Tag Archives: Democratic Party (United States)

May 6, 2013 · 6:09 PM

How to Weaken a President

I agree with David Firestone’s assessment below.  Among other things, Republicans are trying to destroy Obama’s legacy as he envisioned it…

The Root

In the New York Times, David Firestone argues that by trying to weaken President Barack Obama by blocking his proposals, Republicans are also insulting American voters.

Republicans are clearly looking to do more than just deprive Mr. Obama of victories, however. The ultimate goal is to make him appear powerless and weak, a flailing figure who is unable to affect the midterm elections or give the next Democratic nominee a boost. Taking heat on a gun vote is worth it if it leads to a reporter asking the president whether he still has any “juice” left with Congress, as one did yesterday. And it leads to an even bigger payoff if the president stumbles in his response, forced to assert that rumors of his demise are premature.

The president is representing the vast majority of the American people when he advocates for stronger gun laws, or immigration reform, or a budget that includes tax hikes for the rich and greater spending on national priorities. When Republicans try to make him look bad by resisting all these things, he’s not the only one who’s being insulted.

Read David Firestone‘s entire blog entry at the New York Times.

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April 1, 2013 · 11:42 AM

Do As We Say, Not As We Do

 

Well, the upside (for them) is that no one can accuse them of being another Michele Bachmann.

The Huffington Post

After Todd Akin lost the Missouri Senate race to Democrat Claire McCaskill in November, he had one final piece of business to take care of as an outgoing member of the House of Representatives — giving piles of government money to his staff. Akin nearly doubled the salaries of his House staffers in the quarter after his defeat, according to the website LegiStorm, which tracks congressional pay.

Only retiring Democrat Gary Ackerman of New York was more generous with public money, barely topping Akin’s 98 percent increase in pay, the website shows. Allen West, a Tea Party favorite from South Florida, was the fourth biggest giver of taxpayer bonuses after he lost reelection to Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.). Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.) was the third most generous, according to LegiStorm.

West and Akin routinely decried wasteful and out-of-control government spending, calling for major cuts to social programs.

Of the top 10 members of Congress most generous with year-end bonuses, nine were Republicans, and 14 of the top 20 were, not coincidentally, on their way out of the House.

Republican Reps. Devin Nunes (Calif.), Steve Austria (Ohio), Steve LaTourette (Ohio), Bob Turner (N.Y.), Roscoe Bartlett (Md.) and Jon Runyan (N.J.) rounded out the top 10 in 2012.

When Democrats lost a historic number of seats in 2010, outgoing members of the party lavished their staff with unspent money, with 18 of the top 20 givers carrying a D next to their name.

House staffers typically get bonuses at the end of the year depending on how much is left in the office budget, but on average in 2012 those bumps were just 16.4 percent for Republicans and 15.1 percent for Democrats. Bonuses are not labeled as such in the congressional books, but LegiStorm is able to count them by comparing the increase in reported salary in the fourth quarter to the average of the first three quarters.

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March 24, 2013 · 12:05 AM

Bill Maher & Alexandra Pelosi: Republicans Want Spending Cuts But Can’t Name One. (VIDEO)

aarom1

Check out some of Alexandra Pelosi’s similar videos here, here and here…

Liberals Unite

“What we need here is the government’s help.” New Jersey Republican.

In her latest short on Real Time with Bill Maher, Alexandra Pelosi illustrates that Republicans are simply not informed. She asks them what spending cuts the government should be making after they insist cuts should be made.

Pelosi asks them about specific cuts, such as education, Medicare, Sandy relief, healthcare, veteran benefits, unemployment benefits and the list goes on. The answer to each suggested cut is “no.”

Can you guess what they want to cut? The answer they give is not surprising. They cling to an ideology. They do so against their own best interest—against your best interest.

Wake up Republicans!!! If you think for five minutes about what you want and what you think you want, you will not be so quick to scream and assume Democrats just want handouts. We don’t have to be so divided. We actually want the same things in life. When will you understand this? When it’s too late?

My question to Republicans is, why do you want to insist on something you can’t even answer yourself?

I fear Maher is accurate when he says “the people are morons, they don’t know what to tell the politicians…, they don’t know anything.”

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February 10, 2013 · 4:21 PM

Democratic Congressman Destroys GOP Hypocrisy On Looming Budget Cuts

Think Progress

On ABC’s This Week Sunday morning, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) called out Tom Cole (R-OK) for his claim that President Obama is responsible for the automatic budget cuts set to go into effect if Congress cannot reach a budget deal by March. The so-called “sequester” includes steep defense cuts intended to motivate Republicans who refused to agree to any deal that included a tax increase in 2011.

