Month: September 2011
Ryan Whines About Being a Caricature
I think the president has become a pyromaniac in a field of straw men. I think what he wants to do is set up those of us on the other side of the aisle as some caricature and assign policies to us that we don’t have and then defeat those arguments.
— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), in an interview with Laura Ingraham.
Most Americans Pessimistic About Economy
75%
Of Americans think the U.S. economy is no better than a year ago, with 35% saying it is about the same and 42% saying it is worse, according to a new Gallup poll. Americans remain largely pessimistic, with 61% expecting economic conditions a year from now to be similar to now, or worse.
Politics of Extortion II: GOP Readies New Govt Shutdown Threat for the Fall
Writing in Roll Call, Stan Collender, author of “The Guide to the Federal Budget,” calls out Republicans in Congress for rebooting their threat to shut down the federal government this fall by reopening the debate over the 2012 budget.
Republicans are betting that if they can force Pres. Obama to capitulate one more time, they’ll turn Democratic voters’ enthusiasm gap in 2010 into an enthusiasm chasm in 2012.
This move is especially irksome, says Collender, because the “House, Senate and White House all agreed to the spending level for fiscal 2012 when the president signed the Budget Control Act on Aug. 2, almost two months before the fiscal year starts.”
Rebooting shutdown threats now would appear to be political suicide. A spate of polls has found Congress’ approval ratings at all-time lows. For example, at the end of August, Rasmussen, which is notoriously in the bag for the GOP, just 6 percent of voters said Congress was doing a “good” or “excellent” job. (Five percent said “good.” Just 1 percent said “excellent”). Two-thirds said Congress was doing a “poor” job.
Nonetheless, says Collender, Republicans will be proposing a short-term continuing resolution, or CR, for the fall:
Time for Palestine
You’ll get our nation-building help if you’re a Syrian.
We’ll even bomb your leader if you’re a Libyan.
But after 60 years
Of torment and tears,
You’re shit out of luck if you’re a Palestinian.
Republican Class Warfare: Women and Children Overboard
Democrats are pushing back on the Republican spin that raising taxes on the wealthy is “class warfare,” noting that, under the sway of the tea party, Republicans have been waging war on the middle class and poor, particularly on services for children and families, since they took control of the House in January:
Ryan Nickel, spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee’s Minority Staff, sent an email to Democratic press secretaries on Monday calling attention to dramatic cuts that Republicans have proposed to programs benefiting low- and middle-income Americans: “Are GOP cuts to WIC [Women Infants and Children], Pell Grants, Meals-on-Wheels, Low-Income Legal Services & Head Start ‘Class Warfare’?”
Some of the GOP cuts highlighted in the email:
Tea Time Truth
Tea parties are for little girls.
Lacy McMullen Jr., future Democratic candidate for Congress, on Twitter
Decade of ‘PerryCare’ Has Made Texas an Unhealthy Place to Live
If the Tea Party has its way next year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry will become president of the United States. What we can expect from a Perry administration is a lavish inaugural, a medieval approach to science and religion, trickle-down economics and an approach to health care that places even basic medical care beyond the reach of most people, according to a report on NPR.
Only 48 percent of the Texans have private health insurance, and more than a quarter of the state’s population has no insurance at all — more than any other state. Perry has been governor for a decade, so the state of health care in Texas is a result of — let’s call it PerryCare.
Over the past eight years, citing budget constraints, Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican-controlled legislature have dropped hundreds of thousands of mostly poor and working-class Texans from the rolls of government-sponsored insurance like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Nearly 6.5 million Texans are now uninsured even though the majority of them have full-time jobs.
Premiums in Texas’ unregulated health insurance industry have soared by 105 percent over the past 10 years, according to the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. Texas employers have responded by raising employee deductibles, often dramatically, or by dropping their coverage entirely.
Tax Him, Please!
The O’Reilly Factor plays fast and loose with the facts
And Bill-O has a penchant for ad hominem attacks.
Bill says if we tax achievement,
There’ll be cause for bereavement —
He’ll close down his show if Obama raises his income tax.
