A Threat To Their Relevance

John Boehner yesterday...

"I and my members decided that the threat of Obamacare and what was happening was so important that it was time for us to take a stand. And we took a stand," the Ohio Republican said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

He is right that it's a threat...a threat to Republican relevance..

Acting Outside Of Their Interests

After signaling privately that the debt ceiling would be raised, John Boehner and other GOP leaders are now in full pivot mode, stating that they won't do it. They are also stating (stand by for the moonbattery) that the US won't default on October 17th, the deadline to raise the nation's borrowing limit. It could be the usual bloviating but I think it's something more. I think they are actually going to do it. They simply hate the federal government that much.

When this happens, the ensuing fallout will result in the loss of the House in 2014. And it won't be simply because they caused a default. It will be because President Obama, forced into action due to the conservative temper tantrum on steroids, will be seen as a shining knight who saved the nation from economic ruin through some sort of budget or constitutional maneuver. It will be the final tipping point the Democrats need to take back the House.

Further, he will have made the executive branch stronger as a result. Future presidents will be able to wield spending power with greater ease and Congress will be left marginalized and severely weakened. Thus, playing chicken with the debt ceiling is going to end up being a gross miscalculation on the part of the GOP and completely outside of their interests. They are going to bring about the very thing they claim to be fighting against: increased authoritarian power in the executive branch.

That adolescent stomp down the hallway is about to get more dramatic and a whole lot louder. 

Republican Type #6

Racist Republicans: 

[DISCLAIMER: I am putting this one almost last for a reason. I do NOT think all Republicans are racists. I have Republican family members who are not racist. This section is only about the small percentage of Republicans who are ACTUALLY racist, because they do exist. I'm not "playing the race card" or "race-baiting," I'm just describing a small group of racists who also affiliate themselves with the Republican Party] 

Racist Republicans hate Obama because he’s black. They think that all Muslims are terrorists. They think Obama is a terrorist Muslim. They think anyone with a name like Obama’s is a terrorist. 

The problem with this type of Republican’s views: 

They’re racist, but they think Obama is a racist. They can’t understand why people call them racists when they post racist pictures or racist comments and then claim not to be racist. Whenever they possibly can, they will call you a racist, to hide the fact that they are actually racists. 

What to remember when debating them: 

They’re racists. Racists are uneducated bigots. You would have a much easier time convincing an apple tree to start growing oranges.

He's a being a little too kind here. The whole "Obama is a Muslim" thing is far more common than one might think.

Live Fat, Die Young!

Ted Cruz's Shutdown Leap

Last year Crystal Wilson, a poor white Arkansas woman, died of "natural causes" -- untreated diabetes -- at age 38. Life expectancy for uneducated white women in Southern states has dropped five years in the last generation. Mostly because they're obese and lack health care. Instead of "Live fast, die young!" it's "Live fat, die young!"

Most people in Crystal's situation, if they can work, work part-time jobs. And so, when the shutdown fight was still about Obamacare, before they admitted it was all about their pride, Republicans tried fleetingly to appeal to fears about the "part-timing" of America. The slant is that companies are making full-time employees work part-time so that they can escape the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

Some companies may be saying they're doing this because of Obamacare, but this part-timing of America was in full swing when Barack Obama was still in law school. In the 1980s and 1990s companies sent work overseas, fired some employees and cut others to part time. Companies like Walmart have been turning full-time employees into part-time and cutting back part-time hours to increase profits for decades, in part to avoid paying full-time benefits: they hire twice as many people for half the cost. Twenty years ago many high-tech companies like Microsoft hired employees as "independent contractors," to avoid paying health insurance, vacation, stock options, laws concerning working hours, etc. They were sued by those employees and eventually settled for $97 million. Many long-haul truckers and delivery drivers are paid not by the hour, but as "private contractors" paid by the mile.

