Archive for category congress
Congressman Uses Out-of-Context Bible Quote to Justify Screwing Poor People
Posted by Richard Warnick in congress, Corporate Socialism, Economy, Federal Budget, National Politics, Poverty, Republicans on May 23, 2013
Sometimes I think Republicans have their own special GOP edition of The Bible. Via Think Progress:
The House Agriculture Committee convened earlier this week to discuss whether or not to cut as much as $4.1 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps).
As House members discussed slashing the budget for the Farm Bill, which funds SNAP, Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) took issue with some Democrats who cited Jesus Christ’s call to care for “the least of these” when describing the government’s need to assist the hungry. Instead, Fincher explained that his support for the proposed cuts by quoting a very different Bible verse – 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.”
But while the use of 2 Thessalonians is a convenient tool for those who want to justify ignoring the poor, Fincher’s lukewarm Biblical argument doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. As many religious bloggers have already pointed out, the author of 2 Thessalonians was actually referring to ancient Christians who had stopped working in anticipation of Jesus’ Second Coming. The verse is concerned with correcting a theological misunderstanding (i.e., don’t just wait around for Jesus, live an active faith), not passing judgement on the poor.
Worse still, Fincher’s use of the Bible to defend the slashing of food stamps isn’t just bad theology, it’s also bad policy.
Undergirding Fincher’s sloppy exegesis is an old conservative fiction that people who rely on food stamps are lazy parasites who mooch off the government and refuse to work. In reality, most of the country’s 47 million food stamp recipients are children or the elderly, and many are employed. A 2012 report from the USDA found that 45 percent of SNAP recipients were under 18 years of age, nearly 9 percent were age 60 or older, and more than 40 percent lived in households with earnings.
Fincher’s misguided Bible-thumping ignores the plight of America’s 8.9 million “working poor.” This massive group includes the thousands of participants from the recent fast food and retail workers strikes, people who, despite working full-time 40 hours a week for booming industries, often only make around $7.25 an hour, or $15,000 a year. That’s far below the federal poverty threshold of $23,550 for a family of four and leaves many working families with no choice but to apply for food stamps just to feed their loved ones. The strikers, who are consistently backed by droves of religious leaders, are clearly willing to work, yet lawmakers like Fincher (who made his millions with the help of government farm subsidies) stand poised to deny them access to the food they need by decimating funding for SNAP.
UPDATE: Local Charities Speak Out On GOP’s Effort To Slash Food Stamps
UPDATE: 50 Million Americans Are Going Hungry As Congress Considers Gutting Food Stamps
UPDATE: Krugman: “Get really, really angry” about GOP attack on SNAP
This Just In: Mark Zuckerberg Is A Bad Guy
Posted by Richard Warnick in Activist groups, congress, Energy, Environment, National Politics, Public Lands, Republicans, Wilderness on April 27, 2013
What’s the problem with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, other than being a sociopath? He’s running ads advocating the Keystone XL pipeline and more drilling and oil spills in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group, which bills itself as a bipartisan entity dedicated to passing immigration reform, has spent considerable resources on ads advocating a host of anti-environmental causes — including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and constructing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
The umbrella group, co-founded by Facebook’s Zuckerberg, NationBuilder’s co-founder Joe Green, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Dropbox’s Drew Houston, and others in the tech industry, is called FWD.US.
More info:
Mark Zuckerberg group launches TV blitz
UPDATE:
Progressives Boycott Facebook Ads In Opposition To Zuckerberg Group
UPDATE: Two Major Tech Leaders Quit Mark Zuckerberg’s Political Group Over Ads Supporting Keystone XL
CISPA Violates the Fourth Amendment
Posted by Richard Warnick in American People, Barack Obama, congress, Free Speech, National Politics, The Constitution on April 23, 2013
The “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (CISPA) passed the House of Representatives 288-127, with 92 Democrats voting for it despite the threat of a Presidential veto.
As it’s written, CISPA won’t protect us from cyber attacks, but it will violate our 4th Amendment right to privacy.
- It lets the government spy on you without a warrant. (read more)
- It makes it so you can’t even find out about it after the fact. (read more)
- It makes it so companies can’t be sued when they do illegal things with your data. (read more)
- It allows corporations to cyber-attack each other and individuals outside of the law. (read more)
- It makes every privacy policy on the web a moot point, and violates the 4th amendment. (read more)
We’ve had to listen to a lot of wailing from the Gun Lobby about imagined attacks on the Bill of Rights. This is what a real one looks like.
