Today Is D-day!

Today is D-day!  The day Washington begins to destroy our economy.

The Republican controlled House returned the Democrat controlled Senate’s “clean “continuing resolution to fund the government… and mucked it up with a footnote. 

The note demanded, among other things, a one year delay in the implementation of Obamacare.  Given the limited time remaining before Monday’s midnight deadline to forge a compromise, it would appear that a government shutdown is imminent.

It would appear that come Tuesday morning 800,000 federal government workers will be told to stay home…without pay.  Among them will be the nice people that send out those monthly benefit checks that tens of millions of Americans depend on.  The national parks will close.  And you might have to cancel that overseas business trip if you are waiting on a passport.

We don’t get it?  Why would Republicans risk crashing the economy and incurring the wrath of millions of voters over Obamacare?  If it the law is as bad as they say it is won’t people will hate it.  And if people hate it, won’t it eventually implode on itself?  Why risk taking a beating at the polls?

Ted Cruz inadvertently gave us the answer at a recent Q & A session with supporters.  Cruz said this is his party’s last chance to repeal Obamacare because “once people get addicted to the sugar you can never take it away.”

Translation…Republicans are frantic to repeal the law because they are scared to death that you will like it.  And if there is one thing that Republicans fear in their bones it is another successful government program…especially one passed by THIS president.

They won’t tell you that.  So they make stuff up to scare you.      

Republicans say that we should repeal Obamacare a myriad of reasons.  They say the law is too big and too cumbersome.  They say the sign up process is confusing and the paperwork a nightmare.  They say the rates are high and will go even higher.  They say that you won’t be able to get the coverage or services you need and that it will take forever to get a claim paid.

That sounds very similar to the system we have now…the one Republicans want us to return to.

So today is D-day.  The day Washington will begin to destroy our economy.

All because Republicans fear that Obamacare will actually work.      

   

Everything Else Is Simply Nonsense

The insanity in Washington continues.

Today the senate is expected to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels… including the president’s Affordable Health Care Act.  The vote would have occurred yesterday but Senator Cruz delayed the vote until today.  Apparently the senator had previously sent out notes and emails to supporters encouraging them to “watch the show on Friday.” Not wanting to deprive his supporters of another chance to see him perform, the narcissistic junior senator from Texas selfishly deprived the congress of valuable time to avoid a government shutdown.  Meanwhile Republican Senator Bob Corker took to the well of the senate to publically scold Cruz on his self serving tactics.  Cruz questioned how corker, a Republican, could dare to vote with the Democrats.    Fun!  While this nonsense may provide great material for Jon Stewart and the cast of SNL it doesn’t help to resolve the very real possibility that the government will shut down on October 1^st .

Such an event is not without precedent.  The United States government has shut down 17 times in the past.  The most recent in 1996 when then Speaker Newt Gingrich and his Republican caucus shut the place down for 21 days.  Bill Clinton destroyed the Republicans in the media for their recklessness and became one of the world’s most popular figures.  Newt Gingrich eventually was run out of Washington.  The two parties DID manage to balance the budget and the government employees received back pay for their time on the sidelines.  There is zero chance that this congress will find its way to a balanced budget.  And the 800,000 “nonessential” employees who will be sent home can forget about any back pay.

While a government shutdown will damage the economy and impact millions of Americans it pales in comparison to the economic Armageddon that the failure to raise the debt ceiling will bring.  And that game of Russian roulette has begun.

The Treasury Secretary has advised Speaker Boehner that the government will run out of money on October 17 and consequently will be unable to pay its bills.  As we expected, Speaker Boehner responded by releasing a list of conditions that he will demand from the president in exchange for a vote to raise the debt ceiling.  There are 15 items on the list ranging including: defunding  Obamacare, adoption of the Ryan tax reform plan, building the Keystone Pipeline, defunding the Consumer Protection Agency, eliminating EPA emissions restrictions etc. etc.  There was talk of including a ban on late term abortions but that proposal failed to make the cut. 

If this grab bag of conservative goodies sounds familiar to you…it should.  This is the same Republican platform that presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigned on in 2010…and lost.

The president responded by saying that he “will not negotiate the full faith and credit of the United States of America.”  Speaker Boehner said:  “Well, that’ not how this works.”

The stakes here are high and very, very real.  If the government fails to increase the debt ceiling the economic repercussions will be felt worldwide.  Billions of people could honestly lose their life savings over night.

Allow us to put these two events into perspective.

The health care law that has Republicans fuming will affect the roughly 10% of the population that is currently uninsured.  The remaining 90% will continue along as they have before.

 The increase in the debt ceiling is not about enabling the government to increase its spending in the future.  The debt ceiling must be raised in order for the government to pay for the goods and services it purchased in the past.

Everything else is simply nonsense.   

