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.

House GOP "Stop Government Abuse" Week was a Bad Joke!

This is a round-up from NARFE of what the Republican House did in the last days before a five-week recess.  Most worthless House ever IMHO as Republicans refuse to vote on bills they know might pass instead voting again to defund Obamacare knowing it is going no where.  The House Republicans need to refund some of their salary to the taxpayers.

Still haven't recovered from the biggest abusers in DC, Republican House, having e a "Stop Government Abuse Week" which is an insult to anyone with the slightest bit of intelligence.  That took nerve but one thing we have learned out of the Republicans in Congress is that nerve is their middle name as they push an agenda that is bogus and adds not one thing to help the 98% of American people. When a Party wants to cut food stamps by over $30B, it says it all - they could care less about those less fortunate because they don't fund their campaigns.  Republicans play to their new hard right base along with wealthy donors led by the Koch Bros and expect others to go along.  More and more long time Republicans are telling the GOP Goodbye!

NARFE Legislative Hotline – August 2, 2013

Message from NARFE President Joseph A. Beaudoin
“As lawmakers depart Washington for five weeks starting today, the stakes are high. The ball is in your court. Use the congressional summer recess to meet with your representative and both senators. Defend the benefits you earned and were promised during your career of service to the American people.”

#1 ‘Stop Government Abuse’ Votes Held
This week, the House of Representatives unveiled and voted on a series of bills targeting the federal government and federal employees as part of “Stop Government Abuse” week. In total, the House had planned to vote on 10 bills denigrating, one way or another, civil service and, in one case, even usurping state law as it relates to taping phone conversations. Most of the bills were on the House calendar under “suspension,” which means debate was limited and passage required two-thirds approval of the voting body. While some of the bills passed by voice vote, the House majority quickly learned it could not pass three of the bills by the required supermajority. It pulled the three bills from consideration and rolled them into one – Stop Government Abuse Act, H.R. 2879 – and voted on the bill yesterday, requiring only a simple majority. The bill passed by a vote of 239-176. To see how your representative voted, please visit: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll436.xml.

Even though passed as a package, these bills were exposed as material for campaign ads and not legislation deserving enactment. The federal community expressed satisfaction in forcing the bills off the suspension calendar. NARFE sent two strongly worded letters to the Hill in advance of the bills, one when the bills were scheduled to be voted on individually and one when the packaged was revealed. NARFE also signed a Federal-Postal Coalition letter opposing the bills. All three letters can be found here.

The bills have little chance of Senate consideration and are likely to die at this point. The attacks on the federal community, however, are unlikely to slow.

#2 Chained CPI Coupon Collection Goal Reached! The NARFE National Officers and Legislative team thank you for your tremendous generosity in sending grocery coupons for a planned September media campaign around the Chained CPI. We have exceeded our goal of $48,000 worth of coupons, and we are working to use the additional coupons in the media campaign. If you have coupons ready to be mailed or if your chapter has a coupon-cutting event planned, please go ahead and submit those coupons.  After the campaign, we will be sending all of the coupons to organizations across the country that provide coupons to our military and their families. Thank you again for your enthusiasm and generosity.
 #3 Take Advantage of ‘NARFE Grass-Roots Advocacy Month’ NARFE has 1,319 chapters and 54 federations, and each has a president listed on our website. These leaders should be in the process of planning meetings with representatives and senators during the congressional summer recess, August 3 through September 8. These five weeks are designated as “NARFE Grass-Roots Advocacy Month,” when NARFE leaders will need the help of every member. This is our opportunity to inform the many new members of Congress, remind many second-termers and re-educate long-time incumbents on the issues important to NARFE members. In the August issue of narfe magazine, President Beaudoin’s column, “Silence Is Not Golden” (page 4), and Sarah Weissmann’s article, “Grass-Roots Advocacy Month” (page 6), call on each NARFE member to defend their earned benefits. Take action now to do just that, and report your activity to the NARFE Legislative Department at leg@narfe.org.

The GOP House is using the bogus 'Groundswell' talking point papers back in their districts and states to try and blame Obama for the mess in DC.  There is only one group to blame -- Republicans with their trek to the hard right.

House Republican leaders have armed their members with their August recess talking point. If you hate government, it is all Obama’s fault. 

The AP reports, “House Republicans will take a carefully orchestrated, staunchly anti-Washington campaign to voters this month, blaming President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats for Americans’ unhappiness with government.” The AP story goes on to mention that it might be difficult for House Republicans to blame Democrats and Obama for everything being that they control the House of Representatives, but John Boehner’s spokesperson Michael Steel already had an answer for that, “We have control of only one-half of one-third of the federal government.” 

The House Republican argument is that you hate the government because Republicans don’t control enough of it. This argument ignores the fact that most Americans are upset with Washington because there is no cooperation, and it is House Republicans who are behind the vast majority of the gridlock. Then there is the problem of the policies that House Republicans are advocating. John Boehner’s Circus of Dysfunction can only seem to agree on doing one thing, voting repeatedly to repeal Obamacare. That’s it. The House has wasted 15% of their time in session trying to repeal Obamacare.

