Month: July 2011

Republican Austerity Ploys Depressed Growth by 1.2 Percent in First Quarter

Jon Ponder

You want evidence that the cuts-only austerity programs pushed by Republicans are actually designed to cause the economy to fail?

Here you go:

All things being equal, lower spending translates into slower economic growth, since it means cuts in payments to contractors, layoffs of government employees, and smaller entitlement checks. Already in 2011, softer government spending has sapped growth.

Cuts by federal, state, and local governments lowered gross domestic product — a broad measure of the total output of the economy — by 1.2 percentage points in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Commerce Department. Goldman Sachs economists estimate that the first quarter showed the biggest negative effect of government spending on GDP growth since the mid-1980s. The Commerce Department will release its estimate of second-quarter GDP today.

[…]

Beck Compares Norway Camp to Hitler Youth

Trish

YouthCampMaybe we should thank Glenn Beck for comparing the Utøya, Norway camp where rightwing zealot Anders Behring Breivik killed 68 people and wounded many more to a Hilter youth camp.

“There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler youth, or, whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics. Disturbing,”

Tea party camp counselor: ‘Some of the kids will fall for it. Others kids will wise up.’

We should thank him because – ignoring the American Legion’s Boys State and Girls State summer camps, which have provided civics leadership to such alumni as Neil Armstrong, Tom Brokaw, Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Michael Jordan, George Pataki, Jane Pauley, Harry Reid, and even Rush Limbaugh since 1935 – his incendiary and ignorant comment allows us to shine a light on a far more disturbing phenomenon.

Tea party groups are holding their own camps this summer, where children and young people are being indoctrinated with anti-social and scarcity-based beliefs. Take this Florida camp.

[…]

Pelosi on House Floor: Boehner ‘Chose to Go to the Dark Side,’ Is Leading US to Default

Jon Ponder

Give ’em hell, Madame Speaker:

“Let me repeat. And I repeat, he chose to go to the dark side by putting forth a bill that he himself told his Members [it] would sink in the Senate—and I add, lead to default, lead to default.”
– Speaker Nancy Pelosi

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) of choosing “the dark side” in making his debt ceiling bill more amenable to House conservatives in securing passage.

Pelosi also argued the Speaker had set the U.S. on a path towards default during her floor speech in favor of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s debt ceiling plan on Saturday.

“The Speaker chose, when he didn’t have the votes, instead of to reach out in a bipartisan way to see how we could work together, he chose to go to the dark side,” Pelosi said to disapproval from Republicans in the chamber.

“Let me repeat. And I repeat, he chose to go to the dark side by putting forth a bill that he himself told his Members [it] would sink in the Senate—and I add, lead to default, lead to default. We cannot default. We are the greatest country that ever existed in the history of the world.”

GOP ‘Shredding the American Political Process’

Jon Ponder

[Boehner’s debt-reduction bill] needed to be bipartisan, but was written in secret to be as partisan as possible. The proposal needed to be sensible, but would instead force us to go through all of this again in six months and would mandate approval of a constitutional amendment in both chambers before House Republicans would allow the United States to pay its bills. Think about that for a moment. Elected GOP lawmakers have come to believe extortion is a legitimate tool to get Congress to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. When I talk about Republicans shredding the American political process, this is what I’m talking about.

– Steve Benen at Washington Monthly

Bitter Friday Fun Break

Trish

nfl-football-debt-ceiling-s

Time to laugh in the final hours of life as we knew it before Congress said, “Hold my hand. We’re jumping!” and took us all over the cliff of welshing on America’s debt, which they — Republicans included — authorized when they voted to spend all that money. As we call our collective Visa companies, we say, “You know all those restaurants I already ate at, and all the Netflix I already watched, and oh yeah, that big ol’ car repair bill I already used my card to pay for? Well I don’t want any of it now and I’m not going to pay for it. See ya!” We will pass the time waiting for Visa’s response by futilely contacting our elected officials and then blaming it all on Pres. Obama. Happy times.