Year: 2011

Republicans Twisted Up in Hypocritical Knots – Rank and File Defy Leaders, Insist on Raising Taxes on Middle Class

Jon Ponder

Steve Benen sums it up:

The political world has come to accept a basic truism: the Republican Party is, above all else, an anti-tax party. GOP officials always want to cut taxes, regardless of merit or circumstances.

The maxim is incomplete — Republicans love tax cuts, but their affection is limited to cuts for the very wealthy. An extension of the payroll break largely benefits the middle class, and that immediately gives the GOP pause.

Indeed, the very debate has tied Republicans in knots. They want to cut taxes, except for these taxes. They don’t believe tax cuts should be paid for, except these tax cuts must be paid for. They believe tax breaks always work to benefit the economy, except these tax breaks don’t do much of anything, no matter what economists say. They believe letting tax cuts expire counts as a tax increase, except these tax cuts, which don’t.

Big Component of ‘Obamacare’ Comes Online – Insurers Now Required to Spend 80% of Premiums on Medical Care

Jon Ponder

On Friday, the federal government launched an element of the Affordable Care Act that is likely to have far-reaching consequences on the cost of health care in the United States in the form of new regulatory controls on how private health insurance companies spend the money they collect in premiums. Rick Ungar,a left-leaning specialist on health care policy who writes for the corporatist site, Forbes.com, explains:

That would be the provision of the law, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80 percent of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85 percent for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having to send their customers a rebate check representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.

This is the true ‘bomb’ contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything we’ve seen in quite some time. […]

Ron Paul’s Newt Gingrich Attack Ad. O.K., But Why?

Trish

Here’s Ron Paul’s take on Newt Gingrich. Of course, Paul considers showing Newt with Nancy Pelosi incendiary, and quotes Rush Limbaugh as if he were someone with a right to be outraged over someone else’s hypocrisy and moral infidelity. The ad does point out just a few of the many reasons we should all hate Newt but it doesn’t answer the question of why Ron Paul is going after him. I mean, of all Paul’s fellow primary contender whack jobs, why Newt? Did Paul produce negative ads about Bachmann or Cain? Maybe some Ron-ulans can enlighten me here.

‘Racial Animus’ Found in ’08 Election Results

Buck Banks

3% to 5%

A new Harvard research paper concludes that “racial animus” cost President Obama three to five percentage points of the popular vote in the 2008 presidential election. Racial bias was found in two ways: Some Democrats stayed home rather than vote for Obama and a similar number who wouldn’t have voted turned out for Sen. John McCain. However, that was partially offset by an increase in turnout among black voters. “The cost of racial animus was not decisive in the 2008 election. But a four percentage point loss by the winning candidate would have changed the result in the majority of post-war presidential elections.”

GOP Flip-Flops on Paying for Tax Cuts – Unnecessary When Cuts Benefit the Rich, But Required When Cuts Help the Middle Class

Jon Ponder

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Before the debate this week on extending the payroll tax holiday, Republicans used to insist that tax cuts paid for themselves:

CARLY FIORINA (R-CA), FORMER U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Let me just propose something that may seem crazy to you. You don`t need to pay for tax cuts. They pay for themselves.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: You need policies like an extension and making permanent the `01 and `03 tax cuts. They will be paid for because they create economic growth.

SEN. JON KYL (R) ARIZONA, second ranking Republican in the Senate: You should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

MADDOW: You should never have to pay for tax cuts. Tax cuts pay for themselves. That was Jon Kyl then.

Here`s Jon Kyl now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYL: I`ve never said that all tax cuts always pay for themselves.

Full Transcript:

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Bachmann Reminds Student That Gay Men Can Marry, As Long As They Marry Women – And She Should Know

Jon Ponder

From the first moment he burst onto the public stage with his jazzy hands, high-pitched feminine voice and sibilant s’es, Marcus Bachmann has registered at about an 11 on a scale of one to 10 on gaydars across the nation.

Marcus Bachmann
Marcus Bachmann
Adding fuel to rumors that he is closeted is the fact that he has made his living, in part, from one of the saddest rackets around: convincing gay Christians that they can be, or need to be, “cured.”

Here’s the rule, and you can take this to the bank: Heterosexuals who are secure about their own sexuality are not obsessed with homosexuality. People who are happily straight are apathetic about the mechanics of gay sex. They do not make it their life mission to suppress gay rights. They don’t spend every waking hour figuring out new ways to oppress gay people, and they never send their families out to picket funerals with signs that say, for example, “God Hates Fags.” And, especially, they don’t try to “cure” homosexuality with “pray away the gay” schemes like Bachmann’s.

Now, in the latest gaffe in her presidential campaign, Marcus’ wife, Michele, appears to have spilled the beans about their marriage. At a town hall in Waverly, Iowa, Rep. Bachmann was questioned about marriage equality by Jane Schmidt, a high school student:

JANE SCHMIDT: Then, why can’t same-sex couples get married?

BACHMANN: They can get married, but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.

Hey, it worked for her, right?

Partial Transcript:

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