COVID-19 & Healthcare

Tea-Publican projection on government shutdown: blame the hostage

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted about this topic during the 2012 presidential campaign regarding the shameless liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Willard 'Mittens' Romney: 'I'm rubber, you're glue':

Rubber-glueMittens suffers from another disorder frequently associated with pathological lying, psychological projection, a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which he then ascribes to another person. This is the old schoolyard taunt, "I'm rubber, you're glue – whatever you say (about me) bounces off of me and sticks to you."

A variant of this is "I know you are, but what am I?"

This tried and true technique of five-year olds and Tea-Publican politicians everywhere is making a reappearance this week as the Vast right-wing conspiracy plots a '30 front war' against America and the implementation of "ObamaCare."

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday asked if Tea-Publican lawmakers were prepared to "shoot the hostage" and
shut down the federal government if President Barack Obama refused their extortionary hostage demands to
defund his signature healthcare reform law. Chris Wallace Calls Out GOP on Govt. Shutdown: Are You 'Prepared to Shoot' the Hostage?:

During a talk with the conservative Heritage Foundation last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested that Obama and Democrats, not Republicans, would be to blame if the government was shut down.

In Light of Local Poverty, Tucson Needs Creative Direction & Progressive Economic Ideas

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Development33-sig-sm72by Pamlea Powers Hannley

Business friendly? Tucson’s been there, done that, … and got the t-shirt at Goodwill. As former City Councilwoman Molly McKasson said, we put all of our eggs in the development basket and look where it got us.

Twenty percent of Tucsonans are living in poverty.

Thirty percent of Tucson children are living in poverty.

Fifty-two percent of Tucson children live in a one-parent household.

Seventy-one percent of Tucson Unified School District students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. (Statistics from the Arizona Daily Star.)

How did we get here?

The Back Story on Tucson’s Poverty Rate

In a November 2011 “What If?” article published just a few days before the last mayoral election, former Arizona Daily Star reporter Josh Brodesky interviewed activist, writer, and artist McKasson and mused about how Tucson would be different today if she had beaten former Mayor Bob Walkup back in their 1999 match-up.

I remember that election well. Walkup– a former Hughes Aircraft executive and former head of the Greater Tucson Economic Council– was the quintessential business candidate. Bankrolled by Tucson’s business community, Walkup’s campaign successfully painted McKasson as a flighty hippie artist whose no-growth, tree-hugging, water-conserving policies would be bad for Tucson (ie, bad for business and bad for growth). Meanwhile, Walkup was championed as a business savvy savior who successfully ran a business, and, therefore, (of course!) could successfully run a city.

As mayor, the glad-handing, ribbon-cutting Walkup promoted business development, Rio Nuevo, and ill-conceived, taxpayer-funded private projects like the downtown hotel (which went down in flames, thank goodness). Except for his pro-business, pro-growth cheerleading, Walkup was a do-nothing mayor who depended upon defense funding, the occasional TREO call center moving to Tucson, and housing boom construction jobs to bolster Tucson’s chronically low-wage tourist economy. The Tucson Weekly’s endorsement of McKasson (here) eerily  predicts what happened to Tucson under three terms of Walkup. Read it and more background and new ideas after the jump.

Nine Days in September

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, and his Tea-Publican
controled 112th Congress was "a very bad, no good, terrible Congress." 14 reasons why this is the worst Congress ever – Washington Post. The current 113th Congress is on pace to become the least productive Congress in history, having passed just 22 bills sent to President Obama before going home on August recess  — the fewest number in history.

The current 113th Congress is also the "hardly working" Congress. I have posted the House calendar before, but check out where things stand right now: Congress is taking a five week August recess and has scheduled only nine days in September before the fiscal year ends on September 30. Nine "working" days to avoid a government shutdown and the GOP hostage taking threat to default on the debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to their extortionary hostage demand to defund or repeal "ObamaCare." Does anyone seriously believe that this failed Congress is up to the task? We are headed for a trainwreck folks.

Screenshot from 2013-08-05 07:22:39

Obamacare: At least the Republicans are consistent. (Part 1)

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By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

 

…Consistently *dishonest*, but consistent nonetheless…

The
Republican/corporate opposition to health care reform (HCR), known as
Obamacare, has a three-step strategy for generating public opposition to
HCR:

Step 1.  Lie.

Step 2.  Lie some more..

Step
3.  If steps 1 and 2 don't produce a satisfactory amount of public
opposition to health care insurance coverage for the vast majority of
Americans, lie even more.

 

The latest (renewed) GOPer lie "talking point" is to claim that Congress is "exempt" from the provisions.

Dranias is a senior operative at the corporate lobbying firm
"free market think tank", while the person who retweeted Dranias'
updates, Antenori, is one of the leaders of efforts to turn back
Medicaid restoration via the ballot.

The story that Dranias links to, from Politico.com, is here.

The GOP is not a serious governing party

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, the GOP "leader" who has lost control of his Tea-Publican caucus and cannot muster the votes from his own caucus to pass the "easy" appropriations bills like the agriculture bill GOP push to slash foodstamps puts farm bill in jeopardy, and the transportation and housing bill House
Republicans pull spending measure, focus on bills to embarrass White
House, is instead wasting the limited time of Congress on more symbolic votes directed at the GOP crazy base and the conservative media entertainment complex, and fundraising for GOP candidates. Recess-bound House votes to gut Obama health care law for 40th time:

Capping a legislative work period more noted for what it failed to
pass than for what it completed, the House voted for the 40th time on
Friday to repeal President Barack Obama's health care reform law before
heading home for a five week recess.

The GOP-controlled House voted to approve a measure to prevent the IRS from enforcing “Obamacare” in a 232-185 vote.

The legislation faces virtually no chance of advancing in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

By
most measures, Friday's vote marked the 40th time that Republicans have
voted to gut the national health care overhaul, which was signed into
law in March 2010.