Saturday, March 21, 2015
Senator Fights GOP – Proposes Brilliant Idea to Help Working Families Anyway
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) has a high
aspiration of raising the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020 and having
it rise with the cost of living. It’s higher…
House Budget Bill Repeals ACA, Privatizes Medicare
We can't have Americans getting quality health care when there are wars to create, right?
Kansas Governor Claims Forcing Pregnancy Upon Women Is Good For The Economy
The cost of having children is high and there are more people than
there are jobs, but Kansas Governor Sam Brownback insists that forcing
women to have babies is good for the economy.
Republicans Unveil Their Plan To Take Health Care Away From 14-20 Million Americans
A centerpiece of the House and Senate Republican budgets is a plan to take away health care from 14.3-20.5 million Americans.
House and Senate Republicans plan to use two steps
to take away health care from tens of millions of Americans. Step one is
the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Step two is the conversion of
Medicaid funding into a block grant.
The House budget has been analyzed in greater detail, but Senate Republicans have confirmed that their budget will contain similar language.
The Center For Budget and Policy Priorities laid out the impact of this double fisted gut punch to the American people:
Repealing health reform’s Medicaid expansion means that 14 million people would lose their Medicaid coverage or no longer gain coverage in the future. (That’s the number of people who the Congressional Budget Office [CBO] estimates would eventually gain coverage under the Medicaid expansion, though it could reach 17 million if all states adopt the expansion.) In addition, the large and growing cut in federal Medicaid funding from the block grant would almost certainly force states to sharply scale back or eliminate Medicaid coverage for millions of low-income people who have it today. All told, after accounting for the plan’s proposed repeal of health reform’s marketplace subsidies, tens of millions of people would likely become uninsured under Chairman Price’s plan.Under the Price plan, the federal government would no longer pay a fixed share of states’ Medicaid costs, starting in 2017. Instead, states would get a fixed dollar amount of federal funding known as “State Flexibility Funds.” (The budget plan doesn’t specify how it would set each state’s block grant amounts initially or adjust them each year.)….The Urban Institute estimated that former Chairman Ryan’s similar block grant proposal in 2012 would lead states to drop between 14.3 million and 20.5 million people from Medicaid by the tenth year (outside of the effects of repealing health reform’s Medicaid expansion). That would cause a drop in enrollment of between 25 percent and 35 percent. The Urban Institute also estimated that the block grant likely would have caused cuts in reimbursements to health care providers of more than 30 percent by the tenth year. Chairman Price’s Medicaid block grant proposal likely would mean similarly draconian cuts.
The current House Republican budget is Paul Ryan’s
plan with one key difference. More people are going to lose or be
underinsured under the new version of Ryan’s plan. By repealing
Obamacare, tens of millions of additional Americans would lose their
subsidies, or be thrown off of their parents’ insurance. The changes to
Medicaid alone would result in 14-20 million losing their health care,
and an additional 10-13 million would be underinsured after they lost
their ACA subsidies.
The only way that Republicans can afford to cut
taxes for wealthy and balance the budget is to take away health care
from tens of millions of Americans. A budget is a statement of
priorities. House Republicans made it clear that taking away access to
health care while cutting taxes for the rich and corporations is their
top priority.
One of the issues that Republican presidential
candidates will try to disguise and not talk about is the impact that
their plan to repeal the ACA will have on the American people.
Republicans are constructing a platform that is based on jeopardizing
the welfare and lives of millions of their constituents.
As Obamacare grows more successful, the potential impact of their plan to destroy it all becomes more devastating by the year.
Senate Democrats Own McConnell By Blocking Human Trafficking Bill For Second Time
Senate Democrats are not caving to Mitch McConnell’s
pressure tactics. Democrats have blocked a human trafficking bill that
contains controversial abortion language for a second straight day.
The final vote was 57-41, and motion to reconsider failed.
Before the vote, McConnell tod Senate Democrats to
do the right thing by betraying their own values, “That’s why the
distinguished Democratic Leader had been such a strong supporter of the
bipartisan Hyde provision for so many years, and why he said this during
his tenure as Majority Leader: My belief in the sanctity of life is why
I have repeatedly voted against using taxpayer money for abortions.’
That is the declared view of the Democratic Leader. It’s what he said
just a few short years ago—before he and his party voted to filibuster a
bill that would help the victims of modern slavery. So, this afternoon,
we invite Democrats to ignore the lobbyists and do the right thing. We
invite every Democrat to help us write a happy ending to this story:
where the forces of hope and humanity, not powerful lobbyists, prevail.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered
McConnell a way out of the mess that that Senate Republican created,
“Instead of being bogged down in another Republican contrived
legislative fight, I propose a path forward. It’s simple and direct.
While we work towards an agreement to pass trafficking legislation—and
there’s work being done on that as we speak—we should move to the
executive calendar and consider the nomination of Loretta Lynch.
