Obama Stands Firm on No Negotiating on Debt Ceiling While Hard Right GOP House Plays Games

The modern day Republican party stands for economic uncertainty, chaos, refusal to pay its own bills, and radical nihilism. Not exactly big tent.  (Sarah Jones, Politicususa.com)

How is Speaker Boehner going to handle all the rhetoric he and other GOP have been spewing during their five-week recess about they are not going to cave on the debt ceiling unless Obamacare is defunded.  Are they that stupid?  Sure looks like they think they can back the President into a corner but it is going to backfire major league on Republicans as the vast majority of Americans are waking up to the fact the House Republicans along with some Republican hard right Senators are the reason our economy hasn't taken off as fast as it should have.  Most of us are in no mood for GOP games in September after their 5-week boondoggle with very few Town Halls.

A chaotic fall awaits Capitol Hill when lawmakers return to Washington in two weeks and face imminent fiscal deadlines to avoid sending the economy into a tailspin. 

The spotlight is on Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who faces perhaps his toughest test yet as he tries to talk rebellious House Republicans out of risking a government shutdown or worse. Instead he’s floating a potentially riskier strategy: pass a short-term funding resolution, preserve sequestration and take the debt ceiling hostage to goals like unwinding Obamacare and cutting spending. 

On Oct. 1, funding for the federal government will expire. And later this fall, the U.S. will default on its obligations unless Congress raises the borrowing limit, or debt ceiling. Averting these two cliffs will be one of the more daunting tasks facing a wildly dysfunctional Congress and a fractured Republican Party. 

“It reinforces all the reasons why I thought it was a good time to retire at the beginning of the year,” former Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), a friend and ally of Boehner, told TPM in a recent interview. “Because it looks like deja vu all over again. The same fights, the same cast of characters and the same unwillingness to find common ground.

When LaTourette announced his early retirement he did not hide the fact that it is almost impossible to get things done in the Congress unlike 25 years ago when he came into office.  The different IMHO is the Tea Party and shift to the hard right of the GOP with their no compromising attitude.  Thought this summed it up best:

"The Tea Party Republican Majority now has a sign outside their meeting room-- no moderates allowed," Jesse Ferguson spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement. 

A Democrat said it but I have heard the same thing from Republicans with the takeover by the Tea Party in the House that all they want to do is obstruct and only work for their base not their whole district like Congressman have in the past.  This is the most partisan group of malcontents I have witnessed in the House over the years.  Not sure Boehner can control them after they have been back in their districts listening to their hard right supporters.

This interview with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is one of the best I have viewed about the debt ceiling and sequestion effects on the budget.  We are lucky to have Lew as our Treasury Secretary IMHO:

”Treasure Secretary Jack Lew was on CNBC Tuesday where he reiterated that not only will the President not negotiate over raising the debt limit, but, we do not need another self-inflicted wound (courtesy of the GOP). 

“I will reiterate. The President made clear he is not negotiating. Since ’1789,' every congress has acted to pay the bills of the United States. This Congress needs to do the same. What we need in our economy is certainty. We don’t need another self-inflicted wound.” 

CNBC’s John Harwood talked to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday, August 27th:

Just yesterday the Speaker was threatening a “whale of a fight” over raising the debt ceiling. With consumer confidence heading toward a five year high, Boehner threatened to crash the economy if Republicans don’t get to rule as if they won 2012.  

The Republican leader told a Boise lunch crowd, “But I’ll say this: It may be unfair but what I’m trying to do here is to leverage the political process to produce more change than what it would produce if left to its own devices. We’re going to have a whale of a fight."

(snip) 

The President also made sure the public knew that Congress tells him what to spend, and Congress is in charge of paying those bills (raising the debt ceiling): 

“This is a matter of Congress authorizes spending. They order me to spend. They tell me, you need to fund our Defense Department at such- and-such a level, you need to send out Social Security checks, you need to make sure that you are paying to care for our veterans. They lay all this out for me, and — because they have the spending power. And so I am required by law to go ahead and pay these bills. Separately, they also have to authorize a raising of the debt ceiling in order to make sure that those bills are paid. And so what Congress can’t do is tell me to spend X and then say, “But we’re not going to give you the authority to go ahead and pay the bills.” 