                  

Calling "Bullshit" on "Small Government Conservatives"

Having dispensed with the Ted Cruz promotional extravaganza the senate returned to matters at hand.

The first order of business was a cloture vote on a continuing resolution to fund the government.  The senate passed the cloture motion and will vote on the continuing resolution within the next 24-48 hours.  The senate bill funds the government at the current spending levels and includes funding for Obamacare.

(It should be noted that the whole purpose of Cruz’ faux filibuster was to prevent a cloture vote on the senate bill because, as Cruz said: “a vote for cloture is a vote for Obamacare.”  Cruz then went on to vote “yes” for cloture.  The motion carried 100-0.)

If the senate passes their bill it then goes to the House.  The House must first vote to take up the senate bill for debate… and then vote to pass it. 

All of this must be accomplished by midnight Monday or the government will shut down.  A shut down could delay the delivery of essential benefits and services to tens of millions of Americans.

There are those that like to downplay the impact that a shutdown will have on the populace.  Some say that the government will find away to get key benefits and services to those who need them.  “Don’t worry about your Social Security checks or your Medicare benefits being delayed.  The government won’t let that happen”, they say.  We’ll see.

But what about the other government agencies that are considered “discretionary” for funding purposes?  They will most certainly close their doors if congress fails to act.  What affect will their closure have?

Take the EPA for example.

For all intents and purposes the EPA is a government agency that most Americans feel they can do without.  Those who call themselves “small government conservatives” have a particular dislike for this government agency.  They view the EPA nothing more than a ham fisted bureaucracy that interferes in the manner in which they conduct their business by imposing expensive and unnecessary regulations.  Small government conservatives would like nothing better than to see the EPA defunded.

That is unless they happen to live in the Boulder, Colorado area.

You see Boulder has experienced a huge growth in the development of oil and natural gas production.  Oil and gas production facilities have been are sprouting up like weeds in the Boulder area.  Tragically the vast flooding and mudslides that have plagued Boulder have washed out many of these oil and gas facilities.  There is a big concern that the flooding has caused the toxic chemicals used in these operations to leach into the water table and pollute the drinking water. 

The folks in Boulder asked their state and local officials to test the water supply around these facilities for containments.  Unfortunately, as part of the austerity measures, the state of Colorado has cut back on the number of state inspectors.  They don’t have enough state inspectors to handle all of the damaged facilities.

Call for the EPA!

So now the good people of Boulder want the EPA to come to the rescue.  We can only assume that some of those who are pleading for federal assistance are small government conservatives.

This is just another in example of why those who refer to themselves as “small government conservatives” are simply full of it.

Small government conservatives carry signs reading: “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”

Small government conservatives oppose gay marriage…until they discover that one of their loved ones is gay. (Ref. Dick Cheney)

Small government conservatives opposed the president’s stimulus plan…and then lined up like sheep to get some for their districts.

Small government conservatives opposed the Obamacare provision that requires members of congress to buy their health coverage through the newly formed government insurance exchanges…until they discovered that they could buy their coverage 8%-10% cheaper through the exchange than they could get on the open market. 

The list goes on and on.

Let’s call out this small government ideology for what it really is. 

Bullshit!

          

   

Welcome To Whoville!

The Republican clown show continues!  This particular showing warrants a big gulp and a jumbo bag of popcorn.

At 2:41 yesterday afternoon, Senator Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor to filibuster the funding of the president’s signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act.  In fact he is still speaking as we write this.  The good senator has vowed to continue speaking “until I can no longer stand.”

That statement is a lie.  As a point of record, the junior senator from Texas has made several fictional statements during his time at the podium.  In fact this whole production is a lie.

You see this is not even a filibuster.  It is not a filibuster because Senator Cruz and Senate Leader reached a “pre-filibuster” agreement that Cruz would stop speaking no later than noon today to allow the senate to continue its business.  So in fact Senator Cruz will continue with his faux filibuster “until I can no longer stand” or until 12:00 noon whichever comes first.

And what exactly is the good senator faux filibustering.  He wants to delay a senate vote on the House continuing resolution that does NOT include any funding for Obamacare.

For those of you just entering the theater, allow us to summarize.  Senator Ted Cruz is engaging in a fake filibuster to delay a senate vote on a continuing resolution passed by his Republican House colleagues that gives him everything he is fake filibustering for.

Cruz has been pillared by virtually every member of his own party for participating in this charade.  They don’t have the votes in the senate to defund Obamacare and they know it.  They want to move on to battles that they can actually win.  But Cruz will not be deterred.

So why is Cruz doing this?

He is doing it to appease the Tea Party folks back home that sent him to Washington to do this very thing…stop Obama and the government.  He wants to be able to say that he and he alone stood up to the advances of big government.  He firmly believes that these tactics will stand him in good stead when the 2016 elections come around.  One thing is clear.  Ted Cruz is not about country or party.  Ted Cruz is all about Ted Cruz.

