Reid Goes "Nuclear" on McConnell

Over the past five years senate Republicans have creatively used any number of procedural rules to advance their agenda.  Their primary weapon of choice has been the filibuster. 

Republicans have strategically and systematically used the filibuster to block presidential nominees to the judiciary, render government agencies powerless and circumvent written law; all for the stated purpose of impeding the president’s agenda.

Republicans oppose the formation of the Consumer Protection Agency under the Dodd-Frank Bill.  The bill became law.  Republicans filibuster the president’s nominee to chair the agency thereby rendering the agency powerless.

Republicans oppose the National Labor Relations Board.  The board was enacted into law by congress.  Republicans filibuster the president’s nominees to sit as commissioners on the board thereby rendering the board powerless.

Major Republican donors oppose the FHA.  Republicans can’t oppose the FHA because the real estate lobby will go crazy.  So Republicans filibuster the president’s nominee to head the FHA thereby rendering the agency powerless.

Republicans filibuster the president’s nominee for Secretary of Defense…while the country is at war.  They filibuster cabinet appointments, under secretary appointments, judicial appointments…

If Republicans don’t like a law and they don’t have the votes to repeal it…can’t find the votes to defund it…can’t find the votes to amend it…then they will filibuster anything they can to render the law moot.

Republicans have used the filibuster more times during the Obama administration than it was used in the PREVIOUS SEVEN PRESIDENTAIL ADMINISTRATIONS COMBINED. 

Majority Leader Harry Reid said it best:  “In the entire history of the Republic, there have been 168 filibusters of executive and judicial nominees.  Half of them have occurred during the Obama Administration.”

Over the past five years Republicans have made such liberal use of the filibuster that as a matter of course it now takes 60 votes to get anything past in the senate.  The concept that “majority rules” is a long lost thing of the past.

That is until yesterday.

There are currently three vacancies on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.  The DC circuit is considered the second most important court in the land because it is in this court that has jurisdiction over executive orders.  The most important court in the land is of course, the Supreme Court.  Many justices serving on the DC Circuit find themselves appointed to the Supreme Court    

The court is currently divided equally between four judges appointed by Republican presidents and four appointed by Democrats.  There are currently three vacant seats. 

The president, as he is required by the constitution, placed the names of three abundantly qualified individuals into nomination.  Leader Reid warned Minority Leader McConnell that there would be dire consequences if McConnell’s caucus filibustered the appointments.  Reid warned McConnell that Democrats were tired of Republicans holding the government hostage through use of the filibuster.  Reid warned McConnell that if Republicans filibustered the president’s nominees to the DC district court he would use his authority as majority leader to exercise what is known as the “nuclear option.”  In translation it means that Reid would change the current rule which required 60 votes to end debate and replace it with a simple majority vote.

Reid had had threatened to “go all nuclear” on the Republicans before.  But each time cooler heads prevailed.  They reminded Reid that at some point in time the power in the senate was bound to shift.   Democrats had been in the minority before and had not been bashful about using the filibuster to delay Republican nominees. 

But this was different in Reid’s eyes.  Republicans had been unabashedly using the filibuster to circumvent laws passed by congress.  This was obstructionism gone rogue.

McConnell believed that Reid was bluffing.  Republicans filibustered all three of the president’s nominees.  Reid had had enough.  With the president’s support Reid went “nuclear,” changed the rules and forever altered the way business will be conducted in the senate.

There are currently 93 vacant seats in the federal courts.  McConnell challenged Reid on the three vacancies in the DC Circuit.  McConnell overplayed his hand and lost.  Now the president can fill all 93 vacancies and there is nothing republicans can do to stop him.

Oops!

Republicans went nuts!  McConnell warned that Democrats would rue the day “sooner than you may think.”

McConnell is correct.  Democrats may well lose the senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016. If that should that happen Democrats will find themselves without the filibuster to stem the Republican tide.

And that is exactly how it should be. 

