GOP - The Great Divide

IMHO:  Republican Conservatives are frightened people, and their fears are being stoked by rhetoric.  Example; the 'Make America Great Again' slogan.  Just when did America become NOT great?  America IS great, has never stopped being great, except in the minds of the fearful.

Please, Republican Conservatives go back to hiding under your bed and leave the rest of us true Americans alone.

"Fight over core principles exposes deep GOP divides" by Dan Morris, PBS NewsHour 2/1/2016

David Frum's “The Great Republican Revolt” in The Atlantic has garnered lots of attention inside and outside the party.  Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and longtime voice for moderation in the GOP, examines how the party got to the point where outsiders Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are the leading candidates for the party’s presidential nomination.  Frum also looks at the impact of the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus on Congress where, despite achieving a majority in both Houses in 2014, Republicans have failed to end the gridlock of the past seven years.

Frum says Republicans were shocked when Mitt Romney lost to President Obama in 2012.  “The Republican elite had collectively done an analysis of what they believed had gone wrong in 2012.  The only thing the party had done wrong was it had not been open enough on immigration.  Fix that, and everything would fall into place,” Frum told Judy Woodruff.

So the “Gang of Eight” senators, including Republicans Marco Rubio and John McCain, put together an immigration reform bill that passed the Senate but quickly died in the House.  It turned out that a significant number of Main Street Republicans and conservative talk radio hosts actually opposed immigration reform.  “In 2015, that plan ran into the collective mass rejection of the rank and file of the Republican Party,” Frum said.  And this presented an opportunity for Donald Trump.  “The great marketer came along and said, ‘I see a niche.  I see a niche.  It’s the bigger niche.  And I can have it all to myself.’”

Frum says the Republican establishment similarly misread the power of the Tea Party, and subsequently the Freedom Caucus, which led to the government shutdown of 2013, the stunning primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014 and in 2015 the effective ouster of Speaker John Boehner.  Cantor ascribes his and the Speaker’s defeat to an anger in the base, unheeded by the leadership.  “There'd be layoffs, and wage-earners in their 40s and 50s who say, ‘Hey wait a minute, what happened to my job,’ and then didn’t have the skills to go find another job.  Members of Congress going home and seeing that.  And saying, ‘Hey something's broken,’” Cantor said.  “And then that compounds itself, which leads some people to say, ‘Hey wait a minute, we gotta throw it all out and go to the extreme, because we are in that bad of a situation.”

Former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, now president of the Heritage Foundation, is known as the “Godfather of the Tea Party.”  He’s just fine with the departure of Cantor and Boehner.  “John Boehner, we used to be friends, but then we worked together in the House — he saw conservatives and this idea of limited government as more of an obstacle and a frustration.  And he punished conservatives who really tried to push for some fairly simple things.  What John Boehner found is he couldn’t crush the conservatives, but he made it painful for them.”

Frum believes the Republican Party must now preach respect for the work and institutions of government.  “The government has to be made to work.  The government is, I think all Republicans agree, too expensive.  But that doesn’t mean that we’d be better off without one, or that you want to destroy the traditional agreements and understandings that make the American government work.”

NOTE: 'The Godfather' was a Mafia crime lord, that ran protection rackets that used intimidation to rob and influence people.

POLITICS - Boner is Out!

(opps, Boehner is Out)

"Under fire from House GOP, Boehner drops resignation bombshell" PBS NewsHour 9/25/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Speaker of the House John Boehner announced he would be leaving office and giving up his leadership position, sending shockwaves across Capitol Hill.  Political director Lisa Desjardins reports on what led to Boehner's decision and how lawmakers are reacting.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  On this day, when a pope and two presidents were already making headlines, a surprise resignation came along to stun Washington (DC).

We begin with the announcement that the speaker of the United States House of Representatives is stepping down.

NewsHour political director Lisa Desjardins reports.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), Speaker of the House (singing):  Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, my, oh, my, what a wonderful day.

LISA DESJARDINS (NewsHour):  With his decision, House Speaker John Boehner, the happy warrior, projected a kind of personal relief and institutional sacrifice.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER:  It’s become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution.  So, this morning, I informed my colleagues that I would resign from the speakership and resign from Congress at the end of October.  Now, as you have often heard me say, this isn’t about me.

LISA DESJARDINS:  In fact, it had become about him, at least in part.  Boehner was again under fire from Tea Party Republicans pushing to defund Planned Parenthood, even if it means closing the government.  They’d threatened a floor vote to try to strip him of the speakership.

"Is Boehner’s departure a win for conservatives?" PBS NewsHour 9/25/2015

IMHO:  Today's Republican conservatives are America's new neo-Nazis

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  How do House Republicans see the resignation of Speaker John Boehner?  Judy Woodruff gets perspective from Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wisc., with more analysis from political director Lisa Desjardins.

OPINION - Conservatives Are Killing Us

"NYTimes:  Conservative Economics and Income Inequality Are Literally Killing Us" by Dartagnan, Daily KOS 4/29/2015

Thirty-five years ago, babies born in the U.S. had an infant mortality rate equal to Germany.  Today, American babies die at twice (PDF download) the rate of those in Germany.

Thirty-five years ago, the U.S. ranked 13th in life expectancy for girls among the 34 recognized industrial societies.  Today we are ranked 29th out of those same 34 countries.

We have the highest teenage birth rate among the industrialized world.

One out of every four children in this country lives with a single parent, the highest rate by far in the industrialized world.