Now we respect the good senator’s right to speak in opposition to the president’s health care initiative.  But we do not believe that he has the right to lie about it in the process.  Here are just of Ted’s erroneous remarks:

(Obamacare) “Allows the IRS to decide whether your grandmother lives or dies.”  False!  There is nothing in the law that supports that statement.

(Obamacare) “Allows the government to decide if you get that kidney transplant that you so desperately need.”  False!  There is nothing in the law that supports that statement.

“Health care costs are skyrocketing under Obamacare.  False!  Health care costs have increased by 4% each of the last three years…the lowest increase in the past 50 years.

“Obamacare isn’t working.”  False!  Obamacare has yet to be fully implemented.  In fact it will be at least 3-5 years before we will know whether or not the law is working as intended.

 Cruz compared the funding of Obamacare to Neville Chamberlain’s acquiescence to the Nazi’s taking over Europe.  Crazy!

The republicans are blowing an opportunity here.  For the first time in his presidency, Obama’s approval ratings are upside down in the polls.  The Republicans could use this weakness to further their cause on immigration, taxes, spending and a whole host of very important matters.  Yet they all Ted Cruz to dive their clown car into yet another ditch.

Cruz took time during his faux filibuster to read his young children a couple of bedtime stories. 

Reading Dr. Seuss to his children may make Cruz a good father. 

But he is one lousy senator.

Simply put…faux filibusters and green eggs and ham do not make for constructive government.   

          

 

Speaker Boehner Has A Plan

Speaker Boehner has a plan…a very dangerous plan.

The word from the Hill is that the Speaker is trying to persuade his Republican colleagues to stop the nonsense of tying the vote to fund the government to the defunding of Obamacare. 

The Speaker knows he doesn’t have the votes to pull that off.  So do the Democrats.  In fact the only politician that doesn’t seem to understand that is Ted Cruz.  And we know that Ted’s only interest is in raising his national profile for a 2016 presidential run.

Speaker Boehner believes he has a better idea.  Boehner would like to push back the debate on funding Obamacare to next month when the government must pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling.  He wants to tie a vote to raise the debt ceiling to defunding Obamacare, building the Keystone pipeline and a veritable bucket list of conservative goodies.  Boehner believes that in this debate he can make the president blink.

Playing politics with the full faith and credit of the United States is a very dangerous proposition.  As bad as we are economically right now, the United States economy and its currency still stand as the cornerstone for the world’s commerce.  Even the hint that the US might default on its obligations can cause tremors to reverberate through the international markets.  Shutting down the federal government for a few days is an inconvenience.  Defaulting on our debts is a whole different animal.

You may recall that the last time we had this debt ceiling debate it didn’t go so well.  A few wacko congressmen suggested that allowing the government to default was a viable alternative to raising the debt ceiling.  Even though this was little more than political bluster from the lunatic fringe, the very fact that we were having the conversation caused the markets to tumble.  In the end we looked like amateurs and for the first time in our history the country’s credit rating was downgraded. 

Not much has changed.  Should the country default the economic consequences would be cataclysmic.  Think Greece x infinity.  Boehner is betting that the president will do anything to avoid such an occurrence.

If Boehner is right then he will have pulled his party back from the brink of irrelevance and saved his speakership.  But if he is wrong he runs the risk of collapsing the economy both here and abroad.

Speaker Boehner has a plan…a very dangerous plan.

   

Wayne's World!

The president addressed the families of the victims of the Naval Yard shooting.  It is the fifth time he has addressed such a gathering. 

The president offered his condolences and challenged the country to change the culture of violence that is rampant in our society.  “Tears are not enough” he said.  “Prayers are not enough…we have to change.”

Noted gun advocate and NRA executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre responded in his usual thoughtful way.  LaPierre is perhaps best noted for his comments after the Sandy Hook massacre when he said:  The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

“The problem, (at the naval yard) said LaPierre, was that there weren’t enough good guys with guns.  What did they have…a security guard, who ran toward the shooting; bless him…six guys guarding the gates?” When the good guys arrived the shooting stopped.”

So how many armed guards should there have been at the naval yard. 

Seven apparently wasn’t enough!

What about ‘8”?  Would 8 guards have been enough?  Nine?  Ten?

This is Wayne’s World…where the only way to stop the senseless violence in this country is to add more security.

In Wayne’s World every business should have a line item in their budget that reads: “Armed Security.”

In Wayne’s World there would be a chicken in every pot and an armed guard on every stoop.

In Wayne’s World families across the nation sit around their kitchen tables: “Honey, how many armed guards do you think we need…one for the front for sure…maybe one for the back too…and one to walk the perimeter just to be safe.”

