Boehner Exclaims, "We Have No Plans To Impeach The President."

Image via Mario Piperni

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Ryan: Impeachment Talk ‘A Ridiculous Game’ By Obama

Which political party mentioned impeachment first? Hint: 2013 Congressional Summer Recess (see below). Who is playing games? Did GOP impeachment talk backfire?

John Boehner went on record yesterday in response to questions of GOP impeachment of the nation’s president. Boehner denies plans for impeachment and lays all the talk squarely on political posturing and fundraising. According to Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight Blog, Democrats and liberal media are discussing “impeachment” far more than conservative media (Fox News). A fair assertion by Boehner and interesting  understandable data from Silver, but there is much more.

Let’s start with Boehner on yesterday.

Boehner: Impeachment Talk Nothing But White House ‘Scam’

http://nbcnews.to/1k5ytu1

Boehner is so very phony and disingenuous, Let’s dispense of political correctness, Boehner is simply a bold faced liar running interference for a party out of control. After Sarah Palin opened her cable network with mumble-mouthed “impeachment” marketing strategy and after the 2013 Congressional Summer Recess with “Impeach Obama” as the talking-point theme, Boehner has  gall speaking as such before open microphones and cameras? The House leader insults us with cheap political posturing. We have memory, we have video, and we have learned the new GOP.

Laura Ingraham, noted conservative celebrity, en-capsulized the talk in the late spring of 2013, well before the Congressional Summer Recess.  While Brit Hume questioned the wisdom of impeachment talk, he will be the first to jump on the bandwagon should the GOP takeover the US Senate this fall.

Real Clear Politics

Brit Hume: “Stupid” For Republicans To Talk About Impeachment Right Now  Posted on May 17, 2013

LAURA INGRAHAM: Brit, we had a lot of Republicans running to the microphone yesterday and quite a number of them were using the i-word, i.e. impeachment of Barack Obama. What’s your take on the reaction so far among some of our more conservative Congressman and Senators?  

BRIT HUME: I think it’s stupid for them to say stuff like that. These cases will be driven by the facts, which has happened so far — information drives these things. And big talk about big measures and most people in this country, I think, regard impeachment as an extreme measure necessary in some rare cases is way premature and it only runs the risk of having this appear to be political on their side. 

Read more

Boehner’s remarks can be bundled into a package that can be sold only to the more gullible and die hard conservatives. Those of us who follow current events with a large, watchful eye on conservative America know better. Fox nor CNN will provide any opportunity to refute Boehner’s claim of complete innocence on the Right. I suspect both networks will run and re-run Boehner’s remarks until network producers feel their viewers “got the message.” Yet, I will also wager neither network will visit the summer of 2013 and obvious GOP Recess town-hall “impeachment” talking-points.

MSNBC

Chris Matthews, Hardball (August 2013)

Chris Matthews in a far too lengthy segment: 2:26 minutes. I offer a much more brief segment below, but it is absent salient points from Matthews and his Panel guests. The Hardball, segment includes a comprehensive summary of GOP members of Congress who occupied 2013 Recess town-halls with talk of “impeachment.” Our point of interest and focus comes at the 2:20 minute mark and ends shortly thereafter (3:11 mark) once Matthews and his guest move to the standard MSNBC panel (opinion talk). The segment is long, but Matthews poses a cogent point that like it or not has merit. After all of the malfeasance and deleterious governance from Bush W., the word impeach simply wasn’t a political tool. Democrats and the public simply did not ‘Go there.’

http://on.msnbc.com/1c9JF4b

Joy Reid, MSNBC…. (August 2013)

GOP Impeachment talk!

I often read GOP leadership is not in agreement with “impeachment” talk and there are no plans. Mere words from people who have shown they will throw words at the public while literally planning contrary actions in back rooms. Boehner says there are “no plans.” Well, maybe not as GOP money-brokers and oligarchs have not ordered their political operatives to move the US Congress to the constitutional process. If the Kochs, Adelsons, and other uber wealthy money backers wish, their political wing will certainly follow lockstep. We can rest with comfort in the reality GOP leadership has discussed impeachment and we would be naive to think it is not a future strategy. Hint: After the mid term elections, if the GOP wins the US Senate. Boehner publicly ‘goes there’ with his claims of disagreement with GOP celebrities and media gold-diggers (i.e., Sarah Palin). 

In fairness to House Speaker John Boehner, he is one of official record with ”I disagree,” when asked by Luke Russert about Palin’s impeachment marketing strategy. 

Boehner is correct in his assessment and assertion of fund-raising related to GOP impeachment talk. Donations to Democrats fund-raising has increased with a major spike after Palin deployed the “I” Word strategy before announcing her cable Network Channel. Donors also undoubtedly remember the summer of 2013, mistrust the GOP, and are reacting to the reality of GOP members of Congress and their subservience to Conservative celebrities. Yes, the Grand OL Party has de Facto leadership of Internet bloggers (e.g., Drudge) and multi-millionaires who do not hold elected office and who and sit in front of cameras, and radio microphones. Going on camera to refute the reality of GOP talk of impeachment is like denying the GOP strategy to shut down the US government. No, Boehner should look a lot closer at this Palin Frankenstein Monster; she continues to wreak havoc on the GOP.

Now let’s close with my promise of ,..”but there is more.” 

With what we have seen from the GOP since the night of Obama’s inauguration why should we accept Boehner’s crafty…….”there are no plans?”  What is it about the American psyche that does not allow for acceptance the party on the Right is ripe with misinformation, lies and outright political subterfuge. Should we expect Boehner to simply admit impeachment could be a strategy after the fall elections? How many GOP members of Congress are stating ‘no plan’ to impeach and in the same paragraph clearly stating the procedure is a possibility?  The “Full Stop” point: “After Boehner has indicated a pending lawsuit against the president (Over of all things the ACA extensions) and GOP ideology leaders have begun to use the “I” Word, wouldn’ Democrats fail in not anticipation the legal actions? Wouldn’t liberal media fails it viewers via not covering or not talking about the legal process.  We are talking media here, after all. Hello!

The ultimate and most salient point; when did President Obama finally drop all reservation about hitting the GOP impeachment strategy head-on? The following videoed public appearance took place this year (2014). Based on the embeds an information posted above, it seems the White House has every right and expectation to lash back against impending threats.

