Republicans unanimously vote against fiscal responsibility

President Barack Obama Friday signed into law a bill that raises the US debt ceiling to 14.3 trillion dollars. Obama signed the measure at a time of rising public anxiety over increasing US government debts and deficits.

Included in the law were PAYGO budget rules. These budget rules require that any spending proposals must either be budget neutral or offset with savings derived from existing funds. The Democrats goal in passing these rules is to force Congress to engage in carefully prioritizing expenses and exercising fiscal restraint.

  

Every Republican in the House and Senate voted against these PAYGO rules.

House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the PAYGO measure was a vital step towards ending the kind of fiscal irresponsibility that buckled US government finances.

"It has a proven track record of success," Pelosi said."When instituted in the 1990s, it produced record surpluses; when abandoned by the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress in the last decade, we were left with record deficits. "Today, these irresponsible practices will end."

So much for the republican talking points of being the party of fiscal responsibility. 

Republican hypocrisy reigns supreme as they plan to dismantle Medicare

Even as they denounce modest democratic proposals to rein in Medicare’s rising costs, the Republicans, themselves, are seeking to dismantle the whole program. Dismantling would begin with spending cuts of about $650 billion over the next decade.

Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee, recently released a budget plan called the “Roadmap for America’s Future”.

What emerges from this scheme is an economic agenda that hasn’t changed one bit in response to the economic failures of the Bush years. In addition to a plan for Social Security privatization,  a twin to the Bush proposal of five years ago, Rep. Ryan offers a plan to dismantle Medicare.

In the Republican plan, nobody currently under the age of 55 would be covered by Medicare as it now exists. Instead, people would receive vouchers and be forced to buy their own insurance. This new privatized version of Medicare would erode over time because the value of these vouchers would likely lag ever further behind the actual cost of health insurance. By the time Americans now in their 20s or 30s reached the age of eligibility, there wouldn’t be much of a Medicare program left.

Of those who already are covered by Medicare, or who will enter the program over the next decade, they will still be eligible for traditional Medicare. However the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the Republican plan would force higher-income enrollees to pay higher premiums, and payments to Medicare programs would be reduced.  In short, there would be significant cuts to Medicare and higher fees as proposed by the Republicans.

Just as the republicans have waged war against health reform with utter hypocrisy, they plan the same for Medicare. 

Republicans, who hate Medicare and tried to cut off funding for it in the past, and still aim to dismantle the program over time, have been scoring political points by denouncing democratic proposals for modest cost savings; savings that are substantially smaller than the $650 billion in spending cuts concealed in their own republican proposals.

If Democrats don’t get their act together, this shameless act of stunning republican hypocrisy will succeed.

Majority of Minnesotans embarrassed by Rep. Michele Bachmann

A new survey of Minnesotans shows that 56% of the state's residents are embarrassed by Rep. Michele Bachmann. The survey was commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, and Credo Action. It was conducted by phone by Research 2000 on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.

The survey follows recent divisive statements by Bachmann that she believes President Barack Obama wants to “annihilate” conservatives, that the U.S. faces "a curse and extinction" if it fails to support Israel; and that government must  "wean” Americans off of social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.

There were some surprising findings from the survey. While the Minneapolis-area district represented by Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison led the state in finding Bachmann an embarrassment, the relatively conservative District 8, the northern Minnesota area represented by Rep. James Oberstar, came in second, with 69% of respondents responding negatively to Bachmann. 

In Bachmann’s own district 39% found her embarrassing. However a majority of  independents surveyed in her district, a group likely to determine the outcome of the next election in November, responded negatively to Bachmann, with 62% answering that she was embarrassing.

Republicans continue fear mongering and politicizing terror trials

The Democratic National Committee is criticizing former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Kit Bond for "playing politics with terror trials," pointing to recent appearances by the two men on television to make their point.

The DNC rebuked Gingrich for his comments on "The Daily Show".  In the interview, host Jon Stewart pressed Gingrich on his condemnation of the decision to read Miranda rights to Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Stewart remarked that shoe bomber Richard Reid, who was detained during the Bush administration, was also mirandized.

Gingrich responded that Reid was an American citizen – a claim the former House speaker later admitted was not true on Twitter. (click to watch Jon Stewart debate Speaker Gingrich here)

Bond, the Republican senator who has called for the firing of John Brennan, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, appeared on MSNBC to discuss the same issue.

Bond did not offer a clear answer when asked the difference between the Abdulmutallab situation and the treatment of Reid and Sept. 11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui, though he called the decision to mirandize Reid, who like Moussaoui is serving a life sentence, a bad idea.

"It's clear from both of these appearances that Republican leaders are offering nothing but outright fallacies in their effort to turn the President's actions on national security into a political wedge," the DNC said in its release. "Between comments from Gingrich and Bond, the Republicans have shredded any credibility they hoped to have on this issue."

"It's utterly pathetic that in their rush to fear-monger and demagogue our national security - not to mention attack our law enforcement officials - Republicans can't even be bothered to get their facts right," the DNC added.

Fox News largest outside shareholder is Saudi Prince who blamed America for 9/11

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns a 7% stake in News Corp — the parent company of Fox News — making him the largest shareholder outside the family of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. Last weekend at the right wing Constitutional Coalition’s annual conference in St. Louis, Joseph Farah, publisher of the far right WorldNetDaily, blasted Fox News for its relationship with Alwaleed. 

