Within minutes, he had compared President Barack Obama’s health care reform law to slavery during the Civil War and Nazis during World War II. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), 24 Sep 2012, Floor Speech, US Senate
When are the spineless Republicans in Senate leadership going to admonish Cruz for such a nasty performance on the floor of the US Senate? I am not holding my breath because I don't see McConnell having the backbone to do a thing. That is the problem with today's Republicans in Congress -- lack of a backbone to stand up to extremists except for a few like Senator McCain. What happened to civility in the Senate where they used to fight like cats and dogs and go out to eat that night? Looks like with the hard right takeover of the GOP, civility has gone out the window as we are left with a lot of malcontents who don't know when to shut up like Cruz.
If you want to see how far the hard right GOP House has gone, just take my word for it when I do a post from a Senator Schumer email. Four years ago I would have bet that never would have happened but with the Republican Party moving to the extreme hard right, I find myself agreeing with Schumer not any Republicans.
Conservatives today have jumped the shark and have going into the water to be eaten if they follow Senator Ted Cruz and the other Tea Party members of the Senate and House:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday announced that he would give a very long speech to oppose the the government budget over Obamacare “until I am no longer able to stand.” Within minutes, he had compared President Barack Obama’s health care reform law to slavery during the Civil War and Nazis during World War II.
Update (4:05 p.m. ET): Cruz’ speech cannot be officially considered a “filibuster” unless it delays Senate business. In this case, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has already locked in a vote for Wednesday morning. That can only be stopped if 41 senators object, which is highly unlikely.
Cruz took the floor at 2:40 vowing to talk until he cannot stand but has now yielded to Sen Lee (R-UT). That didn't take long.
Cruz may be one of the despised Senators ever from both sides of the aisle. Anyone want to ask Senator John McCain what he thinks of Cruz? Better have earmuffs on because the language could get pretty salty.
“He fucking hates Cruz,” one McCain aide told the magazine. “He’s just offended by his style.”
At the time, McCain had publicly referred to Cruz and other Republicans as “wacko birds.”
Agree 100% with John McCain -- he is right on when talking about the Tea Party people in the Senate who are a disgrace to the Senate. Have never seen so many junior senators act like they own the Senate as I have with the Tea Party elected Senators -- doing the same thing in the House where they have backed leadership into a corner to do their bidding as they are took weak to fight. These two men below are symbolic of a larger problem in the Republican Party -- Tea Party and wealthy donors have moved the Party too far hard right.
The unappeasables have all joined together to take down any common sense left in the Republican Party and installed their own brand of obstruction it its place. You cannot deal with these people whose supporters are some of the nastiest people I have witnessed. These two men below need to be held responsible for caving to the Tea Party immediately to keep their jobs. They have zero backbone and helped speed the takeover IMHO!
Senator Schumer is correct about the hard right Republicans who don't care about damaging the economy as they just want to get their way even though the American people don't support defunding Obamacare or they will shut down Government threat. Vast majority of the American people want some common sense in DC as we are seeing none from the GOP leadership. This email from Senator Schumer says it all:
Sharon,
In all my time in the House and Senate, I have never seen a group of people more bent on damaging the American economy than the hard-right Republicans in the House right now. Not only did House Republicans just pass an extreme spending bill that would defund Obamacare, but they've said if we don't go along, they'll shut down the government or even default on the bills our country owes -- either of which would be devastating for our economy.
But the hard right doesn’t have the numbers to run the show on its own. That means House Republican leadership's refusal to stand up to them is what's opened the door to gridlock and potential economic disaster.
As these fiscal deadlines approach, we Democrats are standing strong, we’re standing together, and we will not blink. We will not let House extremists' "my way or the highway" approach strip 30 million people of health insurance or deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
A clear majority of supporters voted earlier this week to use any damage Republicans cause to the economy against them in the 2014 midterm elections. But if enough moderate Republicans will work with Democrats in the next several weeks, we can show the hard right in the House for what it really is: a small number of obstructionists.
Democrats want that, the White House wants that, and in their heart of hearts, Republican leadership wants it too. They know this is a fight that's bad for their party, a fight that's dangerous for the country, and a fight they will not win.