Republicans point to Trader Joe's and Home Depot's decisions to drop insurance coverage for part-time employees and let them get their health insurance on the exchanges as proof of the damage Obamacare has done. The thing is, Obamacare is a good deal for most of these employees: these companies don't have enough employees in an area to get the best rates (health care is highly localized), so they can't compete with rates offered on the exchanges which will cover a much larger risk pool. Trader Joe's logic is straightforward (from a Time article):

Stated quite simply, the law is centered on providing low cost options to people who do not make a lot of money. Somewhat by definition, the law provides those people a pretty good deal for insurance … a deal that can’t be matched by us — or any company. However, an individual employee (we call them Crew Member) is only able to receive the tax credit from the exchanges under the act if we do not offer them insurance under our company plan.

First off, Trader Joe's was never required to provide part-timers health care -- they do it because they are a great company. Second, only 23% of Trader Joe's employees are part-time. Third, companies like Trader Joe's and Home Depot never paid full freight for part-timer's insurance: some employees have to pay as much as $4,000 dollars a year. Most health care exchanges will offer policies that are cheaper than what Trader Joe's can provide, and since they can get a tax credit under the ACA most employees will save thousands of dollars a year.

Most, but admittedly not all. Employees in states that have been antagonistic to the ACA, have not set up their own exchanges and have not adopted the Medicaid changes will probably wind up paying more. Trader Joe's estimates that 70% of their employees will get a better deal. Their employees in Texas are being screwed by Rick Perry's stubbornness, not Obamacare. This is why guys like Ted Cruz are shutting down the government to stop Obamacare before it gets started: their own voters are going to turn on them when they realize everyone else is getting a better deal.

Now, because of Obamacare, part-time employees of Walmart who were never able to get decent health care will now be able to get the same deal that workers at Trader Joe's can get. And it turns out that Obamacare isn't the job-killer that Republicans say it is: Walmart is making 35,000 employees full-time.

The real question isn't why Trader Joe's is dropping health care for part-timers, it's why any company is offering health insurance. It never really made sense, but it wasn't so bad when companies footed the whole bill. But as soon as they started making employees pay for it, any cost containment went out the window. Since employees aren't the customer of the insurance company, they have no say in the negotiations; they have no leverage and no choice, but they get stuck with the price increases. The employer makes their decisions for them based on what's best for the company, not the employee. It's no better having your company dictate who your doctor is than the government.

Here's another example of the "terrors" of the health care exchange: my wife and I left the corporate world more than ten years ago, and that meant getting our own health insurance. It's very expensive: the day before the health care exchange in Minnesota opened we got a notice from Blue Cross that our policy will go up 22%, to $995 a month (that's with a $6,000 deductible). We never got tax breaks for this plan because we're not a corporation -- corporations get tax breaks for their CEOs' Cadillac health insurance plans, but we had to pay the full cost for our bare-bones coverage.

So my wife went to the MNsure website (the local health care exchange), and found an identical plan -- same company, same coverage, same deductible -- for only $775. And that's the top price, without tax credits based on income.

That must be the magic of the marketplace conservatives keep talking about.

One reason exchanges can offer lower prices is competition: there are now millions more customers in the marketplace who can directly compare prices on the Internet. Another is that there are fewer middle men: no insurance agents and brokers are needed. As many as 100,000 insurance agents may be out of jobs. We were forced to buy our current plan through an agent several years ago, who still gets a monthly commission and has done absolutely nothing ever since. This worthless overhead is the sort of "job" Republicans refer to when they talk about "job-killing" Obamacare. Our Republican state senator happens to be a licensed insurance agent who opposes Obamacare and tried to use his position as chairman of a Senate committee to torpedo the state exchange.

The fact is, the system set up by the ACA is exactly the sort of health care solution conservatives have been pushing since Clinton's health care initiative 20 years ago. Obama made huge concessions to conservatives when he gave up single-payer and accepted the individual mandate with the ACA. Mitt Romney signed Obamacare's godfather into law in Massachusetts in 2006. The only reason Republicans are fighting it now is to display their hatred of Obama and wreck something he fought tooth and nail to make happen.