Think of the flak from the Left if the president and his team did not face what was an obvious GOP talking-point playbook strategy. Does the GOP really believe the president is weak and will not fight back? Of, is the GOP deploying another playbook strategy. I offer both prospects are reality.

What a sad political party wears the GOP moniker!

Allen West Typical GOP

Fundraiser/Political Strategy

As the US House prepares for John Boehner’s “tea party” fundraiser (Select) Benghazi Committee, the committee members have been announced.

Boehner’s “fundraisers”


Pelosi’s “Guardian Monitors”

And the circus begins. The NRCC has already commenced raising money form the hearings, despite actual hearings as weeks and maybe months away. Remember, Boehners “rangers” are in no rush as fundraising and political leverage for 2014 mid-terms and 2016 general elections are the ultimate mission.

While NRCC fundraising off the deaths of heroic Americans is as despicable as it gets. Yet, another noted Tea Party demagogue has attacked a member of the Democrat committee members.

As a matter of introduction, let’s meet the combatants attacked and the attacker.

American War Hero: Ladda Tammy Duckworth

Tammy Duckworth
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois‘s 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2013

WIKI

An Iraq War veteran, Duckworth served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot and suffered severe combat wounds, losing both of her legs and damaging her right arm. She was the first female double amputee from the war.[1] Having received a medical waiver, she continues to serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard along with her husband, Major Bryan W. Bowlsbey, a signal officer and fellow Iraq War veteran.

   

American anti-hero: Allen West resigned military commission to avoid court martial and possible imprisonment: torture of an Iraq war detainee.

The Nation

West resigned from the military in 2004, following an incident involving his unit’s treatment of an Iraqi man. West himself was charged with two violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including one against assault, and agreed to retire after an Article 15 hearing in order to avoid a court martial.

Read more after break below 

According to a 2004 account in The New York Times, West let the soldiers under his command beat the Iraqi man, whom West believed was involved in an attempt on his life. (No evidence was ever found implicating the man). Then, he staged a mock execution: 

Soon, the soldiers began striking and shoving Mr. Hamoodi. They were not instructed to do so by Colonel West but they were not stopped, either, they said. ‘I didn’t know it was wrong to hit a detainee,” a 20-year-old soldier from Daytona Beach said at the hearing. Colonel West testified that he would have stopped the beating ”had it become too excessive.” 

Eventually, the colonel and his soldiers moved Mr. Hamoodi outside, and threatened him with death. Colonel West said he fired a warning shot in the air and began counting down from five. He asked his soldiers to put Mr. Hamoodi’s head in a sand-filled barrel usually used for clearing weapons. At the end of his count, Colonel West fired a shot into the barrel, angling his gun away from the Iraqi’s head, he testified.

http://youtu.be/v1BcISId0Mg

 A bit more ……Rep. Allen West says ‘about 78 to 81’ House Democrats in Communist Party

I know of Allen West, you know of Allen West, the GOP knows of Allen West, and those who made the big mistake of electing West to the US Congress in 2010 felt they had grown to know West. 

Allen West is nothing shy of a gutter dwelling mouthpiece who will say anything for attention. In fact, I suspect West has ambitions to re-enter US politics via convincing the majority of voters in some district someplace to elect him. It should be noted he won his 2010 seat via an election that turned the US House over to tea party politicians who cling to the Koch bothers like scrap metal against a giant magnet. They infested and sat through a congress that led to the lowest congressional approval ratings in US history and a number of the more whacked-out representatives (West and Joe Walsh) lost their seats via awaken and back-tracking constituents. 

West has commented in a most disrespectful manner. The Tea party mouth-piece attacked War Hero Tammy Duckworth.  If you prefer a short version of West’s comments:

Right Wing Watch

“Tammy Duckworth, you know I just don’t know where her loyalties lie, for her to have been a veteran and a wounded warrior for the United States Army, she should know that this is not the right thing and hopefully she will remember the oath of office that she took as an Army officer and not the allegiance I guess she believes she has to the liberal progressives of the Democrat [sic] party,” Allen West. 

See more 

The following Crooks & Liars piece places West in perspective and reminds of a mind gone bad.

Allen West Doubts ‘Legless’ Tammy Duckworth’s ‘Loyalty’ To America (via http://crooksandliars.com)

By John Amato May 22, 2014 11:33 am – Comments This isn’t the first time she’s been attacked for her military service by Tea Party Republicans. We all remember what Republicans and Saxby Chambliss did to former Senator Max Cleland, a disabled war hero…

If you need a bit more on West check this out.

http://youtu.be/86szJ7mDYUI

The Daily GOP Ignominious: No More National Parks?

Do you have any empathy for decreasing swaths of US geography that we can truly call pristine? If you are a conservative and say yes, be very careful others in your party and some who share your ideology may sense that empathy. It seems your political representatives in the US Congress don’t share your environmental concern. 

If you think I am being persnickety and typically liberal, read on.

Think Progress-Climate

Obama Creates New National Monument

BY JOANNA M. FOSTER ON MARCH 11, 2014 AT 1:50 PM

“Obama Creates New National Monument“

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Mendocino Coast, California. CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

On Tuesday, President Obama held a ceremony at the White House to announce his use of executive authority to expand the California Coastal National Monument (CCNM) to include the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands on the Mendocino Coast. This is the first land-based addition to the CCNM and permanently protects more than 1,660 acres of beach, bluffs, and the Garcia River estuary. The area is home to rare and endangered species such as coho salmon, steelhead, the Point Arena mountain beaver, and the Behren’s silverspot butterfly. The Mendocino Coast of California was recently picked for the number 3 spot in the New York Times “52 Places to Go in 2014.”

Read more 

The president’s exercised executive authority to preserve what amounts to a modicum of our national geography while protecting species from encroachment by human beings. We should look to doing more to preserve the Earth for people who will live as Earth’s denizens long after our spirits have departed on last journeys to a spiritual haven (spelling intentional) or to the depths of a fiery perpetual tortuous realm. 

American power brokers, corporatist, and uncaring conservative politicians cannot possibly care less about our environment and protection of specifies that live precariously at the whims of human beings.

I suppose by now you know what comes next. Have you ever heard of early GOP obstruction to the Obama Administration: simply called “The party of NO?” We really had no idea early “party of No” was the genesis of today’s Universe “Big Bang,” obstruction.  