Our incarceration rate is triple what it was four decades ago, with an incarceration rate five times that of other wealthy democracies.

Economists from the University of Chicago, MIT and the University of Southern California conducted research to find out why our children die at a rate exponentially higher than European kids.  Their conclusion?  Staggering rates of income disparity, all stemming directly from the 1980's, the Era of Ronald Reagan and the beginning of the resurgence of the conservative movement.

"On nearly all indicators of mortality, survival and life expectancy, the United States ranks at or near the bottom among high-income countries,” says a report on the nation’s health by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

What’s most shocking about these statistics is not how unhealthy they show Americans to be, compared with citizens of countries that spend much less on health care and have much less sophisticated medical technology.  What is most perplexing is how stunningly fast the United States has lost ground.

The statistics above are taken from this article by Eduardo Porter in today's New York Times.  As Porter states, "Pick almost any measure of social health and cohesion over the last four decades or so, and you will find that the United States took a wrong turn along the way."  But as his analysis shows, it wasn't just lower wages caused by globalization and technological advancement that led to this dismal state of affairs (although those certainly played a part), but the unique failure of our U.S. government to respond to these developments:

[B]laming globalization and technological progress for the stagnation of the middle class and the precipitous decline in our collective health is too easy.  Jobs were lost and wages got stuck in many developed countries.

What set the United States apart — what made the damage inflicted upon American society so intense — was the nature of its response.  Government support for Americans in the bottom half turned out to be too meager to hold society together.

From the time most of us have even had a political memory we have had to listen to conservative ideology spewed at us, telling us that the U.S. was living in a "welfare state," that "handouts" to the poor were sapping our productivity and harming the "spirit" of the country.  That if we only unleashed the power of Big Business through fostering "entrepreneurship" while cutting programs designed to support the rest of us, the nation would "regain" its stature and create vast sums of wealth for all of our citizens, with corporate profits leading us back to a mythical promised land.  That shrinking government programs while cutting taxes for the richest would put wealth back into all our pockets and improve the quality of our lives.  This was the dominant narrative in the 1980's, it was swallowed nearly whole and regurgitated by Bill Clinton in the 1990's, and reached its apotheosis in the 2000's prior to the Economic Crash presided over by George W. Bush and the same tax-cutting, supply-side ilk who sold it to us from the start, often in the guise of "deficit reduction."  It is the same narrative that continues to paralyze our government's ability to respond to our citizens needs, now mutated into what we know as the "Tea Party."

Now this narrative has borne itself out to be nothing but a staggering lie.  The reality is that beyond a meager Social Security and Medicare for the aged, both creations of Democratic Administrations, and with the constant demonization and derogation of Labor and Unions, there was not much at all to break the fall of ordinary Americans when trends like globalization appeared over the horizon:

A more compelling explanation is that when globalization struck at the jobs on which 20th-century America had built its middle class, the United States discovered that it did not, in fact, have much of a welfare state to speak of. The threadbare safety net tore under the strain.

Call it a failure of solidarity.  American institutions, built from hostility toward collective solutions, couldn’t hold society together when the economic underpinning of full employment at a decent wage gave in.

"Hostility toward collective solutions" is polite terminology for "greed."

In searching for solutions, Porter weighs the benefits of education, but rightly concludes that the way education is structured in this country today it actually exacerbates inequality.  One need only to examine the income levels of those victimized by the latest collapse of for-profit colleges, left clutching their near-worthless degrees, to understand why.  He also points to attempts by Senator Elizabeth Warren and others to generate enthusiasm for lifting the payroll cap on Social Security to expand benefits for the elderly.  But caring for the elderly is ultimately not our biggest problem.  Ultimately the changes necessary to reverse the criminal damage already wreaked on us by the American Right and its malignant, self-serving ideology must be solved at the ballot box.

The challenge America faces is not simply a matter of equity.  The bloated incarceration rates and rock-bottom life expectancy, the unraveling families and the stagnant college graduation rates amount to an existential threat to the nation’s future.

That is, perhaps, the best reason for hope.  The silver lining in these dismal, if abstract, statistics, is that they portend such a dysfunctional future that our broken political system might finally be forced to come together to prevent it.

So this election is not just "our time."  It may be the only time.

POLITICS - First House Majority Leader to be Defeated in a Primary

GOP, that's what you got for letting the Tea Party members into your party.

"House GOP’s second-in-command to step down after primary upset" PBS NewsHour 6/11/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Today’s announcement by Eric Cantor that he would step down as majority leader at the end of July sent an election-year jolt through Washington.  The move opens up a battle to replace the second-ranking Republican in the House, even as the party tries to determine how the campaign was caught so off-guard.

Cantor spoke with reporters after meeting with his Republican colleagues behind closed doors late this afternoon.

REP. ERIC CANTOR, House Majority Leader:  While I will not be on the ballot in November, I will be a champion for conservatives across the nation who are dedicated to preserving liberty and providing opportunity.  Truly, what divides Republicans pales in comparison to what divides us as conservatives from the left and their Democratic Party.

GWEN IFILL:  The Richmond lawmaker’s decision to give up his leadership post came less than 24 hours after he became the first House Majority Leader ever defeated in a primary.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 5/16/2014

"Shields and Brooks on Brown v. Board legacy, tea party outlook" PBS NewsHour 5/16/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to the discuss the week’s news, including the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of education ruling, Karl Rove’s comments about Hillary Clinton’s health and the outlook for the tea party.