When Cole tried to pin the cuts on Obama, Ellison reminded him that Cole himself voted for the Budget Control Act that created the sequester:

COLE: I think it is inevitable. This was a presidential suggestion back in 2011, an idea. And yet the president himself hasn’t put out any alternatives.Republicans twice in the House have passed legislation to deal with it, once as early as last May and again after the election in December. Senate never picked up either of those bills, never offered their own thing. Now we’re three weeks out, and folks are worried. They ought to be worried. On the other hand, these cuts are going to occur. [...]

ELLISON: Well, Tom, the problem with saying this is the president’s idea is that you voted for the Budget Control Act. I voted against it. We wouldn’t have ever been talking about the Budget Control Act but for your party refused to negotiate on the debt ceiling something that has been routinely increased as the country needed it. You used that occasion in 2011 August to basically say we are going to default on the country’s obligations or you’re going to give us dramatic spending cuts. That’s how we got to the Budget Control Act.

Watch it:

As Ellison points out, Republican lawmakers brought the country to the brink of default while trying to extract devastating spending cuts from Democrats. The Budget Control Act was an eleventh hour deal to avoid an economic shutdown. Even so, the debt ceiling fight resulted in the nation’s first ever credit downgrade and $18.9 billion in wasted taxpayer dollars.

Essential government programs are already feeling the effects of the Budget Control Act; domestic spending in food safety, education, Social Security, and poverty assistance programs has plummeted to historic lows thanks to the act’s future spending caps. If Congress cannot come to an agreement by March, even more cuts will further cripple these already vulnerable programs.

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January 30, 2013 · 1:07 PM

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Opening Statement (C-SPAN)

Gabby Gifford’s compelling statement in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on gun violence, today:

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January 9, 2013 · 8:14 AM

Fiscal Cliff Polling Shows Little Support For John Boehner, Wider Approval For Obama

Fiscal Cliff Polling

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) received only 31 percent approval in a recent poll for his handling of fiscal cliff negotiations, with only 38 percent of his own party giving their approval.

The American People prefer real leadership, not a really poor attempt at showmanship and constant capitulation to the most extreme segments of the Republican Party…

The Huffington Post

Americans are largely split in their reaction to the “fiscal cliff” agreement, but united in their dislike for the role played by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), according to a Washington Post/ABC poll released Tuesday.

Americans were divided on the fiscal cliff agreement, with 45 percent approving and 38 percent disapproving, although far more strongly disapproved than strongly approved. Democrats were more than twice as likely as Republicans to approve of the deal.

Women, minorities and those with lower incomes were likely to support the deal, while other groups were more divided, according to ABC.

President Barack Obama won a majority of support for his handling of the crisis, as 52 percent of Americans approved of his approach, while 37 percent disapproved.

John Boehner, by contrast, saw a 20-point net negative rating, with 31 percent approving and 51 percent disapproving of his handling of the deal.

The fiscal cliff’s resolution gave a bump of several points to both politicians over their performances in a previous ABC/Post poll from December.

As a Pew poll released Monday also showed, Boehner’s low ratings come in large part from Republican unhappiness with his leadership. While Obama has broad support from Democratic voters, just 38 percent of Republican voters approved of Boehner’s work on the negotiations.

Both Boehner and Obama actually picked up points among their opposing parties during the debate, The Fix notes:

Just 8 percent of Republican voters approved of the way Obama was handling negotiations in a December Post-ABC survey, while in the new poll roughly one in four (23 percent) said he had done a good job. Democrats jumped from 14 to 27 percent in approving of Boehner’s handling of the issue.

The ABC/Post poll surveyed 1,000 adults between Jan. 2 and Jan. 6, with a 4 percent margin of error.

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December 22, 2012 · 2:51 AM

Obama Drops the Hammer on Republicans and Pulls Back His Last Fiscal Cliff Proposal

This is better…

PoliticusUSA

After House Republicans imploded over their own Plan B, President Obama took away much of his previous proposal by calling for Republicans to get their act together and cut taxes on the 98% right now.

Obama said he met them on taxes and he met them more than halfway on spending, The president said he is still committed to working towards the goal of making a deal, but in 10 days we are facing a deadline. The president then reiterated his call for Congress to immediately extend the Bush tax cuts for the 98%. He said he spoke to both Boehner and Reid, and he is asking them to extend the tax cuts for the 98% and extend unemployment benefits. Obama said, “Governing is a shared responsibility between both parties…everybody’s got to give a little bit in a sensible way. We move forward together, or we don’t move forward at all.”

The president turned up the heat by asking members of Congress to think about their obligations to the people that they serve over Christmas. President Obama said, “We’re going to have find some common ground.” He said the challenge is that the American people are much more sensible, responsible, and willing to compromise than the people they elected.

