zlde The 4 upcoming spending battles in Congress

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Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for a repealof the Second Amendment in aNew York Times op-edTuesday, and he urged demonstrators pressing for gun control to do the same. His bold proposal has prompted many questions about whether such a fundamental change to the U.S. Constitution is legally ndash; let alone politically ndash; possible. For over 200 years after the adoption of the Second Amendment, it was uniforml stanley quencher y understood as not placing any limit on either federal or state authority to enact gun control legislation, Stevens wrote.That changed in stanley cup website 2008, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller that there is an individual right to bear arms. Stevens was one of four dissenters. That decision ndash; which I remain convinced was wrong and certainly was debatable ndash; has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power. Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A. s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option, Stevens wrote.But stanley water bottle just how simple ndash; or difficult ndash; is it to repeal a constitutional amendment, and how does the repeal process work Experts say there are two ways to go about it. The first process requires that any proposed amendment to the Constitution be passed by Lqul Meet Washington s geeky fiscal referees: The CBO
A high profile White House meeting on Treasuryrsquo $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan ended Thursday on a sour contentious note, with no joint endorsement by the two presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.Democrats complained of being blind-sided by a new conservative alternative to the plan first put forward by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. And the outcome casts doubt on the ability of Congress to move quickly on the matter, even after leaders of House and Senate banking committees reached a bipartisan agreement Thursday on the framework for legislation stanley cup authorizing the massive government intervention.It was McCain who urged President Bush to call the White House meeting attended by House and Senate leaders as well as Obama, his Democratic rival. But the candidates left without commenting to reporters outside, and the whole sequence of events confirmed Treasuryrsquo fears about inserting presidential politics into what were already difficult negotiations. By the end of the day, Paulson appeared bruised on two fronts. He was not part of the Capitol discussions in the morning, which stretched for nearly three hours a stanley canada nd will now require extensive follow up with Treasury. At the same time House Financial Services Committ stanley cup nz ee Chairman Barney Frank D., Mass. said he feared McCain was undercutting Paulson by appealing to conservatives in the House.McCain and the House Republicans are underc