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Ted Cruz to Star in Government Shutdown, the Sequel - Yahoo Finance

 

• Ted Cruz to Star in Government Shutdown, the Sequel

By Sahil Kapur 4 hours ago

The sequel to Government Shutdown—the 2013 battle that caused the closing of national parks and museums, cost the U.S. economy $20 billion , and tanked the Republican Party's popularity—is slated for this fall and will feature the same star: Ted Cruz.

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The Texas senator, now a Republican presidential candidate, is rallying the faithful behind the same strategy as led to a two-week hiatus of government services in October 2013, when he led the party in holding up a government funding bill in a quixotic attempt to strip money for Obamacare. This time, Cruz is using the same Sept. 30 funding deadline to push for stripping Planned Parenthood's $500 million in annual federal dollars. The women's health care provider has become the bête noire of the right after undercover videos surfaced this summer of group officials discussing the cost of aborted fetal tissue.

More from Bloomberg.com: The Summer of Trump Has These Republicans Seeking a September Reset

The resurrected strategy puts Cruz's fellow presidential contenders in a pickle. It is discomfiting to Republican leaders who have been down this road before and fully expect it to end in failure, as it did with the Affordable Care Act, as well as damage the party's image going into an election year where Republicans are defending 24 Senate seats along with their Senate majority.

Cruz, who has made his willingness to defy party leaders one of his political calling cards, is already in attack mode. In an Aug. 25 call, the Texan told a large group of evangelical pastors that Republican leaders want an “empty show vote” that “has no teeth or no consequence” and will ultimately keep funding Planned Parenthood. He urged them to be “preaching from the pulpit” about the value of the unborn.

More from Bloomberg.com: In Iowa, Hillary Clinton Refutes Dick Cheney On Iran

“We can expect President Obama and many of the congressional Democrats to cry loudly that if Congress uses its authority, Congress will be quote 'shutting down the government.' That, of course, is nonsense,” Cruz said, according to the Washington Post . “It is important that [Congress] hear also that a show vote will not suffice. An empty vote with no teeth on it will not suffice. Now is the time for Congress to act and actually end taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.”

It's the same argument he made in 2013: if the government shuts down, it won't be his or the GOP's fault. But it didn't work out that way. The Republican Party's approval rating sank to an all-time low during the 2013 shutdown, according to Gallup . History shows that the party controlling Congress, not the White House, takes most of the blame for shutdowns. But even if the 2013 drama wasn't good for his party, it did help Cruz, turning him into a conservative hero. On the campaign trail, he has consistently defended the shutdown on the campaign trail, arguing that it brought millions of Americans into the political debate. Reviving that hero status will come in handy in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.

More from Bloomberg.com: Obama's Labor Day Executive Order: Paid Sick Leave for Government Contractors

Cruz's co-stars in this year's drama will be the other three Republican senators running for president—Florida's Marco Rubio, Kentucky's Rand Paul, and South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, all of whom are struggling to gain traction in a primary field dominated by Donald Trump. Cruz and Rubio are battling for top-five positions, while Paul and Graham are sinking. Though reluctant warriors in the 2013 shutdown, the three senators followed Cruz's lead. Now Cruz is again forcing them to make a political choice that could alienate them from the party's conservative base.

'Horrifying practices'

The effort to defund Planned Parenthood is clearly resonating with conservative voters. During a recent swing through New Hampshire, Rubio was repeatedly asked if he's willing to support a shutdown to ensure that the group loses its federal funding. He kept the door open. “Well, I think that's a question for the Democrats. Are they willing to shut down the government to protect one organization that sells fetal tissue?” he said to voters at an Aug. 26 town hall in Londonderry, earning applause for accusing the group of engaging in “horrifying practices that should offend the conscience of every American.”

