Tag: Republicans

Debt Crisis says that America is Alive and Well

http://news.yahoo.com/stab-debt-limit-deal-avert-us-default-204034740.html

Hooray, this article is not about dysfunction, it is not about childish games, it is not even about mere politics…rather it is about America and the indicators signal that the USA is very much alive and very healthy…yes, very healthy indeed!

All of this activity indicates that our people and our legislators and our leaders really do care about America.  However, this writer still wonders about President Obama, since I see that his posturing and pontificating has left Mitch Mc Connell saying that Obama needs to finally indicate what he WILL sign and we are in the game.  That is cynical on the President’s part and leaves him with just too, yes, too much power.

But today is a glorious day for America.  It is because our legislators actually DO care about America.  All of the political theater is a good thing.  It means people are willing not to shout each other down but to demonstrate according to LAW that one side is not able to bully and cripple the other side.  That is good for America.

Today is a glorious day for America because (as I address in a previous blog) The House Republicans were not betrayed by their Speaker.  Instead, they were given their fair chance to thrown a legal punch at the other side.  hooray for Politics because if one side feels helpless and disenfranchised then all is lost.

It may seem that all of this political theater is meaningless.  But, I encourage you to see it as the most meaningful thing that we could ever be doing.  How is that? It is because both sides are passionate.  That is a good thing.  Both sides believe they are right for America.  That is a good thing.  Both sides have ways to destroy the other side.  And although they do a lot of dodging and weaving and feinting and jabbing, yet, they ULTIMATELY do not really want to destroy each other.  And that is a very good thing!!

But there is another.  He sits in a house called white and he wags his finger, and he preaches and he pontificates but has shown himself to be vacuous and duplicitous.  And while the earnest partisans fight, he schemes and maneuvers and plans his next nefarious move.  He does not love the game. He does not love the nation,  He cares only about his own agenda and that agenda, surprisingly, may be to destroy the very nation over which he presides.  Why destroy it?  Because he does not love it.

Boehner Needs to worry about Betraying Fellow Republicans

http://news.yahoo.com/boehner-obama-relationship-tested-debt-fight-075022132.html

The way this debt deal is going down, John Boehner needs to worry about holding on to his Speaker position.  Frankly, he shouldn’t worry at all about Obama.  I am sure Obama doesn’t worry about him.

But there is a betrayal in the making and it involves old line Careerist Republicans like Boehner who seems intend on enforcing old school ways of doing business in the Congress. This old school way of thinking includes the continued use of patronage politics, strong-arm tactics, coercion, and political blackmail.  ( Hey that is what they all do behind the closed doors of the Whip with the full approval of the Speaker.) Such tactics have been rumored to have been used against Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, namely, that the Party might try to carve up his district in such a way as to cause him to “automatically” lose the next election.

The newly elected Representatives, many who won with strong Tea Party Movement backing, have promised to change this old school way into a more transparent, open, straight forward system of intellectual integrity, political conviction, and solidity ethical conduct between colleague and not between Speaker loyalists and others.

The game plan for the Reid Boehner bill is to have this bill written in such a way so that it will be acceptable to the whole block of House Democrats who will ally with Boehner loyalists and pass a bill that does not need any support from newly elected conservative Representatives.  In effect such an action is a cynical betrayal of the good faith and courage of the newly elected Representatives who finally agreed reluctantly to vote “yes” to a bill they did not want.

By showing the newly elected House members that they are not needed and are not effective against a coalition of old line House and Senate Careerists like Boehner and Reid, the action alienates the freshmen and forces them to choose obedience to Boehner, or continued political ostracism.  No matter, because the betrayal will have occurred and the Representatives will get their first injection of old line, old school cynicism and duplicity.  An injection that could prove fatal to their idealism and lethal to the future of the Republic.

A solution?  The freshmen need to work hard to keep their base and to stay on in Congress.  This writer believes that many of the brightest and the best are not careerists and will choose not to run again if they feel that their efforts are doomed to inevitable failure.  Their loss may insure continued longevity to Reid and Boehner but it will also guarantee to intellectually bankrupt the Republican party.

Secondly, if they can see their way to continue the fight for Conservative principles, they will need to develop a strategy for replacing the Speaker and his palace guards.  Boehner as a person, a citizen, and a patriot is not the issue. Rather, it is old line careerism and old school political practices that must be replaced by ways that more effectively reflect the mind, will and heart of the electorate.

