HANITY

Wednesday, March 13th

Pope Francis I Today the Catholic Church saw the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis I. Pope John Paul II showed how the impact that a Pope can have on world events. Along with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, we had Pope John Paul II come upon our world at the right time. With the world changing as fast as it is, it’s critical that we have a Pope who is a bit more media savvy and who is willing to address the many challenges of our society. The Catholic Church is under immense pressure to address these various issues and our thoughts and prayers are with Pope Francis I. As the months go on, I’ll be excited to learn about this new Pope and his vision for the Catholic Church. For more on today's news, click here. Obama Tumbles Finally, even those in the lapdog Obama-mania media are starting to notice the decline in Barack Obama's approval ratings. The Washington Post has a piece out today: “ Obama’s approval drops as Americans take a dimmer view of his economic policies.” In some ways this is frustrating because Barack Obama hasn't changed anything about his economic policies; Apparently the American people got the memo a little too late about how his economic policies simply aren't working. Barack Obama ran for re-election on the promise of tax increases and bigger government and that is exactly what we are getting from him. But the American people don't seem to like that. They woke up to a 2% payroll tax increase in 2013, which caught low-information Americans by surprise. It was laughable to see liberals suddenly complaining about their paychecks shrinking, when this was something conservatives had been warning about for months. His demagoguery has now given way to a lack of credibility among the American people. Even Politico says that Obama may have a tax problem – The $600 billion tax increase he got as a result of the debt ceiling deal may be all the tax increases he will get. Why? Because he overshot his hand. Because his leverage is gone and the American people aren't buying his BS that we can't cut government and must increase taxes in order to restore our economic prosperity. But the Republicans now have a responsibility to offer a credible alternative.

Predictable Ryan Budget Reaction Washington is becoming entirely too predictable. Yesterday afternoon I told you that it was only a matter of time before Democrats had Paul Ryan pushing granny off a cliff. It didn't take but a few hours for that to happen. We played the political ad last night on Hannity of, sure enough, Paul Ryan pushing granny over a cliff. Again. Are Americans going to buy this demagoguery too? Paul Ryan put forward a serious plan to actually balance our budget within 10 years, which is a plan that still increases spending! The only difference is that Paul Ryan's plan slows the rate of spending growth compared to our current track. We are still going to be spending more money, yet the Democrat demagoguery brigade was out in full-force yesterday. The Ryan budget is a serious proposal to serious problems facing this nation. The scary part is that there is a growing number of people in this country, particularly Democrats who are in positions of power, who fail to acknowledge these problems. Today's "Hot Topic" From the Hannity Forums White Smoke Rises? - Posted by Hyperion5182 For a Papal Conclave with as many as twenty candidates, this was frighteningly fast.  The raw numbers suggest something happened in the chamber to sway a lot of people.  210 cardinals need 2/3rds vote.  That's 140 votes.  We'll never know what happened but wow.... >>TV Tonight (9pm ET on Fox News) President Obama is trying to find middle ground with the budget.  How difficult will that be?