AZ Congressional Delegation

GOP House Freedom Caucus preparing a ‘Contract on America’

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Cartoon_19When we last heard from the farther far-right GOP House Freedom Caucus, they were engaged in a mutiny that forced their captain the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, to walk the plank, and his first mate, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, into house arrest confined to his quarters.

Now these radical extremists are back with another list of demands – a “Contract on America” —  meet our terms or we will kill the hostages, beginning with the GOP leadership. Bloomberg Business reports, House Republican Hard-Liners Drafting ‘Contract With America II’:

U.S. House Republican hard-liners who helped force out former Speaker John Boehner are readying their next act: a multi-point manifesto demanding quick action on long-time conservative priorities.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus are preparing a “Contract With America II” that would call for House votes in the first 100 days of 2016 on replacing Obamacare, overhauling entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and repealing the estate tax.

An early draft of the plan obtained by Bloomberg News also calls for legislation to slash government regulations by 20 percent, cut corporate tax rates and expand offshore oil drilling. Efforts are still under way to finalize contents of the “contract,” which lawmakers say they hope will become the basis of House Republicans’ 2016 agenda.

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US House Says ‘Yes’ to Wall Street #Welfare in Highway Bill

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moneyIn one of his first acts as Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan oversaw doling out $17 million in corporate welfare to Wall Street banks. How did he manage this? The usual sneaky way– by tacking this onto an unrelated piece of “must pass” legislation. (You’ll remember that’s how Republican lawmakers weakened Wall Street regulation last year.)

Yesterday, 354 members of the House of Representatives– all but two Republicans and 70 Democrats– voted to continue the ongoing bank welfare and which was attached a multi-million-dollar highway bill. (They also reauthorized the charter for the “controversial” Export Import Bank in the highway bill.) The primary holdouts were members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, co-chaired by Southern Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva.

Ironically, the GOP didn’t want to add a long-term funding mechanism to pay for highway construction and repair. (I guess funding provisions are “must-haves” only when legislation focuses on food stamps, school lunches, college loans, unemployment, healthcare, public education, and Social Security.) Historically highways have been funded by the users through gas taxes…

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Fiscal disaster averted – for now

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aquabuddhaThe Aqua Buddha grifter running for president, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), promised everyone that he would filibuster the bipartisan budget deal hammered out by GOP leadership and the White House.

More importantly, Aqua Buddha used his filibuster promise to fund raise off the conservative rubes for his presidential campaign.

The conservative rubes should be entitled to a refund because this right-wing grifter did not even last 20 minutes.

Shortest. Filibuster. Ever. Rand Paul’s Budget Deal ‘Filibuster’ Lasts Less Than 20 Minutes.

With the village idiot’s fake filibuster out of the way, the Senate approves two-year budget deal in 3 a.m. vote:

The Senate passed a two-year budget deal early Friday morning that raises the debt ceiling, sending the agreement to President Obama’s desk.

The deal was approved after 3 a.m. in a 64-35 vote after a late speech by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who criticized the legislation as a blank check for President Obama to add to the nation’s debt.

[Sen McCain voted yes; Sen. Flake voted no.]

“Both sides of the aisle have what I would call sacred cows. On the right, they have the sacred cow of military contracts. … The left wants more welfare,” he said, adding, “Should we give Congress more money? Hell no.”

And they all laughed, and laughed at the village idiot.

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Tea-Publicans renew their war on Planned Parenthood and ‘ObamaCare,’ threaten to crash the economy

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Tea-Publicans were opposed to the “reconciliation” process before they were for it (when it suits their need to feed the GOPropoganda machine). The only principle they have is whatever works for us.

EddieMunsterThe GOP’s alleged boy genius and Ayn Rand fanboy, Rep. Paul Ryan, “the zombie-eyed granny starver from Wisconsin” who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee and is the heir apparent to Speaker of the House after a vote next week, drafted a reconciliation bill that partially repeals “ObamaCare” and defunds Planned parenthood for a year. “No healthcare for you!”

The Hill reports, House passes partial ObamaCare repeal:

The House voted along party lines on Friday to approve a budget reconciliation bill that would repeal parts of ObamaCare and halt federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Only seven House Republicans voted against the partial ObamaCare repeal bill, though it has become a target of opposition from 2016 presidential candidates Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), as well as powerful groups such as Heritage Action for America.

The final total was 240-189. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), a vocal opponent of abortion, was the only Democrat to break ranks.

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Oak Flat

Oak Flat: Kirkpatrick Stands with McCain, Flake, Gosar, Salmon, Schweikert & Franks (video)

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Oak Flat
A view of Oak Flat from the video below. Educate yourself. Watch the videos below.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man revered in my household when I was a child, made a promise to the San Carolos Apache back in the 1955 that there would be no mining at Oak Flat. He made this promise when he opened up other Northern Arizona acreage to copper mining, and you can see the consequences of these promises decades later.

In 2014, Arizona Senator John McCain (AKA Despicable Me) attached an Oak Flat rider to an unrelated defense bill — thus clearing the way for mining on sacred Apache land by Resolution Copper, a foreign company– the land that Eisenhower promised would be saved from mining. The Tucson Weekly’s headline is 100% accurate, it was a “new low” for McCain.

Until this week, I had blamed McCain and fellow Arizona Senator Jeff Flake for this travesty, but then I stumbled upon a link revealing that Democratic Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick stood with the entire Arizona Republican delegation on Oak Flat— and against the Apache. (You’ll remember that Kirkpatrick has had long-time support from Native Americans.)

This story is from Kirkpatrick’s own website: AZ Republic: Gosar, Kirkpatrick join forces for Ariz. copper mine. This is really disappointing news about Kirkpatrick because I was ready to back her against McCain for the US Senate, but this Oak Flat slight of hand by the Congress is morally wrong.

Copper mining has devastated large swaths of Arizona. Why does this industry also need the ~700 acres at Oak Flat?

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