The Tea Party Movement (TPM) may be hated.  But who hates what is not important?  It may be vilified by the President and Senator Reid and their supporters in the politically motivated press.  But who bothers to try to destroy something that is not meaningful and effective?  There may be setbacks, and maybe some may not regard the Boehner-Reid bill as a betrayal.  Nonetheless, the battle line between the old war horse careerist politicians and the newly elected Representatives is being drawn as we watch.  Actually, the first battles have already been fought and it looks like a draw.  But do not think that the so called “veteran” members of Congress are not scheming to disarm what they see as a threat to their longevity and power.

 

Why Bother Trying When Obama and Reid are Going to kill it.

“The Republican legislation, sharply criticized by President Barack Obama, faces certain death in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where all Democrats have vowed to vote against it later on Friday.”  This is a quote from a longer article by Associated Press on the Internet

Again and again this writer is amazed that the American people blame the Republicans for our debt problems.  They are the only ones working very hard to solve the problems.  And if my readers will be even a little fair minded, I am sure that you would agree that it seems meaningless to work hard to propose a solution in the face of withering criticism from President Obama with a promise of a veto and confronted by the constant refrain of “dead on arrival” by Senator Reid.

It is especially galling when both Obama and Reid keep getting on TV and saying compromise, compromise, compromise.  But then go on to tell the press that they will do everything they can to destroy whatever it is that the Republicans propose.  Actually, although I don’t like to say it, it seems to me that President Obama and Harry Reid are plain liars.  They do not care about a solution, they care about their own particular solution.  They don’t care what the House of Representatives want they only care about what the Democrats want.

How many Democrats in the house even tried to help pass the Boehner bill?  And Harry Reid has already said that every single Democrat Senator will vote to kill the Boehner bill as soon as it is presented in the Senate.  And then we read that it is all the fault of the Republicans!! Come on, Harriet!! At least the freshmen Republicans and Conservatives stood up for their principles and did not abandon their election promises.  It seems that every single one of the Democrat Senators campaigned on one issue and it is the big issue for them, namely, defeat and destroy the Republicans- to hell with the nation.  Shame on them.

White House MUST Stop Fear Mongering

The White House called the bill a non-starter. “‘Amend the Constitution or default’ is a highly dangerous game to play,” said press secretary Jay Carney, and Democrats said they would scuttle it as soon as it arrived in the Senate.

Once again we have the White giving a stereotyped lie to the American People.  The part of the Boehner bill that regards the constitution is very simple, it is this:

That we the Congress of the US of America request each of the 50 State Legislatures to read, research, consider and vote upon a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution.

Such an action is very much the right of the elected representatives of the American people who are now serving in the House of Representatives of the US Congress.

The elected Representatives are not being fanatical, nor petulant, nor irresponsible.  They are doing their job and by submitting the Balanced Budget Amendment to the American people they are asking the entire nation to read, research, consider and vote upon a crucial matter, namely, will we require the Federal government to have a budget and live within that budget or will we continue the enormous spending binge and thereby destroy our entire nation.

If 75 % that is 3/4 of the State Legislatures pass the Balanced Budget amendment it will become law.  If not, it fails and nothing happens.

Jay Carney is a hired hand public relations press secretary for the President.  He is not an elected official and therefore his opinions are not even to be considered when compared to the officially elected Representatives and Senators of the Congress of the USA.

Now is a time when we all must take our political responsibilities seriously and stay informed.  We should not allow the sloppy reporting of our mass media press reporters to continue to mis represent the facts.

What went wrong with Boehner and how to fix it.

http://news.yahoo.com/debt-limit-vote-postponed-gop-seeks-support-223001521.html;_ylt=As7OO69bLhvtQprEFxd.Wves0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNwZjN0YjZhBGNjb2RlA3dlaWdodGVkY3QEcGtnAzdhYTQ0YTlhLWZmMTItM2RjZC05ZjBjLTUwNTQ4NWFmMDA4ZARwb3MDMQRzZWMDbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHZlcgNjM2ViN2Q5MC1iOTc0LTExZTAtYmZkZi1iNjQwZjMwOWNjOGU-;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

A good American and a fine Speaker made a serious but not fatal mistake yesterday.  John Boehner forget his own principles.  He strong armed and brow beat his fellow Representatives just like Nancy Pelosi did.  These freshmen Congress members campaigned on the platform of a New and Fresh Change in the way business is conducted in the Capitol.  They are people of philosophical and political conviction who believe what they say.  They are not phonies who talk one way and act another way.  They are sincere members of Congress who intend to stand upon their principles and to work very hard at making those principles serve the good health of the nation.  Either John Boehner, and Eric Cantor forgot that or they simply got caught up in the frenzy of the political moment.  Either way, that it happened is a little sad, but not too much.  Rather, it is a bold indicator that politics as usual in Washington has ended and that a new and more enlightened time has come to our Capitol.