Within the week John Boehner and Eric Cantor’s Tea party House of Oz moved to smack the president’s hand.  The House leaders continue to practice silly legislative “marbles” while the same period found the party leaders doing this to our long-term unemployed: MSNBC, CBS.  

Your Tea Party has taken a short break from frivolous repeal ACA votes (at cumulative cost of plus $81.6 million USD). Herewith is the latest anti-Obama legislation and it is a real doozy.  

Think Progress-Climate

House To Vote On Controversial ‘No More National Parks’ Policy

BY MATT LEE-ASHLEY, GUEST BLOGGER ON MARCH 20, 2014 AT 12:00 PM

“House To Vote On Controversial ‘No More National Parks’ Policy“

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CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

Responding to President Obama’s decision last week to protect a stretch of California’s Coast near Point Arena as a new national monument, the House of Representatives is planning to vote next week to overturn a 108 year-old law that presidents of both parties have used to protect iconic American places, including the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, and Arches National Park.

The bill, H.R. 1459, aims to block presidents from using the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish new national monuments by putting caps on how many times it can be used, requiring congressional review of proposed monuments, and forcing local communities to engage in an ironic exercise of reviewing the environmental impacts of protecting lands for future generations.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), criticized President Obama’s use of the Antiquities Act to expand the California Coastal Monument last week as an end-run around Congress. “In other words, the House was punked by the President,” said Bishop.

However, despite arguments from Bishop and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) that Congress should hold exclusive power to decide whether or not to protect public lands, the House has effectively shut down all legislative efforts to protect wilderness, parks and monuments since the Tea Party takeover in 2010.

Read more 

Question. Did you actually vote for these people to facilitate legislative performance at the lowest level of relevance and most asinine in US History? We understand your hatred of President Obama. We understand your deeply inbred social paradigm. We realize you are not concerned with the plight of the nation’s poor and less financially fortunate. You are showing your admiration for Vladimir Putin has resurfaced and in full blossom. And, your Tea Party House has gone insane with obstruction. Yet, we do not understand why are there any issues with efforts to preserve pristine geographic regions?

Minimum Wage…Time For A Change!

While wealth has a relationship to the health of the nation and a special relationship to regions of the country, it also is worth watching to see where wealth is most absent. In more simple terms, if you look at an illustration of wealth you will also find a visual of poverty. While the federal minimum wage isn’t a guaranteed stairway of out poverty, the higher hourly rate will offer opportunity to equal of surpass the establish poverty level.

Federal Minimum Wage $7.25 per hour X theoretical 2080 annual work hours (40 hour week times 52 weeks) = $15,080 per year. 

Of course, many low wage earners do not have the opportunity and privilege to work a full 40 our work week. Perspective on $15,080 on the high side for the wager earner?  If the worker is single and believe with Mom and Dad the annual $15,080 may work very well. Once the unmarried worker moves family-life, the scenario worsens exponentially.

The Institute for Research and Poverty- University Wisconsin- Madison

What are poverty thresholds and poverty guidelines?

Values of the poverty thresholds for the years since 1980 for families of different sizes are available on the Census Bureau’s website. The most recent values of the poverty thresholds are provided in the table below. For example, a four-person family with two adults and two children is poor with annual cash income below $23,283; the threshold for a four-person family with a single parent and three children is $23,364.

U.S. Census Bureau Poverty Thresholds, 2012
Size of Family Unit	Poverty Threshold
One person (unrelated individual)	$11,720
Under age 65	11,945
Age 65 or older	11,011
Two people	14,937
Householder under age 65	15,450
Householder age 65 or older	13,892
Three people	18,284
Four people	23,492
Five people	27,827
Six people	31,471
Seven people	35,743
Eight people	39,688
Nine people or more	47,297
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Weighted

Sadly, the older worker who must supplement low Social Security payments if they lived a life of a low income earner. A part-time job is probably a requirement unless there worker has significant other with social Security payments. Pre-65 years old are relegated to overwhelming poverty, or they are forced to work two or more jobs. For the pre-65 years old minimum wage working family, everybody works. 

We would be remiss if we did not state many states have state minimum wage rates that exceed the federal wage rate.  

Despite a fairly common dissing of, or dismissive, towards, WIKI, we occasionally find it a useful information source. A review of poverty by state is easily accomplished via Wiki and the data seems accurate. Moreover, the data is source linked.

List of U.S. states by poverty rate

Map of poverty rate in the United States in 2008.
Legend:

6%-7.5%   7.5%-9%

9%-10.5%   10.5%-12%   12%-13.5%

13.5%-15%   15%-16.5%   >16.5%

This article is a list of the 50 United States of America (U.S.) states, also including the District of Columbia, ordered by poverty rate. 2009 statistics are not identical to official poverty rates because they include children not counted in the official numbers (see Revised Tables link below). Supplemental Poverty Measure takes into account differences in cost of living between states (i.e. housing costs appreciably higher/lower than the national average). All data are from the United States Census Bureau.

This Wiki link navigates  to a table that speaks volumes about poverty; where it exist, to what extent it exists and the data is ranked 1 – 50 states.  We ask that you pay close attention to the lowest 39 – 50 impoverished states and the top 1 – 20 states with the lowest poverty rate. Looks like a tabled map of the GOP. The table is “quick view” illustrated via the map above.

The rational mind recognizes geographic regions that consistently support the GOP suffer the most poverty. If we take that last statement to a very basic splurge of logic, we might come to the conclusion the lowest 50 states in the table would have the highest need for a minimum wage above $7.25 per hour. 

Of course, raising the minimum wage would induce instant heartburn among the majority of American corporatist; thus the GOP’s lack of interest in raising the rate. The Republicans are so averse to any conditions that impact the revenue streams of big business, they saddle their loyal constituents with permanent blankets of poverty. Contributions from Big Business obvious outweighs GOP concern for their constituents. The GOP may have surveyed into the prospect, people who suffer from stifling poverty may not actually exist as vote risks. We wonder if they comprise the 40% of voters who never vote in elections (General, mid-term or local). 

Quick hits on the Minimum wage experience in America. do not fret, we have also found race related information as we review the Minimum Wage. It appears many authorities look at minimum wage without looking at the fact minorities are disproportionately affected by the minimum wage.

In 2012, the 73.5 million US workers age 16 and older hourly paid employees represented 59.0% of all wage and salaried employees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 3.6 million of those workers earn at the prevail federal  minimum  wage rate ($7.25 per hour) or less. 

