Category Archives: Congress

Poll: GOP Medicare-Ending Budget Bigger Political Fumble Than First Thought

Like I’ve said, the Democrats are known for shooting themselves in the foot. But luckily the GOP just shot themselves in the head….

From TalkingPointsMemo.com:

It doesn’t take much political savvy to note that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) Medicare-destroying budget plan hasn’t panned out all that well for the GOP. But a new poll out from advocates for the Democratic health care law shows that the Ryan budget fail goes even deeper than embarrassed presidential candidates and special election upsets.

Not only does the poll show huge opposition to Ryan’s plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system, the poll shows Democrats winning the credibility war when it comes to Medicare and “protecting the middle class.” And — in a jolt of good news for the White House and Democrats — the numbers show that when voters are given Ryan budget messaging from opponents, support for the Democratic health care law actually goes up slightly in response.

I’ve seen the same types of responses in several other polls today…..

Now, if the Dems just don’t cave in during the negotiations over the debt ceiling, they have a-  probably the- winning issue for the 2012 elections.

And the GOP has got to agree to increase the debt ceiling or Wall Street-who owns most of the government-  will have a nervous breakdown.

They really have no bargaining legs to stand on….

But that’s not stopped the Dems from caving in the past…

via Poll: GOP Medicare-Ending Budget Bigger Political Fumble Than First Thought | TPMDC.

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Robert Hurt and His Incompetent Staff Fail Again…

I’m on the mailing list for Virginia Republican Congressman Robert Hurt both because it amuses me and to see what he’s up to….

I just received his Memorial Day message– this morning….

Uh, Robbie, Memorial Day was yesterday….You didn’t get your paper in on time and this isn’t Hampden-Sydney College.

You are in the big leagues now…at least theoretically.

I still can’t believe folks in my old home District voted for this guy to replace the incredibly smart, effective and dedicated Tom Perriello.

They are getting just what they deserve….

Incompetent representation due to incompetent voting…

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Eric Cantor On ‘Face The Nation’: Disaster Relief For Joplin Tornado Victims Must Be Offset

This guy really is a disgrace on so many levels….

Totally heartless…

On Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) reiterated his position that disaster relief funds for the tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri must be paid for with cuts to other programs. “Congress will find the money,” Cantor said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” “And it will be offset.”

“I know that America is just stunned by the scope of devastation and loss and the horrific tragedy that the people of Joplin and other places across the country really are experiencing this tornado season,” Cantor said. The federal government typically pays for disaster relief, but Cantor has said repeatedly that the government must maintain fiscal discipline. On Sunday, he compared the situation to that of a family putting off buying a new care when a family member became ill.

“When a family is struck with tragedy — like the family of Joplin … let’s say if they had $10,000 set aside to do something else with, to buy a new car … and then they were struck with a sick member of the family or something, and needed to take that money to apply it to that, that’s what they would do, because families don’t have unlimited money. And, really, neither does the federal government.”

Democratic lawmakers from districts hit by the storms have blasted Republicans for talking about the need to pay for an emergency package, HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reported:

“Where is his heart?” Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) said of Cantor. “Where is his compassion for people who are suffering today?”

“If they want to fight and quibble over the supplemental, I mean, they are heartless. What’s wrong with them?” Clay said. “Nothing for the average American community. That’s what they’re saying: we don’t have anything for the average American community.”

via Eric Cantor On ‘Face The Nation’: Disaster Relief For Joplin Tornado Victims Must Be Offset (VIDEO).

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Support Collapses for House Republicans

From Political Wire…

This shows that familiarity does breed contempt.

The more the true GOP Agenda comes out, the more people know, the less they like the Republicans.

Now if the notoriously  short memory of the American Electorate can just retain this information by the next election…

A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds disapproval of House Republicans has surged from 46% in February to 55% in April to a striking 59% now.

Disapproval now outnumbers approval two-to-one; intense disapproval by three-to-one.

via Support Collapses for House Republicans.

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Why the Democratic Party Has Abandoned the Middle Class in Favor of the Rich | | AlterNet

Great article from Kevin Drum at “Mother Jones” reposted at Alternet.com.