Very impressed with Treasury Secretary Lew and his explanations on the debt ceiling and making a deal on Sequestration and the budget.   Lew might be the most articulate Treasury Secretary we have had in years.  He laid out everything very succinctly and understandable to everyone.  He refused to take the bait on the Fed Chairman saying that decision is in the White House.  Gives me a lot of confidence we are on the right track.   Now if only the GOP would get their act together and throw out the Koch Bros Tea Party, they could negotiate in good faith to get this Country moving forward.  My reason for that statement comes from moderate Cong Sensenbrenner, R-WI, on the Voting Rights Act:

Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is vowing to reverse the recent Supreme Court ruling that made them possible. 

“The first thing we have to do is take the monkey wrench that the court threw in it, out of the Voting Rights Act, and then use that monkey wrench to be able to fix it so that it is alive, well, constitutional and impervious to another challenge that will be filed by the usual suspects,” Sensenbrenner said Monday at an RNC event held to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. 

Sensenbrenner is a longtime advocate of the Voting Rights Act. As chair of the House Judiciary Committee when the law was reviewed in 2006, the Wisconsin legislator oversaw extensive deliberations which ultimately affirmed the VRA’s continuing necessity–and resulted in a 25-year reauthorization. So when the Supreme Court effectively gutted the VRA in June by voiding the requirement for certain states to get federal “preclearance” before changing their voting laws, Sensenbrenner was displeased. 

“Voter discrimination still exists,” he wrote in a June op-ed for USA Today, “and our progress toward equality should not be mistaken for a victory.”

Is it possible that someone like Sensenbrenner could be encouraged to join with other more moderate Republicans in the House (what few are left) along with Democrats to make sure the debt ceiling is passed.  Only need 18 to go with the Democrats to pass the debt ceiling increase with no strings.  If Republicans refuse to negotiate and compromise on the debt ceiling, they will bare the blame for the downgrade of American credit.  Even one of the GOP's budget guru's, Steve Bell, agrees:

The Republican government shutdown isn’t going to be blamed on the President.
Steve Bell, a longtime Senate Republican budget expert now at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told Talking Points Memo that Republicans are fooling themselves if they think that they can get the public to blame the President for a government shutdown.
“If Republican leaders are going to be all tied up again with the debt ceiling and government showdowns, that really is a big negative. We went through this with Clinton. I was in the room when we did this. And it isn’t going to be blamed on the President.”

“In the Republican caucus, there are significant internal divisions,” Bell said. “The House gets most of the attention because it’s pretty melodramatic. But the Senate Republican caucus is absolutely just as tough.”

When the Congress returns to town after their five week recess, the House has nine working days left according to their schedule to get continuing resolutions passed along with a debt ceiling increase. How they could have left town with this hanging is beyond me.  Most of the appropriation bills on how much money can be spent has not been passed so the American people are stuck once again with no timely budget and appropriations bills passed.  The House for several years blamed the Senate for not passing a budget but now that the Senate passed it in the Spring, the House has refused to name any people to a Joint Committee to iron out the differences.

Today's House run by Republicans is the worst in history with the most rhetoric and lies.  All they care about is voting to overturn Obamacare which was found Constitutional by the Supreme Court and is not on the table for any negotiation.  Time to send the GOP House to the unemployment line along with their Tea Party affiliation and staffs.  The GOP House's so-called Hastert rule where you have to have a majority of GOP support to bring up a bill is no way to run the House and is hurting the Country.  As long as their wealthy donors are happy, they don't seem to care about the average American so it is time we decided to elect people who care for all Americans not just the wealthy.

Speaker Boehner Threatens Democrats on Debt Ceiling from a Position of Weakness

Only three of the 12 annual spending bills have even been debated — by far the worst record since the GOP took over the House.   

Now the worthless Republican House with its inept and weak Speaker is trying to threaten the White House that they will not pass a budget ceiling increase without spending cuts.  What does Boehner think the Sequestration is which BTW is hurting our military readiness which the GOP House doesn't seem to care about.  Their austerity plan which includes sequestration is not working and hasn't worked from Day One.  Raise taxes a little and see how fast everything turns around.  Republicans in Congress voted for every debt ceiling of Bush, but now with a Democrat, black President they want to threaten what they are going to do instead of what is best for the Country.

Are Republicans prepared to shut down the Government?  After the debacle in the 90's you would think they would have learned, but today's Republicans are as stubborn as you can get and will cut off their nose to spite their face.   Obama's words "Please Proceed" to Romney during the debate keep resonating when I think of the GOP House.  House Republicans are truly are on a path of destruction that is going to leave them asking what they did wrong because they don't seem to be able to take responsibility for anything.

