Interesting guests and timely topics will be on AM 740 WSBR and AM 1470 WWNN this weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) on The Credit Report with Bill Lewis.

Provocative entrepreneur Bob Davids will appear and speak his mind on America, leadership and what the future holds.  Bob has launched six highly successful companies over the course of his career including Radica Games, the third most profitable toy maker in the world; launching Sea Smoke, his world-class vineyard located in Central California (featured in the Academy Award-winning movie “Sideways”); and his latest venture, “Villa Keliki”, a luxurious 8,000 square meter resort located on the breathtaking island of Bali.

Former presidential appointee and elections attorney Gineen Bresso will appear and discuss her candidacy to represent Florida’s 20th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Bresso is challenging Democratic National Committee Chair and incumbent Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Former prosecutor and Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Jim Lewis will appear and discuss his candidacy for Broward State Attorney as the only Republican for this countywide office in 2012.  Lewis is challenging incumbent Michael Satz and Chris Mancini, a former federal prosecutor turned defense attorney.  Mancini switched his voter registration from independent to Democrat so he could run against Satz in the party’s primary.  Lewis will face the winner of the August primary.

Tom Lauder of RedBroward will appear and discuss his political blog where “Making Broward See Red” is not such a hard job.

Foreclosure defense attorney Carlos Reyes will appear and discuss the latest developments in the mortgage foreclosure crisis. After nearly a year of negotiations, federal and state officials and five major mortgage servicers (Ally Financial, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo) have announced a $25 billion settlement over alleged foreclosure and mortgage loan-servicing abuses.

Republican Party of Broward County Executive Director Rico Petrocelli will appear and discuss initiatives to grow the local party and upcoming events.

Jennifer Cabrera will appear and discuss her departure for Saudi Arabia on behalf of Planet Beach Contempo Spa.  Cabrera did not take the traditional road to spa ownership. After years in corporate sales, Cabrera wanted to own her own business. A member of Planet Beach, she heard about the Ms. Planet Beach Gen X contest and a grand prize package that included a free license. Cabrera is now a proud franchisee in North Miami Beach.

The Credit Report with Bill Lewis airs live, Monday through Friday from 7am-8am with an encore presentation Saturday’s at 3pm on AM 740 WSBR.  Streaming audio is available at www.wsbrradio.com and on air participation is welcome at (888) 721-0074.

If you miss the early broadcast, The Credit Report with Bill Lewis is still available weeknights at 9pm and Sunday’s at 1pm on AM 1470 WWNN by streaming audio at www.wwnnradio.com.

For daily updates on The Credit Report with Bill Lewis, you can join Bill’s 39,950 plus fans on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/thecreditreportwithbilllewis.

Heath Shuler has always been a bit of a conundrum in western North Carolina. He was a Democrat, albeit more Conservative than your average one, in a very Conservative area of the state. And like his fellow members of the “Blue Dogs” he was usually fell in line to support Pelosi and Company after much public “Discussion” that helped make him look more Conservative than he is in actuality. Now his time has come and he will be retiring at the end of this Congress. However, this is not the result of a popular uprising in Asheville even though the Tea Party is active in that area. Rather it illustrates the importance of voting and highlights one of the most overlooked results of the 2010 elections; the takeover of several state legislatures by Republicans just in time for re-districting.

In North Carolina, Republicans took control of the legislature in the 2010 elections and this has allowed them to drive Brad Miller and now Shuler from office. The Congressional delegation will be more representative of the state in general as Republicans get their chance to gerrymander. As a resident of NC-4, a district set up to be Democrat district forever, I am a beneficiary of the Republican majority as I will now be in NC-2 represented by Renee Ellmers. This is a great thing as is the retirements of Miller and Shuler. And David Price in NC-4 will be where he belongs, on Chapel Hill and Durham.

The lesson for all of you that all complaining about our potential nominee in the race for POTUS and threatening to stay home (I am looking at you Newt supporters) is to get out and vote no matter who that nominee is in November. Not only can we send Obama back to Chicago, we can extend our control over state houses and local politics which is vital as I am seeing firsthand in North Carolina.

Cross-posted at The Opinionator

TOWANDA – While Bradford County has experienced extensive gas drilling for a few years, what will it be like after the drilling has gone on for decades?

The three Bradford County commissioners and other local officials had a chance to get a sense of what could happen when they traveled last week to participate in a two-day conference in Lea County, N.M.

Lea County’s economy had been based for decades on natural gas production, although in the last decade its economy has diversified to include other forms of energy, such as nuclear, solar, and wind, the Bradford County commissioners said.

