Louie Gohmert adds Palin ‘can see Russia from my house’ to the Congressional Record

At Alternate Viewpoint, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by Alternate Viewpoint and how it is used.

Log Files

Like many other Web sites, Alternate Viewpoint makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user"s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Alternate Viewpoint does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

• Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on Alternate Viewpoint.


• Google"s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to Alternate Viewpoint and other sites on the Internet.


• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on Alternate Viewpoint send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

Alternate Viewpoint has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. Alternate Viewpoint"s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browser"s respective websites.

Louie Gohmert adds Palin ‘can see Russia from my house’ to the Congressional Record

Congressional Budget Office blows it — again

Its recent minimum wage report is terribly misleading. The time has come to change the CBO’s mandate fundamentally

Salon.com

Congressional Budget Office blows it — again

Congressional Budget Office: $10.10 minimum wage would lower employment by 500k, raise incomes for 16.5 million

THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER  – Raising the minimum wage to $ 10.10 by 2016 would increase wages for 16.5 million workers but lead to a loss of about 500,000 jobs, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday afternoon.

The range of potential job losses projected by the CBO was from a “slight decrease” in employment to as many as 1 million.

The CBO examined the effects of a minimum wage hike similar to that advocated by congressional Democrats and the Obama administration, one that would raise the legal minimum hourly wage and index that rate to inflation so its value would not erode over time.

Read more at The Washington Examiner

Red Alert Politics

Congressional Budget Office: $10.10 minimum wage would lower employment by 500k, raise incomes for 16.5 million

NSA whistleblower challenges congressional testimony

NSA whistleblower challenges congressional testimony
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ff7c0H6ESBA/mqdefault.jpg

Democrats view of congressional job approval drops to 5%...

PRINCETON, NJ — As Congress’ inability to agree on compromises that would reopen the partially shut-down government and raise the looming debt ceiling continues, Americans give Congress an 11% job approval rating, down eight percentage points from last month and one point above the worst rating in Gallup history.

The drop in Congress’ approval rating is fueled in large part by Democrats’ declining approval of Congress — from 20% in September to 5% in October. Approval ratings among Republicans and independents have also fallen, but by much smaller margins. The big drop in Democrats’ approval of Congress most certainly reflects Democrats’ negative views of the Republican-controlled House, in which leadership has publicly demanded that the president and Democrats in Congress agree to changes in the Affordable Care Act as a condition for passing a continuing resolution or a budget. Overall, however, approval of Congress is very low across all partisan groups.

Americans’ Approval of Congress Remains Historically Low

Americans’ current approval of Congress is well below where it was in the broad time period surrounding the government shutdown in December 1995. Gallup did not measure Congress’ job approval frequently in that era, but it was 30% in September 1995, prior to the shutdown, and 35% when Gallup next measured it in April 1996, after the shutdown.

Those readings in 1995 and 1996 were roughly at Gallup’s overall historical average approval rating of 33%.

There has been a downward trend in Congress’ job approval since 2010, with approval ratings in 2011 and 2012 each lower than the year before. Notably, approval dropped to as low as 13% in August, October, and November of 2011 during the previous threat of a default, and reached 11% in December of that year. Subsequently, approval fell to its all-time low of 10% in February and August of 2012.

Congress’ job approval was trending slightly up from those depths most recently, averaging 15% from January through September of this year, with the 19% recorded last month the highest of the year — only to fall dramatically in Gallup’s latest Oct. 3-6 measure, taken after the partial government shutdown had begun.

Amerians’ Approval of Their Own Representative Averages 44%

While Congress as a whole gets dismal job approval ratings, Americans are significantly more charitable when it comes to the member of Congress representing their particular district. Americans now give their own representative a 44% approval rating, which is not an extremely high rating on an absolute basis, but is certainly high compared with Congress’ overall 11% rating in the same survey.

Americans’ ratings of their own representative is little changed from Gallup’s last measurement in May, when 46% approved. However, fewer Americans approve and more disapprove of their own member of Congress than what Gallup has found in the past, and the percentages who approve and disapprove are now essentially equal. Typically, Americans have been much more likely to approve than disapprove of their own representative.

Implications

Members of Congress are no doubt aware that their work as a body receives extremely low marks from the American public — now within one point of being the lowest approval rating in Gallup history. Members of Congress’ concerns about the image of the institution in which they serve, however, may be allayed to some degree by the finding that many more Americans approve of their particular representative than approve of Congress more generally, which has typically been the case.

Unlike in the past, however, Americans are now about as likely to disapprove as to approve of their own representative. While members of Congress may continue to argue that problems with the image of the body as a whole is not their fault, and that they are doing nothing more than faithfully representing their particular constituents, it is clear that even their own constituents are less positive about the job they are doing than they were in the past.

Not only is Congress’ overall approval rating near historic lows, but satisfaction with the way things are going in the country is now well below 20%. Additionally, economic confidence continues to plummet, and 70% of Americans say that the shutdown is a crisis or a major problem.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 3-6, 2013, with a random sample of 1,028 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by region. Landline and cell telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted to correct for unequal selection probability, nonresponse, and double coverage of landline and cell users in the two sampling frames. They are also weighted to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, and phone status (cellphone only/landline only/both, and cellphone mostly). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2012 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population. Phone status targets are based on the July-December 2011 National Health Interview Survey. Population density targets are based on the 2010 census. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

View methodology, full question results, and trend data.

For more details on Gallup’s polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com.

Drudge Report Feed

Democrats view of congressional job approval drops to 5%...

The Congressional Black Caucus and the Financial Lobby: BFFs

This story has been corrected.*

For decades, the Congressional Black Caucus has been a champion of progressive politics and policy on Capitol Hill. Its members are some of the most liberal lawmakers in the US House of Representatives. But the CBC has recently forged a close relationship with a major Washington player that would probably surprise many who view the group as a left-of-center bastion: lobbyists for Big Finance.

