Tag Archives: John Boehner

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

900,000


By

GOP Crises Alone Have Killed 900,000 Jobs

After shutting down the government for over two weeks in a failed attempt to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans, the prospect of a catastrophic economic shutdown caused by an unprecedented default on our obligations has finally brought enough Republicans to their senses. A bipartisan deal negotiated by senators to re-open the government and avoid a default appears set to pass both the House and the Senate this evening.

President Obama and Democrats stood strong and refused to grant Republicans any of their ransom demands in exchange for Congress agreeing to simply do its job, but unfortunately the series of crises manufactured by the GOP over the past few years has already taken a terrible toll on the economy.

A new report out yesterday pins the number of jobs killed by the GOP’s government-by-crisis strategy over the past few years at 900,000.

As ThinkProgress notes, the report also finds that the painful and unnecessary austerity spending cuts (themselves largely imposed by the GOP using crises and threats) in place have cost us more than a million jobs:

The report also finds that cuts to discretionary spending from 2011 to the present have cost the country 1.2 million jobs and 0.7 percentage points of GDP growth. About three-quarters of the $2.4 trillion in total deficit reduction enacted since the fall of 2010 was in the form of spending cuts. The Peterson-commissioned estimate of what that steep reduction in government expenditures has cost is a bit more conservative than previous estimates by other economists, but only slightly less negative.

This graphic from our Center for American Progress colleagues illustrates how many more Americans would have jobs in a world without austerity:

WorldWithoutAusterity

Finally, a different report out this evening finds the current shutdown crisis pulled $24 BILLION out of the economy and will slash more than a half-percentage off GDP growth.

BOTTOM LINE: It’s time for Republicans to stop trying to govern by crisis, hostage-taking, and extortion. The fight over the debt limit is over. Period. It’s now time for us to come to a long-term agreement on the budget that gets rid of the damaging sequester cuts and is instead focused on our real problems: jobs and economic growth.

It’s also time for Speaker Boehner to abandon his failed attempts to appease the extreme Tea Party wing of the GOP and instead seek a bipartisan governing majority focused on doing what’s best for our country, including the passage of immigration reform with a pathway to earned citizenship.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Houston Chronicle regrets endorsing Ted Cruz.

POLLS: Shutdown hurting GOP Senate chances, even in red states.

Right-wing group that orchestrated shutdown overt Obamacare now admits that “everybody knows” Obamacare can’t be repealed.

Ted Cruz admits the shutdown was all about building email fundraising lists.

Anti-tax crusader says defunders owe conservatives an apology.

Senate Republicans: GOP didn’t get anything out of shutdown.

Tea Party already seeking purge of non-extremists in 2014.

Tea Party congresswoman who voted to shut down the government now wants billions in disaster aid.

More than five million poor Americans won’t get health coverage because of the GOP’s refusal to expand Medicaid.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Government Shutdown Pain Spreads


By

7 Ways the GOP Shutdown is Hurting Americans

House Republican leaders are at the White House right now presenting their plan to give the nation a six-week reprieve from certain economic doom by agreeing that Congress will pay the nation’s bills through November 22.

We’re glad the Republicans recognize that we absolutely cannot risk an economic shutdown by defaulting on our obligations. As President Obama and Democrats have made clear and continue to make clear, it is non-negotiable for Congress to pay the bills Congress itself has already racked up.

Nevertheless, House Republicans are still insisting on prolonging another crisis – the government shutdown – for absolutely no reason. Republicans started this government shutdown in a failed attempt to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans but it should not go on a minute longer, whether it’s over Obamacare, hurt feelings, or any other reason.

Here are seven stories of the pain that is rippling across America thanks to the GOP shutdown:

BOTTOM LINE: Enough is enough. The longer the GOP keeps the government closed, the more Americans and our economy will suffer. It’s time for Speaker Boehner to allow a vote on a clean funding bill to end this shutdown crisis and re-open the entire government.

~ my 2cents ...

The act and meaning of com * pro * mise


 refpr,It’s definitely a morning and a day to  reach to the sky breathe in deeply through the nose release your breath slowly as you lower your arms and upper body  ~~ release your breath through your mouth and repeat; probably more and more as the news and day wears on.

just another rant …

My word for the day is Compromise.

Com-pro-mise, considered a noun and a verb, is  by definition : a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.(noun) or to expose or make vulnerable to danger, suspicion, scandal, etc.; jeopardize: a military oversight that compromised the nation’s defenses. (Verb) It is definitely clear that Republicans have made a choice to define compromise as a verb while the Democratic Party and the President have gone toward the light of transparency and genuine willingness to compromise.