No global warming, because, Jesus!
Posted by Shane Smith in Climate Change, congress, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Religion, Religious Fundamentalism on April 13, 2013
“I would point out that people like me who support hydrocarbon development don’t deny that the climate is changing. I think you can have an honest difference of opinion of what’s causing that change without automatically being either all-in that’s all because of mankind or it’s all just natural. I think there’s a divergence of evidence. I would point out that if you’re a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change, and that certainly wasn’t because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.”
—Republican Congressman from Texas Joe Barton, during today’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on the Northern Route Approval Act, legislation which would authorize Congress to approve the Keystone pipeline.
Yeah. New rule, if you think talking about 4000plus year old myths borrowed from a culture that in turn borrowed them from another that borrowed them from still another culture should be sited as scientific evidence to use against something that pretty much every peer reviewed climate work has found actual evidence for, you are too god damn stupid to be allowed to open your slobbering slack jawed maw in public. You are certainly the last person who should be allowed to vote on legislation that demands at least a sixth grade level of science comprehension. In fact, you should likely have your legal status as an adult human being taken away to protect yourself and others.
In short, you might be a Texas republican.
Hell, at least Idaho and Texas keep doing their level best to make sure Utah isn’t the national embarrassment.
CPC’s ‘Back To Work Budget’
Posted by Richard Warnick in congress, Deficit, Democrats, Economy, Federal Budget, National Politics, This Blog, Unemployment on March 29, 2013
The Congressional Progressive Caucus budget promises to create 7 million new jobs in one year, and includes $4.4 trillion in deficit reduction and $112 billion in infrastructure investment. That beats any other budget proposal in Washington, by far – including the Obama administration’s yet-to-be-released budget. And it won’t cut Medicare benefits to pay for more tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
UPDATE: Paul Krugman: Cheating Our Children
[T]alk of a fiscal crisis has subsided. Yet the deficit scolds haven’t given up on their determination to bully the nation into slashing Social Security and Medicare. So they have a new line: We must bring down the deficit right away because it’s “generational warfare,” imposing a crippling burden on the next generation. …
…Yet there is, as I said, a lot of truth to the charge that we’re cheating our children. How? By neglecting public investment and failing to provide jobs.
The Republican War on Research Continues
Posted by Glenden Brown in Activist groups, American People, Authoritarianism, congress, Conservative, Conservatives, Republicans on February 18, 2013
If you’ve read Chris Mooney’s The Republican War on Science, it will come as no surprise that Republicans in Congress are trying to stifle and defund government efforts at objective research. From Moshe Marvit:
Just before the November election, news leaked that the Congressional Research Service had been strongarmed by Senate Republicans into withdrawing a report that analyzed the last six decades of economic data and found, contrary to deeply held Republican dogma, that there was no correlation between top marginal tax rates and economic growth. Six weeks later, after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, we were reminded that 15 years ago the National Rifle Association successfully lobbied to kill all federal funding of gun research, leaving the public without solid information with which to debate gun control.
Now, as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has begun calling for an end to federal funding for social science research, Paul Krugman has labeled the modern GOP “the ignorance caucus.”
“These days [Cantor's] party dislikes the whole idea of applying critical thinking and evidence to policy questions,” writes Krugman, who identifies an epistomelogical divide between the parties: “One side believes, at least in principle, in letting its policy views be shaped by facts; the other believes in suppressing the facts if they contradict its fixed beliefs.”
There’s an old line that facts have a liberal bias. So Republicans have decided to declare war on facts.
There’s a deeper problem here, of course. By depriving government agencies and government itself of research, Republicans are crippling the ability of government to make and implement good policy. Research showing no correlation between top marginal tax rates and economic growth strikes at Republican dogma. It also has the power to reshape public debate on the issue. It makes it harder for both sides to make good policy. It turns government into nothing more than a faith-based enterprise. It’s appalling. And it hurts us in both the short and long term.
Do They Know How Crazy They Sound?
Posted by Richard Warnick in 2nd Second Amendment, congress, Democracy, Gun Control, Mass Shooting, Mental health, National Politics on January 30, 2013
Today’s Senate committee hearing on gun safety began with a surprise appearance by Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), grievously wounded during an assassination attempt two years ago that left six others dead.
