:13 Comments ||
Top||
#13
To put the effectiveness of a wall in perspective:
Most senior members of congress and just about all Hollywood elite and such have a wall around their mansion. They lock their doors too.
#14
For all of my adult life the politicians argue and pine about the border and about the issue with illegals. Once the election is over the political class goes silent and does not deal with it. Now the outsider, Trump, is following through with his campaign promise to close the border to the horrors the happen at it every day. Trump has shown them up at every turn.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/05/2019 20:10 Comments ||
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#15
The Israelis have a wall around Gaza and without it they'd probably have to kill a whole bunch of Gazooks to keep from being killed themselves.
The Israelis have a wall around Gaza, and have been bulding walls along their borders with Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. They even are nearly done building a breakwater extending the Gaza wall into the Mediterranean Sea.
The Egypt wall has slowed the flow of “asylum seekers” to a trickle.
#16
Hopefully the Pubs won't cave as in the past. The Dems don't like when their own game is used against them. Trump has leverage in the way of intelligenc/info on these criminals.
If they want to waste their time and goodwill for the next two years, who are we to point out that it’s a really dumb idea?
[FREEBEACON] Rep. Steve Cohen (D., Tenn) on Thursday proposed a Constitutional amendment to eliminate the "outdated Electoral College," saying he believes the individual who wins the popular vote deserves to win the election.
A blurb from Cohen's office listed the two amendments the congressman was introducing, including the elimination of the Electoral College and an amendment that would limit presidential pardon power.
"In two presidential elections since 2000, including the most recent one in which Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... won 2.8 million more votes than her opponent, the winner of the popular vote did not win the election because of the distorting effect of the outdated Electoral College," said Cohen's blurb. "Americans expect and deserve the winner of the popular vote to win office. More than a century ago, we amended our Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators. It is past time to directly elect our President and Vice President."
This article starring:
Steve Cohen
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
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#1
Might as well throw in a pony while they're at it.
#2
Just change everything to a Parliamentary System -- be brave!! Eliminate the Senate and the Electoral College, then make the Office of the President ceremonial... Voila! The Speaker of the House becomes the most powerful officer... see, wasn't that easy?
#4
Fun part will be when, having found they can't meet the Constitutional threshold, they argue the Constitutional threshold must be changed by extra-Constitutional means.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2019 7:23 Comments ||
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#5
...they've been using SCOTUS to do that for a generation or two. Who needs no stinkn' Article V.
#7
Tennessee should kick his ass. The EC is a leveling force to prevent NY and California from overpowering the other states
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2019 8:08 Comments ||
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#8
Time to stop thinking of politicians from Detroit, Minneapolis, New York City, Nashville, Austin, Atlanta, Missoula and other finance centers / college towns as synonymous for the states they reside in. Rather than needing the Electoral College to be abolished, we need it at instituted the state level too.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2019 9:59 Comments ||
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#10
The Constitution doesn't say that all of a state's electoral college votes have to go to the winner in that state. States could choose to have the winner in each congressional district get that district's vote, and the two other votes could go to whoever got a plurality in the state.
Of course, that would mean that instead of all of California's votes going to Hillary, some of them would have gone to Trump.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/05/2019 10:45 Comments ||
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#11
Californian Republicans should offer up that proposal to make the Californian Electoral College vote more democratic.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2019 12:22 Comments ||
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#13
Destruction of the form of government known as a REPUBLIC. The Democrats want mob (majority) rule, and no ability for individuals to hold any rights in opposition to the power of the state and the agitated masses.
#15
Of course, that would mean that instead of all of California's votes going to Hillary, some of them would have gone to Trump.
That was then...
Recently, Cali made a change that the winners in a primary are not the highest one from each party, but the two highest overall. The result was races where both candidates were Dems.
I don't know if this applies only to state elections. If it does apply to national voting, then it effectively locks out the minority party.
[MEDIAITE] Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) ‐ who was sworn in earlier Thursday ‐ is coming out of the gate swinging at President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... Speaking to a crowd at a reception held by the progressive group MoveOn near Capitol Hill on Thursday night, the new Congresswoman made a sharply worded pledge
Tlaib quoted her son telling her, "Mama, look, you won. Bullies don’t win." And then she said, "’Baby, they don’t.’ Because we’re gonna go in there, we’re gonna impeach the motherfucker."
This article starring:
Rashida Tlaib
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
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#1
And if that doesn't work, maybe she can try the jacket wallah thing. She can practice in her home district.
#2
I'm amazed at some of these people. I do happen to be a strong supporter of Mr. T., but even if I were not, I cannot imagine why I would want to make him a personal enemy. Why would you want to do that? It's just stupid - he is arguably the most powerful man on the planet. I might take him on, civilly, on policy matters but I would never get personal. I am just flabbergasted at these people and the unlimited depth of their stupidity ... they are idiots with a big I. "The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has it limits". Okay, good luck now lady, you will probably never get any bills you propose signed by your president. Complete failure as a policy maker guaranteed, on what, day 2 of her job? Good job.
#3
All I can say is here we have another woman elected with a big mouth. Seems that is all the qualification a democrat needs these days. No cap's on democrat please.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2019 8:14 Comments ||
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#8
#3 - Requirements for congress: Female mouth must be big and trashy. Male mouth must be mealy.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2019 9:00 Comments ||
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#9
Let's face it - if a Republican had used the m-f words about someone, EVERYONE would come down on him demanding that he resign, apologize, and commit seppuku. Just as a start.
CongressCritter Tlaib gets a pass because she is a) a Democrat, b) a woman and c) a Muslim.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/05/2019 10:50 Comments ||
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#10
Just a matter of time before someone in the crowd shouts that back at her at some public appearance. What goes around, comes around.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CNN] Washington - Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican Rep. Francis Rooney proposed a Constitutional amendment on Thursday that would impose term limits on members of both houses of Congress.
[Market Watch] Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says there’s one common goal that can unite the Democratic Party as the new session of Congress opens: pushing back against what he says is President Donald Trump’s mistreatment of American families.
Nancy 
Pence would quickly appoint a VP, the Rep Senate would quickly approve the appointment.
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary 
[MEDIAITE] Rep. 
