Christie vows to tackle thorny entitlement reform, accuses Paul of 'politicizing' national security

Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday downplayed his so-so poll numbers, arguing that 2016 presidential campaigns are just beginning and that he has no fear about tackling entitlement reform.
Christie told “Fox News Sunday” that 71 percent of federal spending now goes to debt service and entitlement programs, which include Social Security and Medicaid.
“We need to reform these programs, and we can do it in a way that's not going to throw anybody off the cliff,” he said in an interview taped last week and aired Sunday. “I've put that plan forward, and I'm going to keep talking about it. It's the third rail of American politics. They say don't touch it. I'm going to hug it.”
Christie argued such programs must be revised and that current spending on them is hurting investments in national defense, infrastructure and education.
“That’s just not acceptable to me nor is a massive tax increase on the American people to pay for it,” he said.
Christie downplayed his polls numbers, which essentially have him ninth nationally and sixth in early-voting-state New Hampshire, saying “campaigns matter.”
“If they didn’t, we’d still elect people right now,” he said.
Right now, the huge 2016 GOP presidential field has 14 candidates and is expected to increase to 16 and include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Christie is not expected to win or have a top finish in first-in-the-nation voting in Iowa, where the Republican Party’s most conservative candidates historically do the best.
However, Christie, more of an East Coast moderate, is expected to do better in the less conservative New Hampshire and would be allowed to participate in the GOP primary debates if he stays among the top 10.
On Sunday, he disagreed with calls by fellow GOP presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for a constitutional amendment that would lead to retention elections for Supreme Court justices, following recent decisions on ObamaCare and gay marriage.
He suggested that Americans should consider a process similar to that in New Jersey in which justices are appointed for a seven-year term, followed by the governor having the opportunity to again consider whether to nominate them for a lifetime tenure. 
“I don't want to see judges raising money and running for election,” Christie said.
He also accused fellow GOP presidential candidate Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul of politicizing national security by arguing against a section of the post-9/11 Patriot Act that allows federal investigators to track the metadata of electronic communication to thwart more potential terror attacks.
“He's wrong, and what he's done has made American weaker and more vulnerable,” Christie told Fox News. “And he's done it and then cut his speeches and put them on the Internet to raise money off of them. He's politicizing America's national security.”

Congress returns to face busy agenda, funding deadline

Witch & Scarecrow.

