BERNIE SANDERS TEAMS UP WITH HILLARY CLINTON TO DEFEAT TRUMP IN 2016

BERNIE SANDERS TEAMS UP WITH HILLARY CLINTON TO DEFEAT TRUMP IN 2016:

SANDERS IS SHIFTING FROM OPPONENT TO HILLARY'S MENTOR.

WAS THERE A 2016 DEAL MADE BETWEEN HILLARY & SANDERS?

Two weeks ago 2016 Presidential Candidate and Socialist U.S. Senator BERNIE SANDERS issued an public apology on air to his Opponent HILLARY CLINTON for a Voter Data Breach during a DEMOCRAT party debate in New Hampshire.

This past weekend BERNIE SANDERS joined Key DEMOCRAT leaders in attacking Jewish Billionaire and GOP Donor SHELDON ADELSON.

For several months SANDERS has attacked HILLARY over her close ties with Wall Street and Elite BILLIONAIRES.

Now it appears as if SANDERS is Collaborating with HILLARY'S campaign to defeat the presumptive 2016 GOP nominee DONALD J TRUMP.

Was there a 2016 Deal made between HILLARY and SANDERS?

~ In Nevada, Sanders mocks Republicans for running to casino mogul for a financial lift

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, starting a two-day swing through Nevada, took aim Sunday at members of the Republican field for seeking the blessing of billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

At a rally in Reno that drew more than 2,000 people, Sanders spoke facetiously of an “Adelson caucus,” a reference to Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and other Republicans who have met with the mega-donor in the hopes of securing a financial boost ahead of the first nominating contests.

“Sheldon Adelson has not invited me to speak with him,” said Sanders, who routinely decries the political influence of the “billionaire class.” During the rally, which was live-streamed on Periscope, Sanders said that the average contribution to his campaign has been less than $30.

Sanders's two-day swing through Nevada comes ahead of a month in which he plans to hunker down in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states with the first nominating contests. 

Many analysts say that the senator from Vermont would probably need to win both to become a real threat to Hillary Clinton in the contest for the Democratic nomination.

Nevada holds its Democratic caucuses on Feb. 20, following the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9.

“We think we have a shot here,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said of Nevada. “Obviously, we’re working hard in Iowa and New Hampshire, but Bernie is running a national campaign.”

Sanders, who is scheduled to return to Iowa on Tuesday and New Hampshire this weekend, also sparred over social media on Sunday with the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump.

During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sanders argued that he would better represent the economic interests of Trump’s working-class supporters, citing prior statements by Trump that wages in America are “too high.”

“Lie!” Trump said on Twitter after the broadcast, denying that he had said wages are too high.

Sanders responded with a tweet saying that Trump is “getting nervous that working families are catching on to whose interests he truly represents.” In an accompanying news release, Sanders pointed to multiple instances in which Trump said wages were too high.

Trump is among the Republican hopefuls who has met with Adelson, whom Forbes magazine estimates is worth $23.7 billion and who provided a financial boost during the 2012 presidential race to super PACs supporting GOP aspirants Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

Prior to his meeting with Adelson, Trump described it as a courtesy call rather than a solicitation for campaign donations. The two reportedly got together at the Venetian, a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas strip that is owned Adelson and was the site of a CNN-sponsored Republican debate this month.

Sanders plans to campaign Monday in the Las Vegas area, including at an evening rally planned in North Las Vegas.

 Sources:  ABC News, Washington Post, NBC News, YouTube

SHELDON ADELSON & BERNIE SANDERS TARGETED BY DEMOCRATS; DIRTY 2016 POLITICS

SHELDON ADELSON & BERNIE SANDERS TARGETED BY DEMOCRATS:

DIRTY 2016 POLITICS HAVE BEGUN.

Sheldon Adelson is a JEWISH Billionaire who supports the Republican Party with his Money.

Bernie Sanders is a very Popular JEWISH U.S. Senator and Opponent of HILLARY CLINTON for the 2016 presidential election.

Both Men are now being heavily targeted by key DEMOCRAT leaders.

The season of Dirty 2016 Politics have begun.

Sources:  NY Times, YouTube

World's Youngest Billionaires: Facebook & Google Founders Still Reign!

The 9 youngest billionaires in the world

The world's youngest billionaire is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but who else is young and flush with cash? Bankrate took a look at published reports and compiled the top nine, other than "Zuck," who are younger than 35 and at billionaire status.

While some inherited their fortunes, most continue to work hard for their money in various fields.