As far as conservatives are concerned, the undercover videos are proof that Planned Parenthood is illegally selling the body parts of aborted fetuses. The family planning provider dismisses the controversy as a smear campaign, saying that its staffers were only discussing reimbursement for the legal costs of providing tissue for medical research. Democrats are standing by Planned Parenthood, which provides a range of medical care to low-income women, including abortion. (Federal law prohibits it from using taxpayer money for abortion, but conservatives don't want it to receive any money while it provides abortion services.) “My message to Congress is pass a budget, fund the government,” President Barack Obama said during a recent speech in New Orleans. “Nobody gets to hold the American economy hostage over their own ideological demands.”

Meanwhile, other candidates in the 17-member Republican field may have more to gain by egging on the shutdown. The issue promises to loom large in the party's next presidential debate on Sept. 16. Trump is on record supporting a shutdown if Democrats don't agree to strip money from Planned Parenthood (although he has also said they do some good things for women). Paul hasn't gone as far as endorsing the strategy, but he has signaled openness to it.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said early August that “the next president should defund Planned Parenthood,” a tacit acknowledgement that such a move isn't possible under Obama.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, whose poll standings took a nosedive over the summer, has recently taken on a Cruz-like tone in railing against the GOP for not fighting hard enough. “Republican leaders in Washington told us during the campaign last year that we needed a Republican Senate to repeal Obamacare,” he said mid-August in Minnesota. “Well, Republicans have been in charge of both houses of Congress since January and there still isn't a bill on the president’s desk to repeal Obamacare.”

‘We just don't have the votes’

One House Republican aide, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said conservative lawmakers will make cutting off Planned Parenthood in a funding resolution the issue in September, predicting that the House will bring up and pass such a bill but it will stall in the Senate.

Cruz played a key role in drumming up House Republican support for the 2013 shutdown against the wishes of party leaders.

All of this creates a dilemma for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, who is arguing against the shutdown strategy (as he initially did in 2013). “We just don't have the votes to get the outcome that we'd like,” he told Kentucky's WYMT-TV last week, observing that the president needs to sign bills for them to become law. Several Republican senators facing re-election in states Obama won twice are also opposing the effort , including New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte and Wisconsin's Ron Johnson.

Among the presidential candidates, Graham is the only one to say he opposes the shutdown strategy. “I am not going, as Senator Graham, to shut the government down because of this fight,” he said, according to Roll Call .

Graham polls at 0 percent with Republicans in two recent national surveys.

Ted Cruz to Star in Government Shutdown, the Sequel - Yahoo Finance

One of the Republicans' strongest candidates is completely imploding - Yahoo Finance

.

It's evident enough that a lot of political observers and even some of his donors are starting to notice he's sounding a lot like the man he's trying to catch at the top of Republican presidential primary polls — Donald Trump.

"Some of the things that he and other candidates are doing to try to associate themselves with positions being taken by Trump or other more 'exciting' candidates are hurting them, though," said veteran Republican strategist Liz Mair, who briefly worked for Walker's campaign. "Why vote for the guy perceived as the copycat or watered-down version of something as opposed to the real deal?"

And according to poll after poll lately, Walker is looking like a watered-down version of his former self — a Republican candidate thought to be among the three most likely challengers to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Walker has seen his national poll numbers tumble, as Trump's — other candidates attracting similar types of voters, like retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — have continued to rise.

A new Public Policy Polling poll released on Tuesday showed Walker with 5% support nationwide. That's a massive drop from the second-place slot Walker nabbed when 17% of Republicans nationwide said that they supported him in last month's PPP poll.

A Monmouth University poll released on Thursday showed Walker plummeting to an eye-popping 3%, down 8% from the previous month.

But perhaps the most ominous batch of poll numbers came on Saturday, when a poll found the governor's support cratering in a state that has long been seen as a linchpin to his White House path: Iowa.

In a May Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll, Walker led the field with 17% of the Republican vote. The same poll taken in August found that his support has been cut in half, with only 8% of likely Republican caucus-goers saying that they still support the governor.

That puts him in a distant third to Trump and Carson, who lead the field in the state with 23% and 18%, respectively. It's a far cry from the months of February through mid-July, when he led every public poll of Iowa except one.

