Monday, September 30, 2013

Time Ticking Away for #GOP and #TeaPartyTerrorists


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Previous Related Posts:
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage ~ Monday 9/30/13
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage ~ Sunday 9/29/13
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage - Saturday 9/28/13

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The idea of putting the American people's hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility, and it doesn't have to happen.
Let me repeat this. It does not have to happen.
All of this is entirely preventable if the House chooses to do what the Senate has already done, and that's the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process, the same way other Congresses have for more than 200 years.
Unfortunately, right now House Republicans continue to tie funding of the government to ideological demands like limiting a woman's access to contraception or delaying the Affordable Care Act, all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party.
So let me be clear about this. An important part of the Affordable Care Act takes effect tomorrow, no matter what Congress decides to do today. The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. That funding is already in place. You can't shut it down.
. . . You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there's a law there that you don't like.
~ President Obama



















































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Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage ~ Monday 9/30/13

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Previous Related Posts:
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage - Saturday 9/28/13
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage ~ Sunday 9/29/13

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Like it or not, it passed. The president signed it. The Supreme Court upheld it. So you don't get to pick a bill you don't like and link it to the entire financial well being of the United States.' Well the response is, 'I didn't come here to govern.' Well what did you come here for? What did you come here for? To burn it to the ground?
~ Paul Stebbins in the Washington Post

At this point, it has become obvious that history will look back on the four-year war on Obamacare as one of the saddest, most bizarre, and most dishonestly embarrassing episodes of our time.
~ Kurt Eichenwald in Vanity Fair

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) leaves the floor of the House in the wee hours of Sunday morning, having taken action that will probably shut down the government, and releases a statement saying, “It’s time for President Obama to rise above stubborn partisanship.”
Which is like an arsonist telling others not to play with matches.
. . . We live in a time when outright buffoonery passes for statesmanship. We live in a time when a 21-hour non-filibuster filibuster by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) leads not to general hilarity but serious consideration of how it will help Cruz run for president in 2016.
Nor can the tragicomedy even be questioned. When a reporter asked Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Saturday what he would do if his efforts to defund Obamacare should fail, Issa stuck his nose into the reporter’s face and shrilled, “How dare you presume a failure? How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?”
How dare us. Our leaders must not be questioned! They are beyond question. And, in some cases, beyond hope.
~ Roger Simon on Politico

I disagree with the strategy of linking Obamacare with the continuing functioning of government-a strategy that cannot possibly work.
~ Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a statement released by The Hill

We're pretty much out of options at this point. They're all giddy about it. You know who benefits the most here from a shutdown? The Democrats benefit and they know that.
~ Rep. Devin Nunes R-California

Transcript, Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, Sunday 9/29
SCHIEFFER: Well, Senator, . . . how can you hold the entire federal government hostage just because you want to postpone his signature achievement? He is not going to do that. The Senate is not going to do that. You know that and you know even if they did that the president would veto it, I mean, isn't this just an exercise to accomplish nothing?

SENATOR RAND PAUL, R-Kentucky: Well, I guess, Bob, what I don't know, he already by executive fiat has delayed the employer mandate, which is a key component of that, we think that is going outside the Constitution and the president is not allowed to write legislation. So all we are asking is, if he thinks it's so messed up that he's going to delay a big part of ObamaCare on his own, and it looks like maybe he is going to do some special favors for the unions, why don't we actually bring it to Congress and try to figure out how to meet somewhere in the middle? But see, he is saying 100 percent of ObamaCare or the highway. The president is the one saying I will shut down government if you don't give me everything I want on ObamaCare. That to me is the president being intransigent and being unwilling to compromise.

SCHIEFFER: But the law has already been passed, Senator, let me just ask you this question. I am old enough to remember when Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964, and he said I would rather be right than president. And you know, he got his wish. He lost in a landslide. Aren't you and the other Tea Party leaders leading the Republican Party to the same fate?