But Republican leadership will take the path of least resistance.
The hard-right House members are standing strong, so we must stand even stronger. We need to go beyond elected officials in Washington -- we need voters throughout the country to pledge their support for this stand, too.
Extremists are playing politics by trying to defund Obamacare when they should be focusing on protecting our economy. We must take a stand.
Thank you for your support,
Chuck Schumer
There are a lot of us who have never seen a group like these hard right Republicans who are now in Congress. Koch Bros picked a real bunch of nasty people to support. How much do the Koch's hope to gain off of a shut down of Government which is what we should all be asking.
“In the end it didn’t pass (background checks) because we’re so politicized. There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it,”Toomey said.
This is the confirmation that some members of the media have refused to acknowledge that there are a group of about 22 Republican Senators who will do anything they can to keep bills from passing that will help President Obama in any way.
Oath of Office
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
"I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office" have gone MIA with some Senators whose sole purpose continues to wreck havoc with President Obama's term in office. Somehow I missed that being part of their duties.
Since President Obama was elected hate groups who call themselves Patriot Groups along with militias have been on the rise. White supremacist groups are alive and well while Republicans in Congress close their eyes and in some instances encourage these groups with their rhetoric. Throw in conservative talk radio and Fox News with their lies and hate who have played to the lowest common denominator which has led to real problems. Republican members of Congress are trying to bring the Government to a standstill with their obstructionism based on lies and rhetoric. They along with GOP Governors and members of state legislatures have done nothing but bash President Obama from Day One spewing hate and lies which has hurt the Country but they don't seem to care as long as Obama doesn't win anything. Senator Toomey may have tried to walk back his comments but they are still out in the open.
The rise of hate groups is frankly frightening. The people behind this movement throwing dollars around like the Koch's are fostering more hate that could lead to more shootings and bombings in this Country. Hate can make people do some pretty heinous acts. Koch's IMHO will back any group that is against the Government regulations they abhor. As they try to buy newspapers now, even people who were not paying attention are waking up to the Koch Bros being bad for America. Koch's and other major GOP donors want what is best for their companies including the right to pollute our water and air. They have bought politicians to do their bidding along with various groups like Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, aligned with ALEC who is wrecking havoc in our states, and Super PACs to buy more politicians. The Koch's are not the American Dream but the American Nightmare along with their Republicans puppets.
The Patriot movement first emerged in 1994, a response to what was seen as violent government repression of dissident groups at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and near Waco, Texas, in 1993, along with anger at gun control and the Democratic Clinton Administration in general. It peaked in 1996, a year after the Oklahoma City bombing, with 858 groups, then began to fade. By the turn of the millennium, the Patriot movement was reduced to fewer than 150 relatively inactive groups.
But the movement came roaring back beginning in late 2008, just as the economy went south with the subprime collapse and, more importantly, as Barack Obama appeared on the political scene as the Democratic nominee and, ultimately, the president-elect. Even as most of the nation cheered the election of the first black president that November, an angry backlash developed that included several plots to murder Obama. Many Americans, infused with populist fury over bank and auto bailouts and a feeling that they had lost their country, joined Patriot groups.
The swelling of the Patriot movement since that time has been astounding. From 149 groups in 2008, the number of Patriot organizations skyrocketed to 512 in 2009, shot up again in 2010 to 824, and then, last year, jumped to 1,274. That works out to a staggering 755% growth in the three years ending last Dec. 31. Last year’s total was more than 400 groups higher than the prior all-time high, in 1996.
Lot of people joining these groups today from the hard right were not active in politics before the Tea Party exploded on the scene. Many of them stayed home and didn't vote if there were not hard right candidates on the ballot. A lot of so-called 'Patriot' groups have come out of the Tea Party movement which was financed by the Koch Bros and hatched as an idea by Fox News on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange which, in turn, has led to their growing numbers. These groups were out in force to defeat President Obama but failed miserably as common sense American voters threw their conspiracy theories out the window. Who would have thought that members of Congress would be espousing some of these same conspiracy theories. Now the groups threatened current elected officials with primaries if they vote against what they want. These groups are out of control as the leaders and others played on their willingness to believe conspiracy theories no matter how bizarre. No one knows what is next for the Patriot Groups and militia if they don't get their way.
