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Furloughed government workers could be paid twice in Oregon

 Bailey Comment: The government is just a great big money pit! A small example is the article below.


Some federal workers who were furloughed in Oregon could be getting paid twice, with a state official confirming to Fox News that those workers who received state unemployment benefits during the partial government shutdown will not have to re-pay the money.
The spokesman for WorkSource Oregon Employment Department said the workers received at most a week’s worth of unemployment benefits. The spokesman said he did not know how many workers received the benefits.
He confirmed that furloughed federal workers in the state do not have to re-pay the state unemployment benefits.
The employees will receive double pay because the budget bill approved by Congress provides that all furloughed government workers will receive back pay for the days they did not work under the partial government shutdown.
Richard Hobble of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies told Fox News Oct. 11 that if federal employees receive double payment, the states should require them to re-pay the unemployment benefits once they received back pay.
“The states will be expected to collect back from the claimants who received those benefits when in fact they were compensated for those weeks,” he said.
During the partial shutdown, a third of the new unemployment claims filed in New Mexico came from federal workers. It was not clear if they would also be paid twice under the budget agreement provision if their claims were approved.
Washington D.C. and Maryland also both paid millions in unemployment benefits to about 24,000 furloughed workers during the budget crisis.

Vote breakdown: How lawmakers voted on the budget deal

SENATORS:
Voting yes were 52 Democrats, 27 Republicans and 2 independents.
Voting no were 0 Democrats and 18 Republicans.


HOUSE MEMBERS:
Voting yes were 198 Democrats and 87 Republicans. Voting no were 0 Democrats and 144 Republicans.

Todd Starnes: American taxpayers betrayed by chicken-hearted RINOs

American taxpayers have once again been trampled by establishment Republicans – a thundering herd of chicken-hearted Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) galloping to the Left.
The debt ceiling deal struck between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is a victory for President Obama and Democrats.
ObamaCare is still the law of the land. The government is still spending money it does not have. And thousands of government workers just got a two-week vacation courtesy of the taxpayers.
I’m sure we will hear establishment apologists calling the events of recent days a compromise. But seeing how the president refused to compromise, it’s more likely the Grand Old Party was the only one bending.
Establishment Republicans always talk about doing the right thing for the nation, no matter the price. But when push comes to shove, they always throw in the towel. And Wednesday, McConnell and his band of merry moderates heaved their towels in an epic demonstration of lily-livered cowardice.
But you’ve got to hand it to Sen. Ted Cruz for standing his ground. He held the line and ultimately paid the price. His good name was smeared by Democrats as well as McConnell’s band – most notably Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Bob Corker.
This band of bullies brushed aside Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment – the one about not speaking ill of any fellow Republican. If only the moderates debated Democrats with the same ferocity reserved for conservatives.
“The nastier they get, the more it demonstrates how scared they are of the American people holding every elected official accountable,” Cruz told me in a telephone call Wednesday afternoon. “It’s not surprising the Washington establishment pushes back. We knew when we took on the Washington establishment that it would fight back.”
Sen. Cruz told me Wednesday was not a good day for America.
“Today’s deal is a classic example of the Washington establishment turning a blind eye to the American people,” he said.  “It does nothing for all of the young people coming out of college right now who can’t find jobs because of ObamaCare. It does nothing for all the single parents forced into part time work who can’t feed their kids on 29 hours a week.”
The gentleman from Texas had nothing but praise for the House of Representatives. He said they held the line. They stood strong for the American people. The Senate is another matter.
“The outcome of this fight would have been very, very different if only Senate Republicans had made the decision to stand and fight alongside House Republicans,” he said. “That didn’t happen. That was the critical piece.”
Rush Limbaugh told his millions of listeners that the GOP has been hoodwinked.
“I have never seen a major political party simply occupy placeholders, as the Republican Party is doing,” he said on his national radio program.
“There hasn't been any opposition, not any serious opposition.  There may have been votes against this or that, votes against ObamaCare. There may have been votes against the stimulus, but in terms of a package of policies, a package of principled beliefs, of opposition expressed daily by party leaders against what's happening in this country, there hasn't been.
Wednesday’s  epic surrender was much like King Arthur in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” hollering, “Run away, run away.”
I can imagine the minstrel strumming a lyre in the middle of the Rotunda, warbling, “Brave McConnell ran away. When Obama reared his liberal head, he bravely turned his tail and fled. Yes, Brave Sir McConnell turned about and valiantly, he chickened out.”
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin took lawmakers from both political parties to task on her Facebook page.
“When life gives you lemons, at this point make margaritas,” she wrote in an essay titled, “Thanks a Lot for Caving, Politicians."
“Caving on debt could drive one to drink.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham still appears to be distressed that conservative lawmakers would actually follow through on their campaign promises and represent the interests of the people.
“This has been a very bad two weeks for the Republican brand,” he said.
What about the American brand, sir? Is anybody in Washington concerned about that?

