Anticipating Possible Stimulus Success, Republicans Claiming "Economy Would Have Improved Anyway" Talking Point

Are the Republicans worried about the stimulus succeeding?

The answer can be gleaned from their ballsy preemptive announcements, crazy at they might sound, that the global economic crash in just part of the normal business cycle. And just by coincidence, the recovery cycle coincides with the roll out of the Obama stimulus plan. At best; we'll never really know whether the spending plan succeeded or not. At the worst; we will be guilty of forcing future generations to pay back the borrowed money with interest.

The preemptors, Karl Rove and Rep. Peter King, deliver their talking point message with gusto.

It's tough to be on the wrong side of a historical recovery. It'll make you say anything.

McCaughey Spreads "Government Rationing" of Health Care Lie in Democratic Stimulus Plan

The following video clip is something I promise will be a reference point as the discussion on universal health care picks up. It's the first salvo in trying to discredit a health care system the rest of the industrialized world is using with overwhelming public support. It's not rationing, it's not "government run" and would save more money in the long run than a long list of Republican tax cuts. Universal health care would spur entrepreneurs and business owners to use the money saved for covering future employees to start or expand their businesses and work force.

The right wing, Drudge and Limbaugh, love to spread this stuff around well before the story is discredited. They get the mileage and the message out, poisoning public perception, while at the same time allowing the problem to get worse. Betsy McCaughey, Fmr. Lt. Gov. of NY and spokes model for the ultra conservative Hudson Institute, is caught in a lie. And as Laurence O'Donnell explains, it's not the first time. As Betsy explains in a plea to Big Pharma: "...asking Pharma to support my work...my writing...can make a substantial difference in public opinion and in the nation's capital."

Can you say "exposed?"



Are Republicans really big supporters of small business? No.

Bush Global Economic Meltdown Bankrupting Taliban. Now Who's Laughing?

Osama bin Laden's plan was to bankrupt the U.S. by involving them in a Middle Eastern war. Well, it looks like bin Laden's plan has backfired, kind of, by also bankrupting the Taliban. Bush unintentionally used unregulated capitalism to take down the Taliban, along with everyone else. CBC News:

Even the Taliban are feeling the effects of the global financial
crisis. A Turkish militant group reported that a sharp drop in donations is hampering its fight against NATO soldiers. Just as financial support from donors in the Middle East and Turkey has dropped off, prices for ammunition and weapons on the black market are skyrocketing. A spike in the cost of copper a year ago pushed up ammunition prices, and the world's slumping economy has forced Arab donors to cut their support, said John Thompson, a Canadian military and security analyst.

"Everyone has taken a hit from the subprime mortgage crisis, and that includes the funding sources the jihadis are used to."

NRC's Steele looks forward to: "...creating private sector jobs that won't go away..." You Know, Like the ones That are Going Away Now.

No matter what the voter message was in the last election, a repudiation of the Republican ideology, RNC Chairman Michael Steele is determined to take his party down the same road to ruin they took the country. It's not whether an idea has merit and works for the nation, it's really all about philosophy. Steele appears stuck in reverse. In his email alert, Steele parrots the same old failed ideas:

A budget watchdog group calls this bill a "lobbyist full-employment act." And at the heart of it all is the liberal Democrats' goal of the permanent expansion of the federal government's power and the redistribution of wealth. I ran for the job of RNC Chairman to lead our Party forward with its core principles as a guide: shrinking the size of government and creating private sector jobs that won't go away as soon as taxpayer money runs out.

With the private sector downsizing and consolitdating, small businesses falling to the wayside, outsourcing manufacturing jobs and insourcing cheap guest worker jobs, what part of the plan creates "jobs that won't go away?"

The Republican Party must vigorously champion these rock-solid cornerstones of the American success story.

So this is the great American success story.

Corporate Power and Rep. Paul Ryan

Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, unfazed, has seen employers in his district tank in rapid succession, including the Janesville GM truck plant. In the following interview on Upfront with Mike Gousha, Ryan plays the game of misdirection and short term memory loss. He warns "the economy is in too much peril to mess around with old ideas..."