Republicans claimed to be shutting down the government now to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. But what would they replace it with? Exactly the same thing. They want to stomp on it, tear it apart and piss on it just because Obama tricked them and gave us the health care solution conservatives have been demanding all along.

In the end the people who will be hurt the most by Republican opposition to ACA are poor uneducated whites who live in Southern states -- the most reliable Republican voters. People like Crystal Wilson.

And that's the future Tea Party Republicans want for all of us.

The Plan All Along

AP News has a story up about how the shutdown has eroded confidence in America in many corners of the world. I submit that was the plan all along and Rachel Maddow recently confirmed this in the video clip below.

 

The New York Times confirmed this today.This shutdown has been planned for months with the specific goal of making sure the president fails. In case anyone was wondering, yes, they are just that petty. If they can't have their way, then it's temper tantrum time and they are going to trash their room.

In this case, however, the room is our country.

Good Words

"A general toleration of Religion appears to me the best means of peopling our country… The free exercise of religion hath stocked the Northern part of the continent with inhabitants; and altho’ Europe hath in great measure adopted a more moderate policy, yet the profession of Protestantism is extremely inconvenient in many places there. A Calvinist, a Lutheran, or Quaker, who hath felt these inconveniences in Europe, sails not to Virginia, where they are felt perhaps in a (greater degree).” ~Patrick Henry, observing that immigrants flock to places where there is no established religion, Religious Tolerance, 1766

Republican Type #5

Are there any real Birthers that post here? Well, maybe one but I think he's just being a dick (see: adolescent contrary)

Birther Republicans: 

The birthers think that Obama was born in Kenya. No matter how much evidence you present that is contradictory to that thesis, they will continue to insist that he is not the legitimate president. They are sore-losers because McCain lost the election in 2008 – even though President Obama has won reelection since then. They will never support Obama, even if he paid off the entire national debt. 

The problem with this type of Republican’s views: 

They think Obama was born in Kenya. They think that Orly Taitz, who grew up in a communist country, is credible, and that Obama is a socialist. They think Donald Trump is a smart guy. They think that Obama’s birth announcements in Hawaiian newspapers were propagated over 40 years in advance of his election, just so that he could be elected someday. 

What to remember when debating them: 

Don’t waste your time. You could wave Obama’s actual birth certificate in their face and they would still say it’s a fake. They are sore-losers and they will never be happy as long as Obama is president. Make jokes asking to see their birth certificates, or Sarah Palin’s birth certificate. This is the best way to get them to go away.

Republicans Vote to Undercut Everything About the Shutdown

The Republicans in the House of Representatives just passed a bill that would pay federal employees for not working.

Admittedly, federal employees aren't working because Republicans have shut down the government in a snit, supposedly over Obamacare. So it's not government employees' fault they aren't working, and they shouldn't have to suffer for Republican grandstanding.

For people who constantly bitch about government waste, the Republicans sure do waste a lot of the government's time and money. If you're going to pay these workers for all the time they're not working, you might as well have them work. The bill for back pay is the best argument to end the shutdown right now.

But Republicans won't, and that's complete insanity. The cost of this interruption in government services won't just be the time that people aren't working. There were millions of dollars of expenses in preparing for the shutdown, and there there will be millions associated with restarting. People will be hurt: businessss near national parks that depend on tourism will lose money that will never be recovered, and defense and other government contractors that are not working because of the shutdown will also feel the pinch. Billions of dollars will be wasted.

This shutdown isn't about wasteful government spending or the deficit. It isn't about the budget. It isn't even about Obamacare. It's about a small minority of Tea Party Republicans who want to throw their weight around because they can. Republican congressmen Peter King got it dead right when he called Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas who egged House Tea Party members to shut down the government, a "fraud" and accused him of "governmental terrorism."