A few BLS minimum wage facts:

Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the Federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers paid by the hour, about 21 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 3 percent of workers age 25 and over. (See table 1 and table 7.)  In 2012, 6 percent of women paid hourly rates had wages at or below the prevailing federal minimum, compared with about 3 percent of men. (See table 1.)  About 5 percent of White, Black, and Hispanic or Latino hourly paid workers earned the federal minimum wage or less. Among Asian workers paid at hourly rates, about 3 percent earned the minimum wage or less. (See table 1.)  Among hourly paid workers age 16 and over, about 10 percent of those who had less than a high school diploma earned the federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 4 percent of those who had a high school diploma (with no college) and about 2 percent of college graduates. (See table 6.)  Never-married workers, who tend to be young, were more likely than married workers to earn the federal minimum wage or less (about 8 percent versus about 2 percent). (See table 8.)  About 11 percent of part-time workers (persons who usually work less than 35 hours per week) were paid the federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 2 percent of full-time workers. (See table 1 and table 9.) By major occupational group, the highest proportion of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage was in service occupations, at about 12 percent. About three-fifths of workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2012 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving related jobs. (See table 4.)   The industry with the highest proportion of workers with hourly wages at or below the federal minimum wage was leisure and hospitality (about 19 percent). About half of all workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage were employed in this industry, the vast majority in restaurants and other food services. For many of these workers, tips and commissions supplement the hourly wages received. (See table 5.)  The states with the highest proportions of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage were Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Idaho (all between 7 and 8 percent). The states with the lowest percentages of hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage were Alaska, Oregon, California, Montana, and Washington (all under 2 percent). It should be noted that some states have minimum wage laws establishing standards that exceed the federal minimum wage. (See table 2 and table 3.)  The proportion of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less declined from 5.2 percent in 2011 to 4.7 percent in 2012. This remains well below the figure of 13.4 percent in 1979, when data were first collected on a regular basis. (See table 10.)

The rational person would think the public is not only aware of the need for consideration of raising the Minimum Wage, one might also believe we are educated on the issue. Well, according to the following set of information, we (as a nation) are not aware of Minimum Wage as an issue. 

http://youtu.be/QPKKQnijnsM

Published on Nov 20, 2012

Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.

References:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2…
http://danariely.com/2010/09/30/wealt…
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011…
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/…

As surely as most in the nation know the $7.25 per hour Minimum Wage is inhumanely low, there are some who refuse to even acknowledge the issue. Here is a prime example: John Boehner.  While we are here let’s at the tip of the abscess of GOP Congressional obstruction: John Boehner. 

Of course, Boehner is a GOP Leader in Congress and serves as the visible part of the infection. The following table clearly illustrates the remainder of the GOP infection among the GOP and American conservatives as the infection relations to the Minimum Wage. The chart also suggests survey respondents could not have included many Americans who were considered in the charts at the top of this piece.

US conservatism and the Republican Party has proven they are not good managers of the US economy. 

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/.…



Many have continued to nurture affinity for supply-side (Trickle-down) economics with no regard for its earth-shattering failure since Ronald Reagan and his team first uttered the words.  They relish the reality of supply-side as it actually trickles-up not down. Yet, consideration of increasing the minimum wage is tantamount to stopping GOP voter suppression and their so obvious war on women.

Was Boehner’s ACA Sign-up A Sign of Surrender? Or A Ploy That Failed?

Boehner signs-up for the ACA

_____________________
Freak Out Nation 

John Boehner could have enrolled in Obamacare even faster but there was one problem: John Boehner

November 23, 2013

By Anomaly

It was about an hour after House Speaker John Boehner’s office said he couldn’t sign up for Obamacare coverage on the District of Columbia’s exchange, that his office said, he had officially enrolled on Thursday.
As it happens, it wouldn’t have taken him even that long if it weren’t for one thing standing in his way: John Boehner.

Boehner, apparently exhibiting a public display of frustration while trying to enroll on the DC site, tweeted out his dismay (or joy, however you want to look at it.)

Scott MacFarlane, a reporter for the local NBC affiliate in Washington, reports that a DC Health Care exchange representative actually tried to contact Boehner by phone during the enrollment process but was put on hold for 35 minutes, after which time the representative finally hung up, Josh Marshall of TPM reports.

Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNews Follow DC health exchange spokesman says Speaker Boehner office kept DC representative on hold 35 minutes, “lots of patriotic hold music”, hung up 5:00 PM – 21 Nov 2013

Foiled again! Yes if it had not been for that new tech-invention called a ‘telephone’, which takes a lot of time to learn to navigate, John Boehner would have been able to enroll even faster. 

Big thanks to a friend of FreakOutNation’s @Mea-Mark who you can follow on Twitter here. 

Image: DKo 

         ________________ 

Boehner’s escapade was in fact a ploy, that backfired! Boehner’s website, “My attempt to sign-up for health care.”

While Boehner attempts a personal war 

against the ACA, the ACA moves on. The White House staff has published an informative report of Progressive and (to-date) outcomes related to trends in healthcare with a and emphasis on the impact of the ACA.

White House Dot Gov “Trends In HealthCare Report…” (full pdf report linked via title below)