POLITICS - Tea Party's 2014 Prospects

"Did the Shutdown Hurt the Tea Party’s 2014 Prospects?" by Amy Dean, In These Times 11/13/2013

Excerpt

The Tea Party lost big by forcing this fall's government shutdown, and it is slated to take a major hit in next year's midterm elections.  Such is the current wisdom, in any case, among mainstream political pundits.  But this analysis is too easy.  It imagines that progressives will make gains without the hard work of organizing.  And it presumes that Democrats can put forward a compelling agenda that will give people something to vote for, rather than merely expressing distaste for Washington altogether.

To get a more nuanced take on the political fallout of the shutdown, I spoke with longtime electoral strategist Steve Cobble.  He is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a co-founder of Progressive Democrats of America and a senior political adviser to Free Speech for People, a group engaged in the fight to roll back Citizens United and end the idea that corporations are people.  Cobble served as a leader in the Jesse Jackson campaign of 1988 and more recently in Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008.

Given his background, Cobble identifies with the Democratic Party, yet he is consistently critical of the party's neoliberal wing.  In our conversation, he questioned whether the Democrats' fear of populism and failure to seriously challenge Wall Street will allow the Tea Party to hold on to the populist mantle–and to retain strength because of that.

I started by restating the common belief that the Tea Party will suffer electoral setbacks because of the shutdown.  Cobble jumped in immediately.

“I don't believe that,” he said.  “If the Tea Party is going for a smaller party that's more pure, they're not necessarily deterred by getting beaten.  [With incidents like the shutdown,] they just feel like they got sold out, so they redouble their efforts.  At some point, this process will curdle on itself and collapse, but I don't think we've reached that point yet.  I think the Tea Party's going to keep fighting.  If the Republican caucus in Iowa for president was next week, I think Ted Cruz would win it.”

Interestingly, Cobble believes that the Tea Party's fight with Wall Street Republicans will allow it to strengthen its populist appeal.

“One of the interesting dynamics of the Tea Party that's going to come up,” he argued, “is that they're going to get into primary fights with the Wall Street wing of the Republicans.  That's not necessarily bad for the Tea Party, because one of the quickest ways to get back in the fight is to have Wall Street–one of the most hated parts of the American scene–start trying to take out your champions.  At that point, you can run against both Washington and Wall Street.  Their primary fights will have a funny way of reinforcing their argument that they're the ones who like Wall Street the least.

“There's a huge resentment on the far Right and the far Left, which actually extends quite a bit toward the middle of average Americans, that Wall Street screwed us and then bought off Washington–and got away with it.  I think there's still power in that argument. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party's not making it.  No one thinks that the monetary penalties that the Justice Department is administering on the banks are real penalties.  As somebody wrote the other day, it's like a traffic ticket to JPMorgan.  The only person who goes to jail is Martha Stewart.

POLITICS - The U.S. Financial Hostage Crises Ends, Temporary Defeat of Tea Party Radicals

"Republicans Back Down, Ending Crisis Over Shutdown and Debt Limit" by JONATHAN WEISMAN and ASHLEY PARKER, New York Times 10/16/2013

Look of defeat

Excerpt

Congressional Republicans conceded defeat on Wednesday in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law as the House and Senate approved last-minute legislation ending a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and extending federal borrowing power to avert a financial default with potentially worldwide economic repercussions.

With the Treasury Department warning that it could run out of money to pay national obligations within a day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday evening, 81 to 18, to approve a proposal hammered out by the chamber’s Republican and Democratic leaders after the House on Tuesday was unable to move forward with any resolution.  The House followed suit a few hours later, voting 285 to 144 to approve the Senate plan, which would fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the debt limit through Feb. 7.

Mr. Obama signed the bill about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

Most House Republicans opposed the bill, but 87 voted to support it.  The breakdown showed that Republican leaders were willing to violate their informal rule against advancing bills that do not have majority Republican support in order to end the shutdown.  All 198 Democrats voting supported the measure.

Finally, Boehner showed some backbone and true leadership.  Now I wonder how long he will keep his position.


"While GOP 'picked a fight that they couldn't win,' Democrats emerge reunited" PBS Newshour 10/16/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  What are the practical and political outcomes of the 16-day stalemate in Congress that's finally drawing to a close?  Although the GOP retained sequester spending levels, Democrats come out "energized and unified."  Judy Woodruff talks to Stuart Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report and Susan Page of USA Today.

"Italy's PM Letta: 'American leadership is needed' for Europe's economic growth" PBS Newshour 10/16/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As Congress narrows in on an end to the shutdown, the rest of the world is watching their actions closely.  Judy Woodruff talks to Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta about the importance of a U.S. budget deal on international market stability, the ongoing Euro crisis recovery and Italy's next move on immigration reform.

POLITICS - The U.S. Financial Hostage Crises, Tea Party Radicals Crash Agreement (again)

These Tea Party radicals are just as bad as al-Qaida or any other foreign terrorist.  They are willing to risk the U.S. economy and our 'full faith and credit' around the world to get what they want, and cannot get through legitimate legislative means.  They think they can dictate U.S. policy by holding a 'gun' to our heads.

Democracy means you do not always get what you want, it requires compromise.  Our nation's debt limit has nothing to do with any other policy and needs to be raised without attaching demands.