Underneath all the nice language about compromise, President Obama pulled back any sort of cuts that he had offered in his previous proposal by urging Republicans and Democrats to pass a tax cut extension for the 98%. In other words, that $400,000 income cutoff for the tax cut extension is gone, and we are back to $250,000. In fact, the President appeared to take all spending cuts off the table.

Obama’s call for congressional leadership to put spending cuts on the shelf and cut taxes for the 98% is exactly what he has wanted all along. Republicans blew their once chance at a deal, and now it looks like they can kiss any immediate entitlement cuts goodbye. It would surprise no one if Republicans reject what the president put on the table today, but the president is making House Republicans pay a price for their incompetence by cutting his offer.

It looks like Republicans will either have to go off the cliff, or give President Obama everything he wants right now.

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December 14, 2012 · 4:05 PM

Today Is NOT The Day To Talk About Gun Control, Today Is The Day To Finally DO SOMETHING About It!

I couldn’t agree more.  Like millions of Americans, I am so upset over yet another massive assault on innocent citizens.  The author of this piece accurately express the feelings of millions of Americans at this time.

Global Grind – By Michael Skolnik

I am absolutely sick to my stomach. My hands shake. My heart sinks. My mind is numb. We are all sick to our stomachs. We all shake with the deepest sadness we possibly can imagine. An unimaginable sadness.

The faces. The small, innocent faces. shocked. terrified and confused. The small Sandy Hook elementary school children know not of this life. They know not of this disease that has plagued our nation. They know not of the violence that has sickened our soul. They walk towards safety without prayer, as they have not learned that prayer yet. They walk without knowing that they lost TWENTY TWO (maybe more) of their brothers and sisters, who have left this earth before they could even understand that it was round.

We are on this planet to protect our children. That is our job. That is our number one priority. And we have failed today. The teachers did everything they could. They did not fail. The parents did everything they could. They did not fail. The principal did everything she could. She did not fail. The police did their absolute best. This not about them. This is about us.

We are speechless, but we will not be silent. Not is these UNITED States. Not in this god bless America. Not in this land of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We don’t care about politics. We don’t care about Republicans. We don’t care about Democrats. We don’t care about the National Rifle Association. We don’t care about the pundits on television. We don’t care about the ones who tell us we have to wait.

Today is not the day to talk about gun control or mental health care. Today is the day to finally DO SOMETHING about it.

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December 6, 2012 · 9:45 PM

Thom Hartmann: Something more sinister is in the GOP plans for the 2016 Election…

Mr. Hartmann gives his thoughts and possible solutions to sinister GOP voter suppression tactics.   This video is quite informative.  Take a look…

The Democratic Underground

The 2012 election may have come and gone – but Republicans across the country are already laying out their plans to rig the 2016 Presidential election. What needs to happen in this country so that everyone’s right to vote is protected from the Right’s never-ending war on voting.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV “live” 9pm and 11pm check http://www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings.

 

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November 30, 2012 · 2:28 PM

Social Security and its role in the nation’s debt

This information is vital when debating right-wingers who blame a large part of the deficit on Social Security…

The Washington Post Fact Checker

“Social Security has not added one penny to the deficit.”

— Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Nov. 27, 2012

In 2011, we evaluated a similar statement about Social Security and gave it a relatively rare rating — “true but false” — which seemed to please no one. Yet as the “fiscal cliff” negotiations have heated up, Democrats have once again been using this talking point to shield Social Security from the chopping block.

Durbin, to his credit, in a speech to the Center for American Progress this week, acknowledged that Social Security’s long-term financing is an important issue that cannot be deferred. He advocates creating a commission that would separately address how to ensure 75 years of solvency to the program.  So we don’t mean to pick on Durbin since plenty of Democrats in recent days have made similar comments.

But we remain troubled by the reemergence of this talking point, especially given the further decline in Social Security’s finances in the past year. We do not think this line is a slamdunk falsehood, as some believe, but it is certainly worth revisiting.

 

The Facts

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system, which means that payments collected today are immediately used to pay benefits. Until recently, more payments were collected than were needed for benefits. So Social Security loaned the money to the U.S. government, which used it for other things, which in effect masked the overall size of the federal budget deficit.  In exchange, Social Security received interest-bearing Treasury securities, which now total more than $2.7 trillion.As we have repeatedly explained, the bonds held by Social Security are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The bonds are a real asset to Social Security, but — here’s where it gets complicated — they also represent an obligation by the rest of the government. Like any entity that issues debt, such as a corporation, the government will have to make good on its obligations, generally by taking the money out of revenue, reducing expenses or issuing new debt.

So what is happening today? The Congressional Budget Office tracks the flow of money in and out of the Social Security fund, and below is a summary of the data for fiscal 2013. To keep things simple, we will include transfers made for the payroll tax holiday as part of “other income.”

Continue reading here…

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