SPLC has taken a look at some of these conspiracy theories - to most people they are unbelievable but when you have members of Congress like Bachmann (MN), Gohmert (TX) or Broun (GA) along with others espousing these theories, concern begins to grow. Since President Obama was re-elected by large numbers many of the hard right have gotten much worse which I didn't think possible. The hard right cannot stand the fact that a man they believe is unfit to be President was re-elected. These people are not facing reality including some who ran for President as a Republican when you read their conspiracy theories and listen to their hate rhetoric:
Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. Antigovernment groups do not necessarily advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, though some have. Many warn of impending government violence or the need to prepare for a coming revolution. Many antigovernment groups are not racist.
A particularly prominent conspiracy in the antigovernment movement is that the United Nations, which is usually seen as spearheading the “New World Order,” is imposing a global plan, called Agenda 21, to take away citizens’ property rights. There is a UN program with that name to develop sustainable communities across the globe. Agenda 21 was agreed to by political leaders from dozens of countries, including the first President Bush. But in typical fashion, these antigovernment activists have twisted it into a global conspiracy.
Other notable conspiracies found in the antigovernment movement include the idea that the government is secretly planning to round up citizens and place them in concentration camps run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Another conspiracy alleges that there are plans to merge the United States, Canada and Mexico into a single country. Fears of impending gun control or weapons confiscations, either by the government or international agencies, also run rampant in antigovernment circles. As a result, many antigovernment activists believe that being well armed is a must. The militia movement engages in paramilitary training aimed at protecting citizens from this feared impending government crackdown.
The antigovernment movement hit its previous high of 858 groups in 1996, the year after the Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was motivated by extreme antigovernment beliefs then circulating in the militia movement. He was also inspired by the racist novel, The Turner Diaries, modeling his attack on a scene from the book.
The antigovernment movement of the 1990s, typified by the proliferation of militias, was fueled by a string of incidents, including the 1993 government assault on the Branch Davidian compound, that were seen as evidence of an out-of-control government willing to attack citizens. Other factors included the struggling economy in the early 1990s, particularly in Western states, and the election of President Clinton, who was perceived by these activists as a liberal intent on seizing their weapons.
Since we had conspiracy theories with President Carter, President Clinton, and now President Obama there is one continuing theme - they are Democrats. Is this what drives these groups? Are the hard right so convinced that Republican candidates for President are bought and paid for by the NRA so they don't have to worry about gun control? Seems they missed the part that President Reagan didn't believe in the general public having assault rifles and supported an Assault Weapons Ban.
Used to laugh when the media talked about the mind numbed robots that listened to Limbaugh but they have a good point. He used to have parodies which were funny. I still remember the one about Ross Perot, "They are coming to take me away, away" which was funny.
Today Limbaugh is filled with hate against the President or anyone who dares to disagree with him (Limbaugh). His rants are so far over the top he is hemorrhaging sponsors who refuse to be associated with such a mean and nasty person. Yet the hard right follows his orders like lemmings as he touts himself as the only person who could be right. He is part of the GOP War on Women. Wonder what Bain Capital thinks today of their investment in Clear Channel prior to the 2008 primaries who gave Limbaugh a huge contract worth $400 million in July 2008. Would say it was a very bad investment with little to no return since Romney lost the primary in 2008 and the Presidential campaign in 2012.
How much violence especially against individuals are we seeing today that goes back to the hate we are hearing and seeing from Republican members of Congress, Governors, state legislatures, conservative talk radio, televangelist who seem to preach more hate then love today, along with hard right candidates for office like we witnessed in 2012? Those Presidential debates with some of the dumb comments sent me over to Republicans for Obama where the people were sane with common sense realizing that the Republican Party we are knew had gone hard, hard, hard right.
