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Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm

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On November 6th, Send Republican Obstructionists Home for Good

Posted: 09/15/2012 12:25 am

I am so angry with Congress I want to spit.

Unemployment is over eight percent, and President Obama has proposed a jobs bill with pro-growth policies that Republicans used to support, back when they were a sane party.

Today's Republicans? They refuse to act.

And now, after a solid few weeks of doing nothing, they're adjourning Congress until after the election!

Why exactly did we put them there in the first place?

Our executive branch has offered a grand bargain on cuts, reforms and revenues -- the type of ambitious, bold agenda our country desperately needs.

But our legislative branch won't even consider it. The tea partiers won't consider giving up a dime -- not one dime! -- in tax revenue, even in exchange for billions in cuts and reforms.

They won't consider the American Jobs Act. The Violence Against Women Act. Tax cuts for working families. The farm bill. The list goes on and on.

Congress has a 12 percent approval rating right now -- and it seems like they're aiming for a lot less. The Republicans refuse to consider that maybe, just maybe, Americans want to see action and compromise and progress rather than this political doublespeak and nonsense.

Yes, Democrats are not perfect. But this proud-obstruction-at-all costs is all on the Republican Party. If Mitt Romney loses in a landslide, I can just hear it now -- the Republican Party will blame him alone.

You ever think that your policies might be the problem?

Policies like tax breaks for millionaires?

Tearing a struggling country's safety net to shreds?

Obstructing a jobs bill because you don't want the president to get a win, even though the real victors of that legislation would be your constituents?

Your problem, Republicans, is not Mitt Romney. And it's not Ben Bernanke.

Your problem is that your policies hurt people.

So, go ahead and obstruct, and then go home for two months.

We progressives know what we have to do: On November 6, we have to make sure that these obstructionists will stay home for good.

 
 
 

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I am so angry with Congress I want to spit. Unemployment is over eight percent, and President Obama has proposed a jobs bill with pro-growth policies that Republicans used to support, back when th...
I am so angry with Congress I want to spit. Unemployment is over eight percent, and President Obama has proposed a jobs bill with pro-growth policies that Republicans used to support, back when th...
 
 
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03:55 PM on 10/22/2012
Obama's bill is not a jobs bill and the senate won't even vote on it
06:27 AM on 09/18/2012
Send them all how or at least take away THEIR paid vacation time.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
nypapajoe
12:24 PM on 09/17/2012
The republicans in congress should be charged with grand theft for malfeasance in taking a pay check without having done a damn thing except obstruction! Arrest them all!
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booker52
avid reader
01:53 PM on 09/17/2012
I so agree with you
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lawson 19015
10:58 AM on 09/17/2012
Notice how the cowards in congress kicked the can down the road on the budget and the debt ceiling until next year.Got to run home and try to defend their lousy records in order to get re elected.It is imperative that the Tear party obstructionists in the House of Representives be defeted and replaced with progressives that will get the country back on track again.

Vote Straight Democrat in Nov.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
booker52
avid reader
01:56 PM on 09/17/2012
Yeah the repubs are going home telling the lie that if re-elected they will work with the dems. I will be voting straight democrat
10:14 AM on 09/17/2012
Gee, do you think that maybe it is the Democrats who are the obstructionists? The House passed a budget, but the Democratically-controlled Senate wouldn't consider it. Oh, I see, the Governor just wants the Republicans to violate the voters wishes who voted them into office and just give into the psychotic fantasies of the left-wing crowd in the White House and Senate. Oh, yes, that's really likely to happen.
11:38 AM on 09/17/2012
I assume you're referring to the Paul Ryan budget, which was based on mythical assumptions, was geared to cut taxes on the wealthy while raising them on everyone else, gutting education funding, gutting Medicaid, and greatly increasing costs for Medicare. The TP represents their "voter wishes" by refusing to compromise, but the Senators who voted down that piece of garbage suffer from "psychotic fantasies?" Are they not also representing their "voters wishes?"

The most annoying thing about the Right today is their self-righteous assumptions that they stand on principle, while their opponents do not. The simple fact is that this country is almost evenly split down the middle, but one side (the GOP/TP) thinks its way is the only true "American" way. Compromise is NOT a dirty word; it's how a Democratic Republic operates. If you believe you should get your way 100% of the time, without your political opposition getting anything in return, you are not a believer in democracy; you are a proponent of tyranny.
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traceymarie
the President is black, deal with it
05:24 PM on 09/17/2012
naginal probes, more tax cuts for the wealthy and anti legislation is not a budget or a jobs bill
heterodoxlibertarian
bleeding heart libertarian
10:27 PM on 09/16/2012
Misplaced moral indignation married to economic ignorance has come to be the defining feature of contemporary progressivism. The problem with the economy is not the Republican Party but rather big government creating greater uncertainty with wrongheaded tax and regulatory policies. As for what should be done according to the piece, well let's jus take one example of legislation the Governor thinks we should pass: the farm bill. It's a terrible piece of work which is filled with market distorting subsidies which (and this should really bother the left) are bad for the environment and undermine international trade relations while benefiting the well to do rather than people who really need the help. Any politician who would "obstruct" such lesgislation is to praised.
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traceymarie
the President is black, deal with it
05:24 PM on 09/17/2012
hilarious especially coming from a bircher
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metinphilco
10:25 PM on 09/16/2012
The Republicans in Congress who refuse to do anything should be sent to prison. That's how bad this is. It's the most disgraceful thing I've ever seen in my life and the Republican Party should die off for good because of it.
10:05 PM on 09/16/2012
how many signatures could I get for a referendum to limit all elected congressional salaries and pensions to an amount not to excede minimum wage?
07:15 PM on 09/16/2012
So true Jennifer send the ones that have not done anything back home!!