The insanity of the Tea Party is best exemplified by Marlin Stutzman of Indiana:

“We’re not going to be disrespected,” conservative Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., added. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”

They don't even know what they want. Geeze, at least Muslim terrorists know what they want.

Good Words

“I never liked the Hierarchy of the Church — an equality in the teacher of Religion, and a dependence on the people, are republican sentiments — but if the Clergy combine, they will have their influence on Government” ~Rufus King, Rufus King: American Federalist, pp. 56-57

We Must Change Now

The incident at the Capitol yesterday involving Miriam Carey once again illustrates how we are failing on the issue of mental health in this country. Family members have said that Carey suffered from post-partum depression and mental illness.

We may never know what set her off yesterday as she was shot and killed by Capitol police but we can take steps now to improving the perception of mental health in this country. The first thing that has to happen is we need to remove the stigma that is associated with it on a cultural level. There are far too many people who think that people that see therapists are "nuts" and should be locked away. This is fallout from baby boomer bullshit and all their fucked up issues with their parents.

The fact is that the brain is the most complex organ in our bodies. Something that is "in the mind" is not magically disassociated from the body. Why on earth do people think this? We don't think twice about getting our annual breast exam or prostate check. Or even going to the dentist every six months. But a psychologist? Well, that's only if you are crazy...so the stigma sadly goes.

Everyone, and I mean every single person, should see a therapist at least a couple of times a year for a tune up, if you will, at the very least. Working out the complexity and the difficulties of emotional and mental issues require specialized dedication. It's a process, so the joke goes from the Analyze That. This isn't a "take a pill and you are cure" situation. Whatever drove Miriam Carey to go berserk yesterday is likely a combination of several issues (nature, nurture) that require individual attention.

There is no doubt in my mind that we could reduce violence in this country if we moved to changed our perception and actions on mental health.

Republican Type #4

Also very familiar....:)

Tea Party Republicans: 

These Republicans are a dumbed-down combination of the previous two groups of Republicans. They think Sarah Palin is intelligent and it’s the media filter’s fault that she looks so stupid. They think Reagan was fiscally conservative even though he tripled the deficit. They watch Fox News religiously, and think Glenn Beck is credible. They don’t understand why people think they’re racist while they’re standing next to people holding racist signs. They protest higher taxes even though taxes have gone down for 95 percent of working families since President Obama took office. 

The problem with this type of Republican’s views: 

They parrot Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin talking points. When you discredit one thing they say, they immediately move on to the next subject. Anyone who doesn’t agree with them is a socialist, even though they can’t give you the actual definition of socialism. Many of them are on Medicare while protesting “socialism.” They have never met a socialist, so they have no idea what socialists believe. They think liberals are socialists and socialists are Nazis. 

What to remember when debating them: 

They have no idea what they’re talking about. Ask them to prove what they are saying. If you ask them a question and they respond with another question, refuse to answer their question until they answer yours. Don’t back down. Remind them that taxes have actually been lowered for 95 percent of working families. If debating them in public, be careful because they are known to carry guns in places they don’t need them, like public parks and bars and churches.

No shit!

Tales From the Open Microphone

Boy, are they going to be in for a rude awakening. I thought these guys were much more aware than this!

Senator Right Wing Blogger

If America wanted to know what it would be like to have a right wing blogger for a Senator, now they do...Ted Cruz from Texas. Let's make sure he has the basics first.

Massive hubris...check
Sole conviction=own vanity...check
Adolescent power fantasies....check
Temper tantrum...check
Compromise seen as weakness...check
Undeterred by facts and new information...check
Bullying and baiting...check

So, all the fundamentals are there. Adding in the core element of having no real goals or policy (other than to burn the house down in a full on teenage fit) and it's plain to see what life in this country would be like when bloviating buffoons are put in charge.

But there's one other characteristic that is needed for the complete picture: cowardice. That's right, these people are fucking cowards. They light fires and then run away laughing. That's exactly what Cruz has done here and the people that love and support him do the same thing in the media and the blogsphere.