“Thank you for inviting me here today,” she said. “This is an important conversation for our children, for our community, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important.”
She continued: “Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act. Be bold, be courageous. Americans are counting on you.”
But later in the hearing, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) bragged about having an AR-15 at home.
“You could find yourself in this country in a lawless environment from a natural disaster or a riot,” he said… The Republican senator added that he would carry his assault rifle around his neighborhood in the event of “a law and order breakdown.”
And then it got weirder.
One of the witnesses at the hearing, Daily Caller writer Gayle Trotter, head of the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, argued that limiting magazine capacity would particularly affect women, who she claimed believe the AR-15 to be their “weapon of choice.”
“An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon, and the peace of mind that a woman has as she’s facing three, four, five violent attackers, intruders in her home, with her children screaming in the background, the peace of mind that she has knowing that she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she’s fighting hardened, violent criminals,” she said.
I’m almost 60 years old. I never had even one “hardened, violent criminal” attack me at home. Not one time. Do these people know how crazy they sound to most Americans?
More info:
Gun advocate tells Senate: AR-15 is the ‘weapon of choice’ for women with crying babies
Lindsey Graham: GOP-Forced Budget Cuts Will Mean Fewer Cops, So People Need To Arm Themselves
Senator Catches NRA Head In Epic Flip Flop
The fact of the matter is that more guns put women in danger. The Harvard Injury Control Research Center has found that states with more guns have more female violent deaths. Their research also found that batterers who owned guns liked to use them to scare and control their victims, and would often use the gun to threaten the victim, threaten her pets or loved ones, clean them menacingly during arguments, or even fire them to scare her.
Trotter’s organization, the Independent Women’s Forum, opposes legislation aimed at curbing domestic violence including the Violence Against Women Act.
Read the rest of this entry »
Reid: Filibuster Reform Within 36 Hours
Posted by Richard Warnick in congress, Democracy, Democrats, National Politics, Party Politics, Republicans, The Constitution, This Blog on January 22, 2013
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939)
I am still wondering why the Democrats didn’t rewrite the Senate rules in 2009 or 2011. But now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he wants to end what amounts to a Republican minority veto power via the “silent filibuster” or the “60-vote rule” that isn’t really a rule. Under our Constitution, all it takes is a 51-vote majority to change the rulebook, and Reid says he has the votes.
“I hope that within the next 24 to 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we’re going to move forward on what I think needs to be done,” Reid told reporters. “The caucus will support me on that,” he added.
There is a package of reforms on the table that will make the Senate able to legislate again. Those reforms are:
- Eliminate the ability to filibuster the motion to proceed;
- Require that those wishing to block legislation or nominations take the floor and actually filibuster— i.e., mandating “talking filibusters”;
- Assert that 41 Senators must affirmatively vote to continue debate rather than forcing 60 Senators to vote to end debate; and,
- Streamline the nomination process so that nominees will get a yes or no vote on the Senate floor, including a reduction of the required 30 hours of post cloture debate on a nominee to 2 hours.
In the last Congress, only 3 percent of the bills introduced in the Senate made it to final passage. This was the most dysfunctional Senate anyone can remember.
UPDATE:
Reid To McConnell: Make A Deal Or Dems Will Weaken The Filibuster Ourselves
UPDATE: No talking filibuster, no 41-vote rule. To say Harry Reid and the Dems folded like a cheap suit is an insult to cheap suits.
UPDATE:
Minority rules: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will continue to control the Senate after so-called Majority Leader Harry Reid agrees to a deal that does almost nothing to restrain the abuse of the filibuster.
UPDATE:
Senate Leaders Finalize Scaled-Back Filibuster Deal
UPDATE: HuffPo nails it with their headline (see continuation)
Read the rest of this entry »
‘Plan B’ Is DOA
Posted by Richard Warnick in congress, Federal Budget, John Boehner, National Politics, Republicans, Tax Policy on December 20, 2012
Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. The House has adjourned until after Christmas without taking a vote on “Plan B.”
It was a tax increase on working Americans, coupled with a massive extension of the Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich on the first $1 million of income. Boehner couldn’t find the votes for it, but this didn’t matter because the Senate Majority Leader said the Senate would not consider it, and President Obama said he would veto it if somehow it got to his desk.
Because right-wing Tea-GOP House members oppose even a token income tax rate hike on multimillionaires, Boehner added a series of sweeteners from the right-wing wish list – like Christmas stockings hung by the fire (OK, not like that at all).
