Beltway Insider: Newtown Parents Deliver Obama Address; Peacekeepers Killed; Margaret Thatcher Dies; 2014 Sequester Proposed

Details

Parent Category: News

Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Sunday, 14 April 2013 15:49

Written by Janet Walker

President Obama, in his determination to have congress pass stricter gun control laws, invited the parents of Sandy Hook murder victim Benjamin Wheeler to deliver his weekly radio address.

According to Gallup, President Obama’s job approval, over the past week, dropped one percentage point, to 48% of those polled approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President rose three percentage points to 47%.

Newtown Parents Deliver Obama’s Weekly Address

President Obama in his weekly address passed on addressing the United States himself in favor of allowing Newtown parents David and Francine Wheeler to address the nation in a plea to every citizen to urge their elected officials to act on gun control now.

Mrs. Wheeler attempts, in her opening remarks, to neutralize the sorrow, anguish and grief, during delivery of the speech. She breaks down multiple times throughout the just over four minute petition while Mr. Wheeler remains stoic and silent.

The moving and emotional appeal pays tribute to Ben Wheeler, one of twenty first graders at Sandy Hook elementary school, murdered in his classroom when a lone gunman shot his way into the locked school. She also mentions the six educators and presses the continuing issue that thousands have died from gun violence since the Sandy Hook slaughter.

Congress has repeatedly killed several Gun Control acts since the Newtown massacre four months ago. President Obama is clearly approaching his tolerance limit as legislators have continued to water down proposed gun control legislation. The current package that appears to have edged closer to passage includes proposed stricter enforcement of background checks.

What has become known as the Background Check debate, senators have moved closer to a proposed agreement and announced a joint press conference to publicize what they feel is a compromise and a solid win in the effort for gun control and still achieves constitutional balance.

The first comprehensive gun control background check package, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which passed thirteen years after James Brady, Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary, was shot in the head and survived during the March 30, 1981 assassination attempt.

Strengthening the Brady Act, already in place, would end needless and time consuming debate and also move the comprehensive needs of gun control legislation, including the ban on assault weapons as well as a federal ban the sale, transfer or possession of large capacity magazines.  

Senators who have been debating on gun control since Newtown feel they have enough votes to end the debate through cloture and finally act.

2014 Sequester Order Signed

President Obama signed into law this week the budget that calls for the second round of tax spending cuts totaling $109billion for fiscal year 2014.

The Sequester, which calls for across the board discretionary spending cuts until 2021, in an effort to reduce the federal deficit, will continue to squeeze both domestic and defense programs each year.

The 2014 federal budget submitted by Obama went to the Senate to initiate debate on which programs will experience even deeper cuts.

United Nations Peacekeepers Killed

Five United Nations Peacekeepers and seven civilians were murdered in an ambush in the Jonglei state of South Sudan this week.

According to the United Nations the ambush on the supply convoy was carried out by an unidentified militia with over two hundred assailants. The United Nations peacekeepers were all identified as Indian Nationals. The attack on the convey highlighted a growing concern, globally, that the United Nations is no longer seen as neutral and has now become targets as they carry goods, supplies and other economic commodities.

The South Sudan is compromised of ten states bordering Keya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Congo. The tribal strife within the countries is well known and have resulted in multiple genocide of the poverty stricken inhabitants.

Margaret Thatcher Dies

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Britain’s first female Prime Minister, died this week. She was 87. 

Thatcher known as the Iron Lady, a nickname she earned from a Russian journalist, for her steadfast and uncompromising leadership style. She served the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the first and, to date, only female to hold the position of Prime Minister. She was also the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party from 1975 through 1990. Thatcher resigned from her Prime Minister position in January 1991.

A trail blazer, during her tenure Thatcher wielded her strength along with United States allies Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and the two stood against the left over cold war communist leadership of Russian’s Mikhail Gorbachev, watched the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Falklands War, and worked to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait, which lead to a more famous quote, "This was no time to go wobbly" to then President George H.W.Bush who was apprehensive regarding the deployment of troops to Kuwait.

Thatcher will be laid to rest in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on April 17, 2013.

For more information on President Obama: www.whitehouse.gov 

Sources; Gallup, Wikipedia, United Nations