He must be talking about tax cuts and smaller government, right. Not quite. What he's really talking about is the Obama stimulus plan, the one that will attempt to spend our way out of a crisis his party created with tax cuts and irresponsible budgeting. He continues to perpetuate the lie that the New Deal was a failure as a way of misdirecting the public away from the last 8 years of Republican economics, and fabricates another lie about the stimulus being similar to Japans failed spending plan that resulted in the Lost Decade.

Finally, he continues to support Wall Street and its "monetary policy," which he claims is on the right track, while rejecting our fiscal policy of helping stop the massive job losses and tanking business climate. The tax cutting mantra has failed our country, and basically cost us hundreds of billions of dollars more than what we might have saved over the last two decades in tax cuts. Good plan Paul.

Rep. Paul Ryan in the rising star in the Republican party. What a future.

Bankers: "More Loans? We're Not Going to Change our Business Model...to Accomodate the Needs of the Private Sector."

Bill Moyers pointed out a little covered story, that by itself, didn't get coverage either. So here's a reminder.

As we contemplate more money going to the failed bankers on Wall Street, it would be good to see inside their greedy little minds as they plan to spend all this taxpayer cash, and how dumb they think we are to keep helping them.

The sad truth is, they might be right. Why didn't anyone cover this revealing shocker?

Republicans Wasted Billions in Majority, Now Want to Be Taken Seriously

Representative Chris Van Hollen states the obvious on Fox News Sunday about the sad state of the Republican Party. Van Hollen highlights how frantic the Republicans were to offer an immediate, no strings, no debate backed bail out plan for Wall Street bankers, while dragging their feet on a stimulus plan that would help the American public and their states from suffering massive layoffs and crippling deficits. And don't forget the auto maker concessions and wage controls that helped blue collar labor compete with foreign manufacturers, while complaining about government interference over CEO bonuses and pay.

It's a simple message. Repeat it often.

Rep. Barney Frank Slices & Dices Republican Philosophy

The downhill slide of Meet the Press continues due to David Gregory's talking point gabfest format. Here we see Gregory avoid tough follow up questions with a sudden, out of the blue change of topics. Fortunately, guest Rep. Barney Frank lays the blame for the current economic crisis at the feet of the 6 year Republican Congress and veto less president.

It's time we stop treating these partisans like they actually have something to contribute. Take a cue from Barney Frank, who makes it seem so easy, by tearing away phony facade of BS.

Republican Cantor Makes Fun of Working Americans, at a Time When Hundreds of Thousands are Out of Work.

Jokester and Republican Representative Eric Cantor can apologize all day long for insulting union workers in this parody ad, but it doesn't take away the fact that this is how he really feels about organized labor. What a time to make fun of working Americans. Is this a party in complete free fall?

Republicans Force Sen. Kennedy to Vote for Stimulus Plan, Laugh and Wave Goodbye Like they Mean It.

Hardball's Chris Matthews couldn't have gotten it more wrong when he described the touching scene of Sen. Ted Kennedy leaving the Senate while getting a thumbs up from John McCain and Lindsey Graham. It wasn't so touching.

Kennedy was forced to make the long trip in to ensure passage of the stimulus plan all because the party of NO wanted to sink the economy while giving the one finger salute to America's unemployed. Watch these weasles wave like they really care.

Sen. Mitch McConnell Fabricates Whopper on the Senate Floor: "New Deal Didn't Work."

I'm still amazed that Republicans like Mitch McConnell are able to get in front of a microphone and camera and boldly say, contradicting historical fact, that "we know for sure that the big spending programs of the new deal, did not work."

David Shuster brings in Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, and author of a book about FDR's first 100 days, to dispell the "myth" created by these Republican lying bastards.

Conservative Activist Judge Randy Koschnick Runs For Wisconsin State Supreme Court. Says Liberal Activism is Bad.

