AZ Congressional Delegation

Update: The post-election plot for Tea-Publican tyranny

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Arizona Senator Jeff Flake was startled a few months ago when a constituent pressed him on whether he was willing to hold up any Supreme Court nominee chosen by Hillary Clinton if she was elected president. The New York Times reports, That Supreme Court Stonewall May Not Crumble Anytime Soon:

“I asked for how long, and he said for four years,” Mr. Flake, an Arizona Republican, recounted in an interview. “I said no, of course not. That is not what I came to Washington to do.”

Sen. Flake had better have a talk with his seat mate, “Senator Obstruction,” John McCain. McCain: Republicans must stop Supreme Court from ‘tilting to the left’:

McCainTimeSpeaking at a modest get-out-the-vote rally at the spring training ballpark of the Chicago Cubs, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) revisited an idea he’d walked back last month — that a Republican majority in the Senate would be ready to fight any Hillary Clinton nominee to the Supreme Court.

“There could be as many as three Supreme Court justices that will be chosen in the next four years,” McCain said. “We have to have a Senate who will prevent that four-to-four split from tilting to the left and making decisions that will harm this nation for decades to come.”

That was all McCain said about the court, at a rally headlined by Mitt Romney and covered by MSNBC, CNN and Showtime. But it resembled a remark McCain gave to a Philadelphia radio station last month, promising that Republicans would “be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up.”

The Times report continues:

[This is] precisely what some of [Flake’s] Republican colleagues are considering. Having already blocked President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia since March, they contend that Republicans should indefinitely stall any nomination by Mrs. Clinton to prevent an ideological shift in the court. Such a blockade would represent a major escalation in the judicial wars that have been waged in the Senate since the 1980s.

Mr. Flake and other Republicans say that would be a terrible mistake. “You just can’t do that,” Mr. Flake said. “You shouldn’t and you can’t. People expect to have a full court.”

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The plot for post-election Tea-Publican tyranny

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Most Americans are of the opinion that they cannot wait for this ugly election to be over on election day. Little do they know that election day is not the end, but only just the beginning.

The radical Neo-Confederate Tea-Publican insurrectionists who have held the federal government hostage for the past six years are plotting against their own GOP leadership, and to engage in Tea-Publican tyranny against the federal government after election day. The Washington Post reported over the weekend:

EddieMunsterHouse Speaker Paul D. Ryan is on the verge of a reckoning with House conservatives that threatens to end his speakership and extinguish his future as a national political leader.

The intraparty fight is set to begin in the days after the Nov. 8 election, when Ryan (R-Wis.) will be under immediate pressure from approximately 40 hard-line House conservatives [House Freedom Caucus] frustrated with his handling of spending fights and his shifting position on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. The conservatives are eyeing a November leadership election and December spending deadline to determine how Ryan can lead Republicans — or if he can lead them at all.

Cartoon_19Conservatives have no plans to compromise next year with Hillary Clinton if she wins the White House and Democrats capture the Senate. They are pushing Ryan to hold the line on spending and other matters, even if it means continued partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill. Some members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus have crafted a list of demands — including deep spending cuts, changes to House rules and a promise to vote only on bills that have majority Republican backing — in exchange for their support.

“If the speaker can’t answer yes to those on paper, I’m going to someone who can,” said Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). “From now on it needs to be on paper, in writing, with a blood oath of some sort pledging your house and mortgage on the line, too.”

Meanwhile, some mainstream conservatives who constitute the bulk of the House GOP — a group that has largely been pleased with Ryan — are starting to openly contemplate whether he will want to continue as speaker.

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Hysterical media misleads on ‘ObamaCare’ premium increases

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ObamacareThe media is once again engaged in its annual hysteria over headline rate increases in the Affordable Care Act aka “ObamaCare”  ahead of the federal health insurance marketplace enrollment period beginning November 1.

Simon Malloy at Salon explains, Obamacare’s 2017 rate hike coverage has been simplistic and possibly misleading:

In keeping with the now-familiar pattern of Affordable Care Act coverage, we find ourselves having to balance substantial progress with not-so-great setbacks. The good news came last month with reports that the national uninsured rate had been cut nearly in half since 2010 to 8.6 percent of the population – the first time it had ever dropped below 9 percent. That’s a massive reduction, and tangible proof that the ACA is doing some real good.

Now for the not-so-great stuff. The Department of Health and Human Services released a report this week stating that it expects premiums for benchmark “silver” health plans in the state-based exchanges to rise by an average of 22 percent in 2017. That news is predictably becoming a talking point for anti-Obamacare Republicans on the campaign trail, so let’s add some context to get a clearer picture of what’s going on.

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The CD 2 McSally ‘Chicken Bunker Debate’

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The one and likely only CD 2 debate was held last night in Sierra Vista. (I searched for a video, but do not find one posted as yet).

chickenbunkerRep. Martha McSally (R-Raytheon) predetermined the debate sponsor, time, date and location of the debate and announced it in a press release without any negotiation with her opponent, Dr. Matt Heinz (D-Tucson). Hence the McSally “Chicken Bunker Debate.”

From the coverage in the Sierra Vista Herald and the Arizona Daily Star today it appears at first blush that McSally may have also selected the topics, if not the softball questions, as well.

McSally was not asked any questions that she did not want to answer, like those I have posted here for years.

Like her very first substantive vote in Congress, vote No. 6 on H.Res. 5 for House Rules Changes, passed 234-176 on a party-line vote, sets up election-year battle over Social Security’s finances in 2016:

Buried in new rules that will govern the House for the next two years is a provision that could force an explosive battle over Social Security’s finances on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.

Social Security’s disability program has been swamped by aging baby boomers, and unless Congress acts, the trust fund that supports it is projected to run dry in late 2016. At that point, the program will collect only enough payroll taxes to pay 81 percent of benefits, according to the trustees who oversee Social Security.

The House adopted a rule Tuesday blocking such a move, unless it is part of a larger plan to improve Social Security’s finances, by either cutting benefits or raising taxes.

But if Congress doesn’t act, benefits for 11 million disabled workers, spouses and children would be automatically cut by 19 percent. The average monthly payment for a disabled worker is $1,146, or a little less than $14,000 a year.

This bit of GOP gamesmanship has since been sidelined, but McSally voted for it.

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Donald Trump cleaves the Christian Right

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One of the strangest occurrences in the 2016 election is how the fundie Christian Right chose to support Donald Trump, of all people, over one of their own in the GOP primary. What is even more difficult to believe is that many of them are standing by Trump even after the revelations of the past week.

The leaders of the fundie Christian Right have pledged their fealty to Donald Trump (hmmm, I’m pretty sure this violates the first two Commandments somehow). ‘Still the best candidate’: Some evangelicals still back Trump despite lewd video:

gop-elephant-w-flag-crossRalph Reed, a conservative Christian activist and the head of Trump’s religious advisory board, said that as the father of two daughters, he was disappointed by the “inappropriate” comments. “But people of faith are voting on issues like who will protect unborn life, defend religious freedom, grow the economy, appoint conservative judges and oppose the Iran nuclear deal,” he said in an email. “I think a 10-year-old tape of a private conversation with a TV talk show host ranks pretty low on their hierarchy of their concerns,” he said.

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David Brody from the Christian Broadcasting Network tweeted, “This just in: Donald Trump is a flawed man! We ALL sin every single day. What if we had a ‘hot mic’ around each one of us all the time?”

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