After July Fourth fireworks and parades, members of Congress return to work Tuesday facing a daunting summer workload and a pending deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown in the fall.
The funding fight is shaping up as a major partisan brawl against the backdrop of an intensifying campaign season. Republicans are eager to avoid another Capitol Hill mess as they struggle to hang onto control of Congress and try to take back the White House next year.
Already they are deep into the blame game with Democrats over who would be responsible if a shutdown does happen. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has denounced Democrats' "dangerously misguided strategy" while House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California accuses Boehner and his Republicans of pursuing "manufactured crises."
The funding deadline does not even arrive until Sept. 30, but lawmakers face more immediate tests. Near the top of the list is renewing highway funding before the government loses authority July 31 to send much-needed transportation money to the states right in the middle of summer driving season.
The highway bill probably also will be the way lawmakers try to renew the disputed federal Export-Import Bank, which makes and underwrites loans to help foreign companies buy U.S. products. The bank's charter expired June 30 due to congressional inaction, a defeat for business and a victory for conservative activists who turned killing the obscure agency into an anti-government cause celebre.
Depending on the progress of the Obama administration's nuclear negotiations with Iran, lawmakers could also face debate on that issue. Leading Republicans have made clear that they are prepared to reject any deal the administration comes up with.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Sunday that Iran "should have faced a simple choice: they dismantle their nuclear program entirely, or they face economic devastation and military destruction of their nuclear facilities."
"It was actually both the fact of sanctions in 2013 and the threat of even tighter sanctions that drove them to the negotiating table," Cotton, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said on ABC's "This Week."
"That's why we shouldn't have let up those sanctions," he added. "We should have insisted on the very simple terms that President Obama himself proposed at the outset of this process. Iran dismantles its nuclear program entirely and then they will get sanctions relief."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said any agreement with Tehran must be "comprehensive."
"It's got to prevent Iran from any steps towards producing a nuclear weapons," said Cardin, also appearing on ABC. "That means you have to have full inspections, you have to have inspections in the military sites.  You have to be able to determine if they can use covert activities in order to try to develop a nuclear weapon."
Beyond the issue of Iran, the Senate opens its legislative session with consideration of a major bipartisan education overhaul bill that rewrites the much-maligned No Child Left Behind law by shifting responsibility from the federal government to the states for public school standards.
"We're seven years overdue" for a rewrite, said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, the bill's chief sponsor.
The House also is moving forward with its own, Republican-written education overhaul bill, revived after leadership had to pull it earlier this year when conservatives revolted.
Even if both bills pass, though, it's uncertain whether Congress will be able to agree on a combined version to send to President Barack Obama. Indeed the prospects for any major legislative accomplishments arriving on Obama's desk in the remainder of the year look slim, though there's talk of the Senate following the House and moving forward on cybersecurity legislation.
That means that even though Obama was so buoyed when Congress sent him a major trade bill last month that he declared "This is so much fun, we should do it again," he may not get his wish.
But all issues are likely to be overshadowed by the government funding fight and suspense over how -- or if -- a shutdown can be avoided.
Democrats are pledging to oppose the annual spending bills to fund government agencies unless Republicans sit down with them to negotiate higher spending levels for domestic agencies. Republicans, who want more spending for the military but not domestic agencies, have so far refused. If there's no resolution by Sept. 30, the government will enter a partial shutdown.
It's an outcome all involved say they want to avoid. Yet Democrats who watched Republicans pay a steep political price for forcing a partial shutdown over Obama's health care law in 2013 -- and come within hours of partially shutting down the Department of Homeland Security this year -- claim confidence they have the upper hand.
"Given that a Democratic president needs to sign anything and you need Democratic votes in both chambers, the writing is on the wall here," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.
Republicans insist Democrats are running a risk by opposing spending bills for priorities like troop funding -- but are not yet discussing how they will proceed if Democrats don't back down.
As a result it looks likely current funding levels could be temporarily extended beyond Sept. 30 to allow more time to negotiate a solution.
And it's not the only consequential deadline this fall. The government's borrowing limit will also need to be raised sometime before the end of the year, another issue that's ripe for brinkmanship. Some popular expiring tax breaks will also need to be extended, and the Federal Aviation Administration must be renewed. An industry-friendly FAA bill was delayed in the House recently although aides said that was unrelated to the Justice Department's newly disclosed investigation of airline pricing.
In the meantime, the presence of several presidential candidates in the Senate make action in that chamber unpredictable, Congress will be out for another recess during the month of August -- and in September Pope Francis will visit Capitol Hill for a first-ever papal address to Congress.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigns after 'no' vote against bailout

