Big Government Deficity, Obama Spending - Bad for America?

Most Americans -- 78 percent -- think the national debt is so large it is hurting the future of the country, including majorities of Democrats (64 percent), Republicans (92 percent) and independents (85 percent).

Moreover, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) think the Obama administration is proposing more government spending than Americans can afford. Some 29 percent disagree.

The political divide is striking: 90 percent of Republicans and 74 percent of independents think the Obama administration is proposing more spending than taxpayers can afford. Among Democrats, that number drops to 39 percent, while over half disagree (55 percent).

These are just some of the findings of the latest FOX News poll. - FOX News Story

Stimulus not Stimulating? More Job Losses

The nation's unemployment rate in September rose to 9.8 percent, its highest level since June 1983, as 263,000 jobs were cut from payrolls, the Labor Department announced Friday.

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Vice president addresses Sept. unemployment rate, which rose to 9.8 percent.

The 263,000 jobs lost during the month were far more than most economists had expected. The consensus forecast was that around 175,000 jobs had been shed in September.

"One job lost is one job too many," said Vice President Biden this morning, flanked by chair of the Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer; OMB Director Peter Orszag; Director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers; and Executive Director of the Middle Class Task Force Jared Bernstein.

The vice president tried to project optimism that the Obama Administration's policies are having a positive effect on the economy.

"As bad as things are they would be far worse without the recovery plan," and other economic measures put in place this year, Biden said.

Biden used the word "bad" four times. "Today's bad news does not change my confidence in the fact that we are going to recovery," he said. - ABC News Story

I can remember not so long ago Obama and Biden touting the better than expected success of the Stimulus Package.

By the way, what kind of a dumb comment is it when you say that the "Today's bad news does not change my confidence in the fact that we are going to recovery,"? Of course it will recover! Eventually. That is like saying that even though today it is raining, the sun will shine!

WOW!!!! What a bunch of intelligent people we have running this Country!!!

Obama Fails to Deliver the Olympics

The International Olympic Committee picked Rio de Janeiro as the host city for the 2016 Olympic games, after booting out a bid by Chicago in the first round of voting despite personal appeals from the U.S. president and first lady.

Obama's hometown Chicago loses bid for 2016 in the first round.

With this win, Rio becomes the first South American city to host the Olympic games.

In what came as a shock to many and disappointment to the White House, Chicago got the least amount of votes and was eliminated in the first round. Tokyo was cut in the second round.

President Barack Obama and the first lady, who made a whirlwind trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago, are still in the air and on their way back to Washington, D.C.

At Chicago's Daley Plaza, there was an audible gasp from the crowd when the news was announced. Even people in the press room in Copenhagen were visibly surprised. White House officials called the result "disappointing" but said the president will move on to other issues. - ABC News Story

McCain Furious with Obama Administration over General Testimony?

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports: Sen John McCain, R-AZ, is furious that General Stanley McChrystal, US Commander in Afghanistan, has given a speech in London and appeared on ‘60 Minutes’ this week - but has not yet testified before Congress about the way forward in Afghanistan.

McCain’s furor is directed at the Obama Administration for not allowing McChyrstal and other top military officials to testify about the recommendations they are making for the way forward in Afghanistan.

In a thunderous speech on the Senate floor, McCain introduced an amendment to the Defense appropriations bill that would require McChrystal to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee before November 15. The amendment would also require testimony from CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus and Admiral James Stravridis, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

“General McChrystal gave a speech in London just yesterday talking about what we needed to do,” McCain said. “So it's ok with the administration for General McChrystal to go on ‘60 Minutes,’ it's ok for him to give a speech at the Institute for Strategic Studies in London, but the administration does not want General McChrystal and General Petraeus before the Senate Armed Services Committee. How does that work?”

McCain hammered President Obama for talking to McChrystal only once during a 70-day period “although the President talks to labor leaders almost on a daily basis, pushing a health care agenda.”