View gallery

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(REUTERS/Joshua Lott)
If there's a bright side for Walker, it's that the numbers still give him hope of turning things around. As his supporters and some pollsters will tell you, Walker isn't getting noticeably less popular. He's just not garnering the kind of excitement of anti-establishment Republican rivals like Trump and Carson. 

His image remains popular. In Iowa, 71% of Republican voters view Walker favorably — a number that has actually gone up 5% since May, when the last Bloomberg Politics/DMR poll was conducted.

He's also many voters' second choice. In the PPP national poll, Walker clocked in at 10% when voters asked who would be their second choice for a nominee, trailing only Carson and Trump.

"That increase in visibility has translated into more favorable and unfavorable feelings. Only Ben Carson has a higher favorability score," J Ann Selzer, who conducted the Bloomberg Politics/DMR poll, said in an email. "So, it’s easy to conclude that Walker is not turning voters off as much as they are turned on to other candidates."

For its part, Walker's campaign has sought to downplay the results of the early polls. A campaign spokesperson told Business Insider in a phone conversation on Thursday that the campaign is playing the long game, steadily laying the groundwork for a grassroots campaign and working behind the scenes to garner endorsements.

"We're doing what we need to do on the ground, and we're doing what we need to do to get Republicans engaged and motivated," the Walker spokesperson told Business Insider. "That is work that you don't always see in the news but certainly pays dividends in the end."

The spokesperson also said the campaign is looking to exploit some facts reflected in the polls — that many Republicans still don't know Walker and haven't settled on a candidate yet. Thursday's Monmouth poll, for example, found that 42% of Republicans nationwide had no opinion of Walker, theoretically giving him room to grow as the campaign wears on.

"Governor Walker is very high among Republicans nationally and in the early states, and we see that as an opportunity to introduce him," the spokesperson said.

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(AP)
But Walker has been unable — at least yet — to capture the undivided anti-establishment enthusiasm of Tea Party voters who identify as very conservative.

The latest PPP poll suggests that Walker voters are also very interested in Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. And he continues to lose ground to Trump and Carson.

"Trump has completely passed him by with those groups. Those folks still like him — they’re just for the time being more excited about Trump and increasingly Carson as well," PPP pollster Tom Jensen said in an email.

Some strategists say that Walker could be helped by the fact that Trump's supporters appear to be as unpredictable as the candidate they support, and won't show up when it's actually time to vote. But pollsters note that Trump's support is higher among people who don't usually don't caucus, but that this could work in Trump's favor.

"Trump’s support is stronger among people who don’t have a record of caucusing than people who do," Jensen said. "That might mean those people won’t turn out — but it also might mean he’s just bringing new people into the process. Doing that was certainly a key to Obama doing so well there in 2008."

At the moment, some observers have noted that Republicans' best strategy against Trump is to hope that he somehow implodes when conservative voters realize that he is espousing positions that don't toe the party line.

One of the Republicans' strongest candidates is completely imploding - Yahoo Finance

Our View: Gov. Bruce Rauner should release promised money for airport jobs project - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

By The Editorial Board
Rockford Register Star

Posted Sep. 7, 2015 at 5:20 PM

When Gov. Bruce Rauner campaigned in 2014 for governor, he spoke in Rockford about how important the city and region are to Illinois' future prosperity. "We'll know how well Illinois is doing by how well Rockford is doing," is essentially what he said several times here.

A key part of our state's prosperity is turning around job losses in our state. We're hard at work doing that. Aeorspace firm Woodward, Inc. has opened a new, $250 million factory here. Another example is under construction at Chicago Rockford International Airport, which is building a $40 million project that will vastly expand job opportunities in the Rockford region and be a building block to advance further aerospace sector growth throughout the region, especially at the airport and the adjacent Global Trade Park.

The project is the AAR maintenance, repair and overhaul facility — two, 9.5-story hangars that can house any aircraft that flies. This facility will employ 500 to 1,000 people in well-paying jobs overhauling airplanes for major airlines. The prospect for growth in that field is high. AAR is an Illinois company based in Wood Dale. It's the largest such company in the U.S.