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned from his post Monday after Greek citizens voted to reject further austerity measures the day prior, the Associated Press reported.
Varoufakis said he was told shortly after the voters rejected Sunday's referendum regarding demands by international creditors to impose further austerity measures in exchange for a bailout package for its bankrupt economy, that the other eurozone finance ministers and Greece's other creditors would prefer he not attend the ministers' meetings.
Varoufakis issued an announcement saying Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had judged that Varoufakis' resignation "might help achieve a deal" and that he was leaving the finance ministry for this reason Monday.
Varoufakis is known for his brash style and fondness for frequent media appearances at the start of his tenure when the new government was formed in January. He had visibly annoyed many of the eurozone's finance ministers during Greece's debt negotiations.
"Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants... for my ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the prime minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement."
"For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today," Varoufakis wrote in a blog post, according to The Guardian.
“Like all struggles for democratic rights, so too this historic rejection of the Eurogroup’s 25th June ultimatum comes with a large price tag attached,” the post read, according to the Athenian newspaper Kathmerini.
“It is, therefore, essential that the great capital bestowed upon our government by the splendid NO vote be invested immediately into a YES to a proper resolution – to an agreement that involves debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favour of the needy, and real reforms,” Varoufakis wrote.
He said the prime minister had judged it "potentially helpful to him" if he is absent from the upcoming meetings with Greece's creditors.
"I shall wear the creditors' loathing with pride," he said, adding that he fully supports the prime minister and the government.
Varoufakis had called the voters' rejection of the proposal a "brave" move, Sky News reported.
The referendum "will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage," Varoufakis said.
With his brash style and fondness for frequent media appearances at the start of his tenure at the ministry when the new government was formed in January, Varoufakis had visibly annoyed many of the eurozone's finance ministers during Greece's debt negotiations.
Government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said in a statement that a replacement for Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who resigned Monday, would be announced later in the day after a meeting of political party leaders.
Sakellaridis said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras "feels the need to thank (Varoufakis) for his ceaseless efforts to promote the government's positions and the interests of the Greek people, under very difficult conditions."
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was elected on promises to repeal the austerity demanded in return for a bailout from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund, and negotiations broke down late last month after dragging on unsuccessfully for five months.
With his hight-stakes gamble to call a referendum on creditor proposals with just a week's notice, Tsipras aimed to show creditors that Greeks, whose economy has been shattered and who face spiralling unemployment and poverty, have had enough and that the austerity prescribed isn't working.
At one Athens bank, an employee faced a crowd of elderly Greeks as he tried to distribute tag queue positions to eto enter into the bank to withdraw a maximum of 120 euros ($134) for the week, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, a prominent lawmaker with one of Germany's governing parties says he doubts that the departure of Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis will make talks on Greece's financial future easier.
Carsten Schneider of the center-left Social Democrats told ZDF television that the resignation is "not so important" and what matters is what policies the Greek government wants to pursue, the Associated Press reported.
Varoufakis, who had annoyed many of his fellow eurozone finance ministers, said he was told that some ministers and other creditors would prefer that he not attend the ministers' meetings.
Schneider said that Varoufakis "can't keep his promises and is drawing the consequences by fleeing." He added that a new minister might create a little more trust, but what is needed is Greek willingness to accept reforms and stabilize the country.

Cartoon

Watchdog: Agency spends more than it makes to collect wrongful payments

1935

The Bureau of Federal Old-Age Benefits, renamed the Bureau of Old-Age Insurance (BOAI) in 1937, was created in December 1935 and was the forerunner of today's Social Security Administration.

 

 The Social Security Administration (SSA) spends more money than it collects when trying to recover payments to individuals who received benefits for which they were not eligible. 
According to the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the SSA issued $128.3 million in "low-dollar" overpayments between 2008 and 2013, and then spent $323 million to collect them. The agency ultimately recovered only $109.4 million. 
"This resulted in SSA spending over $213.6 million more than it collected," the OIG said, in an audit released Wednesday. 
The OIG defines an overpayment as "benefit payments greater than the amount to which individuals are entitled." 
The overpayments were distributed through the SSA's Retirement and Survivors Insurance (RSI), Disability Insurance (DI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. 
The SSA issued approximately $16.8 billion in disability insurance overpayments alone in the past decade. 
"Generally, SSA attempted to collect overpayments regardless of the amount," the OIG said. "In some cases, the value of the overpayment was less than what SSA spent to collect the overpayment. Therefore, for some overpayments, collection was not always cost-beneficial." 
A "low-dollar" overpayment is less than or equal to the agency's average cost to retrieve an overpayment.
 