“We need to hear from the architects and the commanders. Now, if the president doesn't want to talk to the commander in the field, General McChrystal, very often … the fact is that we as members of Congress, a coequal branch of government, also have a responsibility in this decision-making process. Now, I respect the president's role as Commander in Chief. I respect the President of the United States making a decision. But I also cherish the role of the United States Senate and House of Representatives in being informed as to the views of our military commanders in whom we place the responsibilities and the lives of our young men and women who are in harm's way,” McCain said. - ABC News Story

Semate Increases It's Own Budget

The Senate voted this afternoon to boost its own budget, in spite of cries of protest from a couple Republicans on the chamber floor that the budget increase would be irresponsible and inappropriate in the current economy.

By a vote of 62 to 38, the Senate voted to approve a legislative appropriations bill. The House passed the bill last week by a vote of 217 to 190 with only five Republicans supporting it. President Obama is expected to sign it shortly.

A measure included in the bill will increase Congress's annual budget by 5.8 percent to $4.7 billion. The bill also includes, however, a stopgag resolution Congress needed to pass to keep the government funded through October. With the fiscal year ending today, the federal government would have effectively shut down for a month if the resolution had not passed.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took to the Senate floor to protest the new funding included in the measure, which is detailed in Politico. It includes, among other things, $500,000 for a pilot program for senators to send postcards to inform constituents about their town hall meetings.

"Is there any member of the Senate that needs to send out a postcard to tell our constituents that we're having a town hall meeting? Really?" McCain asked with incredulity. - CBS News Story

Obama Finally Meets with Top Commander

President Obama met with his national security team Wednesday but did not make a decision on America's reshaped military strategy for the Afghanistan war.

The meeting -- the first of a series of sessions -- took place in the Situation Room as the White House fended off charges that the president has been stalling on Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for more troops.

Obama will not make any decision on an Afghan strategy for at least a few weeks, the White House announced Wednesday night. Obama will reportedly meet again with his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan on Oct. 7.

Wednesday's closed-door meeting marked the first time the president has had any interaction with McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, since the general made the request for up to 40,000 troops.

Obama spent three hours meeting with staff, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official says no decisions about increased troop levels were discussed; instead, the group focused on what the goals in that war-torn country should be.

The president has met with McChrystal only once since he took command of U.S. and NATO forces over the summer -- a lack of contact that has fueled critics who say Obama is being dismissive of McChrystal's needs. - FOX News Story

ACORN Organization May Face Trial for Voter Fraud

LAS VEGAS — When ACORN took to Las Vegas and started playing "Blackjack" and "21," the activist group was making a far bigger gamble than it ever guessed, according to Nevada prosecutors.

There's nothing wrong with playing the tables in Vegas, but authorities say ACORN was using the names of those casino games as a cover to illegally pay workers to sign up voters as part of an illegal quota system.

A preliminary hearing Tuesday in the downtown Clark County courthouse has put ACORN on trial for the first time as a criminal defendant.

Until now, prosecutions for voter registration fraud have focused on ACORN workers, and authorities have secured guilty pleas from several who admitted to falsifying voter registration forms.

But when investigators from Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller's office raided the ACORN Las Vegas office, Ross says they found a paper trail that implicated the ACORN organization itself. - FOX News Story

Obama's Health Care Mandate Unconstitutional?

The requirement that everyone buy health insurance -- a central element to President Obama's health care plan -- is flatly unconstitutional, legal experts argue.

"At the heart of this plan is an unprecedented imposition on individual liberty," constitutional attorney David Rivkin told FOX News.

The constitution allows the federal government to regulate interstate commerce but Rivkin argues the insurance requirement is just an attempt to dictate personal behavior.

"What’s unique about here is the mandate imposed on individuals merely because they live," he said. "Not connected with any economic activity, not because they grow something, make something, compose something. Merely because they live. And this is absolutely unprecedented."

During the Prohibition era, the federal government dictated personal behavior by making the consumption of alcohol illegal. But to do so, the nation had to pass a constitutional amendment.

Health care reform depends on the individual mandate, in part because it needs the money and good health of younger people to fund the system and spread the risk. - FOX News Story

Senate Panel Says NO to Public Option

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday rejected two amendments to include a government-run public health insurance option in the only compromise health care bill so far.

Sen. Max Baucus said the public option provision would "hold back meaningful reform this year."