TRENDS IN HEALTH CARE  COST GROWTH AND THE  ROLE OF THE AFFORDABLE  CARE ACT White House Council Of Economic Advisers Report Introduction and Summary  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed against a backdrop of decades of rapid growth in health care spending in the United States. While much of this historical increase reflects the development of new treatments that have greatly improved health and well-being (Cutler 2004), there is widespread agreement that the system suffered from serious inefficiencies that increased costs and reduced the quality of care that patients receive. A key goal of the ACA was to begin wringing these inefficiencies out of the health care system, simultaneously reducing the growth of health care spending – and its burden on families, employers, and state and federal budgets – while increasing the quality of the care delivered.  This report analyzes recent trends in health care costs, the forces driving those trends, and their likely economic benefits. The report includes the following findings about recent trends:  • Health care spending growth is the lowest on record. According to the most recent projections, real per capita health care spending has grown at an estimated average annual rate of just 1.3 percent over the three years since 2010. This is the lowest rate on record for any three-year period and less than one-third the long-term historical average stretching back to 1965.   • Health care price inflation is at its lowest rate in 50 years. Recent years have also seen exceptionally slow growth in the growth of prices in the health care sector, in addition to total spending. Measured using personal consumption expenditure price indices, health care inflation is currently running at just 1 percent on a year-over-year basis, the lowest level since January 1962. (Health care inflation measured using the medical CPI is at levels not seen since September 1972.)   • Recent slow growth in health care spending has substantially improved the long-term Federal budget outlook. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has reduced its projections of future Medicare and Medicaid spending in 2020 by $147 billion (0.6 percent of GDP) since August 2010. This represents about a 10 percent reduction in projected spending on these programs. These revisions primarily reflect the recent slow growth in health care spending.  While the causes of the slowdown are not yet fully understood, the evidence available to date supports several conclusions about the slowdown and the role of the ACA:  • The slowdown in health care cost growth is more than just an artifact of the 2007-2009 recession: something has changed. The fact that the health cost slowdown has persisted so long even as the economy is recovering, the fact that it is reflected in health care prices – not just utilization or coverage, and the fact that it has also shown up in Medicare – which is more insulated from economic trends, all imply that the current slowdown is the result of more than just the recession and its aftermath. Rather, the slowdown appears to reflect “structural” changes in the United States health care system, a conclusion consistent with a substantial body of recent research.  • The ACA is contributing to the recent slow growth in health care prices and spending and is improving quality of care. ACA provisions that reduce Medicare overpayments to private insurers and medical providers are contributing to the recent slow growth in health care prices and spending. In addition, ACA reforms that aim to improve the quality of care are reducing hospital readmission rates and increasing provider participation in payment models designed to promote high-quality, integrated care.   • New economic research shows that the ACA’s Medicare reforms are likely to reduce health care spending and improve quality system-wide. Recent research implies that reforms to Medicare will have “spillover effects” that reduce costs and improve quality system-wide. In economic terms, this suggests that efforts to reform Medicare’s payment system are “public goods.”   • Accounting for “spillovers” implies that the ACA’s effect on health care price inflation may be much larger than previously understood. The direct effect of ACA provisions that reduce Medicare overpayments to private insurers and medical providers has been to reduce health care price inflation by an estimated 0.2 percent per year since 2010.  Accounting for the “spillover effects” discussed above raises this estimate to 0.5 percent per year, which represents a substantial fraction of the recent slowdown.  Slow growth in health care costs, thanks in part to the ACA, is likely to have substantial benefits for the Nation’s economy in both the short-run and the long-run:  • In the short run, slower growth in health spending is a positive for employment. The slow growth in health care costs has reduced employers’ benefit costs, increasing firms’ incentives to hire additional workers. Available estimates suggest these gains could be substantial, although the magnitude is uncertain.  • Over the long run, slower growth in health spending translates directly into higher wages and living standards. If half the recent slowdown in spending can be sustained, health care spending a decade from now will be about $1,400 per person lower than if growth returned to its 2000-2007 trend, a benefit that workers will realize in the form of higher wages and that federal and state governments will realize as lower costs.    • CBO estimates that the ACA will substantially reduce long-term deficits. In large part because of the ACA’s role in slowing the growth of health care spending, CBO estimates that the ACA will reduce deficits by about $100 billion over the coming decade and by an average of 0.5 percent of GDP ($83 billion per year in today’s economy) over the following decade. These deficit savings are likely to grow over time and are separate from the revisions in CBO’s Medicare and Medicaid spending projections that were discussed on the last page (which are not directly attributable to the ACA).

If the Affordable Care Act receives a necessary boost from a properly functioning website, the GOP may lose its battle against Obama’s signature legislation. The party on the right may also lose it only 2014 campaign issue.

Of course, that would mean a steady diet of ” Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.” 

The Speaker of the House (Tea Party Hostage)

Boehner

The speaker of the House of Representatives is third in line in ascendancy to the United States Presidency. The position follows the Vice-President and is a powerful non-Executive Branch position. I should say the Speaker of the House should be a powerful position that is critical to the nation. If tragedy strikes the president and vice-president the Speaker becomes president.

The Speaker of the House has a compensation level of $223,500 per year; $50,000 more than other members of Congress ($174,000) and $30,000 more than House and Senate Majority leader positions ($193,400). While, not a matter of discussion, nor an issue we actually care to posit on in this screed,the position probably carries a wealth (excuse the pun) of opportunity for other remuneration.  It is a position the in which the current Speaker is both failing miserably and a position he may dread the thought of losing.

The framers of the Constitution, unfortunately, developed a system of federal governance that carried the right of ascendancy to the speaker position as a reward (my colloquialism)  for holding a party majority in the House of Representatives.

Of course, each speaker has a history of party lean and loyalty. However, history also has archived Speakers who did the right thing, when time came to step out of party ideology and lock-step with outside influences (money-backers).

Re-Blog from ………. Playthell  G. Benjamin

COMMENTARIES ON THE TIMES

The Worst House Speaker Ever?

A Reckless Charlatan

 Boehner’s Name will live in Infamy!

Based on the most recent polls the Congress of the United States has a 10% approval rating from the public.  This is the lowest rating on record!  And that was before the Republicans shut down the federal government in a fit of rage, much like a spoiled child who throws a temper tantrum when they can’t get their way.  Only much more is at stake in this tantrum, for the fate of the nation hangs in the balance.

The path the GOP – Grand Obstructionist Party – is taking could well cost lives among the population for whom government benefits are a lifeline.  People such as a mother in Utah – a white American mind you – who explained on MSNBC today that without a special formula her twin babies could die, because it would cost her $750.00 to get it otherwise….and she can’t afford it!

These kinds of stories abound.  There are, for instance, nearly a million civil service workers, people who provide vital services to the American people, that have been locked out of their jobs.  And what is worse several Republican members of the House, the scoundrels who caused this crisis, are now saying that they are not sure whether they will vote to pay these workers for their forced layoff!   This is not only reckless and stupid, it is amoral and evil.   The path the Republicans have chosen is a classic example of folly…in fact it is not too much to say it is criminal folly.

In this instance I am not employing the term “folly” in the usual sense, which the dictionary defines as “a thoughtless or reckless act,” although it certainly meets this definition, but in the seas passing a budget to fund the lawful activities of the of the federal government, and raising the debt ceiling, to re-litigate policy issues that they failed to achieve through the normal process.  In other words, since they were not able to achieve their policy objectives by electing like-minded people they are now trying to force their will on the nation by shutting down our national government altogether.

