AZ Congressional Delegation

A Concerned Constituent of Congressman Ron Barber

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A new
CNN poll finds Congress’ approval rating is now all of … 10
percent. Perhaps the reason is things like this:

I received an end of third quarter fund raising email captioned "On The Brink" from Congressman Ron Barber this morning (after the midnight September 30 deadline) in which the congressman's pitch to contribute to his campaign read as follows:

That's what the Tea Party extremists who are threatening to shut down our government have on their agenda—targeting me for defeat because I won’t give in to their
demands.

If you are as outraged as I am with these extremists and their irresponsible political games that threaten our economic recovery then please stand with me now.

This poorly timed fund raising email came after Congressman Barber voted last night — twice! — to stand with the "Tea Party extremists who are threatening to shut down our government have on their agenda." "I won't give in to their demands"? You most certainly did, congressman. Imagine the choice language I used when I opened your email.

In an act of political cowardice, you voted for the second attempt by the Tea-Publican economic terrorists yesterday to delay the individual mandate of "ObamaCare" for a year — so that the GOP can run on "repeal ObamaCare" for the third election in a row — which also included a GOP spending plan that would cut support for victims of domestic violence:

Republican members of the House tossed
in an amendment to the spending bill that would not only delay
implementation of the new health law known as Obamacare but also allow
certain employers and insurers to opt out of specific provisions of the law based on moral or religious grounds.

Specifically, the continuing resolution says:

“Section
2713(a)(4) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg-13(a)(4))
shall not be effective for any period before January 1, 2015, with
respect to the requirement for specific coverage for any sponsor of a
group health plan (or, in the case of student health plans, the
institution of higher education offering such plans), health insurance
issuer, or individual opposing such requirement for coverage based on
religious or moral objections.

Senator, You Are No Five-Sylable Henry

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By Tom Prezelski Re-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion I was going to write a snarky piece which said that Senator John McCain's takedown of Ted Cruz, while effective, was nowhere nearly as awesome as what his predecessor, Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst, did to Huey Long in 1935, but my brother beat me to it … Read more

Sen. Jeff Flake issues a ransom note in the The Arizona Republic(an)

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A new New York Times/CBS News poll today finds that:

* Eighty percent of Americans, including 83 percent of independents and 75 percent of Republicans, say threatening a government shutdown is not an acceptable way to negotiate.

* Americans say overwhelmingly that Republicans are not trying to work with Obama by 70-23. By contrast, 51 percent say Obama is trying to work with Republicans.

Which is to say that the Tea-Publican economic terrorism act of taking America hostage to extort concessions from the Democrats to defund "ObamaCare" and to give them a grab bag of their wish list items in exchange for not destroying the American economy is opposed by 80 percent of Americans, who don’t see this as a fundamentally acceptable way of governing.

And yet . . . this morning Sen. Jeff Flake issued a ransom note to the American people in the The Arizona Republic(an). Delay 'Obamacare' to kill it:

[This] is why we have introduced legislation that would delay all
Obamacare provisions and taxes for one year. H.R. 2809 and S. 1490 seek
to postpone all provisions of the Affordable Care Act taking effect on
Jan. 1, 2014 or later by one year from the date of enactment.

Delaying Obamacare is a necessary step in our efforts to get this law
off the books and replace it with real health-care solutions that work
for American families and businesses. It builds on efforts already taken
by the House and Senate to delay both the individual and employer
mandates. In fairness to American taxpayers, the best thing we can do
right now is to implement a one-year delay so we can continue to chip
away at this disastrous law.

Bob Schieffer schools Rep. Matt Salmon on the reality based world

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rep. Matt Salmon is a right-wing ideologue who only knows what he reads from the GOP talking points. Somehow he was a guest on Face the Nation on Sunday, and host Bob Schieffer had to school him on the reality based world. CBS Host Schools GOP Rep. on Defunding Obamacare: 'This Is the Land of What's Real':

CBS host Bob Schieffer on Sunday encouraged Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ)
to come back to the "land of what's real" and realize that President
Barack Obama was never going to sign bill that defunded his signature
health care reform law.

"We just had a conservative Democrat and a Republican both say
there's no way, no how that this is going to get done in the Senate,"
Schieffer explained during an interview on Face the Nation, adding that the push to defund Obamacare by forcing a government shutdown was like "a Kamikaze attack, a suicide mission." [Wall Street Journal op-ed The Power of 218.]

"I find it ironic that the president will negotiate with Vladimir
Putin, but he won't negotiate with Republicans in the House of
Representatives," Salmon opined. [John Boehner talking point.] "I heard loudly and clearly during the
August recess, 'We want Obamacare gone.'"

Schieffer reminded Salmon that many business leaders [Business lobby says don't shut down the government!]
— and even elected Republicans — agreed that Obamacare opponents in the House were
"just wasting everybody's time by going down one of these exercises
again to shut down the government."

[The Democratic Policy & Communications Center has compiled a list of 20 Republican senators
who have gone on the record acknowledging that they can’t prevent the
implementation of ObamaCare either legislatively or through a government
shutdown.]

Gosar, Franks, Salmon and Schweikert Gang up to Kick the Poor in the Teeth

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By Michael Bryan The Republicans of Arizona's Congressional delegation ganged up with their Tea Party hooligan buddies to kick the poorest and most defenseless among us while we are down last week. The bill slashing SNAP (food stamps) passed on a purely partisan vote, including those of all four of Arizona's Republican Congressional Representatives, cutting … Read more