Joe Scarborough, the former conservative Congressman, elected in 1994 thanks to the Contract with America that had no social issues is having the same problems with today's Republican Party that a lot of us are facing. Those members like Scarborough who pledged to serve only three terms were replaced by more hard right social conservatives whose numbers are growing each election in Congress. Even then it is nothing compared to today's Senate where people like Tea Party Ted Cruz (TX) were elected in 2012 and Tea Party Rand Paul (KY) and Mike Lee (UT) elected in 2010 are turning out to be a total disaster for Republican rebranding.
Speaking of Joe Scarborough, yesterday's show with a video of Ted Cruz attacking the Senate including Republicans as squishes is a must view. Tea Party backed Cruz is now thinking of running for President as a 'man of the people.' One problem with 'man of the people' - he is a graduate of Harvard Law, clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist, was Solicitor General of Texas appointed by Texas Attorney General Abbot, and received his undergrad degree from Princeton. How can the Tea Party members swallow that Cruz is a 'man of the people?' Shows how gullible they are if they swallow his rhetoric. He has over 50% rating of lies when he talks. As you will see in this video he added to those lies with his comments about the Republican Conference coming after him. He went way overboard as a 4-month Senator, but he has done one thing both sides agree:
The Washington Post‘s Jonathon Capehart said Cruz has firmly established his reputation in his four short months on Capitol Hill. “If there’s bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill it’s that Sen. Cruz is a bit of a jerk, well, maybe he’s not a bit of a jerk, he is a jerk. Democrats don’t like him, but Republicans really can’t stand him.”
Tea Party elected officials across the board in Congress are pretty classless but I think Cruz takes the prize for being the most classless, arrogant, "my way or no way" total jerk in the Senate. It is obvious Cruz is lying at his Town Hall about what happened in the Conference but it doesn't bother him at all as he tries to score points with his hard right base. He found a gullible bunch of people who will believe anything he says which is shocking that anyone could swallow Cruz's koolaid:
Some day when the history of the Obama Presidency is written, he will be wearing a white hat and the Republican Congressional obstructionists the black hats as the people who tried to destroy the County as we know it for their own and wealthy donors gains. History will not portray the Republican Party well starting at the beginning of this century as they have gone farther to the right with each passing year and social issues are now number 1 in a lot of their minds. Are Cruz, Paul, Lee, Gohmert, Broun, Bachmann, Palin, and others the beginning of the end of the Republican Party?
I think it’s a little -- as Mark Twain said, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point. President Obama, 30 Apr 2013, Press Conference
After reading on various sites some real negatives about the President's Press Conference today, I decided to go check for myself. Seems some of the comments were taken out of context which should be no surprise from this White House Press Corps. IMHO, the WH Press Corps needs new blood and those that have been there for as long as most of can remember, need to find a new job. WH Press Corps started complaining about President Bush going to Crawford as they had to stay in Waco. Since those days, they seem to complain more and ask dumber questions trying to do a gotcha. Just give us the facts and skip the biased reporting.
This question by Jonathan Karl left me with what kind of question is this since Karl seems to be blaming the President instead of Congress for lack of progress on getting things done. Is Karl that out in left field to not know the President cannot do a thing if the obstructionists Republicans say no. Would he have asked the same question of Bill Clinton?
Karl brought up the FAA controllers which I think was a good bill to pass so the FAA can move money more for safety then anything. Many forget that a good deal of the military airports hand over tower duties in the evening to local large airports so the towers pick up even more workload. They were mostly fine for a week but if had drug on, how many near misses would have happened? Thought this comeback to Karl was priceless since he seemed to have a problem figuring out that Congress does have responsibilities and it is not President Obama's place to get them to act.
But, Jonathon, you seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there have no responsibilities and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. That’s their job. They’re elected -- members of Congress are elected in order to do what’s right for their constituencies and for the American people.
Today's Republicans in Congress are the worst I have ever seen and to even hint any Democrat can get them to move on anything is ludicrous. It takes their constituents being up in arms and even then like we saw on background checks for guns, we got ignored by Senate Republicans for the most part. A lot of them only listen to their big donors on how to vote.