Rebranding is an abject failure in the Republican Party and no where is there a better example then the Republicans in the House of Representatives with their threats and attacks almost on a daily basis.  The hypocrites must have gotten their talking points from the Koch Bros and their various organizations to give them a backbone to stand up against the debt ceiling.

Believe the Koch's and other wealthy GOP donors are on the losing side when it is all said and done because the vast majority of the American people are on to their trying to tank this Country,  We are determined to defeat them and their wealthy friends who put greed ahead of what is best for the Country.  A good start will be throwing out the Republican obstructionist who keep threatening the President's agenda and what is good for the Country.  

If Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker again in January 2015, will Boehner if re-elected quit?  I don't think he can handle Pelosi as Speaker and frankly the Tea Party group he has played up to in the House will take him out as Minority Leader in a nano second.  Time for Boehner to retire like yesterday.  The Country deserves better then a Speaker who keeps making threats:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday that the House would not vote to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts, setting up a potential fight with President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. 

"We're not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending. It's as simple as that," he said at a press conference. 

"I believe the so-called Boehner Rule is the right formula for getting that done," he said, referring to the notion that any increase in the statutory debt limit should be accompanied by an equivalent amount of spending cuts. 

The White House has insisted that President Barack Obama will not negotiate over the debt limit, which until 2011 both parties in Congress had raised without linking it to spending cuts. In 2011, House Republicans used the threat of the looming debt limit to negotiate the package of spending cuts known as sequestration. In January, the House voted to suspend the debt limit until May without concessions. 

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that the United States government has enough room to borrow through Labor Day. 

UPDATE: 4:00 p.m. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) rejected the idea on Tuesday. "We are not negotiating on the debt ceiling," he said. "I don't know how many more times we need to say that."

Beginning to really like this new version of Harry Reid who is not afraid to stand up and be counted.  When he negotiated the filibuster deal with Senator McCain, it showed the wrong Republican was in charge of the Senate.  McConnell who cannot keep his word should be ousted from his Senate seat in Kentucky.  Been in the Senate so long he forgets what it is like to be a Senator of all constituents just not hard right Republicans and the wealthy GOP donors.

Speaker Boehner left himself wide open when he said on Sunday that Congress “should not be judged on how many laws we create” but “on how many laws we repeal.”  That was an idiotic statement to make which I have never heard in all my years around politics.

Challenged about Congress' low productivity, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the measure of success for Republicans should be how many laws they've repealed. "We've got more laws than the administration could ever enforce," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. But so far this session, the House has also been notably unsuccessful in passing repeal bills that become law.

One thing Republicans in Congress are good at is wasting tax dollars.  Spending $3M of taxpayer dollars to defend DOMA before the Supreme Court or $40M+ to repeal Obamacare is a waste of tax dollars which could be put to good use.  Having to pass a Farm Bill without SNAP is more waste of our tax dollars as the House Farm Bill is doomed in the Senate without SNAP.  Never saw a House who passed more bills knowing they are going nowhere but the trash can then the Boehner/Cantor GOP House.  Republicans are not fit to lead in the House the way they act.

Knew it was only a matter of time before Major Leader Reid had a field day with the Boehner comments on Sunday.  I was not disappointed with his response above.

The House of Representatives is failing at its own goal to roll back laws and is “doing nothing” legislatively, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday morning. 

Responding to Speaker John Boehner’s comment on Sunday that Congress “should not be judged on how many laws we create” but “on how many laws we repeal,” Reid said Boehner and his leadership team aren’t even making headway on repealing laws, despite taking dozens of votes to roll back President Barack Obama’s health care law. 

“House Republicans are failing even by their own metric. They’ve replaced virtually nothing. So by the speaker’s own admission, they’re not getting anything passed and by his own analysis, they’re getting nothing repealed,” Reid said. “So they’re doing nothing.”

The latest from the media is that the Republican budget strategy in Congress is starting to unravel which should not be a shock to anyone as the head of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan is all talk and little substance.  Because he talks a good game, the media swallowed what he said hook, line, and sinker when he was running for Vice President, but now are taking a closer look to find that just maybe Ryan and the truth are not friends as we are seeing with the budget.  Maybe the budget guru of the Republican House isn't such a guru after all.

Like an army that’s outrun its supply line, the Republican budget strategy in Congress shows almost daily signs of coming apart. 