1) Mark Zuckerberg (Male) $17+ Billion (28 Years Old)

2) Sergey Brin & Larry Page (Male) $18.7 Billion Each (38 & 39 Years Old)

3) Fahd Hariri (Male) $1.3 Billion (31 Years Old)

4) Ayman Hariri (Male) $1.3 Billion (34 Years Old)

5) Albert Von Thurn Und Taxis $1.5 Billion (29 Years Old)

6) Robert Pera (Male) $1.5 Billion (34 Years Old)

7) Eduardo Saverin (Male) $2 Billion (30 Years Old)

8) Sean Parker (Male) $2+ Billion (32 Years Old)

9) Dustin Moskovitz (Male) $3.5 Billion (28 Years Old)

10) Scott Duncan (Male) $4 Billion (29 Years Old)

11) Yang Huiyan (Female) $4.7 Billion (30 Years Old)

12) Yoshikazu Tanaka (Male) $2.2 Billion (34 Years Old)



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Sources: Bank Rate, EQ, Facebook, Forbes, Google, USA Today, Youtube, Google Maps

Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire Continues To Crumble: More Arrests!

Sun journalists and police officer arrested in corruption investigation

Four current and former senior Sun journalists and one serving police officer have been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into police corruption.

The Metropolitan police have also launched a search at News International's headquarters in Wapping, east London, in an attempt to secure any potential evidence relating to alleged payments to police by journalists.

Officers were accompanied by lawyers who arrived at the Sun's offices between 6am and 8am on Saturday morning. They are there to ensure that "journalist privilege" in relation to sources is not compromised.

It is the first time since the phone-hacking scandal erupted that the Sun has been targeted in such a major way, but sources stressed the dawn raid had nothing to do with voicemail interception and was solely related to paying police for stories.

The four Sun employees arrested are understood to be Mike Sullivan, the Sun's crime editor, the former managing editor Graham Dudman, the executive editor, Fergus Shanahan, and Chris Pharo, a newsdesk executive.

The arrests came after information was passed to the police by News Corporation's internal investigations unit, the Management and Standards Committee. It was set up by Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, which erupted last July, and operates independently of News International.

It is understood that staff and management at the Sun had no warning of the police plans to make arrests or conduct a search of the paper's newsroom.

A statement from News Corp in New York said: "Metropolitan police service (MPS) officers from Operation Elveden today arrested four current and former employees from the Sun newspaper. Searches have also taken place at the homes and offices of those arrested.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated.

"It commissioned the Management and Standards Committee to undertake a review of all News International titles, regardless of cost, and to proactively co-operate with law enforcement and other authorities if potentially relevant information arose at those titles.

"As a result of that review, which is ongoing, the MSC provided information to the Elveden investigation which led to today's arrests.

"No comment can be made on the nature of that information to avoid prejudicing the investigation and the rights of individuals."

The Management and Standards Committee has been charged with ridding the company of old practices and illegal activities such as phone hacking which led to the abrupt closure of the News of the World in July after 168 years. One source said. "They are there to drain the swamp."

In his witness statement to the Leveson inquiry earlier this month, the Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan, said: "To the best of my knowledge, the Sun has never knowingly paid or made payments in kind to police … for information."

Scotland Yard confirmed in a statement that the investigation "relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately."

It is understood that three of the four journalists were arrested before 8am on Saturday while the fourth was arrested in mid-morning.

"Home addresses of those arrested are currently being searched and officers are also carrying out a number of searches at the offices of News International in Wapping. These searches are expected to conclude this afternoon," the Met said in an earlier statement.

A source said police were interested in everything from "notepads, emails, Post-it notes".

All four men were being questioned at police stations in Essex and London, police said. Fourteen people have so far been arrested under Operation Elveden – 13 by the Metropolitan police and one by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The operation is being run in conjunction with Operation Weeting, the Met inquiry into the phone hacking of voicemail boxes.

It was launched after officers were handed documents suggesting that News International journalists made illegal payments to police officers.

Others questioned as part of the inquiry include the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, the ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson, the former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, the paper's former royal editor Clive Goodman, the former News of the World crime editor Lucy Panton and the Sun district editor, Jamie Pyatt.

Brooks and Coulson are both former editors of the News of the World, which was closed in July at the height of the hacking scandal following revelations that the murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked.

Deborah Glass, the deputy chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said: "It will be clear from today's events that this investigation is following the evidence.

"I am satisfied with the strenuous efforts being made by this investigation to identify police officers who may have taken corrupt payments, and I believe the results will speak for themselves."


