Tag: Tea Party

How Quickly Tea Partiers Forget

Trish

It becomes plain quite quickly that history serves these people as religion does — not a complicated interaction of complicated people, but as a glossary of shibboleths, of fundamentalist code words…

They are deaf to the ironies of even their own personal histories. Rick Perry was in the Air Force. Herman Cain did ballistics analysis for the Navy. Jon Huntsman has worked government jobs for 20 years, and Mitt Romney’s father was governor of Michigan. Rick Scott proudly admits he grew up in public housing, and Paul Ryan got through high school and college on Social Security survivor’s benefits. And this is how they all came to become small-government conservatives who didn’t need a hand-out.

— Charles P. Pierce, in his Esquire column, addressing the tea party’s fondness for cherry picking quotes and intentions from the founders

Another Tired Tea Party Teleprompter Joke Delivered Via Teleprompter

Trish
ScottTprompt
Scott and his two friends, Tele, left, and Prompter, right, at Presidency 5

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (Tea/GOP) misplaced his sense of irony at a recent appearance, according to TPM. Speaking to those gathered in Orlando for Presidency 5 (I don’t know why it’s called that but those at the event — who selected Herman Cain as their straw poll winner — inexplicably think the meeting important), Scott gazed deeply into his teleprompters so he wouldn’t flub the punch line on this joke about the president. Obama, like all presidents and other major public speakers since Herbert Hoover, often uses a teleprompter.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Presidency 5!

“I have to admit, I was a little nervous when I looked out here. I saw all the TV cameras and a teleprompter. I figured President Obama must be here – giving another speech about raising taxes!“[emphasis in the original]

Seriously, though, it’s great to see you all today.

Is that funny or what? Man, he had me at Pres. Obama being there, but then to go on to mention raising taxes – whooey, that is good stuff! I’m just glad he used the teleprompter so he could deliver it verbatim, word for word, just as the mad jokester who wrote it intended, and not lose a single shred of the funny.

It could have been worse, I guess. At least the governor didn’t read off any jokes about Obama’s birth certificate or the first lady’s fight against childhood obesity or any of the other hot button issues surrounding the Obamas of concern to tea partiers today.

Politics of Extortion II: GOP Readies New Govt Shutdown Threat for the Fall

Jon Ponder

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:

[…]

Decade of ‘PerryCare’ Has Made Texas an Unhealthy Place to Live

Buck Banks

doc_and_chainsawIf 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.

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After You

Trish

So one of the new talking points to combat the higher tax rates for millionaires is this line: “If Warren Buffett thinks he should pay more taxes, he should write a check.” Sounds good. But is that how we’re doing it now? If you propose something, you have to go first? If so, then there are a lot of chickenhawk, eager-to-wage-war politicians who should probably drag their asses over to the frontlines of Afghanistan.

Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel columnist, commenting on Facebook

Poll: Mainstream Republicans Share Only Tenuous Ties with Tea Party

Trish

tea baggerNot all Republicans are comfortable in tin foil tricorn hats, according to a recent CNN poll. In fact about half don’t consider themselves active tea party supporters.

…roughly half (49 percent) of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support the tea party movement or are active members, with roughly half (51 percent) saying that they have no feelings one way or another about the tea party or that they oppose the movement.

More education is correlated with more tea partyism, which is odd until you remember that education is also associated with greater income. And no matter how successful the movement’s founders, Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, have been at portraying it as a grassroots effort, the tea party is all about protecting the assets of old, rich, cranky white guys.

Like Ron Paul, tea partiers are incoherent on social issues

…tea party Republicans are more likely to be male, older, and college educated, with non-tea party Republicans more likely to be younger, less educated, female, and less likely to say they are born-again or evangelical. Both groups are predominantly white.

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$5,000 Is Not Nearly Enough

Trish

If you’re saying I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) responding to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s suggestion that a campaign contribution was behind Perry’s support of a vaccine that could help protect against cervical cancer. Perry, whose actions as governor have been linked to many donations, apparently has a higher price tag.