The most recent display of these cozy ties arrived on Tuesday, when caucus staff attended a private meeting with a bevy of industry lobbyists fighting a Labor Department proposal to impose regulations on investment advisers. The caucus, meanwhile, has ignored repeated requests from the Labor Department to brief its members on the new rule it is considering, which is intended to protect the retirement accounts of American workers from unscrupulous advisers. The industry’s briefing with CBC staff comes a week before a House vote is scheduled on a bill that would block the new protections.

Continue Reading »

Politics | Mother Jones

The Congressional Black Caucus and the Financial Lobby: BFFs

US Won’t Let Pakistani Drone Victims’ Lawyer Visit for Congressional Testimony

US Won’t Let Pakistani Drone Victims’ Lawyer Visit for Congressional Testimony

State Dept Derailing Congressional Hearing on Drones

by Jason Ditz, September 24, 2013

A Congressional hearing on CIA drone strikes is planned next week, but it’s going to have to go on without testimony from human rights lawyer and Foundation for Fundamental Fights director Shahzad Akbar, because the US State Department won’t let him.

Akbar is representing multiple children injured in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, an attack which also killed their grandmother. Akbar and his clients were invited to the hearing.

Akbar sees the move as a deliberate attempt to keep him from testifying, and says he had a US diplomatic visa for two years in the past, and had never had a problem getting permission to visit the US until he started representing drone strike victims.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D – FL) condemned the State Department’s move, saying they had given no excuse for why Akbar shouldn’t be allowed in. “We have a chronic problem in Congress that when the administration is involved in one side of the issue, we rarely hear the other side of the issue,” Grayson noted.

Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz

• Kenya Declares Victory in Mall Siege, But Death Toll Still Rising – September 24th, 2013


• UN Syria Resolution Stalled Again, US Back to Seeking Military Action – September 24th, 2013


• Hawks Quick to Spurn Iranian President’s Diplomacy Push – September 24th, 2013


• NSA Reforms: Senate Split on Plan – September 24th, 2013


• Pentagon Rejects Money to Overhaul Gitmo – September 24th, 2013

| Print This | Share This | Send a letter to the editor | Letters

News From Antiwar.com

US Won’t Let Pakistani Drone Victims’ Lawyer Visit for Congressional Testimony

Congressional Budget Office now admits catastrophic debt "crisis" inevitable for America

Pin It

(NaturalNews) From the behavior of both sides of the political aisle in Washington, you’d think that the nation’s unsustainable debt is no big deal. Otherwise, lawmakers would be clamoring to get a handle on it. But as it is, only a small, small group of fiscal conservatives is working to not only get a handle on the national debt, which is spiraling ever faster out of control, but to reform the entitlement spending that is driving the debt higher.

Obamacare is just the latest massive entitlement that is quickening the pace of America’s bankruptcy, which is why the fiscal hawks are moving to defund it. The same forces who passed that monstrosity, however, are now working overtime to not only keep it the law of the land but to make sure America goes broke funding it.

Is there anything that can impose reason on the unreasonable? Well, the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’ non-partisan fiscal watchdog, is trying. But there is only so much the CBO can do.

Like a broken record, the warnings keep coming

In its latest budget projection, which covers the 10-year period between 2013 and 2023, the CBO offers yet another dire warning that lawmakers ignore at there – and our – peril. The agency says that, based on its current projections, America’s large and growing debt – can you guess? – is unsustainable.

“[A] large and continually growing federal debt …would increase the probability of a fiscal crisis for the United States,” says the report.

What’s more, CBO says that if current laws and policies don’t change, the federal debt could reach 100 percent of GDP by 2038 (it is currently about 73 percent).

CBO also projects that healthcare spending by the federal government “will grow considerably in 2014 because of changes made by the Affordable Care Act” (Obamacare).

Of the current federal debt-to-GDP ratio, the “percentage is higher than at any point in U.S. history except a brief period around World War II, and it is twice the percentage at the end of 2007.”

If laws remain the same, CBO said that it expects federal debt held by the public to decrease slightly, relative to gross domestic product, over the next several years. But after that, deficits would begin growing once more, in no small part due to the government’s major healthcare programs (think Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP).

“CBO projects that the federal debt held by the public would reach 100 percent of GDP in 2038, 25 years from now, even without accounting for the harmful effects that growing debt would have on the economy,” the report said.

Per CNSNews.com:

The word “crisis” appears numerous times in the report, as the CBO explains the negative consequences of burdensome debt. At some point, the report says, investors would begin to doubt the government’s willingness or ability to pay U.S. debt obligations, making it more difficult or more expensive for the government to borrow money. Even before that happens, the high and rising amount of debt “would have significant negative consequences” for both the economy and the federal budget.

And it just gets worse from here

More bad news:

– As the debt-to-GDP rises, there will a larger risk of a major fiscal crisis as well, because investors could begin demanding much higher interest rates to finance the federal government’s borrowing.

– More debt equals less flexibility in Washington to utilize tax and spending policies as a response to unexpected issues or occurrences, like a new recession or a major war.

– Most assuredly, interest payments on the government’s rising debt would necessarily increase – and substantially so – to become one of the budget’s biggest line items, if not the largest.

– As the government borrows more, private investment will fall off, “because the portion of total savings used to buy government securities would not be available to finance private investment,” CNSNews.com reported.

