Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Year of The Political IDIOT: The Day After

The day after President Obama met with Americans at a suburban Virginia family’s backyard to share stories of how the Affordable Health Care Act provisions effective today help real people immediately, Republicans unveiled their “pledge” to repeal healthcare reform, extend tax cuts for the richest 2 percent, and a host of not-so-secret provisions. Republicans said they came up with their “pledge” by listening to the American people — as if we’re an amorphous mass not represented by a Democratic Congress and a President we elected with 53 percent of the vote.

Actually, the GOP “pledge” was written by Brian Wild, a Boehner aide who was a lobbyist for AIG ($740,000), Andarko Petroleum ($800,000), Comcast ($1.1 million), Exxon ($1.3 million), Pfizer ($625,000) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as part of its $34 million lobbying package. Ironically, while Tea Party morons were foaming at the mouth over possible Romanoff Czars in the Obama Administration, John Boehner is not in the least constrained by Obama’s self-imposed bar on hiring lobbyists. You know, teabaggers, it’s that whiff that you’re beholden to the corporate special interests that fund your racist anti-American activities.

Cutting through the “haze of war” bullshit (per our favorite witch), Republicans are pledging to slash taxes for millionaires and billionaires, explode our deficit, privatize Social Security and Medicare, repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, roll back financial reforms, increase defense spending without specifying any offsets and, if they do not get their way, shut down government and investigate the Obama Administration, provoking frivolous Constitutional crises. This is the Republican/Tea Party’s real and largely unspecified (in its for-public consumption propaganda document) agenda. These hypocrites and traitors (defined as deliberately working to undermine the public good and the national interest while waging all-out war on the American people and the middle class) talk a good game but refuse even to pass pay-go legislation.

So now it’s the day after, and the Republican wannabe-Speaker John Boehner and his bumbling lieutenants, no doubt reacting to the President’s forays outside Washington, decided to unveil their “pledge” to Americans at a hardware and lumber store in Virginia, too. If the President goes to Virginia to talk about healthcare, well, that’s where the Republicans need to go. That’s fine except, as the New York Times pointed out:
“Republican members of Congress decided to announce their pledge at a hardware and lumber store in Sterling, Va., just outside Washington’s Beltway, to try to symbolize their anti-Washington themes.

But that decision has also provided another line of attack for the critics, who gleefully pointed out that the small business chosen for the announcement would almost certainly benefit from many of the economic programs Mr. Obama proposed and Republicans fought.

The store probably qualifies for tax credits to provide health care to employees and to hire unemployed workers. It can take advantage of special expensing rules and additional depreciation.

The small business bill just passed in the Congress — over the objections of most Republicans — would allow the company to write off $500,000 in equipment investments and its owner would receive a tax cut worth about $6,000 on the first $250,000 in profits.”
The Tea Party constituency wasn’t impressed either. Blogger Erick Ericksson wrote in the right wing site Red State that “this is perhaps the most ridiculous thing to come out of Washington since George McClellan.” Oh, I don’t know. McClellan built up the Army of the Potomac into a professional fighting force that went on to defeat Robert E. Lee. He was just a bad fighting general who was hyper-reluctant to commit his finely drilled troops to battle. My pick is Newt Gingrich; it’s self-evident. Here’s Ericksson:
“These 21 pages tell you lots of things, some contradictory things, but mostly this: it is a serious [sic] of compromises and milquetoast rhetorical flourishes in search of unanimity among House Republicans because the House GOP does not have the fortitude to lead boldly in opposition to Barack Obama.

This document proves the GOP is more focused on the acquisition of power than the advocacy of long term sound public policy. All the good stuff in it is stuff we expect them to do. What is not in it is more than a little telling that the House GOP has not learned much of anything from 2006.”
Double-Oops.

Meanwhile, (for Glenn Beck) as Republicans unveiled their pledge to save us from communist bedbugs, shocking Video has emerged of SOCIALIST Obama Meeting With a MARXIST Cell of healthcare-challenged Americans:




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