Hermosa Beach Measure B: One Bad Idea

 
First, they came for the Styrofoam. Then they came for the cigarettes: they said that no one should be able to smoke in a public place. And the nanny-state micromanaging in Hermosa Beach has not stopped there.



Now busybodies want to close down the night life of Hermosa Beach.



Measure B is all about quiet nights, claims proponent Jim Lissner, in a letter to Easy Reader:



Measure B proposes a fairer balance between the business community and the residential community through a modest reduction in the late night hours of downtown businesses.



Then the writer adds:



The idea for Measure B came not from me [Jim Lissner] but from our council members.



This strange claim is debunked immediately on the first page of this week's (October 3, 2013) edition of Easy Reader:



Hermosa Beach Says No to Measure B:



Mayor, Patrick "Kit" Bobko

Mayor Pro Tmepore, Michael DiVirgilio

Councilmember Peter Tucker

Councilmember Howard Fishman

Councilmember Jeff Duclos



The Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce



The Los Angeles County Lifeguard Association



Measure B is one big boo-boo.



Hermosa Beach has 19,000 residents. The tax coffers cannot depend on the residents' commerce alone. The city revenues depend on visitors and tourists bringing their business. The argument that bars and restaurants (or any other establishment) should close two hours earlier during the work-week and one hour earlier during the weekend does not consider unintended consequences.



If someone is looking for a good time, a chance to live a little and enjoy the night-life, they are not going to go a bar that closes at 11pm and then go somewhere else for the next few hours. They will simply go to "somewhere else" altogether, and that will be a restaurant or a bar in another city. Businesses will not just lose two hours of business on the weekend, they will lose customers for the entire night, the weekend, for good.



Don't forget The Comedy and Magic Club. The world-famous laugh-haunt brings not just business, but Jay Leno (plus a two-drink minimum who wants to see the guy). Comedy doesn't work too well when people have to go home at 11pm.



Fewer customers, less profit, fewer businesses, lower tax revenues. That's a big mistake for Hermosa Beach.



Measure B is not just anti-business, however, but anti-school.



Wait, charges Mr. Lissner. . .



The School district gets its money from the State [sic], and the library gets is money from the County [sic].



Well, Governor Brown and his liberal Democratic caucus have seen fit with the new Local Control Funding Formula (a hot topic of debate with current Hermosa Beach School Board candidates) to cut per pupil spending to its lowest level for high-performing schools like Hermosa Beach City School District.



HBCSD is getting some of the lowest funding not just in Los Angeles County, but in the entire state. Unfair and unacceptable. Hermosa kids are getting less money from the state, yet the school district's enrollment is climbing, and the district needs money and space for the kids.



Where does the supplemenatly revenue come from? The businesses, the parents who do business in the city, and donations from the community, all of which flow into the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation. In other words, good business in the night-time has enabled donations in the day-time for the public schools.



As for the library -- LA County is operating on a shoe-string as it is. Do we really want to tempt fate by pushing away tax revenue from the city and risk leaving an underfunded library? Manhattan Beach is rebuilding their library -- why not Hermosa Beach, too?



If people want peace and quiet, then they can buy earplugs. If people want a quieter night life, then perhaps the city should assign the meter maids to work for their money and patrol the streets on the weekend.



Measure B is a bad idea: anti-business, anti-school, anti-Hermosa Beach.





Vote No on Measure B November 5th

Shame on You, George Miller

Unlike Peter Stark, the snarky Congressman from Alameda who routinely insulted constituents and despised the Constitution, George Miller survived the incumbent shellacking of 2012, which witnessed a number of compromised or corrupted Democratic incumbents swept from office.



Now, following the government shut-down instigated by a recalcitrant US Senate and an unwilling chief executive, Rep. Miller has exploded on the floor of the House of Representatives, claiming that House Republicans voted to shut down the government.



http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/10/02/Dem-Rep-Freaks-Out-Screaming-At-GOP-For-Having-a-Jihad-Against-ObamaCare



Miller slammed Republicans for trying to keep portions of the federal government funded. House rules require a two-thirds vote to pass piecemeal funding, and Democrats like George Miller have resisted these bills.



He then fired on Republicans with the following:



That millions of Americans went to find healthcare, to sign up for healthcare, to get access to healthcare.