"Senate suspends negotiations pending 'more acceptable' plan from House GOP" PBS Newshour 10/15/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Negotiations in the Senate towards a shutdown solution were interrupted by news that the House GOP would attempt to pass a bill that Majority Leader Harry Reid disparaged as "a blatant attack on bipartisanship."  Congressional correspondent Kwame Holman reports.  Judy Woodruff gets an update from Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico.

"Known as the 'safest asset,' bond market braces for U.S. debt ceiling deadline" PBS Newshour 10/15/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  If lawmakers fail to avert a debt default, there could be a devastating impact on the national economy: mortgages soaring, consumers unable to borrow, the government forced to pay more to borrow more, plunging us deeper into debt.  Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on how the bond market is anticipating the situation.

"Senators Restart Talks as Default Looms" by JONATHAN WEISMAN, New York Times 10/15/2013

Excerpt

With the federal government on the brink of a default, a House Republican effort to end the shutdown and extend the Treasury’s borrowing authority collapsed Tuesday night as a major credit agency warned that the United States was on the verge of a costly ratings downgrade.

After the failure of the House Republican leadership to find enough support for its latest proposal to end the fiscal crisis, the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders immediately restarted negotiations to find a bipartisan path forward.  A spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said Mr. Reid was “optimistic that an agreement is within reach” with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

With so little time left, chances rose that a resolution would not be approved by Congress and sent to President Obama before Thursday, when the government is left with only its cash on hand to pay the nation’s bills.

"With G.O.P. Badly Divided, Boehner Is Left ‘Herding Cats’" by ASHLEY PARKER and JEREMY, New York Times 10/15/2013

Excerpt

After House Republicans began their closed-door meeting on Tuesday with an impromptu rendition of “Amazing Grace,” Speaker John A. Boehner stood up with what he hoped would be an equally inspiring message.

The Senate was trying to steamroll the House with a new plan to reopen the government and lift the debt ceiling, leaving his team with only two options: “We can wait on the Senate for four days and accept whatever they give us,” he told them.  “Or we can go on offense and force their hand.”

It was yet another moment of decision for Mr. Boehner, who finally finds himself at the crossroads he has been marching toward for weeks: an imminent financial default on the one hand, and on the other an unyielding conservative rank and file that persists with the futile effort to take down President Obama’s health care law even if they also take down the speaker in the process.

POLITICS - The U.S. Financial Hostage Crises, Reverberations Near and Far

As Republicans hold our economy and financial standing hostage to Tea Party (aka bullies) extremist demands......

Message to President Obama, Democrats, and the few Moderate Republicans that may still be left, DO NOT GIVE IN TO HOSTAGE TAKERS!

"Sens. Reid, McConnell both 'optimistic' shutdown deal can be reached" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 10/14/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed optimism that a deal on the shutdown would be reached by the end of the week.  However, it remained unclear how House Republicans would receive any Senate resolution.  Congressional correspondent Kwame Holman reports.

"What might both parties give up to 'escape' shutdown impasse?" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 10/14/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Senate leaders showed hope that they might be headed towards an end to the government shutdown, while House remains uneasy about the path forward.  Robert Costa of the National Review joins Gwen Ifill to discuss why a short-term deal may be necessary and what concessions both sides may make to resolve the damaging impasse.

"Impacted U.S. communities pay price of shutdown" PBS Newshour 10/14/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  From local economies dependent on defense spending to tourist hot spots reeling from closures, communities across the nation are feeling the pinch of the government shutdown.  Judy Woodruff gets perspective from Cathy Lewis of WHRV in Hampton Roads, Va., Karen Kasler of Ohio Public Radio and Scott Shafer of KQED in San Francisco.

"Will 'artificially imposed crises' have consequences for U.S. economic standing?" PBS Newshour 10/14/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As lawmakers show signs of progress towards a deal to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, how are global markets responding?  Ray Suarez gets analysis from Zanny Min-ton Beddoes of The Economist on the effects that repeated political standoffs over may have on U.S. financial credibility.

POLITICS - The U.S. Financial Hostage Crises

"President Obama summons congressional leaders to discuss shutdown stalemate" PBS Newshour 10/2/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Barack Obama called leaders of the House and Senate to the White House to discuss the stalemate keeping the government shutdown.  House GOP members forged ahead with various bills to re-open parts of the government, but Democrats dismissed that approach.  Congressional correspondent Kwame Holman reports.

"How long before shutdown has major impact on the economy, private sector?" PBS Newshour 10/2/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After day two of the government shutdown, some industries, like tourism, have already taken a hit.  How might the effects spill over into other sectors of the economy and the markets?  Judy Woodruff looks to Diane Swonk of Mesirow Financial and Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics for analysis and predictions.
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DIANE SWONK, Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc.: (on shutdown)  And, yes, we also see these workers, census workers are all across the country; 85 percent of federal workers workout side of Washington, D.C., so as bad as it is in Washington, these are workers that vote all across the country, which, believe me it's having an impact, like I mentioned, the 4,000 workers in Kentucky.  We have got workers here in Illinois that clearly aren't working at this stage of the game.  The roads are not as clogged and all the retailers that get the fallout.

But also the auto industry is very concerned.  I have gotten several calls from Detroit already, concerned about the uncertainty created by this, people not knowing what this means.  And as the events continue to fall out as we approach the debt ceiling as well, that can really rock financial markets and that causes hesitation.  Hesitation in an economy that's already weak is our greatest enemy.