The online Capital Times story of conservative activist judge Randy Koschnick should tell you everything you need to know about the supposed “strict constructionist” interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and the pretzel logic on this ideologue. In showing his impartiality, Koschnick has accused “liberal members of the court of being ani-business. ‘(his opponents) decisions have contributed to an unstable economic climate where it’s more difficult for people to do business in Wisconsin.” Of course, there’s no actual proof such an accusation has any basis in fact. Still, Koschnick is only getting started. Let’s dig right in, shall we:

Koschnick (is) an elder at an evangelical church that espouses an anti-gay, anti-abortion agenda … Koschnick campaign spokesman Seamus Flaherty added: "I think that people of faith will like a justice who construes the Constitution as written, with all the liberties that are afforded to believers.”Koschnick concedes that the “judicial conservatism” that drives his judicial philosophy is an extension of a strong conservative bent. “My personal views are socially conservative.”

We’re expected to believe that Koschnick’s fight against liberal activist judges somehow makes being a conservative activism okay, because we know how bad liberalism is, right? How conservative?

Koschnick also has been active with the Promise Keepers, a Christian conservative men's group that urges men to take control of their households and uphold biblical notions of patriarchy. Some insight into the group's social agenda … the late Rev. Jerry Falwell once told Promise Keepers at a rally at his Liberty University: "America's anti-biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men's movement."

Little needs to be said about how unsettling an "anti-biblical feminist" Justice would be sitting on the states highest court.

The Capital Times asked Koschnick his personal views on evolution with the aim of shedding light on whether Wisconsin voters, if they pick him, would be electing a justice who might discount centuries of scientific evidence in favor of religious doctrine. Koschnick didn't answer the question. He did say, however, that his adherence to a literal translation of the Bible is consistent with his "strict constructionist" philosophy toward laws and the Constitution, a philosophy that believes laws should be applied as written and not be subject to judicial interpretation.

Zealot fringer is the first thing that comes to mind when a person has the ability to somehow relate “a literal translation of the bible” to the U.S. Constitution. A bit unsettling. Another thing, the “philosophy” of “strict constructionism” is somehow more credible than the liberal philosophy of a “living Constitution,” even though their both…philosophy's? Here's Koschnick's example of liberal activism:

He has criticized Chief Justice Abrahamson for her decisions that he said "tie the hands of law enforcement," including her vote to disqualify testimony from victims who are asked to identify a suspect without a police lineup. The decision -- written by Justice Patrick Crooks, often a swing vote on the court -- argues that the practice of allowing such testimony is "hopelessly unreliable," pointing out that eyewitness misidentification is the greatest source of wrongful convictions in the nation.

After electing an ethically challenged Justice Ziegler and a dishonest flamethrower like Justice Gableman, Wisconsin’s system of electing Supreme Court Justices needs a complete makeover, or these self righteous conservatives will do to the courts what they did to our economy.

Microsoft Target of Colbert Report

Stephen Colbert takes another shot at Microsoft (iPhone). This time Colbert takes delight in at bizarre demonstration by Bill Gates, in a discussion on the dangers of Malaria, where Gates releases a collection of Mosquitoes into the audience.

Obama Gets an Earful on Homelessness and Low Wage Jobs

What happens when you let just anyone into a presidential townhall meeting? You get real stories about real social pain. President Obama got a touch of it today in Florida.

State Republicans Still Blame Governor for Recession and Budget Deficit. Want to Block Stimulus Help as Punishment.

Republicans just don’t get it.

They don’t understand that the public now understands how illogical and ideological their fiscal solutions are.

Wisconsin Republicans have blamed the state budget deficit on the Governor, instead of the economic crisis gripping the nation and world.

Based on that premise, they have devised a bizarre set of restrictions to prevent the state from getting back on its economic feet. Hold onto your hats, as the Wisconsin State Journal explains:

Republicans want to block the state from spending federal economic stimulus money unless Gov. Jim Doyle comes up with a plan to reduce the structural imbalance in the state budget. The idea … they say will curtail years of sloppy state budgeting practices by lawmakers in both parties.

Remember, it’s not the recession, its Governor Jim Doyles fault. It gets weirder. Here’s my favorite:

Require at least 20 percent of state agencies in 2011-13 and every budget cycle thereafter prepare their budget requests using "zero-based budgeting" rather than on the cost to continue current services.

