The Daily Drift

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A real man ...

The More America Sees Of The GOP, The More They Like Obama

The poll numbers are in and Obama looks marvelous. Since the GOP took over both houses of Congress, Obama looks better with each passing day.

Read full story

If Everyone Voted, We’d Have 100 Years Of Liberal Rule

The biggest problems in the U.S. right now are not Ted Cruz or Tom Cotton, or even Mitch McConnell and John Boehner. Those men are not the problem. Believe...

If Everyone Voted ...

Oregon Becomes The First State To Implement Sweeping Automatic Voter Registration

Oregon’s governor has just accomplished a sweeping first: automatic voter registration. While Republican governors try to disenfranchise the vote, Democratic governors are making it easier for people to exercise their rights.

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The Next Time a Republican Bashes Obama While Praising Reagan, Just Show Them This

by Allen Clifton

To listen to Republicans talk, you would think Ronald Reagan was the end all be all of conservatism. He is without a doubt their legend – their hero. The party should really be renamed the Grand Old Party of Reagan.
The biggest problem with this, of course, is the fact that they’re worshiping a myth. The reality of Reagan isn’t anything close to the fiction I often hear spewed from the mouths of almost every conservative I encounter.
Right now Republicans are fear-mongering against the Obama administration for trying to use diplomacy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Negotiations, by the way, that many of our allies are currently involved in as well.
Well, if President Obama is “weakening” America by trying to use diplomacy with Iran, then what would they say if he had sold illegal arms to Iran and negotiated for the release of hostages? Because that’s what Reagan did. Could you imagine if the Obama administration was caught selling illegal weapons to Iran?
Then there’s always illegal immigration and the word “amnesty.” While it’s true President Obama has pushed for a bill that would offer a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, did you know it was actually Ronald Reagan in 1986 who passed a full-on amnesty bill? In fact, the president’s bill is basically the same thing Reagan passed almost 30 years ago. Only one is considered a “conservative legend” while the other is called “un-American.” Funny how that works.
So, if President Obama’s vacations are “disrespectful and appalling,” what exactly would Republicans say about Reagan’s?
The last one I’ll cover (though there are many more) is the infamous executive order. To listen to Republicans talk, President Obama uses executive orders almost every day. He’s been called a dictator, a king, an emperor – all based on this notion that he’s abused the power of the executive order.
Funny thing though, he’s on pace to issue fewer executive orders than both Bush and Reagan – especially Reagan. So, if President Obama is an “unconstitutional tyrant” who is constantly trying to bypass Congress, what was Reagan considering the fact that he issued more executive orders than any president since Eisenhower?
So the reality is, if Republicans want to keep trying to slam President Obama for the things I’ve listed in this article, then it’s time they denounce their love for Ronald Reagan. Because when it comes to these issues, “Saint Reagan” should be considered worse for conservatives than President Obama on every single one.

You know ...

GOP Email Scandal Backfires As Popularity Of A Potential Hillary Clinton Presidency Grows

A new CNN/ORC poll found that the number of Americans who say that they would be proud to have Hillary Clinton as president has increased in the wake of the media/Republican created email scandal.

The CNN poll found some bad news for Republicans. The number of respondents who agreed with the statement that Hillary Clinton is a president that they could be proud of has increased since the email scandal was first reported. The number of Americans who said that Clinton is someone that they would be proud to have as president has increased from 50% in March 2014 to 57% in March 2015. The number of respondents who agreed that Clinton says what she believes not what voters want to hear has increased from 54% in 2007 to 58% today.

The poll was split (31%/20%/23%/25%) on whether Clinton’s emails were a serious issue. The belief that the Clinton emails are a serious problem was largely driven by Republicans (55%) and conservatives (53%). Sixty-percent of liberals and 70% of Democrats thought that the emails were either “not too serious,” or “no problem at all.” Other demographic groups were split 50/50 on the emails.

House Republicans are about to launch a full-scale investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails when it is clear that this a story that is not resonating across partisan lines. The popularity of a potential Hillary Clinton presidency has grown since the email scandal broke. The poll offered the first bit of statistical evidence that the email scandal likely won’t make a bit of difference to voters in 2016.