The central premise, as sold by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, was that Washington could wipe out deficits in 10 years and protect defense spending, all while embracing the lower appropriations caps dictated by sequestration. 

Four months later, it’s proving to be a bridge too far. 

Only three of the 12 annual spending bills have even been debated — by far the worst record since the GOP took over the House.     (my bold)

Against their better judgment, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have been required to cut important investments in science, community development and foreign aid. Senate Republicans are peeling off in protest — setting up a crucial procedural vote at noon Tuesday on the transportation and housing budget. 

Time is running short. 

After the August recess just nine legislative days remain on the House calendar before the next shutdown crisis Oct. 1. Already there are discussions of retreating into a stopgap continuing resolution calibrated to the post-sequester appropriations level of $988 billion. 

But this begs the question: Is the CR a bridge to a larger deal or just another ramp down to the “new normal” of sequestration that President Barack Obama, for one, will find hard to accept?

The month of August the Congress goes on recess and only has nine days remaining before the end of the fiscal year when they return.  The House Budget Guru Ryan only has three annual spending bills that have been debated so far out of 12 spending bills that encompass government agencies.  It is a travesty that the do nothing, 3-day work week Republicans have only debated three spending bills and one of them, the Farm Bill, had to have SNAP removed in order to pass.  This 3-day work week is an affront to the US Taxpayers.  I think that they should only get 3/5ths of their salary since they only work three days.  Nine days left in the fiscal year in September to pass the budget bills?  Not happening.

Years ago the date of the fiscal year was moved from 1 July to 1 October with a three-month transition period the first year.  It was done so Congress could get a budget passed and appropriated in an efficient manner.  Since the Republicans have been mostly in charge since 1994, it has been a joke as the House gets farther behind each year and we have more continuing resolutions.  Still cannot get over the GOP House passes bills without Democrat support knowing full well they are going nowhere.  What kind of leadership is that?  Pretty bad and way below the standards of what the American taxpayers deserve.

Now the GOP is sending their House Members back to their districts for August with their blueprint of what they are to say to their constituents.  Instead of being honest they are now all going to be talking from the same talking points paper.  Republicans think that is going to get them support from the middle of the road constituents - not happening.  Only the hard right Tea Party types will be happy with their obstructionists tactics.  GOP should have learned in the Presidential election when Romney lost big that going hard right was not a prescription for winning.  Obvious they still don't get it that they have a lot of disgruntled Republicans and former Republicans who will do everything they can to defeat them.

The 31-page document from the House Republican Conference, first reported by Roll Call, offers instructions to members for meeting with constituents, promoting the House GOP's agenda and garnering media attention. The document suggests many ways to gain visibility, including placing an op-ed (sample provided) in a local paper, running a health care forum for millennials and touring gas stations, grocery stores, hospitals and senior centers.

"We know that Washington is broken," writes Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the House Republican Conference, in the guide. "It spends too much, borrows too much, and takes too much. It targets people for what they believe. It chokes out jobs with more red tape, blocks new energy resources and makes our health care crisis worse. Our government is out of control." 

The guide suggests that Republicans hold private "meetups" with "women, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and milennials [sic]." (African Americans are not mentioned.) "A meetup event should be closed [to] press so everyone feels comfortable to candidly speak about the issues," it says. Before and after, however, the document encourages promoting the event to the media.

The nerve of the House GOP to talk about Washington being broken when they are one of the primary causes with their obstructionists tactics and refusing to work with Democrats for the good of the Country.  Today's House Republicans seem bent on destroying this Country with their 'my way or no way' hard right attitude.  We need to keep reminding voters that today's Republicans cannot be trusted as they will say or do anything to get re-elected.

How many women want to meet with a Republican today after how they treat women with their being against Equal Pay for Women, Violence Against Women Act,  Against Paid Birth Control, and for horrendous anti-abortion bills which get between a woman and her doctor.  My guess is not many.  Wonder if you have to check your cell phones at the door of these meet-ups since they are closed to the media.  It is duly noted that McMorrisRogers didn't bother to include blacks in these meet-up instructions which show the hard right Republican Party is about rhetoric not real change.

New polling is starting to show how Republican voters have doubts about the GOP progress on issues. That is probably the understatement of the year.  A lot of longtime Republicans don't trust the new hard right Republican Party and are pledged to helping Democrats win in 2014.  We are the problem the GOP wanted to go away since we wouldn't march in lockstep with the hard right and raised questions about going too hard right.  Now we are a bigger problem for them by supporting Democrats with all of our background and knowledge of how the GOP works in campaigns.  The GOP needs to be defeated soundly in 2014 for their obstructionists tactics and some of the laws passed in the states that are draconian which has driven the old base father from the GOP.