When consumers are uncertain, they don't buy big-ticket items or luxury items.  They don't spend on that extra meal out or going out to the movies.  On the flip side of it, we also see more importantly businesses not willing to pull the trigger and hire, which is something that Mark was talking about.  We have already seen the largest hiring in the sort of leisure and hospitality industries, but you are not going to see much of that at all.  That pullback right as we enter into the holiday season I think is really critical.
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MARK ZANDI, Moody's Analytics:  Well, it's everybody then, because if we hit the debt limit, what that means is that the Treasury can only pay the bills for which it has enough cash.  So it won't have enough cash to pay all the bills and there are a lot of bills.

Now, they're going to make their payments to the debt holders, the people who own the Treasury bonds.  But that's going to leave less for everyone else.  And so that means Medicare-Medicaid recipients, if they -- if we don't settle this by November 1, it means Social Security recipients won't get their check on time.

POLITICS - From U.S. House Psychotics, Defunding Affordable Care Act

"Congress Engages in Obamacare Spending Standoff Days Before Budget Deadline" PBS Newshour 9/19/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  House Republicans plan to eliminate funding for the Affordable Care Act as part of a spending bill that would keep the government running past October 1.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said any bill that defunds health care reform won't survive the Senate.  Gwen Ifill reports on the budget battle.

POLITICS - Fiscal Blockage in the U.S. House

Boner paying big time for allowing Tea Party members into the Republican Party.

"Boehner Seeking Democrats’ Help on Fiscal Talks" by JONATHAN WEISMAN, New York Times 9/12/2013

Excerpt

With Congress momentarily freed from the Syrian crisis, lawmakers plunged back into their bitter fiscal standoff on Thursday as Speaker John A. Boehner appealed to the Obama administration and Democratic leaders to help him resolve divisions in the Republican ranks that could lead to a government shutdown by month’s end.

In meetings with Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on Thursday after a session with Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew on Wednesday, Mr. Boehner sought a resumption of negotiations that could keep the government running and yield a deficit-reduction deal that would persuade recalcitrant conservatives to raise the government’s borrowing limit.

Much of the federal government will shut down as of Oct. 1 unless Congress approves new spending bills to replace expiring ones, and by mid-October, the Treasury Department will lose the borrowing authority to finance the government and pay its debts.

“It’s time for the president’s party to show the courage to work with us to solve this problem,” said Mr. Boehner, who argued that budget deals have been part of past agreements to raise the debt limit

But a bloc of 43 House Republicans undercut the speaker’s deficit-reduction focus, introducing yearlong funding legislation that would increase Pentagon and veterans spending and delay President Obama’s health care law for a year — most likely adding to the budget deficit.  That bloc is large enough to thwart any compromise that does not attract Democratic support.

“Obamacare is the most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed in Congress,” said Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana.  “It is the most existential threat to our economy” that the country has seen “since the Great Depression, so I think a little bit of additional deficit is nothing,” he added.

Just five scheduled legislative days stand between the House and a government shutdown that has loomed for months.  As of now, Republican leaders appear to have no idea how to stop it.  House members are preparing for the worst.  A 14-page fact sheet on the impact of a government shutdown, originally written in 2011 by Representative Scott Rigell, Republican of Virginia, has gone back into circulation among House members.

The MOST dangerous event since the Great Depression is the forming of the Tea Party (aka our-way-or-no-way party).


"Obamacare Battles in the House Put Burden on Boehner as Budget Deadlines Loom" PBS Newshour 9/12/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is in a bind to pass major spending bills before the Oct. 1 fiscal year deadline.  Gwen Ifill speaks with Todd Zwillich of Public Radio International about how the battle over Obamacare threatens to shut down the government.

U.S. HOUSE - Republicans Loss of Control to Tea Party

The our-way-or-no-way Tea Party dictators who are disregarding governing our nation.  Also, the Republican Party loosing control because they allowed Tea Party members to join.

"Chaos in House Over Obamacare Fight" by Christina Bellantoni and Terence Burlij, PBS Newshour 9/12/2013

Excerpt

Remember that time House Speaker John Boehner's Republican members put him in a tough spot?  When lawmakers wanted to pressure him to go farther on a fiscal matter, no matter the consequences?

Yeah, that's happening. Again.

Republican leaders on Wednesday pulled a measure that would have funded the government beyond the end of September, delaying a scheduled Thursday vote on the spending bill until next week.  The current continuing resolution expires at the end of September, leaving little time for a compromise plan to pass both chambers and make it to President Barack Obama's desk.

Tea Party conservatives demanded that any funding be paired with a measure to defund the president's health care reform law.  The bill in question does that, but has a legislative escape hatch that would allow for the Obamacare provision to be stripped out by the Senate.  And party leaders were forced to admit they didn't yet have the 218 votes needed to pass that plan.

Some of the most conservative members of Boehner's caucus want to see leadership go the distance.

Rep. Steve Scalise, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said that lawmakers "must use every legislative avenue available, through the CR, the debt ceiling, and sequester conversations to free the country from the president's train-wreck of a healthcare law."  Scalise vowed he would "continue pushing for a CR that delays Obamacare for one year."

Politico reports:

A clearly frustrated Boehner seemed to realize that he leads a conference where no plan is quite good enough.  There are frequently about 30 Republicans who oppose leadership's carefully crafted plans -- just enough to mess things up.  A reporter asked him whether he has a new idea to resolve the government funding fight.  He laughed and said, "No."

"Do you have an idea?" he asked the reporters.  "They'll just shoot it down anyway."