Trump stands by statements on Mexican illegal immigrants, surprised by backlash

Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump on Saturday stood by statements he made recently that too many illegal immigrants from Mexico are criminals but said he was surprised by the backlash and that his comments are causing financial concerns.
“The crime is raging and it’s violent. And if you talk about it, it’s racist,” Trump told Fox News, three days after a purported illegal Mexican immigrant deported five previous times allegedly killed a woman in San Francisco.
Trump first made his inflammatory remarks during his non-scripted, June 16 presidential announcement speech.
“When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best,” he said during the announcement. “They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting."
Since then, a list of businesses have announced plans to cut ties with Trump’s vast business empire, while fellow Republican candidates and others have questioned Trump’s remarks.
NBC and Univision, for example, have decided not to air the Trump-owned Miss Universe Pageant, Macy’s is dropping his signature clothing line, New York Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio has ordered a review of Trump's city contracts and NASCAR is moving an annual banquet from the Trump National Doral resort in Miami. 
“I didn’t know it was going to be this severe,” Trump said Saturday, adding that he was surprised by the NASCAR decision, considering he has a good relationship with the group. “I am a whipping post.”
Still, Trump has drawn support from Americans who say he is openly confronting the severity of the immigration problem that others won’t publicly knowledge.
Trump also said Saturday that the problem isn’t limited to Mexico, that everybody entering the United States is not criminal or problematic and that his concerns are rooted in national security.
“It’s about safety,” he said. “Some of the people coming here are very violent people, not all.”
Trump and fellow GOP White House candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have publicly exchanged remarks since Trump’s presidential announcement, with Rubio saying Trump’s comments about Mexicans were “offensive, inaccurate and divisive.”
After Mexican illegal immigrant Francisco Sanchez apparently killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco in a random attack Wednesday, Trump, who has proposed build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, sent a direct tweet to Rubio, the son of Cuban parents who has made immigration reform a part of his presidential campaign.
“What do you say to the family of Kathryn Steinle in CA who was viciously killed b/c we can’t secure our border? Stand up for US,” Trump tweeted.
Federal officials said local authorities repeatedly released Sanchez, who was in their custody as recently as this spring.
On Saturday, Trump said Rubio was “weak on immigration” and that fellow GOP White House candidate and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry “could have done a lot more.”
He praised what he considers fellow candidate and Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s tough immigration stance, calling him “very brave.”

  Kathryn Steinle

  
Kathryn Steinle was shot Wednesday evening as she walked with her father and a family friend at Pier 14, one of the top tourist attractions in the city. Police arrested Sanchez about an hour after the shooting of the 32-year-old San Francisco resident.

 Sanchez

Sanchez has seven felony convictions and has been deported five times to his native Mexico, most recently in 2009, federal officials said.

Haley’s Charleston response, Confederate flag stand spark VP talk

First let's do away with the flags and then we can start burning all the books we don't like. 

What a great way FOR ME TO GET A FEW EXTRA VOTES.

South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley’s response to the Charleston massacre, highlighted by her call to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, has thrust her back into the national spotlight and re-ignited talk about what role she might play in the 2016 race. 
Not only is Haley poised to be a powerful surrogate, there's already chatter that she could make a solid Republican vice presidential candidate.
"She’d be on anybody’s list,” Mike Huckabee, one 14 GOP presidential candidates and a former Arkansas governor, told Fox News on Tuesday. “She’s done a terrific job in South Carolina.”
Haley has been a high-profile Republican since she won the governorship as part of the 2010 Tea Party wave.
But her call to remove the Confederate battle flag after a white male fatally shot nine black people June 17 inside an historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C., has Republican presidential candidates, political observers and others suggesting her leadership in the aftermath shows she could be a pivotal player in the presidential race.
In addition, the Republican National Committee, South Carolina's U.S. senators and several of the GOP White House candidates have followed Haley in calling for the flag's removal, amid many Southerners’ belief that the flag is part of their heritage, not a symbol of white supremacy.
Haley, an Indian-American and the state’s first female governor, insists her call to remove the flag was deeply personal and beyond politics, repeatedly telling reporters she couldn’t “look her children in the face” while allowing the flag to fly.
But in a presidential campaign season, the political implications are unavoidable.
Juleanne Glover, who has worked on Republican presidential campaigns for Arizona Sen. John McCain and Steve Forbes and is now a senior adviser for the international firm Teneo Strategy, agrees that Haley could be a top vice presidential pick.
But she also argues Haley could play a far bigger role in the White House race that would begin much earlier than when candidates pick a running mate in summer 2016.
Glover suggested Tuesday that Haley’s backing and physical presence at campaign stops across early-voting South Carolina could make or break a candidate’s White House bid and that her voice on such topics as women’s issues, education reform and long-term immigration policy could “create a platform for 2016.” 
“She could play a pivotal role in all of these issues and in the future of the party,” Glover said. “She’s an American success story with a biographical narrative that lends itself to a larger, inspirational story. Friends who know her well have always been evangelical about her potential. They are not surprised.”
The decision by Haley, an elected official, to end her previous support for the flag, which was moved from atop the state capitol dome in 2000, indeed put her at the forefront of the issue.
However, she was not the first high-profile Republican to speak out.
Haley made the announcement, amid mounting public outcry, five days after the incident and three days after 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 2016 GOP candidate Jeb Bush called it a symbol of racism.
Within the crowded GOP field, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham support the flag being taken down, while Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum have not taken a specific public stance. The field is expected to swell to 16 candidates.
As a female and a minority official, the 43-year-old Haley indeed has the potential to become a major figure in the new guard of the Republican Party.
But some political observers suggest she is still a work in progress.
Haley was elected last year to a second term with roughly 56 percent of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a South Carolina gubernatorial candidate in 24 years. But she won in an overwhelmingly Republican state and would likely need to broaden her appeal to be selected as a running mate.
In addition, the former state legislator, who has an accounting degree from Clemson University, has largely focused on job growth and state economic development and less on race and women’s issues.
And she has occasionally clashed with Democrats and Republicans alike in the state legislature.
Haley upset black Democrats in part over her refusal to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare and for supporting a state voter-identification law they consider discriminatory.
However, the week before the Charleston church killings, Haley signed into a law a bill requiring police officers to wear body cameras that was championed by  Democratic state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, killed while leading a bible study inside the church.
She also got support from Pinckney, an ardent progressive, for an economic-development plan to dredge the Savannah River.
Still, College of Charleston political Professor Kendra Stewart said Haley has perhaps an even more “contentious” relationship with the GOP-controlled legislature, with which she has clashed over spending, ethics reform and state agency control.
Stewart said Haley also has offended assembly leaders by criticizing them publicly and vetoing their legislation, which has resulted in efforts to override her vetoes.
Glover thinks Haley has had to battle with the old guard in both parties to achieve her political goals but acknowledges “some of the legislative tussles have not always helped burnished her image.”
Another big issue is simply the political calculations of picking any vice presidential candidate -- which includes such factors as the Democrats’ presidential nominee and whether the GOP nominee is, for example, a strong conservative or more of a moderate who would gain wider appeal with somebody like Haley.
Stewart suggests that Haley’s odds increase if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination or if an East Coast moderate like Christie is the Republican choice.
“If Clinton wins, it would be wise for Republicans to have a female or non-white male on the ballot,” Stewart said. “She’s very appealing to the Republican Party’s more conservative base. She would add some strength to that part of the ticket.”

