Tag: GOP

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Jon Stewart rips GOP on government shutdown

Jon Stewart tore apart Republicans over threatening to shut the government down over Obamacare, using it to claim the GOP doesn’t really care about the Constitution that much to begin with, mocking their concern that Obamacare is “the end of America as we know it for reasons no one is able to clearly explain!

Stewart walked through how Obamacare was already upheld as constitutional, and offered a simple analogy: when football teams lose, they don’t say “If you don’t give us 25 points on Monday, we will shut down the fucking NFL!” He decried this “utter insanity” and berated the media for thinking both sides are equally at blame here, likening Republicans to an “asshole causing a head-on collision” on the highway.”

Stewart ended by calling out the GOP for the talking point that Obama negotiates with Iran but not them.

“You’re not helping yourself if it turns out that President Barack Obama can made a deal with the most intransigent, hardline, unreasonable, totalitarian mullahs in the world, but not with Republicans, maybe he’s not the problem!”

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House Republicans double down on their own constituents

As the federal government shutdown becomes imminent, it’s an ironic moment to pause and see that when looking at the states with the highest levels of federal employees about to be furloughed by the GOP House due to poor politics regarding the Affordable Care Act, four of the top five states are deeply red states.

Seven of the top ten states are red states.

Yes, they are hurting their own constituents.

So, as the Tea Party Repubs fight to shut the government down to “teach some lesson” or exact some kind of revenge on a President they so dearly hate, they might want to look at exactly WHO they are hurting. 

President Obama won’t ever run in another election.  He can handle his office with a clear conscience of not “owing” anybody. 

The House Republicans, on the other hand, are in another position.

The latest “offer” from the House GOP was to send a Continuing Resolution with the attached requirement of assigning a negotiating team to meet with the Senate counterparts to figure out a budget.

This past spring, the House and the Senate each passed their own budgets.  Normally, there would have been meetings to resolve those issues in a timely manner.  July 11th of this year marked the 16th time Senate Democrats asked to meet with House GOP counterparts to “mark up” the budget bill.   GOP members refused.  Sen. Marco Rubio blocked the unanimous consent request to negotiate.

Now, minutes from midnight, House GOP member are asking to do what Senate Dems requested months ago.

Why?  Because they hoped to “force” Democrats hand and somehow stop ObamaCare from taking effect.  As I write this, ObamaCare has TAKEN effect.  Too late.

In fact, the legislation became law exactly as the founders intended: both houses of the legislative branch debated and passed the bill; the President signed it into law.  Not only that, but it was brought to the Supreme Court and was found to constitutional.  Done.  It’s law. 

Done.

Because their gamble has failed, now the House GOP sits with egg on their face, trying to find a way to exit with some kind of grace.

 The kind of grace only found in a Three Stooges routine.  Only this time, there are a whole lot more stooges.

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House votes 217-210 to cut $39 billion from food stamps

House majority leader Eric Cantor

The House narrowly approved a measure Thursday evening that would cut about $39 billion in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — better known as food stamps — over the next decade.

The vote – 217 to 210 – saw 15 Republicans vote against the measure. No Democrats voted for it.

Ironically, the overwhelming majority of Food Stamp recipients are in conservative/red states. I’ll be interested to see if the vote plays any factor in the 2014 elections.

(source)

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Former RNC chair Michael Steele: 2016 GOP nominee likely to support marriage equality

Michael Steele, former RNC chairman, said during the “after broadcast” online segment of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher talk show that the 2016 GOP Presidential nominee could “likely – probably” support marriage equality:

Maher: ‘Do you think the Republican candidate in 2016 will support same-sex marriage?’

Steele: ‘Good political question. It’s a very good political question and I think likely … probably.’

Maher: ‘I’ll say this, if he does … he won’t in the primaries. You cannot do it in the primaries.’

Steele: ‘He won’t in the primaries … that’s where it’s going.’

