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Congress: Time to raise the debt limit

CNBC: "Treasury Secretary Jack Lew pressed Congress on Monday to allow the government to borrow more money, saying that it could default on its obligations if lawmakers do not act by mid-October. 'Congress should act as soon as possible to protect America's good credit by extending normal borrowing authority well before any risk of default becomes imminent,' Lew said in a letter to congressional leaders."

“The battle over immigration policy in Congress moved briefly to the Shenandoah Valley on Monday as a Chicago Democrat rallied for a path to citizenship in the home district of a key Republican who opposes ‘amnesty,’” USA Today reports. “U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., spoke in the shady and crowded Court Square of downtown Harrisonburg to argue for immigration legislation that ends the threat of deportation for the 11 million who are in the country without permission.” More: “The event, set up by the left-leaning non-profit group Virginia Organizing, was in the heart of the district of Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Goodlatte controls which immigration bills get a vote.”

Politico: “Despite mounting evidence that President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on his people, many members of Congress still don’t see a role for the United States military in Syria. A raft of Republican and Democratic lawmakers — including those directly involved in intelligence oversight — think the U.S. would be wise to take a pass on military intervention in the war-torn country.”

Republican Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida, who taught at West Point and is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, for example, said: “Syria is too far gone to pick sides. The rebels are infiltrated with Al Qaeda. Assad has joined the ranks of history’s most evil despots in what he’s willing to do to stay in power. And Russia won’t help us find a solution because relations [between Washington and Moscow] are as bad as they have been in 30 years. I don’t see a way forward, but U.S. boots on the ground is out of the question in my opinion.”

Another Republican congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, also said he’s opposed to intervention unless there is “some overwhelming evidence that the Assad regime has used weapons and only the Assad regime has used the weapons.”

Even Obama friend Tim Kaine, Democratic senator from Virginia, said the president should seek congressional approval or not go in: “Absent an imminent threat to United States national security, the U.S. should not be engaged in military action without congressional approval.”