Q Mr. President, you are a hundred days into your second term. On the
gun bill, you put, it seems, everything into it to try to get it passed.
Obviously, it didn’t. Congress has ignored your efforts to try to get them to
undo these sequester cuts. There’s even a bill that you threatened to veto that
got 92 Democrats in the House voting yes. So my question to you is do you still
have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this Congress?
THE PRESIDENT: If you put it that way, Jonathan -- (laughter) -- maybe I
should just pack up and go home. Golly.
I think it’s a little -- as Mark Twain said, rumors of my demise may be a
little exaggerated at this point.
We understand that we’re in a divided government right now. The Republicans
control the House of Representatives. In the Senate, this habit of requiring 60
votes for even the most modest piece of legislation has gummed up the works
there. And I think it comes as no surprise not even to the American people, but
even members of Congress themselves that right now things are pretty
dysfunctional up on Capitol Hill.
Despite that, I’m actually confident that there are a range of things that
we’re going to be able to get done. I feel confident that the bipartisan work
that’s been done on immigration reform will result in a bill that passes the
Senate, passes the House, and gets on my desk. And that’s going to be a
historic achievement. And I’ve been very complimentary of the efforts of both
Republicans and Democrats in those efforts.
It is true that the sequester is in place right now. It’s damaging our
economy. It’s hurting our people. And we need to lift it. What’s clear is, is
that the only way we’re going to lift it is if we do a bigger deal that meets
the test of lowering our deficit and growing our economy at the same time. And
that’s going to require some compromises on the part of both Democrats and
Republicans.
I’ve had some good conversations with Republican senators so far. Those
conversations are continuing. I think there’s a genuine desire on many of their
parts to move past not only sequester but Washington dysfunction. Whether we
can get it done or not, we’ll see.
But I think the sequester is a good example -- or this recent FAA issue is
a good example. You will recall that even as recently as my campaign,
Republicans we’re saying, sequester is terrible, this is a disaster, it’s going
to ruin our military, it’s going to be disastrous for the economy -- we've got
to do something about it. Then, when it was determined that doing something
about it might mean that we close some tax loopholes for the wealthy and the
well-connected, suddenly, well, you know what, we’ll take the sequester. And
the notion was somehow that we had exaggerated the effects of the sequester --
remember? The President is crying wolf. He’s Chicken Little. The sequester --
no problem.
And then in rapid succession, suddenly White House tours -- this is
terrible! How can we let that happen? Meat inspectors -- we’ve got to fix
that. And, most recently, what are we going to do about potential delays at
airports?
So despite the fact that a lot of members of Congress were suggesting that
somehow the sequester was a victory for them and this wouldn’t hurt the economy,
what we now know is what I warned earlier, what Jay stood up here and warned
repeatedly, is happening. It’s slowed our growth. It’s resulting in people
being thrown out of work. And it’s hurting folks all across the country.
And the fact that Congress responded to the short-term problem of flight
delays by giving us the option of shifting money that’s designed to repair and
improve airports over the long term to fix the short-term problem -- well,
that’s not a solution. And essentially what we’ve done is we’ve said, in order
to avoid delays this summer, we’re going to ensure delays for the next two or
three decades.
Q Why’d you go along with it?
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on a second.
So the alternative, of course, is either to go ahead and impose a whole
bunch of delays on passengers now -- which also does not fix the problem -- or
the third alternative is to actually fix the problem by coming up with a
broader, larger deal.
But, Jonathon, you seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there have
no responsibilities and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. That’s
their job. They’re elected -- members of Congress are elected in order to do
what’s right for their constituencies and for the American people.
So if, in fact, they are seriously concerned about passenger convenience
and safety, then they shouldn’t just be thinking about tomorrow or next week or
the week after that; they should be thinking about what’s going to happen five
years from now, 10 years from now, or 15 years from now. The only way to do
that is for them to engage with me on coming up with a broader deal. And that’s
exactly what I’m trying to do -- is to continue to talk to them about are there
ways for us to fix this.