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Sources: Guardian, ITN News, RT, Youtube, Google Maps

Zuckerberg, Buffett, Gates: "Tax Me Baby One More Time!"

Tax Me Baby One More Time!

L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt has joined a group of wealthy French citizens calling for a 'special contribution' tax on the richest of the rich.

Mark Zuckerberg and President Obama have something in common: both want to pay more in federal taxes. The Facebook founder told the president during a town hall-style meeting this week that he would favor an increase in the federal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans.

Although in December Obama and Congress renewed the Bush tax cuts, which offer the greatest tax-rate relief for families earning more than $1 million, the start of the election cycle has reignited the conversation. The cuts will expire in 2012.

Aside from Zuckerberg, several other prominent billionaires and wealthy Americans have spoken out in favor of greater taxation, characterizing their support as a democratic responsibility and a duty of the successful. No one has been more outspoken than Warren Buffett. “I think that people at the high end, people like myself, should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it,” Buffett has said.

Sources: CBS News, Daily Beast, Youtube

John Boehner Lays Out GOP's Jobs Plan: Says NO! To Tax Increases On The Rich!

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John Boehner Jobs Speech Blasts Obama Plan, Rules Out Tax Increases

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) threw cold water on the prospect of passing President Obama's jobs bill during a speech on Thursday, casting doubt over the viability of longterm debt talks as well.

Addressing the Economic Club of Washington, Boehner called Obama's plan to create jobs, which includes a mix of tax incentives and state-targeted spending, a "poor substitute" for policies he views as more effective.

“Private-sector job creators of all sizes have been pummeled by decisions made in Washington. They’ve been slammed by uncertainty from the constant threat of new taxes, out-of-control spending, and unnecessary regulation from a government that is always micromanaging, meddling, and manipulating," said Boehner. “They’ve been hurt by a government that offers short-term gimmicks rather than fundamental reforms that will encourage long-term economic growth."

Coming a week to the day after Obama unveiled the American Jobs act to a joint session of Congress, Boehner's remarks are the most overtly critical lines of pushback yet from Republican leadership. Along with skepticism over the jobs package expressed by centrist Democrats, they raise questions about the White House's ability to pass its legislation through Congress intact.

The foreshadowing of political paralysis didn't end with Boehner's comments on the jobs plan. Elsewhere in his speech, he made clear that he wanted tax increases off the table when the congressional super committee tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction makes its recommendations.

"It's a very simple equation. Tax increases destroy jobs. And the Joint Committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country," he declared.

That absolutism ran directly in contrast to Boehner's pitch, earlier in the speech, for "politicians of all stripes" to drop the “my way or the highway” approach. It was also a tougher line than the Speaker reportedly took when he himself was negotiating a deficit reduction deal with the president during the debt ceiling showdown.

And, indeed, when pressed about Boehner's insistence that the super committee should not consider tax increases, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney recalled those moments, not so long ago, when he was more willing to compromise.

"The public overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly agrees with the president that to get our long-term fiscal house in order, we need to approach it in a balanced way," said Carney. "If the answer is [Rep. Paul] Ryan's budget, we know how Americans feel about that. They do not believe that we need to end Medicare as we know it to get our deficits and debt under control, because we don't."

"We don't have unlimited resources," Carney added. "And we have to make choices about, do we provide tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans ... or do we make sure that responsibility for resolving this problem is shared and we have a balanced approach?

"I would simply note that the Speaker of the House made clear in the negotiations he had with the president, he put, in his words, 'revenues on the table.' Well, we believe revenues have to be on the table if we are going to solve our deficit and debt problems."


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Sources: Huffington Post, MSNBC, PBS, Politico, Youtube, Google Maps

GOP Raised Debt Ceiling 19 Times For George W. Bush! Hypocrisy!

During Bush Presidency, Current GOP Leaders Voted 19 Times To Increase Debt Limit By $4 Trillion

After pushing the government to brink of shutdown last week, Republican Congressional leaders are now preparing to push America to the edge of default by refusing to increase the nation’s debt limit without first getting Democrats to concede to large spending cuts.

But while the four Republicans in Congressional leadership positions are attempting to hold the increase hostage now, they combined to vote for a debt limit increase 19 times during the presidency of George W. Bush. In doing so, they increased the debt limit by nearly $4 trillion.

At the beginning of the Bush presidency, the United States debt limit was $5.95 trillion. Despite promises that he would pay off the debt in 10 years, Bush increased the debt to $9.815 trillion by the end of his term, with plenty of help from the four Republicans currently holding Congressional leadership positions: Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl.