The amendments by Democratic Sens. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Charles Schumer of New York were opposed by all 10 Republicans on the committee and a few Democrats, including committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

Baucus explained that he liked much about the idea of a public option but that he knew a health care bill containing the provision would fail to win enough support in the full Senate to overcome a Republican filibuster.

"I fear if this provision is in the bill, it will hold back meaningful reform this year," Baucus said.

Rockefeller said that unfair practices by insurance companies required a not-for-profit alternative that would give consumers a lower-cost option and, in some cases, the only coverage they could get.

"They're getting away with banditry. They revel in it," Rockefeller said of tactics by insurance companies to avoid covering high-cost or high-risk consumers.

"I feel so strongly about it because it makes so much sense," he said. "The people I represent need this, because they're helpless" in terms of health insurance.

However, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said a public option means the government eventually taking over the health care system.

"A government-run plan will ultimately force private insurers out of business," Grassley said, adding that the federal government would run the plan and run the market in which the plan competes. - CNN News Story

What are Obama's Priorities?

I was listening to the News the last week, listening to the radio, reading the White House Briefings, and I for the life of me can not figure out what the President is thinking.

We are in serious trouble with the war in Afghanistan. The General there and NATO both say that there needs to be some big changes or we are going to lose the war. Obama has said that he is reviewing it and is in no hurry to make any decisions. Yet we hear that he has only talked to the Commanding General One time since he put him in charge! What is he thinking? He has time for Beer Summits at the White House, Trips to the Grand Canyon, Town Halls Across the Country, Trip to pitch for the Olympics, meeting with Celebrities, Going on David Letterman, Appearing on every weekend morning show, and only time for 1 conversation with the man that he put in charge of the War!

He was the one that during the election said that we needed to pull out of Iraq and get back to the forgotten war and the actual war on Terror and that was Afghanistan. He promised that it would be his top priority. Well? Is it really his top priority?

Polls Shows Health Care Reform Support at new Low

Just 41% of voters nationwide now favor the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s down two points from a week ago and the lowest level of support yet measured.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% are opposed to the plan.

Senior citizens are less supportive of the plan than younger voters. In the latest survey, just 33% of seniors favor the plan while 59% are opposed. The intensity gap among seniors is significant. Only 16% of the over-65 crowd Strongly Favors the legislation while 46% are Strongly Opposed.

For the first time ever, a slight plurality of voters now express doubt that the legislation will become law this year. Forty-six percent (46%) say passage is likely while 47% say it is not. Those figures include 18% who say passage is Very Likely and 15% who say it is Not at All Likely. Sixty percent (60%) are less certain.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Democrats say the plan is at least somewhat likely to become law. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Republicans disagree. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 34% say passage is at least somewhat likely while 58% say it is not. - Rasmussen Reports Poll

New York Democrat Tells Obama to Back Off State Elections

(CNN) – Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-New York, is making it known he's not happy with President Obama's recent meddling in the state's 2010 gubernatorial race.

"The whole thing to me was not presidential," Rangel told the New York Daily News over the weekend. "It wasn't good for the president, and it wasn't good for the governor."

The comments came a week after the New York Times reported that administration officials had asked New York Rep. Gregory Meeks to convey to embattled Gov. David Paterson that Obama would prefer he not run for re-election next year.

The Times reported that the White House is concerned about Paterson's dismal poll numbers becoming a drag on the entire Democratic ticket in New York next year, and would prefer Andrew Cuomo — the state's popular attorney general — carry the party's banner instead. - CNN

Obama Not Consulting With Top General?

Gen. Stanley McChrystal says he's talked to President Obama only once since taking command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan over the summer, a revelation that drew swift criticism from some who are concerned that the president is putting off McChrystal's request for more troops.

"It's startling," Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., told FOX News.

McChrystal talked about his interaction with the president in an interview with CBS News.

"I've talked to the president since I've been here once on a (video teleconference)," he said.

"You talked to him once in 70 days?" CBS' David Martin asked.

"That's correct," McChrystal said.

McChrystal, who warned in a recent assessment of the war in Afghanistan that the United States risks failure without more troops, submitted a request for more resources on Friday.

But the White House says it will review the overall strategy in Afghanistan before addressing troop levels.