The operating understanding of many Obamacare supporters rests on "expected" and "find", but many Americans are finding their health insurance premiums rise.





https://www.google.com/#q=health+insurance+premiums+rise



Premiums for young people are still rising:



http://freebeacon.com/study-premiums-for-young-people-to-rise-in-all-50-states/



Many young people still do not know that they need to get health insurance, or face a fine.



http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottatlas/2013/08/28/when-it-comes-to-obamacare-ignorance-is-bliss-for-young-americans/



Before being ruled out of order, Miller tore into his conservative colleagues with this epithet:



So when you were on the jihad against America’s access to healthcare, shutting down the parks wasn’t a problem.



Miller's offensive use of the word "jihad" to describe the House Republicans' opposition to Obamacare is not just inarticulate or ignorant, but downright insolent and immoral.



The majority of Americans did not want a government shut-down, and they do not want Obamacare.



Despite Miller's shouting assertions that millions of Californians are now able to access health care through Covered California, media investigations have concluded that instead of five million visits to Covered CA, there were only a fraction of that number, plus the fact that the system crashed twice in California, as well as in other states throughout the country.



http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/02/Oops-CA-Healthcare-Exchange-Overstated-Web-Traffic-by-Nearly-4-5-Million-HIts



I even visited the site myself, and I had a hard time applying for health care.

As a member of a union, I receive letters informing me that my health insurance premiums are going to rise. How does the Affordable Care Act help me if health insurance is become less affordable?



In Connecticut, only a one hundred people visited the website, and the visits were marred with frustration and glitches.



http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Web-site-frustration-vex-health-exchange-4859872.php



Ten states, including California and Connecticut, have witnessed the decimation of their health insurance markets because of Obamacare.



http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/28/ten-states-where-obamacare-wipes-out-existing-health-care-plans/



House Republicans have been trying to protect the Americans people from this train wreck of a law, and liberals like George Miller have ignored the voice of the voters and forced this unpopular, dysfunctional, and destructive law on us.



House Republicans have continued to pass continuing resolutions to fund the government but defund, delay, or diminish unsightly elements hurting the economy. Miller has either forgotten or insolently neglected the continued efforts of Republicans in the House and Senate to fund the government.



If anyone is declaring a Holy War on Health Care and the American People, it's the progressive liberalism of Democrats Congressman George Miller, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. and President Barack Obama.



Shame on you, Rep,. Miller, for supporting Obamacare, for declaring war on good jobs, hard-working Americans, the health care industry, and the United States Constitution.

Bravo, House Speaker John Boehner!

Thank You, Speaker Boehner

For many conservatives, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been as established Establishment disappointment. From his ascendancy to the Speakership following the 2010 shellacking until the failed 2012 elections, conservatives worried that he would veer toward the cowardly center, renege on pledges to cut the spending and bring the government back to a manageable size, and disappoint the growing caucus of TEA Party activists who had rallied to Republicans' support and help them in back the House.

Playing by the Washington rules of get along to go along, Boehner concerned many that his rise to power would bring back the Old Boys Club initiated under the failed leadership of Newt Gingrich, followed by Denny Hastert.

The Republicans seemed to lose their footing over the debt-ceiling debacle in 2011, in which the House agreed with unyielding Republicans to set up a commission to discuss long-term cuts and entitlement reforms. When the Simpson-Bowles Commission recommendations were rejected, when the Republicans and Democrats walked away from the attempted compromises, automatic spending cuts went into effect.

To many limited government activists and fiscal conservatives, Boehner was not doing a good job leading his caucus.

Following the dismal results of the 2012 election, Boehner faced immense hardships bringing together the TEA Party, Establishment, and Moderate Republicans to make a deal which would raise taxes slightly and grant cuts or revenue increases where needed.

Boehner could not work out a deal without going over the fiscal cliff, which would have pushed spending cuts to military and other federal programs while also eliminating the Bush Tax cuts of 2001 and 2003.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had to reach out, and Boehner looked like an abandoned leader. He almost endured a second round of voting to keep his speakership.

Then Boehner bounced back.

He declared on This Week that marriage should be between a man and a woman, even though eleven, then twelve states had sanctioned gay marriage.

