Spend our way out of this recession?; Higher taxes for all; Reuters, Hensarling bullied by Obama; Iran says "harsh blow" coming

Here’s a fun little study in opposites: "Make no mistake. This is a budget aimed to advance the administration's philosophy and ideology. By increasing taxes and letting country spiral into debt, this budget is a firm step toward transforming America into collectivist society overseen by a social welfare state." - Wisconsin Republican Representative Paul Ryan “We are not going to save our way, uh, out of this recession. We've got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that.” South Carolina Democrat Representative James Clyburn 1) Higher Taxes For All In Obama Budget, $1.6 Tril 2010 Deficit After cutting taxes for 95% of working families in his first year, President Obama has proposed a budget that would raise taxes on 100% of them. Even as the White House calls for another quick shot of stimulus to speed up job creation, its new 10-year budget promises to impose a fiscal regimen of major tax hikes and modest spending curbs. …The White House budget would extend Obama's signature $400 Making Work Pay tax credit for one more year at a cost of $61 billion, and it would permanently extend the middle-class tax cuts passed under President Bush. Left unsaid was that Obama's Making Work Pay tax credit would lapse at the end of 2011 as proposed tax hikes ramp up to $156 billion. See: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=519783 1a) Obama budget: Record spending, record deficit WASHINGTON – Spelling out painful priorities, President Barack Obama urged Congress on Monday to quickly approve a huge new shot of spending for recession relief and job creation, part of a record $3.8 trillion budget that would boost the deficit beyond any in the nation's history while only slowly beginning to put Americans back to work. If Congress goes along with Obama's election-year plan, the nation would still end the year with unemployment pushing double digits at 9.8 percent and this year's pool of government red ink deepening to $1.56 trillion — by the administration's accounting. …The budget paints a remarkably dire picture of a federal government that will have to borrow one-third of what it spends next year as it runs a deficit that still would total some $1.3 trillion. …Proposing a partial spending freeze, tax increases for wealthier people and a new fee on banks, the president's proposal still amounts to just tinkering at the edges of the larger budget problem. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_budget 1b) Reuters Withdraws 'Backdoor Taxes To Hit Middle Class' Story Linked By Drudge Report The lead story at DrudgeReport.com as of 11:30 a.m. this morning was "**REUTERS: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class." But Reuters withdrew the article last night. Drudge noted the change and wrote: "**REUTERS pulls tax story..." then added another link to the top left margin: "Largest-ever federal payroll to hit 2.15 million employees..." So what happened? According to a Reuters rep, the was withdrawn "due to significant errors of fact." "The story was wrong on multiple points and should not have gone out," she emailed us. A formal withdrawal will issued will address specific points that were incorrect later today. UPDATE: A White House official told Talking Points Memo that administration aides appealed to Reuters to take it down. The original link lead clickers to an article posted on Monday, Feb. 1 at 4:09 p.m. which reads, in part: “While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases. ...Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.” See: http://www.businessinsider.com/reuters-takes-down-story-linked-by-drudge-report-2010-2 2) Rep. Hensarling fires back at Obama in the rumble over deficits Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who got President Barack Obama a bit miffed during the question-and-answer session after his address to the House GOP retreat Friday, fired back Saturday evening after the conclusion of the Baltimore conference. Hensarling, in criticizing government spending, told Obama that the yearly deficits Democrats complained about under George W. Bush had now become "monthly" deficits in lengthy remarks that clearly frustrated the president. (Watch the video here) "Jim, I know there's a question in there somewhere, because you're making a whole bunch of assertions, half of which I disagree with, and I'm having to sit here listening to them. At some point I know you're going to let me answer," said Obama, who called the congressman "Jim" three times even after being initially corrected by Jeb. "With all due respect, I've got take this last question as an example of how it's very hard to have the kind of bipartisan work that we're going to do. The whole question was structured as a talking point for running a campaign," Obama continued, before calling Hensarling's assertions about deficits "factually just not true." In anticipation of Obama rolling out his budget proposal Monday, Hensarling's Saturday statement cited Congressional Budget Office statistics putting the average deficit during 12 years of GOP House control at $104 billion and the average deficit under three years of Democratic control at $1.1 trillion. “The President challenged the facts I presented to him about House Republican budget priorities and Democrat budget priorities," Hensarling said. "I am happy to provide him with the following facts to back-up my statements. I stand by what I said." See: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/78901-hensarling-fires-back-at-obama-in-the-deficit-rumble And: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012902848.html And: http://spectator.org/blog/2010/01/31/hensarling-strikes-back 3) 'Iran will deliver telling blow to global powers on Feb. 11' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the nation will deliver a harsh blow to the "global arrogance" on this year's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. "The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race, which was trapped in the dead ends of materialism," Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday. "If the Islamic Revolution had not occurred, liberalism and Marxism would have crushed all human dignity in their power-seeking and money-grubbing claws. Nothing would have remained of human and spiritual principles," he added. Ahmadinejad said that in the three decades of its history, the Islamic Revolution had inspired some great developments in the world. The Iranian president made the remarks as the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution approaches. Iranians are expected to pour into the streets on February 11 to celebrate the occasion in public rallies across the country, as they have done annually over the past three decades. See: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117545&sectionid=351020101 4) NETANYAHU AT AUSCHWITZ SAYS PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL 37 HAVE BEEN FULFILLED …I awoke to read news coverage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address this week in Poland, commemorating the 65th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz. Speaking on the actual site of the Nazi death camp, the Prime Minister delivered a major address warning the world of new genocidal threats against the Jewish people and the importance of acting early enough to prevent such threats from coming to pass. He also declared to the people of Europe and the world that the prophecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled. It was an extraordinary moment. Rarely has any world leader given a major address on an international stage declaring End Times prophecies from the Bible have come true. But that is exactly what Netanyahu did. Excerpts: -“The most important lesson of the Holocaust is