This project, partly supported by the state of Illinois, also has a key education component that will benefit not just Rockford, but all of Illinois. Rock Valley College has opened a new aviation technology campus across from the future AAR hangars. That will allow students from our community college district — all or parts of five counties — to get an affordable education as an aviation mechanic and get a job at AAR or in one of our many aerospace firms.

The governor has said he will evaluate economic development projects based on whether they create jobs, have an educational component and involve a public-private partnership. This project has all three.

Local governments have pitched in to help fund this project. And in 2014 the airport was promised that the state would kick in $16.3 million. So far it has received $1.3 million. It still needs the rest of the money in order to complete this project.

The immediate need is for $9 million by Sept. 30 to make sure the hangars get constructed so that the business can open in 2016. The contracts were all completed before June 30, so they should not be affected by the lack of a new budget.

The buildings have been ordered from a company in Maine and are due to be delivered in sections in September. The foundation is being prepared now. If the state money doesn't flow in September, work will have to stop, leaving construction workers standing around.

Page 2 of 2 - The state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is working closely with the airport. DCEO leaders are very positive about AAR's potential to create jobs and opportunities in northern Illinois.

The Editorial Board of the Rockford Register Star urges Gov. Rauner to release funds quickly so that the Rockford region can start creating hundreds of much-needed jobs, train students in aviation tech and help jump-start the Illinois Turnaround.

Our View: Gov. Bruce Rauner should release promised money for airport jobs project - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

State still hiring despite lack of budget | Daily Chronicle

 

By The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD – The absence of a state budget hasn’t kept Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration and other Illinois agencies from hiring more workers.

According to Illinois comptroller records, 440 people were added to the payroll in August, more than the previous six-month average and an increase from the previous month. In July, 360 employees were hired, slightly less than the six-month average of 390 per month.

The new hires come as the governor moves to lay off some state workers by closing the Illinois State Museum and reducing funding at the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly told the Decatur Herald & Review that the new employees are replacing workers who have left the payroll.

“Any large organization with tens of thousands of employees has continuous turnover and the state of Illinois is no different,” she said in an email Thursday.

These increased hiring levels are adding to the concerns of the comptroller’s office, which is working to pay state bills in compliance with court orders and consent decrees that are helping to keep the state government open for business, according to officials.

“We are very concerned about not having a budget,” said Rich Carter, spokesman for Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger. “We’re probably running a $5 billion to $6 billion deficit right now based on the current spending path.”

The recently hired employees range from high-profile officials, such as the new director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, to rank-and-file employees, such as a librarian for the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice. They also include several interns who are working for the governor’s office for $31,000 per year from August to July.

Of the 440 hires in August, 166 of them were hired to work minimum wage, short-term jobs at the Illinois State Fair last month.

But not all of the new state workers are under the control of Rauner’s office. The treasurer’s office hired four employees, the attorney general added three, and the secretary of state’s office brought on 16 new people last month.

If the budget impasse’s goal is to shut down the state government, Republican state Rep. David Harris of Arlington Heights said, then it’s not working.

“We can’t even shut down government right,” Harris said. “It’s a weird, crazy situation that, without pressure, it won’t get resolved. The whole thing seems odd.”

___

Information from: Herald & Review, http://www.herald-review.com

State still hiring despite lack of budget | Daily Chronicle

American Energy Alliance Leads Front Group Attack on Wind PTC | Gabe Elsner

 

The fossil fuel-funded American Energy Alliance wrote a coalition letter signed by 20 organizations to Congress claiming widespread support for "The PTC Elimination Act", which would cut subsidies for wind energy production. The letter uses misinformation to claim that wind energy is bad for the economy and is more expensive than traditional fossil fuel energy production. Wind energy power purchase agreements continue to break records as the cost of clean energy has plummeted over the past few years. The price of wind is down more than 50 percent since 2009 and contracted ind prices hit an all-time low in 2014 of ~2.35 cents per kWh.

