Category Archives: Congress

Are Republicans Committing Treason?

Very interesting article from AlterNet.com.

I’ll post an excerpt, without comment, and a link to the full article.

Then you may discuss among yourselves….

Once upon a time, in a land that now seems to have been populated by tooth fairies and unicorns, there was a political party that had a set of core beliefs to which they actually adhered.

Among them was that actually balancing the budget, as opposed to just talking about it, was sacrosanct. Slow change, while necessary, had to be balanced against the traditions of the United States, ones that had mostly served us well over two centuries.

Foreign military adventures should be limited to our national security interests. And one of the single most important components of diplomacy was protecting the economic interests not only of an elite few, but of the great many Americans who toiled in our factories and fields.

This party was known as the Republican Party, and while one might have disagreed with them on their policy prescriptions to cure any particular US ill, one could at least see some logic in their beliefs and understand that they – with some obvious exceptions from time to time (ahem, Joseph McCarthy, ahem) – were doing what they thought was right for the United States of America.

Today, this once respectable organization has turned into nothing so much as a collective id the size of a David Vitter Pampers shopping spree. When facing changes to this nation that make them uncomfortable, they choose national hate. When facing ideological worship versus the greatness of the US, the former always wins the day. When facing a choice of what is good for the US or their personal bank accounts, they inevitably go with the latter.

Every. Single. Time.

via Are Republicans Committing Treason? | | AlterNet.

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‘Super Congress’: Debt Ceiling Negotiators Aim To Create New Legislative Body

Now this is downright scary….

It complete removes the majority of our elected officials from the deliberative process.

Congress isn’t working today, but this is not the way to go…

This is how to start a Banana Republic- which is probably what Boehner has in mind….

It also sounds like the goal is to further protect the Rich and screw the Middle Class.  Using this process they are already targeting ending the Mortage Interest Deduction and the deductions for Retirement Savings.

Could destroying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid be far behind?

This doesn’t sound like a Super Congress;  it sounds like a Coup d’etat.

From the Huffington Post:

Debt ceiling negotiators think they’ve hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public’s unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned over a lifetime of work: Create a new Congress.

This “Super Congress,” composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers — six from each chamber and six from each party.

Legislation approved by the Super Congress — which some on Capitol Hill are calling the “super committee” — would then be fast-tracked through both chambers, where it couldn’t be amended by simple, regular lawmakers, who’d have the ability only to cast an up or down vote. With the weight of both leaderships behind it, a product originated by the Super Congress would have a strong chance of moving through the little Congress and quickly becoming law. A Super Congress would be less accountable than the system that exists today, and would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits. Negotiators are currently considering cutting the mortgage deduction and tax credits for retirement savings, for instance, extremely popular policies that would be difficult to slice up using the traditional legislative process.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made a Super Congress a central part of his last-minute proposal, multiple news reports and people familiar with his plan say

via ‘Super Congress’: Debt Ceiling Negotiators Aim To Create New Legislative Body.

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Victoria Jackson Thinks Obama’s “Private Army” Might Kill Her

This is really sad….

From a successful performer to a has-been nutcase, Victoria Jackson is just out of control-and has no grasp of reality.

Before the GOP started cutting mental health funding under Reagan, there was a place to help people like this…

If it wasn’t for her right-wing benefactors, who use her fading fame to get publicity, she would probably be living under an overpass and spending her days pushing a shopping cart around town.

From Media Matters:

 

Victoria Jackson is a reliable source of unhinged claims about President Obama — for example, she has claimed that Obama “bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ” and asserted that “Obama legally kills babies and now he can legally kill Grandmas!” But she really pegged the crazy meter with her July 15 WorldNetDaily column, headlined “The 3 scariest things about Obama”:

Click here for the full article and all her craziness:

Victoria Jackson Thinks Obama’s “Private Army” Might Kill Her | Media Matters for America.

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Cantor: Taxing The Rich Is Off The Table, But Making Students Pay More Immediately Is Fine

It’s Eric Cantor Day again on “Lost in the 21st Century!”

This guy is just plain evil and I’m doing my little part to be sure people know what he’s up to…

And he won’t even agree to raise taxes on Millionaire’s private planes…or any additional taxes for the rich…

BUT

This guy wants to make poor students start paying interest on their student loans the minute they get them- instead of after Graduation.

Evil.  Evil Prick.

From ThinkProgress.org (emphasis mine):

One of the major demands that almost all congressional Republicans have made about deficit reduction is that wealthier americans and large corporations shouldn’t have to pay any more in taxes. “The House has taken a firm position against anything having to do with increasing taxes or raising tax rates,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) at the onset of negotiations over the budget deficit in May.