“I wrote this ad…tell me what you think.  Wanted! Three armed security guards to protect our suburban home.  Applicants must be proficient in the use of all military grade weaponry.  Special Forces experience a must.  Seal Team Six a plus.”

How many armed guards do we need to protect our homes, our schools, our churches our shopping malls?

It’s fall in a tiny New England hamlet.  The morning sun on the horizon announces the dawning of another beautiful day.  Bright orange, red and yellow leaves dapple the trees.  The morning air is crisp and light dew coats the well manicured lawns…armed guards in the cammo gear walk the children to the bus stop while humvees escort their parents to work.

Is this what we want?

This is Wayne’s World…and it is coming to your neighborhood.

Traitors, Food, Health and the Pope

So much to say…so little time…

A  TRAITOR IN OUR MIDST!  For the past three months Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio have waged a holy war against their more moderate Republican colleagues in the House, goading them into voting to defund Obamacare.  Cruz, Lee and Rubio have targeted moderate Republican districts, run 30 second ads, staged town hall meetings, made hundreds of speeches and issued thousands of press releases; all designed to shame what they referred to as the “surrender monkeys in the House” to stand up and defund Obamacare.  Then, on the very day that Boehner announces that the House WILL do exactly what Cruz, Lee and Rubio have worked so hard to achieve…pass a continuing resolution to defund Obamacare…these three idiots say “never mind.”  The stand before reporters and say that defunding Obamacare is not worth shutting down the government.  They say that it will take at least two more elections to repeal the law.  After weeks of bullying House Republicans to take a politically suicidal vote on principle they say they won’t be able to do the same in the Senate.  Lucy just pulled the football away from Charlie Brown.  Words cannot describe the vitriol now being directed at Cruz, Lee and Rubio from within the Republican caucus.  Over the past three months Cruz, Lee and Rubio have raised their national profile, raised millions for their campaign war chests, added hundreds of thousands of names to their campaign mailing lists…and inflicted irreparable harm on their party.  Democrats are smiling!

HOUSE DEFUNDS FEEDING CHILDREN:  If that sounds like pandering then so be it.  Yesterday the Republican led House voted to strip $39 billion from the food stamp program over the next ten years.  The idea here is to cut government spending, reduce unnecessary waste fraud and abuse and force “those people” to get off the government dole and go to work.  76% of food stamp recipients are elderly, disabled, homeless military veterans and children.  Another 23% are working families that don’t earn enough at their job(s) to take care of their families.  “Those people” make up the remaining 1%.  The number of families on food stamps has risen from 2,000,000 in 2000 to over 6,400,000 in 2011.  This is not a matter of waste fraud and abuse.  This is about the effects of a weakened economy brought about by greed and ineffective government oversight.

REPUBLICANS HAVE A PLAN:  Republicans have railed against the Affordable Care Act since the day the president signed it into law.  We have commented many times that if Republican’s find the law so appalling they should offer a detailed alternative.  We’ll they finally did.  The just released Republican health care plan offers individuals and families who purchase health insurance tax deductions of $7500/person and $20,000/family.  It expands access to tax deferred health savings accounts, permits companies to sell policies across state lines and allows small businesses to join together to seek better rates from insurance carriers.  It also caps damage awards for pain and suffering, emotional distress and similar noneconomic damages at $250,000 unless a state has a higher cap.  First of all let us just say that we appreciate the effort.  It has been a long time coming.  Now let’s have a discussion on the merits.  We imagine that this plan will be well received by those who have a substantive income and money in the bank.  But it fails to take into account the ever increasing numbers of poor, working poor and disabled who don’t have the income to really benefit from a tax credit?  How does it help them buy the coverage they need?  And what of the 30 million who don’t have insurance for whatever the reason.  Under the Republican plan they will still be able to obtain free treatment in emergency rooms while the rest of us pay the bill.  Setting access aside; what about lowering the cost of health care?  Remember, before Obamacare there was bi-partisan agreement that the cost of health care was skyrocketing out of control and presenting a danger to our economy.  We find little effort here to reduce the cost of those services.  Basically this Republican plan is designed to make health care more accessible and affordable for the top 1% wage earners.  It does not control cost and it does nothing to help the remaining 99% of the country.

THERE’S A NEW POPE IN TOWN: …and we like him.  Pope Francis has caused quite a stir in the halls of the Vatican.  In his first interview as Pope, Francis offered a frank assessment of the institution and his place as its leader: “I am a sinner…It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre.  I am a sinner.”  We find his humility, his openness to the gay community, to the role of women in the church, and to returning to the simple teachings of Christ…that being a good person and treating others with kindness and mercy supersedes “small minded rules”…to be a breath of fresh air.  You can find excerpts from the interview below.

http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/article/the-16-most-important-quotes-from-pope-francis-interview-5278188389269504