The poll numbers are more impressive for Hillary Clinton when considers that her defense of her emails has been limited to one tweet and a twenty minute press conference. Republicans and the media have been obsessing over the Clinton emails, but no matter how hard they try, they can’t get non-Republicans to pay attention and care.

Hillary Clinton is a more popular potential president than she was before the scandal. In typical Clinton family fashion, a scandal that the media is salivating over might serve to make her stronger.

Pay Us Back: Boehner Has Wasted $2.1 Million On New Benghazi Investigation

John Boehner’s House Benghazi Select Committee has wasted $2.1 million in taxpayer money investigating the already disproven Republican Benghazi conspiracy theory, and it is time for taxpayers to demand a refund.

Bloomberg reported:

The tally: $1,795,017 from the time the panel began work in May through the end of 2014. More than three-fourths of the total went to compensate staff.

So far in 2015, there’s only one report to examine. It showed that the House Select Committee on Benghazi spent $289,085 in January.

The grand total, so far, is just less than $2.1 million.

The total that has been spent on the Benghazi investigation will likely be dwarfed by the amount of taxpayer money that House Republicans will spend on investigating emails. $2.1 million doesn’t sound like much money in terms of government spending, but for the same amount House Republicans could provide a month of food assistance to more than 8,000 needy American families. It would be nice if the Clinton email obsessed media would ask these hungry Americans if they would rather have food for a month, or know what Hillary Clinton did with her emails.

I suspect that hungry people would rather have food than “get the facts” on Benghazi. House Republicans are not only wasting money with their bogus investigations. They are also misusing resources.

John Boehner owes taxpayers millions of dollars, and it is time that they demanded a refund. (Sorry, Boehner, your credit is no good here, and no we won’t take a personal check.) A million here or there means nothing to House Republicans, but a few dollars can make all the difference between eating and not eating for millions of hungry Americans.

The message to Speaker Boehner is simple. Pay us back.

Harry Reid is Furious That the GOP Has Taken Loretta Lynch ‘Hostage’

At first blush, the deal was relatively straightforward. In an act of good faith, Senate Democrats would delay confirmation hearings and a vote on attorney general nominee Loretta… 

‘Hostage’

House GOP Budget: More Money For War, Repeal Obamacare, Cut Food Stamps and Medicaid

House Republicans have once again shown that they have little regard for the average American family or the typical American worker.…

House Republicans unveiled their budget proposal on Tuesday, demonstrating that their priorities are still to wage war and to give the rich a helping hand, all while sticking it to the poor. The House budget proposes removing most of the 2010 reforms that were implemented to regulate Wall Street and prevent a greed-driven collapse, like the one that crashed the economy in 2008.

The GOP plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) also calls for drastic cuts to food stamps, Medicare, and Medicaid. Furthermore, the House budget would also slash funding for Pell Grants. Those grants are designed to help make college affordable for low and middle-income families. In addition, The GOP blueprint calls for the complete repeal of Obamacare, even though health care reform has added coverage for 16 million Americans who previously lacked insurance.

The proposal is basically a rewrite of the Paul Ryan plan, which has been panned by critics and rejected by the U.S. Senate repeatedly. The plan does however, increase spending in one key area. House Republicans want to spend 94 billion dollars to fight the global war on terrorism in 2016, more than double the amount requested by President Obama.

Republicans believe their budget proposal will create a 33 billion dollar surplus by 2025, but that projection is based on “dynamic scoring”, which presumes that supply-side economic growth will increase tax revenues. Republicans used the same “dynamic scoring” in 2001, to argue that the Bush tax cuts would spur tremendous economic growth and fill the federal coffers with tax revenue. In their theory, the prosperous nation would have so many high income earners that lower tax rates would paradoxically create more tax revenue.

That, of course, never happened, but Republicans still believe it will work differently this time around. They don’t score their proposals based on what is likely to happen, but rather on what they want to happen. Somehow, it always works out beautifully on paper that way, though never in the real world.