Obama 2012
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ennis438
06:15 PM on 09/16/2012
Let us hope that the traitorous Republicans, who refused to act with the President to try to undo the Bush depression and instead worked to assure Obama would be a one term president, ignoringthe well being of America, are sent packing and a lesson is taught to these traitors that the well being of the country should be the number one priority.
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Christopher Stewie Jones
04:39 PM on 09/16/2012
Vote democratically, just make sure that the person you are voting for is actually a dem. Many republicans know they are doomed so they are running as fake democrats.
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Chipper1
04:18 PM on 09/16/2012
Right on Jennifer. And, I may add, investigate the Democrats running in your area to be sure they are REALLY Democrats. Some areas have undercover Republicans running as Democrats. This happens esp. in usually Democratic precincts and districts where a Republican thinks he can't win if he declared his true beliefs, so, to win, he'll run as a Dem then act like a Republican once in office. Beware!
Lynette
Liberals have a lot more fun!
04:08 PM on 09/16/2012
Send them HOME!!!!!! Vote blue. No more wars!!! No more "no" to doing their job.
heterodoxlibertarian
bleeding heart libertarian
10:37 PM on 09/16/2012
No more wars. Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan, has made Bush's use of drones look like child's play, and got the U.S. involved in Libya. I actually commend him for the first policy and third- the second is problematic but defensible- but to say "no more wars" given Obama's record seems a little strange...
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bigpix2000
2 wrongs != right, 3 rights = left.
08:20 AM on 09/17/2012
Obama is finishing what was started and not starting new wars like Romney seems intent to do before we even start voting.
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scorpions5
Facts do not cease to exist when ignored.
03:04 PM on 09/16/2012
Well said. They made a promise. That promise was to do everything to make Obama a one term president. They don't care about the people, they want that power back, they want that WH back. To hell with the rest of us. We know who they are:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/08/1098434/-Eric-Cantor-Paul-Ryan-Kevin-McCarthy-Plot-To-Sabotage-US-Economy-with-Frank-Luntz
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Stanley Bonk
"mad, bad, and dangerous to know"
05:45 PM on 09/16/2012
That was a great link. Here's my favorite quote:
"Taliban Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. Insurgency is the way they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban -- is an example of how you go about to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that Insurgency may be required when [dealing with] the other side"
~Rep Pete Sessions, March 2009 to National Journal

Now we know where they got their stragtegy from. And we liberals have had to deal with two insurgencies: one in the Middle East and one in Washington DC.
heterodoxlibertarian
bleeding heart libertarian
10:39 PM on 09/16/2012
Democrats love to bring up this point. I think it reveals a naivete or a certain disingenuouss. Not on your part but on the part of some: look let's face it- when a Republican gets elected, Democrats consider removing him from power to be of immense importance. The moment a Republican wins, there is a focus on the next election and how to beat him. That's just the nature of politics and I don't think it's problematic because both parties truly believe that removing the other guy from power is good for the country so there's really nothing malevolent about making that a priority.
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bigpix2000
2 wrongs != right, 3 rights = left.
08:24 AM on 09/17/2012
It is when you prove it by voting against the same things you proposed or voted for in the past ... itis "in-your-face" obstructionism that is shameful and terrible for a country that has been built of compromise and open mindedness.
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02:53 PM on 09/16/2012
"I've got mine, I intend to keep mine, I want to grow mine but I can't do that without your support. PLEASE Donate to the Poor Rich Man's fund". Sounds like why we split from the Brits to begin with.

When Americans were mostly farmers they would pitch in and help each other when trouble arose. Now it seems that the only pitch we get from the GOP is Manure and even that is of low quality.
What we need is to heat some pitch, pluck a few Geese and Ride the GOP out of Congress on a Rail covered in it.

We, The American Voters and Taxpayers, hired and pay these people too well to have them sit on their hands when there is work to be done. That is exactly what they are doing, they're on a 2 month Coffee Break after coming back from Summer Vacation.

Now they will be going back to their Constituency and bragging how they foiled Obama's plans to protect the American Public where all they are really doing is making excuses for why they haven't done a gol-danged-thing since being elected.... OH! And asking us to give them more money and more time in office so that they can finish running us into the ground.