The so-called “Tea Party” backed freshmen Representatives are not to be bought.  They remember the episodes with Mary Landrue and the so-called “Louisiana purchase. (When Congressperson Landrue accepted what was basically a 300 million dollars earmark for her State in return for her vote in favor of the Obama care.)  The conservative members of Congress remember that the 60th vote in the Senate came from Ben Nelson of Nebraska when he too accepted a mega earmark of money for his state in return for his vote.  People were appalled by the purchase of votes by the Obama/Pelosi people and they promised the voter’s back home that they would not do that.  Well, the freshmen and other Congresspersons kept their word and would not be threatened, bullied or bought into voting for a Bill that they did not want.

This is a great day for America and a day for which we should be thankful.  The cynical opinion of the population is that Washington can never be changed.  Many had began to abandon all hope for integrity among our leadership.  Last night’s stand up refusal by the members of the House of Representatives is an affirmation that America is still strong, still brave and still free.  Freedom was heralded last night in the halls of the House of Representatives.  Integrity was affirmed last night in the office of the Majority whip and the Speaker.  The people we elected to represent us and not themselves, did so and did it with courage.

This is not grid lock.  This is not dysfunction.  This is democracy at work.  I know that a lot of people talk about democracy but they do not like the effort involved in making it work.  But “freedom is not free”.  That slogan is often used regarding our military and the need to defend freedom in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya.  But we need freedom at home, in the USA.  The stance of the Republican conservatives last night was a Patriotic act by sensible, intelligent, responsible, Representatives and they should be applauded and not vilified.

So what to do today?  This writer believes in Speaker Boehner.  He did his best to do what he thought was best.  He was mistaken.  His true stature will be decided today as he meets again with his fellow Representatives.  People whom he has declared and I know he believes are fully and completely his equals.  It will be his respect for this equality that will win the day.  I believe the Speaker should acknowledge that he was not reflective of the will of the Congress.  I believe that he should admit that he too like others was caught up in the frenzy created by Timothy Geithner and Barrack Obama.  He should then ask his fellow congress persons to work diligently with him, yet again, to craft a workable compromise bill that will serve the nation.  For myself, I think that he should acknowledge to those members who we believe he tried to bully that he was sorry about that and ask them for their understanding of his zealous and well-intentioned patriotism because he wanted to do the “right thing.”

Then I believe that Calm and Reasonable Reflection should be mandated.  We already know that August 2nd is a false deadline.  The Treasury has admitted that they have enough money already on hand to pay our debts.  The Social Security Administration has admitted that they have enough Treasury Bonds in the Vaults that will cover payments to Social Security recipients for more than a decade (not counting yearly revenue) ! So we need to stop, regroup, reflect and renew our efforts to create  significant legislation that honestly and realistically tackles the short term need and the long-term problem of our national debt.  For this writer this period of calm should include a day off of work and for those inclined, a day at their respective house of worship.

Do we need a new Speaker?  No.  Not over a tactical error.  Generals make tactical errors all the time. Will we need a new Speaker in the future?  Maybe, if Speaker Boehner continues a strategy that stereotypes duly elected members of Congress as Teapartiers!  If the Majority Whip continues to use the strategy of “Arm Twisting” instead of persuasion using rational and philosophically and politically reasonable argument.  The new climate among the newly elected members of Congress is a volcanic shift in thinking and in practice.  They are not interested in power.  They are interested in reasoned and practical solutions to our national problems starting today and not in ten years.

My hope is that the Speaker and the Majority whip and other old line Representatives will Get it straight, and they may yet save the day.