Despite the increased cost of energy, health care, supplies and continued modernization and maintenance, Republican legislators want to ignore the real world pressures of rising costs, deciding instead to reduce services each and every budget thereafter.

These conservative freeloaders prefer not making the unpopular decision to raise taxes when necessary, mostly because they have taken a pledge to right wing think tanks not to do so, because that would take work and the thoughtful management of state business. It’s much easier to wither government to a point of total inefficiency, complain that it doesn’t work, and sit back and hand the state of Wisconsin over to private business interests to manage it for them.

What a plan. No one is falling for this anymore. But instead of calling the plan incompetent and irresponsible, state Democrats offer their weak, tepid response.

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee, said the GOP proposal would set up a "roadblock" to spending the federal stimulus money. "A lot of us are pretty committed to being in a more responsible place in the future," he said of state budgeting. "But I’m not going to say we’re not going to take federal money for education or health care until we come up with some plan."

Instead of calling the Republican bizarre and insulting, Pocan treats this proposal as if it had some credibility.

Its time to say, we’ve had enough.

Maddow Strikes Back at Republicans: If You are Wrong, You Should Lose the Argument. Rep. Pete Sessions Says GOP like Taliban

Last March, I got to the same point Rachel Maddow is at now. It's the whole reason I'm doing this blog. It's time to stop treating lies and misinformation as a viable part of the discussion. Republicans often try to supposedly "debate" an issue, in order to misinform and muddy the waters. It's an effort to make all ideas relevant. Everything is relative. Opinion is fact.

Maddow's advice is the answer. It's time to call conservative out when their wrong, when they contradict facts, when they ignore reality. Rachel has drawn the line in the sand.



Philadelphia Inquirer Political Columnist Dick Polman seems to also think enough is enough:

Rachel Maddow, the left-leaning MSNBC host, wondered the other night: "Is it really that important to bend over backward to try to make the Republicans in Congress happy right now?" That's the polite way of putting it. After Obama excised family-planning money from the stimulus bill, to mollify the Republicans who were railing about "contraceptives," feminist Katha Pollitt said it was "bewildering that he sacrificed low-income women's rights and health in a vain bid to woo antediluvian right-wing misogynist Republican ideologues who will never, ever vote his way."

Mike Lux, a Washington strategist who, in a previous life, worked in the Clinton White House. He has a new book, The Progressive Revolution, which argues that America typically changes for the better only when progressive reformers are bold enough to defeat conservatives in partisan battle. He sees the same opportunity today. "There is no such thing as 'post-partisanship,' " he insists. "Conservatives are going to oppose progressive policies, period. If that's the way they want to play it, that's OK. . . .

The big complaint today is that Obama has seemed far too willing to indulge the GOP partisans who think it's fine for the government to spend upward of $1 trillion on a war in Iraq, but who consider it a scandal to spend the same amount to confront an economic crisis at home (and who have a vested interest in thwarting Obama's priorities, because a successful recovery plan might doom them indefinitely to minority status).

Indeed, what's the point of sweet-talking the Republicans when they clearly prefer to fight? Consider Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the GOP 2010 election operation. Wednesday, he publicly shared his party's credo for good governance in these perilous times:

"Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes."

He said it, folks. The Taliban.

Obama may soon discover that there's no point in extending a hand to a foe who won't unclench his fist.

The Heart and Mind of a Republican: How to Cause Pain, Inflict Punishment and Demean the Poor

I came across a list of nighmarish highlights of a truly bankrupt Republican Party in this NY Times article. It’s really hard to grasp the cruel inhumane philosophy of these mean spirited worshippers of wealth. For them, human suffering is drain and impediment to their vision of an authoritarian elite’s control, a perfect world that is free of sympathy for the unsuccessful. Sadly, the public bought into this depraved indifference enough to have encouraged the following sick bastards included here. Always remember: It’s a world were the poor are enjoying poverty so much that they are happy to drag their family down with them. The Republicans are there to stop them.

Ronald Reagan … running for president in 1976 told what became a defining tale about the “strapping young buck” in the supermarket line who used stamps to buy T-bone steaks. His first White House budget made deep food stamp cuts.

