Year: 2018

Barack Obama is done with people’s lame excuses for not voting in midterm elections

by

The Huffington Post reports Barack Obama Brutally Shuts Down People’s Lame Excuses For Not Voting:

Barack Obama is done with people’s lame excuses for not voting in the upcoming midterm elections this November.

So, in a new “Get Out The Vote” video from media company ATTN, the former president amusingly picks apart seven common reasons people give for not bothering to exercise their democratic right to cast a ballot.

“You can’t use Google to figure out which candidates on your local ballot think that the earth is flat and climate change is a hoax?” Obama asks at one point, as he tackles some people’s claims that they’re not informed enough to make a decision.

And for those folks who don’t bother voting in the midterms because they are “boring,” Obama delivers this takedown: “You know what’s boring? Scrolling through endless photos of your dinner on Instagram.”

Check out the full clip here:

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 8.26.42 AM

Read more

Mitch McConnell: Republicans are coming for your healthcare, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Believe them. (Updated)

by

Republicans were supposed to run on their tax cuts. Instead, they’re running away from them. Only the Chamber of Commerce (naturally) is running ads thanking Republicans like Martha McSally for making permanent the deficit busting corporate welfare tax cuts for wealthy plutocrats that did not benefit the average American taxpayer. Republicans stunned to learn voters understand exactly what their tax cut did:

The reality is not in dispute. Around two-thirds of the benefits of the tax cuts went to those in the top quintile of taxpayers, with about 20 percent of the benefits going to the richest 1 percent. By 2025, when the cuts are fully phased in, the top 1 percent will get 25 percent of the benefits. (See details here.) The centerpiece of the plan, furthermore, was a gigantic corporate [welfare] tax cut. Republicans promised that this cut would produce a wave of investment and wage increases for workers, but so far the only wave that has resulted is a tsunami of stock buybacks benefiting wealthy shareholders, which is exactly what liberals predicted.

Those facts are available to anyone who might seek them out, but most people aren’t going to. What people do notice, however, is that their paychecks didn’t look much bigger after the tax cut. Maybe they’re getting a few more dollars a week, but it certainly wasn’t life-transforming.

Tax cuts are actually tax expenditures that are paid for by borrowing money. Tax cuts do not pay for themselves, despite the GOP’s insane adherence to faith based supply-side “trickle down” economics. All it does is explode the federal deficit. Republicans like to claim they are “deficit hawks” when a Democrat is in the White House, but the truth is they are actually deficit peacocks who really don’t care about the federal deficit, especially when a Republican is in the White House.

Read more

AZ Daily Star endorses Democrat Congresswoman Krysten Sinema for U.S. Senate

by

The Arizona Daily Star editorial board endorsed Democrat CD 9 Congresswoman Krysten Sinema for the open seat in the Arizona U.S. Senate, over Republican CD 2 Congresswoman Martha McSally. The article appeared today in the Star, page A 10, and here’s the online version: https://tucson.com/opinion/local/star-opinion-kyrsten-sinema-for-the-u-s-senate/article_0cbc550b-d24e-5f06-a57f-89bd794f929b.html Sinema is a 3 term Congresswoman.  This U.S. Senate seat … Read more

Martha McSally keeps lying about her healthcare votes

by

I pointed out in a post last week that Health care is the top issue, and GOP candidates campaign on the ‘Big Lie’ (snippet):

Polling shows that health care is the top priority for Americans, and that Democrats are winning among the segment of the electorate most worried about health care.

POLITICO reported this week about how Republican candidates are actually running ads saying that they support the pre-existing conditions provisions of the Affordable Care Act aka“Obamacare” even after every Republican incumbent in Congress has voted multiple times over a period of several years to repeal Obamacare and voted for House Speaker Paul Ryan’s plan to convert Medicare into a private system with vouchers (coupon care). They are running away from their Obamacare repeal votes by simply lying about it (looking at you Martha McSally). ‘Just ridiculous lies’: Dems incensed over misleading GOP ads on Medicare for All.

The Huffington Post reports Now it’s Senate candidate Martha McSally telling whoppers about her record on health care:

Health care keeps coming up in the approach to the 2018 midterms. And Republicans keep deceiving the public about it, because they are desperate to show that they didn’t try to strip away protections for people with pre-existing conditions when, in fact, they did.

On Monday evening, it was Martha McSally’s turn. McSally, GOP nominee for Arizona’s open Senate seat, currently serves in the House. Last year, she voted for her party’s bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including regulations that block insurers from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.

In a closed-door meeting on the day of the vote, McSally reportedly stood up and told colleagues that it was time to get this “f**king thing” done.

Screen Shot 2018-10-17 at 11.53.52 AM

Read more

Arizona Daily Star endorses Democrats Senator David Bradley, Rep. Kirsten Engel and Domingo DeGrazia for LD 10

by

The Editorial Board of the Arizona Daily Star has endorsed online all three Democrats running in LD 10 — incumbent Senator David Bradley, incumbent Rep. Kirsten Engel and political newcomer Domingo DeGrazia, attorney son of the late Tucson artist Ted DeGrazia. Article appeared online  on 10/17/18, and then on 10/19/18 on page A 16 of … Read more