Tag: Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi: Netanyahu’s Address was Condescending

Buck Banks

I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech — saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States… and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.

— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), quoted by The Hill, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress.

Force the Tea Party to Create Jobs, Part 2: Green Light Infrastructure Projects That House GOP Members Have Requested

Jon Ponder

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The tea party had a big success in early August when it fomented a fake debt ceiling crisis and then used that crisis to take the U.S. economy hostage. By threatening to force the United States into default and trigger a worldwide economic depression, they were able to force the president to accept budget that he and everyone else knows will further stall the recovery.

The biggest obstacle against enacting either of these innovative, politically aggressive ideas that they are probably a little too bold and in-your-face for Pres. Obama’s tastes.

There is little doubt now what the extreme right is up to. They want the economy to fail for the sole purpose of weakening the Obama presidency in order to help elect Mitt Romney next year. Then, they seem to be suggesting, Republicans will “fix” the economy presumably by cutting the corporate tax rate to zero and privatizing the federal government. That way they can finish the job Republicans started during the George Bush presidency of turning the United States’ assets and resources over to their masters, corporate oligarch like the Koch brothers et al.

The best way to fix the economy is to create jobs. There are 14 million Americans who are unemployed right now — that we know of. By putting them back to work, consumer spending will rise, demand for new goods and services will increase and the tax coffers will be replenished and we can start to pay down the national debt.

But the tea party and its poodles in the Republican congressional leadership have made it clear they will do everything in their power to stop job creation.

This is a nasty situation, and it has caused a lot of regular Americans to feel hopeless about the government’s ability to kickstart the economy. (And talk about the tail wagging the dog. While the 62 members of the Tea Party caucus represent 14 percent of the House, just 4 percent of Americans say they are active members of the tea party, according a new CBS/New York Times poll.)

However, in just the past few days, two new political solutions for spurring job growth have been proposed by members of the fourth estate. The ideas are similar in that they are both designed to force tea party Republicans to vote against infrascture projects in their own districts. In one case, the idea would be to force tea partyists like Michele Bachmann to vote against public works projects she herself has requested.

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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.”