As is often the case when governments engage in folly it eventually leads to tragedy.  And that is where we are presently headed at break neck speed.  Already poor children who depend upon food stamps, surplus government foods, hot meals at school, and community food pantry’s are going hungry as I write.  And needless to say, while this crisis affects millions of Americans of all races the victims of this Republican folly are disproportionately black…especially women and children.

It is critically important that working and middle class Americans understand what is happening here, because the Tea Party Republicans who are driving the GOP’s legislative agenda are full blown anti-government fanatics who feel that they are on a mission to drastically reduce the federal budget by any means necessary, and they are supported by the voters in their specially designed right-wing Congressional Districts.  There is nothing more dangerous than a group of self-righteous fanatics on a mission.

The extent of their fanaticism is such that these people not only refuse to compromise, they are so reckless they cannot even accept partial victories.   Like all fanatics, whether motivated by sacred or secular ideologies, they want all or nothing and appear quite willing to cut off their nose to spite their face.

President’s original budget request for 2014 was over one trillion dollars, but the Senate Democrats, with the President’s consent have reduced it to almost half that sum in the present budget to a little over 900 billion dollars in an attempt to compromise with the House Republicans in order to pass a budget and fund the government.  The figure they agreed to is actually close to the numbers in the budget proposed by Paul Ryan, which President Obama ran against and won!

Yet although President Obama was reelected on his platform the Republicans in the House, most of whom represent gerrymandered districts – which is to say “safe” Republican districts created by election commissions appointed by the Republican governors in those states, many of whom were elected because they pledged to fight President Obama’s policies.   So they are insulated from the wrath of the national electorate.

This bit of political chicanery has resulted in a situation where the radical far right-wing minority in the Grand Obstructionists Party can blow up the federal government and plunge the nation into one crisis after another without fear of retribution at the polls.   But as their folly in shutting down the Federal government begins to inconvenience citizens who are on holiday in Washington and find national monuments – like the World War II veterans who made a pilgrimage to that sacred shrine honoring their sacrifice and found it closed.

This is why the Republican iconoclasts are attempting to restore funding to select parts of the government to avoid enraging the public; but President Obama will not play that game, he knows that it is folly to try and finance government operations on an ala carte basis.  The Republicans – shameless charlatans that they are – are now running around posing for pictures with the vets and declaring themselves the true friends of the armed forces, although they have recently cut millions in funding for veteran’s benefits from the federal budget.

With all of the chaos the government shutdown is causing, which is damaging to the nation and might fatally injure the Republican Party’s chances at winning the Presidency, the question all thoughtful people are asking is: Why doesn’t Boehner just pit the budget resolution on the floor for a vote by the entire House and end the crisis the members of his caucus created.

The answer alas, is that Boehner is a man who privileges personal ambition over the stability of the nation, because he knows that should he put the bill up and it

er: Johnny and Nancy

Contemplating their place in History?

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Playthell  G. Benjamin

October 3, 2013

Harlem, New York

Open Secrets: The Dissident 20 Part II…GOP House Is Not Showing So Well!

Our preferred internet site, Open Secrets, The Center for Responsive Politics, garnered serious attention over the past 24 hours with an article related to how 20 dissident GOP legislators are receiving disparate treatment from GOP House leadership.

Here is how we reported the Open Secrets piece. 

Open Secrets….

Re-blog

Facebook Open Secrets 

We’ve been asked many times in the past 24 hours (since we published this story: http://bit.ly/1aPaLJN), “who actually funds the 20 House dissidents?” We were curious too, so we ran the numbers, and discovered some interesting answers.

Who Does Fund the Dissidents? – OpenSecrets 
Blogwww.opensecrets.org

Yesterday we showed that the biggest thorns in the Republican leadership’s side weren’t getting leadership donations. So who is funding them? Don’t look to Wall Street.

Who Does Fund the Dissidents?

by Doug Weber and Russ Choma on October 4, 2013 4:41 PM 

Yesterday, we established that the 20 dissident Republican House members that the New York Times has branded as being some of the loudest rabble-rousers — on the shutdown and other issues — have little financial reason to heed the demands of their party’s leadership; they don’t receive much campaign money from top GOP House members or from the party’s fundraising arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee.

In a town where money handed out to other members helps create alliances and builds a party leader’s machine, these 20 owe Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his No. 2 Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) very little. 

So if it’s not the party leadership in Washington keeping the dissidents’ campaign coffers full, who is it? 

A top source of campaign cash for Republicans overall in recent years has been the securities and investment industry — Wall Street. In 2012, this industry gave more to candidates than any other except one, and 69 percent of its money went to Republicans. 

And Wall Street is, by far and away, the top source of campaign cash for the Republican House leadership. In 2012, Boehner’s campaign and leadership PAC received $1.6 million from the industry; the industry that came in second (oil and gas) only gave about half that. (This excludes the catch-all industry of “retired.”) 

In the first half of 2014, securities and investment gave Boehner’s campaign and leadership PAC about $530,000 and continues to lead his top industries list. Like Boehner, Cantor also received more from that industry than any other — about $466,000 sent to his campaign committee and leadership PAC. 

In 2012, the industry gave 239 House Republican candidates about $16 million, or, on average $67,175 apiece. 

So, what about our dissidents? Nineteen of the 20 received money from the industry in 2012 — Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) is the only one who’s come up dry, according to our data — but on average only received $20,618. That’s less than a third of the House GOP average from Wall Street. 

Similarly, so far in 2014, the industry has helped fund 182 Republican House candidates; the average, per recipient, is $17,078. Seventeen of the 20 dissidents have received contributions from Wall Street, but they’re averaging only $2,985. Not only is that far below the industry’s average to their peers, it’s even well behind the average amount given to Democratic recipients — about $11,963. 

So, if it’s not leadership funding these 20 dissidents and it’s not the House Republicans’ biggest source of campaign cash, who is it? 

According to a CRP analysis, the top donors industries for these 20 don’t vary widely from the list of top industries giving to Republicans in general. But the average amount given does seem to. The oil and gas industry has given 192 House Republicans campaign cash in 2013, on average about $17,500 apiece. Most of the 20 dissidents have gotten money from the industry as well, but, on average, only about $11,500 each. 

The trend appears to be that, by and large, these 20 dissidents are simply raising less money than their colleagues. 