Newt Gingrich equated food stamps and welfare, and tried to use Bill Clinton’s pledge to “end welfare as we know it” to dismantle the program. Rudolph Giuliani, in his end-welfare days as the mayor of New York, railed against a “romantic and
emotional” view of food stamps and ordered subordinates to withhold applications.
George W. Bush pushed states to cut their cash assistance rolls — citing the failures of the welfare state.

Conservatives have argued that poverty programs undermine work and marriage, and some see the stimulus bill as a stealth expansion of the welfare state. The very word, welfare, was weaponized last week. “I’m not trying necessarily to use it as a dirty word,” said Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Dallas Republican. “But if there’s a benefit that you’re getting that you don’t pay for — that arguably is a form of welfare.” (In the) recovery measures, the House version includes food stamps, unemployment benefits, Medicaid, child care, Head Start, energy assistance, homelessness prevention, disability payments and infant nutrition.

Sponsors of this spending call it a humane response to soaring hardship and an economically productive one; giving money to the poor stimulates the economy, they say, because poor people are quick to spend it. Like other House conservatives, Mr. Hensarling wants less spending and more tax cuts, for businesses and families. He is especially opposed to a refundable tax credit to low-wage workers, even if they paid less in income and payroll taxes. Supporters call it “tax relief.” But Mr. Hensarling said: “It’s welfare. Period. Paragraph.”

One side sees poverty amid plenty, and an economy that heavily favors the few even when times are good. It trusts the impulse to help. Robert Rector of the conservative Heritage Foundation released a paper slamming the House stimulus bill as a “welfare spendathon.” With an expansive view of “welfare spending,” Mr. Rector puts the bill’s two-year welfare tally at $264 billion. (He counts things like Pell Grants, which help low-income students attend college, and Community Development Block Grants, which help low-income neighborhoods finance everything from sewers to crime prevention.) “None of these programs deals with the fundamental causes of poverty, which are low levels of work and lower levels of marriage. They just say, ‘Give me more.’ ”

His liberal counterpart is Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He did not strain for politeness in responding to Mr. Rector’s work. “It’s demagoguery,” he said. “There’s nothing in this package that would give people a cushion to quit their jobs and be lazy. That’s the normal implication when you wave the word ‘welfare’ around. He’s trying to conjure old images of welfare queens. He’s waving the bloody shirt.”

We need an army of Robert Greenstein’s.

Republicans go from Water boarding to Watered Down. Defanged Stimulus Will Not Produce Recovery.

Besides wanting add to and continue the Bush tax cuts, Republicans were able to make a Democratic Party stimulus ineffective, by watering it down enough for it to fail. Failure means a chance to win some lost seats in the next election. And isn’t that what being an elected official is all about, playing the game to win at all costs?

Paul Krugman:

What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses?
A proud centrist.

One of the best features of the original plan was aid to cash-strapped state governments, which would have provided a quick boost to the economy while preserving essential services. But the centrists insisted on a $40 billion cut in that spending.The original plan also included badly needed spending on school construction; $16 billion of that spending was cut. It included aid to the unemployed, especially help in maintaining health care — cut. Food stamps — cut. All in all, more than $80 billion was cut from the plan, with the great bulk of those cuts falling on precisely the measures that would do the most to reduce the depth and pain of this slump.

When Democrats realize they have the higher ground and stand up for their convictions, like the bumbling Republicans, we might see the country move forward in a way that will finally make a difference.

But of course, that won’t happen anytime soon, will it?

Republicans Force Lower Pay on Auto Workers, But Don’t Like Government Controlling Bankers Salaries. Can they get away with this Hypocrisy?

In this widely circulated article, it appears the Republicans are getting away with pulling another fast one, without an equal and more forceful push back from the Democrats and media. From the Huffington Post:

Wall Street bankers, with their $18 billion in bonuses, private jets and gaudy conferences, are causing headaches for the GOP. President Obama has proposed capping compensation for executives at banks that take taxpayer bailout money at $500,000. Republicans hate the idea. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ)blamed the "tone deaf" bankers for creating the political environment that allows Obama to call for a cap.