If a party wants to rule as the majority then it needs to make its case to the voters and win an election.  A minority party should not be able to use procedural tactics to circumvent the law.  And a president, Democrat or Republican, should have a mandate to pick his own team.

Republicans like to talk about how they are the defenders of the constitution.

You won’t find the word “filibuster” mentioned anywhere in that document.

50 Years Later...I Still feel The Pain

Where were you the day they shot JFK?

If you are old enough to have lived through the Kennedy assassination you have probably been asked that question at least 50 times over the last 50 years.  Those of us old enough to have been cognizant of the events of that crisp November day most certainly remember where we were… and what we felt when we learned that they had shot the president.

Just one month shy of my twelfth birthday, I was laying on the couch in my parents’ living room watching TV.  I was sporting a new set of braces on my unruly teeth; having spent the morning in the clutches of a cruel and unfeeling orthodontist.   I was feeling quite sorry for myself; my only solace, a day home from Sister’s Felicity’s interrogations.

I still remember the state of shock and disbelief that swept over me when they cut into local programming to announce that the president had been shot.  I remember hoping against hope that the wounds were not fatal…that somehow he would pull through.  And I remember to this day the pain deep in my stomach when they confirmed that the president had died from his wounds.

My mother burst into tears.  I had never seen my mother cry before that day.  That day we wept together.

The Kennedy Campaign opened my eyes to the world of politics.  As a youngster I remember watching the convention the night he won the nomination.  I understood little of it.  But the crowds, the signs, the whole spectacle was fascinating. 

I didn’t understand Kennedy’s politics. Hell, I didn’t understand politics period.  What did I know of civil rights?  Two of the kids that I played with every day happened to be black.  The only thing that separated me from them as far as I was concerned was the manner in which they kicked my ass on the makeshift ball field that we frequented after school.  All I knew was that Kennedy was young and inspiring and I wanted him to win.

I remember watching Kennedy debate Nixon.  I remember Kennedy’s cool, calm demeanor.  I remember the beads of perspiration on Nixon’s lip.  Kennedy made me feel safe.  Nixon gave me the creeps. 

I vividly remember the Cuban missile crisis…pictures of Khrushchev pounding the desk with his shoe…the constant air raid drills.  It was all very real…and very scary.  Kennedy saved us.  Only later in life did I learn that he saved the world from a nuclear holocaust.

The days following the assassination were a blur.  I watched Jack Ruby murder Lee Harvey Oswald on live television.  The funeral was surreal.  The flag draped coffin lying in state…the rider less horse, empty boots riding backward in the stirrups…the sound of the drums. 

I remember watching Jackie Kennedy closely.  Perhaps it was because she was the last remaining link to a fallen president and a time lost forever.  Or perhaps it was because her features were similar to those of my own mother.  I watched how she carried herself and how she ushered her children, and with them a nation, through an excruciatingly difficult time. I remember watching John John’s salute…

And then, suddenly, it was over…

The press had dubbed the Kennedy years in the White House: “Camelot.” It truly was a magical time.  The young energetic president, brimming with vitality…his stunning, intelligent cultured wife…their two beautiful children…all packaged together at a moment in time that resonated with masses.  Kennedy gave us sense of hope and the promise of a better future…that we as a country could do anything.  A “New Frontier” was ours for the taking.

Then, in a flash, it was gone.  And we were left bewildered and very afraid of what the future might bring.

I have lived through the horrors of 9/11 and witnessed the impact that day had on this country.  But for me nothing compares to the sense of sorrow and loss that came over me on that fateful day of November 22, 1963.

They took something from us that day.  They took something from me.  And try as I might I can’t seem to get it back.

So every year, for the past 50 years, I remember the anniversary of that terrible day.  The sorrow and emptiness in the pit of my stomach returns as I remember what we lost…

…and what might have been.

    

                          

 

ACA Reducing Health Care Costs

The Affordable Care Act was designed to accomplish two very important goals: 1.) make affordable health care available to every American and 2.) reduce the cost of health care in this country.