According to CRP data, Republican House members have raised an average of $331,000 in campaign funds so far this year. A review of these 20 dissidents shows that, on average, they have raised $301,000. The group includes Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), who is running for Senate in 2014; he’s raised about $1.1 million so far this year. Excluding Gingrey from the pool, because fundraising levels for Senate candidates are often much higher than for their House colleagues, the remaining 19 have brought in, on average, $259,000. 

It may be months before data showing whatever funds members of Congress are raising this week is available, but — at least through the first six months of the year — these 20 dissidents seem to be lagging behind when it comes to fundraising. 

Follow Russ on Twitter: @russchoma
Images: Boehner and Cantor on Capitol Hill this week. Evan Vucci/Associated Press.

The Dissident 20…An Anomaly? (Look At Dissident Politics GOP Style)

Re-Blog from Open Secrets Dot Org.   

It appears Cantor and company spend far more time parsing out the loot than legislating!

Dissidents Haven’t Seen the $ Love from Boehner, Cantor

by Russ Choma on October 3, 2013 3:16 PM 

A new Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows that the House Republican leadership has raised an extraordinary amount of money so far this year and given it out to other House members at record rates. 

So, if money is the great pacifier on Capitol Hill, why can’t Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his No. 2, Majority Leader Eric Cantor(R-Va.) snap their caucus in line, on the government shutdown or on other matters?

Maybe because the hardcore dissidents in the Republican caucus get almost no money from the leadership. Boehner can’t pull strings he hasn’t tied.

Yesterday, the New York Times identified 20 Republican House members “standing their ground” against Boehner, dissidents who have been a consistent thorn in Boehner’s side and who seem to be pushing the current shutdown. 

We analyzed how much money those 20 have received from the leadership PACs of top Republicans in the House and how much assistance they were given in the 2012 election by the National Republican Congressional Conference. 

According to OpenSecrets.org data, there’s been almost no money going to these 20 from top party leaders, and most were elected without any help from the NRCC. In other words, they don’t owe party leadership much.

That fact is particularly striking because in the first six months of 2013, Cantor gave away $875,000 to other candidates through his leadership PAC, ERIC PAC. That’s a record: No leadership PAC has ever given as much to candidates in the first six months of an election cycle. So far in the 2014 cycle, ERIC PAC has given money to 122 other House Republicans, but only eight members of the group of dissidents have received any cash from Cantor this cycle. Altogether those eight received $55,000 from Cantor’s PAC. (A full list of donations from Cantor and other members of the leadership to the 20 is below.)

Boehner, whose leadership PAC, the Freedom Project, has given out $213,000 to 39 candidates this cycle, gave to just one member of this group of 20: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who received $5,000. 

The other top members of the House Republican leadership follow the same pattern. House Majority Whip Kevin McCartthy (R-Calif.) has given just $7,500 combined to two of the 20 (his leadership PAC has given a total of $155,000 to 38 members). Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) has given $71,000 to other candidates this cycle, but no money to these 20.

No Help From the Party

Leadership PACs aren’t the only tool for creating financial ties that help ensure a member’s loyalty. The GOP party committee for the House plays a major role, and while Cantor gives an unprecedented amount of money directly to other candidates, Boehner gives far more — at least $2.3 million in the first six months of the year — to the NRCC, which then uses it to help candidates directly.

But there are even fewer ties between the NRCC and these 20 Republicans. NRCC contributions to candidates in the 2012 and 2014 cycles combined come to roughly $460,000 combined, so far. The amount that went to any of these 20 Republicans? $5,300. 

The NRCC’s current chairman, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has not given any of the 20 a dime from his leadership PAC in either the 2012 cycle or the current one.

Nor did the NRCC knock itself out making independent expenditures on behalf of the 20 in the 2012 cycle. While it spent $62.7 million in 59 races, it helped just one member of the dissident faction, according to OpenSecrets.org data: Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who benefited from about $521,000 in NRCC-paid ads, mostly attacking his Democratic opponent. 

In his bid last fall, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), received some very minor assistance from YG Network, a politically active nonprofit associated with Cantor, which spent $12,966 supporting him. 

Donations from NRCC & Republican House Leadership

Name	Total	NRCC	Boehner	Cantor	McCarthy	Roskam	Walden
Graves, Tom	$5,000	$0	$0	$0	$5,000	$0	$0
Labrador, Raul	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Amash, Justin	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Duncan, Jeff	$7,500	$0	$0	$5,000	$2,500	$0	$0
Mulvaney, Mick	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000	$0	$0	$0
Culberson, John	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
DeSantis, Ron	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000	$0	$0	$0
Yoho, Ted	$10,000	$0	$0	$10,000	$0	$0	$0
King, Steven A	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Massie, Thomas	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Bridenstine, James	$10,000	$0	$0	$10,000	$0	$0	$0
Salmon, Matt	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Schweikert, David	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Gohmert, Louis B Jr	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Huelskamp, Tim	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Bachmann, Michele	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000	$0	$0	$0
Jordan, Jim	$5,000	$0	$5,000	$0	$0	$0	$0
Stockman, Steve	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000	$0	$0	$0
Fleming, John	$10,000	$0	$0	$10,000	$0	$0	$0
Gingrey, Phil	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0

Follow Russ on Twitter: @russchoma

Images: Boehner on Capitol Hill today. J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press.

Boehner, Why Even Make A Comment?

Last night before retiring for the day and after watching the ultimate bully move from the GOP,  I witnessed the ridiculous. John Boehner came out around 2 AM and placed a cap on my bottle of “CONTEMPT FOR THE GOP” Caffeinated. 

After being asked about the 800,000 people who will be furlough as a result of the GOP action, Boehner barked a talking-point refrain and walked off.  As you watch the clip, pay close attention to the lecherous Eric Cantor. Cantor appears to be chopping at the bit to see Boehner tumble from his speaker of the House position. Of Course, “tea party” Cantor would quickly win the vote to replace Boehner. With leeches like Cantor standing near, one surely needs the Orkin (TM) Man. 

http://youtu.be/6k2OSihxh_c

FreakoutNation reminds us the grinning Cantor was one of the seditious group who met and plotted obstruction strategies on the night of President Obama’s first inauguration. Now, with the reminder, do you really believe Obama has any reason to sit with these anarchist? After previous efforts to negotiate, the lechers ran to cameras immediately thereafter to gloat about backing down the president.

Boehner provided the best example of result that had to please his money-backing Koch machine.  “I got 98% of what I wanted.”  Yes, and after the US suffered a Credit Rating downgrade.