Frankly, I don’t think that if I were to veto, for example, this FAA bill,
that that somehow would lead to the broader fix. It just means that there would
be pain now, which they would try to blame on me, as opposed to pain five years
from now. But either way, the problem is not getting fixed.
The only way the problem does get fixed is if both parties sit down and
they say: How are we going to make sure that we're reducing our deficit
sensibly? How are we making sure that we're investing in things like rebuilding
our airports and our roads and our bridges, and investing in early childhood
education, basic research -- all the things that are going to help us grow? And
that's what the American people want.
Just one interesting statistic when it comes to airports. There was a
recent survey of the top airports in the country -- in the world, and there was
not a single U.S. airport that came in the top 25. Not one. Not one U.S.
airport was considered by the experts and consumers who use these airports to be
in the top 25 in the world. I think Cincinnati Airport came in around
30th.
What does that say about our long-term competitiveness and future? And so
when folks say, well, there was some money in the FAA to deal with these
furloughs -- well, yeah, the money is this pool of funds that are supposed to
try to upgrade our airports so we don't rank in the bottom of industrialized
countries when it comes to our infrastructure.
And that's what we're doing -- we're using our seed corn short term. And
the only reason we're doing it is because right now we've got folks who are
unwilling to make some simple changes to our tax code, for example, to close
loopholes that aren't adding to our competitiveness and aren't helping
middle-class families.
So that's a long way of answering your question, but the point is that
there are common-sense solutions to our problems right now. I cannot force
Republicans to embrace those common-sense solutions. I can urge them to. I can
put pressure on them. I can rally the American people around those common-sense
solutions. But ultimately, they, themselves, are going to have to say, we want
to do the right thing.
And I think there are members certainly in the Senate right now, and I
suspect members in the House as well, who understand that deep down. But
they're worried about their politics. It’s tough. Their base thinks that
compromise with me is somehow a betrayal. They’re worried about primaries. And
I understand all that. And we're going to try to do everything we can to create
a permission structure for them to be able to do what’s going to be best for the
country. But it’s going to take some time.
The last sentence tells it like it is - Republicans are scared of being primaried from the hard right if they compromise with Obama. When are they going to grow a spine and decide to do what is best for the Country instead of a bunch of extremists who have taken over the Party. Do none of the GOP today have a spine to tell this group of malcontents to go jump? Doesn't look House Republicans are going to agree to much of anything as they have thrown Government into chaos with their 'my way or no way' governing.
One solution is to vote out the GOP obstructionists in 2014 so Government can start to work again. The vast majority of Republicans in the House and some in the Senate seem to have forgotten why they were sent to Congress as they represent all their constituents not just the hard right. When get reelected is put ahead of the American people, it is time for them to retire and find another line of work.
“The president will only accept these spending cuts if congressional Republicans, for their part, agree to higher taxes, the official added.”
As I was checking out various websites this morning, I couldn't believe what I was reading on Twitter and other sites from both sides of the political spectrum. It told me many don't understand how good President Obama has become in playing politics with the hard right in Congress. Obama is becoming a master and the left needs to chill when something is broken by the media because as Easley points out even Reuters put the offer of cuts on Social Security first but the key part was down below where the President will agree to spending cuts if Republicans agree to higher taxes which is DOA. So many people read the headlines and forgot to read the story if Twitter is an example.
More and more I am finding that Politicususa.com gives you the straight scoop with links. They gather the facts and then write their articles - this is another example of very good journalism instead of running with the headline and forgetting the rest of the story or writing the story to fit your narrative. This is also why they are one of my first stops when looking for ideas for this blog.
This ploy by President Obama reminds me of President Reagan and how deals were cut. Only problem is these Republicans today are unlike the Democrats with Reagan as the GOP members of Congress have a credibility program and obstruct at all costs for their wealthy donors and lobbyists afraid someone is going to primary them. Unfortunately, Majority Leader Sen Harry Reid (D-NV) shows the tendencies of being afraid of some of his donors too like the NRA, but fortunately the vast majority of Democrats today are working for what is best for the American people not their donors.