PAUL: Well, see, the thing is is that once things are passed doesn't mean they are set in stone and no future Congress will look at them. For example, when Reagan came in, the rates had been 70 percent on the top bracket for 40 years, but he didn't say, oh, that's the law so we can't readdress it, ObamaCare was passed. But the public has a great deal of misgivings, I have a lot of misgivings, I am worried that there won't be many choices left, that you are going to destroy the individual market.

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SCHIEFFER: Well, we are back with two key members of the House budget committee, Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen.
. . . Let me just ask you this. You heard us talking about this delay. What if there was a shorter delay? What if you didn't delay it for a year? What if the president said how about three months?

BLACKBURN: Wouldn't it be great if the president would come and negotiate with us? Wouldn't it? These are the type of things that we have invited him to come and meet with us, and negotiate with us. We would love to have the president sit down and say, OK, there are some problems with Obamacare, and we have continued to bring forward ideas for healthcare reform, but we have been met with this attitude of no negotiation, I don't want to sit down. I don't want to talk about this. It is my way or the highway, but we continue to put ideas there, just hike last night.

. . . VAN HOLLEN: Bob, Marsha wrote in an op-ed piece to her constituents the best way to defund Obamacare was to delay it and she is right about that. This is a way to prevent millions of Americans from signing up on October 1st to get more affordable care. What you are seeing play out here is the end of what Senator Richard Burr, a Republican of North Carolina, say was the dumbest idea he'd ever heard of which is this idea you are going to shut down the government if you can't prevent millions of Americans from getting affordable care. Senator McCain called it irrational. And yet what you see in the House is Speaker Boehner has essentially handed the gavel over to Senator Cruz, it is like Speaker Cruz these days. And you have the far right Tea Party wing of the caucus driving this government shutdown if they can't get their way....


From CNN Via ThinkProgress
CNN Host Ashleigh Banfield:“So you are both paid $174,000 a year, and that is the salary. Would you be prepared to add some rider or amendment on to a continuing resolution that would take you out of the essential services category and stop payment on your paychecks in order to get a continuing resolution through, and yes or no?

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN: We are waiting to see what they send back, and I hope that as you were running the countdown clock that you are I have two grandsons, and their share of the national debt is now over $53,000 each.

Banfield: No no no. I’m sorry. I asked a specific question, and there are a lot of the government workers going to stop receiving their paychecks, and a there are a lot of the military service members who are serving overseas who might be stopped being paid and veterans whose benefits. Would you —

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-CA: Let me answer that. Members of Congress should not be treated any differently than any other federal employee.

Banfield: Is that a yes?

Rohrabacher: Whatever happens to the to us when it comes to what we get in benefits and whether it is retirement or health care and whatever happens to the average federal employee should happen us, and that rule should not be changed.

























































































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Sunday, September 29, 2013

Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage - Sunday 9/29/13


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Related Post:
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage - Saturday 9/28/13

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I've never seen a time-- can you remember a time in your lifetime when a major political party was just sitting around, begging for America to fail?
. . . If I were the president, I wouldn't negotiate over these draconian cuts that are gonna take food off the table of low-income working people, while they leave all the agricultural subsidies in for high-income farmers and everything else. It's chilling to me. The entitlement spending is going down as the unemployment rate drops and the economy grows. Half of the deficit's already disappeared. The rest of it just seems almost spiteful.
~ Former President Bill Clinton on This Week with George Stephanopoulos

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Meet the Press
DAVID GREGORY: You don’t think Americans will like it. You don’t think that 25% of the state of Texas that’s uninsured will actually like the expanded access to get health insurance?

SENATOR TED CRUZ: I don’t. And here’s why. Because it’s not working. What’s happening, if you want people to get health insurance, the best way for them to get health insurance is to get a job. And Obamacare’s the biggest job killer in this country.

