Category: Mitch McConnell

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Barack Obama Chuck Schumer Democratic Mitch McConnell Politics Repeal Senate vote

Republican Minority Tries To Control Democratic Majority In Senate

Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell

Over the last two years of the Obama administration, Republicans went on a rampage, setting a record for the most filibusters – the process of debating an issue with the eventual outcome of slowing down or stopping the policy from being voted on – in one year since the practice began back in the mid 19th century. That record, set by the 111th congress is 132 filibusters. Now that the Republicans are the majority in the House of Representatives, they are demanding that the Democratic controlled Senate vote on all the bills the House votes on.

The particular bill that Republicans are demanding the Senate to vote on is their measure to repeal the Health Care Reform bill, the single most important piece of legislation instituted by Democrats. The House of Representatives voted last week to repeal the bill by a vote of 245 to 189, and now Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader is promising “No”, insisting that the Democratic Senate vote on the issue and do the same. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has stated he has no interest in bringing this repeal issue to the Senate.

In a television appearance on Fox News yesterday, Mr. McConnell assured the viewers that he will make sure the Senate votes to take away their health care. When asked how he intends to override Harry Reid’s decision not to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, Mitch said;

“I’m not going to discuss how we’ll do it from a parliamentary point of view here. If that does not pass, and I don’t think anyone is optimistic that it will, we intend to go after this health care bill in every way that we can.”

As minority leader, Mitch McConnell cannot set the agenda for the Senate, but the belief among other congressional leaders is that the Republicans in the  could offer the repeal bill as an amendment to another bill, thus, forcing the Senate to have the vote. Democratic Senator from Illinois Dick Durbin discussed this possibility;

“If some Republican senator wants to offer it as an amendment at some point, it’s possible they will. It’s possible we’ll face that vote. But having spoken to my members in the Democratic caucus, with Sen. Reid, we feel there’s still strong support for health care reform.”

The lies and scare tactics used by Republicans in the Health Care debate of 2009 have caused a split among the American people. In early polls, taken when the bill was being debated in congress, as much as 60% of the public believed the Republican propaganda  against health care reform. But recent polls have shown a change in the public’s perception of the law. According to a recent Associated Press-GFK poll, only 1 out of 4 (25%) Americans are now asking for Republicans to repeal the bill. With poll numbers like these, Democrats are feeling optimistic that the bill will stand up against any amendment trick brought on by  the senate. Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senator from New York appeared on CBS, and expressed his optimism;

“If the Republicans offer an amendment on the floor, then we will require them to vote on the individual protections in the bill that are very popular and that even some of the new Republicans House members have said they support. So in the end, their repeal bill is going to be so full of holes it looks like Swiss cheese.”

Individual parts of the bill that have shown strong support among the American people include: allowing young adults to remain on parent’s policy until the age of 26; ending pre-existing conditions for children that went into effect in 2010; ending pre-existing condition for adults that will go into effect in 2014; helping to close the “donut hole” for seniors needing prescription drugs; providing preventative care screenings among others.

The individual mandate in the bill, which requires everyone to obtain health care insurance, is the major contention with the American people. Democrats argue that this mandate is necessary to ensure the improved level of care required in the bill.

If Republicans succeed in getting Senate Democrats to vote on an amended bill with health care repeal as an attachment, the bill will need 60 votes to pass. Democrats control the Senate with 53 votes, with Republicans in the minority with 47. If 13 Democrats crossed party lines and voted with Republicans to achieve the needed 60, the repeal bill then goes to President Obama’s desk for a signature. The President, however, has promised to veto any repeal bill that makes its way to the White House.

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Barack Obama Mitch McConnell Politics Racism Republican United States White House

Republicans Cannot Accept a Black President In The White House!

Hello America. Please have a seat. We have some very disparaging news for you.

Compliments of the actions of the Republican Party, we have been led to a very definite conclusion. America, President Barack Obama is a black man, and he’s living in the White House! Please take a moment or two to absorb this!

First Lady Michelle and President Obama

At first we were blind of this fact. We were all captivated by his speeches and the calm, cool manner in which he conducted his campaign.  But we never once looked at the obvious, the literal fact staring us in the face every time the then senator Barack Obama came on our big screen HD tv’s. Sure, he seemed a bit… dark, but… that could have been because of these new tanning machines. Just look at John Boehner for pete’s sake, he’s practically a black man!

Looking back, there were way too many minorities at his inauguration. That should have been a dead giveaway, but again, that too was overlooked  for some strange reason. I guess it was partly due to the euphoria over his call for change and returning to a government that was for the people and by the people.

We were excited. It felt like something historic had took place and no one bothered to pay attention to the obvious. Like sheep, we joined the jubilation with all those minorities knowing that eventually, the Republican Party will do their job and investigate the inauguration and this president. And they will tell us why we were all caught up in the excitement of the newly elected president.

It didn’t take long America.

After the swearing in of President Barack Obama, the rumors started up again. Some were skeptical. He looked… different, but we were unable to put our hands on what the difference was. Was it his height? No, there were others taller. Was it his walk, his talk, his mannerism? No, it was his color!

At the time no one came out to tell us that our new president was black, no one that is, except Rush Limbaugh – the Republican truth speaker. He saw something the rest of us couldn’t, and he dropped the hint when he went on his radio show and said,“I want Barack Obama to fail!”

Now the statement by Rush was a little odd, we agree. Before the new President unpacked his bags, the conservative-radio-pundit-turned-Republican-talking points-creator, was already wishing for him to fail! America, that should have been an eye-opener right there, and yet…

But now friends, we are no longer in the dark. Thanks to the Republican Party, we see the light or, in Barack’s case, we see the darkness!