Democrats are fully committed to voting for Lynch’s nomination and
returning immediately to the trafficking bill. We can do two things at
once. I am disappointed that with all the work the Senate needs to
accomplish, the Majority Leader is bound and determined to waste the
rest of this week with political show votes. Loretta Lynch has already
waited 130 days. There’s no reason to delay her confirmation another
minute. We can vote for her confirmation right now and immediately move
back to the trafficking bill.”
McConnell is spinning his wheels while achieving
nothing. Democrats aren’t going to allow the bill to move forward as
long as the abortion language is included. Sen. McConnell thinks that he
is turning up the pressure on Democrats by forcing them to vote no on
the same bill repeatedly, but what he is really accomplishing is an
affirmation of the Democrats’ power in the Senate.
There is tone deaf element to McConnell’s strategy.
There could have been lots of legislation moving through the Senate if
McConnell weren’t so intent on proving his power. McConnell refuses to
meet Democrats in the middle, which is why nothing is getting done.
Democrats aren’t going to support legislation that has ideological
poison pills attached to it.
Senate Democrats are owning Mitch McConnell, who has
proven himself to be a reactive Majority Leader. McConnell isn’t going
to be able to hold up the final vote on the Loretta Lynch nomination
forever. Democrats know that by holding strong they will win this fight
too.
Republicans may hold a majority of the seats in the Senate, but the real power rests with the Democrats.
It's Official: More Americans Want To Press Charges Against #47Traitors Than Deport Justin Bieber
“He who laughs last laughs best,” the old adage goes.
On March 9, C.H. created a petition demanding that the White House file charges against the #47Traitors who wrote, signed and sent a letter to Iran titled: “File charges against the 47 U.S. Senators in violation of The Logan Act in attempting to undermine a nuclear agreement.”
And of course, the right-wing trolls converged upon this earnest
demand for justice like a pack of cackling, flea-bitten hyenas circling a
defenseless morsel of prey.First came the American Spectator, whose headline jeered “Petition to Charge Sen. Tom Cotton with Treason Gets Fewer Signatures Than ‘Deport Justin Bieber.‘” That’s right. These wingnut bullies thought they could dismiss our concerns about high-handed GOP lawmakers undermining our nation’s foreign policy by making us look petty. As though expecting the #47Traitors — oops — 47 GOP Senators to be held accountable for their treasonous letter is every bit as silly as those non-“Belieber” pranksters wanting to send an obnoxious pop star back to Canada.
Tom Cotton may be facing down a whopping 140,000 Americans who, spurred on by Facebook posts and Twitter entreaties, have signed their name to an Internet missive, but he’s far from the top target of even We the People’s ire.Hahaha. Those #47Traitors people are so danged funny.
Deporting Justin Bieber and revoking his greencard? That got nearly 275,000 signatures.
I guess we know which one is truly the American peoples’ priority.
Petition For Charging #47Traitors Gains Over 293K Signatures in less than a week.
There’s just one problem. When the American Spectator’s polemic went
up, the petition for charging the #47Traitors had only been posted two
days before. So of course it had far fewer signatures than the “Deport Justin Bieber”
petition, which went up over a year ago. On March 16 — a scant five
days later — the petition signatures present a very different picture.
At the time of this writing, 273,968 signed on to demand that President
Obama revoke Justin Bieber’s green card and send him packing to Canada.
Meanwhile, The petition demanding that we file charges against the
#47Traitors has collected a whopping 293,144 signatures. So who’s a
“Belieber” now, Senator Tom Cotton?WhiteHouse.Gov petitions are not legally binding, of course. But the ones that gather over 100,000 signatures within 30 days do require Obama to provide a timely response. While Obama — like most liberals — has an unfortunate tendency towards civility, the obnoxious and obstructive Republicans have sorely tried his patience in recent years. Will this be the time Obama finally paddles the GOP’s douche canoe? We sure hope so.
Jeb Bush’s email troubles grow more serious
The political world knew that the 2016 presidential race
would take shape early this year, but few could have guessed that email
access and email security would be one of the dominant issues in the
nascent election cycle.
Hillary Clinton’s private email account during her tenure as Secretary of State has been the subject of enormous
interest to the media and Republicans, with former Gov. Jeb Bush (R)
helping lead the charge. “For security purposes, you need to be behind a
firewall that recognizes the world for what it is, and it’s a dangerous
world, and security would mean that you couldn’t have a private
server,” the Republican complained last week. “It’s a little baffling,
to be honest with you, that didn’t come up in Secretary Clinton’s
thought process.”
It’s equally baffling that Bush had no idea how vulnerable he was on the issue he’s chosen to complain about.