And The Hill captures two lawmakers who illustrate the deep divisions within the GOP these days:

Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio) said proposals from conservatives that had more teeth and would directly defund the healthcare law stood no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"Find me 60 votes in the Senate," Tiberi said.  "That's what I would say.  I'm with them philosophically -- completely.  But show me how you get 60 votes in the Senate.  That's the key."

On the right, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) voiced frustration at what he characterized as a watered-down version of the policy that conservatives wanted:  a single spending bill that would withhold funds for the healthcare law.

"Wouldn't it be ironic if the government shuts down because our leadership won't offer a bill that Republicans will vote for?" Massie said.  "I mean, that's what happened this week.  Now we're a week further into this because they put forward a bill that Republicans won't vote for."

OPINION - Even More Extremism From the Tea Party

"Tea Partiers:  U.S. 'can no longer afford compromise and bipartisanship'" by Steve Benen, Maddow Blog 8/15/2013

A few incumbent Republican senators have primary opponents to worry about -- most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) -- but Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) doesn't appear to be one of them.  The two-term senator and former governor remains fairly popular in the Volunteer State and is generally expected to win re-election easily.

But yesterday, a group of Tea Party organizations wrote Alexander a letter, urging him to quit and make room for a more right-wing candidate.  Their letter included a classic line, that speaks volumes about Tea Partiers' ideology.

"During your tenure in the Senate we have no doubt that you voted in a way which you felt was appropriate.  Unfortunately, our great nation can no longer afford compromise and bipartisanship, two traits for which you have become famous."

Got that?  After more than a decade on Capitol Hill, Alexander has developed a reputation as a senator capable of working with people he disagrees with -- and the Tea Party groups consider this outrageous.  "Compromise and bipartisanship" have been repackaged as insulting words senators would be wise to avoid.

Indeed, the letter added, "Quite honestly, your voting record shows that you do not represent the conservative values that we hold dear and the votes you have cast as Senator are intolerable to us."

Reading the letter, one might get the impression that Alexander has a voting record slightly to the left of Olympia Snowe, infuriating the GOP's far-right base.  But reality belies the caricature.

The Tennessee Republican has voted against every major priority pushed by President Obama; he has a 77% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union; he recently argued the minimum wage shouldn't exist at all; and in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, Alexander told a national television audience, "I think video games is [sic] a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people."

Lamar Alexander, in other words, is a conservative Republican.  To say he's too moderate to represent the right's interest is like saying Dick Lugar should be defeated in a primary.  Oh wait.

For what it's worth, Alexander has no announced primary opponent, though it now appears likely that Tea Partiers are looking for one.

What our great nation cannot afford is the Tea Party.

OPINION - Ran Paul's Budget Plan to Sink the U.S.

"Rand Paul's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week" by Steve Benen, Maddow Blog 8/9/2013

It's probably safe to say Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has had better weeks.  Just over the last few days he started to lose his cool on NPR when asked about a neo-confederate he co-authored a book with; he was caught making ridiculous boasts about his record on minority rights; and he repeated a bizarre conspiracy theory about George Stephanopoulos that's already been debunked.

And then, after all of this, the Kentucky Republican sat down for a chat with Businessweek's Josh Green.

Green:  A recent article in the New Republic said your budget would eviscerate the departments of Energy, State, Commerce, EPA, FDA, Education, and many others. Would Americans support that?

Paul:  My budget is similar to the Penny Plan, which cuts 1 percent a year for five or six years and balances the budget.  Many Americans who have suffered during a recession have had to cut their spending 1 percent, and they didn't like doing it, but they were able to do it to get their family's finances back in order.  I see no reason why government can't cut 1 percent of its spending.

Except, whether the senator realizes it or not, his description of his plan is extremely deceptive.  As Ezra Klein explained, Paul's response wasn't actually an answer:  "Paul's budget eliminates the Department of Commerce.  It also eliminates the Department of Education.  And the Department for Housing and Urban Development.  And the Department of Energy.  The State Department gets cut by more than 50 percent.  Meanwhile, it increases spending on defense by $126 billion.  Perhaps these are good ideas!  But Paul doesn't defend them.  He obscures them.  He tries to make his cuts sound small even though, in the areas Green asked about, they're huge."

In theory, Paul could at least try to explain why he thinks cutting the State Department budget in half would be good for the United States.  But he either can't or won't do that, so he repeats vague talking points that obscure the facts.

Wait, it gets worse.

Green:  Any political consultant who saw that list [of cabinet agencies Paul intends to eliminate] would tear out his hair and say the American people would never accept it.  You disagree with that conventional wisdom?

Paul:  You know, the thing is, people want to say it's extreme.  But what I would say is extreme is a trillion-dollar deficit every year.  I mean, that's an extremely bad situation.

Except, we're not running trillion-dollar deficits every year.  If the senator takes this issue so seriously, shouldn't he keep up with the basics of current events?

Green:  Who would your ideal Fed chairman be?

Paul:  Hayek would be good, but he's deceased.

Green:  Nondead Fed chairman.

Paul:  Friedman would probably be pretty good, too, and he's not an Austrian, but he would be better than what we have.

Again, Paul doesn't seem to know what he's saying.  As Jon Chait explained, the senator's answer "makes no sense" because, "Paul is a hard-money fanatic who wants to abolish the Federal Reserve's role in using money policy to stabilize the economy.  That's the joke.  Milton Friedman, though, had the complete opposite view of monetary policy.  His central academic insight was support for very active monetary policy."