The jury is still out on goal #1.  Even though parts of the law have been in effect for three years the enrollment piece has only been up and running for 6 weeks.  The difficulties with the website have been well documented.  They are inexcusable.  Presumably they will be fixed.  History will eventually determine to what extent the botched rollout will have on reaching this long term goal.

There is however ample evidence that the ACA is well on its way to achieving goal #2.

USA TODAY highlights a new report which states that over the past three years our “health care spending has risen by the lowest rate ever recorded.” 

The White House Council on Economic Advisors states that health care costs from 2010-2013 rose only 1.3%.  The report further states that for the first time in history Medicare spending over the same period did not increase while Medicaid spending decreased by 0.5%.

According to Council on Economic Advisors Chairman, Jason Furman “If just half the recent slowdown can be sustained, health care spending a decade from now will be $1,400 per person lower…Reduced health care costs for employers could lead to 200,000 to 400,000 new jobs per year by the second half of the decade.”

The USA article goes on to say that due to the cost reductions the Congressional Budget Office “reduced Medicare and Medicaid spending projections in 2020 by $147 billion since 2010.”

Health care experts agree that the reduction in spending is due in part to the Affordable Care Act.  Republicans of course disagree.

Brendan Buck, a spokesperson for Speaker Boehner is quoted in the article saying that the slow growth in health care spending “was the result of the terrible economy under President Obama, not his health care law.”

Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research responded to Boehner’s political attempt to throw cold water on the report: 

“The idea that it is the economy is just silly” said Baker.  “In 2008-2009…fair enough, but now that we are four years out, no one could say that with a straight face…Suppose the opposite were happening.  Suppose growth went up 8%.  Does anyone doubt that we would be blaming President Obama and the Affordable Care Act for that?”

The early returns indicate that the ACA is in fact reducing the cost of health care.  Whether the cost reductions are sustainable is yet to be determined.

Health care spending encompasses 1/6^th of our economy.  It’s a really big deal!  Republicans have no alternative plan.  So when it comes to the ACA all they can do is highlight the negative and lie about the positive.  It is easy to criticize.  It is difficult to govern.          

Money For War...We're Not Broke After All!

On October 7, 2001 United States military forces invaded Afghanistan.  The alleged purpose of this military action was to root out and kill those responsible for the attacks on September 11.  Somewhere along the way the mission changed from hunting down and killing bad guys to nation building and the democratization of a country still living in the fourth century.  2,193 lives have been lost and over $700 billion spent to extract revenge and prop up a government awash in corruption. 

A war weary nation gave a collective sigh of relief when the president announced that the US would end military operations by December 31, 2014. America’s longest war was finally ending. 

Or was it? 

Today we learn that the war in Afghanistan will continue…until 2024…”and beyond.”

The increase in violent uprisings throughout the country has made it clear that US trained Afghan forces are not ready to defend the government against Al Qaida and Taliban insurgents.

NBC NEWS has obtained a document that outlines an agreement between the United States and the Afghan government for US forces to remain in country through 2024 “and beyond.”  The agreement is open ended but allows either party to terminate the accord upon giving written notice.

Negotiations are still underway.  The US wants to maintain key military outposts along with 10,000 troops to provide force protection and conduct offensive operations.  The Afghan government would prefer 7,000 troops restricted to a more defensive posture.  But a key sticking point, that the US government would maintain exclusive legal jurisdiction over US military and civilian personnel, has been granted by the Karzai government.  It was Iraq’s refusal to grant similar legal protections for US forces that sent American troops packing.

If an agreement is reached, it will cost US taxpayers billions in treasure not to mention the damage to American families facing multiple deployments.

Let’s take a moment to put this agreement into perspective.

Secretary of State Kerry is negotiating an agreement to prop up a corrupt regime that will cost taxpayers billions over the coming decade(s).  Meanwhile Democrats and Republicans are trying to reach a budget deal that addresses our $17 trillion dollar debt and near $1 trillion dollar annual deficit.  We have $80 trillion…yes trillion, in unfunded obligations over the next ten years.  The country is already reeling under the sequestration cuts that have rolled back billions in social safety net programs on which millions of Americans depend.  Another government shutdown over our continued fiscal difficulties looms large. 