Sources:

http://cnsnews.com

http://www.cbo.gov

http://www.marketwatch.com

Articles Related to This Article: • USA loses AAA credit rating as S&P downgrades due to runaway debt and government spending • The Still Unsolved Problem of the Economy • Money and the Blame Game: Seeing Beyond ‘Occupy Movements’ and ‘End The Fed’ • U.S. Treasury now openly ‘cooking the books’ to fudge debt numbers in desperate move before collapse • Sick-care America now needs another $ 1.9 trillion increase in debt limit just to stay afloat • No longer deniable: Under runaway debt burden, America’s currency is headed for total collapse

Related video from NaturalNews.TV Your NaturalNews.TV video could be here. Upload your own videos at NaturalNews.TV (FREE)

Have comments on this article? Post them here:

comments powered by

Related Articles: • USA loses AAA credit rating as S&P downgrades due to runaway debt and government spending • The Still Unsolved Problem of the Economy • Money and the Blame Game: Seeing Beyond ‘Occupy Movements’ and ‘End The Fed’ • U.S. Treasury now openly ‘cooking the books’ to fudge debt numbers in desperate move before collapse • Sick-care America now needs another $ 1.9 trillion increase in debt limit just to stay afloat • No longer deniable: Under runaway debt burden, America’s currency is headed for total collapse

Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Permalink to this article: http://www.naturalnews.com/042190_Congressional_Budget_Office_catastrophic_debt_crisis_American_economy.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): Congressional Budget Office now admits catastrophic debt ‘crisis’ inevitable for America

NaturalNews.com

Congressional Budget Office now admits catastrophic debt "crisis" inevitable for America

Obama aides to brief Congressional staff on Syria

The Obama administration is on Tuesday sending two top officials to Capitol Hill to give a top secret briefing to congressional staff.

Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria; Derek Chollet, the assistant secretary of defense for international affairs; and someone from the intelligence commmunity will brief chiefs of staff, legislative directors and other aides with top secret clearance.

Continue Reading

The briefing will be about “U.S. policy for Syria and recent events,” according to an email sent to some aides Tuesday. The briefing will be at 5 p.m. in the U.S. Capitol Visitor’s Center.

POLITICO – Congress

Obama aides to brief Congressional staff on Syria

W.H. BLITZES CAPITOL HILL, TV ON SYRIA – Assad: "Expect" retaliation – HAWKISH GOP NOW DOVISH – Booker the Dems" Marco Rubio? – Congressional basketball game tonite!

By Scott Wong (swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)

A CRITICAL WEEK AHEAD: WHITE HOUSE BLITZES CAPITOL HILL, TV ON SYRIA – President Obama’s last best hope for Congress to authorize a military strike on Syria could lie with his own party, write POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown and Jonathan Allen: “With remarkably little to show for a week of intensive lobbying, the last bit of leverage that Democrats expect the White House to use is this: Barack Obama’s presidency depends on it. This isn’t what Americans will hear when Obama addresses the nation Tuesday night. Publicly, the argument is all about the evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons and the ramifications if the United States doesn’t retaliate. Senior White House officials are loath to make it a referendum on Obama, saying they remain confident that he can win by sticking to the merits of the case. ‘Politics is somebody else’s concern,’ White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said on “Fox News Sunday.”  … ‘The president is interested in making sure that our national security is protected. That’s the question, first and foremost, for us.’

– “Proof and peril of the chemical weapons attack haven’t convinced Congress — at least not yet — and the politics point to defeat. So Obama’s last best hope is to convince conflicted Democrats, even if it’s just implicit in private conversations, that they can’t be the ones who cripple his presidency and his ability to deliver the party’s priorities, according to Democrats on Capitol Hill and close to the White House. But the grim reality for Obama is that his reservoir of personal capital on Capitol Hill is running dry. House Democrats are also well aware that former colleagues who lost their seats after taking tough votes for Obama — the stimulus and Obamacare among them — haven’t been taken care of by the White House. For every former Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), who landed an assistant secretary job at the Homeland Security Department after losing reelection in 2010, there are dozens of Democrats whose loyalty was unrequited.” http://politi.co/1e7YpBQ

– @jonathanweisman: House leadership will meet with WH COS McDonough on Monday at 1:45 to plot a way to 218.

WHERE THEY STAND – A number of news outlets have compiled whip counts on where lawmakers line up on the question of striking Syria. Here’s the latest from the NYT’s interactive feature, including statements from each member: Senate: 25 support, 18 against, 57 undecided.  House: 39 support, 154 against, 213 undecided, 27 unknown. http://nyti.ms/15Ce8G2

ASSAD TELLS CHARLIE ROSE: ‘EXPECT’ RETALIATION – CBS News reports: “President Bashar Assad warned Sunday that if President Obama decides to launch military strikes on Syria, the U.S. and its allies should ‘expect every action’ in retaliation. ‘You should expect everything. Not necessarily from the government,’ Assad told ‘CBS This Morning’ co-host Charlie Rose in his first television interview since Mr. Obama sought congressional approval for military action. In a clear reference to his allies in Iran and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, Assad warned that his government is ‘not the only player in this region.’ ‘You have different parties, you have different factions, you have different ideology. You have everything in this region now,’ said Assad, who has been accused by the White House of killing 1,400 of his own people in an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburbs.

– “Asked by Rose whether any retaliation for U.S. strikes could include the use of chemical weapons, Assad — whose government has never confirmed officially that it even has chemical weapons — said it would depend ‘if the rebels or the terrorists in this region or any other group have it. It could happen, I don’t know. I am not fortune teller.’ Rose said Sunday on the ‘CBS Evening News’ that the Syrian dictator was ‘remarkably calm’ during the interview as he addressed the claims that he had gassed his own people.” http://cbsn.ws/17kczJJ

OBAMA MAKES PITCH TO SENATORS – POLITICO’s John Bresnahan reports: “President Barack Obama will travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to help sell his plan for U.S. military strikes on Syria, just hours before a scheduled national address from the Oval Office. Obama will meet with Senate Democrats as he tries to overcome skepticism — or outright opposition — from members of his own party as the Senate prepares to hold critical votes on the Syria use-of-force resolution. Right now, there are serious concerns among top Senate Democrats about whether they can pass the Syria resolution approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is likely to win a cloture vote on Wednesday, but it is unclear if the Senate will approve the resolution on a final vote after that, Senate insiders says. [The first Syria vote comes on the 12^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.]