Think Progress compiled a breakdown of the five debt limit increases that took place during the Bush presidency and how the four Republican leaders voted:

June 2002: Congress approves a $450 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $6.4 trillion. McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor vote “yea”, Kyl votes “nay.”

May 2003: Congress approves a $900 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $7.384 trillion. All four approve.

November 2004: Congress approves an $800 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.1 trillion. All four approve.

March 2006: Congress approves a $781 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.965 trillion. All four approve.

September 2007: Congress approves an $850 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $9.815 trillion. All four approve.

Database searches revealed no demands from the four legislators that debt increases come accompanied by drastic spending cuts, as there are now. In fact, the May 2003 debt limit increase passed the Senate the same day as the $350 billion Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.



When Bush was in office, the current Republican leaders viewed increasing the debt limit as vital to keeping America’s economy running. But with Obama in the White House, it’s nothing more than a political pawn.

Sources: C-Span, Fox News, Think Progress, Youtube

GOP Holds Debt Ceiling & Jobs Hostage To Protect Rich

Obama Leans on G.O.P. for a Deal on Debt Ceiling

President Obama tried on Sunday to revive the chances for a sweeping budget agreement to reduce the nation’s deficit and repair its perilous finances, but Congressional Republicans continued to balk, insisting on a more modest deal to avert a default on the national debt.

Mr. Obama, meeting with leaders from both parties at the White House, bluntly challenged Republicans a day after Speaker John A. Boehner pulled back from a far-reaching agreement aimed at saving as much as $4 trillion over 10 years, officials briefed on the negotiations said. The meeting ended after an hour and 15 minutes with little progress, but the two sides agreed to resume talking Monday, and every day after that, until a deal is done.

White House officials said Mr. Obama was still determined to pursue the boldest package possible — one that would require new tax revenue as well as cuts in Medicare and other entitlement programs — but he faces steadfast opposition from Republicans and growing qualms among Democrats.



“Congress has to act,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” “If they don’t act, then we face catastrophic damage to the American economy, and the leadership, to their credit, and I mean Republicans and Democrats, fully understand that.”

Mr. Geithner, noting that the Treasury issues 80 million checks a month, including Social Security payments to 55 million Americans, warned that failure to reach an agreement within the next two weeks could be calamitous. Delivering a version of the lecture he gave to the lawmakers at the White House last week, Mr. Geithner said a default would unhinge financial markets, drive up interest rates, and derail the economic recovery.

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Mr. Obama, who arrived from Camp David shortly before the Sunday evening session, appeared to have made headway in at least one regard: lawmakers from both parties pledged not to let the United States default on its debt. That is what the Treasury said would happen after Aug. 2, when the government would lose its authority to borrow.

“Nobody is talking about not raising the debt ceiling; I haven’t heard that discussed by anybody,” the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on “Fox News Sunday,” adding that he had an unspecified “contingency plan” to raise the ceiling if the talks fell apart.

Just as Mr. Obama was sitting down with Mr. McConnell and other leaders shortly after 6 p.m. on Sunday, with the men wearing open-collar shirts and blazers, he was asked whether he could get a deal done in 10 days, leaving enough time to draft and pass legislation before Aug. 2.

“We need to,” he replied.

The problem for Mr. Obama is that Republicans are not budging on their demand that any deal include no tax increases. The administration also needs Democratic lawmakers, but for many of them, it will be impossible to vote for a package composed entirely of spending cuts, especially to popular programs.

In a statement after the meeting, Mr. McConnell’s spokesman, Don Stewart, said, “It’s baffling that the president and his party continue to insist on massive tax hikes in the middle of a jobs crisis.”


The House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, said she favored a large deal but that it “must do no harm to the middle class or to economic growth. It must also protect Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries.”

It was not clear that the president would be able to reconcile these positions, especially after Mr. Boehner set a lower bar for a deal that both parties might find more palatable. In a statement issued after the meeting, Mr. Boehner said the leaders should aim for a midrange deal that would build on spending cuts identified in talks led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Such a deal might produce savings of $2 trillion to $3 trillion over a decade.

Mr. Boehner appeared subdued at the meeting, officials said, letting the House majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, do most of the talking. Mr. Cantor reiterated his opposition to a bigger deal.

Privately, some in Congress expressed regret at Mr. Boehner’s decision on Saturday to walk away from an agreement that they said would have been a rare opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to radically restructure the government’s finances, rewrite the tax code and fix longstanding problems with Medicare and Medicaid.