Yet as the Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz reports, one group that Cantor is apparently fine with making pay more is American college students. Cantor, at the White House for budget negotiations, apparently proposed that students who take out student loans should immediately start paying interest, rather than getting to make payments after graduation:

As Monday’s White House budget talks got down to the nitty-gritty, Eric Cantor proposed a series of spending cuts, one of them aimed squarely at college students. The House majority leader, who did most of the talking for the Republican side, said those taking out student loans should start paying interest right away, rather than being able to defer payments until after graduation. It is a big-ticket item that would save $40 billion over 10 years.

According to Kurtz, Obama rejected Cantor’s proposal out of hand, saying that he didn’t want to “screw students.” Cantor’s proposal comes at a time when American students are already overwhelmed by student loan debt. In 2008, the average debt that a college student graduated with was a whopping $23,000. American students continue to pay more than most of their developed world neighbors for a college education, and Cantor apparently wants to make it even more difficult for them while not touching the richest Americans.

via Cantor: Taxing The Rich Is Off The Table, But Making Students Pay More Immediately Is Fine | ThinkProgress.

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Going Populist? Dems Put GOP On Spot Over Tax Benefits For The Super-Rich | TPMDC

It’s really unbelievable the GOP wants to cut Medicaid, kill Medicare and cut Social Security, but they won’t agree to any tax increases for Millionaires and Billionaires.

Even on yachts or private planes.

I don’t see how anyone who isn’t a millionaire can continue to be fooled into voting Republican.

You really ought to click the link and read this article from Talking Points Memo….

 

The Democrats’ response, from the rank and file up to President Obama, has been a political twofer. If Republicans are taking all taxes off the table, then they’re playing reverse Robin Hood — demanding trillions in cuts to social programs while refusing to budge on preferences to unfathomably wealthy special interests. It’s class war, but in tactical sense. If they can make the GOP feel so uncomfortable that they agree to end special tax favors for the ultra-wealthy — even if those favors don’t ultimately cost that much money — then maybe they can break the anti-tax firewall and encroach on $400 billion.

Here’s what they’re focusing on.

via Going Populist? Dems Put GOP On Spot Over Tax Benefits For The Super-Rich | TPMDC.

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VA Congressman Eric Cantor Could Rake in Windfall If Debt Ceiling Isn’t Raised

Talk about a conflict of interest….

This guy was one of the lead negotiators for the Republicans until he took his toys and went home…

And it seems a just a wee bit unpatriotic to bet against the interests of the U.S.A.  And a little stupid, from a PR and political standpoint, for a sitting U.S. Congressman to make this kind of investment.  But with the GOP, money trumps everything else….

Another reason Eric Cantor tops the very long and competitive list of Republican slimy jerks.

From RawStory.com:

Economists have said that failing to raise the debt ceiling could be catastrophic for the U.S. economy, but at least one lawmaker stands to gain financially if the country defaults on its debts.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) latest financial disclosure statement indicates that he owns up to $15,000 of ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT, a fund that will likely skyrocket as U.S. debt becomes less desirable.

“If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, investors would start fleeing U.S. Treasuries,” Motley Fool’s Matt Koppenheffer told Salon. “Yields would rise, prices would fall, and the Proshares ETF should do very well. It would spike.”

“Cantor’s involvement in the fund and negotiations is not ideal,” he added. “I don’t think someone negotiating the debt ceiling should be invested in this kind of an ultra-short… It looks pretty bad.”

Cantor pulled out of negotiations to raise the debt limit last week saying, “Now is the time for these talks to go into abeyance.”

Since that time, ProShares ETF is up 3.3 percent.

“Cantor’s office claims the investment is simply part of a balanced portfolio,” noted Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen. “It’s hardly a stretch, though, to suggest prominent officials should avoid these kinds of conflicts of interest.”

via Cantor could rake in windfall if debt ceiling isn’t raised | The Raw Story.

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Michele Bachmann Claims Spiritual Kinship with Serial Killer

She really is an idiot…

Chris Wallace should take back his apology for calling her a “flake” on Fox News…

From Huffington Post.com:

In Waterloo, Iowa on the eve of her official presidential campaign announcement, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) told Fox News that she has “the spirit” of John Wayne.

The presidential hopeful — who was born and grew up in Waterloo as a child before moving to Minnesota — said, “Well, what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”

The Washington Times points out one slight problem with the Tea Party favorite’s remarks: The John Wayne with roots in Waterloo is John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer who was executed by lethal injection in 1994 after being convicted of 33 murders.

John Wayne — the late movie star, director and producer — was born in Winterset, Iowa, but appears to have no specific connection to Waterloo.

via Michele Bachmann Flops ‘John Wayne’ Reference In Waterloo, Iowa (VIDEO).