Yet here we are on the verge of dumping billions more down the Afghanistan black hole.  Too what end?

If we can’t afford to feed, clothe and care for our own here at home…what in the hell are we doing spending billions to prop up a corrupt government overseas?

America’s longest war continues.  Evidently we’re not broke after all.                

Cheney Family Feud A Distraction

Once you get past the clown show surrounding the escapades of mayor of Toronto you will find that today’s top political story concerns a family feud between the daughters of former Vice President and current war criminal, Dick Cheney.

Dick and Lynne Cheney have two daughters.  One, Mary Claire, is a gay woman who is married.  She and her spouse, Heather Poe, have two children.  The other, Elizabeth Lynne Cheney Perry, is a political opportunist who does not support her sister’s lifestyle.  The war of words between the two has gone viral.  Evidently the two sisters will not be spending the holidays together.

Dick and Lynne support Mary’s lifestyle and have come out in support of gay marriage.  Dick has not always held this view.  But Dick is not the first conservative to change his tune when ideological “family values” clash with the realities living under ones’ roof.  (See: Portman, Rob; US Senator R-OH.)

None of this would matter very much if not for the fact that Liz, the daughter of a former vice president and current war criminal, has decided to run for the US Senate seat currently held by Republican incumbent Mike Enzi.  The 69 year old Enzi, who has held the seat since 1997, had indicated that he might not be up for another six years in the fun house.     

Liz has not lived in the great state of Wyoming since she was a toddler.  She has no political experience.  She has lived off her lineage, plying her trade as a screechy talking head on FOXNEWS; voicing her opposition to anything that gets within 100 yards of the president.  

As we said, Liz is a political opportunist.  Seeing an opportunity, Liz moved back to Wyoming to take Enzi’s seat.  She had promised the incumbent that she wouldn’t run if he decided to return for another term.  Enzi decided to give it a go.  Liz decided to primary him from the right.  Her qualifications are: …she is Dick Cheney’s daughter…and Mike Enzi has been around for too long.  Simple!

The residents of the good state of Washington don’t seem to be very interested in the Cheney family feud…or for that matter in Liz’s bona fides.  Enzi leads Cheney by 53 points. 

If all of this fascination with the Cheney clan seems like nonsense…you’re right.  The sad part is that stories like this and the clownish mayor of Toronto distract the media and the public from focusing on topics that really matter…like jobs.

Jobs!  You remember “jobs” right?  The one thing that every Democrat and Republican running for office during the last election promised was that they would focus on the economy and create jobs.  Jobs!  Jobs!  Jobs!

So where are the jobs?

The DOW went over the 16000 mark yesterday.  Wall Street is cruising.  The top 1% of wage earners are rolling in it.  Yet Main Street is struggling.

The economy is still sluggish.  Unemployment is still high.  40% of the country makes less than $25,000.  Republicans refuse to consider a raise in the minimum wage.  They cut food stamps and other social safety net programs that millions depend on to exist.  They say these are handouts for the loafers and the takers.  But 47% of the people that rely on these programs work 40+ hours a week.  They just don’t make enough to take care of their families.  You can’t gin up the economy unless the middle class and working poor have the money they need to spend on groceries, diapers, etc. 

This isn’t about “loafing or taking.”  This is about surviving.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest employer, understands the plight of the working poor.  In keeping with the holiday spirit one Ohio Wal-Mart has set out large Rubbermaid bins near their main doors.  Each bin displays a sign that reads:  “Please donate food here so Associates in need can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.”

Seriously!  Perhaps Wal-Mart might consider paying their “Associates” a decent wage so they can afford to buy their own Thanksgiving dinner.  Wal- Mart posted profits in 2012 of $15.7 billion.

Enough with the Cheney clan and the freak show in Toronto!  The only story we want to see about Dick Cheney is the one where he is hauled off to The Hague in shackles and an orange jump suit.

These soap operas only serve to distract us from focusing on events that truly matter.

