Tagged: President Barack Obama

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., quickly came out against President Obama's push for Congress to end the Bush-era tax cuts for those who making over $250,000 annually.

The president spoke from the White House on Monday, arguing that he has cut taxes for the middle-class Americans and that 97 percent of all businesses would not see their taxes increase. It renews a previous fight between Mr. Obama and Republican lawmakers, but the proposal also puts the administration at odds with congressional Democrats who have called for extending the the cuts for everyone except people earning more than $1 million a year.

McConnell says the proposal is a tax hike that will hurt job creators.

From McConnell's office:

"It’s not an accident that the President didn’t explain how his plan to raise taxes on small businesses will create jobs—he can’t say that with a straight face, it simply isn’t true. In fact, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, nearly a million small businesses would feel this tax hike right away, and up to a quarter of the entire American workforce depends on these employers for a paycheck.

Information for this post also came from the Associated Press

President Barack Obama's health care overhaul will proceed thanks to the help of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. The Supreme Court upheld the law today with Roberts joining with the court's four liberal justices in a 5-4 decision. 

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., dismissed the role of the Supreme Court in disagreeing with the high court's ruling to uphold President Obama's health care law.

From Paul's office:

 “Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so. The whole thing remains unconstitutional. While the court may have erroneously come to the conclusion that the law is allowable, it certainly does nothing to make this mandate or government takeover of our health care right,” Sen. Paul said.

Congressman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., believes the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the Affordable Care Act.

The justices are expected to rule on President Obama’s chief legislative accomplishment on Thursday to determine whether the law is constitutional. According to polling, at least 37 percent of Americans want the law struck down while other surveys show 35 percent want it upheld.

The campaign for Republican Senate Richard Mourdock accidently released the Indiana state treasurer's various reactions to the Supreme Court's possible rulings on President Obama's health care law.

The videos were briefly posted to YouTube before the Mourdock campaign yanked them, but not before media outlets were able to repost his different versions to the high court upholding or striking down the Affordable Care Act.

The decision by President Obama to stop the expulsion of immigrants who came to the U.S. as children is being praised by U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., as a solution Congress should adopt.

From Yarmuth's office:

"As a supporter of the DREAM Act, I applaud the president's decision and am glad to see renewed pressure on Congress to address critical immigration reforms that will benefit our country.

In a fiercely worded speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accused President Obama of violating citizen's First Amendment rights and denounced legislation that would require Super PACs to disclose the names of contributors.

The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute hosted McConnell on Friday, where he addressed First Amendment rights in light of the Supreme Court’s much argued Citizens United case. The decision rejects spending limits in federal elections for companies and unions.

McConnell has been supportive of the controversial 5-to-4 ruling  and has urged the justices to reaffirm the decision in the face of a pending legal challenge.

Democrats have pushed the Disclose Act in response to the ruling that would mandate third party groups reveal who donated to pay for election ads, but the measure has failed to move forward in Congress.

McConnell says the measure amounts to harassment and an attempt to intimidate conservative donors and organizations.

"What this bill calls for is government-compelled disclosure of contributions to all grassroots groups, which is far more dangerous than its proponents are willing to admit," he says. "Because if disclosure is forced upon some but not all, it’s not an act of good government, it’s a political weapon…This is nothing less than an effort by the government itself to exposes its critics to harassment and intimidation."