More than eight months removed from a 2012 presidential election loss, a new poll finds that GOP voters are still having doubts about their party's progress. 

An ABC-Washington Post poll released Tuesday finds that 52 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents see the right going in the wrong direction. 

That marks a 20-percent jump from August 2012, and a majority for the first time among six polls conducted since 1994, according to ABC News.

If you are not registered to vote, please register as soon as possible as we need as many votes as possible to throw out the obstructionist GOP from Congress and get the Country back on track.  

In Violation of their Oath, Are House Republicans Holding the Debt Celling Hostage for Cong Ryan Budget?

After a week away, some things don't change as the GOP House is still the same bunch of obstructionists now wanting to hold the debt ceiling hostage to pass Paul Ryan's austere budget while cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

House Republicans will hold the national debt ceiling increase hostage until President Obama agrees to mandatory spending cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the National Journalreports, and will seek to use the leverage of default to force Democrats to enact the policies in Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget. 

Since slashing discretionary spending to historic lows — the discretionary side of the ledger has grown at a slower rate than inflation since 2007 and now makes up a smaller share of the economy than it did before the Great Recession — the GOP has shifted from demanding dollar-for-dollar immediate spending cuts and is now focusing on drafting a range of options to significantly restructure mandatory benefit programs.

What happened to the Oath of Office Republican House members took when they were seated as members of the House?  Looks like in their small minds it was just words that mean nothing to them as they obstruct and hurt the economy following the lead of their wealthy donors:

That Republicans are even considering holding the debt ceiling hostage again is in violation of the oath of office they swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. So help me God.” The 14^th Amendment of the Constitution that every Republican swore to defend and support against domestic enemies like corporate CEOs and Wall Street executives says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law…shall not be questioned,” and yet holding the public debt that Republicans created as a hostage to reward the rich, punish the people, and enrich the private insurance industry is questioning the validity of the debt, and by any stretch of the imagination approaches criminal abrogation of their oath of office.

Have this group of House Republicans forgotten what it was like when they took the oath and it meant something? Are they so corrupted by the wealthy donors like the Koch's that they have forgotten what it was like to be proud to be a member of Congress who actually would work for their constituents and the American people.  Now the House GOP has no empathy for those less fortunate and only care about doing what the Koch's and other wealthy donors demand.

The very nerve of them wanting to put the debt on the backs of those who can least afford it, is a 'sin' since they throw the Bible at us like it is their guiding principle which it is not.  Not even close.  Jesus fed the poor -- this group of Republicans wants to make the poor go without food and necessities because they believe they are on a free ride.  The free ride belongs to the House Republicans with their 3-day work week, numerous recesses, and lack of passing anything but social issues.  Heaven forbid if they passed a jobs bill to actually help people.  Not this group who want to cut the SNAP program for families which includes babies.  Those same babies that the GOP in states demand must be born.  The problem is after they are born they want to cut off food and medical care.  Bunch of heartless people are in the GOP Caucus in the House and elected around the Country.

President Obama has stated openly that he will not agree to the cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid the heartless Republicans want in exchange for a 'yes' vote on the debt ceiling:

President Obama warned Republicans he is not going to negotiate (read pay a ransom) over raising the debt limit and cautioned Republicans against threatening the credit-worthiness of the United States by “bartering over the borrowing limit.”  Republicans are certain the President will concede defeat and pay whatever ransom criminal Republicans demand, but without an election looming, it is doubtful he is bluffing. Apparently their worst fear is that the President will wait until the last minute and make a bipartisan deal with the Senate and dare House Republicans to accept an unfavorable agreement or take responsibility for a credit default and another downgrade on the U.S. credit rating, but even making a deal is paying a ransom for a constitutionally mandated action Republicans followed without deviation during the Bush administration.

The GOP House wants to make sure that their spending spree from 2001-2008 is paid for on the backs of the elderly and poor while their wealthy donors like the Koch's get to keep their tax breaks and loopholes.