Conservative columnists rallied to the beleaguered Speaker's aid, pointing out that the Republicans were not divided along principle or ideology, but rather by tactics.

Here, Boehner's Establishment savvy came in handy. Because Republicans only control the House, they cannot run the government along their policies only. The continuing resolutions began, in which the House would tie appropriations with a requirement that the US Senate pass a budget for this first time in four years. Democrats exposed their spend-thrift ways, demanding tax increases. No one warmed up to these terrible proposals.

Then came the sequester. Republicans refused to budge on automatic spending cuts without proper entitlement reforms. Boehner held his ground. The cuts went through, life went on, despite President Obama's scare tactics and Harry Reid's pummeling on the floor of the US Senate.

With the need to continue funding the government, Boehner responded, rather than rejected the demands of the TEA Party caucus and ever fiscal conservative in the House:

"The American people do not want a government shutdown, and they do not want Obamcare."

With the bold declaration, surrounded by loyal and fitful Republicans, Boehner showed real mettle as Speaker. He brought together fractious factions, he outlined tactical responsibilities without caving on the convictions of conservative governance.

Continue funding, but defund Obamacare: that would be the order of business. Would Democrats compromise their party or their constituents? Reid and his Democratic colleagues have compromised everything, yet refuse to compromise with the House. When the US Senate rejected Boehner and Company's sensible proposal, the House quickly sent over another resolution delaying Obamacare for one year along with a repeal of the much hated medical device tax.

The Massachusetts Senators hate this tax, at least so they said, yet they voted to reject this continuing resolution, as well.

Now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made it completely clear that he will not negotiate on anything, the Republicans, with Boehner their Speaker-Spokesman, can claim that they will not negotiate, they will not meet, they will not seek compromise.

In other words, they the Democrats, the tax-and-spend, regulate-frustrate liberals are shutting the government down, not the fiscal conservatives, not the Republicans, who are heeding the hurts and pleadings of the American people.

Following four more continuing resolutions to fund parts of the federal government, Democrats have killed every opportunity to bring back fiscal resources to veterans, to national parks, and even to Washington D.C.

Should the US Senate refuse to budge on Boehner's continuing resolutions, the United States faces not just a prolonged government shut-down, but a debt default by the middle of the month. Will Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama embrace a legacy of non-leadership and failure (as Washington Post columnist Bob Woodward pointedly argued, no one remembers the failures of the House Speaker as much as they recall the President)?

One thing is for sure: House Speaker John Boehner (with the help of US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has achieved what leadership is all about: principled compromise on procedures, calculated confrontation to uphold the Constitution and the best interests of the American people.

Bravo, Speaker of the House John Boehner!

Thanks for leading on princple.

Pelosi Losing Power Over Democratic House Freshmen

While the Mainstream Media has been blasting Republicans, including the "fringe-right, radical, marginal, evil, bad, [fill in negative epithet]" TEA Party caucus in the House of Represenatives, Politico.com has focused on the House Democratic Party's fraying caucus, especially among Freshmen Democrats elected in California who entered office with a moderate push from voters.

Then again, Democrats in red states or with conservative credentials have been voting with House Republicans to repeal, defund, and delay Obamacare as well as key portions of the law, too.

As a reminder, a diligent minority of Democrats opposed the Affordable Care Act at the very beginning and they continued running ads against the law durintg the 2010 election cycle (Much good it did them).

Five Democrats voted to repeal Obamacare in 2012.

Democrats in the House and the Senate have passed non-binding resolutions against key aspects of the law, including the job-killing medical device tax. Unions oppose a law which they had believed would strenghten their hand with employers while retaining employees. The ILWU and the AFL-CIO have split over this health care law. "An injury to one" has become an injury to them all including their unity.

In the last House voting session before the shut-down, two Democrats joined with the majority of House Republicans (not just TEA Party affiliates) to defund Obamcare.

US Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has also suggested that Congress should delay the individual mandate.

Now, as for Pelosi's cadre of Democrats.

Tom Maffei of Central New York represents a conservative, up-state district of the Empire State. He respects his constituents' concerns for jobs, the middle class, and the economy. He's also worried, no doubt, about getting reelected next year.