While it should be obvious to the American public what the Republican Party’s priorities are by now, the recently unveiled House budget serves as yet another reminder about what the modern GOP stands for. The Republican Party’s eagerness to cut programs that benefit poor and middle class families, while lavishing favor on the big banks, the corporate CEOs, and the military contractors, demonstrates all too clearly who they work for.

The GOP House budget may very well fail in the Senate. Even if it passes the Senate, it will face a certain veto from President Obama. Nevertheless, House Republicans have once again, made it abundantly clear, that they have little regard for the average American family or the typical American worker.

Insanity

Emily Virgin Stops Oklahoma's ‘Freedom To Discriminate’ Bill In Its Tracks With Bigot Advertisement Provision

Okla. State Rep. Emily Virgin has the perfect way to stop all of these “religious freedom” bills that are cropping up: Make the bigots own their bigotry in public.

Read more 

Senate Democrats Hand McConnell Another Defeat By Blocking Human Trafficking Bill

Senate Democrats have handed Mitch McConnell another defeat, as they refused to yield to his threats by blocking a human trafficking bill that contains poison bill abortion language.

Republicans came up five votes short of the number needed to advance the bill. The final vote was 55-43.

Before the vote Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “In an hour or so, the Senate will vote to end debate on the human trafficking and child pornography legislation. That vote is going to fail. I know that. The Majority Leader knows that. And it is going to fail because Republicans have chosen to manufacture a political fight that has nothing to do with human trafficking. Abortion legislation has no place in a human trafficking bill.”

Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) complained that President Obama needs to make Senate Democrats support the bill, ” The White House needs to get involved here too. So far, the White House has barely lifted a finger to help us pass this legislation. That needs to change. I think the White House should do this because it’s the right thing to do. But if that’s not enough, they should also consider the consequences of Democrats making a historic mistake.”

The mistake was made by McConnell and his Republicans who thought that they could slide unrelated anti-abortion language into a human trafficking bill. Senate Republicans are getting desperate for a win. They can’t pass their own legislation. They refuse to cooperate with Democrats to pick up the six votes that they need on a variety of bills. McConnell has resorted to trying sneak pieces of their agenda into unrelated legislation.

The reality of the Senate is that Democrats are firmly in control. Nothing is moving forward without their support. If Mitch McConnell has any interest in passing legislation, he needs to change his approach to start meeting Democrats in the middle.

Sen. McConnell’s (R-KY) time has Majority Leader has been a lesson in incompetence. The nomination of Loretta Lynch will eventually come up for a vote. The Majority Leader thought that he could break Senate Democrats by holding the Lynch nomination hostage, but Democrats have remained solidly unified.

With 2016 right around the corner, the clock is ticking on Mitch McConnell’s failed Senate leadership.

Obamacare enrollments for 2015 confirm, red states have the most to lose from Supreme Court

The latest Obamacare enrollment numbers from the administration confirm again that it will be people living in Republican-led states that will suffer the most if the Supreme Court strikes down subsidies to people buying insurance on the federal exchange. Specifically, millions of residents of Florida, North Carolina, and Texas could lose their subsidies, and their insurance, if the court rules against the government and the states would lose millions.In Florida, about 1.6 million people who picked a plan on the federal site were eligible for financial assistance, according to the new report. In Texas, more than one million were eligible; in North Carolina, more than 550,000; and in Pennsylvania, more than 430,000.
Of course, the ramifications aren't limited just to those receiving subsidies to purchase individual insurance. Losing those customers, as they surely would when premiums become far too expensive without the subsidies, would mean insurers would have to hike premiums on everyone buying in the individual market.
"Holy shit, that's chaos," said Robert Laszewski, a health policy consultant in D.C. "What's ironic here is not only will the Republicans be screwing up the insurance for poor people on the Obamacare exchange, they'll be screwing up health insurance for rich people in Texas who happen to be in the individual market."

More

Republicans are cowards

Republican Failure Goes Global As Boehner Being Blamed For Netanyahu’s Potential Defeat

Fingers are already being pointed at Speaker of the House John Boehner for the potential defeat of Netanyahu in Israel. Some argue that Boehner’s partisan handling of the Netanyahu invitation created an unnecessary distraction for the Israeli Prime Minister.

