The GOP Deficit Game

The GOP are lying about deficits and they’ve got a lot of their right-wingers duped. They didn’t care one bit about deficit spending for eight years during the George W. Bush administration. In fact, Republican administrations have a pattern of deficit spending. As you  can see from the graphic below, Republicans ran up deficits under Reagan and both Bush administrations, and at a higher rate than either Clinton or Obama. Wasn’t it Dick Cheney who said, “deficits don’t matter”?

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The GOP claims that President Obama’s 2009 stimulus spending increased the deficit, but it was actually the recession, the free fall in the economy and the loss of tax revenue due to massive jobs lost that contributed to the deficit between 2008 and 2009. During 2010 and 2011, as the economy began to show signs of recovery the deficit began to shrink. But, Republicans don’t want you to know that.

Paul Krugman, Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times, explains why deficit hawks should not be taken seriously. They cry austerity, but their real objective is to “starve the beast”. The GOP long-standing strategy is to cut taxes, run deficits that would require spending cuts to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which they hate. Bottom line is the Republicans have thrown up the smoke screen of the deficit. Republicans don’t hate the deficit, they love it. They will leverage it as a tool to gain political points in their quest to oppose President Obama on just about everything, and in an attempt to shrink, what they call, “big” government.

Obama’s Recess Appointments

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Isn’t it curious that he District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the constitutionality of President Obama’s recess appointments. Mr. Obama has made a total of 32 recess appointments because of obstruction by Senate Republicans. This ruling by the appellate court is unprecedented. In order to challenge these appointments, the Senate held brief “pro-forma” sessions to avoid “recess”. Senate Republicans argued that Obama’s appointments were unconstitutional because the Senate had not formally recessed even at times when most members were away. So now we have this ruling by three judges of questionable motivation and no real filibuster reform in the Senate. I wonder how Harry Reid feels about this turn of events?

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said: “The decision is novel and unprecedented. It contradicts 150 years of practice by Democratic and Republican administrations. So we respectfully but strongly disagree with the ruling.”

The ruling was made by David B. Sentelle, Chief Judge, Karen Lecraft Henderson and Thomas B. Griffith. All three judges were appointed by Republican administrations. Judge Sentelle was appointed by Ronald Reagan, and Judges Henderson and Griffith were both appointed by George W. Bush. Judge Griffith also advised the Senate during the impeachment trial of President Clinton. Is it a coincidence that all three judges in this case also have roots in southern red states? Apparently, Senate Republicans found a way to stack the deck against the White House.

As of recent reports, the White House will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Stay tuned.

Brennan Center for Justice: Creating a Modern Voting System for All Americans

Today at the National Press Club here in Washington, DC, The Brennan Center for Justice hosted a presentation featuring leading Secretaries of State to talk about how America can improve our voter registration system.

Just days after President Obama mentioned voting reform in his inaugural address, the Brennan Center highlighted our proposal to modernize voter registration and bring America’s election system into the 21st century. The plan, Voter Registration Modernization, is the centerpiece of the Voter Empowerment Act, introduced by Rep. John Lewis and other congressional leaders. “The ramshackle voter registration system is a prime cause of long lines and Election Day chaos,” said Michael Waldman. “We have a chance to modernize our elections so that every eligible citizen is on the rolls, with lower costs and greater election security. On Election Day, President Obama said we need to fix this. Here’s how.”

Sanders: Strong Filibuster Reform Needed Now

BernieSanders

“This country faces enormous problems in terms of jobs, global warming, health care, campaign finance reform, deficit reduction and many other important issues. The Senate has been blocked from considering many of these and other major issues of our day by a stubborn minority’s abuse of a rule originally designed to guarantee debate, not silence it,” Sanders said.

Read the full blogpost by Senator Bernie Sanders

Benghazi Hearings

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Rand Paul and his grandstanding today surely made points with the Tea Party pathetic fringe, but it proves to the rest of us why we can’t take any of them seriously. There were several Republican attacks launched at Hilary Clinton today during her testimony before Congress, but she handled them all with great aplomb. This was just another opportunity for right-wing conspiracy theorists to demonstrate their ignorance or their inability to participate in rational discourse. Republicans are more interested in making political points than taking steps to ensure that our Diplomats have the support and protection they need going forward. Read the full editorial by Juliet Lapidos at Taking Note, the Editorial Page Editor’s Blog of The New York Times.

 

bluntandcranky's avatarbluntandcranky

In the “nobody could be THAT sleazy” competition of 2013, the Virginia Senate’s GOP caucus has truly raised the bar for all the other sleazebuckets who would contend for the title. This was sleaze combined with racism, gall, and a truly epic flip o’ the bird to any sense of cooperation, bipartisanship, respect, or fair play. We are talking EPIC, here, peeps: Wow.

Short version: while a black State Senator ( and veteran of the Civil Rights movement) was, on Martin Luther King Day attending the public inauguration of a black President, the Virginia Repubs took advantage of his absence to ram a gerrymandering plan through that would diminish the impact of minority votes. You see, had he been there, there would have been a 20:20 tie between the Elephants and the Donkeys, and the bill would have been debated and passed (or not) on a bipartisan basis.

But nooooooo…

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Great Expectations

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Read my latest blog post under Salient Points entitled Great Expecations

It’s understandable that there is a demand upon the President from the various constituencies that re-elected him. Will everyone be satisfied? In my opinion, I don’t think so. That does not negate the fact that Mr. Obama’s presidency, thus far, has been the most diverse in history. I sincerely think that he will do his best to continue that legacy.

Obama’s Cabinet Diversity

I agree with Alan Colmes Liberaland blog that the issue of diversity in Obama’s second term is no issue at all. It has been trumped up by Republican haters and pie-in-the-sky Progressive liberals. Let’s not forget that President Obama is a black man and must always be included when considering the diversity issue in his cabinet. I’m growing very weary of the far right and far left these days. The far right demonizes and the far left deifies Obama. He is neither devil nor God. Cut the brotha’ some slack. If Republicans like Lindsey Graham and John McCain had not politically lynched Susan Rice, we would not be having this conversation. Besides, women are not the only people that elected Barack Obama, but are quite vocal right now. African Americans voted for Obama at a rate of 93% in the 2012 Presidential election. I, for one, an African American woman, will be most satisfied when I see another African American woman appointed to a noteable cabinet-level position or its politically visible equivalent. In fact, if the opportunity presents itself, I would advocate that President Obama appoint an African American woman to the Supreme Court. To criticize Obama for a lack of diversity is totally ridiculous. His record on issues pertaining to diversity stands on its own. Better yet, criticize the GOP club of white men who constantly block the first black POTUS in every way, shape and form. Criticize the dubious attacks against Eric Holder by the GOP. Criticize the GOP for Van Jones departure. And here’s another forgotten African American victim of Obama haters, Desiree Rogers, former White House Social Secretary. I have heard enough on this fake issue.