Raul Ruiz of California barely beat Mary Bono Mack (who is contemplating whether to take back her seat), a long-time mainstay of the Inland Empire. Ruiz has voted against Pelosi on delaying Obamacare and funding Homeland Security, respecting the more conservative leanings of his district.

Patrick Murphy of Florida has compromised his credentials, voting against the defunding continuing resolution, but supporting delay. Obamacare has show little care for Obama's Party, and may do to the Democrats what George W. Bush's spending sprees at home and wars abroad did to the Republican brand during his eight years in office.

As for Pelosi and Company's hopes of taking back the House in 2014, her chances are looking slimmer than ever. So much for "We have to pass the bill so you can see what's in it."

Senator Joe Manchin Says "Delay!"

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/heatherginsberg/2013/09/26/cory-booker-tweets-with-an-exotic-dancer-n1710496

Democrats are starting to crack on Obamacare.

The country is not ready for this insurance mandate.

Obama has granted exemptions to special interests and extensions to big business.

What about the American People, too?

Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) literally busted a cap in the Cap and Trade bill when he ran for US Senate. He promised to protect his state's coal mining industry.

At the same time, he support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is undermining industries all over the country.

Employment has not bottomed out, and even though Wall Street rallies, Main Street still wonders how they are going to get by from day to day.

Moderate Democrats, as well as red-state Dems should think twice about supporting a law which the majority of voters do not like.

House Republicans have done their best to protect patients from the Patient Protection law, and Democrats in the House are beginning to side with the Republicans.

Not just because they want to get the government running again, but also because they want to get rid of the grosser aspects of the already too-big-to-exist legislation.

How many Medicare exchanges have failed in the last week?

How many doctors have left the profession because of the rules, regulations, and reams of red tape keeping them away from their patients and forcing them to plow their paperwork?

How many insured have seen their insurance premiums go up because of this law?

The damage is already done, with businesses forcing employees into part-time employment, with more businesses fleeing to other countries.

When will the train wreck of Obamacare come to an end?

Senator Joe Manchin has agreed with the conservatives in Washington: it's time to delay this terrible law for individuals, not just for businesses and special interests.

Bias in "The Daily Breeze": Extreme GOP

On the federal government shut-down, The Daily Breeze headline read “GOP extremists.”

Republican Congressman Buck McKeon argued correctly that requesting a one-year delay is reasonable. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has offered to meet with Senate Democrats.

Congressman Henry Waxman wanted to force on this country a Cap-and-Trade Bill whose contents he did not know. Congresswoman Maxine Waters once shouted: “The TEA Party can go straight to hell.” Democrats forced an unpopular insurance mandate, on the American people. A growing majority of Americans oppose the law, which has raised insurance rates, diminished access, pushed doctors out of their profession, and raises taxes. Senate Majority Leader Reid has rejected one continuing resolution after another to fund the government. President Obama unilaterally rewrote the law without Congressional approval. Democrats have refused to negotiate on a law which is not just unpopular, but dysfunction and destructive.

The Democrats are the ones being extreme.

Go Away, Mr. Gomez

The last thing the Massachusetts GOP needs is a Republican US Senate candidate who not only loses, but gives people more reasons for people to think that the Republican Party has lost its fire power, its bearings, and its aims.

I am writing candidly about Mr. Gabriel Gomez and his recently published Boston Globe Op-Ed. He admits that he was wrong to oppose an assault weapons ban. He should have declared his support for staunch gun control measures. He might as well have sided with Markey and diagnosed gun violence as some epidemic, or some disease which a nice bottle of pepto bismol could cure. Yes, drink a little more of the pink stuff, and you can wretch away the gun violence in our communities. Let's be clear about one thing: Gomez is as red as Republican as the pink stuff he wants to foist on Bay State voters. A Democrat in attitude and outreach, Gomez appealed to "Mister Governor" Deval Patrick with an open letter espousing his love and admiration for Barack Obama. Mo Cowan got the interim seat, and Gomez took another chance to replace recently appointed Secretary of State John Kerry. Markey stepped up against Stephen Lynch in the Democratic primary. Most moderates chose Lynch, but Markey won. Gomez bested two other Republicans, real Republicans because they were not Obama cheerleaders. Gabriel Gomez types are the real RINOs. The problem is not that they are not too liberal or too conservative. They are incompetent, unconnected, and inconsistent in their campaigning, in their character, and in their calling. How can a Republican run for any office yet champion the Democratic President? How can a candidate support Keystone XL yet believe in climate change? Gomez wanted to lower taxes, yet raise the minimum wage. That's a tax in itself, Mr. Gomez! You the financial officer should have known that! At any rate, Gomez claims that he has changed his mind about an assault weapons ban, and he wanted everyone in Massachusetts to know about it. Of course, his course correction has nothing to do with politics. I would have a better chance of finding Ed Markey in Medford than I would believing Gomez has any motivation greater than vetting himself for statewide office. Please, Mr. Gomez, go away. You have thrown away any remaining vestiges of integrity with such a blatant, pivoted about face.