that a murderous evil must be stopped early, when it is still in its infancy and before it can carry out its designs. The enlightened nations of the world must learn this lesson. We, the Jewish nation, who lost a third of our people on Europe’s blood-soaked soil, have learned that the only guarantee for defending our people is a strong State of Israel and the army of Israel. We gave learned to warn the nations of the world of impending danger but at the same time to prepare to defend ourselves. As the head of the Jewish state, I pledge to you today: We will never again permit evil to snuff out the life of our people and the life of our own country…” -“[After the Holocaust,” the Jewish people rose from ashes and destruction, from a terrible pain that can never be healed. Armed with the Jewish spirit, the justice of man, and the vision of the prophets, we sprouted new branches and grew deep roots. Dry bones became covered with flesh, a spirit filled them, and they lived and stood on their own feet. As Ezekiel prophesized: ‘Then He said unto me: These bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’ Prophecy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of your graves, O My people, and bring you to the land of Israel.’ I stand here today on the ground where so many of my people perished — and I am not alone. The State of Israel and all the Jewish people stand with me. We bow our heads to honor your memory and lift our heads as we raise our flag-a flag of blue and white with a Star of David in its center. And everyone sees. And everyone hears. And everyone knows – that our hope is not lost.” The question for all Israelis and all people everywhere is now this: If the prophecies of Ezekiel 37 have come to pass in our lifetime, isn’t it remotely possible that the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39 will come true in our lifetime as well? See: http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/netanyahu-at-auschwitz-says-prophecies-of-ezekiel-37-have-been-fulfilled/ 5) Israel allows Palestinians to grab foothold in capital Sources: U.S. pressured decision to permit Arab infiltration of city JERUSALEM – Under intense American pressure, Israel has silently agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to open official institutions in eastern sections of Jerusalem, a senior official in PA President Mahmoud Abbas' office told WND. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not deny the report. When asked whether Netanyahu agreed to allow PA institutions in Jerusalem, Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev told WND, "The prime minister's position on Jerusalem is clear. Jerusalem will remain the united capital of Israel." Separately, an official from Netanyahu's office confirmed to WND that in recent meetings, President Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, pressed Netanyahu to freeze Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem as a confidence-building measure to begin direct talks with PA President Abbas. U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones also pushed for a construction freeze, even imploring Netanyahu to quietly impose the freeze without making any public announcements. Abbas had publicly stated he would not commence direct negotiations with Israel unless a Jewish construction freeze was imposed in eastern Jerusalem. Speaking to WND, the Netanyahu official said the prime minister rejected any construction freeze in eastern Jerusalem, but did acquiesce to a U.S. request to allow the PA to open institutions in Jerusalem. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123690 6) Feds claim authority to regulate in-state commerce Government cites Constitution in demanding dismissal of gun challenge The federal government is claiming in court documents demanding the dismissal of a gun-law challenge in Montana the authority to regulate in-state commerce under the Constitution's Commerce clause. But the plaintiff in the case says the court needs to review that provision in its amended form – since the 10th Amendment, adopted after the Commerce Clause, can be viewed as modifying the Constitution's provisions regarding the regulation of commerce, specifically granting additional authority to states. The argument is arising in a lawsuit filed in Montana against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and others. The complaint seeks a court order that the federal government stay out of the way of Montana's management of its own firearms within state boundaries. As WND reported, the action was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Montana Shooting Sports Association in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., to validate the principles and terms of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which took effect Oct. 3. The law provides guns and ammo made, sold and used in Montana would not require any federal forms; silencers made and sold in Montana would be fully legal and not registered; and there would be no firearm registration, serial numbers, criminal records check, waiting periods or paperwork required. The idea is spreading quickly. Similar plans have been introduced in many other states. (A similar plan has passed in Tennessee). See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123419 7) Crisis-pregnancy centers to be gagged? Planned Parenthood pushes law dictating what counselors say to women Two hot-button issues – abortion and free speech – are clashing in Washington state, as lawmakers attempt to regulate what is said in crisis pregnancy centers. About 250 people packed the chambers of the state's Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee earlier this week for a hearing on Senate Bill 6452, a proposed law that requires crisis pregnancy center counselors to communicate only "medically and scientifically accurate" reproductive health information – even though what is "accurate" has been hotly contested, even in the committee's chambers. The bill's sponsor, State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, for example, backed by a doctor from the University of Washington, claimed that in some cases, center volunteers have misled women to believe that abortion increases their risk of developing ovarian cancer. Yet later in the hearing, former nurse Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, told the committee a 2009 study by the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center found that an abortion does indeed increase the risk of cancer by 40 percent. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123582 8) Abstinence Education Effective in Reducing Teen Sex, Comprehensive Sex Ed Not A new study concludes that abstinence-only education had a significant and long-term effect in reducing teen sexual activity. “The abstinence-only intervention reduced sexual initiation,” reports the study, which is featured in the most recent issue of the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, published by the American Medical Association. The study found that a short eight-hour abstinence program reduced sexual activity among youth by a third. Despite the brevity of the abstinence training the effects lasted a full two years after students left the classroom. Moreover, if students who took the abstinence course did become sexually active they were not less likely to use contraception. In contrast, study found that alternative types of sex ed failed. “Safe sex” programs (which promote contraception only) and “comprehensive sex ed” programs (which teach both abstinence and contraceptive use), had no effect on teen sexual behavior. These programs neither reduced teen sex nor did they increase contraceptive use among teens, which is their major emphasis. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/01/abstinence-education-effective-in-reducing-teen-sex-comprehensive-sex-ed-not/