The conference, which was titled “Shale Gas & Conventional Gas: From Pennsylvania to New Mexico,” discussed the issues surrounding the development of shale gas using Lea County, N.M., and Bradford County, Pa., as case studies, according to the Economic Development Corporation of Lea County, which co-sponsored the conference.

Lea County’s population is about the same size as Bradford County’s, but its economy is dependent solely on energy production, Bradford County Commissioner Daryl Miller said.

The Bradford County commissioners discussed the trip at the commissioners’ meeting on Thursday, and both commissioners Doug McLinko and Mark Smith said it was worthwhile to travel to New Mexico.

McLinko said the trip reinforced for him the belief that Bradford County needs to do more to be ready to take advantage of opportunities to bring long-term jobs to the county, such as the planned Moxie Energy gas-fired electric power plant in Asylum Township. The Moxie Energy plant will bring a significant number of long-term jobs to the county, he said.

“They (Lea County officials) are very aggressive with their (economic) development (efforts)” to keep and attract long-term jobs, he said, adding that Lea County needed to broaden the base of their economy so that they were not tied to the ups and downs of the natural gas industry.

Among the measures that Lea County has taken are to purchase and lease thousands of acres of land, and Lea County is bringing infrastructure to that land, such as municipal water and electrical service, in an effort to attract industry to locate on the property, McLinko said. By controlling those thousands of acres of land, Lea County can offer attractive terms to the businesses that consider moving there, said Bradford County Economic Development Manager Lauren Hotaling, who also attended the conference.

McLinko said he does not want Bradford County to buy or lease land to attract businesses. But he said that townships, boroughs, and private property owners in Bradford County need to take steps to make sure there is land available for businesses or industry to move to, and that that land is ready with the infrastructure they need, such as municipal water and sewer, as well as any zoning provisions.

“When you get an opportunity for development, you can’t lag behind, because we are in competition with other states,” he said.

However, Hotaling said one problem with attracting businesses and industry to Bradford County is that there is a limited area in the county that has the kind of infrastructure that many large businesses are looking for, such as municipal water and municipal sewer.

And in the locations where municipal water and sewer exists or will soon exist, such as Route 6 in Wysox Township, the land is expensive to buy, she said.

There is even a lack of natural gas distribution lines in Bradford County that could supply these large businesses, she said.

Just as is the case in Bradford County, hotels in Lea County are used by workers in the energy extraction industry, namely gas and oil drilling, Hotaling said.

But Lea County has secured a use for its hotels which will buffer them against the ups and downs in gas and oil drilling. Specifically, Lea County has become a training center for Homeland Security, she said. The training has resulted in the construction of three or four additional hotels in Lea County, she said.

Hotaling also said that New Mexico’s state budget is heavily dependant on revenue from the gas and oil industry.

The gas and oil industry provides over 26 percent of New Mexico’s state funds, she said.

New Mexico has a state severance tax on gas and oil, she said. New Mexico also gets a significant amount of revenue from lease bonuses and royalties on state-owned land, she said.

Among the local officials who traveled to the conference were state Rep. Tina Pickett, Progress Authority Executive Director Tony Ventello, and Mark Madden of Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Bradford County paid the airfare to the conference for the three Bradford County commissioners, according to Bradford County Fiscal Director Joan Sanderson.

The Progress Authority paid for lodging and meals for the three Bradford County commissioners while they were in New Mexico, Hotaling said.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or email: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

We have a legislative process, often referred to as “regular order,” for good reason.  The committee, floor, and conference committee stages of the process are designed to maximize transparency and allow all members of Congress to offer their input on the impending bill.

In recent months, there has been a disturbing trend among House leaders to jettison the floor process in the House in favor of a shortcut straight to conference committee with the Senate.  They claim that this is needed in order to finish all the “must-pass” legislation on time.  In reality, they are undermining their own majority in the House, while abdicating gratuitous power to the Senate.  You would think that Republicans would be eager to leverage the power of the House – the one body they control – as much as possible.  Instead, they have shown that their desire to forge deals supersedes transparency, as well as the leverage of their own conference.

Under regular order, after a bill has been fully vetted and voted on by the members of the committee with jurisdiction, it is then sent to the floor so that all members can vote on amendments to the bill.  The other body follows the same procedure, either concurrently or sequentially.  At that point, the two legislative bodies reconcile their differences by instructing conferees to a conference committee or by ping-ponging the bill back and forth until one body acquiesces.