The Energy and Policy Institute examined the list of signatories and found the following: 

• 18 of the signatories signed a similar letter written by the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity in June 2014 (counting Independent Women’s Forum & Voice as one affiliated organization). 
• 14 have ties to fossil fuel funders and 18 have ties to the Koch Brothers’ political network with some organizations receiving funding directly from the Kochs and others receiving funding from the "dark money ATM" Donors Trust/Donors Capital Fund or other front groups like the "Center to Protect Patients Rights”.

Elected officials and the public should make note that while these groups claim to be “free market” think tanks and non-profits, in reality, they are operating as front groups for the Koch Brothers and other fossil fuel interests with a financial interest in stoping the wind production tax credit (PTC).

See our breakdown below: 

Organization
State
Fossil Fuel Funding?
Koch Network?
Description

60 Plus Association
DC
Yes
Yes
Funding from Center to Protect Patient Rights, a Koch funding passthrough; also funded by Freedom Partners, the Koch Brothers' secret bank; also received funding from Koch-network's TC4 Trust

American Commitment
DC
Yes
Yes
Koch-funded group, almost entirely funded by Koch passthroughs Freedom Partners, Center to Protect Patient Rights

American Energy Alliance
DC
Yes
Yes
Funded by ExxonMobil, Koch Brothers and Freedom Partners; President is former Koch lobbyist

Americans for Prosperity
DC
Yes
Yes
Founded and funded by Koch Brothers

Americans for Tax Reform
DC
Yes
Yes
Funded by American Petroleum Institute and Koch Brothers; member of State Policy Network

Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes
DC
Yes
Americans for Prosperity funded allied group Building a Better Ohio on Ohio Issue 2; signed previous AFP anti-wind letter

Competitive Enterprise Institute
DC
Yes 
Yes
Funding from ExxonMobil and Koch Brothers; Member of State Policy Network

Energy Makes America Great, Inc.
DC
Yes
Yes 
Funded by New Mexico Oil and Gas Association; part of Citizens' Alliance for Responsible Energy

Freedom Works
DC
Yes
Yes
Funded by DonorsTrust; Break up of Citizens for Sound Economy (funded by the Koch Brothers) created FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity (funded by the Koch Brothers)

Heritage Action for America
DC
Yes
Yes
Funded by Koch Brothers; member of State Policy Network

Independent Women's Forum/Voice
DC
Yes
Yes
Funded by Koch Brothers; affiliated with Americans for Prosperity for 5 years

Less Government
DC
Front group managed by consultant Seyton Motley; no website exists at lessgovernment.org, the organization's listed web URL

Let Freedom Ring
DC
Yes
Yes
Funded through Koch Brothers' political network

R Street Institute
DC
Yes
Connected to Koch political network, was part of Heartland Institute

Taxpayers Protection Alliance
DC
Yes
Connections to Koch-funded Americans for Job Security and Alliance for America's Future

Tea Party Nation
Yes
For profit company founded by Judson Phillips, organized first Tea Party convention

The Campaign to Free America
Founded by Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation

Frontiers of FreedomVA
Yes
Yes
Funding from Koch Brothers and ExxonMobil; funded by tobacco industry

Americans for Limited Government
VA
Yes
Yes
Funded by Center to Protect Patients Rights, a Koch funding passthrough.

Project 21
DC
Yes
Yes
Initiative of State Policy Network group "National Center for Public Policy Research", which received funding from ExxonMobil

Follow Gabe Elsner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GabeElsner

More:

Wind Production Tax Credit Fossil Fuels Front Groups American Energy Alliance Heritage Action Americans for Prosperity Americans for Tax Reform Freedom Works Competitive Enterprise Institute American Commitment 60 Plus Association Frontiers of Freedom Taxpayers Protection Alliance Independent Women's Forum Tea Party Nation Let Freedom Ring R Street Institute Energy Makes America Great Less Government Coast Americans for Limited Government Project 21 The Campaign to Free America

American Energy Alliance Leads Front Group Attack on Wind PTC | Gabe Elsner

Deputy clerks in Kentucky say yes to same-sex marriage licenses but their boss says no - LA Times

 

When gay and lesbian couples return to the Rowan County clerk’s office Friday, deputies are expected to finally grant the requests for marriage licenses even though their boss remained in a Kentucky jail after she refused to issue the documents because of her religious objections.