(snip) 

House Republicans have embraced a plan that only an idiot could love. They are going to insult the majority of the country by pretending like we are all stupid and don’t know what is really going on. It isn’t just insulting. It is should be offensive to anyone with one functioning brain cell, and it is destroying the Republican Party. 

Republicans are going to be in for a shock in their gerrymandered districts when all those Republicans they are counting on who they tossed under the bus in favor of the hard right social conservatives, religious right, Tea Party, John Birchers, Libertarians, and militia, decide to vote Democrat and tell the GOP to shove it.  The Republican Party doesn't seem to have a clue about how mad former Republicans are at what has happened to the GOP and how the new base has treated long time Republicans.    GOP may have the big donors but those don't equate to votes.

Republicans don't deserve to be in charge of anything with their obstructionism, wasting tax dollars, and voting on bills they know will never be law.  Yet bills like the jobs bills including for veterans, immigration bill, and appropriations bills just sit there while they work 126 days this year doing nothing except appeasing their new base and wealthy donors.  That they do well.  Being honest with integrity and doing what is best for the American people earns them an F!

NFL Guru's Stupid Decision to Hold Super Bowl in NY/NJ Next January

There is dumb and dumber - NFL guru's fit the dumber mold.

It is TGIF with a major blizzard named Nemo poised to hit NYC and New England.  Some weather people are saying Nemo will rival the 1978 blizzard that tore through the Midwest into New England.  It looks to be starting farther east this time which could dump record snow totals on NYC and Boston.  Cannot fathom how much snow is going to fall inland in Massachusetts where we lived for nine, miserable months in Groton, MA, while my husband was on an Industry assignment for the Air Force.  Never saw so much snow in my life as I did in MA.  One reason we refused to spend more then winter in New England - too far north, too long winter, and way too much snow.

Decided to bring up weather less then one week after the Super Bowl because the NFL and its hard headed Commissioner Goddell decided it would be great to have a Super Bowl played in the outdoors in the north so they awarded it to New York City instead of a warm climate for next year.  Stadium is actually in New Jersey right across the river.  It is the beginning of February and they want to hold the Super Bowl outdoors?  Stupid IMHO!  They already hold playoff games outdoors in the north depending on who is in the playoffs but why the Super Bowl?

Super Bowl 2014 Location Makes Weather A Possible Factor In Game And Annoys Joe Flacco
The Huffington Post  |  By Craig Kanalley Posted: 02/01/2013 9:29 pm EST

When the NFL awarded the 2014 Super Bowl to the New York City area in May 2010, it knew full well that it was the first time it was placing the marquee game outdoors in a cold-weather climate. 

New York topped Tampa and Miami for the honor to the elation of New York Giants and New York Jets contingents, USA Today reported at the time. The game will be played on Feb. 2, 2014 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside of New York City.
Some players are not fans of the idea to have a cold-weather Super Bowl. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco made waves earlier this week when he called it "retarded." 

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg are not among the nay-sayers. “We made this decision consciously, obviously not knowing what the weather would be, but football is meant to be played in the elements,” Goodell said last month.
It's expected to be a tourism boon for New Jersey and New York City as the region could see an estimated $550 million in tourism. 

Bloomberg struck a similar chord, saying, "Some probably gulped and said, ‘You want to do it outside?' and we said, ‘Yes, we do. That's football, it's meant to be played outdoors."
New York City is planning a week of events leading up to the Super Bowl including a fan festival, the city has revealed.

Jets owner Woody Johnson was instrumental in rallying support for the location, as The New York Times reported after the decision was made: 

You can see a countdown to the 2014 Super Bowl, as well as more information about it, at http://nynjsuperbowl.com.

“Why not,” Johnson said after the vote. “We play every other game in cold weather, rain and snow. Would I want to do it every year? Probably not. But 2014 sounds good.”

As a fan, would I buy a Super Bowl ticket to sit out in the cold in NYC/NJ the first week in February?  Not on your life.  If I was going to the Super Bowl, I would want to be able to attend all the events without having to wear a winter coat with gloves, boots, and head gear.  Would bet the fans from other places feel the same way.

When did this Country get so many hard headed people in charge from politics to sports to companies?  They have dollar signs in their eyes instead thinking about the people.  In this case, flights into NYC could be grounded due to storms when fans or even teams are scheduled to arrive.  You might have a Super Bowl where roads are so bad, people cannot get to the stadium but seems to make these people no difference as money trumps all just like in business or politics today.

Hope the NFL guru's are following this storm less then one week after the Super Bowl in New Orleans where fans and players had a blast in the warm, sunny weather of New Orleans.  NFL should vow to ONLY hold the Super Bowl in warm climates from next year forward.  I also oppose holding Super Bowls in the domed stadiums in the north due to the fact weather could affect driving conditions and airports.

Hope everyone in the northeast stays safe tonight and tomorrow as the blizzard hits with winds 25-40 miles an hours in NYC with gust 50 mph.  According to the Weather Channel the warmer air from the ocean is going to shift as the days goes on and by tonight the much colder winds out of the NW will be hitting NYC.