– “Vice President Joe Biden met with a number of Senate Republicans on Sunday night as part of the White House’s “all-hands” effort to pass the resolution. Obama unexpectedly joined the dinner, according to White House media pool reports. GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), John McCain (Ariz.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Dan Coats (Ind.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Roger Wicker (Miss.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Susan Collins (Maine), and Deb Fischer (Neb.) were all in attendance.

– National Security Adviser Susan Rice will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday at the White House. Rice will be joined by Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey will brief all 433 House members on Monday afternoon. Obama will also be sitting down for six TV interviews on Monday as part of the White House public-relations blitz.” http://politi.co/1cYkOxs

OBAMA GOES PRIME TIME – Our own Josh Gerstein has more on Obama’s address, set for 9 p.m. Tuesday: “During his nearly five years in office, Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid high-stakes, nighttime White House speeches. His advisers have repeatedly denigrated the value of Oval Office addresses, accusing promoters of such talks as being out of touch with modern media realities. Now the president is preparing to deliver precisely such a high-profile address Tuesday night, giving in to pressure from lawmakers demanding a no-holds-barred White House effort to sell the public on the wisdom of a military response to Syria’s alleged chemical weapons use. And so a president who surged into the White House in no small part on the strength of his communication skills will need to turn in a particularly effective performance in a format that’s never been among his most favored. …

– “If Obama does turn to the Oval Office for Tuesday night’s speech — and officials so far have said only that he will speak from somewhere in the White House — it will be a true rarity. As president, he has delivered only two addresses to the nation from his office, both in 2010: a speech about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and another about the end of combat in Iraq. ‘I personally have never loved the Oval,’ [former speechwriter Jon] Favreau added. ‘But I actually think it’s pretty right for this one.’” http://politi.co/18OFT96

MOVEON LAUNCHES SYRIA AD – MoveOn.org Political Action is out this morning with a 30-second TV ad urging Congress to reject authorizing action against Syria. The ad, called “Not Again,” runs this week on MSNBC with heavy rotation around the president’s address Tuesday night. Watch it here: http://youtu.be/_TVseYyddhc

HAWKISH GOP NOW DOVISH ON SYRIA – “Of all the unexpected turns in the Syria debate, one stands out most: The GOP, the party of a muscular national defense, has gone the way of the dove,” Alex Isenstadt and James Hohmann write for the hometown paper.  “A decade after leading the country into Iraq and Afghanistan, Republicans have little appetite or energy for a strike aimed at punishing Bashar Assad for allegedly gassing his own people. To the contrary, many of the party’s lawmakers are lining up to sink President Barack Obama’s war authorization vote. Of the 279 Republicans currently in the House and Senate, 83 were also serving in October 2002. All of them voted to give George W. Bush authorization to invade Iraq. Now, just 10 of those 83 have come out in support of striking Syria. Most of the others have expressed serious reservations or are leaning against voting for the authorization.” http://politi.co/18Ik38F

** A message from the Reagan Presidential Foundation: Registration has opened for “The Reagan National Defense Forum: Building Peace Through Strength Through 2025.” Speakers include Secretary Chuck Hagel, General Martin Dempsey, Secretary John McHugh, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, SASC Chairman Carl Levin and HASC Chairman “Buck” McKeon.

GOOD MONDAY MORNING, September 9, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include @albertorlammers and @rajmathai.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – The Senate meets at 2 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m. votes on the nominations of Valerie E. Caproni and Vernon S. Broderick to be United States District Judges for the Southern District of New York. The House is also in at 2 p.m. with votes expected about 6:30 p.m. on the Global Investment in American Jobs Act and the Federal Communications Commission Consolidation Reporting Act.

AROUND THE HILL – A stakeout has been approved for a closed Joint House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees briefing on Syria at 3 p.m. in HVC 210. A closed all House member briefing on Syria will be held at 5 p.m. in the CVC Auditorium.

In Memphis today, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus and House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp make their fourth stop on their national tax reform tour. At 8 a.m. local time, they hold a kitchen table conversation at the Sullivan Family Farm, then tour the FedEx Express World Hub and hold a roundtable discussion with the company and customers from the small business community. 

CORY BOOKER: THE DEMS’ MARCO RUBIO? – POLITICO’s Manu Raju caught up with the Senate Democratic nominee in Newark, N.J.: “Ambitious and Ivy League-educated, he’s a young African-American Democrat calling for a new era of post-partisanship in Washington. Sound familiar? But Cory Booker — who would be just the fourth popularly elected black senator if he wins — says he ‘would never want to be the next Barack Obama’ … The 44-year-old Newark mayor doesn’t want to follow in Obama’s footsteps — at least that’s what he claims. But as he appears poised to become the next New Jersey senator in the Oct. 16 special election, the two-term mayor may end up voting well to the left of the president — and become the biggest Democratic celebrity in town.

– “In a wide-ranging interview here, Booker said he’s opposed to trimming benefits on entitlement programs, even as the president has considered doing so as part of deficit talks. He said the bad actors from the 2008 financial crisis should ‘absolutely’ go to jail, even as the administration has yet to put shackles on top Wall Street executives. Booker ‘absolutely’ supports medical marijuana, even as the president is reluctant about legalizing it. And Booker added that he’s deeply skeptical about military engagement in Syria, even as Obama calls for strikes against the Bashar Assad regime. …

– “In some ways, Booker may end up being the Democrats’ version of Marco Rubio: an attractive, eloquent and press-savvy pol whose core beliefs are firmly in line with his base — but who may break from his party from time to time. While Booker’s style has irked some Democrats, he has only sparingly broken with the left , like on school vouchers and education reform. Asked to identify the issues in which he splits from his party in Washington, Booker couldn’t do it. ‘In some ways, you’re going to have to tell me that. I know where I’m passionate, and I don’t first ask, ‘Does my party agree with this or not?’’” http://politi.co/1fPPkcg

LAWMAKERS, LOBBYISTS HOOP IT UP TONITE – The 15^th annual congressional charity basketball game tips off tonight at the Smith Center at George Washington University. Congressional staffers take on lobbyists at 6 p.m., followed by the lawmakers vs. lobbyists game at 7:30 p.m. The games raise money for the Hoops for Youth Foundation, which help at-risk youth in D.C.

