We’ll hope not, but hearing McConnell’s statement today, and seeing his jubilant mannerism is telling. The message I gather from his and Boehner’s press conference is that the President and Democratic Congressional members are beginning to give up even more to the Republican minority.
The press conference happened about 3:45PM today, and it featured Boehner and McConnell making a brief statement about their commitment on ‘no compromise’. But when McConnell took the podium, he broke the news that he’d been talking to President Obama “within the past hour.”
Of course, that could be a good thing, but when McConnell, in the midst of telling reporters how strongly he feels about holding his ground and criticizing the plan the Democrats have brought forward, then says he has spoken to the President and is “optimistic” that a deal is going to happen real soon, it is hard not to think the President is again, going to yield to the minority demands.
Meanwhile, news broke that the President summoned Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to the White House for a private meeting.
With 3 days left before a deal is reached, we will find out exactly what McConnell knows about this “deal” that’s making him so happy.
For the 3 people in the entire world, who think Mitch McConnell is sincerely trying to work with the President to set America on solid economic ground, this one’s for you. Today, the Republican Senate minority leader clearly stated his reasoning for coming up with a “solution” to the debt ceiling, saying, ” I refuse to help Barack Obama get reelected by marching Republicans into a position where we have co-ownership of a bad economy.”
“We knew shutting down the government in 1995 was not going to work for us. It helped Bill Clinton get reelected. I refuse to help Barack Obama get reelected by marching Republicans into a position where we have co-ownership of a bad economy. It didn’t work in 1995. What will happen is the administration will send out to 80 million Social Security recipients and to military families and they will all start attacking members of Congress. That is not a useful place to take us. And the president will have the bully pulpit to blame Republicans for all this disruption.
“If we go into default he will say Republicans are making the economy worse. And all of a sudden we have co-ownership of a bad economy. That is a very bad position going into an election. My first choice was to do something important for the country. But my second obligation is to my party and my conference to prevent them from being sucked into a horrible position politically that would allow the president, probably, to get reelected because we didn’t handle this difficult situation correctly.”
Meanwhile, America’s economy moves closer to the brink of a second Great Depression. But no surprise here. This is the same Republican leader who said his number one priority was making sure the President is a one-term president.
When President Obama earlier stated that “nothing is agreed upon until everything is agreed upon”, no one really understood where the President was going in terms of the negotiations concerning raising the debt ceiling. Later when he put forth his plan for a massive $4 trillion dollars in spending cuts – if Republicans agreed to ending the tax loopholes for the wealthy – the connection between his statement and his plan still wasn’t realized.
However, when the Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell yesterday told the press, that he is willing to “authorize” the President to submit a request to congress to raise the debt ceiling, a light bulb went off in the Host of MSNBC’s The Last Word – Lawrence O’ Donnell‘s head. The President’s statement on a $4 trillion spending cut proposal finally began making sense.
The way O’Donnell explains the connection is like this: President Obama is winning the debt ceiling argument with Republicans. By making the statement, “nothing is agreed upon until everything is agreed upon,” the President put Republicans on notice, that to have a deal, both parties would have to agree to major sacrifices. He then announced a huge spending cut proposal, with the knowledge that Republicans were too much against imposing any taxes or ending the loopholes on the wealthy. With this in mind, the President essentially called the Republican’s bluff. If they were really serious about deficit reduction, they would have jumped on the opportunity to cut spending by ending the tax loopholes.
Then yesterday, Mitch McConnell came out and basically handed the President the win. What Mitch wants is a resolution to allow the President to raise the debt ceiling all by himself. The President would request congress to raise the debt ceiling. Congress would then vote to “disapprove” the request, which the President would then veto. With that veto, the debt ceiling would automatically be raised on the President’s terms.
This move by McConnell, basically giving up the fight and allowing President Obama to make the decision, brought it all home for Lawrence.
Of course, we are talking about Mitch McConnell – the same Republican who said his primary goal is to see Obama fail. It is therefore wise to look at this “plan” by McConnell from that perspective and realize the politics behind it. McConnell realizes that the Republicans have taken a dangerous position. Any default by the United States government by not raising the debt ceiling would be political assassination for the GOP. With this move, McConnell removes the Republicans from the decision-making process, that way, the President makes the decision and avoids America going into default. McConnell can tell his Teaparty constituents that he voted against raising the debt ceiling.