At first the hints were very subtle, a policy disagreement here and there – a no GOP vote there. We anticipated these disagreements and NO votes from the opposition party, but eventually, we all expected the two sides to come together and work for you, the American people.

But as time went on, we began to see a pattern. Policy after policy, vote after vote, the Republican Party continued moving away from making any decisions that would give a “win” to President Obama. We watched in astonishment as Republican created legislations died at the hands of the Republicans when President Obama adopted them.

The hints became even more pronounced. Thinking that Americans were not seeing the real Black Obama, Republicans stepped up their hatred a few notches.

Why else would Mitch McConnell join the Rush Limbaugh talking point and wish for the President to fail. Why would he – at a time when our economy is in the pits – state that,  “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Why would John Boehner, the new Republican House Majority Leader say that the Republicans are “going to do everything,  and I mean everything we can do to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can,” referring to the historical Obamacare bill the President eventually signed into law.

And it wasn’t only the Republicans in Congress. Conservative radio and television commentators went on daily and nightly rampages to bring to light the fact, that there was something different about our new President. Yes, this too is nothing new. The opposition’s pundits will ‘pundicize,’ but the level of lies, misinformation, hypocrisy and propaganda was and is, at an intensity that no one had ever seen before.

The accusation was even made that the president was being racist against white people! This was as direct as Glenn Beck could have been in pulling out the race card, and using it to his advantage!

Then we, being the observers that we are,  stood back and examined the situation. Things began coming together and began making sense. The huge turnout of minorities for his inauguration, the historic feel of the moment and the unified opposition from Congressional Republicans in fighting anything and everything associated with Barack Obama, told the truth!

And that truth is simple:  the Republican leaders of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor cannot accept the fact that a black President lives in the White House. They cannot accept the fact that a black president has accomplished what others failed at – comprehensive Health Care for all Americans.

And the nerve of this black President to take on the Republican mantra of Tax Cuts. He offered tax cuts to 95 percent of America’s middle class, and now he wants to make these cuts permanent.

In their effort to make sure this particular president failed, these so-called Republican leaders are willfully putting Americans in a more dire situation by opposing proven methods to stimulate economic growth. They believe that President Obama must not achieve anything while in office. It is their belief that President Obama must not get credit for anything positive. After all, he is black and in their minds – probably from lessons instilled in them from childhood – blacks cannot the amount to anything positive.

These Republican leaders believe that if President Obama succeeds in his endeavors, then this might encourage more black Americans to consider running for the presidential office in the future. That atrocity must be stopped, regardless of the benefits President Obama’s policies will have on the American people.

America, we have figured it out and now you know the truth. Thanks to the Republican Party, we now know that there’s a black President in the White House.

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Democratic Mitch McConnell pay Politics Republican United States Wall Street

GOP Payload Rolling in from Wall Street

Seems like Wall Street has found a friend in the Republican Party.  According to a research done by The Center for Responsive Politics, Wall Street has moderately increased its donations to Democrats, while drastically increasing the payout to Republicans in congress. The Boehners of the world are finally seeing the rewards of their fight against Financial Reform materialized.

The research, that focused on the 2009 and 2010 donations by Wall Street, found in 2009 when the talks about Financial Reform were just talks, Democrats received the majority of all donations from the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate Sectors.

The Center also looked into the donations of Commercial Banks and Securities and Investment companies, and found the same to be true. Democrats were happy in 2009.

Then 2010 rolled around, and so did Financial Reform legislations. And the GOP, led by the Boehner, increased their opposition to any regulations of Wall Street. In one of his more famous speeches, the Boehner told American Bankers Association to fight!

“Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves. All of us are hearing from our friends and constituents on lack of credit, you can’t get a loan, the more your government takes and taxes, the more regulations you have to comply with the more cost you have there and less amount you are going to have available to loan to customers.”

Boehner however, wasn’t the only GOP congressman working hard for his increased donations from Wall Street. Mike Pence, (R) for Indiana’s 6th Congressional District had this to say;

“This bill can be summed up in two words: ‘government control’ and it will serve as the latest piece of the president’s job-killing agenda.  This represents another defeat for Hoosier families, small businesses and family farms, who continue to wonder when Washington Democrats will set aside their big government programs and work with Republicans on ideas that can actually put Americans back to work.”

And Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader did not want the Senate to even talk about Wall Street Reforms. In one of his more mind boggling statement on the subject, McConnell said;

“We can solve this problem. But we wont solve the problem if we vote for cloture tonight. A vote for cloture is a vote that says we’re done listening to the American people on this issue. And a vote against ending this debate is a vote for bipartisanship.”

Huh? In other words, if we continue to filibuster this issue, we will somehow eventually became bipartisan or the Financial Reform issue will die. Either way, McConnell earned his pay-raise from Wall Street.

It’s a simple equation. Democrats voted for the American people and Financial reform and saw no real change in their donations. Republicans went to bat for Big Banks and Wall Street and received their pay in the form of huge donations from Big Banks and Wall Street.

The report shows the following:

2009/2010 – 1st Quarter: Financial Sector:-

  • Democrats donations from Financial, Insurance and Real Estate went from $10.1 million in 2009 to $10.5 million in 2010. In the same quarter, this sector’s payout to Republicans went from $5.1 million in 2009 to $16.9 million in 2010

Commercial Banks:

  • Democrats went from $747,000 to $862,000 while Republicans pay increased from $505,000 to $1.4 million

Securities/Investment:

  • Democrats went from $2.8 million in 2009 to $3 million in 2010, while Republicans went from $881,000 in 2009 to $5 million in 2010

Download the full report here.

When Democrats fight for the American people, the American people win. When Republicans fight for Big Banks and Wall Street, Republicans win.

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