Rosters for Game 1:  Staffers vs. Lobbyists:

Team Staff:  Wes McClelland (WHIP McCarthy), Andy Keiser (Rep. Mike Rogers), Steve Perrotta (Sen. Richard Burr), Keith Stern (Rep. Jim McGovern), Erik Olson (Rep. Ron Kind), Andrew Stoddard (Rep. Ben Lujan), Stephen Martinko (Rep. Bill Shuster), Kyle Oliver (Rep. Ralph Hall), James Robertson (House Oversight and Government Reform), Dustin Huffman (RGA), Kurt Bardella (Team Issa), Ben Branch (Rep. Greg Meeks) and Todd Mitchell (Rep. Leonard Lance).

Team Lobbyists:  Paul Kanitra, Langston Emerson, David Morgan, Stoney Burke, Jess Peterson, Ryan Guthrie, Ben Brubeck, Casey Dinges, Jack Kelly, Brandan Heiner, Monte Ward, Will Jawando and Brian Reardon.

Rosters for Game 2:  Members vs. Lobbyists:

Members of Congress:  Rep. Steve Scalise, Rep. John Shimkus, Sen. John Thune, Sen. Jeff Flake, Rep. Pete Olson, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Jeff Denham, Rep. Rick Larsen, Rep. Cedric Richmond, Rep. David Valadao, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and Rep. Joe Crowley, Rep. Marlin Stutzman, Rep. Jared Huffman and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Team Lobbyists:  Jim Martin (60 Plus Assn.), Paul Miller (Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies), Brian Pallasch (ASCE), Dan Cohen, Booth Jameson (American Chemistry Council), Brad Knox (AFLAC), Paxton Baker (BET Network), Brian Wagner (ATK), Danny Leonard (Open Market Energy), Michael Monroe (AFL-CIO), Kenny Hulshof (Posinelli Shughart), Nelson Perez (nationalgrid), Brad Schweer (CenturyLink) and Jim Brewer (Int’l Union of Painters & Allied Trades). Cloture Club has a flier with more info here: http://bit.ly/1cY5WPG

POLL: MOST HILL STAFFERS HAPPY DESPITE WORK ISSUES – Josh Hicks writes for the Washington Post: “Congressional employees are generally happy with their jobs, despite relatively poor pay, unpredictable hours and low public regard for their bosses, according to a report scheduled for release Monday. The Congressional Management Foundation, a nonpartisan group dedicated to improving legislative operations, found in a survey that 80 percent of Capitol Hill staffers are satisfied with their jobs. More than 1,400 employees rated the issues that mattered most to them as well as their level of contentment.  Among the positive findings, 97 percent of respondents said they were confident that they can meet their work goals, and 83 percent said they enjoy taking on assignments beyond their normal duties.  Although they said they were generally happy with their work, staffers also said they also faced frustrations.” http://wapo.st/183upnf

NYT, A1, “Immigration Reform Falls to the Back of the Line,” By Michael D. Shear and  Julia Preston: “Congress is likely to postpone consideration of an immigration overhaul until the end of the year, if not longer, even as advocates are preparing for an all-out, urgent push this fall to win their longstanding goal of a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants here illegally.  In Washington, the sudden debate over military action in Syria and a looming face-off with President Obama over the budget and the nation’s borrowing limit have shot to the top of the legislative agenda, while Republican angst about losing Hispanic voters in the 2012 presidential campaign has faded.  In the House, where many Republicans view an overhaul bill passed by the Senate as a federal juggernaut that is too kind to immigrant lawbreakers, the legislative summer recess has done little to stoke enthusiasm for immediate action. Senior Republican aides in the House say immigration is at the back of the line, and unlikely to come up for months.  The prospect of a delay is generating frustration among supporters of the legislation, who felt emboldened by a summer in which conservative opposition in House districts largely fizzled and immigrant groups seized the chance to lobby lawmakers on their home turf. “  http://nyti.ms/14xTFB8

– A bill to combat sexual assaults in the military also has taken a back seat to Syria, POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn writes: http://politi.co/13zMbLk

AT AFL-CIO MEETING, WARREN RIPS INTO SUPREME COURT – Alex Burns reports from Los Angeles: “Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka denounced the United States Supreme Court on Sunday as a right-wing panel that serves the interests of corporate America, previewing a theme that is likely to rise in prominence with the approach of the 2016 election. On the opening day of the AFL-CIO’s convention, Warren – the highest-profile national Democrat to address the gathering here – warned attendees of a ‘corporate capture of the federal courts.’ In a speech that voiced a range of widely held frustrations on the left, Warren assailed the Court as an instrument of the wealthy that regularly sides with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She cited an academic study that called the current Supreme Court’s five conservative-leaning justices among the ‘top 10 most pro-corporate justices in half a century.’  ‘You follow this pro-corporate trend to its logical conclusion, and sooner or later you’ll end up with a Supreme Court that functions as a wholly owned subsidiary of big business,’ Warren said, drawing murmurs from the crowd.” http://politi.co/18H66aW