Jeb Bush used his private e-mail account as Florida governor to discuss security and military issues such as troop deployments to the Middle East and the protection of nuclear plants, according to a review of publicly released records.The e-mails include two series of exchanges involving details of Florida National Guard troop deployments after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the review by The Washington Post found.
The Washington Post’s report on the security risks surrounding Jeb Bush conducting official business on his private account coincided with a New York Times article,
which noted that it took the former governor more than seven years “to
comply fully with a Florida public records statute” on email disclosure.
The report quoted a non-partisan expert with the Florida-based First Amendment Foundation who
said Bush’s disclosure policy was “a technical violation of the law.”
The governor was required to turn over records pertaining to official
business “at the expiration of his or her term of office,” and the
Republican waited more than seven years to meet these obligations.
And while the revelations are themselves noteworthy, what
seems especially problematic for Bush is the broader context in which
these details appear.
If, for example, the Clinton story never existed, and we were
just now learning about Bush’s emails, my suspicion is the revelations
would be treated largely as an afterthought. To be sure, transparency
and sunshine laws matter, but it’s hard to imagine the Beltway media
creating a feeding frenzy, featuring breathless coverage of Jeb’s email
“scandal.” Even his Democratic detractors would probably prefer to focus
their energies elsewhere.
But the Clinton email story does exist, and
collectively, the political world decided this is an important national
issue, crucial to evaluating the competence and credibility of a leading
presidential contender. Bush himself encouraged this heightened
scrutiny, talking publicly about how “baffling” Clinton’s actions were
on the issue.
It’s against this backdrop that we’ve discovered that Bush “did exactly what Hillary did.” After he and his team went through official emails, they decided “what were public-record emails and what wasn’t.” The fact that he also ignored state law and created security risks only complicates matters further.
What we’re left with are legitimate concerns
about Bush’s judgment. When he went on the offensive on the Clinton
email story, did he not think his own, nearly identical problems would
emerge? Or was this a case in which Team Jeb went on the attack without
bothering to recognize their vulnerability?
Either way, Bush has worked assiduously to cultivate an image
of a hyper-competent manager. If he wants this reputation to be taken
seriously, the GOP candidate has a long way to go.
No Schock Here: Scandal Plagued Republican Congressman Resigns in Ignominy
The most unfortunate (current) blight on Illinois
politics this side of one-percent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner has
finally come to an end. Multiple sources including POLITICO confirmed on St. Patrick’s Day that scandal-ridden Prairie State Representative Aaron Schock of the 18th District had finally shown himself the door.
POLITICO played a high-profile role in the
announcement, as Schock’s resignation arrived a mere 12 hours after the
website raised questions about tens of thousands of dollars in mileage
reimbursements the Republican had claimed for his personal vehicle.
Anyone who bet on the 33 year-old former lawmaker getting booted over
his lavish Downton Abbey -inspired Congressional office has suffered a major upset.
Writers Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan of POLITCO reported:
“Schock billed the federal government and his
campaign for logging roughly 170,000 miles on his personal car from
January 2010 through July 2014. But when he sold that Chevrolet Tahoe in
July 2014, it had roughly 80,000 miles on the odometer, according to
public records obtained by POLITICO under Illinois open records laws.
The documents, in other words, indicate he was reimbursed for 90,000
miles more than his car was driven.”
Uh oh. The article continues with the
understatement, “The discrepancy added to a growing wave of ethical and
legal problems for the 33-year-old politician.” The news is a major blow
to a GOP struggling to reinvent its national brand as inclusive,
diverse, young and vibrant. The party had considered the fallen
congressman one of its rising stars and most successful fundraisers.
It has indeed been a busy winter for political
gossip involving Schock. The trouble began in early February amid
growing whispers about that aforementioned Downtown Abbey office. On the third of the month, Caitlin Dickson of Yahoo! News recounted an uncomfortable run-in between Schock’s staff and Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, who was initially offered a tour of the lavish workspace:
“For a man who bared his chest on newsstands [Paul Ryan – eat your heart out],
the rush to shield Schock’s spectacular office from speculation is
puzzling. Perhaps his staff was concerned that Schock’s decision to pay
out of pocket for elaborate decorations when the House of
Representatives provided him with the basics might be seen as
contrasting with his fiscally conservative image.”
Apparently the young lawmaker has learned the hard
way that the only way to avoid the fiscal hypocrite label is to, you
know, not be one. Schock subsequently repaid the government $40,000 in a
limp effort to fend off an ethics investigation. But that crack in the
dam morphed into a full blown burst with the latest POLITICO whistle
blow.
Naturally the disgraced lawmaker would have us
believe that he is the victim, yet another fallen soldier on the
“gotcha” journalism battlefield. In a statement formally announcing his
resignation, Schock declared, “Constant questions over the last six
weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for
me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards
that they deserve and which I have set for myself…I have always sought
to do what’s best for my constituents, and I thank them for the
opportunity to serve.”