My principal concern with Rand Paul is not his ideology.  On plenty of subjective questions, he and I would recommend very different courses of action, which is what spirited political debate is all about.

Rather, what troubles me about the senator is that he doesn't seem to have the foggiest idea what he's talking about.  Worse, it's not like he's ignorant of obscure policy details on issues he deems irrelevant -- Paul is strikingly confused about the issues he claims to care about most.

This Businessweek interview was a mess for the senator on economic matters, but let's not forget that Paul also doesn't seem to understand his own views on the use of drones, which is another issue he says he cares deeply about.

If this guy intends to seek national office and ask the American mainstream to consider him credible, he has a lot of homework to do -- homework he probably should have done before making the transition from self-accredited ophthalmologist to U.S. senator.

NORTH CAROLINA - Tea Party Republicans to TRY Adopting a State Religion

"Establish a Religion - Nullify - Secede -- 'There They Go Again'" by Cliff Wilson, Cliff's Notes 4/5/2013

A group of radical right-wing Tea Party Republicans in the North Carolina legislature has decided to move directly to dismantle the Union known as the United States of America.  They have proposed to adopt a state religion in contravention of the constitution of the United States and the traditions of liberty of conscience so strongly defended by Patrick Henry when he successfully fought the Virginia practice of taxing citizens to pay only Anglican (Episcopal) ministers.  Many of our ancestors came to the colonies to escape persecution in England and Europe because of their religious convictions. Pilgrims, Puritans, Catholics, French Huguenots, Pennsylvania Dutch, Jews and later American Baptists and Methodists became strong advocates of freedom of conscience and the right of the individual to seek and worship God in his or her own way.

When the constitution was adopted in 1787/89 for the purpose of forming a more perfect union, than the one begun in 1781 with the Articles of Confederation, two states withheld their approval and others conditioned theirs on the subsequent introduction of amendments that would constitute a federal bill of rights.  As most of those rights were already enshrined in the post Revolution state constitutions the need was felt to restrict the federal government as the states already were.  The 1st Amendment to the Constitution and the first of the Bill of Rights proposed and adopted in 1789/91 began with the words “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.  Now these neo-politicians seize on the word Congress and say well we can establish a religion because we are a state.

These same radical right wing Tea Party Republicans will tell you that states can’t adopt gun control nor can municipalities because of the 2nd Amendment.  So you see their way of reading the Constitution is when we want it to apply to the states or to the federal government it will and when we don’t it won’t.

After the Civil War the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted between 1866 and 1868.  The Supreme Court has held consistently since the adoption of that Amendment that the first section of that amendment applies the Bill of Rights to the state and local governments (unless their constitutions expand the rights even further).  The neo-polls of North Carolina should read Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment - “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.”

The North Carolina gang, of what Andrew Jackson would have called “Traitors”, seek to declare the right of the state to nullify any federal law they so desire to do and prevent it’s enforcement in that state.   In 1832 South Carolina tried this and when President Jackson threatened to hang them they backed down.  Nullification quickly was replaced by Secession as the only way to stop the federal government from operating within a state.   In 1814 the Federalists of New England tried advocating Secession and their party imploded and disappeared.  And, in 1861 when some states, including North Carolina (which by the way had joined the Union only when the Bill of Rights was going to be adopted) seceded, the United States led by then President Abraham Lincoln fought a great Civil War.  Over 600,000 men and boys, on both sides of the conflict, died in that war.  It was fought for two reasons; first, and primarily because this nation could not endure half slave and half free and, second because the vast majority of Americans believed in the Union and the One Nation it embodied.

When Americans died in the trenches of Europe during the First World War and when they landed and died on the beaches of Normandy they didn’t give their lives for North Carolina or Pennsylvania or Wyoming.  They died for their families, their freedoms and their country - the United States of America.  As long ago as the time of the American Revolution that great Virginia patriot Patrick Henry declaimed “We are not Massachusetts men, nor Yorkers nor Virginians we are Americans.”

We have a political system that allows those who would change laws and constitutions to do so peacefully by persuading the majority.  Those who would undermine that system as some tried in 1814 and again in 1832 and again in 1861 show no faith in the democratic system and total disdain for the principles of liberty that our Declaration of Independence so skillfully articulated.  They may not be committing treason in the legal sense against this government but they are committing treason against our democratic values our principles of freedom and liberty and equality.  Foremost among those has been the freedom to practice or not practice a religion of one’s choice.  Our country has been free from the sectarian strife that has so bloodied other parts of the world.  Except for a brief war with Mormons in Missouri in 1838 the people of the United States have respected each other's religious freedom.  No one is forced to financially support a religion unless done voluntarily.  No one is required to attend a church unless they choose to do so of their own free will.

