Tag: Tea Party

Be Careful What You Ask For: CBO Tells Boehner That Obamacare Saves Money and Its Repeal Would Cost More

Trish
BoehnerCry
Don't cry, John!

Pity poor John Boehner. The Republican House Speaker from Ohio asked the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which exists to measure all things mathematical for the legislative branch, how much the most recent bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would save.

The answer? Nada. In fact, the CBO found that the ACA will decrease the deficit while its repeal would increase it. Here are parts of the letter sent to the honorable JB.

As you requested, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have estimated the direct spending and revenue effects of H.R. 6079, the Repeal of Obamacare Act, as passed by the House of Representatives on July 11, 2012…

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I Pay $20 Per Month for Satellite Radio. So What’s the Problem?

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I have 300 stations on my satellite radio.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), explaining on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show why there is no need for NPR to get public funding. About 5.5% of Americans subscribe to satellite radio at a cost of from $10 to $20 per month, according to recent Nielsen figures. NPR supporters acknowledge that most rural areas of the country would not have access to the news and information currently available on public radio without government support.

Olympics Illustrate the Failure of Romney-esque Ideas

Trish

OlympicUniformsThe Olympics, known for being above politics yet always in the shadow of them, haven’t even started but the games are a showcase for the themes that are driving election year debate.

Privatization, a tenet of American conservatism and tea baggery, isn’t providing a very good answer to the question, “How’s that working for you?” The private security firm the British government hired at an equivalent of $444 million is unable to provide enough trained staff members in time for the games.

Guess who’s bailing them out? That’s right, Mr. and Ms. British taxpayer will provide army troops and police officers to make up the for the failure of the private sector to prepare security guards.

And then there’s outsourcing. American politicians and members of the public expressed outrage that the Ralph Lauren designed Team USA uniforms were — like almost everything else sold in this country — made in China. The company was caught short by the criticism, China was offended, and let’s face it, the entire country can be embarrassed that the lack of confidence corporations have placed in the American worker, coupled with our desire for more and ever cheaper goods, was exposed on the world stage. It did, however, lead to one of the lamest assurances ever released on company letterhead.

Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States and has committed to producing the opening and closing ceremony Team USA uniforms in the United States that will be worn for the 2014 Olympic Games.

Should we expect the role of tax cuts for the rich, issues around unionized labor, and restriction of women’s reproductive rights to make appearances before the games end?

Voters Abandoning California Republican Party – Independents Now Trail GOP Registrations By Just 8.9 Points

Jon Ponder

New voter registration tallies from the California Secretary of State’s office show that Republican Party is continuing to shed voters. Analysts say that teavangelical hardline opposition on social issues and tax policy in Washington and nationwide is driving voters out of the GOP column in the nation’s largest state.

“In California, the Republican Party has done tremendous damage to its brand with its positions on immigration and gay marriage. Add to that the no-tax pledge.”
— Matt David, California Republican strategist

In 1996, 37 percent of California registered voters were Republicans. In 2007, the number had dropped to 30.9 percent, or 5.3 million voters. The latest figures show a decline this year — despite a GOP pre-primary registration drive by Ron Paul supporters — to 30.2 percent, or 5,180,417 registered Republicans.

In 1972, just 5 percent of Californians were registered independents. By 1996, the number of independents had doubled to 10.7 percent. In 2007, it rose to 18.8 percent, or 2.9 million voters. Last year, fully one-fifth of California voters — 20.4 percent, or 3.5 million voters — had registered as independents. This year the percentage rose again to 21.3 percent, or 3.7 million.

The gap between registered Republicans and independents is already in single digits — 8.9 percent points now — and the trendline suggests it is narrowing.

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Bad News for Obama: Racism Could Cost Him Re-election

Trish
trumpchump
Donald Trump, who claims Pres. Obama is not the legitimate POTUS because he was not born in Hawaii, and who also questioned whether Obama belonged at Harvard where he graduated magna cum laude, is from New York and attended the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Just sayin'.

Creative research published by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz shows Obama will be in trouble in his bid for re-election in part because of his race.

Stephens-Davidowitz decided to see if there was a correlation between Google searches for the word, “nigger” and voting behavior. Yes, he looked at searches for that word.

The conditions under which people use Google — online, most likely alone, not participating in an official survey — are ideal for capturing what they are really thinking and feeling. You may have typed things into Google that you would hesitate to admit in polite company.

He examined searches conducted nationally in the years 2004 to 2007, before Obama was officially running, and long before he was the front-runner on the Democratic side. From that study, he identified the most, and least, racially charged areas of the country.

Most racially charged areas of America:

  • West Virginia
  • Western Pennsylvania
  • Eastern Ohio
  • Upstate New York
  • Southern Mississippi

The state with the highest racially charged search rate in the country was West Virginia. Other areas with high percentages included western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, upstate New York and southern Mississippi.*

Next, Stephens-Davidowitz came up with a baseline for how a generic Democratic candidate would have performed based on the vote for John Kerry in 2004 which presumably reflected the ballots of people who were likely to go Democratic, even if a not very exciting, privileged, rich Massachusetts liberal who said stupid things like, “I voted for it before I was against it” was the candidate. He also looked at how Democratic Congressional candidates did in the 2008 election.

The results were striking: The higher the racially charged search rate in an area, the worse Mr. Obama did.

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Mick Jagger Warns That Romney Isn’t So Nice After All

Trish

Among the many highlights of Mick Jagger’s recent performance on Saturday Night Live was this song, “Tea Party,” written by Jagger and accompanied by Jeff Beck. Our favorite part: “You know Mr. Romney, he’s a mensch,* he plays it straight and fair. Yeah, Mr. Romney, he’s a hard-working man…But don’t ever let him cut your hair.”

* “Mensch” is a Yiddish word that has come to mean a good person, a nice guy, or someone of reliable honor and character.

Swiss Miss? Bachmann is Sworn in as Swiss Citizen

Trish

It’s hard to imagine an American president gushing about the wonders of another country the way Switzerland’s newest citizen, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, does in this video.

Were the United States to have a conflict with Switzerland, whose side is hypothetical Pres. Bachmann on?

Bachmann took the astounding initiative to become a Swiss citizen for what can only be described as fuzzy reasons. Her husband is Swiss. O.K. Yes, but why would someone who ran for president of the United States so recently that she still hasn’t paid off her campaign debts decide to be a citizen of a whole other country?

The move raises even more questions than being born in Hawaii (Obama) or Panama (McCain). For starters, to which country is her allegiance? Were the United States to have a conflict with Switzerland, whose side is hypothetical Pres. Bachmann on?

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Anybody Got a Teleprompter? Rubio Can’t Finish Speech Without His Crib Notes

Trish

Like all loyal Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has noted that Pres. Obama uses a teleprompter when he delivers a speech. The racist implication is that Obama, a black man, could never be so ARTICULATE on his own, and only comes off looking smart because he’s reading his lines. In fact in 2010, Jr. Sen. Full-of-Himself was quoted in the New York Times ridiculing the president as, “the most articulate and talented teleprompter reader in America.”

Is it any wonder that PoliticalWire.com noted the contrast between Rubio then — all smart-ass know-it-all less-than-original-thinker — and now. Now he is staring straight down as reads his notes, which any Toastmaster participant would recognize as a huge no-no, even for amateurs, and then totally loses it when he can’t find the last page of his speech.

Next time, Wonder Boy, do us all a favor and do as modern speakers the world over — use a frickin’ teleprompter.