Boxer, Babies, and the Democratic War on Women

Junior US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) has tricked out the same tired arguments about Republicans and women.

In a Monday Press Conference, Boxer asserted, with little suppport, that Republicans in the House of Representatives were discriminating against one group of people:

Women.

This tired tirade of misogyny and the Republican Party has gotten as old as Boxer herself. With no ideas, with no spirit to support compromise, with no willingness to accept the brazen reality that the Democratic Party's policies and purposes have increased the national debt, with trillion dollar annual deficits, Boxer plays the woman card.

Let's talk about the Republican "War on Women."
The first woman in Congress was a Republican: Jeannette Rankin.

Texas' last US Senator, who had retired for the 2012 election, was a woman: Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

Yet the argument continues that the Republican Party is anti-woman because the party is anti-choice, or rather pro-life, and seeks to limit abortions.

What do the women of America think of abortion?

A majority of women support Texas' twenty-week abortion ban (per the Washington Post, not FOX News, by the way)

Women overwhelmingly oppose late-term, partial birth abortions. Boxer supports them, and even shamefully admitted that a baby is a baby when the mother takes the child home from the hospital.

In her charged exchange with US Senator Rick Santorum, Boxer disputed that life begins at conceptions. Medical professionals from wide-ranging stations and universities disagree with her.
Barbara Boxer is the one waging war on women, as she trots out empty arguments about women's beliefs, the origins of life, and the irresponsible recalcitrance of the Democratic Party to principled compromise on budgets, debt, and Obamacare.

Barbara Boxer Ignores Democratic Party's War on Women

US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) is

one of the lowest ranking Senators in Washington.

She is justly unpopular. She once claimed on camera in the Senate that a baby is a baby when the mother takes the baby home.

She once waved a massive appropriations bill in a war of words with US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), claiming that the Obama Administration spending was justified compared to President George W. Bush

She snidely derided Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) when she reclaimed the chairmanship of the Senate Environmental committee.

CEO Harry Alford of the Black Chamber of Commerce rebuked Boxer for playing the race card on energy issues. The Senator wanted to justify her position and argued that Alford should do the same because the NAACP agreed with her. Race should never have played any role in the discussion.

Fast-forward to the federal government shut-down, and
Boxer has attempted to define the federal government stalling as one more example of the Republicans’ War on Women.

This tired tirade has lost also salience, descending into hypocritical silliness.

If there is any war on women which readers should be aware of, look no further than the frequent perversions of Democratic lawmakers.

1. In the early 1980s, Congressman Gerry Studs of Massachusetts was caught sleeping with an underage page.

2. Congressman Barney Frank had a boyfriend who was running a brothel out of the Congressman's office in Massachusetts. He also had a boyfriend implicated in the Fannie Mae Housing Crisis.

3. Congressman Gary Condit of Modesto gave up his seat following an illicit affair with an intern, Shandra Levy, whose body was found mangled in the outskirts of Washington D.C. (and he was the only House Rep to vote against expelling the irrepressibly corrupt James Traficant of Ohio, bell-bottoms and toupee and all)

4. Let's not forget about President Bill Clinton, who lied under oath to a grand jury about his affair with his own intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was accused of rape and sexual assault during his tenure as Arkansas governor, as well. (Remember Paula Jones? Kathleen Willey?

5. Former North Carolina US Senator John Edwards was sleeping with a campaign staffer, even while his wife was dying of breast cancer. He lost the nomination for President twice, and afterwards he lost his wife, his standing, and just about any sense of dignity.

