You know, because that debt ceiling debacle was so successful for the Repukes, that they just couldn't wait to do it again.
"It is embarrassing," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., admitted Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." Warner asked: "Can we, once again, inflict on the country and the American people the spectacle of a near government shutdown?"
At issue is a small part of the almost $4 trillion budget intended for an infrequent purpose: federal dollars to help victims of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters and whether some of the expense should be offset by cuts in other government spending.
This sort of crisis management has cost Congress credibility in the eyes of the electorate, with about eight in 10 Americans disapproving of the institution's performance after this summer's debt crisis. A major credit agency downgraded the nation's ratings as a result, unnerving the world's financial markets.
The current standoff raises a question: If lawmakers can't even agree to help victims of natural disasters, how are they going to strike a deal to cut $1.5 trillion in spending this fall in the white-hot climate of presidential and congressional politics?
I can't wait for Cantor and Boner to tell the people in Joplin, Missouri, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, The Outer Banks, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, etc. that they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps because shutting down government in a Presidential Election season is more important than their families and homes. Should be fun.
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Freed Hikers Discuss Life in Iranian Prison
Freed U.S. hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer told reporters gathered at a New York hotel that they were so isolated in the Iranian prison where they were held for over two years that they didn't know they were being freed until minutes before their release last week.
Now that they are back on American soil, Fattal and Bauer are using their newfound freedom to discuss the two years they spent in a Tehran prison and to condemn their captors.
"Last Wednesday ... something totally unexpected happened," Fattal said. "The guards took us downstairs. They fingerprinted us and gave us street clothes. They did not tell us where we were going. They took us to another part of the prison where we saw [envoy] Dr. Salem Al Ismaily ... The first thing Salem said to us was, 'Let's go home.'"
Speaking at a press conference Sunday five hours after arriving at New York's JFK airport, Fattal and Bauer discussed the most traumatic aspects of their imprisonment, spoke of how they spent their first days of freedom last week and looked ahead to how they will fight for those still held as political prisoners around the world.
"How can we forgive the Iranian government when it continues to imprison so many other innocent people," Bauer told reporters.
For the first time the two were able to give the details of the isolation in which they lived and the conditions in Tehran's Evin Prison, where they spent 781 days.
"In all the time we spent in detention, we had a total of 15 minutes of telephone calls with our families and one, short visit from our mothers. We had to go on hunger strike repeatedly just to receive letters from our loved ones," Fattal told reporters.
"Many times, too many times, we heard the screams of other prisoners being beaten and there was nothing we could do to help them," he said, "Solitary confinement was the worst experience of our lives.
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Well, it's true....
Obama says Republicans would 'cripple' America
President Barack Obama will fulfill his vow to sell his jobs plan in the four corners of America Monday, after warning a Republican win in 2012 elections could "cripple" the country.
Obama was to appear in a town-hall style meeting sponsored by executive social network LinkedIn in San Jose, before tapping donors in Democratic strongholds in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Faced with a recalcitrant Congress and Republicans who accuse him of waging class warfare over his call to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires, Obama told supporters Sunday to brace for a "tough" reelection campaign.
"This is going to be especially hard because a lot of people are discouraged and a lot of people are disillusioned," Obama said at a fundraising event in Seattle, Washington.
"I'm determined because there's too much at stake.
"The alternative I think is an approach to government that would fundamentally cripple America in meeting the challenges of the 21st century."
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