In the end, officials briefed on the talks said, ideological differences over a tax overhaul bogged down the bigger agreement. Mr. Boehner, they said, was open to letting Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy people expire, while maintaining the cuts for middle-income wage-earners. But Democrats briefed on the talks said he made that contingent on rewriting the tax code by the end of this year, so that the loss of the cuts would be offset by lower overall tax rates.

The White House, officials said, was willing to put a deadline on a tax overhaul. But it rejected Mr. Boehner’s formula, arguing that it would place too much of a burden on the middle class while protecting the rich.

A Republican official familiar with the negotiations said Mr. Boehner “would only discuss new revenues if they came from economic growth and tax reform instead of tax increases.” And he insisted on a “trigger” that would set off deep spending cuts and other measures if the tax changes were not implemented before the end of 2011.

Mr. Boehner and the White House, Democratic officials said, also disagreed over the scope of cuts to entitlement programs, with the speaker demanding deeper cuts in Medicare and Medicaid than the administration was willing to accept.

Mr. Obama is pushing for a bigger deal on the argument that it will, paradoxically, be easier for Democrats and Republicans to sell to their rank and file, because they could present it as a historic effort to begin undoing years of deficit spending.

As Mr. Geithner said on “Face the Nation,” “It’s not clear that it’s easier trying to do less.”

Indeed, the hurdles to even a $2 trillion deal are numerous and significant, officials briefed on the negotiations said. During several rounds of talks led by Mr. Biden, the two sides identified spending cuts, and lower interest payments that would result from a reduction of the debt, which would have saved about $1.8 trillion over 10 years. But officials cautioned that there was never a deal.

Republicans, led by Mr. Cantor, rejected proposals to close loopholes or other tax breaks for owners of corporate jets, oil and gas companies and hedge funds. They said these measures, which would have raised about $130 billion, amounted to tax increases.

The administration has also proposed limiting deductions for high wage-earners, which the White House says would raise $290 billion. But there is little support for that in Congress. And if there are no tax measures in the deal, the leaders say, they will not be able to corral enough Democratic votes to pass it.

Mr. Geithner’s warnings about the high stakes were echoed by Christine Lagarde, the newly appointed managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Speaking on “This Week” on ABC, Ms. Lagarde said that a default by the United States would cause “interest hikes, stock markets taking a huge hit, and real nasty consequences, not just for the United States, but for the entire global economy.”

Sources: CNN, C-Span, Fox News, Meet The Press, MSNBC, NY Times, Think Progress, Youtube

Boehner's Hands Tied By Grover Norquist, Tea Party & Rich

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Political leaders plan another day of deficit-reduction talks

A day after a 75-minute session, talks will resume Monday to try to reach a deficit-reduction deal and pave the way for a hike in the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, a White House spokesman said Sunday.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on his Twitter account on Sunday night that congressional leaders will return to the White House for further negotiations on Monday. At 11 a.m. that same morning, President Barack Obama will hold a press conference in the White House briefing room, according to his official schedule.

These announcements are the first formal fall-out of Sunday's night talks on the subject, led by the president and involving top politicians from the House and Senate.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said afterward that Democrats are "still hopeful for a large bipartisan agreement," one that will do "no harm to the middle class or to economic growth (and) protect Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries."

Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile said that he found it "baffling that the president and his party continue to insist on massive tax hikes in the middle of a jobs crisis."

Those comments echoed many others made by key figures in both parties, as they posture to try get a deal that cuts into the nation's debt.

Republicans initiated the fight when they demanded drastically reduced spending (but no tax hikes) before they agreed to raise the nation's debt ceiling. Obama responded by saying he backs an ambitious plan to reach $4 trillion, mostly through cuts but also with revenue increases.

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If Congress doesn't act by August 2, the government could begin defaulting on its obligations. The president hinted at that sense of urgency Sunday. When asked before the meeting's start if a deal can be reached within 10 days, he told reporters, "We need to."

Meanwhile, a Democratic congressional aide said Sunday's talks produced "no breakthroughs yet," as the president pushed still for a "grand bargain-style deal that includes revenues, like getting rid of millionaire tax breaks, while Republicans argued it was time to lower sights to a smaller deal that relies on cuts alone."

A senior Obama administration official said the president continued to push for a "big deal," saying he would not accept a short-term agreement or anything that in the White House's view is not balanced. As he has said previously, he challenged congressional leader to step up and do something substantial.