Tone deaf bankers? What a surprise indeed, when you consider the windfall of taxpayer money they received, and their unwillingness to change in the face of an economic crisis.

The point is this: Republicans are now coming out against the government telling companies how much they can pay their employees, in this case Wall Street Bankers, if they are on the receiving end of taxpayer bailout money. Hypocrisy, yes. This is in direct contradiction to their call for lower auto workers salaries. Remember this from AP News:

Senate

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the measure (bridge loan) "isn't nearly tough enough." The Kentucky Republican called for a different bill - one that would force U.S. automakers to slash wages and benefits to bring them in line with Japanese carmakers Nissan, Toyota and Honda - in return for any federal aid.

Compare that statement, echoed by every other Republican, to the current show of outrage by those same lawmakers:

"Because of their excesses, very bad things begin to happen, like the United States government telling a company what it can pay its employees. That's not a good thing in America," Kyl told the Huffington Post. "What executives have done is troubling, but it's equally troubling to have government telling shareholders how much they can pay the executives."

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL).Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said "as I was listening to him make those statements I thought, is this still America? Do we really tell people how to run [a business], and who to pay and how much to pay?"

Is it possible the media will let this hypocritical flip-flop go unmentioned. So far, yes. Surprisingly, the liberal side of this glaring Republican inconsistency, is clueless when trying to making the auto loan comparison. Instead, they’ve grabbed onto something more abstract and less memorable, like this:

It's not a novel concept, and it's one the GOP supports -- when applied to welfare recipients, at least. "We demand that welfare recipients do an honest day's work for their checks. And now, since President Obama laid down the law Wednesday, we demand that the guys who ran our banking system into the ground abide by our pay scales in return for our bailing them out," writes Harold Meyerson in a column Friday.

No wonder we’re losing the media battle.

Education and Job Retraining Funds Not on Republican Radar. Free Market Collapse Your Problem, Not Theirs.

In the Wisconsin State Journal’s article, “State's technical colleges humming as economy goes flat,” we get a much deserved glimpse into the “retraining” rhetoric from the wrecking crew Republicans and gut wrenching realization that the emotional toll this economy is having on people is at its breaking point.

And officials say this may just be the beginning of a huge wave of people seeking a new livelihood at community colleges in the face of a slumping economy. As demand increases, the question is whether the technical colleges will have the resources to meet the need, especially as the state grapples with an estimated deficit of $5.7 billion. That's why the technical college system — like many other state agencies — is pegging some of its hopes on money from a federal stimulus package.

One community college’s increases are due in large part to the closure of the Janesville General Motors plant and surrounding suppliers. Complicating matters, many of the laid-off workers arriving at its door have not seen the inside of a classroom in years. "We're almost part of a triage team," said Linda Brown, community relations specialist at Blackhawk College. "The dislocated workers come in and they're in crisis. They're making forced decisions, 'I'm out of job, what do I do?' "

Some of the students struggle psychologically, dealing with the trauma of losing a job and arriving in the unfamiliar landscape of higher education. Linda Brown, community relations specialist at Blackhawk. Still, the prospects of training for a whole new career — especially for someone who may not have planned on switching jobs — can be overwhelming. "People are really lost," Pody said. "People get overwhelmed with choices. It seems like a great idea to go back to school, and it is. But there appears to be so many choices. Too many choices create confusion."

Dan Clancy, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System … not sure the technical colleges will get the extra $26 million they requested in the next two-year state budget for initiatives to train thousands of new skilled workers. “Whether there are the dollars to support us remains to be seen."

So is help on the way? Is education front and center for long term economic solutions? Are you kidding. Remember, the short term Republican Party "economy killers" are taking up about 40% of the Obama stimulus plan. Keep in mind that long term, conservatives want to do away with funding education completely, and leave that to the private sector. According to this list from CNN, these are some programs that have been cut:

$100 million for distance learning, $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start, $600 million for Title I (No Child Left Behind), $16 billion for school construction and $3.5 billion for higher education construction.

Now that’s planning ahead.