House Speaker John Boehner should be ashamed of his deceitful speech Monday night. He didn't tell the truth. After introducing himself as the speaker of "the whole House," Boehner spoke as a political partisan and not a practical problem solver.
Boehner is a hostage of the Tea Party fanatics in his caucus and the Republicans' obsession with protecting tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, like hedge fund managers, corporate jet owners, oil companies and other special interests.
Boehner's response to the president was an astonishing display of revisionist history and brutish partisan politics. Boehner described his plans in poll-tested generalities, but what he didn't tell the American people was that his proposal would cut $1.8 trillion from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, in order to protect millionaires, billionaires and big corporations from paying their fair share. It's almost cartoonishly diabolical. The GOP's approach would paralyze Washington by forcing Congress to revisit this issue again and again instead of creating the jobs our country needs.
Monday night, Boehner told one lie after another. Not half-truths or mischaracterizations. Lies. He saved the biggest lies for how he described the debt ceiling talks themselves. He said, "I made a sincere effort to work with the president," yet every time the deal gets closer to what the Republicans want they run away. He said, "The president would not take yes for an answer." That's what the president said about Boehner last week. The difference is, when the president said it, it was true and still is.
Boehner then said that the president "wants a blank check." That's absurd. How can anyone argue that a plan with trillions of dollars in spending cuts is a blank check? The cuts being discussed are historic. They're massive.
The simple fact is that the Republicans are not working with the president to avert a crisis, they're doing everything they can to create one. In contrast, President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress have repeatedly made clear that they're willing to work with the Republicans to develop a sensible, long-term budget and avert an economic disaster that will reverberate around the world.
President Obama has always said we need a balanced plan that includes both spending cuts and revenue. It's only fair that everyone should pitch in, including millionaires, billionaires and the big corporations, and it's critical that we protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security from budget cuts that would devastate America's seniors and middle-class families.
The Republicans now have to decide whether they want to govern or keep saying no to protect the wealthiest people and corporations in America. The GOP's extremist position against a balanced approach won't create a single job or help a single business keep its doors open. The Republicans' fanaticism and brinkmanship is out of control and puts at risk our economy and the financial security of all Americans.
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The problem with this is that it creates an echo chamber where new, novel outside information never gets in because the electronic gateways are programmed to make filtered assumptions and deny fresh perspectives or information.
This means that even if republicans are online many will be spoon fed more of the same. They cannot escape the bubble. It also means you cannot either.
I look forward to the day that I can afford health care and insurance for myself and my school age child and am able to help fund others who are un or under-employed. But I will always support baseline healthcare for all Americans.
There are so many departments and groups in government that are not needed, especially at the Federal level. Liberals think that government is the answer to societies problems, but it is actually part of the problems and in many cases government is the problem. The welfare system is a great example of a failed "program" it has turned into a reason to keep liberals in power, so that the free money keeps flowing, but we are currently experiencing the consequences of the free money society that has been building over the last few decades. The housing crisis is a great example. Owning a home is not a right, it is a privilege to those who work hard and do what is needed to qualify in the correct way. That is why a owning a home was something special back in the day, and the benefit of owning a home actually had value. We cannot take away the barriers of hard work and responsibility that are naturally in place for life's privileges. The hand out is a detriment to the recipient and will never truly help them.
Oh, I know Reagan said government was the problem, but he sure didn't govern that way. Unlike the conservatives of today, Reagan increased taxes for SS and Medicare instead of trying to gut them.
"Back in the day"--do you mean when leveraged speculation tanked the mortgage business as part of what caused the Great Depression? Or do you mean when there was a financial panic about every 20 years of our nation's history until FDR redefined the word 'liberal'. Funny how home ownership and mortgages notes were afterwards stable for over 50 years until we again deregulated the financial industry.
All Boehner did in his speech was hit all of his party's talking points and engage in more doublespeak. He has no intention of ever truly "negotiating in good faith". For as we all know that would entail compromise, which to Republican's means capitulation, a concept not in their vocabulary.
He and April ???? both said it was the most disfunctional Congress of their lives - (they who are students of Congress and have lived long lives.) Very disheartening.
business as usual.
Everyone realizes that the spending that will be cut will reduce employment in this country substantially driving up all other types of costs, benefits, public safety, free and reduced lunches . . .there already aren't jobs for 4 out of 5 Americans who want one.
In MN where they just shut down the government and refused to add any taxes even limitedly it results in a giant burden on our public schools who will once again not be paid with huge interest payments to each of them . . Helps the financial services industry though to keep getting everyone's interest while 99% are underinvested for the 1%.
But that is actually conservatisms purpose. To maintain and give power to the aristocracy. Just in our country middle class whites believe they are going to be in the aristocracy any day now and are just being kept down by the poor.