Report: Cantor Aide Suggested That Defunding ObamaCare’s $105 Bil Slush-fund Is a Political Stunt

This comes via the American Spectator Prowler:

Bachmann and King have been pressing to zero out the $105 billion that funds the Obama Administration’s implementation of the president’s health care plan.

Despite broad support among the American public for Congress to draw back spending on Obamacare, it has done nothing to remove the $105 billion that the previous Congress had allocated. Under the terms of the funding allocation, about $5 billion is budgeted for implementation purposes in FY2011, while another $100 billion has been appropriated for FY2012 through 2020.

Staff for McCarthy privately attempted to distance their boss from Boehner and Cantor. “[McCarthy] is not opposed to finding a way to zero out the implementation funding,” said an aide. “But if the majority leader and Speaker don’t want it, the whip isn’t in a position to push too hard. But let’s be clear, there is nothing to all the hooey about how leadership is supporting funding of Obamacare, because we aren’t bending to every whim of King and Queen Michele.”

In fact, House leadership is. According to sources familiar with discussions among House Republican leadership, Boehner and Cantor were informed by GOP leadership staff that it would have been “relatively easy” to gain the necessary votes to change House rules to allow the Bachmann-King amendment to be included in the continuing resolution.

What I want to know is — who’s being blackmailed? That’s what I always suspect is going on when there’s no other possible explanation for Republican fecklessness. The “stupid party”, my a$$. There has to be a weak link, here, somehow. Whoever it is needs to be thrown under the bus, and sooner rather than later. Nobody is this important.

Listen to what Majority Leader Cantor’s aide (reportedly) had to say about a proposed stand alone bill:

“This votes gives us the ability to say we voted to defund the slush fund, where it goes from there doesn’t really matter,” says an aide to Cantor. “We just want this off the table so we can get to some serious budget negotiations, not political stunts.”

Boehner and Cantor have promised Republicans a vote on the Bachmann-King amendment as a stand-alone bill, knowing full well that there’s no chance it will pass in the Senate with a Democrat majority.

That is a political stunt.

Do these guys understand that they are treading on very thin ice?

Rush discussed the schism in the GOP on his show, today, and issued a warning shot across the bow:

“And if the Republicans aren’t careful, they’re going to let their fear of bad PR kill the tea party revolution. And if they’re not careful what’s going to happen here is a third party is going to happen because the tea party crowd, grassroots, who made the Republican leadership possible, make no mistake, it’s the tea party turned out and voted that made the Republican leaders win, enabled their victory, made their leadership possible, if they’re not satisfied with the direction they see it will be third party time and nobody’s gonna be able to talk them out of it and then it will fracture our movement.”

Are Republicans believing the progressive media about their chances if they legislate conservatively?

Audio at Big Journalism.

MORE:

An open letter to John Boehner and the GOP from AJ Cameron of CFP:

Last year’s ruthless lawlessness, with the political bribery within the Democratic Party at the expense of the taxpayers and our Constitution, in ramming through ObamaCare with the $105 Billion concealed from members of Congress and the American taxpayer within it, must be defunded NOW!  You have the opportunity and the responsibility to deliver a fiscally responsible budget, including the defunding of ObamaCare, rescuing the $105 Billion theft from the taxpayers, and the alphabet-soup of agencies that need to be weaned from suckling upon the taxpayer, especially since the Democrats were unwilling to pass a budget under their watch!

The term ‘Continuing Resolution’ is both aggravating and an oxymoron

The term ‘Continuing Resolution’ is both aggravating and an oxymoron because it continues the insanity from which we expected to be spared following November 2nd, and because there has been no actual resolution.  The GOP gains at both the Federal and state levels of government following the mid-term election were a mandate to reverse the Democrats’ thuggery.  As we celebrate ‘March Madness,’ and we need to adopt a shot clock for this legislation so that the opposing team can’t run out the clock and the treasury.

See Also:

It sounds like  Hugh Hewitt is through with the Republican party – he’s had it…

Breitbart Tv: Hugh Hewitt To GOP Appropriations Committee Member Jack Kingston: ‘Do You Think We’re Stupid?’

Union Thugs Disrupt Wis. Republican Recall Efforts…

Today, Breitbart TV has video of the latest episode of union goons bullying a Republican recall effort, Union Thugs Bully Citizens Working to Recall AWOL Wisconsin Democratic Senators

As does the Blaze: Union Protesters Bully Wis. Workers Trying to Recall Dem. Sen: ‘Fu** You’

As does Weasel Zippers: Union Protestors in Wisconsin Destroy Democrat Recall Petitions and Police Do Nothing

As did The Left-Wing Institute For Civil Discourse – FIVE DAYS AGO: Video: Another WI Recall Effort Thwarted – Venue Changed Due To Threats/Union Thug Destroys Recall Petitions

HELLO, people?! Maybe it’s time other bloggers took note of the new site? It’s up to the minute reporting on all the violence and moonbattery the left has to offer.