An aide to House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, said the Ohio Republican countered by saying he wanted a deal that was based on previously discussed budget cuts outlined by a bipartisan group led by Vice President Joe Biden.

Boehner had hinted at the GOP's strategy on Saturday evening, when he issued a statement saying that his party cohorts could not support a major deal as long as Obama and Democrats insist on increasing taxes. He said that any such revenue-raising initiative would prevent the bulk of Republicans from supporting a more ambitious deal, even if it was one including cutting spending and reforming entitlement programs such as Medicare.

The House speaker said, as a result, that the talks' parameters would be scaled back to focus on budget cuts alone.

The White House immediately pushed back, with a senior administration official saying Boehner had initially accepted the need to increase tax rates on wealthy Americans as part of a deal. But then, the official said, Republicans offered a different plan in the talks with Obama that began Thursday.

In the statement Sunday night, the Boehner aide insisted that Obama "agreed with the speaker that their previous talks did not produce any agreement."

Obama believes "it is time to solve this problem," White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley said on ABC's "This Week" program Sunday. He added that Obama's "call to the (congressional) leaders is to step up and be leaders."

The Treasury Department has warned that failure to raise the debt ceiling could lead to a default, which could push interest rates to skyrocket and cause the dollar to plummet. But Republicans, including those controlling the House, have said they'll block any such move without substantial budget cuts.

A U.S. default on its debt obligations would have "real nasty consequences" for the United States and the global economy, the new director of the International Monetary Fund said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"It would jeopardize the stability at large," Christine Lagarde, who last week became the first woman to head the global financial institution, told ABC.

Still, such warnings didn't prevent party leaders on Sunday talk shows from reverting back to time-tested talking points that suggested the two sides were still far from an agreement.

"What is really appalling is to see our Republican colleagues essentially providing a form of extortion -- if you don't agree to deficit reduction the way we want it, we'll put all the jobs at risk, because we will allow the United States to default on its debt," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, on the CNN show "State of the Union." "That's irresponsible."

At the heart of the GOP resistance is a bedrock principle pushed by conservative crusader Grover Norquist against any kind of tax increase. A pledge pushed by Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, has been signed by more than 230 House members and 40 senators, almost all of them Republicans.

After Sunday nights talks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman Adam Jentleson said that the Nevada Democrat wants "an approach that is balanced between spending and revenues." However long it takes, he said that Reid is "firmly committed" to striking a deal.

"Sen. Reid believes the stakes are too high for Republicans to keep taking the easy way out, and he is committed to meeting every day until we forge a deal, however long it takes," said Jentleson.

Sources: CNN, MSNBC, NY Times

Barack Obama Is "The People's President!" Decision 2012

Let Me Be Clear People!

Just Because I Didn't Agree With ALL Of Pres. Obama's Policies & Decisions During His First 2 Years In Office Doesn't Mean He Lost My Vote.

I Supported Barack Obama In 2008 & Likewise For 2012.

Its Ok To Disagree & Apply Pressure To Our ELECTED Officials.

That's What Defines REAL Democracy.

(If Both Of Us Always Agree Then One Of Us Isn't Necessary!)

But When The Dust Clears Who I Endorse & Stand By Defines ME!

He's The Person Best Suited To Continue Leading This Country & I Stand With Pres. Obama In 2012.

I Realize My Decision To Support Pres. Obama Has Made A Lot Of People Very Angry, But At The End Of The Day I Have To ONLY Live With Myself & Answer To God.

Thus What Others Think Of Me Doesn't Matter Because They Too Are Accountable To God!

Much Like His 2008 Campaign Strategy, Pres. Obama's 2012 Campaign Strategy Will Also Be About Building Relationships With People From All Walks Of Life & Promoting A Grassroots Movement.

Like His Predecessors JFK & Bill Clinton, Barack Obama Is Truly "The People's President!"

Most GOP Leaders & Candidates Stand ONLY For Billionaires, Millionaires & Corporate Titans.

While Pres. Obama, MOST Democrats, Progressives & Independents Stand For ALL American Citizens!

The NEW America!

The America Which Welcomes ALL & Loves ALL!

This Includes Extremely Wealthy People, Senior Citizens, Veterans, Middle Class, Lower Income & Young Voters, Regardless Of Ethnicity Or Culture.

NOT Just Wealthy Citizens But Everyone Who Resides Within America's Borders.

While Most GOP Leaders & Candidates Appear To Only Be Interested In Dirty,
Racially - Divisive, "Southern Strategy" Politics, Pres. Obama's Camp Is Fighting Hard To Heal & Restore Our Nation's Integrity.

