Standard & Poor’s cut the credit ratings of nine European countries on Friday in a widely-anticipated move. Rumors that the downgrades were imminent had been circulating in various reports throughout the day.
President Obama formally notified Congress on Thursday of his intent to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion, two weeks after he had postponed the request to give lawmakers more time to consider the action.
California Governor Jerry Brown introduces his state budget proposal at the State Capitol in Sacramento in this January 5, 2012 file photo. Brown pledged to cut the Gordian Knot of California government and reform the hopelessly overextended state, where the mortgage crisis lingers and unemployment is stuck in the double-digits; but has found it more difficult task than first thought.
Credit: Reuters/Max Whittaker/Files
Last summer, just days before California was required by law to pass a state budget, Republican State Senator Tom Harman got word that he’d been summoned to meet Governor Jerry Brown “right now.” Harman, a veteran legislator from conservative Orange County, hurried downstairs to the Horseshoe, the governor’s suite of offices in the state capitol building.
WASHINGTON– When Michelle Obama worked in Mayor Daley’s City Hall in the early 1990s, she was “distressed” by how a small group of “white Irish Catholic” families — the Daleys, the Hynes and the Madigans — “locked up” power in Illinois.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) is welcomed by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez at Miraflores Palace in Caracas January 9, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked U.S. disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.
Smoke rises from houses damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, northeastern Japan, March 12, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak
The global economy could withstand widespread disruption from a natural disaster or attack by militants for only a week as governments and businesses are not sufficiently prepared to deal with unexpected events, a report by a respected think-tank said.
The Obama administration on Friday proposed new hardship rules that would make it easier for illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and stay in the country if they have a spouse or parent already living here legally.
People walk past a currency exchange shop in Budapest January 4, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Laszlo Balogh
The euro zone’s economy deepened its downturn at the end of 2011 as retail sales fell and sentiment soured, but the first improvement in the business climate in 10 months offered hope that an expected recession may be mild.
President Obama is expected to ask for new borrowing power from Congress once the Senate and House return from their holiday recess. According to the Budget Control Act passed in August, the president must notify Congress when the debt closes within $100 billion of the ceiling, triggering the only option to block an increase, congressional objection. However, even if the House and Senate passed legislation blocking another debt increase, in this case $1.2 trillion, the president can still veto their objections.
In a scathing letter sent to Barack Obama this morning, Senator Marco Rubio said that under the President’s first term in office, “more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation.”
Rubio pledged that he would challenge any further increase in the debt limit, arguing that “we [Congress] need to make it routine to actually spend no more than we take in.” In the letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, the Florida Senator said that President Obama’s upcoming appeal to increase the debt ceiling by a whopping $1.2 trillion will cause the nation’s public debt to surpass the $16 trillion mark.
“I will oppose your request to continue borrowing and spending recklessly.”
President Obama is expected to ask for new borrowing power from Congress once the Senate and House return from their holiday recess. According to the Budget Control Act passed in August, the president must notify Congress when the debt closes within $100 billion of the ceiling, triggering the only option to block an increase, congressional objection. However, even if the House and Senate passed legislation blocking another debt increase, in this case $1.2 trillion, the president can still veto their objections.
If the President led the charge to reduce the country’s unsustainable debt in mid 2011 rather than punt the enterprise to a “Super Committee,” asserted Rubio, we’d already be on a pathway toward economic growth and prosperity. “Unfortunately, the first three years of your presidency have been a profile in leadership failure.”
The letter concludes: “America deserves leaders who will stand front and center, level with the American people about our challenges and offer real solutions to solve them. Instead of simply asking for another debt ceiling increase, I urge you to come forward with a real plan to tackle our debt in 2012.”
This is the latest salvo in the fierce debt ceiling debate in Washington.
The Florida Republican’s warning letter to Obama can be read in its entirety by clicking the image below.
The U.S. military will steadily shrink the Army and Marine Corps, reduce forces in Europe and probably make further cuts to the nation’s nuclear arsenal, the Obama administration said Thursday in a preview of how it intends to reshape the armed forces after a decade of war.
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