Just saying.

A Letter To Harvey Weinstein

Love from The Sultan Knish:

When the Peace Process allowed Arafat to take over the educational system of Gaza and the West Bank, the schools there have focused on one subject. Martyrdom. In this country, that is a fancy word for killing Jews. The Nazis called it, ‘Die Endlosung”. But the Muslims call it “Martyrdom” because they are not as good at it. When you fight war after war, and lose hundreds of tanks trying to drive the Jews into the sea, then you must resort to climbing through living room windows and hoping that no one hears you slashing a baby’s throat in the dark. And if they do, they might come and kill you. And then you will be a martyr, climbing to paradise on a ladder of murdered children

I don’t mean you, Harvey, of course. You are not the man who climbs through windows and slashes throats. You are the man who is marketing a movie about terrorists. Not the bad kind of terrorists who murder children in their sleep. It would be hard to empathize with that. No, your terrorists are the good kind of terrorists. Hurt and misunderstood. Forced into it by their circumstances. The balance of suffering always on their side. Even when they kill, they are still the victims. While you were hard at work pitching Miral, the real terrorists were hard at working murdering a family. That is the difference between entertainment and reality. It is the difference between what you do and what they do. It is not so different. You trade in lies. They trade in murder.

***

The Fogel family is at peace now, for the most part. They have found the only form of peace that the terrorist gangs have ever delivered, in return for land, money, weapons and international legitimacy. Not the entire family of course. Three children survived. Three settlers. Three obstacles to peace.

The oldest daughter returns home to find the door locked. She goes to her neighbor’s house for help. Her neighbor, Rabbi Cohen returns with her carrying a gun. Have you known many Rabbis who carry guns, Harvey? You probably haven’t. But in the Samarian mountains, Rabbis and farmers and everyone else carries guns. Because sometimes men with knives come through your living room windows. If you’re lucky, then you will see them coming and you will shoot them. However if you aren’t lucky, then your neighbor will have to open the door for your twelve year old daughter. And then she will scream, as twelve year old girls do when they see entire family butchered. You have probably auditioned plenty of girls and listened to them give their best Fay Wray scream. But this is a different thing, Harvey. It is real. You will not hear this at an audition anywhere. It is the sound a twelve year old girl makes when the PLO fighters that movies like Miral glamorize have murdered her entire family.

Please go read the whole thing at the link. A couple of excerpts doesn’t begin to do it justice.

Harvey Weinstein reacted to criticism to his pro-Palestinian propaganda film:  ‘Miral’ Critics are ‘Crazy and Wrong’.

Harvey Weinstein has come out strongly against critics who claim the movie Miral is anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli.

“The people who don’t want you to see the movie for political reasons are crazy or wrong,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter at a disputed United Nations screening of the film. “I think the idea is, let there be peace.”

***

In a letter sent to General Assembly president Joseph Deiss on Friday, AJC executive director David Harris accused the movie of portraying Israel “in a highly negative light,” calling it “blatantly one-sided.”

The film will be released March 25.

See also:

Atlas Shrugs: Her Family Slaughtered by Muslim Jew-Haters, Anguished Orphaned Jewish Child in Israel Fears Obama’s America

Zilla of the Resistance: Don’t Let Them Sweep this Horror under the Rug

Obama Celebrates “Sunshine Week” By Accepting Transparency Award

The Japanese are hunkering down in sealed houses as radiation from multiple hydrogen explosions spreads through the air in the wake of their horrifying earthquakes and tsunami,   France is pleading for military intervention as Gaddafi forces attack Libyan rebels,  and our own budget is barely limping along with no help from him, but never fear,  President Sunshine knows just what to do: celebrate Obama’s noted commitment to transparent Government:

This isn’t the first undeserved award President Obama has won, but it’s still sure to surprise journalists and open-government advocates. Politico’s Mike Allen, reporting on President Obama’s schedule today, writes that later this afternoon, “the President will accept an award from a coalition of good government groups and transparency advocates to recognize ‘his deep commitment to an open and transparent government — of, by, and for the people’ in conjunction with Sunshine Week. There will be a pool spray at the top [brief photo opportunity].”

Of course, Obama’s notorious vow to run “the most transparent” administration in history has been an extraordinary failure, as AP reports today:

The administration refused to release any sought-after materials in more than 1-in-3 information requests, including cases when it couldn’t find records, a person refused to pay for copies or the request was determined to be improper under the law. It refused more often to quickly consider information requests about subjects described as urgent or especially newsworthy. And nearly half the agencies that AP examined took longer — weeks more, in some cases — to give out records last year than during the previous year.

The AP noted that the Obama administration even censored a cache of internal e-mails describing — ironically enough — its Open Government Directive, after the e-mails were requested by the news service.

Obama will accept the award at 2:55 ET.

Earlier this week,Keith Koffler of The White House Dossier reported on  the Obama administration’s systematic bullying of reporters who don’t tow the line, calling it “an assault on free speech”. Today he offers Obama some free advice: Obama Needs to Speak on Japan. Today.