Budget Cartoon

Activists resort to chaining themselves to buses, buildings to protest all deportations

Frustrated by a lack of progress in Congress on immigration legislation, activists are demanding President Obama stop deporting all illegal immigrants -- not just those who arrived here as children.
Only now, they're using new tactics, chaining themselves to buses, jails and federal buildings to persuade lawmakers to let them stay.
In Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, protesters chained themselves to three buses that were deporting illegal immigrants as part of Operation Streamline, a program that prosecutes or deports every illegal immigrant caught at the border. The program is meant to prevent the revolving door that encourages illegal immigrants to re-enter the U.S. hours or days after their initial arrest near the same location.
"No one really sees what happens once people are picked up and how families are separated," said a Phoenix protester. "This is something that happens every day, and it's our mission to keep up the pressure because we're already at too many deportations, and how much longer until the Obama administration does something about this immigration crisis?"
In Phoenix on Monday, 250 protesters also marched to the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters, though the office was closed due to Columbus Day.
Obama has said he doesn't favor a so-called "blanket amnesty" through executive action, but has instructed immigration control agencies not to break up families. Border Patrol sources tell Fox News it's no surprise, then, they're now seeing entire families -- not just young men -- busting the border in hopes of staying in the U.S.
Opponents say the administration is sending the wrong message.
"I say it isn't enough to deport them all," said Brandy Baron of Remember1986.com, which staged a counter-protest in Phoenix. "They knew when they came here illegally, they knew when they came here we have laws, and laws have consequences."
The Phoenix march was just one incident that underscores the growing frustration of Hispanics and immigration reform advocates over the last few months. Congress appeared ready to pass a bill before the budget and debt-ceiling impasse took hold in Washington. Since then, all other legislation has come to a virtual standstill.
On Monday at the Eloy Detention Center, one of the country's largest immigration jails, protesters chained themselves together in the entryway.
“I’m doing this to show my brother and all the other people inside that we support them and we will do what it takes to get them out," 16-year-old Sandy Estrada of Phoenix told Not One More Deportation.  "I want the president to know that everyone deserves to be with their families and that he can stop our pain.”
Last week, Tucson police pepper-sprayed a crowd that had surrounded a pair of Border Patrol agents who took two illegal immigrants into custody after a traffic stop.
"President Obama is approaching 2 million deportations. That's an all-time record," said Phoenix protestor James Lyall of the ACLU. "So in addition to all the other stuff going on, this is something that affects our communities on a day-to-day basis."
Immigration officials tell Fox News they are prepared to handle the disruptions and will make changes in handling deportations to avoid confrontations.

Are you kidding me again?

Ex-ACORN operatives helping roll out ObamaCare

A group formed from the ruins of ACORN is hard at work signing people up for ObamaCare, and may be collecting taxpayer cash for their work despite Congress' efforts to cut the organization and its affiliates off from government funding, a watchdog group charged.
The United Labor Unions Council Local 100, a New Orleans-based nonprofit, announced last month it would take part in a multi-state "navigator" drive to help people enroll in President Obama's health care plan. The labor council was established by ACORN founder Wade Rathke after his larger group was broken up amid scandal in 2009 and banned from receiving taxpayer funds.
“At a time when our government has ceased functioning due to an appropriations gap, it is ironic that America’s tax dollars are being doled out to an entity whose poor stewardship of our funds was well-established by Congress,” said Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, a nonpartisan watchdog group based in Washington.

Are you kidding me?

Crash-prone ObamaCare site also includes voter registration option

The federal website that enrolls Americans in ObamaCare also asks applicants if they want to register to vote, raising questions about why the Obama administration would further complicate an already crash-prone website.
Thirty six states are using the federal site – also called exchanges or market places -- to enroll customers in government-mandated health insurance.
At least four other states -- California, Connecticut, New York, Vermont and Wisconsin -- also are asking or intend to ask customers if they want to register to vote.
“The [website] launch has not gone well,” Nick Novak, a spokesman for the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, which noticed the voter-registration question on the Wisconsin site, told FoxNews.com on Monday. “Why are they cluttering up the site?”
Novak, who has unsuccessfully tried numerous times over the past week to click through the site, also argues officials should have at least posed the question after customers sign up for insurance.
However, government officials have defended putting the question on the exchanges, citing federal law.
Brian Cook, a spokesman for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in August the exchanges must include the question, under the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. The law requires states to offer voter registration at government offices that provide public assistance.
Brett Healy, president of the Wisconsin-based MacIver Institute, suggests that including the question could backfire on Democrats.
"The president should be careful what he wishes for,” he said. "While he counted on young people to win the presidency, many are now experiencing ObamaCare sticker shock."