Jobs!  Jobs!  Jobs!

       

       

The Sleeping Giant Has Awakened!

We’d like to begin today with the following point of information.

In the interest of full disclosure we would like to go record as stating that we love Rachel Maddow.

If we had a daughter we would be most happy if she were the embodiment of the host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.  Smart and witty, Maddow manages to use her very large Stanford educated brain to clarify weighty matters in a way that those of us who are less gifted can comprehend. 

It is in that light that we credit a segment she aired last Friday night as the inspiration for today’s rant.  For you won’t find any graduates of the Rand Paul School of Plagiarism here.

Since BaraK Obama was elected to a second term there have been four major social issues that have been swallowed up by the black hole that is the current United States Congress.  They are: background checks for all gun purchases, immigration reform, increasing the minimum wage and the Employee Non-Discrimination Act that says you can’t fire someone on the basis of their sexual orientation. 

Each of these issues is highly favored among a vast majority of the electorate:

-Background checks for all gun purchases – 81% approval rating overall, ranging from 80%-83% among Independents, Democrats AND Republicans.

-Immigration Reform – 87% approval rating overall, ranging from 86%-88% among Independents, Democrats AND Republicans.

-Increasing the minimum wage – 76% approval rating overall, ranging from 58%-91% among Independents, Democrats AND Republicans.

-Employee Non-Discrimination Act – 73% approval overall, ranging from 60%-80% among Independents, Democrats AND Republicans.

Given their wide ranging popularity…why haven’t these issues passed through congress?

The answer of course is because congress is controlled by 40-50 radical right wing Tea Party Republicans dedicated to standing in the way of everything the president proposes.  Their weapons of choice: the filibuster and the threat of a primary challenge against any lawmaker who dares to stand in their way.  The result of this obstructionism is a politically polarized and paralyzed federal government, either unwilling or unable to conduct the people’s business.

There are 300,000,000 Americans.  222,000,000 are of age and eligible to vote.  Why are 222,000,000 million eligible voters allowing 40-50 right wing radicals to control their destiny?

A few weeks ago the country was facing a government shutdown.  85% of the country opposed a government shutdown.  Yet the Tea Party was almost giddy at the prospect.  Once the deed was done one Tea Partier after another appeared in public literally ecstatic over what they had achieved.  At that time, we along with many others warned that if the Republican Party allowed the radical right to shut down the government, it would mark the beginning of the end of both to both Tea Party and the Republican Party’s relevance on the national political stage.  It appears that our prediction is coming to fruition.

Recently there were primary elections in two very conservative districts in the Deep South; one in Florida, the other in Alabama.  Both seats were held by Tea Party Republicans.  Both incumbents were challenged by candidates who favored a more moderate pragmatic form of governing.  Both challengers favored fixing the ACA rather than repeal.  Both favored background checks on all gun purchases.  Both favored ENDA.  Both favored immigration reform including a tough stringent path to citizenship.  Both made it clear that they were NOT members of the Washington establishment.

Both moderate challengers won.

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker was recently asked to describe his vision of a successful Republican candidate for the presidency in 2016.  Walker said he felt the candidate had to be a Washington outsider…preferably a governor who knew how to balance budgets and get things done.  Obviously Walker was referring to himself.  Can you say Walker/Christie or Christie/Walker in 2016?

We most certainly are not members of the Scott Walker fan club.  Yet we believe the governor is right on this issue.  People are tired of Washington gridlock and they are voicing their displeasure at the ballot box.  Tea Partiers in ultra conservative districts are finding themselves the victims of a primary challenge.  And it is certainly no coincidence that Walker is playing the “Washington outsider” card for all its worth.  Especially given that the presumptive frontrunner for the presidency is the consummate Washington insider…Hillary Clinton.

The sleeping giant has awakened.  222,000,000 prospective voters are beginning to speak out against the gridlock in Washington.  Incumbents and challengers are getting the message.   

Republicans and Tea Party members beware.  Voters want to see progress.  They want to see stuff getting done.  Simply being the party of “NO” is no longer an option.