One last thought.  “The one who makes the rules, wins the game.”  Realistically, it is still the House and the Senate that make the rules.  Obama has not played by the rules but forced new rules on the Congress.  Last night said to the President, who has himself repeatedly name called, criticized and vilified the members of the House of Representatives, “No, Mr. President.  It is not our job to do your job for you. And you will not scare us and bully us and threaten us from the White House. “

Tells Us What You Think. We sure want to Know.

http://news.yahoo.com/boehner-plan-embarrassment-040000090.html

I am including this interview with the leader of the largest tea party group.  Please tell us what you think of the article.  Warning, if you just going to rant, then don’t bother.  We are interested in real and sincere political dialogue on this site.  We are not a forum for rant, rave, name call, finger-pointing or other junk.  But if you have a reasoned position let us know and we WILL publish it.  You ask WHY do I have the warning?  It is because on my call in shows on Blog Talk Radio, I get a lot of cranks who merely rage, rant and ridicule people.  They are a waste of time.  Not as people, of course. Everybody has an opinion.  They have a right to theirs and if their opinion is that life is a rant, a rave, a rage and ridicule, fine.  They can do that but not on my blog.

Congress not Dysfunctional

http://news.yahoo.com/debt-compromise-eyed-under-deadline-squeeze-000255892.html

The key line of this article is toward the end when the author states about the US government, ” The dysfunctional gridlock in Washington has also raised concern over the long-term decline of U.S. economic power and the status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.”  This is not dysfunction, this is functionality at it’s very best and highest.  The legislators are actually doing their jobs.  It may seem strange for complacent USA citizens, but this kind of real debate, real legislative work, real differences in political views…all of this indicates a very good and healthy and highly functional government.  Note that nobody is rioting.  We do not have massive labor strikes that spill over into the streets and no one is calling out the military in order to control an unruly population.  It’s just that we have become soft and we do not like conflict and we want all of this to simply be solved and go away so that we can get back to whatever it is that gives us pleasure.  Politics may be a game, but it the real game of governing and the stakes are real and there will be winners and losers- really!!

If Paul Ryan says Yes…Well..

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Ryan-Boehner-Debt-Plan/2011/07/27/id/404968?s=al&promo_code=CB34-1

This writer completely trusts Representative Paul Ryan.  In fact I think it is he who should be elected our President.  So, although I completely favor the already passed Cut Cap and Balance bill, if all we can get is the Boehner plan, then let’s go for it.  However, the onus is onn Speaker Boehner to absolutely guarantee that this special committee has Rep. Jordan, And Ryan and Senator De Mint on it.

Harry Reid is Stopping Progress

the house passed the Cut spending, Cap future spending, and balance the Budget Constitutional amendment bill.  As is ALWAYS the case Senator Harry Reid, Democrat, said that the Bill was dead on arrival in the Senate.  How is that compromising Harry?  Anyway, There was great public call in and email and write in to give the Cut, Cap and Balance bill a hearing.  Instead Senate Democrats decided to “table” the bill in the Senate which means that the Democrats decided not to even read, discuss, debate or attempt to amend the House passed bill.  The House tries to solve the debt problem and the Senate says, “dead on arrival”  and then the President says that even if the Senate passes it, he will veto it.  How is that compromise?  But then President Obama gets on TV and tells the nation that the problem is that the “other guys”( Republicans) will not compromise!!  So it looks like we have some really game playing here.  First, it is the President who is supposed to propose the budget.  But Obama says that “ain’t my job , man!”  Instead he throws his responsibility upon the House Republicans and takes the role of scolder, demander and whiner in Chief.  So the Republicans take the responsibility because it is obvious the Democrats will not.  The propose the Ryan Plan.  Not perfect but a very reasonable plan.  But Harry Reid, Democrat of the Sem=nate says, ” Dead on Arrival”  But Reid then goes on TV and says that the Republicans will not compromise.  The Obama says that any plan that does not meet t=his criteria will be vetoed.  But after that Obama goes on Radio and complains that the Republicans will not compromise.  So the House passes the Cut Cap and Balance Bill and Reid refused to compromise…instead he shouts, “Dead on arrival”  and goes to the cameras and complains that the Republicans will not compromise.  Now the Republicans try again with the Boehner Bill but already Reid says, “Dead on Arrival”nd Obama says “I’ll veto it”  and then both go on TV and say, ” it’s the Republicans fault because they will not compromise.”  I believe the American people are a fair-minded people and although they may be calling the Republicans with the message, “Fix this mess.”  I think they can now see that they need to replace the not compromising Democrats at the nest election so that we can get back to functioning government.  It is obvious that the Democrats do not care about functioning government, all they care about is making sure that anything the Republicans do is eith “Dead on Arrival”  or Vetoed.