(source)

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Louisiana: Republicans blame Obama for slow Katrina response 3 years before his presidency

A significant chunk of Louisiana Republicans evidently believe that President Barack Obama is to blame for the poor response to the hurricane that ravaged their state more than three years before he took office.

According to a new PPP poll, 28% of Republicans feel former President George W. Bush was more responsible for the poor federal response to Hurricane Katrina; a surprising 29% put the blame on President Obama; “surprising” because he didn’t become President until three years AFTER the weather tragedy.

Just goes to show you that Republicans will blame President Obama for anything. Even events that happened years before his presidency. When in doubt, blame Obama.

And by the way, 44% didn’t know who to blame.

(source)

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Republican National Committee votes to exclude NBC and CNN from 2016 Primary debates

The Republican National Committee (RNC) voted unanimously Friday to exclude NBC and CNN from the 2016 GOP presidential primary debates unless the networks kill their planned films on Hillary Clinton.

Via RawStory:

The Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Friday to exclude TV networks CNN and NBC from any Republican presidential primary debates. According to The Hill, the move is a form of retaliation against the networks for not bowing to the party’s pressure to not air a pair of films about former Secretary of State (and putative 2016 Democratic presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton.

“We don’t have time for the media’s games,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus about the election, which is still more than three years away. “We’re done putting up with this nonsense. There are plenty of other news outlets.”

The committee was meeting in Boston for its annual summer meeting. In its resolution against the networks, party officials called for “media objectivity and accountability” and called the Clinton films, which are still in the pre-production phases “political favoritism.”

CNN’s Jeff Zucker announced in July that the network would be producing a feature-length film about the former First Lady and New York Senator. NBC is planning on releasing a four-part miniseries about Clinton with actress Diane Lane playing the lead role.

Hillary Clinton hasn’t announced any intended candidacy for President in 2016 at this point. So, networks should be free to create whatever programming they wish. Were Clinton an actual candidate at this time, the issue would be framed in another perspective.

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House Republicans vote for the 40th time to repeal ObamaCare to no avail

Before heading off into their 5 week summer vacay, House Republicans took another run – the 40th – at “repealing” ObamaCare. And just as before, the vote accomplished nothing but to waste the people’s time.

From the Huffington Post:

The Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013, sponsored by Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), would block the Internal Revenue Service from enforcing or implementing any portion of President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law. It passed 232 to 185, with all Republicans voting for it and four Democrats -– Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Collin Peterson (Minn.) — siding with them. Six Republicans didn’t vote.

Democrats railed against their Republican colleagues on the House floor for spending valuable time on the vote.

“I suspect we don’t want to call them the Republicans anymore, but I think we ought to call them the Repeal-icans. Or perhaps the Repeal-ican’ts, because they’ve never been able to repeal anything,” said Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).

“They have one alternative to Obamacare. It’s called NothingCare,” added Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas). Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) chimed in that the American public has “seen this movie before.”

Considering Republicans said they wanted to focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs” when they took control of the House, it makes you wonder why they’ve spent so much time voting on repealing a law that has no chance of being repealed. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has stated that the bill will not be brought up in the Senate.

The law is already doing good things for Americans including helping young people stay on their parents insurance longer as they get on their feet; keeping folks from being dropped from their insurance due to pre-existing conditions; and helping to lower insurance rates in many states.

(source)

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David Barton: You can’t drink Starbucks and be biblically right on marriage

David Barton, former vice-chair of the Republican Party of Texas and evangelical pastor, tells a Christian audience that they cannot drink Starbucks coffee because the company supports marriage equality.

The full quote, via RightWingWatch:

“Starbucks is pouring all this money into destroying traditional marriage. The question is, can a Christian give money to a group he knows will use it to attack what God supports. If you know that when you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks that 5, 10, 15 cents is going to be used to defeat marriage, can you do that? The answer is no. Biblically, there’s no way a Christian can help support what is attacking God. I’m sorry, you’ve got to find some other coffee to drink. You can’t drink Starbucks and be biblically right on this thing. It’s just a real simple principle.”

Heading to SB now, can I get anyone a Venti anything?