Farah noted that the Saudi prince had boasted in the past about forcing Fox News to change its content relating to its coverage of Muslim immigrant riots in Paris. He warned that such foreign ownership of American media is “really dangerous.” Many at the conference were unsettled by these revelations.

Media reports of the conference note that Mr. Farah told attendees, “This guy owns a very significant percentage of the News Corp and has let the world know that he can get things taken things off Fox News when he finds them objectionable and has in the past. And I really believe this is really dangerous for America.”

Alwaleed came to most Americans attention following the 9/11 terror attacks when he suggested that it was America's fault because of its foreign policy toward the Middle East and Israel. At the time Many Fox News hosts called the Saudi prince’s comments egregious, outrageous, and unfair.” 

That was before Alwaleed purchased a 7% stake in its parent company. Did these same hosts howl when informed of the Saudi prince’s recent investment in Fox? I don’t think so.

It's not a good sign for FOX when right-wingers rail against their media outlet. Or does this suggest that the Teabagger phenomenon is not really a grassroots movement, but a multi-national corporatist conduit used to artificially manufacture dissent and take the middle class's focus off the real problems in America.  

Another example of republican consistency with the voters?

Sen. Christopher Bond regularly railed against President Obama's economic stimulus plan as irresponsible spending that would drive up the national debt. But behind the scenes, the Missouri Republican quietly sought more than $50 million from a federal agency for two projects in his state.

Mr. Bond was not alone. Many Republican lawmakers, while denouncing the stimulus to the media and their constituents, privately sent letters to the federal government's many agencies seeking stimulus money for home-state pork projects.

"It's not illegal to talk out of both sides of your mouth, but it does seem to be a level of dishonesty troubling to the American public," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Watch Republican Minority Whip Cantor do just that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgWFxK0lBq0&feature=player_embedded

"There is a definite disconnect between the public statements and the private letters," said Thomas A. Schatz, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste. "It does seem inconsistent to say you're against the bill but then you want some little piece of it."

At a televised meeting with the House Republican caucus late last month, Mr. Obama chided GOP lawmakers who, he said, took credit for projects funded by the same stimulus bill they voted against — adding that some were even attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

Pete Sepp, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, called that philosophy troubling. Remembering all the vitriolic rhetoric against the economic stimulus plan, he noted that it makes him wonder: Do these republican lawmakers really believe what they say, or is it just part of a cynical cash grab? 

Is this another example of republican forthrightness with the voters?

Senator McCain, a man of principle?

Mr. J. D. Hayworth, a former Arizona Republican congressman, is expected to announce next week his challenge to Senator McCain in the Republican primary in August.

With the political winds of change moving sharply to the right Mr. McCain finds himself clumsily scrambling in that direction.

Mr. McCain now sharply criticizes the Wall Street bailout bill he voted for, switched from his earlier position that the Guantánamo Bay detention facility should be closed, offered only a deflated retort to the Supreme Court’s decision undoing corporate campaign finance laws, and did a complete U-turn from previous statements during the 2008 presidential campaign that gays in the military would be O.K. by him if the military leadership were on board.

 In response to McCain’s newly minted political positions, Mr. Hayworth said “John is undergoing a campaign conversion”. This, apparently in an effort to pander to the same voters whom Mr. Hayworth, a hard right Tea Bagger, could bring to his side.

“J. D. is our great hope,” said Rob Haney, chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party, home to Phoenix, and Mr. McCain. “McCain has been a thorn in our sides for years. A dagger in our backs, really.”

Mr. McCain has been worried about the more right-leaning corners of the Republican Party, especially the ones in his home state. His support for immigration policy overhaul, campaign finance restrictions and his past opposition to the Bush administration tax cuts and the Federal Marriage Amendment have all contributed to his problems here. It should come as no surprise if and when McCain’s positions on these issues change as well. 

Is this a man of principle?

Another republican hypocrite

Before he got caught using state tax-payer dollars to sneak out to Argentina to cheat on his wife, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) waged a high-profile war against the federal economic stimulus package last spring, claiming that accepting the $700 million for which his state was eligible would lead to “a thing called slavery.”

Even as his state’s unemployment rate climbed above the national average, Sanford maintained his refusal to take the funds.

But this week, Sanford flew to Washington to demand $300 million in stimulus money for education.

Sanford’s trip, which did not appear on his official calendar, is especially hypocritical because the majority of stimulus money destined for South Carolina was to fund education and save thousands of teachers’ jobs. Yet, in March, Sanford told Fox News host Glenn Beck that taking the money would be akin to “fiscal child abuse.”

Way to be consistent Sarah

Sarah Palin gets caught cheating during her question and answer segment at the Tea Bagger convention in Nashville, TN. Instead of scribbling crib notes on her hand, maybe she should have used a teleprompter to help convey her simpleton responses to questions asked at the convention.

In an recent Fox News Sunday interview, former vice presidential candidate-turned-Fox News contributor Sarah Palin took another swing of many at President Obama for using a teleprompter to make speeches. She told host Chris Wallace that she doesn't want to be the leader of the Tea Party because, "It's much bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter" in a clear reference to the President.

Considering her aversion to the devices, there are many photos of Palin using teleprompters to give speeches while on the campaign trail in 2008 

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/259416, http://www.breitbart.tv/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/prompter.jpg. 

Maybe she doesn't like them because she can't read and talk at the same time. 

Way to be consistent Sarah.