This deal offered by Obama made me laugh as it is so obvious that the GOP won't take the deal because then they would face Tea Party/hard right challenges to their reelection so they do what they are told by Koch Bros and their organizations. All they care about is reelection and keeping that Government 'handout' check coming in because with the limited number of days they work, it is a 'handout' from the taxpayers.
By tying his Social Security cuts to tax increases, President Obama has offered Republicans the same deal that he has been proposing for years. It is also a deal that will Republicans will never in a million years accept.
Reuters put the offer of cuts to Social Security in the lead, but the twist in in the paragraph below, “However, the president will only accept these spending cuts if congressional Republicans, for their part, agree to higher taxes, the official added. The President’s budget proposal is due to be laid out in full on Wednesday.”
The New York Times revealed that the President is using the offer of Social Security cuts to break the Republican resistance to tax hikes, “Congressional Republicans have dug in against any new tax revenues after higher taxes for the affluent were approved at the start of the year. The administration’s hope is to create cracks in Republicans’ antitax resistance, especially in the Senate, as constituents complain about the across-the-board cuts in military and domestic programs that took effect March 1.”
(snip)
This is why the 2014 election is so important. If Democrats take back the House and keep the Senate, President Obama won’t have to do a “grand bargain.” He will be able to push for a new stimulus and tax increases. By voting next year for candidates who promise to protect needed programs, you can do your part to protect Social Security.
President Obama has been playing a game with Republicans where he dangles Chained CPI out there then takes it back.
I would suggest that what the President is doing is a carrot and stick tactic, but what Obama is really offering Republicans is a carrot and being whacked on the head with a spiked aluminum baseball bat.
If Republicans agree to raise taxes again, their party will be fractured and destroyed. They understand that taxes are the only issue holding them together. This is why Obama’s offer is dead in the water. It is also why some on the left need to stop looking at only one tree (Social Security) and examine the whole forest (the potential for long term victory.)
Be strong, be vigilant, and say no to Chained CPI, but also know that Obama doesn’t want to cut Social Security. The president is trying to break the Republican will on taxes.
Read more on the issue from Jason Easley from Politicususa who understands what is happening with the President's budget. He took time to do the research and figure it out versus the hand wringing of so many on the left while the right is going completely over the cliff with the very idea that he would try to box them into a corner. Guess they figured he would just sit back and eventually give in to their wishes. Note to Republicans in Congress - "You lost the White House, the Senate, and should have lost the House except for your extreme gerrymandering." Not only did Republicans lose the 2012 elections, they are about to get scorched in 2014 as a lot of Republicans are madder at the obstructionist GOP in Congress then the Democrats.
Just remember the next time a Republican mentions handouts, remind them that their members of Congress are getting the handouts from the taxpayer for a 3-day work week. How many Republicans are giving back part of their salary during sequester? Still looking!
The New Times reports that President Obama, Secretary of Defense Hagel and Deputy Secretary of Defense Carter as well as other members of the Cabinet are giving back money in solidarity with the Government workers. Yesterday freshman Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said she would also give a portion of her salary back along with Senator Mark Begich, (D-AK).
By the end of the day yesterday more cabinet members and Democrat members of Congress had decided to give back a part of their salary for every day federal employees have to take a furlough day. Amazing that so far all we are hearing from are Democrats and the Party that caused Sequester with the refusal to agree to closing tax loopholes on the wealthy, Republicans, are silent.
According to the New York Times aides to Speaker John A. Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, declined to say whether the two Republican lawmakers would return a portion of their salaries.
Guess GOP Leadership in Congress hasn't been told by their puppet masters if they can give part of their salary back because they don't make a move without the donors and lobbyists being on board with their decisions.
Unlike 2010 when Democrats stayed home and didn't vote which gave the Country the obstructionist House Republican Leadership, it is mandatory that Democrats get out to vote to take enough seats from Republicans to flip the House and keep the Senate so the Country can get moving forward instead of being mired in partisan Republican stubbornness and rhetoric. A coalition of voters is already forming as part of Organization for Action from the Democrats, Independents, and Centrist Republicans who have had enough of the hard right obstructionists in Congress and our State Legislatures.