Politico reported:

But some worry that Netanyahu – with an assist from his host, House Speaker John Boehner – may have overplayed his hand and is now paying the price in Israel.

“It may be the case, purely in campaign terms, that the speech demanded so much of the prime minister’s time and attention that it left his domestic flank unguarded and enabled weeks of relentless attacks from his rivals,” says Noah Pollak, executive director of the conservative Emergency Committee for Israel.

“The speech showcased Netanyahu’s gravitas as a world leader – but it also may have been a source of distraction during a critical time in the race,” Pollak added.

Netanyahu’s Washington critics put it more bluntly. “The numbers speak for themselves,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of the left-leaning J Street.

“He has three fewer seats in the polls headed into Election Day than he did when he got on the plane to come here.”

The main reason that Netanyahu is facing the prospect of defeat is his adherence to conservative trickle down economics. Trickle down is another Republican export of their own failure, but it can be argued that Speaker Boehner at least deserves an assist if Netanyahu gets defeated. Boehner could have easily avoided the controversy over the Netanyahu speech by following the protocol of notifying President Obama of the invitation.

Instead, Boehner and Netanyahu tried to stage a mutually beneficial partisan stunt. Boehner wanted to stop the president’s growing momentum while asserting the power of the new Republican congressional majority. Netanyahu used the U.S. Congress as a platform to deliver a campaign commercial about Israeli security.

Both gambits failed.

Netanyahu’s speech was so quickly forgotten that 47 Republican Senators pulled their treasonous letter to Iran stunt. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s decision to emphasize security over the economy has caused him to lose ground with Israeli voters.

Speaker Boehner didn’t force Netanyahu to hop on a plane and come to United States, but the Republican’s grave political miscalculation created an international incident that pulled Netanyahu further away from the voters that he desperately needed.

Netanyahu listened to his Republican friends who ended up being wrong about everything. Obama hate has yet to win a national election, and the Republican record of failure could go global by leading Netanyahu to defeat.

***

Editor's Note:  Netanyahu 'won' the election in Israel - there is some question as to 'how' he 'won'. Of course the wingnuts have been lining up to pucker and kiss his ass claiming they where correct in supporting him all along ... as usual the wingnuts are wrong - they are never correct about anything.

It Took Tom Cotton Less Than A Minute To Invoke Hitler In First Senate Speech

It's hard to believe freshman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) caused such a stir in the Senate with his letter to Iran even before his maiden floor speech. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who led an unsuccessful fight against Obamacare, couldn't even do that.
But Cotton -- now famous for orchestrating the controversial letter to Iran with the signatures of 46 of his GOP colleagues -- finally got the chance to do just that on Monday evening. Cotton began, as one does, with Adolf Hitler.
"The world is growing ever more dangerous, and our defense spending is wholly inadequate to confront the danger," Cotton said. "To be exact, during the last four or five years, the world has grown gravely darker. We have steadily disarmed, partly with a sincere desire to give a lead to other countries and partly due to the severe financial pressure of the time. But a change must now be made. We must not continue longer on a course in which we alone are growing weaker while every other nation is growing stronger."
He continued: "I wish I could take credit for those eloquent but ominous words, but I cannot. Winston Churchill sounded that warning in 1933 as Adolf Hitler had taken power in Germany. Tragically, Great Britain and the West didn't heed this warning, when they might have strangled that monster in his crib. Rather they let the locust continue to eat away at the common defense."
Cotton lamented that President Barack Obama was apologizing for America's actions, and accused the administration of being "harsh and unyielding to our friends" and "soothing and suffocating to our enemies."
Cotton's speech came as congressional Republicans begin to craft their annual budget blueprint for the next fiscal year. War hawks like Cotton are pushing to increase defense spending, putting them at odds with fiscal conservatives, who would rather stick within spending limits set by both parties in 2011.

Unethical Republican Aaron Schock Resigning From Congress

From the "Public Enemies" Department:

Republican Aaron Schock is resigning his seat in Congress effective March 31, according to a report from Politico. Schock has come under fire for numerous questions…

Resigning

Better Dead Than ...