After a topsy-turvy day in federal court, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was a defiant resident in jail in Ashland, Ky., where supporters said she was a prisoner because of her religious conscience. It was not clear when or how she would be released.

“We’re not sure what will be the next step,” said Charla Bansley, a spokeswoman for the Liberty Counsel, lawyers for Davis. “We weren’t prepared for this. All she has been asking for all along is an accommodation for her religious beliefs.”

Activists who have been fighting to get the licenses said they will return to the clerk’s office Friday with the expectation of success.

“We are so pleased our clients will get their marriage licenses, but we certainly take no joy that Ms. Davis will be jail,” said Heather Weaver of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the four couples — two of them gay and two of them heterosexual — during the weeks of litigation that went up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The judge did what he felt he had to do to protect the court’s authority,” she said. “This makes clear that public officials don’t have the right to not follow the law.”

Davis stopped issuing licenses to all couples, gay and straight, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 26 that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right. Despite repeated rulings against her, she has continued to cite “God’s authority” for defying the courts.

Four couples sued and Davis lost on all judicial levels including the U.S. Supreme Court this week, but she still refused to issue the licenses. The couples sought a contempt order to force her to comply and that was the issue at stake Thursday.

Hundreds of people crowded the courtroom or demonstrated outside, where picketers were seen in television images condemning gays and the court’s approval of same-sex marriage. They carried signs praising Davis for holding firm to her beliefs.

 

Inside, U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning found Davis in contempt and sent her to jail. At an afternoon hearing, five of her six deputies agreed to grant licenses. The lone holdout was Davis’ son, Nathan, who refused, citing religious feelings. Davis, a Democrat, was elected to replace her mother, who served as clerk for decades.

The current conflict between religion and civil authority seemed to be finally resolved and Kim Davis was returned from jail. But she rejected the compromise worked out by her lawyers who wanted her freed if she agreed not to interfere when the deputy clerks acted on the licenses.

Davis told the court that she didn’t want her name, which is printed on the documents, used and refused to authorize her deputies to grant marriage licenses. She was promptly returned to jail.

Throughout, Davis has maintained that her Christian beliefs gave her no choice but to oppose the licenses. After a life that included personal problems and four marriages, Davis said she became a devout Christian four years ago after the death of her mother-in-law.

“To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience,” Davis said this week in a statement. “It is not a light issue for me. It is a heaven or hell decision.”

In jailing Davis, Bunning acted more forcefully than both sides had thought. Lawyers for the couples seeking the contempt charge had asked for a fine rather than imprisonment.

But Bunning was adamant in protecting judicial power.

“The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order,” Bunning said, according to media reports from the courtroom. “If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.”

“Everyone is stunned at this development,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Kim Davis is being treated as a criminal because she cannot violate her conscience. While she may be behind bars for now, Kim Davis is a free woman. Her conscience remains unshackled.”

As an elected official, Davis cannot be fired and has refused to resign despite calls for her impeachment. She and her backers also urged the state Legislature to change Kentucky laws to find some way for her to keep her job while following her conscience.

The Legislature is not currently in session and a special session doesn’t seem likely.

“I went to church to fulfill her dying wish,” Davis said of her mother-in-law in a statement released through Liberty Counsel, which defends Christians in cases in which religion clashes with civil society. In church, “I heard a message of grace and forgiveness and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I am not perfect. No one is. But I am forgiven.”

michael.muskal@latimes.com

Deputy clerks in Kentucky say yes to same-sex marriage licenses but their boss says no - LA Times