We sense that there is real change in the air.  But this time it is cloaked in neither Red nor Blue.     

    

Dems In Disarray!

The Democrats are in disarray…digging themselves into one huge credibility hole.

Yesterday, with the help of their leader, they dug the hole even deeper.

Frantic congressional Democrats stormed the White House the past few days giving the president an earful over the train wreck that is the ACA rollout.  As always, their concern was not about the American people or the affects this flawed rollout may be having on their constituents’ lives.  Their concern, of course, was all about the manner in which the ACA mess was negatively impacting their chances of keeping their jobs.

The president unfortunately responded to their hysteria.  Looking all the worse for wear, a beleaguered Obama went before the public to apologize once again for the problems with the ACA.  He deflected blame from his hysterical Democrat colleagues and then announced a wrongheaded solution that will only cause more problems for him down the road. 

You undoubtedly recall that the president had promised the nation that under the ACA:  “If you like your current health care plan you can keep it.”  Faced with the uproar from the millions of Americans who were receiving cancellation notices because their health plan did not meet the minimum coverage standards under the ACA, the president attempted to fix the problem.  He announced a plan that would allow policyholders and insurers to maintain their policies for one year even if they didn’t meet the ACA minimum requirements.  The “fix” also requires insurance companies to explain to policy holders the deficiencies in their policies as compared to the minimum coverage required under the ACA.

It comes as no surprise that Speaker Boehner derided the president’s effort; saying that the only way to fix the problems caused by the ACA is to scrap the law in its entirety.

Where oh where do we begin?

First of all…the White House needs to stop putting the president out there to say: “I didn’t know!”

“I didn’t know we were tapping the phones of AP White House reporters.”  “I didn’t know the NSA was eavesdropping on Americans’ phone calls and emails.”  “I didn’t know the ACA website wouldn’t work.”  If he is being truthful, that he really didn’t know these things, then he needs to find people who will tell him what he needs to hear not what he wants to hear.  In his remarks yesterday he sounded as if he were exasperated by his lack of forewarning about the ACA website.  Let’s hope his exasperation results in some changes in the White House.  He might start by including in his inner circle and outsider who understands the intricacies of the insurance industry.

Next, the president needs to get his chin off his chest and fight for what he believes in.  Mr. President, if you believe in the ACA fight for it.  Those junk insurance policies that you are waffling on undermine the very core of the ACA.  Let them be cancelled.  These policies cost next to nothing because they provide next to nothing. 

ACA detractors say that people should be able to choose the coverage they want.  We agree in principle.  But in reality the same people who buy those low cost “catastrophe” policies will still be going to the doctor when they become sick or injured.  And we will be the ones paying the freight when their “catastrophe” insurance carrier says, “sorry no coverage” or when they can’t come up with their huge deductibles.  If you want to fix the cancellation problem, Mr. President, fix the damn website.  Then those folks will be able to find something that suits their needs and doesn’t place a financial burden on the rest of us.

As for your “fix” to the problem…it has no teeth.  Your decree that those individuals who had their contracts cancelled should be reinstated and allowed to keep their coverage is unenforceable.  You can’t force the insurance carriers to reinstate the policies…and if they do reinstate them…you can’t force the carriers to do so at the same premiums.  The insurance industry has spent the past three years figuring out how they were going to handle this roll out and how they were going to account actuarially for all the changes required of them under the ACA.  You can’t just wipe all that out with a wave of the hand and a simple “Never mind.” 

Finally, with regard to Speaker Boehner and his cadre of detractors, your response should be short and simple.  “I’m not going to respond to those who have nothing constructive to say.  If you don’t like this law then show the American people a detailed alternative.  It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize.  Pass a bill for once.”

There is a very real chance that the ACA rollout will mark the beginning of the end for the Obama presidency.  That will certainly be the case if the administration continues down its current path.

Set politics aside Mr. President.  End the insular bunker mentality.  Seek out those who will tell you the truth… 

…and fix the damn website!