I hope President Obama and Democrats (and sensible Republicans as few as there are) Hang-in against the bullies. They should remember that old axiom, “If you wallow with a pig, the pig will love it. First, you have lowered yourself to his pig pen. Second and more important, YOU NOW STINK.”

The Whirling Wind And Party Ideology That Reminds Of 9/11

Re-blog from The Whirlingwind Dot Com……

We have to comment. The images chosen and depicted by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr. have a common thread. With an exception for Mike Lee (of whom I know nothing) the pictured Senators have a past or current background that reaches into Civil Rights. Their reach has been (Sessions) and is (Paula and Cruz) very much anti-Civil rights. Their common bound speaks volumes about their mindsets, their social paradigms and how they legislate. I am stopping just shy of calling each Paul and Cruz are not in the Senate to legislate. ~ The Pardu

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The Whirling Wind

Radical Republicans Carry On Osama’s Legacy

Posted on September 25, 2013

by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.

If you believe the official account of the events on September 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden masterminded a plan to bring this nation to its knees. We lost 2,978 innocent civilians on that day by conservative estimates. Because of this, we launched two wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. We’ve spent trillions of dollars, ruined our economy and sacrificed 10′s of thousands of the treasure of this nation. Thanks to certain Radical Republicans, it turns out, Osama could have been more effective by simply donating to one of several Republican “Super-PACs.”

Radical Republicans

I am old enough to remember the political parties before the Republicans lost their damn minds. No, I’m not going to play the false equivalence game and pretend to be “fair and balanced” like FAUX News. Sometimes, one of the two sides in a dispute is clearly and unequivocally wrong! I can recall when the Republicansbelieved in fiscal responsibility. Now they merely pay lip service to it. Republicans used to believe in smaller government. Now, they’re fascist.

“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
– Benito Mussolini

They care more about the wishes of the corporations who own them than they do about the actual constituents they purport to represent. The Republicans I remember growing up, tended to be against wars and if anything leaned towards“isolationism.” The radical Republicans of today, haven’t seen a seen a war they’re not in favor of.

The only things they’re not in favor of are the very things that would make this nation stronger, energy independent and would boost the standard of living and quality of life for United States citizens.

Radical Republicans were against bailing out our automotive industry. Think about this for a moment. During WWII, it was our automotive industry that tooled up to produce tanks, firearms and many of the necessities that made it possible for us to prevail. Were it not for the manufacturing base provided by our automotive industries, we all might well be speaking German today. That is, those of us left alive to live under a totalitarian dictatorship.

Not the Detroit I remember.

Even if we ignore the national security implications, think of all the jobs that would have been lost. Not just the direct jobs lost because of factory closings, but all the additional downstream jobs in the companies that produce the products the automotive industries require. Think of the small businesses that depend on the people in communities who are employed by the automotive industry. Mitt Romney’s Op-Ed entitled, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” should be instructional. Detroit has indeed gone bankrupt. Look at Detroit. It is rapidly spiralling down into a “3rd World” experience. This began when the automotive industries began pulling out and relocating. Trouble is, many of these manufacturing plants are now in communities all around the nation. Possibly there are a few employing people in your community. Had we taken the advice of the radical Republicans, you might have been surprised to find your own community looking like Detroit.

Radical Republicans Or Closet Terrorists?

What if a foreign power attacked the United States and killed 45,000 of our citizens? Men, women and children? I want you to actually consider this for a moment. What would you think ought to be done? When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 killing 2,402 of our sailors and wounding 1,247, we dove into WWII which resulted in nuclear weapons being used for the first – and hopefully the last – time in recorded history. When we were attacked on September 11, 2001, we counted 2,978 fatalities. We went to war with two nations – one of which had absolutely nothing to do with the attack – and spent trillions of dollars.

Yet, each year, 45,000 of our brother and sister American citizens die because they have no health insurance. That’s over 15 times the number of people we lost in the September 11 attacks… each year! Do you think we ought to do something about it? How can anyone claim to be a patriot and profess a love for this nation, be against a law that will potentially save 45,000 American lives? Radical Republicans are.

Radical Republicans make Osama Bin Laden look like a piker! He only murdered 2,978 of our citizens. The policy the Radical Republicans are doggedly pursuing will murder 45,000 of our citizens each year. We sent Seal Team 6 to get Osama. Who are we sending after these terrorists?

Backstabbing Our Troops The Radical Republican Forte`

What about them? Can they stand a Government shut down?

If you’re old enough, you will remember when the Republican Party didn’t merely pay lip service to being pro-military. They actually respected and honored those who had served out country in uniform. Being a veteran put you at the head of the line for a job when you returned to civilian life. During the Vietnam war when there was a draft, many times employers would hold your job for you upon your return. Not so now. The families of many active duty soldiers depend on “food stamps” to feed their families during their loved one’s absence.

Radical Republicans in their zeal to stomp on minorities and people of color, are doing all they can to defund and under fund our food stamp safety net. Because of their policies, according to the Department of Defense, some 5,000 families of active duty servicemen will have their food stamps cut. Imagine what that does to the man or woman fighting in the field. How can he or she concentrate on their job while worrying about whether or not their children are going to bed hungry.

While we’re on the subject of hunger in America, 52.32 million people – 1 in 6 – many of them children, are struggling with hunger right here in this country which likes to boast of its “exceptionalism.” When Russian President, Vladimir Putin said that America was not exceptional, many of these same Radical Republicans took offense. Well damnit! The truth hurts doesn’t it?  How the Hell are we exceptional when 52.32 million of our citizens are going to bed hungry just like people in 3rd World Nations?

The entire span of the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis.

Our infrastructure is collapsing around our ears. We’ve got bridges all across this nation that have been marked as unsafe and closed. Some have even fallen down costing lives. We’ve got thousands of veterans, both men and women returning from war in need of jobs. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives under the leadership(?) of John Boehner have refused to pass a single jobs bill. They’ve refused to pass a single bill that would help our returning troops. Oh, by the way, they have voted to repeal Obama Care 41 times. They have caused the United States credit rating to be downgraded. At the time of my writing this, we’re headed for another Government shut down. Did I mention we have troops who are currently fighting a war? Might be nice if we paid them.

Who needs terrorist when you’ve got Radical Republicans doing everything in their power to destroy America. I’m sure Osama Bin Laden is spinning at the bottom of the sea saying, “Damn! If I’d only known!”

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