BUSCHON MOURNS 32-YEAR-OLD STAFFER – Kenny Douglass reports for News14 in Evansville, Ind.: “A high ranking member of Congressman Larry Bucshon’s staff was found dead in an Evansville hotel room. Although he held numerous positions on Bucshon’s staff, 32-year-old Steven Reeves served most recently as Deputy Chief of Staff and District Director, based out of the Congressman’s Evansville District Office.  Vanderburgh County Coroner Annie Groves says Reeves was found Wednesday in a room at the Fairfield Inn on Evansville’s east side. She says it appears Reeves died of natural causes. He was originally from Princeton. On Thursday night, Bucshon released a statement, calling Reeves a valued colleague and loyal friend, and a member of the family. … ‘Steven was truly a member of our family and will be greatly missed. Motivated by a genuine compassion for others, he worked to help eradicate AIDS in Africa before serving the 8th District in our office.  He spent much of his life dedicated to serving his country, bettering his community, and improving the lives of others. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends through this difficult and private time.’” http://bit.ly/19ogdCt

FRIDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Jeff Pudlo was first to correctly answer that President John F. Kennedy reportedly explored purchasing the Philadelphia Eagles until the Cuban missile crisis delayed a meeting between team owners and his brother, Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Pudlo, who works for a D.C.-based advocacy nonprofit, says he found the answer in a 1991 article from the Newport News Daily Press reviewing a then recently published book, “The Pro Football Chronicle”.  http://bit.ly/16eeWOT  The story also appears in the Eagles Encyclopedia here: http://bit.ly/14F6HaJ

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Claude Marx has today’s question: What solicitor general had to resign his post when his father became chief justice of the U.S.? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

** A message from the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library: The Reagan National Defense Forum on November 16, 2013 is bringing together leaders and key stakeholders in the defense community – including members of Congress, civilian officials and military leaders from the Defense Department and industry – to address the health of our national defense and to stimulate a discussion that promotes policies that strengthen the United States military into the future.  Registrations is $ 499 per person. For more information and tickets, please visit www.ReaganFoundation.org/Defense.  

The program includes a keynote address by General Dempsey, remarks by Secretary Hagel, and multiple panels including “Counterterrorism in 2025,” “Congress, Industry and the Pentagon” and “The Industrial Base After a Decade of War.”

“My husband would be so pleased to know that his ‘Peace Through Strength’ policies are being discussed again with a focus on today’s new technology and tomorrow’s needs.” – Former First Lady Nancy Reagan

POLITICO – Top 10 – Huddle

W.H. BLITZES CAPITOL HILL, TV ON SYRIA – Assad: "Expect" retaliation – HAWKISH GOP NOW DOVISH – Booker the Dems" Marco Rubio? – Congressional basketball game tonite!

Syria, budget and debt top congressional agenda

The Capitol is seen in Washington, early Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013, as Congress considers President Barack Obama’s request for authorization of military intervention in Syria in response to last month’s alleged sarin gas attack in the Syrian civil war. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Capitol is seen in Washington, early Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013, as Congress considers President Barack Obama’s request for authorization of military intervention in Syria in response to last month’s alleged sarin gas attack in the Syrian civil war. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. makes his way to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Sept. 6, 2013, to introduce a resolution to authorize military action to support President Barack Obama’s request for a strike against Syria. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Graphic shows breakdown of likely votes in House and Senate for Syria strike resolution; 3c x 4 inches; 146 mm x 101 mm;

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaks with reporters as she leaves a briefing by national security officials on the situation in Syria, at the Capitol, in Washington, Friday, Sept. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee room is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013, as Congress considers President Barack Obama’s request for authorization of military intervention in Syria in response to last month’s alleged sarin gas attack in the Syrian civil war. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Buy AP Photo Reprints

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress returns to work facing a momentous vote on whether the United States should attack Syria, a question that overshadows a crowded and contentious agenda of budget fights, health care, farm policy and possible limits on the government’s surveillance of millions of Americans.

Back Monday after a five-week break, many lawmakers stand as a major obstacle to President Barack Obama’s promised strikes against Syria amid fears of U.S. involvement in an extended Mideast war and public fatigue after more than a decade of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama insists the world must act. He blames Syrian President Bashar Assad for gassing his own people, killing 1,429 civilians, including 426 children. The Syrian government has denied responsibility for the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, and blames rebels.

On Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the first showdown Senate vote is likely over a resolution authorizing the “limited and specified use” of U.S. armed forces against Syria for no more than 90 days and barring American ground troops from combat. A final vote in the 100-member chamber is expected at week’s end.

“I think we’re going to get 60 votes. It’s a work in progress,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday.

Support for the president is stronger in the Senate than in the Republican-controlled House. There, Obama faces a difficult path to victory despite the backing of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California for military strikes.

The Syria vote poses a dilemma for Obama’s Democratic allies in Congress. Many strongly opposed the war in Iraq but are reluctant to undercut a president from their own party. The crucial player is Pelosi, a proven vote-getter.

“A lot of members have constituents who have not been persuaded and I think a part of that inability to be persuaded is that they’re thinking about Iraq,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Friday after one of many classified briefings for lawmakers. “That’s what I’m hearing in my district even from people who are extremely supportive of the president.”

Senior administration officials will speak to lawmakers in advance of the president’s speech to the nation Tuesday night.

A House vote is likely the week of Sept. 16.

Even before Syria, Congress faced a busy and difficult fall packed with battles.

Obama and his allies in the Democratic-run Senate face fights from House Republicans over bills to fund government agencies and raise the ceiling on federal borrowing to avert a market-rattling government default. Then there are efforts by conservatives to cut off money for Obama’s health care law, with open enrollment for health insurance exchanges beginning Oct. 1.

After Syria, Congress’s most immediate task is passing a temporary spending bill to prevent much of the government from shutting down on the Oct. 1 start of the new budget year.

The stopgap measure would buy time to work out funding government programs over the next 12 months, but even its passage is in doubt.

Republicans are divided over whether to use the measure as a last-ditch assault on Obama’s expansion of federally subsidized medical care and new requirement that millions of people without health insurance either buy it or pay penalties to the Internal Revenue Service.

