The rhetoric that is coming out of Washington DC is so loud that the Republicans in House of Representatives and Senate cannot hear the American people. It seems there is nothing more important than stopping President Barack Obama from accomplishing anything. This, of course, comes at a time in American history when ideology is more important than jobs, unnecessary gun deaths and poverty, all of which affect the American economy.… [Read more]
K Street—the lobbying capital of our country. If you want something done, no matter what it is, you’ll be able to find someone on K street to lobby Congress on your behalf. But, is this a benefit to our political system?
It depends. If you’re a senior citizen, you probably belong to the AARP and like it that the AARP lobbies on issues concerning senior citizens.… [Read more]
A few near-miraculous events have taken place today. This April 1st is one for the history books!
The War on Women has been declared over. The men of the Republican party, joined by a few blue dog Democrats and Republican women, announced that they realised that unless they begin attending medical school in droves, any woman’s uterus is none of their business.… [Read more]
Back when you were the party of Abraham Lincoln, we knew you.
When you became the party of Dwight D. Eisenhower, we knew you.
Even when you became the party of Barry Goldwater, we knew you.
And then you became the party of Ronald Reagan….and while there was much to squirm over, we still knew you because we knew what to expect.… [Read more]
This week Congressman Paul Ryan released the new Republican budget for the federal government. One thing was notably missing: anything different from the budget he proposed last year. Rep. Ryan and his colleges on the GOP budget committee produced a document that turns Medicaid into a voucher system, makes further cuts in programs that many Americans rely on for their daily survival and his core proposal being the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.… [Read more]
So the Republican-controlled House of Representatives proposed a $982 billion bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year instead of more brinksmanship. Before we start dancing in the streets, and name a few golf courses and watering holes after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the devil is again in the details.
As a former Federal agency budget analyst and before that, a military comptroller, we need to look beyond the spin platitudes and delve into the numbers.… [Read more]
For several months, politicians on both sides of the political aisle have been sounding the alarm. We’ve been warned that the sequestered spending cuts are across-the-board and, therefore, without analysis. We’ve also been warned that the draconian measures will slow economic growth and, as a result, cost the nation somewhere in the area of 750,000 jobs – a figure agreed to by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.… [Read more]
Two-time Pulitzer winning cartoonist Mike Luckovich, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, sketched an appropriate cartoon the other day on the string of inept GOP brinksmanship showdowns. Yes, America is tired of it. Making a mess in the kitchen, and leaving it for the missus is not a path to domestic bliss.
Kowtowing to the Tea Terrorists, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.) “led” his ‘Party of No’ on another sabotage raid on the American economy.… [Read more]
The famous title line from “tough guy” actor, director, and GOP Convention empty chair talker Clint Eastwood is now for President Obama and Congressional Democrats to use against Right-wing foes bent upon driving the nation off yet another fiscal cliff.
Congressional Republicans want to allow dramatic across the board cuts under the sequester. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.), unable or unwilling to provide adult leadership to the more radical ideologues in the ‘Party of No’, now see fit to let the crazed upstarts drive the bus off the cliff.… [Read more]
Amid all the Progressive wailing and conservative faux victory laps, last week’s “filibuster reform” came out pretty much as I had expected it.
Our Federal legislative bodies on Capitol Hill continue to stick pretty close to what the Eighteenth Century powdered wig framers had intended. As a moderating influence to that rabble called the House of Representatives, the Senate is, by design, the “adult in the room.” Some rabble-rousers, such as Sen.… [Read more]
It’s probably a good thing the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus doesn’t employ one John Boehner of Cincinnati as a lion tamer. In a day when our children’s safe learning environment is trumped by somebody’s archaic Eighteenth century delusion of “firearms freedom,” our Speaker of the House again gets ineptly lashed by his own whip instead of convincing an unruly pride of big-toothed felines.… [Read more]
In the several months since the Republicans suffered a resounding defeat in the presidential election and lost seats in both the House and the Senate, there have been innumerable articles addressing why they lost and what they must do moving forward in order to avoid similar defeats in the future. Most of these articles emphasize the need for change by citing demographic statistics illustrating, quite convincingly, that trying to build the future of the GOP almost exclusively around the Caucasian portion of the electorate is not only a recipe for short-term failure, but a path towards irrelevancy and eventual extinction.… [Read more]
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Republican John Boehner, was chosen by the Republican House caucus to be their leader for another two years, something he fought for tooth and nail — this despite some spirited competition. But Mr. Boehner has been very frustrated, indeed, over his negotiations with President Obama regarding reduction of the national debt via drastic cuts in spending rather than the raising of taxes on the embarrassingly wealthy.… [Read more]
Yesterday marked the last official day on the job for the 112th Congress. That particular Congress made history by breaking a record: they were deemed the least productive Congress ever due to lack of legislation passed. Today, the 113th Congress will make history of its own; this group will be the most diverse Congress ever. When the legislators swear into office taking the constitutionally mandated oath at noon, American citizens will be represented by a class of not just men, but by more women and openly gay lawmakers.… [Read more]
“I’m shocked! Shocked, shocked to find there is gambling going on in here.” – Claude Rains, Casablanca, 1942.
I’m still in shock, and in politics I lost my virginity more than a few decades ago (along with the “other” one.) Congress working a Federal holiday. House Speaker John Boehner (R) must have had to pull back from the bar early in tears on that Amateur Night Monday to greet the challenge of herding House cats and have a clear eye to look out for Überconservative tea drunks with steely knives from Solingen.… [Read more]
A joint statement was issued by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie:
“With all that New York and New Jersey and our millions of residents and small businesses have suffered and endured, this continued inaction and indifference by the House of Representatives is inexcusable. It has now been 66 days since Hurricane Sandy hit and 27 days since President Obama put forth a responsible aid proposal that passed with a bi-partisan vote in the Senate while the House has failed to even bring it to the floor.… [Read more]
“Don’t stop, keep on going!”
“What do ya mean?”
“Go!”
“You sure?
“Yeah.”
These are the last words of Thelma and Louise in the 1991 movie “Thelma and Louise” as they drove off a cliff rather than being caught by the police. The leaders of the GOP in the US Congress both Rep. John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell have the Tea Party Republicans breathing down their necks just like the cop in the movie, and Boehner and McConnell have no way out except to keep on going off the fiscal cliff.… [Read more]
Air Force One has landed; President Obama cut short his family vacation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed the nation and legislators…of one party. Yes, it’s still holiday time in the nation’s capital as it is elsewhere so celebrations and relaxation are expected. But when you have a nation to run, and the taxpayers business to manage, it behooves you to drag your tired arse back to work to do the job the citizens elected you to do.… [Read more]
Bah Humbug. There’s nothing like financial uncertainty during the holiday season — and that’s what this nation is facing. Political leaders are on vacation but holidays in the nation’s capital don’t feel different from any other time of year ; not much of anything gets accomplished. Our dysfunctional system is one in which the only time gridlock ever ceases is when there’s no activity at all.… [Read more]
In a Friday morning of “press conferences” (sans press questions), House Speaker John Boehner shot himself in the foot. Bullseye!
As for the inept amateur standup comedy act called John Boehner, he appeared to try to explain why his inadequate “Plan B[umbling]” flopped in his own caucus. Our Cat Herder from Cincinnati narrowly survived being made to walk the plank Thursday night after failing to sell his scheme to unruly, tea drunk, über-conservative Republican cast members of Mutiny on the Top 1% Bounty. … [Read more]