Fighting Hard To Bring Back American Jobs From Overseas.

Fighting To Help Small Businesses Create Jobs In Every Community By Revamping The SBA Process.

Fighting To Keep Our Country Safe. (Remember Obama Got Osama!)

Fighting Hard To Ensure Our Financial System Is NEVER Raped Again With "War On Terror", Fake Wall Street Hedge Funds & Subprime Mortgage Schemes.

Fighting To Help Revise Our Nation's Corrupt, Horribly Unfair Tax Code & Fix The IRS System.

NO Corrupt Flat Tax Rate Please!!

(Everyone Should Pay Their Fair Share Of Taxes Even Billionaires & Millionaires!)

Fighting To Stop Abuse & Fraud Within The Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security Systems, Yet Preserving Those Same Systems. (Remember Kathy Hocul's NY-26 Win Last Tuesday?)

Fighting To Stop Childhood Obesity The Leading Cause Of Juvenile Diabetes.

Fighting To Stop Food Stamp Abuse By Making It Illegal For States To Allow Recipients With Young Children To Consistently Purchase & Feed Their Children Candy, Snacks, Sweet Drinks Versus REAL Food (Fresh Vegetables, Fruits, Whole Grain Breads, etc.,).

Fighting To Stop Many Single Mothers (Black & White) From INTENTIONALLY Making Their Children SICK Just To Get Disability Checks.

Fighting To Stop Age & Racial Discrimination As It Relates To Unfair Hiring Practices.

Fighting To Stop The Destruction Of Collective Bargaining Rights For Labor Unions.

Fighting To Stop Private & For-Profit Schools From Ripping Off Students By Giving Them Fake Degrees Or Degrees With Little Value In Exchange For Student Loans. (i.e., Most Cosmetology Schools. Most NOT All!)

Fighting To Stop Consumer Abuse At The Hands Of BIG Banks (Too Big To Fail!) & Our Nation's 3 Largest Credit Reporting Agencies (Equifax, Experian, Trans Union).

Fighting To Stop ILLEGAL Foreclosures. Especially Among Active Duty U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans.

Fighting To Stop Health Insurance Companies From Taking Money From Members Then ILLEGALLY Denying Them Coverage.

Fighting To Stop Governors From Privatizing Prisons For Revenue Which Encourages Wrongful Convictions & Long Term Imprisonment Of Black & Hispanic Men.

Even Black & Hispanic Men Who Are First Time Offenders Or Those Who Have Committed Non-Drug-Related, Non-Homicidal Crimes.

Fighting To Stop Police Brutality & Taser Gun Abuse.

Fighting To Stop Governors From Allowing Black & Hispanic Children To Remain In Foster Care Until They Age Out (NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA) Versus Being Adopted By GOOD Foster Parents (NOT Criminals), Just For The Purpose Of Getting More Federal Funding Only To Later Be Wasted On Political Wish Lists.

Fighting To Stop Federal Funding For Public Schools From Being Used To Segregate White Students From Minority Students.

Fighting To Preserve Funding For Early Childhood Programs Like Head Start Which Leads To Higher Academic Success For Low Income Black & Hispanic Children.

Fighting To Help Upgrade American Schools, Including Those In Urban Areas To Better Prepare American Students To Compete In The Global Workforce.

Fighting To Upgrade America's Infrastructure (Bridges, Roads, Highways, High Speed Rail, Internet Access).

Fighting To Protect Veterans From Being Taken Advantage Of By Fake Veterans Advocacy Agencies & Greedy Property Management Companies That Overcharge Veterans For Rental Properties.

Fighting To Stop VA Hospital Pharmacies (Especially In Southern States) From Issuing Pain Pills To Veterans Like Handing Candy To Children On Halloween Night.

Fighting To Stop Voting Rights From Being Violated.

Is Barack Obama God Or Jesus Christ Incarnate?

NO Of Course Not!

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GOP presidential contenders drift to the right

In the first presidential election since the Tea Party's emergence, Republican candidates are drifting rightward on a range of issues, even though more centrist stands might play well in the 2012 general election.

On energy, taxes, health care and other topics, the top candidates hold positions that are more conservative than those they espoused a few years ago.

The shifts reflect the evolving views of conservative voters, who will play a major role in choosing the Republican nominee. In that sense, the candidates' repositioning seems savvy or even essential.