This is really worth reading if you are still tying to figure out why things did not turn out as well as some of us hoped after the 2008 Elections…

In 2008, a liberal Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W. Bush had stigmatized the Republican Party almost beyond redemption. A global financial crisis had discredited the disciples of free-market fundamentalism, and Americans were ready for serious change.

Or so it seemed. But two years later, Wall Street is back to earning record profits, and conservatives are triumphant. To understand why this happened, it’s not enough to examine polls and tea parties and the makeup of Barack Obama’s economic team. You have to understand how we fell so short, and what we rightfully should have expected from Obama’s election. And you have to understand two crucial things about American politics.

More:  Why the Democratic Party Has Abandoned the Middle Class in Favor of the Rich | | AlterNet.

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Elizabeth Warren Fans Attack Patrick McHenry On Facebook Over Liar Charge

I love this!!!

If I didn’t despise Patrick McHenry so much, I would do this myself….

But I just can’t make myself “like” him under any circumstances….

I’m just going to set back and wait for his career to explode….

Like Larry Craig’s…but more loudly.

Rep. Patrick McHenry’s pants may not be on fire, but his Facebook page is getting thoroughly flamed after he called Elizabeth Warren a liar Tuesday in a subcommittee hearing.

Fans of Warren think the North Carolina Republican took some unacceptable liberties with the boss of the nascent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and they’re demanding that he get some McEtiquette and apologize.

Hundreds — and probably thousands — have flocked to McHenry’s fan page to singe him.

“I ‘like’ the fact that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Americans are appalled by your behavior,” wrote Jill Budzynski. “You are an insult to the title of chairman of any committee. It is out of order to abuse a loyal public servant who is trying her best to accommodate your flip-flopping of schedules. How reprehensible to accuse her of lying. Apologize now.”

The dust-up Tuesday came near the end of a hearing on the CFPB when the Oversight Committee’s top Democrat, Maryland’s Elijah Cummings, noted that Warren had stayed beyond the time he had seen agreed to in internal committee communications.

But McHenry denied there was any agreement, even though the hearing time had been changed as recently as that morning to accommodate the subcommittee. “You’re making this up,” McHenry told her, to her shock and gasps from the hearing audience.

Warren and her staff had the same understanding as Cummings, and sources confirmed the previously agreed upon timing for The Huffington Post.

Warren is an extremely popular figure among people who think Wall Street and the big banks need to be reined in, and they’re expressing their displeasure on Facebook — even if it galls them to have to become a “fan” of McHenry to do so.

via Elizabeth Warren Fans Attack Patrick McHenry On Facebook Over Liar Charge [UPDATE].

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John Edwards Plea Deal Possible As Potential Indictment Looms?

Speaking as a former supporter, he just needs to settle this and go away…

We’re all tired of him and his tacky ways.  I’ve always believed “Class will tell and the lack of it even faster”.

It took us way too long to find out the truth on Johnny Boy- he has none.

Now that we know all this, there is no possible “rehabilitation” of his image that I can see…

He just needs to go away….

From Huffington Post:

John Edwards is considering a plea deal that would allow him to avert a looming indictment in a more than two year investigation into alleged campaign finance violations, North Carolina station WRAL reports.

The AP relays background on the case:

Edwards’ mistress Rielle Hunter has sued former campaign aide Andrew Young to have a sex tape and other items returned to her. Young has said he helped cover up Edwards’ affair during the 2008 presidential campaign and worked for months to keep Hunter in hiding.

Edwards has admitted to the affair and fathering Hunter’s child. She worked as a videographer in 2006 for Edwards’ political action committee.

Edwards’ lawyer, Gregory Craig, issued a statement on Wednesday denying his client broke the law. “The government’s theory is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. It is novel and untested. There is no civil or criminal precedent for such a prosecution,” he said.

Ben Smith at Politico reported on Thursday:

Two other sources in the Edwards camp also said that his own legal team is in deep discussions with their client — himself an almost legendary star of the North Carolina trial bar — over whether he should accept the risk and expense of a criminal trial or sacrifice his law license and possibly his freedom with a guilty plea that might nonetheless represent a real chance for reinventing his tattered public image.