We are not surprised. Democrats in the state of Wisconsin saw a need for this, and they are beginning the process of challenging the recall petitions Republicans have started against three Democratic senators, and today in Madison, formal papers were filed.
“The overwhelming evidence clearly shows a pervasive pattern of election fraud committed by the shady out-of-state organization hired by Republicans to collect recall petitions,” said Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller. “Thousands of Wisconsin citizens fell victim to lies and misinformation spread by the circulators, and the papers submitted by this operation contain a river of omissions and wrong information.”
Miller continued: “We believe that when the facts are reviewed, the GAB will throw out thousands of flawed signatures because they were fraudulent or defective. The vast depth of this misconduct calls into question the legitimacy of every signature collected by these circulators, and shows that the GOP effort failed to gather the valid signatures needed for recall elections.”
According to the paperwork filed by Wisconsin Democrats, some of the reasons given for this challenge are;
Senate District 12: Of the 534 people contacted who had signed the petition, 9.2% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
Senate District 22: Of the 225 people contacted who had signed the petition, 6.6% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
Senate District 30: Of the 372 people contacted who had signed the petition, 8.6% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
Affidavit of a World War II veteran from Green Bay who was misled into signing a recall petition. Upon learning he had been duped, veteran called the sheriff to get his name removed. When confronted, the circulator claims he will remove the name, but a later review of the petitions reveals the veteran’s name was never crossed off.
Many affidavits attesting that Circulator Sherri Ferrell – who gathered nearly 3,000 signatures in two districts — gathered signatures on Indian reservations claiming petitions were to support “schools,” “Democrats,” and “tribal rights.”
Affidavit of voter in Senate District 22 attesting that circulator John Prijic claimed the petitions were for work to be done on a local park.
Affidavit of voter in Senate District 30 attesting that circulator Annette Lord claimed the petitions were to recall Republican Senator Cowles.
Affidavit of voter in Senate District 30 attesting that circulator Richard Madrill claimed the petitions were to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
William Pocan’s forged name appears on line 10, page 362 of circulator Kevin Pursell’s petition. As his widow Corinne Pocan’s affidavit attests, William Pocan has been deceased 20 years, although his name remains in the phone book. Pursell circulated numerous pages.
Claims by many Wisconsin citizens who were misled by out-of-state circulators who claimed they could sign on behalf of other people.
Numerous examples of fake addresses and signatures appearing on GOP recall petitions, as well as sloppily gathered signatures also missing critical information.
Summary of out-of-state circulators hired by GOP with largest percentages of fraud or deception on GOP recall petitions:
Again, no surprise here. We’re talking about the GOP. Fraud is what they do.
On March 30th, before any agreement on budget cutting was reached, the federal debt stood at $14.2101 trillion, according to the Bureau of Public Debt. During the next 8 days, which culminated with The White House and John Boehner agreeing to $38.5 billion in budget cuts, the federal debt increased by $54.1 billion dollars.
Ultimately, budget affect the deficit. Maybe if these two governing bodies had spent more time concentrating on coming up with solutions to the country’s problems, instead of wasting time and money butting heads at every corner, we will have some actual debt reductions taking place.
But after all, these are politicians, and to them, party means much more than country.
Wisconsin Republicans are not playing anymore games when it comes to taking away the rights of the people of Wisconsin, and any attempt by elected Democrats to stop or slow down any of their outrageous policies, will be combated with a vengeance not yet seen in this American democracy.
We all remember last week when Democrats were locked out of the Assembly building and had to climb through the windows to enter. Now, Republican Senate Leader Scott Fitzgerald has decided that he will wipe the slate clean when it comes to votes cast by Democrats. Mr. Fitzgerald will just erase their votes from the record. As he puts it, their votes just wont count.
In a letter to his Republican allies in the Senate, Fitzgerald wrote;
From: Sen.Fitzgerald
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 3:52 PM
To: *Legislative Senate Republicans
Subject: Senate Democrat voting privileges in standing committees
Dear Members,
With the return of the Senate Democrats this weekend, questions have arisen regarding Democrat members’ participation in Senate standing committee public hearings and executive sessions.
Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate. Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats’ votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal. They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony, debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their support/opposition, but those votes will not count, and will not be recorded.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact my office.
Thank you,
Scott Fitzgerald
Senate Majority Leader
13th Senate District
Somehow, I can’t see the people of Wisconsin voting to put Republican back into power, forgetting that their basic rights can and will be taken away by any and all means necessary.
Seems dismantling the unions of Wisconsin is not the only thing giving Governor Scott Walker a headache these days. CREW – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-partisan watchdog group – has ordered an investigation of Mr. Walker’s use of state troopers to visit the home of Democratic Senate Leader, Mitt Miller.
Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-partisan government watchdog group, asked the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to investigate whether Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker violated state law by sending the Wisconsin State Patrol (WSP) to the home of Democratic Senate Leader Matt Miller. CREW also submitted open records requests to the Office of the Governor, Office of the Senate Majority Leader and the WSP seeking records regarding the use of the troopers.
“Governor Walker has many tools at his disposal to fight the state’s public employees, but using troopers to track down a political opponent crosses the line,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. Sloan continued, “The governor’s conduct is especially egregious in light of a Wisconsin law specifically barring troopers from taking part in any dispute between an employer and employee over wages, hours, labor, or working conditions — the subject of the governor’s bill.”
I guess paying attention to existing laws to protect American citizens is not Scott Walker’s strong point. Trying to dismantle them seems to be what he’s more concerned about.
“We are going to cut spending!” And with those words, the House Speaker exited the podium to the left. But in his haste to cut spending, what will happen to the funding of everyday government operations after the March 4th deadline?
The Republican controlled House is determined to cut $100 billion in spending from the new budget, and the Democratic controlled Senate is poised to refuse such “draconian” cuts. Can the two governing bodies come to a compromise before the deadline?
To make matters worse, both the House and the Senate will be off the entire week for President’s day. When they return to work after their much needed vacation – because we know how hard they’ve worked over the last month, a total of 10 days in January – they will have only five days to come to an agreement on the new budget.
Boehner is not budging on his $100 billion cuts he promised the Teaparty, saying;
“We are hopeful that the Senate will take up the House‑passed bill that comes out of here today, tonight, tomorrow morning, whenever it is, and we hope that they will move it. But I am not going to move any kind of short‑term CR at current levels. When we say we’re going to cut spending, read my lips: We are going to cut spending.”
And what is the Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid saying about this?
“I am disappointed that Speaker Boehner doesn’t believe he has the votes to avoid a government shutdown, unless his members get their way on all of their demands. It is unproductive to resort to threats of a shutdown without any negotiations.”
After the Republican controlled House of Representatives approved a measure to repeal the Health Care Reform passed by President Obama and the Democratic controlled congress in 2010, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Leader promised a vote will be held in the Senate as well.
Mr. McConnell attached the repeal bill to another legislation for aviation as an amendment, and the vote was held yesterday needing 60 votes to pass. It failed along party lines, with all 47 Republicans voting for repeal, and all 51 Democrats voting against it.
McConnell however, promised to continue his efforts to deny Americans the very same health coverage he and the rest of Congress has, saying;
“This fight isn’t over, we intend to continue to fight to repeal and replace Obamacare with sensible reforms that would lower the cost of American healthcare…
This issue is still ahead of us and we will be going back at it in a variety of ways”
The Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, pleaded with Republicans to work with Democrats on finding “common sense” ways to improve the bill;
“It’s time for Republicans to set aside the battles of the past. It’s time to move on from extreme, ideological plans to repeal a health care law that is lowering prices, expanding access to care and lowering our deficit.”
There was one area of bipartisanship where both Democrats and Republicans agreed overwhelmingly. One provision of the Health Reform Law was repealed through an amendment, and received a vote of 81-17. The provision required businesses to file a 1099 form for every purchase they made over $600.00. That provision has been under heavy attack, and criticized as unnecessary and burdensome additional paperwork. Both parties voted, and the amendment was adopted.
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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