Schock
will remain in office until March 31, which unfortunately gives the
people of Illinois two more full weeks of his “high standards.” How much
is that going to cost?
Friday, March 20, 2015
The Daily Drift
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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.
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...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. The Next Time a Republican Bashes Obama While Praising Reagan, Just Show Them This
by Allen Clifton
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.
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.
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…
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.
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. 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."
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."
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.
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
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…
Thursday, March 19, 2015
The Daily Drift
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Chocolate and Caramel ... !
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Republicans Reeling As President Obama Is Dominating Their Congressional Majority
By using a strategy of going on offense with a clear
and strong agenda, President Obama has been dominating John Boehner and
Mitch McConnell’s Republican majority in Congress.
Politico reported on how the president is setting the agenda:
Three months into the expanded Republican majorities on the Hill, White House aides see a landscape in which President Barack Obama is more in charge now than he was before the midterms. Rather than moving forward on their own priorities as Republican leaders promised after their midterm sweep, the House and Senate find themselves reacting to Obama.So far, most legislation hasn’t moved at all, and the most prominent votes have been on bills they already know Obama won’t sign. Even the political flare-ups over Iran, White House aides say, are more evidence of a Congress — Republicans and Democrats alike — that is reacting to the president’s agenda.….“To the extent that Republicans on Capitol Hill are doing things, it is either putting out fires in their own camp or responding to incoming from President Obama,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in an interview.
President Obama threw Republicans back on their
heels with his immigration executive action. The White House has not
allowed the Republican-led Congress to get their footing by establishing
any momentum or a coherent agenda. Democrats and the president have
been able to exploit the fact that congressional Republicans veer from
crisis to crisis with no plans or goals.
Sen. Mitch McConnell thought that he would be able
to hit the ground running by passing lots of legislation immediately
after he became Majority Leader. McConnell spent nearly a month bogged
down on the Keystone XL bill, and followed up Keystone by being dragged
into the House’s fight over Obama’s immigration executive action.
The president is more in control of the agenda in
the Capitol than he was when Democrats held the majority in the Senate.
President Obama is firmly in charge, and Republicans have no clue what
to do about this turn of events. One of the main reasons why so many
Republicans signed on to Sen. Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran was that they
were desperate to assert their power. With Harry Reid masterfully
keeping the Senate Democrats together, Republicans have not been able to
pass anything unless Democrats agree.
President
Obama has been empowered by losing the Senate. Until Republicans
realize that they will have to work with the president and congressional
Democrats, it is a safe bet that the do-nothing Congress will
accomplish less than nothing because all roads to success now go through
Obama.
Obama White House Hammers McConnell For Lying About Loretta Lynch Vote
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called out
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for lying about why he is
delaying the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be the next Attorney
General.
Video:
Press Secretary Josh Earnest said:
Now, I’ve gotten asked a number of times since November about whether or not the president trusts Senator McConnell. Whether or not Sen. McConnell and other members of the Republican leadership, whether their word is good with the president. So, Sen. McConnell back in November was saying that her nomination should be considered in the new Congress. But yesterday when Sen. McConnell was asked on CNN about whether or not he was going to act quickly to confirm her, and to explain the delay, he said the nomination hasn’t taken that long when you consider when it was taken up which was this year. He went on to say, “The Democrat majority back in December had a chance to work on the nomination earlier, decided to delay it until this year.”He failed to point out that, that delay was at his request, and now he’s in the position of delaying it even further. Despite the fact, and I’ll say it again, no legitimate question has been raised about her aptitude for this office. Despite the fact that submitted to more than eight hours of testimony, and despite the fact she’s answered more than six hundred written questions. So there is no question that Republicans are playing politics with the nomination of the nation’s top law enforcement officer, and it should come to an end.
Earnest’s answer about whether or not Obama trusts
McConnell spoke volumes. Instead of saying yes or no, the White House
Press Secretary gave the perfect example of why the White House can’t
trust McConnell. McConnell has gone back on his word on the Lynch
nomination, and has demonstrated that he is completely untrustworthy.
Sen. McConnell is holding the final vote on the
Lynch nomination hostage, because Senate Democrats are blocking a human
trafficking bill due to the Republican insertion of language about
restriction abortion. Sen. McConnell is making his own problems worse by
blocking a vote on Loretta Lynch.
Senate Republicans are desperate to prove that they
can pass legislation over Democratic objections. The problem is that
they can’t pass legislation without working with Democrats. By blocking a
vote on Lynch, McConnell is compounding his problems by denying the
Senate at least one accomplishment.
McConnell
is denying the nation a new attorney general because he needs to pass a
bill and get a “win.” Mitch McConnell is getting desperate, and the
Obama White House is calling out the Senate Majority Leader’s lie on the
Lynch nomination.
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