Tag: Congress

Postal Service Can Brave Rain, Sleet, Snow, Even Dog Bites — But Not Congress

Trish

mailman

Normally, this is the kind of number-based story that would go in our Enumerati section. If it were, it would look something like this:

60— Number of bills Congress has introduced to rename post offices, 17% of all bills passed
0— Number of bills Congress has introduced to address the Post Office’s insolvency

But the story needs more explanation, and ABC’s Amy Bingham reported the infuriating facts.

It’s not the Post Office that’s broken. It’s Congress.

In the 18 months the 112th Congress has been sworn in, the House has introduced 60 bills to rename post offices. Thirty-eight have passed the House and 26 have become law. During those 18 months, the House has produced 151 laws, 17 percent of which have been to rename post offices, according to Congressional Democrats.

Not a single bill has come to the House floor aimed at reforming a Postal Service, which is bleeding billions of dollars because of Congressional mandates.

What Bingham meant when she said “bleeding billions of dollars because of Congressional mandates” is something most Americans don’t know or understand. The reason the United States Postal Service (USPS) is in trouble is not because people pay bills online and it’s not because postal employees aren’t as service-oriented as the private sector (a claim of which I am unconvinced), and it’s damn sure not because of unions.

The reason the postal service is failing is because Congress set it up to do so in 2006.

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It Will Be Big, Baby, BIG

Trish

Something dramatic.

What Mitt Romney says will help the economy. What that dramatic something might be, however, he did not define except it will not be a move by the Federal Reserve, it will not be an economic stimulus package, and it won’t increase the size of government, whose public sector job losses since lowered tax revenues met tea party freshmen in Congress has been a huge contributor to unemployment figures. Instead, Romney mushily said someone somewhere needs to “create the incentives and the opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses big and small to hire more people.” But not government. Meanwhile, Pres. Obama’s many efforts to create incentives and opportunities for hiring have been fought by Republicans.

New Study Links Support for Voter ID Laws to Racial Resentment

Trish

votecountsDespite its conclusion, the study was not produced by Duh University and at least one surprising tidbit it uncovered shows it.

New research from the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication found that people with high “racial resentment” scores, along with those who consider themselves Republicans and conservatives, are most likely to be concerned about the largely imaginary issue of vote fraud.

Intense vote fraud investigations in Iowa have produced a confused elderly man who voted twice, a college student whose parents are divorcing who didn’t get the postcard, and a lady who lives at the address on her voter ID but gets mail elsewhere

To gauge their depth of racial resentment, non African-American survey respondents were asked how strongly they agreed with these statements:

  • I resent any special considerations that Africans Americans receive because it’s unfair to other Americans.
  • Special considerations for African Americans place me at an unfair disadvantage because I have done nothing to harm them.
  • African Americans bring up race only when they need to make an excuse for their failure.

Not all liberals and Democrats came up clean in the survey.

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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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Republican Priorities are Different From Yours

Trish

33

Number of opportunities, as of this week, that House Republicans have given themselves to be able to say that they voted against all or part of the Affordable Care Act. None of the votes made it through the Senate, but they did serve their intended purpose: to make House Republicans look like they are doing something when in fact, they are just hanging out in expensive suits and air conditioned offices, listening to one another talk as health care for them and their families is paid for by taxpayers.

Chris Wallace Eats Mitch McConnell For Lunch – on FOX

Trish

Enjoy watching Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), who already looks like a fish on the pier that someone caught by mistake and didn’t throw back in time, go blank when Chris Wallace (on FOX News!) asks what the Republican alternative is to “Obamacare.”

But keep a couple of points in mind as you view.

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Romney Has Less Idea What He Thinks Than You Do

Trish

It’s gotten to the point now where you could ask Gov. Romney what he wants for breakfast and he will respond something like, “The president has failed to lead on this issue.”

— Michael Scherer, White House correspondent for Time magazine, responding to the question of what Mitt Romney’s proposal is for immigration reform. Romney criticized Pres. Obama, even in the light of the recent Supreme Court ruling which supported the Obama Justice Department’s assertion that federal crimes cannot be created by state laws, such as those in Arizona.

Fortune Magazine Shows What You Suspected: Weak, NRA-Written Gun Laws Are to Blame for Fast and Furious

Trish

guns

Fortune magazine proves what everyone who doesn’t watch FOX News suspected: The congressional investigation into the Fast and Furious program is a partisan witch hunt, and much of the responsibility for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has to go to the gun lobby, which blocks maintaining a database of firearms.

A six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging gun walking is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies

Quite simply, there’s a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.

Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that [ATF Supervisor Dave] Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case…How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today…

“Republican senators are whipping up the country into a psychotic frenzy with these reports that are patently false,” says Linda Wallace, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation unit who was assigned to the Fast and Furious team (and recently retired from the IRS). A self-described gun-rights supporter, Wallace has not been criticized by Issa’s committee.

…Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.

Take a few minutes and read the whole piece.