Category: republican fail

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Sequestration – The New Republican Manufactured Crisis – Coming Soon

With dramatic, across-the-board “sequestration” cuts slated to take effect Friday, most Americans believe the consequences of those reductions will have a “major effect” on the state of the U.S. economy, according to a new poll by Pew Research Center/Washington Post. But even as Americans overwhelming express negativity over how those cuts would impact the nation’s economy, the same survey indicates a sense of public fatigue over this latest in a series of dramatic fiscal debates coming out of Washington: Only 1 in 4 Americans say they’re following the story closely.

According to the poll, which surveyed 1,000 people between Feb. 21-24, 62 percent of the public believes the sequester’s effect on the economy would be mostly negative, while 18 percent thought it would be mostly positive. Twenty-one percent said it would have no impact or that they didn’t know. Six in 10 Americans, meanwhile, think the impact of the cuts on the economy would be “major”; 55 percent say the same of sequestration’s impact on the military, and 45 percent say so of the budget deficit.

Fewer – 30 percent – say the impact on their personal finances would be “major,” while 40 percent say the looming cuts would impact their finances in a minor way.

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Republicans Turn To Ted Nugent For Answers – Invites Him To State Of The Union Address

The Republican party is on a fast track to extinction. That’s why they’re okay with the decision of a Republican Congressman to bring Ted Nugent to the State Of The Union Address on Tuesday? And that’s why the so-called leaders in the Republican party have not put a stop to this disastrous decision?

Last year, it was the same Ted Nugent that said, ”If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” That statement got Nugent a visit from the Secret Service.

And Nugent was also heard on a Fox News show suggesting that then-Senator Barack Obama should “suck on” his machine gun. And at one of his concerts in August 2007, Nugent said that the future President Obama was “a piece of shit.”

So why would someone like Ted Nugent get the honor from the Republican congressman to share the same room with the President? According to a statement from Congressman Stockman’s office;

“I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House chamber to hear from President Obama. After the address, I’m sure Ted will have plenty to say.”

When Republicans are put in a position where they have to turn to the likes of Ted Nugent to hear what he have to say about the President’s Address, it is no surprise that people are dumping the far right winged group and turning once again to the President’s party?

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Politics republican fail

The Tide is Turning For Obama

Whatever happened to the Republican opposition? President Obama hasn’t even taken the oath of office for the second time and already the GOP has caved on the fiscal cliff, the prospect of immigration reform, and Sandy relief. Oh, and their opposition to any and all forms of gun control is going to cost them at the ballot box. Maybe not in their gerrymandered districts, but on a national level. Newtown was a tipping point. Mark my words.

The negotiations over the debt ceiling and spending cuts will likely go the president’s way too. Why? Because more of the public wants a compromise that includes modest adjustments to entitlements rather than the slash and burn Greek/Spain approach that the “take your medicine” caucus led by Eric Cantor is proposing. Do not ever forget that the true purpose of the Republicans Party’s spending program is to overturn the New Deal and Great Society. They’ve hated those programs for almost 80 years now and for a long time they could taste the victory they believed was rightfully theirs.

But then came November 2012 and the revenge of the real math league that correctly forecast an Obama victory. That didn’t just anger the right; it led to conspiracy theories and a final take-no-prisoners approach to governing that the GOP thinks is a winning strategy. It isn’t.

So now they’re talking about forcing the president to accept drastic cuts in exchange for a debt ceiling rise. The only problem is that most Americans are on Obama’s pragmatic side because they understand that the Recession caused the deficit, not the other way around. Once we get ourselves out of the downturn, and we’re slowly doing just that, the deficit will narrow. People will be productively back at work. Tax revenues will rise. Consumers will begin spending again, if only cautiously. So the GOP’s strategy is doomed to fail. They’ve tried it before and our credit rating was cut. Now there’s evidence that it could be cut more. We’ve seen this movie. It doesn’t end well.

President Obama seems like a new man these days, issuing ultimatums and using the power of his office to effect change on gun control and, I’m assuming, on immigration. He’s said that he’s no longer going to negotiate on the debt ceiling and he’s exactly right. If push comes to shove, he should invoke the 14th Amendment and let the Congress and the Courts figure out if he’s right. He’s said he won’t do that. Too bad. The other option is to call Congress’s bluff and let them take the heat when the government shuts down. Ask Newt Gingrich how that worked out the last time.

Oh, wait. I don’t care what Newt says.

The boss has a new attitude. And things are about to change.

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Politics republican fail

Today, the 112th Congress of the United States of America finally ends. Thank God.

Ezra Klein writes:

What’s the record of the 112th Congress? Well, it almost shut down the government and almost breached the debt ceiling. It almost went over the fiscal cliff (which it had designed in the first place). It cut a trillion dollars of discretionary spending in the Budget Control Act and scheduled another trillion in spending cuts through an automatic sequester, which everyone agrees is terrible policy. It achieved nothing of note on housing, energy, stimulus, immigration, guns, tax reform, infrastructure, climate change or, really, anything. It’s hard to identify a single significant problem that existed prior to the 112th Congress that was in any way improved by its two years of rule.

The 112th, which was gaveled into being on Jan. 3, 2011, by newly elected House SpeakerJohn Boehner, wasn’t just unproductive in comparison with the 111th. It was unproductive compared with any Congress since 1948, when scholars began keeping tabs on congressional productivity.

When it ends, the 112th Congress will have passed about 220 public laws — by far the least of any Congress on record. Prior to the 112th, the least productive Congress was the 104th, from January 1995 to January 1997. Not coincidentally, that Congress also featured a new Republican House majority determined to ruin a Democratic president in advance of the next campaign. The 104th, however, passed 333 public laws — almost 50 percent more than the 112th. The 112th stands alone in its achievement of epic failure.

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