However, under ‘House GOP order,’ they have agreed to send bills to conference committee even though the bills were never considered on the House floor.  In some cases, the bills never even got out of committee.  In other instances, they took obsolete bills that passed the House and totally transformed them without coming back to the conference for a floor vote.

Read More →

We have a legislative process, often referred to as “regular order,” for good reason.  The committee, floor, and conference committee stages of the process are designed to maximize transparency and allow all members of Congress to offer their input on the impending bill.

In recent months, there has been a disturbing trend among House leaders to jettison the floor process in the House in favor of a shortcut straight to conference committee with the Senate.  They claim that this is needed in order to finish all the “must-pass” legislation on time.  In reality, they are undermining their own majority in the House, while abdicating gratuitous power to the Senate.  You would think that Republicans would be eager to leverage the power of the House – the one body they control – as much as possible.  Instead, they have shown that their desire to forge deals supersedes transparency, as well as the leverage of their own conference.

Under regular order, after a bill has been fully vetted and voted on by the members of the committee with jurisdiction, it is then sent to the floor so that all members can vote on amendments to the bill.  The other body follows the same procedure, either concurrently or sequentially.  At that point, the two legislative bodies reconcile their differences by instructing conferees to a conference committee or by ping-ponging the bill back and forth until one body acquiesces.

However, under ‘House GOP order,’ they have agreed to send bills to conference committee even though the bills were never considered on the House floor.  In some cases, the bills never even got out of committee.  In other instances, they took obsolete bills that passed the House and totally transformed them without coming back to the conference for a floor vote.

Read More →

The NRCC released this ad today for the IN-2 open Congressional seat. It’s the first ad they’ve produced for a Congressional race this cycle, so they must think the seat is winnable for the GOP. In 2010, Democrat Rep. Joe Donnelly barely won re-election. Former State Rep. Jackie Walorski came within one point of flipping the seat. Walorski is running again in 2012, and she has one of the most renowned grassroots networks in the entire state.

As the ad states, Brendan Mullen does not live in Indiana and hasn’t lived there in many years (he was handpicked by the Democrat machine in South Bend). The majority of his money comes from out of state (Jackie gets near 90 percent of her money from within the state). Unsurprisingly, the labor unions comprise a major part of his fundraising.

Here’s hoping a home-grown Hoosier will knock off a D.C. insider and pick up another seat for the GOP in 2012!

Here’s Jackie’s webpage if you want to learn more about her: www.standwithjackie.com

Immediately prior to the congressional recess in December, Congress passed an inefficacious two-month extension of the Social Security tax cut.  Additionally, they reauthorized another two months of unprecedented long-term unemployment benefits, along with more spending for Medicare ‘doc fix.’  None of it, including the entitlement spending, was paid for in any meaningful way.

Nevertheless, you might ask, didn’t we get the Keystone pipeline as part of the deal?  Well, in reality we got nothing.

Last week, Obama announced that he will deny the requisite permit to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, a decision that will cost thousands of jobs, billions in revenue from royalties, and cheaper products for all consumers.  Even though Obama was required to issue the permit within 60 days of passage of the payroll tax deal last December, the text of the amendment (Title V) offered Obama the following loophole:

(b) Exception.–

(1) IN GENERAL.–The President shall not be required to grant the permit under subsection (a) if the President determines that the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interest.

(2) REPORT.–If the President determines that the Keystone XL pipeline is not in the national interest under paragraph (1), the President shall, not later than 15 days after the date of the determination, submit to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, the majority leader of the Senate, the minority leader of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the minority leader of the House of Representatives a report that provides a justification for determination, including consideration of economic, employment, energy security, foreign policy, trade, and environmental factors.

Despite the fact that TransCanada has spent over three years complying with regulations and sundry environmental impact studies, Obama still has the power to issue a faux report deeming the pipeline a risk to our environment.  That is exactly what he will do this week.

Read More →

Immediately prior to the congressional recess in December, Congress passed an inefficacious two-month extension of the Social Security tax cut.  Additionally, they reauthorized another two months of unprecedented long-term unemployment benefits, along with more spending for Medicare ‘doc fix.’  None of it, including the entitlement spending, was paid for in any meaningful way.

Nevertheless, you might ask, didn’t we get the Keystone pipeline as part of the deal?  Well, in reality we got nothing.

Last week, Obama announced that he will deny the requisite permit to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, a decision that will cost thousands of jobs, billions in revenue from royalties, and cheaper products for all consumers.  Even though Obama was required to issue the permit within 60 days of passage of the payroll tax deal last December, the text of the amendment (Title V) offered Obama the following loophole:

(b) Exception.–

(1) IN GENERAL.–The President shall not be required to grant the permit under subsection (a) if the President determines that the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interest.