- Cuts to food stamps that would hurt millions of low-income Americans
- Cuts to Meals on Wheels, a program that delivers meals to seniors
- Cuts funding to health exchanges and Medicaid
- Cuts to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that will yield no cost savings
Nobody in Washington seems to know why Boehner was wasting everyone’s time with this proposal, when all the House has to do is vote on the Senate-passed bill that makes tax cuts for the rich on the first $250,000 of income permanent. President Obama has said he would sign it.
Does it matter to average Americans if they get a tax cut on their first $250,000 or their first $1 million? I don’t even know anybody who makes $250,000 a year.
UPDATE: How Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ Debacle Has Transformed The Fiscal Cliff Talks
‘A Moment in Senate History’
Posted by Richard Warnick in congress, Democracy, Mitch McConnell, National Politics, Party Politics, Republicans on December 6, 2012
Just not a good moment. The Senate reached the height of dysfunction today when Minority Leader Mitch McConnell filibustered his own bill.
Today, the United States Senate hit a new low. This morning, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced a bill to reform the debt limit charade so that the president could spend money authorized and appropriated by Congress as long as the Congress didn’t vote by two-thirds to prohibit him from borrowing the money necessary to conduct United States operations at home and abroad. This would eliminate the absurdity — and economic damage — done last summer when the Congress held the debt limit hostage in budget negotiations.
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate Majority Leader then decided to let the bill come to a vote this afternoon. To which Senator McConnell objected, calling for a 60-vote threshold to pass the bill.
He filibustered his own bill.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked the parliamentarian to determine if this has ever happened before, but it couldn’t happen at a better time as the Senate prepares to reform (or eliminate!) the filibuster. This craziness, as demonstrated by McConnell’s absurd pretzel logic on the floor today, must end.
What’s Next? More Hostage-Taking Of Course
Posted by Richard Warnick in Barack Obama, congress, Economy, Federal Budget, National Politics, Party Politics, Republicans, This Blog on December 5, 2012
House Republicans are privately contemplating a quiet surrender in the fight over Bush tax rates for top earners, and a quick pivot to a new fight over raising the debt limit, in which they’d demand steep cuts to programs like Medicare and Social Security.
The White House’s official position on this plan is: cram it. Officials say they will not negotiate, or pay a ransom. Congress has to raise the debt limit, period.
“I will not play that game,” Obama told the Business Roundtable on Wednesday. “We are not going to play that game next year. We’ve got to break that habit before it starts.”
The ransom that the GOP congressional leadership is demanding is that any new borrowing authority must be accompanied by larger cuts to federal spending – which Dems will have to propose, because Republicans can never name a single program they want to cut except for PBS. This would mean austerity budgeting at a time when it’s a really bad idea for the U.S. economy — risking a repeat of Europe’s self-inflicted crisis.
Speaker John Boehner seems ready to once again threaten us all with total economic collapse. However, according to the Constitution, the Congress does not have the option of refusing to pay for government expenses that have already been authorized by Congress. The 14th Amendment states: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned.”
The debt ceiling is unconstitutional. The GOP cannot use it to shut down the government.
UPDATE: Top House Republican Speechless When Asked For Specific Fiscal Cliff Spending Cuts
UPDATE: Josh Marshall: “We’re headed for the Mother of All Government Shutdowns.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: ‘Things Aren’t Going Well Around Here’
Posted by Richard Warnick in congress, Democrats, National Politics, Party Politics, Republicans on November 27, 2012
From the Department of Duh, via TPM:
“The Republican leader thinks things are going well here. He’s in a distinct minority because things aren’t going well around here,” Reid said. “Lyndon Johnson: one cloture. Reid: 386. That says it all.”
Only 3 percent of bills introduced in the U.S. Senate ever get passed. The Senate is dysfunctional, because of Republican abuse of the filibuster to impose a de facto supermajority requirement for nearly all legislation.
Two years ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked filibuster reform. Now he says he’s willing to consider either a “talking filibuster,” which makes senators stand up and take responsibility for obstructing legislation, or a plan to make the “motion to proceed” non-debatable, which would eliminate the minority’s power to keep bills from reaching the Senate floor.
If Senator Mitch McConnell were the majority leader, he would immediately get rid of the filibuster. It only takes 51 votes to change the Senate rules.
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