The disclosure that the president and his top Afghanistan commander have spoken just once added to concerns that the administration is waiting too long to deal with the troop level issue - Fox News Story

Wall Street Spending Big in Senate, Mostly on Democrats

Wall Street has showered nearly $11 million on the Senate since the beginning of the year, and more than 15 percent of it has gone to a single senator: Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York.

Schumer’s $1.65 million take from the financial services industry is nearly twice that of any other senator's — and more than five times what the industry gave to any single Republican senator.

While the industry has scaled back its political spending in the wake of last year’s economic collapse, data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that it’s still investing heavily in the Senate, where it’s likely to have its best shot at stopping — or at least shaping — the crackdown on Wall Street that President Barack Obama has proposed.

And it’s clearly looking to Democrats to do it.

Of the $10.6 million the industry has given to sitting senators this year, more than $7.7 million has gone to Democrats. Schumer got his $1.65 million; his New York colleague Kirsten Gillibrand took in $886,000; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada received $814,000; Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut scored $603,000; Colorado freshman Michael Bennet got $401,000; and Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas— who will have a big say on the derivatives portion of regulatory reform — got $336,000. - POLITCO Story

Clinton - Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is after Obama

Former President Bill Clinton says the right-wing conspiracy that attacked him during his presidency now is after President Obama.

When asked whether the "vast right-wing conspiracy" is still present today, the former president answered without hesitation, "Oh you bet."

"It's not as strong as it was because America has changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was," Clinton said today on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Right-wing conspiracy" was the term used by former first lady Hillary Clinton to describe the tactics her husband's political enemies used to attack his presidency after revelations of his affair with Monica Lewinski.

"I mean they may be hurting President Obama," Bill Clinton said of the current attacks. "They can take his numbers down, they can run his opposition up, but fundamentally he and his team have a positive agenda for America. Their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail, and that's not a good prescription for a good America. - ABC News Story

Obama Wants Longer School Day, Shorter Summer Break?

WASHINGTON -- Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said. - FOX News Story

Some House Democrats Push for Health Care for Illegals

Fearful that they're losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access, The Washington Times reported on Monday.

The Democrats, trying to stiffen their party's spines on the contentious issue, say it's unfair to bar illegal immigrants from paying their own way in a government-sponsored exchange. Legal immigrants, they say, regardless of how long they've been in the United States, should be able to get government-subsidized health care if they meet the other eligibility requirements.

"Legal permanent residents should be able to purchase their plans, and they should also be eligible for subsidies if they need it. Undocumented, if they can afford it, should be able to buy their own private plans. It keeps them out of the emergency room," said Rep. Michael M. Honda, California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Honda was joined by more than 20 of his colleagues in two letters laying out the demands.

Coverage for immigrants is one of the thorniest issues in the health care debate, and one many Democratic leaders would like to avoid. But immigrant rights groups and the Democrats who sent the letters say they have to take a stand now. - FOX News

Defense Secretary Warns of Withdrawing Troops

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates says it's a mistake to set a deadline to end American military action, as some liberals have sought, and that a defeat would be disastrous for the U.S.

In a stern warning to critics of a continued troop presence in Afghanistan, Gates said the Islamic extremist Taliban and Al Qaeda would perceive an early pullout as a victory over the United States as similar to the Soviet Union's humiliating withdrawal in 1989 after a 10-year war.

"The notion of timelines and exit strategies and so on, frankly, I think would all be a strategic mistake. The reality is, failure in Afghanistan would be a huge setback for the United States," Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

"Taliban and al-Qaida, as far as they're concerned, defeated one superpower. For them to be seen to defeat a second, I think, would have catastrophic consequences in terms of energizing the extremist movement, Al Qaeda recruitment, operations, fundraising, and so on. I think it would be a huge setback for the United States."

Gates' pointed remarks came as President Barack Obama re-examines his administration's strategy in Afghanistan and as the Pentagon sits on a request for additional troops from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

McChrystal has said a different strategy on the ground as well as more troops are needed in Afghanistan. In a "60 Minutes" profile airing Sunday night, the commander argued for faster progress.

"We could do good things in Afghanistan for the next 100 years and fail," he said. "Because we're doing a lot of good things and it just doesn't add up to success. And we've got to think quicker." - FOX News Story