6. Congressman Anthony Weiner was taking pictures of his private parts and tweeting them to online paramours. When Andrew Breitbart exposed the perverse pictures, Weiner first claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked, but after two weeks of more pics online he confessed to a terrible set of habits. Finally pressured to resign, Weiner then appeared to seek recovery and mend his frayed family life. Leaping into the New York Mayor’s race, Weiner had to explain to voters why he was still tweeting inappropriate pictures of himself even after he resigned from office. He finished at the bottom in the New York Democratic primary that year.

7. This past summer, the Mayor of San Diego Bob Filner was accused by not one or two, but eighteen women who claimed that he had sexually assaulted them. He confessd to these outrageous, repeated acts of misconduct. In a stunning PR about-face, feminist attorney Gloria Allred represented these women’s civil claims against a Democratic politician. Even Filner’s fiancée dumped him. After a month of stalling, and stunning silence from Democratic lawmakers in California and Washington (including Barbara Boxer), Filner resigned.

Where was Boxer when these Congressmen, Senators, and Presidents were engaged in such despicable behavior? Where was the moral outrage when Filthy Filner was feeling up every female he could find? Why did she not speak up for the many women abused by these unseemly men?

If there is any war on women which needs to be stopped, it’s the war waged by Democratic politicians against the very people whom they claim to champion: women, and Barbara Boxer has been silent.

US Senate: Missing in Action on Govt Shutdown

Reid, unambiguous: "We're not going to anything other than wait for them to pass our CR, because otherwise, government's going to shut down"

-- Mike O'Brien @mpoindc

Compromise is defined by two sides coming together to forge one promise.

Compromise must be based on the promise of every legislator to honor the Constitution and recognize the best interests of the people who elect them.

　

House Speaker John Boehner

has articulated this premise and integrated his oath of office with the swearing up and down of the voters in this country.

"The American People don't want the government to shut down, and they don't want Obamacare."

The House majority has not only expressed the clear intent of the American People, but the lower body, more populist and purposeful, has offered the upper chamber the opportunity not only to continue funding the government, but also to remove piecemeal an exacerbated, overwhelming piece of legislation which will cost their caucus seats in the 2014 election.

Obamacare has been delayed by the President as well as repealed in part. The House of Representatives had the President and the Senate Majority Leader's efforts constitutional. Yet aside from Senators who protest the bill, who have argued against it, the US Senate as a whole remains missing in action.

　

The Democratic Party never compromised on the passage of Obamacare, buying votes with earmarks, kick-backs, and procedural shenanigans. Not one Republican voted for this train wreck of a law, and to this day, Democrats who have remained in Washington (and hope to stay there) have voted to defund, delay, and diminish the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Majority Leader Reid declared from the outset that he will do nothing with Obamcare. Has he looked at the stats in

his home state of Nevada?

　

Restaurants can't afford it, and neither can individual residents.

President Obama will not negotiate one part of Obamacare. As a community organizer from Illinois, the President should reassess how his law has created disorder and disunity in his

adopted home state.

　

Illinois hospitals are laying off employees, and with the pretended lower costs of health care have come fewer options. Where's the patient protection in this terrible law? At least junior Senator Mark Kirk, who survived a stroke this past year and returned to the Senate to stop this law, can tell his constituents that he voted against Obamacare.

Yet his elder counterpart, Richard Durbin, has argued that the protection for children to stay on their parents' health insurance is a good things.

Durbin should rethink that

assertion.

The American People do not want Obamcare, and the House of Representatives has heard their plea. The United States Senate refuses to stay in Washington to receive the next continuing resolution. Despite Senator Ted Cruz' long-time protestations on the floor of the Senate, despite the heart-felt pleas of millions of Americans to their legislators, to their local leaders, and even in the press, the upper chamber, led by Senator Harry Reid, and the President have refused to negotiate the very law which is strangling job growth and hindering health care.

There was one opportunity, perhaps, for President Obama to meet with House Republicans. But Senate Majority Leader Reid

told him not to. Not only is the US Senate missing in action, but the Senate Leadership has enabled this ongoing budget impasse.

The US Senate remains missing in action. The President refuses to preside, let alone lead. Only the House of Representatives has represented the will of the Constitution, the letter of the law, and the respect of the American People.