The radical right wing Tea Party Republicans, sometime masquerading as Libertarians (which is the ultimate irony), have an agenda.  They wish to impose their own morality on all the citizenry.  They oppose marriage equality for LGBT citizens; they support restrictions on access to the franchise to discourage minorities and poor and elderly folks from voting; they enact restrictions on women’s access to reproductive health care; they would make a mockery of the words on the Statue of Liberty and if they could would restrict access to citizenship; they proclaim the 2nd amendment as a guarantee that citizens can combat a government that tries to infringe on their rights and then they attempt to infringe on all the other rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

I do not believe they will succeed.  I believe Americans will rally around the Bill of Rights and the Union as they did one hundred and fifty years ago.  I believe with Lincoln that they will take back this government from both the radical ideologue extremists and the moneyed interests and again restore a government of the people to the people.   I believe the American people will reject this radical right wing attempt to either breakdown the federal government in Washington DC, and end the many people helping programs adopted over the past two hundred years, or failing that to break down this Union.  The federal government, by the 14th Amendments’ application of the Bill of Rights to the individual states, will, as it has since the Jeffersonians defeated the Federalists, preserve and protect the liberties of the American people.  Lest these radical right wing Republicans forget it let me remind them that we are "One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

POLITICS - Anual Gathering of the 'Political Liers Club'

Liar's Club

"Conservative Activists Outline Political Future at CPAC Meeting" PBS Newshour 3/15/2013

Excerpt

KWAME HOLMAN (Newshour):  For four decades, the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, has served as a barometer of Republican politics.

And this year, the GOP's future direction is the issue for more than 10,000 delegates who've been meeting just outside Washington.  At the last few gatherings of CPAC, the focus was on taking back the White House from President Obama.  But with last November's defeat of Mitt Romney, this key bloc of conservative enthusiasts has set its sights on a new goal: reshaping and re-energizing the Republican Party.

POLITICS - Victory! Fiscal Cliff Deal Made

"Senate Finds Compromise, But Doubt Remains Over House Response" PBS Newshour 1/1/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY: The Senate passed a compromise to address the U.S. budget, but House Republicans complained the bill was too heavy on tax increases and too light on spending cuts. Judy Woodruff talks to WNYC's Todd Zwillich for House response to the bill and whether it is likely to pass when it comes to a vote.

"Divided House Passes Tax Deal in End to Latest Fiscal Standoff" by JENNIFER STEINHAUER, New York Times 1/1/2013

Excerpt

Ending a climactic fiscal showdown in the final hours of the 112th Congress, the House late Tuesday passed and sent to President Obama legislation to avert big income tax increases on most Americans and prevent large cuts in spending for the Pentagon and other government programs.

The measure, brought to the House floor less than 24 hours after its passage in the Senate, was approved 257 to 167, with 85 Republicans joining 172 Democrats in voting to allow income taxes to rise for the first time in two decades, in this case for the highest-earning Americans. Voting no were 151 Republicans and 16 Democrats.

The bill was expected to be signed quickly by Mr. Obama, who won re-election on a promise to increase taxes on the wealthy.

Mr. Obama strode into the White House briefing room shortly after the vote, less to hail the end of the fiscal crisis than to lay out a marker for the next one. “The one thing that I think, hopefully, the new year will focus on,” he said, “is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinkmanship, and not scare the heck out of folks quite as much.”

In approving the measure after days of legislative intrigue, Congress concluded its final and most pitched fight over fiscal policy, the culmination of two years of battles over taxes, the federal debt, spending and what to do to slow the growth in popular social programs like Medicare.

The decision by Republican leaders to allow the vote came despite widespread scorn among House Republicans for the bill, passed overwhelmingly by the Senate in the early hours of New Year’s Day. They were unhappy that it did not include significant spending cuts in health and other social programs, which they say are essential to any long-term solution to the nation’s debt.

Democrats, while hardly placated by the compromise, celebrated Mr. Obama’s nominal victory in his final showdown with House Republicans in the 112th Congress, who began their term emboldened by scores of new, conservative members whose reach to the right ultimately tipped them over.

“The American people are the real winners tonight,” Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said on the House floor, “not anyone who navigates these halls.”

Not a single leader among House Republicans came to the floor to speak in favor of the bill, though Speaker John A. Boehner, who rarely takes part in roll calls, voted in favor. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the No. 3 Republican, voted no. Representative Paul D. Ryan, the budget chairman who was the Republican vice-presidential candidate, supported the bill.

Despite the party divisions, many Republicans in their remarks characterized the measure, which allows taxes to go up on household income over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples but makes permanent tax cuts for income below that level, as a victory of sorts, even as so many of them declined to vote for it.

COMMENT: Need I say? This is NO WAY GO GOVERN. This is what happens when voters are so polarized and we have the U.S. House and our nation held hostage to the Tea Party (the late, defunct, Republican Party).

POLITICS - Fiscal Cliff, From the REAL Republican Party

As seen by today's Republican Party, aka Tea Party.

"A Tea Party Take on U.S. Debt, Federal Budget Deal Negotiations" PBS Newshour 12/27/2012

Excerpt

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): We return to our series of different voices and viewpoints on the nation's fiscal cliff debate.

Tea party activists took aim at government spending three years ago, with protests and rallies in Washington and elsewhere. The national group FreedomWorks helped organized many of those events and financed fiscally conservative tea party-backed candidates in 2010 and this year.

So, where does the tea party movement stand on the fiscal decisions at hand today?

For that, we turn to Matt Kibbe, FreedomWorks' president and CEO.

POLITICS - Fiscal Cliff Negotiations 19days To Go

From the originator of Our-Way-or-No-Way......

"Anti-Tax Crusader Grover Norquist Compares Balanced Approach to 'Pink Unicorns'" PBS Newshour 12/12/2012

Excerpt

SUMMARY: Since 1986, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge has been signed by politicians promising to oppose increases to the marginal income tax rate. But some Republicans say they may be willing to break the pledge to avoid the fiscal cliff. Judy Woodruff talks to pledge creator Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Watch Grover Norquist on Balanced Approach to 'Pink Unicorns' on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.