Senate Announces Deal to Avoid Default, House GOP Expected to Bend: Weak Demand? Apple Reportedly Reduces iPhone 5c Orders

Senate leaders announced a bipartisan deal Wednesday to reopen government and raise the debt ceiling, moving the country closer to ending weeks of brinkmanship over Obamacare, federal spending and debt.

"This is not a time for pointing fingers or blame. This is a time for reconciliation," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in announcing the agreement, which would reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling through early next year. The bill will also appoint Senators to work on a budget agreement over the next two months, in the hopes of avoiding another round of brinkmanship in 2014.

He was followed by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell who said Republicans would continue to fight for a repeal to Obamacare, but their would be no victory this week. "For today, the relief we hope for is to reopen the government, avoid default and protect the historic cuts we achieved under the budget control act," McConnell said. He later added that he expected to have a vote Wednesday on the measure.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said President Barack Obama "applauds" the deal, and encouraged both chambers of Congress to expeditiously pass the legislation.

As the Senate gavelled to order, House Republicans gathered to discuss their path forward. Several staff sources suggested that Speaker John Boehner would move forward with a vote on the Senate measure, which would likely pass with the help of Democratic votes. "Looks like we’ll eat the Reid-McConnell deal," one House GOP source told TIME. "It’ll rely on Democratic votes."

Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said it was his "understanding" that the House would act on the measure first, thereby avoiding time-consuming procedural hurdles in the Senate hours before Treasury runs out of borrowing authority. But House Republican leadership did not confirm the order of events. "No decision has been made yet," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House GOP whip before the meeting.

Multiple Republican Senators, including Kentucky’s Rand Paul, said they expect the Senate plan to pass with a strong majority of Republican votes. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the original proponents of the failed plan to shut down the government to defund Obamacare, said he would not vote for the deal, but would also not try to block the Senate from moving forward.

The emerging agreement isn’t sitting well with some Republicans. Sen. Lindsay Graham, who has long argued for a grand bargain to address long-term fiscal issues, called it a "joke. "We took some breadcrumbs and left the whole meal on the table," he said.

Graham continued to criticize the tactics the House Republicans have behaved over recent weeks. "The way we’re behaving and the path we’ve taken over the past couple of weeks leads to a marginalized party in the eyes of the American people," he said. "It has been the best two weeks for the Democratic Party in recent times because they were out of the spotlight and didn’t have to showcase their ideas."

Sen. Kelly Ayotte expressed hope that more conservative colleagues will not repeat their mistakes of the last month. "We’ve been asking from the beginning how does this end, how do you achieve what you’re purporting to achieve on defunding Obamacare," she said. "And I never got an answer to that. I don’t think there still is an answer to that. So if we have learned nothing else from this whole exercise I hope we learn that we shouldn’t get behind a strategy that cannot succeed."

According to a Senate Republican leadership aide, under the agreement, the government would be funded through Jan. 15, 2014 unless a budget agreement is reached sooner, while the debt limit would be raised through Feb. 7. The extraordinary accounting measures used to keep the government under the borrowing cap would not be prohibited under the deal. An anti-fraud measure will be added to Obamacare, requiring income verification for those receiving subsidies to purchase insurance under the law.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has asked the two companies it contracts with to produce iPhones — Hon Hai and Pegatron — to scale back on production of the iPhone 5c model.



This news comes from unnamed sources, so take it with a grain of salt. Pegatron was apparently ordered to cut production by less than a fifth, while Hon Hai was apparently told to cut production by a third.

It wouldn’t be incredibly out of the ordinary to scale back on production after an initial launch period winds down, but these reports of Apple scaling back production coupled with recent price cuts of the iPhone 5c have been, according to the Journal, "raising concerns about weaker-than-expected demand and its pricing strategy for the device."

　

　

　

　

Leading A Spiritual Life: Pondering Death: The Gateway To Your Life Purpose

Living spiritually means believing in and connecting with something that is greater than one's self. For some, this tends me some divine entity such as God, Buddha, Jehovah, or any other higher power. By living spiritually you follow a path through self discovery that can lead you in many directions. You tend to base most big decisions on a moral code derived from some form of divine instructions.

Leading a spiritual life is a journey, a path that will help you learn and grow in wisdom every day. This is not an ending place, not a destination, but a practice that you will forever follow through all of your years.

This lifestyle and belief can also lead you to a life of better understanding of yourself and others. You will learn to forgive and be conscientious of other people and the world around us. In order to do this, and have a deep understanding of yourself and others, you must first have a guide. This is your "higher power".

Whatever a person's spiritual belief is, they are more likely to have a better sense of community, health and guidance, as well as a greater sense of the world as it is. These people are more likely to figure out what their purpose is earlier on in life than one who does not lead a spiritual life at all.

It doesn't matter what your "higher power" is, or if you have one specific one, the general idea is that there are certain morals that you can gain by leading a life of faith and genuine openness to a greater world.

Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 I was invited to work in partnership with the Russian Ministry of Education in delivering a character education curriculum to high schools. The curriculum was titled: "My Journey in Life"

I journeyed to ten major cities in the Russian Far East, lecturing to thousands of high school teachers, principals, curriculum writers and administrators.

The curriculum that I introduced, contained 96 chapters. Of all these chapters, the one that stood out the most in terms of stimulating interest was the one that addressed the issue of life after death.

One can only guess as to why life after death was the most appealing chapter for students. However, unquestionably it became apparent to me that enormous numbers of people including students themselves were having what is often referred to as "paranormal" experiences. Other terms used include "spiritual" and "out of body" experiences. It was only natural then for students to want to get answers to their questions.

Since then, I have traveled extensively and the same observation is evident, particularly in the developing world such as South Pacific island nations. Also one only has to look at the increasing number of movies and TV programs that contain para normal and supernatural themes to know that there is a growing numbers of people that are thirsty for spiritual knowledge or curious at least.

Talking about death and dying and the question of life after death may not engender positive reactions at the family dinner table. However, from my experience as a parent, teacher and life coach, discussion of these issues can be very educational and revealing.

Why is that you may ask? Simply because these topics help to teach us how to live NOW and open the gate to pondering our values and life purpose.

In other words, by contemplating these topics it helps people like you and I to truly appreciate life itself, to realize that our time on this Earth is limited, to answer the question of "who am I?" and to truly connect with our life purpose

Now what could be the benefits of wrapping our minds around such profound issues?

By even attempting to answer the aforementioned questions, it requires that the individual digs deep to the core of their being. By doing so, answers can emerge that provide an impetus to seek a path where one can come to love what they do every single day of their lives. The implication is being able to live a life that is significant causing the individual to leave a legacy that they can be proud of. When one's life purpose is clear, doors open.

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