Townhall.com’s Washington Beat
Katie Pavlich
May 17, 2011
In this edition of the Washington Beat, we bring you fire breathing,
pitchfork carrying GOP presidential candidates.
GINGRICH ANNOUNCES PRESIDENTIAL RUN, FALLS SHORTLY AFTER
He finally did it. Newt Gingrich officially announced he is running for
President last week and by the weekend, his campaign was basically over
after Gingrich nearly committed political suicide by calling Rep. Paul
Ryan’s Path to Prosperity, which reforms Medicare, “right-wing social
engineering,” “radical” and “too big a jump” on Meet the Press. The
comments came after Gingrich previously supported the Ryan budget,
calling it a “bold budget a major step towards getting the budget under
control.”
So which side is Gingrich on? Ryan responded to Gingrich’s comments by
saying: “With allies like that, who needs the Left?”
At this point, the Gingrich presidential bid is coming apart at the
seams as his campaign has been scrambling trying to walk back and
explain the comments the majority of the Republican base and the
conservative blogosphere aren’t happy with.
PAUL RYAN TO STAY IN HOUSE
Speculation around Paul Ryan possibly running for a Wisconsin Senate
seat after Democrat Senator Herb Kohl announced his retirement this
week have come to a close. Ryan announced he will not be running for
seat.
House Republicans have taken bold steps forward in tackling our fiscal
and economic challenges – we have led, where others have not. I want to
keep building on this progress and therefore, I will seek to continue
serving my employers of Wisconsin’s First District as their
Representative in the House.”
US HITS DEBT LIMIT
The United States has hit its debt limit and guess what? The world
hasn’t come to a screeching end, the sky isn’t falling and no one is
really talking about it. Although the debt ceiling debate is still
looming as Congress has not yet voted on whether to raise the limit,
and yes, defaulting on U.S. loans would have serious consequences on
the economy, Geithner’s predictions of immediate chaos once the debt
ceiling was reached (remember, he set a end of March deadline before
“economic chaos” set it) were and still are over the top. What we
should be worried about is the big number that will be set as the new
debt “limit.” To cover the federal deficit of $1.65 trillion in 2011,
the White House is asking for an additional $2 trillion to be added to
the debt ceiling. If the White House gets their wish, the new debt
limit will be nearly $17 trillion. It is also important to note that
the U.S. has not defaulted on its loans and the Treasury still has some
time to avoid a default despite the U.S. hitting the debt limit.
Hitting the debt limit comes at the same time the Treasury admitted
this week that Medicare is going broke even faster than the public was
led to believe.
WAIVER MANIA!!!!
ObamaCare wavers are being handed out left and right, and guess who is
getting the majority of them? Bars, restaurants and clubs in Nancy
Pelosi’s district. The total number of wavers handed out since
ObamaCare was signed into law is 1,372, with 204 of those wavers going
out just this week. Health and Human Services officials have claimed
wavers are given out simply to avoid immediate disruption of insurance
coverage. On top of individual wavers flying out the door, entire
states have also requested to temporarily opt-out of the program.
STIMULUS KILLED 1 MILLION JOBS
An extensive new study conducted by Timothy Conley from the University
of Western Ontario, Canada Economics Department and Bill Dupor of Ohio
State University Economics Department, shows the trillion dollar
boondoggle known as the stimulus bill, which President Obama has
credited over and over again for “saving and/or creating” thousands of
jobs, actually killed 1 million private sector jobs. The study also
shows that despite the entire idea of the stimulus creating “shovel
ready,” or construction/infrastructure jobs, infrastructure employment
has drastically decreased despite stimulus spending. How’s that hope
and change for ya’?
FORMER CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR HAS LOVE CHILD?
Former California Governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted
this week he fathered a child with a woman on his household staff
nearly ten years ago. Both Schwarzenegger and the woman were married at
the time. The announcement came after he announced a separation from
his wife of 25-years, Maria Shriver. Schwarzenegger’s love child was
born before he took office in 2003.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Iowa voter confronting Newt Gingrich about his comments over the Ryan
budget:
“You’re an embarrassment to our party,” he said. “Why don’t you get out
before you make a bigger fool of yourself?”
-Katie Pavlich is the News Editor for Townhall.com
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