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Newt Gingrich: Obama Is So Bad, Black People Will Vote Republican

More delusional rhetoric from  the delusional Newt Gingrich and the delusional GOP.

Whatever happened to reality based Politics?  Politics used to be the ultimate game for realists, now it’s the province of liars, misfits, miscreants, the mal-adjusted and, as Cher sang, Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves- at least on the GOP side…

The Dems sometimes seem to be trying to catch up….

From TalkingPointsMemo:

 

Newt Gingrich fired up the crowd in this blue state with the promise that President Obama is so bad that he’s made it possible for the Republicans to win over the African American vote in 2012.

Gingrich stopped off at an airport Marriott near Baltimore Thursday to keynote the Maryland GOP’s annual Red, White & Blue banquet. Before the speech, he assured reporters that his campaign was still going strong. When he took the podium, he offered Republican donors a long, dense speech full of red meat and warnings about the state of the world around us.

He also said it was time for Republicans to tell African Americans how terrible Obama has been for them.

He broke out the “Obama is the food stamp president” line that got him in racial trouble earlier in the campaign.

But this time, he spun the line into a suggestion that the African American vote is ripe for the plucking.

Here’s how the line works: Obama is the food stamp president, Gingrich says, whereas he wants to be the paycheck president. The difference comes down to creating jobs or not, and Gingrich says he knows how to create them.

And that’s where the black vote comes in.

“No administration in modern times has failed younger blacks more than the Obama administration,” Gingrich said.

He explained that “in May, we had 41% unemployment among black teenagers in America.” That means if Republicans can put on a brave face, they might be able to turn the African American vote their way.

Think of the social catastrophe of 41% of a community not being able to find a job. But we have to have the courage to walk into that neighborhood, to talk to that preacher, to visit that small business, to talk to that mother. And we have to have a convincing case that we actually know how to create jobs.

“The morning they believe that, you’re going to see margins in percents you never dreamed of decide there’s a better future,” Gingrich said. “It takes courage, it takes hard work, it takes discipline and it’s doable.”

“I will bet you there is not a single precinct in this state in which the majority will pick for their children food stamps over paychecks,” he said.

Gingrich isn’t the only Republican on the trail talking up Obama’s failures when it comes to minority populations. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told an audience of Republicans in New Orleans that Obama “has failed the African American community” on jobs. She said that he’s failed the Latino community — which is also suffering from record unemployment — as well.

Most of Gingrich’s speech wasn’t about wooing minority votes. He spent much of his time on stage talking about a coming “tsunami of violence” from terrorists and warning that Obama’s “vision of the American Constitution is a mortal threat to our freedoms.”

via Newt Gingrich: Obama Is So Bad, Black People Will Vote Republican | TPMDC.

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Back in the USSR?

Interesting article from AlterNet.com that compares U.S. expenditures to European expenditures.

The U.S. spending supports a vast military industrial complex with Military spending being by far the largest part of the budget.  European countries focus on spending money on health care, education, transportation and improving the quality of life for its citizens.

Remember, one of the reasons the USSR collapsed was pouring too large a portion of their budget into “defense” or military spending.  Are we back in the USSR?

I much prefer the European model.  Let’s spend our tax money making the U.S. the most modern country on earth with the highest quality of life for its citizens.

Russia still hasn’t recovered from the collapse of the USSR.

Have we in the USA learned anything from it?

 

For their tax dollars –or euros — they get universal health care, deeply subsidized education (including free university tuition in many countries), modern infrastructure, good mass transit and far less poverty than we have here at home. That may help explain why we have Tea Partiers screaming for cuts while Europe is ablaze with riots against its own “austerity” measures.

And while we outspend everyone on our military, among the 20 most developed countries in the world, the United States is now dead last in life expectancy at birth but leads the pack in infant mortality—40 percent higher than the runner-up. We also lead in the percentage of the population who will die before reaching age 60. Half of our kids need food stamps at some point during their childhoods. There’s certainly a modest difference in priorities dividing the Atlantic, but common sense suggests that we’re the ones who have it all wrong.

via Are We Giant Suckers? While the US Blows Money on the Military, Europe Spends Dough on Social Programs | | AlterNet.

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Big Worries About GOP Taking Control

Seems like people may finally be starting to wise up…..

From Political Wire:

A new Bloomberg Poll finds 49% of respondents said they’re worried about Republicans gaining control of the White House and Congress and following through on pledges to slash funding for Medicare and Medicaid, outnumbering the 40% who said they are concerned about another term for Obama and a continuation of current spending policies.

Among independents, 47% said they are worried about a Republican takeover compared with 37% who are concerned about maintaining the status quo.

via Worries About GOP Taking Control.

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