GOP leaders eager to avoid an impasse and government shutdown prefer a straightforward temporary spending bill that would keep agencies running at current budget levels reflecting the imposition of the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts in place for the past six months. But to pass it, they probably will need votes from Democrats unhappy that higher taxes aren’t also on the table.

Congressional Democrats and the White House are eager to reverse the cuts, and many defense hawk Republicans would like to as well. But there have been no fruitful negotiations between the White House and House GOP leaders.

Negotiations between White House officials and a small group of Senate Republicans collapsed last month over familiar disagreements over tax increases and cuts to popular federal benefit programs.

Without a deal, those automatic spending cuts could become entrenched through all of next year and possibly into the next several years.

A 2011 agreement called for a total budget of $ 1.058 trillion next year to operate federal agencies. The automatic spending cuts triggered by failing to follow up with further deficit cuts by curbing benefit increases, raising taxes or both would pare that figure by $ 91 billion, to $ 967 billion for the 2014 budget year.

A comparable spending figure for the soon-to-be-completed 2013 budget year is about $ 988 billion, with the approximately $ 20 billion in additional defense cuts.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., says many Republicans on his committee want to reverse the defense cuts as a condition for voting for the resolution authorizing military strikes on Syria.

Avoiding a shutdown is just one step.

The administration says the government’s ability to fully pay all its bills, including interest payments to bondholders and Social Security benefits, will run out some time in October unless Congress raises the $ 16.7 trillion cap on its borrowing authority.

That legislation could be even more vexing because Boehner and tea party Republicans see it as leverage to force further spending cuts or other GOP priorities into law.

Obama agreed in 2011 to Boehner’s demand that spending cuts equal the size of the debt limit increase, but the president says he won’t do it again. Republican leaders say such a “clean” debt limit increase Obama wants is a nonstarter.

An immigration overhaul could get lost in the shuffle.

The Senate in June passed a broad bill that would allow millions of immigrants now in the country illegally to stay, work and eventually acquire citizenship. House Republicans reject what they call a special path to citizenship in the Senate bill and favor a piecemeal approach that begins with better securing U.S. borders before excusing most people who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas from being deported.

Revelations this summer about the National Security Agency’s spying prompted demands from some in Congress to rein in the programs; a series of hearings is scheduled. Leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees face pressure from lawmakers to make changes to NSA surveillance in the longstanding authorization bills.

Lawmakers also are pushing for major changes in how the military handles cases of sexual assault in their ranks. A significant number of lawmakers want to remove commanders from the process of deciding whether serious crimes, including sexual misconduct cases, go to trial.

The Pentagon and some senior lawmakers reject that idea. A showdown is expected later this year when the Senate debates a defense policy bill.

Congress also will have to finish a farm bill before the end of the year if lawmakers want to avert the threat of milk prices doubling for consumers. Most of current farm law expires at the end of September, but its effects won’t be felt until the end of the year when dairy supports expire. Without the supports, milk prices are expected to rise.

____

Associated Press Writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Politics Headlines

Syria, budget and debt top congressional agenda

In Support of Congressional Authorization on Syria

Barack Obama’s campaign team is out in full force doing what the U.S. president himself is giving only passing attention to: building the case for a limited military strike on targets only symbolically related to chemical weapons and calibrated to have no effect on the brutal civil war grinding on and producing ever more radical rebels who are consolidating power in swaths of Syria.

In yet one more example that the Chicago School is better at campaigning than governing, David Axelrod bragged that the president had forced Congress to take responsibility for Syria. He further taunted Congress — before the vote! — as not knowing what to do. The president and his team assert he may attack Syria even if Congress withholds the authorization he has requested. How this builds support, either across the aisle or in Democratic ranks, where for many liberals this will be a difficult vote for principled reasons, is a mystery. But it is consistent with the administration’s inability to resist basketball court swagger — as is hinting that winning congressional authorization on military action will be parlayed into an ownership of Republican votes on raising the debt ceiling and other urgent issues on which the president has been unable to build a coalition and unwilling much to try. Surely a White House that will be decimated both domestically and internationally should the vote fail ought to be instead cajoling, horse trading, and praising to garner votes?

A “full-court press” by the White House evidently consists of major policy statements delivered over the Labor Day weekend, selective declassification of intelligence with assurances that this cabinet would never shade intelligence, ringing speeches by the secretary of state (and John Kerry was resplendent), allowing members of Congress to remain in their districts to maximize exposure to public skepticism rather than call them back for a war vote at which the president addresses a joint session of Congress, and a presidential willingness to cancel a fundraising trip to California next week, should that prove absolutely necessary. This is an administration willing to forego European missile defense to buy questionable Russian support on Iran sanctions but unwilling to forgo anything in Obama’s agenda to buy congressional support for his war in Syria. The president should watch Spielberg’s Lincoln for a teachable moment. 

Rosa Brooks’s elegiac column best outlines the downward spiral of the Obama administration. The case made by the administration in congressional hearings is a stunning reversal of previous policy: What began as resistance in the face of pressure to act is now desperate rationalization for action. Now Kerry insists extremists constitute only “15 to 25 percent” of rebel forces (as though that were manageable), when just weeks ago a senior intelligence official explained at the Aspen Security Forum that more than a thousand separate factions are fighting. Now Kerry insists moderate rebels are gaining in influence thanks to equipment provided by Saudi Arabia, even as commanders of four of the five major rebel fighting forces threaten to align with the al-Nusra Front. Now Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel estimates the cost of planned military operations only in the “tens of millions,” while Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had recently denied any military action was possible under a billion. Now intelligence agencies have a rock-solid hold on every aspect of Syria’s chemical weapons attack, though Dempsey not long ago testified that we know less now than we did a year ago about Syria. Now the president considers the prohibition on chemical weapons use a national interest; the previous 13 chemical attacks by Syria over the past year somehow did not constitute a cause for war. Now the world has drawn a red line, even though the world is conspicuously absent in providing political support, mandates from international institutions, or military forces for action against Syria.