Priorities!

Obama Not A “Decider”

Yesterday, Fritzworth at AoSHQ said, “I never want to hear about The Pet Goat, again, referring to the never-ending barbs President Bush sustained after being photographed  reading the book upside down to school children on 9/11. When he was made aware that one of the twin towers had been hit, he sat calmly, waiting for further intelligence, rather than abruptly jumping up and leaving, which would have startled the room full of children. The momentary paralysis has been the butt of jokes on the left for nearly ten years, and one of their many reasons for despising him.

Fast forward to President “Present” – whose entire foreign policy has been in a constant state of paralysis since day one of his Presidency.

In John Podhoretz withering assessment, he’s been reading his own “My Pet Goat” for going on four weeks, now:

Japan may be on the verge of an unprecedented catastrophe. Saudi Arabia is all but colonizing Bahrain. Qaddafi is close to retaking Libya, with bloodbath to follow. And, as Jim Geraghty notes, the president of the United States is going on ESPN to talk about the NCAA and delivering speeches today on his rather dull plan to replace No Child Left Behind with No Teenager Left Behind, or something like that.

***

He is largely notable by his absence, which is itself the result not only of not knowing what to do but also apparently believing it is better for the world if he remains a minor player as a bloodbath approaches in the Middle East and something more ominous seems to be approaching in Japan. When he talks, as he did in Friday’s press conference, he only makes matters more confusing; there is little reassurance that there is a hand anywhere near the tiller.

As Guy Benson at Townhall notes, Podhoretz isn’t the only one to have picked up the theme:

Podhoretz isn’t the only commentator who’s noticed the president’s studied aloofness on major international and domestic crises.  Jim Geraghty, Time, David Brooks, the Associated Press, Michael Barone, and Politico have all picked up on the same theme, offering varying degrees of criticism.

In yesterday’s White House Press briefing, CBS’ Chip Reid asked WH Press Sec, Jay Carney, “Doesn’t there come a point to make a — where you have to make a decision?”

Watch, starting at 18:24:

The transcript via Gateway Pundit:

Q On no-fly zone, what exactly is the U.S. — the administration’s position before the Security Council?

MR. CARNEY: Our position, Chip, remains that we are evaluating a number of options, military options, including —

Q But a decision has to be made now.

MR. CARNEY: — including a no-fly zone. We feel that it is important that any action like that that might be taken should be done in concert with our international partners. Through the United Nations would be our preferable vehicle for that, and therefore we would look to the U.N. as a forum for evaluating that option. I think I mentioned yesterday that today is the deadline for the no-fly zone option to — preparations or plans to be submitted in Brussels at NATO. And I believe the NAC will review those tomorrow. So this process is moving forward.

But our position is that action like that should be considered and taken if decided upon in coordination with our international partners, because it’s very important in the way that we respond to a situation like we see in Libya, that it be international and not unilateral; that it include the support and participation, for example, of the Arab League and other organizations and countries in the region.

And that is our sort of focus as we proceed with these conversations.

Q Is the President satisfied to follow, not lead, on deciding whether to do it?

MR. CARNEY: I take issue with the characterization. We think it is precisely because the President believes that the best outcome in a situation like we see in Libya, as we have seen in different forms in other countries in the region, that the best outcome will come when the action taken by countries — third-party countries outside of the country where the unrest is happening — be done in consensus with international partners, precisely so that it is not viewed by those who oppose positive democratic reform as the dictate of the West or the United States.

Q But wouldn’t it be fair to say — accurate to say the United States is still sitting on the fence on this? Isn’t it time to make a decision, yes or no?

MR. CARNEY: Well, Chip, you tell me if as an American citizen would you want your President not to consider all the implications and ramifications of taking military action.

Q Doesn’t there come a point to make a — where you have to make a decision?

MR. CARNEY: And I would go back to what I said to Jill, that we have acted with great haste, and we have coordinated international — led and coordinated an international response, the likes of which the world has never seen in such a short period of time. And we have — we continue to consult with our international partners. We meet — we have met with, as the Secretary of State did, with the Libyan opposition discussing new ways we can put pressure on Qaddafi.

And when it comes to considering military options, this President will always be mindful of what the mission, should it be engaged, what it entails, the risks that it poses to our men and women in uniform, and its likelihood of having the kind of impact that we set out for it to have. And that is his responsibility as Commander-in-Chief.

And I would suggest to you that that is what leadership is all about.

Leadership is about dithering while the last remnants of a rebellion are  crushed?…

Or as Ace put it:

Rebels In Libya Prepare For Slaughter; Look To US For One Thing That Can Save Them– Another Empty Statement from Obama That Qadaffy Must Go

When President Bush said, “I’m the decider”, he was mocked endlessly for that, too.

No doubt the rebels in Libya would appreciate a “decider” right about now.

See also:

White House Dossier: President Obama’s Trivial Pursuits