 Yet, as The President has another win under his belt, a 2nd term some feel the efforts to reform any and all parts of our government just have not gone far enough and have waged a hostage taking. If Republicans could put the 47% in a bathtub, they would be smiling a whole lot more than they are currently. Imagine, folks who ran for a position with the government only to wage nasty acts on the government and now our economy… uh, don’t Republicans love to talk about our forefathers our constitution …blah blah blah , yet they think we could use a lot less government … oh, unless of course it’s their salaries… right/

 We all know it will take the act of com ~pro – mise to get America back on track though we heard Speaker Boehner say … he rejects the word!

 http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/12/13/134669/boehner-reject-compromise/

 The fact is most civilians know and live the act of compromise, hey, it is a part of our lives, but apparently, not all of us practice it. In most cases, members of Congress hope feel or say everything will balance itself out and then realize the dirty little secret is that money still talks and ultimately controls the votes. I want to know… who has the will, courage and power, which, the Democratic Party has but seems to fear.  The Democratic Party of Yes We Can had only a short time to wield the power needed to make Health-Care, Wall Street/Bank/Aig, Climate Change, and Immigration Reform Bills stronger.  While Republicans need to understand that after four plus years of voters watching them filibuster the economy our rights and our democracy is in more trouble than ever before.

 We the People need to demand the GOP stop holding Americans hostage and work for the greater good of their fellow Americans

written 6/1/13

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

GOP Rejects Own Plan to Keep Government Open


By

CHART: Democrats Have Already Negotiated & Compromised

Republicans continue to falsely claim that President Obama and Democrats won’t negotiate over the budget. That’s just not true.

In fact, Senate Democrats even tried once again this afternoon to launch a formal conference committee to hash out a budget through September of 2014, but Republicans blocked their request, as they have on 19 previous occasions since the Senate passed a budget over six months ago.

What is true is that Democrats refuse to negotiate over keeping the government open and paying the bills that Congress has already racked up. Those items should be non-negotiable. They are simply Congress’ job.

As soon as the GOP brings these latest manufactured crises to an end — as they could at literally any moment if they simply allow the House of Representatives to vote on a clean government funding bill and a bill that guarantees that Congress will not allow an unprecedented and catastrophic default on our obligations — Democrats are more than happy to negotiate on the actual budget.

In fact, they have done plenty of negotiating already. The clean bill to re-open the government is already a huge compromise and agrees to the sequester spending levels that Republicans demanded and promised to bring to a vote mere months ago.

Check out this chart that shows just how much Democrats have already compromised with Republicans:

FundingLevelCharticle-1

This compromise bill was Speaker Boehner’s own idea and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) touted it as a major victory for House Republicans just last month, but now they refuse to even allow the House to vote on it. Worse, Republicans continue to threaten to unleash a “financial apocalypse” on the global economy as soon as next week unless the president and Democrats agree to their laundry list of Tea Party demands.

BOTTOM LINE: Unless Congress acts, we’ll face a global economic calamity next week. Americans across the country — including the family members of our troops killed in action — are already suffering because the GOP shut down the government in a failed effort to deny affordable health insurance to millions.

It’s time for these manufactured crises to end. Republicans just need to allow the House of Representatives to vote on a clean government funding bill and a bill that guarantees that Congress will pay our nation’s bills.

 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Dumb And Dumber


By 

The federal government is hurtling toward two critical deadlines where a failure to act will be extraordinarily damaging to the US economy. But Republicans think it’s okay to play political games even if it means sabotaging our economy.

Deadline 1: To avoid government shutdown, Congress needs to pass a spending bill to fund the federal government by September 30.  Republicans have been engaged in a civil war for weeks over how best to use this deadline to manufacture a crisis. Those on the far right, led by Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, insist they shut down the government unless the budget fully defunds Obamacare, even touring the country to promote a shutdown. And now there are reports that House Republican leadership is following their lead in allowing such a bill to come to a vote.

The consequences of a government shutdown are severe: social security checks might not go out, our troops might not get paid, and the economy would take a huge hit.  Indeed, some fearful Republicans have warned their constituents as much.

A majority of Americans will blame Republicans if the government shuts down. But Republicans are still unable to let go of their obsession with repealing Obamacare, and are now barreling towards shutdown. That’s just dumb.

Deadline 2: The U.S. government will default on its obligations sometime in mid-to-late October unless Congress extends its borrowing limit. This would have catastrophic consequences for not just the United States economy; it could cause a worldwide crash even worse than we faced in 2008.  But House Republican leadership — that’s right, not just some of their crazier members — want to use the debt limit to force Congress to delay Obamacare for one year. Speaker John Boehner, who previously insisted he would not use the debt ceiling for political leverage, has promised “a whale of a fight.”

We’ve been down this road before. Paying our bills on time is non-negotiable.  Congress needs to pay the bills Congress itself racked up. Period.

Even among those that oppose the health care law, more than half want their elected officials to make it work as well as possible. So if Republicans truly think the American people support their threats of default instead of doing the hard work of governing, well…that’s dumber.

BOTTOM LINE: Americans are tired of the fighting and of having their economic security put on the line time and time again. Harming the economy to refight old political battles won’t help middle class families.