Yet with all the administration’s bungling, Congress has now before it a choice. Should legislators support the president’s request or deny him authorization? If they support, they will be complicit in what’s to come, and the president’s “strategy” is laughably unstrategic. It’s a terrible plan, narcissistic to the point of ignoring predictable reactions by both enemies and friends. Many in Congress are understandably concerned about voter backlash — and this president has very short coattails. Only about 20 percent of the public supports intervening in Syria; the administration is nowhere near winning the argument. There is stunning hypocrisy in this president, who took campaign swings through Iraq to highlight his opposition to the war that the United States was fighting and to Germany to highlight his international appeal, now somberly intoning that politics must stop at the water’s edge.

But none of these concerns erases the stubborn fact that it would be bad for our country to deny the president congressional support to attack Syria. Obama has damaged American credibility with his choices; Congress has an opportunity to provide some margin of repair.

A vote in favor of the resolution would demonstrate to the world that We the People are often better than our government, able to make difficult decisions when difficult decisions need to be made. That we struggle to make manifest our principles and beliefs, even in complicated circumstances. That we don’t avert our eyes from evil, even when we are weary of war. That we understand our choices set standards to shape the international order and that responsibility is often a lonely one.

Republicans in Congress should not allow the president to foist on them responsibility that is properly and constitutionally settled on the commander in chief. It is the president who develops policies and carries out military action; he should come up with a better one. Congress should give him the authority while criticizing his plan.

Kori Schake is a fellow at the Hoover Institution.

RealClearPolitics – Articles

In Support of Congressional Authorization on Syria

Is Obama right to seek congressional approval on Syria? | Poll

The president has waived his executive power of ordering military action against the Assad regime until the US Congress has voted on the issue. Do you agree with this course?

Comment is free | theguardian.com

Is Obama right to seek congressional approval on Syria? | Poll

Exclusive: U.S. congressional hurdles lifted on arming Syrian rebels

Free Syrian Army fighters move through a hole in a wall in the northern town of Khan al-Assal, after seizing it July 22, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Hamid Khatib

By Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON | Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:03pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will move forward with a plan for the United States to arm the struggling Syrian rebels after some congressional concerns were eased, officials said on Monday.

“We believe we are in a position that the administration can move forward,” House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told Reuters.

The White House announced in June that it would offer military aid to vetted groups of Syrian rebels after two years of balking at directly sending arms to the opposition.

“We have been working with Congress to overcome some of the concerns that they initially had, and we believe that those concerns have been addressed and that we will now be able to proceed,” a source familiar with the administration’s thinking told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

But both Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees had expressed worries that the arms could end up in the hands of Islamist militants in Syria like the Nusra Front, and would not be enough to tip the balance of the civil war against President Bashar al-Assad anyway.

Part of the logjam was broken on July 12 when members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who had questioned the wisdom of arming the insurgents decided behind closed doors to tentatively agree that the administration could go ahead with its plans, but sought updates as the covert effort proceeded.

Now, the House committee has also given at least a cautious go-ahead.

“It is important to note that there are still strong reservations,” Rogers said. “We got a consensus that we could move forward with what the administration’s plans and intentions are in Syria consistent with committee reservations.”

The source familiar with the administration’s thinking said, “The committees were persuaded and we will be able to move forward.”

The timeline was unclear, but supporters of the rebels hope the deliveries of U.S.-provided arms will start in August.

They hope for “a large number of small weapons” such as rifles and basic anti-tank weapons, said Louay Sakka, a co-founder of the Syrian Support Group, which backs the Free Syrian Army fighting Assad.

Committee sessions on arming the rebels are classified and have been held in secret. Senior government figures like Secretary of State John Kerry have briefed lawmakers behind closed doors to persuade them to back the White House’s Syria strategy. Rogers said he still had “very strong concerns” about the plan’s chances of success.

REBELS LAGGING

The mostly Sunni Muslim rebels have been struggling since government forces, helped by Lebanese Hezbollah allies, took the strategic town of Qusair in early June. Backed by warplanes and artillery, Assad is much better armed than the rebels.

Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, opposes sending U.S. arms to the rebels.

“It’s too late to affect the outcome with a small amount of arms,” Schiff said. “I think we would have to provide such a massive amount of arms, and additional military support to change the balance on the battlefield, that we would inevitably be drawn deeply into the civil war,” he said.

“And I think we also have to expect that some of the weapons we provide are going to get into the hands of those who would use them against us,” Schiff said.

He said his view is probably a minority one within the intelligence committee – but that for many Americans, after two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is “little appetite for getting involved in a third.”

Obama has been reluctant to intervene in the civil war in Syria, in which more than 100,000 people have died.

“Arms do not make peace,” said Lakhdar Brahimi, the special peace envoy for Syria of the United Nations and the Arab League. “We would like to see the delivery of arms stopped to all sides,” he told reporters in Washington.

He said the United States and Russia both agreed there was no military solution to the Syrian conflict “even if they are delivering weapons in the hope their side is going to win.”

Brahimi said it was possible to find a political solution in efforts to bring together the warring parties for a peace conference in Geneva. “It is extremely difficult to bring (together) people who have been killing one another for two years just by waving a magic wand to a conference like this. It will take time but I hope it will happen.”

Supported by Iran and Russia, Assad has looked increasingly stronger in recent months while the opposition has been fractured.

Clashes between Islamist rebel forces and Kurdish militias spread to a second Syrian province last weekend.

The fighting is further evidence that the 2011 uprising against Assad’s rule has splintered into turf wars that have little to do with ousting him.

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Alistair Bell, Eric Walsh and Lisa Shumaker)

• Link this


• Share this


• Digg this


• Email


• Reprints

Reuters: Politics

Exclusive: U.S. congressional hurdles lifted on arming Syrian rebels