Tag: Republican Lies
Balanced Budget Amendment Fails
When I – along with 86 of my Freshmen colleagues – were elected a little more than a year ago, we pledged to change the conversation in our Nation’s Capital. Despite today’s failed resolution, I believe we have changed that conversation.
Rep. Allen West (R/Tea – Fla.), expressing his disappointment that the balanced budget amendment failed in the House, and co-opting the term, “change the conversation.” Tea partiers weren’t sent to Congress to change the conversation, they were sent to take action. Changing the conversation is the aim of the Occupy movement, which has successfully changed it from the made-up deficit crisis to income inequality and socializing risk.
Real Versus Artificial: Not the Christmas Tree, the Story About the Christmas Tree Tax
As American Christians begin making their annual decision about whether to go with a real Christmas tree (love the pine aroma!) or an artificial one (love the easy clean-up!), there is another real vs. artificial question hanging.
That’s about a story on the Drudge Report claiming the Obama administration is taxing sales of real Christmas trees. The answer is: FAKE.
Ads for fake trees are run by big box retailers like Walmart and Target, leaving Christmas tree farmers outgunned
In the Drudge Report’s world of sensationalist all-caps headlines, it doesn’t get much better than “OBAMA’S NEW ‘CHRISTMAS TREE TAX.'” In five sparse words, the headline captured pretty much everything Drudge and its readers believe about the current administration, in which big-government liberals would figure out a way to tax Christmas during hard economic times.
The only problem? It wasn’t true. The 15-cents-a-tree charge that caused so much commotion earlier in the week was not a tax, and it has little to do with the Obama administration.
But sad experience has taught that things don’t have to be true to be repeated in the rightwing echo chamber and instituted as memes on FOX News, and next thing you know, outraged seniors (who make up the majority of FOX’s viewers) and other low information voters (who make up the rest) are calling their elected representatives demanding change. Which, in this case, is a dumb idea. Read on to find out why.
Cain Again Changes His Story
Why negotiate against yourself? When somebody comes forward and they have a claim against me and they’re willing to take a lie detector test, I’ll take a lie detector test. I’m not gonna take one against anonymous, no documentation. That’s not good business.
–Herman Cain, presidential candidate, explaining why he is backing away from his earlier proposal to clear his name concerning sexual harassment of female employees by taking a polygraph test.
Perry’s Texas, Hunstman’s Family Company Taking Taxpayer Millions
If there’s anything Republicans enjoy, it’s deriding the Affordable Health Care Act, or as they sneer, “Obamacare.” So who do you think was first in line to scarf AHCA funds that help early retirees?
That would be Gov. Rick Perry’s own Texans, followed by employees of Huntsman International, owned by the family of Jon Huntsman. Both men, of course, are running for president against Obama.
If you’ve ever wondered how wealth travels upward from the 99% to the top, here’s a vivid illustration.
“Some people have described this program as ‘Cash for Clunkers,’ in the sense that if you want it, you have to get in line first,” said Paul Fronstin, an economist with [nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute]. “There was a lot of advice given to be first in line.”
…Texas, it seems, heeded the advice. So did Huntsman International.
Faux Outsider: Cain Was a Lobbyist In Bed with Big Tobacco
If you’re having trouble grocking Herman Cain, a recent article in the New York Times will make your mental light bulb shine.
Cain, who has been the next Reagan since he won the straw poll at Florida’s Presidency 5 confab in September, says his main virtue is that he is an outsider to politics. And while it’s true that Cain has never held elected office, he is only an outsider in the Jack Abramoff sense of that word.*
…the role that helped propel Mr. Cain into politics was that of an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist.
Republicans Accept $18 Million Government Bailout for Convention Expenses
You know how Republicans are always telling the rest of us that we need to get by without federal assistance, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to pay our own way, and to just generally be self-sufficient? Well when it comes to throwing parties, forget all that!
Republicans are helping themselves to $18 million of the public dole for party planning for their 2012 national convention in Tampa. Let the good times roll!
Let me beat FOX News to the false equivalence punch by acknowledging that Democrats will likely accept funding for their convention in Charlotte. But there’s a difference.
Organizers of the 2012 Republican National Convention have received a $18 million grant from the Federal Elections Commission for planning and preparation…
The money, which comes from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, had been anticipated and is intended for payroll for staff members, travel, office supplies and other convention-related expenses.
While charges of hypocrisy might apply to the GOP for accepting the grant, that case certainly can’t be made concerning Republican deficit handling. The first use of quite a few of those many, many benjamins is paying off debt racked up in the past few years, when fundraising didn’t keep pace with spending.
We’re Spending Less
4.2%
Amount by which American households cut spending over the past 10 years, but this belt-tightening was not equal. The middle class cut by 10% – 13%, while the upper 20% of wage earners cut by 6%.
Scott Gives Himself Do-Over on Jobs Promise
I could argue that I don’t have to create any jobs. I just have to make sure we don’t lose jobs.
Gov. Rick Scott (Fla. – GOP/Tea), explaining why he shouldn’t be held to his campaign promise to create 700,000 new jobs on top of projected growth in Florida. Scott has focused — like most tea party Republicans who campaign on jobs — on issues like drug testing applicants for public assistance, gutting environmental protections, restricting access to voting, and micromanaging public education.
Did You Occupy Your City?
The Occupy Jacksonville protest was held during a Northeaster with 35 to 40 mile per hour wind gusts and bands of rain, but the weather didn’t seem to affect the turnout or the commitment from those who attended. And it was hard to find a misspelled sign in the bunch.
Pictures are from the WJXT web site.