(2) REPORT.–If the President determines that the Keystone XL pipeline is not in the national interest under paragraph (1), the President shall, not later than 15 days after the date of the determination, submit to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, the majority leader of the Senate, the minority leader of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the minority leader of the House of Representatives a report that provides a justification for determination, including consideration of economic, employment, energy security, foreign policy, trade, and environmental factors.

Despite the fact that TransCanada has spent over three years complying with regulations and sundry environmental impact studies, Obama still has the power to issue a faux report deeming the pipeline a risk to our environment.  That is exactly what he will do this week.

Read More →

Pursuant to the Budget Control Act, brought to you by the GOP leadership’s sellout, Obama notified Congress yesterday that the federal debt is approaching the statutory ceiling of $15.194 trillion. [The actual total debt is already $15.237 trillion, but a small amount is not subject to the limit.]  As such, he is calling on Congress to grant him another $1.2 trillion in debt, conveniently enough to last him until after the election, with the possibility of saddling his successor with a tough decision over yet another debt limit increase.  It is really more of a notification than a request.  Obama will automatically receive his $1.2 trillion supercharged credit card unless two-thirds of Congress votes to disapprove of the request within 15 days.

In just three years, he has accrued $4.6 trillion in debt, more than Bush amassed during his entire eight-year tenure.  Now he will add another $1.2 trillion by the end of his first term, and, thanks to the horrendous budget deal, which was cheered on by the same outlets that are now fawning over Mitt Romney, there’s nothing we can do about it.

But here’s the question: If Congress is in recess and cannot fulfill its responsibility to advice and consent, as the President has suggested, how can Obama fulfill his obligation of submitting a certification to Congress?

The Budge Control Act requires the following of Obama:

“the President submits a written certification to Congress that the President has determined that the debt subject to limit is within $100,000,000,000 of the limit in section 3101(b) and that further borrowing is required to meet existing commitments, the Secretary of the Treasury may exercise authority to borrow an additional $900,000,000,000, subject to the enactment of a joint resolution of disapproval enacted pursuant to this section. Upon submission of such certification, the limit on debt provided in section 3101(b) (referred to in this section as the ‘debt limit’) is increased by $400,000,000,000.”

Is this submission invalid?  Do we need a new submission to start the 15 days Congress has to disapprove of the increase in debt?  How was the House able to file the resolution of disapproval and set up a vote for next week?   After all, Congress is all but gone, according to Obama.

If Obama wants Congress to issue $1.2 trillion of debt while their gone, imagine what they can do when they’re “in session.”

Pursuant to the Budget Control Act, brought to you by the GOP leadership’s sellout, Obama notified Congress yesterday that the federal debt is approaching the statutory ceiling of $15.194 trillion. [The actual total debt is already $15.237 trillion, but a small amount is not subject to the limit.]  As such, he is calling on Congress to grant him another $1.2 trillion in debt, conveniently enough to last him until after the election, with the possibility of saddling his successor with a tough decision over yet another debt limit increase.  It is really more of a notification than a request.  Obama will automatically receive his $1.2 trillion supercharged credit card unless two-thirds of Congress votes to disapprove of the request within 15 days.

In just three years, he has accrued $4.6 trillion in debt, more than Bush amassed during his entire eight-year tenure.  Now he will add another $1.2 trillion by the end of his first term, and, thanks to the horrendous budget deal, which was cheered on by the same outlets that are now fawning over Mitt Romney, there’s nothing we can do about it.

But here’s the question: If Congress is in recess and cannot fulfill its responsibility to advice and consent, as the President has suggested, how can Obama fulfill his obligation of submitting a certification to Congress?

The Budge Control Act requires the following of Obama:

“the President submits a written certification to Congress that the President has determined that the debt subject to limit is within $100,000,000,000 of the limit in section 3101(b) and that further borrowing is required to meet existing commitments, the Secretary of the Treasury may exercise authority to borrow an additional $900,000,000,000, subject to the enactment of a joint resolution of disapproval enacted pursuant to this section. Upon submission of such certification, the limit on debt provided in section 3101(b) (referred to in this section as the ‘debt limit’) is increased by $400,000,000,000.”

Is this submission invalid?  Do we need a new submission to start the 15 days Congress has to disapprove of the increase in debt?  How was the House able to file the resolution of disapproval and set up a vote for next week?   After all, Congress is all but gone, according to Obama.

If Obama wants Congress to issue $1.2 trillion of debt while their gone, imagine what they can do when they’re “in session.”