ABC’s James Hill reported on Thursday night:

Multiple sources at the estate of Rachel “Bunny” Mellon confirm to ABC News that the former North Carolina senator met Mellon today for lunch at her sprawling compound in Northern Virginia.

The AP elaborates on the significance of Bunny’s role in relation to the probe into Edwards’ conduct:

According to the network, the reason for the meeting remains unknown. Young has said that Edwards agreed in 2007 to solicit money directly from Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the 100-year-old widow of banking heir Paul Mellon. Young has said he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks from Mellon for his use and Hunter’s, with some of the checks hidden in boxes of chocolate.

Mellon’s attorney has said she didn’t know where the money was going but intended it as a personal gift.

via John Edwards Plea Deal Possible As Potential Indictment Looms? (VIDEO).

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Pat McHenry (R-NC) – Sex, Lies, and Funny Videotapes

For those who may not have known all this or may have forgotten, here is a little background article from DailyKos on Patrick McHenry- the guy who was so horribly rude to Elizabeth Warren in the Congressional Hearings this week.

Keep an eye on this guy….

I don’t think we’ve heard the last from him…

Possible tax fraud, voter fraud, house mate of strapping young Republican lads, friends linked to the gay porn industry, and several murders of gay porn stars and a gay Young Republican. BlueNC pounces on McHenry’s link to the apparent killer in the Orlando apparent double murder suicide

via Daily Kos: Pat McHenry (R-NC) – Sex, Lies, and Funny Videotapes.

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GOP Leader Cantor Says Congress Won’t Pay For Missouri Disaster Relief Unless Spending Is Cut Elsewhere

These guys are cold and heartless….

Really cold…

I’m starting to dislike Cantor more than just about any of the other Republican leaders.

He’s the coldest blooded snake in the bunch.

From ThinkProgress.org:

Firefighters and rescue workers who arrived in Joplin, MO, found that the deadly tornado that hit the state Sunday had left a “barren, smoky wasteland” in its path. Rescue workers worked through more storms in an effort to find potential survivors, even as the death toll rose to at least 119. President Obama pledged full support to the state Monday, telling survivors, “We’re here with you. We’re going to stay by you.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), however, said that before Congress approved federal funds for disaster relief, it had to offset the spending with cuts to other programs. The Washington Times reports:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that if Congress passes an emergency spending bill to help Missouri’s tornado victims, the extra money will have to be cut from somewhere else.

“If there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental,” Mr. Cantor, Virginia Republican, told reporters at the Capitol. The term “pay-fors” is used by lawmakers to signal cuts or tax increases used to pay for new spending.

In 2005, Republicans criticized then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) for his willingness to fund relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by adding to the deficit. “It is right to borrow to pay for it,” he said at the time, explaining that cuts could “attack” the economy.

Meanwhile, as Climate Progress reports, the government’s tornado forecasting service faces cuts in the GOP Congress, including cuts to NOAA weather satellite that “could halve the accuracy of precipitation forecasts.” Accurate and early forecasting is tremendously important, as “tornado deaths in the United States have gone from 8 per 1 million people in 1925 to 0.11 per 1 million people today — a trend largely attributed to early-warning systems fed by advanced meteorology and the introduction of Doppler radar.”

via ThinkProgress » Cantor Says Congress Won’t Pay For Missouri Disaster Relief Unless Spending Is Cut Elsewhere.

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Democrat Wins Upstate New York Congressional Race – NYTimes.com

More from the New York Times:

Democrats scored an upset in one of New York’s most conservative congressional districts on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the national Republican Party in a race that largely turned on the party’s plan to overhaul Medicare.

The results set off elation among Democrats and soul-searching among Republicans, who questioned whether the party should rethink its commitment to the Medicare plan, which appears to have become a liability as 2012 elections loom.

Two months ago, the Democrat, Kathy Hochul, was considered an all-but-certain loser. But Ms. Hochul seized on her Republican rival’s embrace of the proposal from Representative Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, to overhaul Medicare, and she never let up.

via Democrat Wins Upstate New York Congressional Race – NYTimes.com.

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