Republicans Expect the Elderly, Poor and Unemployed to Pay Off Their DebtBy: RmuseJul. 8th, 2013
more from Rmuse

Most Americans fail to recall when the elderly, poor, and unemployed Americans blew up the nation’s debt and deficit with two unfunded and unnecessary wars, huge tax cuts for the rich, and Wall Street greed that contributed to crashing the economy, killing millions of Americans’ jobs, and ushering in the Great Recession of 2008. For some curious reason, only Republicans remember that it was the poor, public sector workforce, and retirees who created the country’s economic malaise, and subsequently they are duty-bound to make them pay restitution with Draconian measures to enrich the insurance industry, satisfy Wall Street’s lust for the Social Security Trust, as well as provide the wealthy with a new round of tax cuts. To see their punitive measures through to fruition, Republicans are preparing a laundry list of their most coveted programs to eliminate for President Obama to choose from in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit to repay the GOP’s debt and deficit they put on the nation’s credit card from 2001-2009 (the 2009 budget was George Bush’s). 

As Republicans anticipate holding the nation’s creditworthiness hostage again in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, they fundamentally picked the most Draconian measures in Paul Ryan’s Heritage Foundation budget and will demand the President choose which demographic is going to suffer the most or force the nation into its first credit default in history. Republicans are big on historical firsts, and it was in 2011 that after 50 years of automatically raising the debt limit that they first demanded offsetting spending cuts for every dollar the debt limit was increased creating America’s first credit downgrade. For historical perspective, and to demonstrate the GOP’s criminal, and unconstitutional, economic hostage taking, Republicans raised the debt limit for George W. Bush seven times without slashing one penny from the budget. They did, however, specifically raise the debt limit in May 2003 to pay for $350 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and it is that type of debt Republicans are now insisting the elderly, poor, and infirm repay through loss of benefits they paid for during their working lives.

Read More about America Held Hostage by the GOP House at Politicususa.com 

You realize how much the House Republicans have sold out to wealthy donors and Wall Street when you see the percentage of Americans who oppose the cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and yet the GOP House is still pushing forward with the cuts.  Being bought and paid for by wealthy donors screams out  In fact more then 50% think the retirement income from Social Security is too low when you retire at 62.

In a survey by the National Academy of Social Insurance: 

• 82% believe it is critical to preserve Social Security regardless it means increasing Social Security taxes 
• 87% insist that Social Security is preserved for future generations even if it means raising taxes paid by the rich 
• 84% believe current Social Security benefits do not provide enough income for retirees 
• 89% said Social Security benefits are more important than ever
• 75% said increase benefits so Americans can retire at age 62 and not be poor.

How much money have wealthy donors spent on these House Republicans that is not reported for them to continue down this path?  How many houses have been paid for or money put in the bank by the likes of the Koch Bros, wealthy donors, CEOs, and Wall Street to sell out the elderly and poor?   There is something very wrong here as you can smell the odor of corruption from today's GOP office holders.  They have taken their oaths and turned them upside down in order to follow the whims of the wealthy by signing pledges like from the Koch's anti-climate pledge agreeing to obstruct any new action.  It is out in the open they are bought and paid for and could care less about the Country and all of us who are not part of the Top 2%.

Seems to me that when a member of Congress who has taken an oath signs a pledge to obstruct they are breaking their oath and should be removed from office.  As we have witnessed since the GOP took over the House in 2011, their word to the American people is worth zero, zip, nada but their word to their wealthy donors like the Koch's is golden.  The Republicans are attempting to sell the American Middle Class and poor down the river so that the wealthy can control everything we do.  We must follow the lead of State Senator Wendy Davis of Texas who was willing to stand up to the Texas GOP thugs in the Senate, Lt Governor, and Governor's office who put their agenda over the health of the women of Texas.  Another case of where they want to pass a draconian abortion bill while already having cut health benefits for the poor.

Time for action is now - roll up the sleeves to go register new voters and make sure that every voter has the ID required to vote.  Start now rounding up monitors for elections and have lawyers standing by to challenge voter suppression since the SCOTUS said no need for the Voting Rights Act.  Would say in a normal world that it is time for Congress to act on ensuring that all Americans have equal access to vote but that would mean the House Republicans would have to get on board and that's not happening.

GOP already gerrymandered districts to keep their seats but what they didn't count on were Republican rank and file getting so mad at them for playing to the hard right 'new' base of the party who only care about social issues that we would support Democrats in elections.  The GOP office holders and social conservatives are a perfect match with telling everyone else how to live to meet their version of  'Christian' standards which is playing up to the 'money changers' and ignoring those less fortunate.  Maybe they should start following the New Testament before preaching at the rest of us.