The good news is that this will eventually come back to bite him on the ass as it did with Sarah Palin. In many ways, Cruz is now the Honey Boo Boo of Washington DC sort of like half term Governor Palin...ugly, uneducated and a relatively short shelf life.

Good Words

“A man of abilities and character, of any sect whatever, may be admitted to any office or public trust under the United States. I am a friend to a variety of sects, because they keep one another in order. How many different sects are we composed of throughout the United States? How many different sects will be in congress? We cannot enumerate the sects that may be in congress. And there are so many now in the United States that they will prevent the establishment of any one sect in prejudice to the rest, and will forever oppose all attempts to infringe religious liberty. If such an attempt be made, will not the alarm be sounded throughout America? If congress be as wicked as we are foretold they will, they would not run the risk of exciting the resentment of all, or most of the religious sects in America.” ~Edmund Randolph, address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 10, 1788

Seven Years

I wonder if Republicans will look back on this week and note that this was the beginning of the end of their party. It is truly something to behold as one of the two major parties in this country commits ritual suicide. They haven't gotten over the fact that the Affordable Care Act is law. They haven't gotten over the fact that they lost the election of 2012. They haven't gotten over the fact that Barack Obama is the president. In short, they are whiny babies throwing an all out temper tantrum.

The reaction has been swift.

Andrew Sullivan...

How does one party that has lost two presidential elections and a Supreme Court case – as well as two Senate elections - think it has the right to shut down the entire government and destroy the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury to get its way on universal healthcare now? I see no quid pro quo even. Just pure blackmail, resting on understandable and predictable public concern whenever a major reform is enacted. But what has to be resisted is any idea that this is government or politics as usual. It is an attack on the governance and the constitutional order of the United States.

An attack? Well, it is amusing that Republicans are behaving in a more obstinate fashion than the Iranian president. American Taliban indeed.

Thomas Friedman

“Give me the money and nobody gets hurt.” How did we get here? First, by taking gerrymandering to a new level. The political analyst Charlie Cook, writing in The National Journal on March 16, noted that the 2010 election gave Republican state legislatures around the country unprecedented power to redraw political boundaries, which they used to create even more “safe, lily-white” Republican strongholds that are, in effect, an “alternative universe” to the country’s diverse reality.

An alternate universe...hmm...like in a bubble? Well, they are going to have to learn the hard way, I guess. I don't think they realize what's going to happen in 2014 now that they have shut down the government. It might be even worse if they let the government default in a few weeks. Speaking of which, Henry Aaron has a great solution for that problem.

Obama should ignore the debt ceiling

The debt ceiling is the fiscal equivalent of the human appendix — a law with no discoverable purpose. It is one law too many. Once Congress has set tax rates and spending levels, it has effectively said what it wants the debt to be. If Congress leaves the debt ceiling at a level inconsistent with duly enacted spending and tax laws, the president has no choice but to ignore it.

Indeed. Our country functioned just fine without it up until 1917. If the moonbats want to fuck around over the debt ceiling again, I say the president should just ignore it and pay our bills. That's his job and Congress has already given him parameters with which to work. Further, the Constitution guarantees that "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." Not surprising that the Right has trouble remembering that there is a Fourteenth Amendment.

I'm setting the clock for today and predicitng that the GOP has seven years of life left in it. They are going to lose more seats in 2014, lose in a big way in 2016, lose more seats in 2018, and, when the new census is taken in 2020 and we get out of the gerrymandering boondoggle, it will all be over.

Unless, of course, they grow up and change. How likely is that?

Oh, and how many hits did healthcare.gov get yesterday?

Good Words

“It is contrary to the principles of reason and justice that any should be compelled to contribute to the maintenance of a church with which their consciences will not permit them to join, and from which they can derive no benefit; for remedy whereof, and that equal liberty as well religious as civil, may be universally extended to all the good people of this commonwealth.” ~George Mason, Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776