Clinton campaign ropes off reporters at New Hampshire parade

Campaign aides for Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton on Saturday roped off reporters from the candidate as she walked and talked with potential voters during a July Fourth parade in New Hampshire, sparking frustration from the press corps and outrage from the state Republican Party.
“Hillary Clinton continues to demonstrate her obvious contempt and disdain for the Granite State’s style of grassroots campaigning,” New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Jennifer Horn said in a statement. “The use of a rope line at a New Hampshire parade is a sad joke and insults the traditions of our first-in-the-nation primary.”
Reporters were reportedly allowed to get close to Clinton but were later herded away by campaign aides concerned about crowd control.
“Spectacle of Clinton as candidate -- press being pulled along with a rope,” tweeted New York Times presidential campaign correspondent Maggie Haberman.
The campaign responded to the outrage, telling CNN: “While the GOP might want to spin a good yarn on this, let’s not get tied up in knots. We wanted to accommodate the press, allow (Clinton) greet voter (sic.) And allow the press to be right there in the parade with her, as opposed to preset locations.”
However, the optics of reporters being corralled along at the event, in Gotham, N.H., did not look good and added to the criticism that Clinton, unlike other 2016 presidential candidates, is shielded from reporters and their questions and as a public figure is cloaked in secrecy. 
“Never underestimate @HillaryClinton’s capacity to fritter away natural advantages with poor judgement,” tweeted Politico politics reporter Glenn Thrush.
Reporters and potential voters are often kept at a distance from presidential candidates at large events by what is called a “rope line.” The event Saturday was also marked by at least one person heckling Clinton about what exactly she did as secretary of state before the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed.
Though Clinton, also a former first lady and U.S. senator, is the clear Democratic front runner, primary challenger Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent, has been drawing large crowds at campaign events in New Hampshire. 
He released the following statement Saturday on the Clinton campaign’s use of a rope line to protect the Democrat frontrunner on a public street at Gorham’s annual Independence Day parade:
“Today, Republican presidential candidates marched in parades across New Hampshire that were open to the public without obstruction from their staff. Their efforts to reach out to voters and engage in retail campaigning stand in sharp contrast to Secretary Clinton’s arrogant and shameful behavior.”