Huffington Post
The GOP rank-and-file still believe that the Senate might accept and the White House might sign a one-year delay of Obamacare in exchange for two months of sequester-level spending to briefly stave off a government shutdown.
"How dare you?" Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said when reporters asked how the House would respond when the Senate rejected its offer. He grew angrier as he continued to question how one could assume the bill was dead on arrival in the Senate.
"I have never foreseen a government shutdown and I continue not to see a government shutdown," said Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.), who was a senior Hill staffer before being elected to Congress in 2010. "The Senate has plenty of time to deal with this. This is good, common middle ground that is in this package. I think we're gonna get a big bipartisan vote in the House. I think we're gonna get a big vote in the Senate too."
. . . House Republicans' inability to recognize the same reality as voters and their opponents has made it virtually impossible to come to a deal.
"We just need to stand firm. I think we may get Democrats on this," said Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.).
A reporter asked why the president would sign a bill undermining his signature health care law. "He had 22 Democrats vote for a delay of the individual mandate back in July. I think you will get Democrats. I will predict that," Massie said Saturday afternoon. Republicans did get Democrats to support them in the vote that happened later on Saturday -- two of them, the same number of Republicans who switched sides.

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Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage - Saturday 9/28

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Excerpt from President's statement 9/27/13
I don’t know how I can be more clear about this. Nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the United States just to extract political concessions. No one gets to hurt our economy and millions of innocent people just because there are a couple of laws that you do not like.
Do not shut down the government. Do not shut down the economy. Pass a budget on time. Pay our bills on time. Refocus on the everyday concerns of the American people.
. . . do not threaten to burn the house down simply because you haven’t gotten 100 percent of your way. That's not how our democracy is supposed to work.



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House Republicans are a classical array of stunned and mystified.
~ Rachel Maddow

So GOP what is your solution?.....*crickets*
~ noelle198 on Huff Post

I am with the President. If the teaparty choses to default, let the pieces fall where they may. 79 Votes in the Senate on a clean funding bill. For the teapots that is over 3/4th of the Senate, and 25 republicans. If the house choses this path, it all falls on them.
~ Delval on Huff Post

Let's hope the GOP is taking it to heart, and Boehner puts a 'clean' CR and a 'clean' raising of the debt ceiling, up for a vote.
If he has the fortitude to do that, there would be enough votes from the dems and the 'sane' repubs, to pass.
It's all up to the Speaker of the House.
~ mae4 on Huff Post

Ted Cruz Now Speaker Of House Of Representatives
~ Headline on Wonkette

For someone trained at one of the nation's top law schools, Cruz seems to be a surprisingly lousy parliamentarian.
~ OneYieldRegular on Wonkette

GOP Descends Into Civil War Over Obamacare As Shutdown Looms
~ Headline on Talking Points Memo

Do not be surprised if the House repubs remove Boehner from his post in the coming days. If that happens all hell will break loose.
~ tbhull on Talking Points Memo

If it were not so scary for the country, the Republican war on Republicans would be delicious.
~ wiz99 on Talking Points Memo

Orville Redenbacher was up +2 7/8 on the news.
~ Trippin on Talking Points Memo


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Friday, September 27, 2013

Smackdown ~ Senator Bob Corker vs. Ted Cruz on Obamacare

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Previous Related Posts:
Line forms to criticize Ted Cruz after Filibuster Attempt
Talkative Ted Cruz fumbles to Fauxlibuster Finish Line
Green Eggs and Sham ~ The Ted Cruz Fauxlibuster Continues
Ted Cruz Attempts to Filibuster Obamacare

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From Washington Post
The only thing separating them being a single Senate desk, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) engaged in what Senate rules deem a "colloquy," but what most observers would call an old-style public airing of grievances.
At one point, Corker accused Cruz and Lee of turning Senate proceedings “into a show.” Cruz countered by questioning Corker’s loyalty to the Republican Party by siding with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.)
The clash lasted roughly 10 minutes, with colleagues watching and cameras rolling. It exposed deep disagreements among Republicans over how they should proceed with the spending bill, which currently includes language defunding the new federal health-care law. But using procedural rules that allow him to make changes to the bill, Reid plans to amend the bill by restoring funding for the new federal health-care law.





































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