But the eventual nominee will face President Barack Obama in the 2012 general election, when independent voters appear likely to be decisive players once again. Those independents may be far less enamored of hard-right positions than are the GOP activists who will wield power in the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and other nominating contests.

"The most visible shift in the political landscape" in recent years "is the emergence of a single bloc of across-the-board conservatives," says the Pew Research Center, which conducts extensive voter surveys. Many of them "take extremely conservative positions on nearly all issues," Pew reports. They largely "agree with the tea party," and "very strongly disapprove of Barack Obama's job performance."

Climate policy is a dramatic example of how GOP presidential hopefuls have shifted to the right in recent years. Former Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Jon Huntsman of Utah, along with other likely candidates, have backed away from earlier embraces of regional "cap-and-trade" programs to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

Such stands were unremarkable in GOP circles just a few years ago. Sen. John McCain, the 2008 presidential nominee, supported a cap and trade plan to place prices and limits on the emission of heat-trapping gasses.

'I'm sorry'
Now the position is anathema to millions of Republicans, and therefore to the party's candidates. Pawlenty is the most effusive in his backtracking. "I was wrong, it was a mistake, and I'm sorry," he says repeatedly.

The likely presidential candidates have shifted rightward on other issues as well.

Romney, who leads in most polls, has rejected his earlier stands supporting abortion rights, gun control and gay rights. He says his 2006 law requiring Massachusetts residents to obtain health insurance was right for his state at the time, but he has condemned the Obama-backed mandate that would cover all Americans.

Pawlenty campaigns as a tight-fisted conservative who would refuse to raise the nation's debt ceiling, even though many Republican leaders say economic chaos would ensue. Yet in 2006, Pawlenty told a newspaper, "the era of small government is over" and "government has to be more proactive, more aggressive."

Pawlenty says he was partly quoting another person. But in the same 2006 interview he said, "there are certain circumstances where you've got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful."

Pawlenty has abandoned such talk in his presidential quest.

The Republican Party's rightward drift is causing headaches for the presidential hopefuls on the issue of Medicare, a potential minefield in the general election. House Republicans passed a bill that eventually would convert Medicare to a less costly, less generous program. It would help older Americans buy health insurance, but it no longer would provide benefits based mainly on a patient's needs rather than costs.

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich touched off a firestorm by calling the plan radical. He spent the better part of a week trying to recant, change the subject and get his campaign back on track.

Pawlenty, after promising to offer his own Medicare plan, acknowledged conservatives' priorities and said he would sign the House measure if it were the only choice before him.

Romney hedged Friday on whether he would sign the House bill into law. "That's the kind of speculation that is getting the cart ahead of the horse," he said. "I'm going to have my own plan."

Many Republican activists are delighted by the rightward tack of their party and its presidential contenders.

If anything, "mainstream Republican leaders are pushing the party too far to the left," said Sid Dinerstein, GOP chairman in Palm Beach County, Fla. The House plan for Medicare is the only one that makes sense, he said, and GOP candidates "should become articulate and knowledgeable in talking about it."

'Wiggling all over the place'
Louisiana's Republican chairman, Roger F. Villere Jr., agrees.

"The conservative issues are the correct issues," he said. The presidential candidates should embrace the House stand, he said, and persuade voters they care more about saving Medicare than the Democrats do.

Some in Obama's camp, however, say the presidential contenders risk locking themselves into hard-right positions that won't play well when less ideological voters flock to the polls in November 2012.

Romney, Pawlenty, Gingrich and others "are wiggling all over the place" to appease staunch conservatives, said Bill Burton, Obama's former spokesman and now a Democratic fundraiser and advocate. Americans want strong, consistent leaders, he said, and the Republican contenders aren't filling the bill.

Obama, of course, has had his own inconsistencies, such as backing away from calls to increase payroll and income taxes on the wealthy.

Moreover, competitive Democratic primaries are usually the mirror image of GOP contests. Democratic candidates generally edge to the left to attract liberal activists before hewing back to the center for the general election.

This time, however, Obama has no primary opponents to worry about. That allows him to focus on the all-important independent voters, who swung the 2008 elections to Democrats, and the 2010 midterm elections to Republicans.

The latest Pew Research study suggests that independents, who "played a determinative role in the last three national elections," will have even more clout in 2012. They comprised 30 percent of the national electorate in 2005, Pew found. They now make up 37 percent.

Whoever survives the conservative-dominated Republican nominating process will have to address those independents' concerns quickly and adroitly.


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Sources: Barack Obama.com, Fox News, MSNBC, NY Times, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps