2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

I feel like the current House of Representatives is one of the few things in modern American society that could be accurately described as a tar baby with no briar patch in sight.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/13/politics/mitch-mcconnell-entitlement-changes-fiscal-talks/

Here they go again...

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart declined to comment on the GOP leader's proposal in the talks with Democrats, citing the private nature of the fiscal discussions. White House officials also refused to discuss any specific proposals being traded in the talks.

But even though the White House has backed some entitlement changes in the past, notably overhauling how Social Security cost-of-living payments are calculated, a spokeswoman said that the President would not accept them in the current round of negotiations if they were offered.

"Proposals such as raising the eligibility age for Medicare and changing the way Social Security retirement benefits are indexed to inflation are non-starters for the administration and Democrats in Congress," said Jennifer Friedman, a White House spokeswoman.

Everyone but the rich and military get ready to tighten your belts.

pfft I can't afford a belt

but you can buy one of those fabric belts in Target for $4 now

got this email yesterday -

During the 2014 election cycle, a candidate called conservatives "profoundly stupid" and "traitors." He said we should be "punched in the nose" and promised to "crush" us "everywhere."

If you had one guess, who do you think used such harsh language toward conservatives?

Harry Reid? Hillary Clinton? Nancy Pelosi? Barack Obama? A leader at Planned Parenthood? A liberal host on MSNBC?

No. You may be surprised to learn it was then Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Will you give us $10 to CENSURE Mitch McConnell?

Why would a Republican leader say such things against the most loyal voters in his own party?

The answer is simple: Mitch McConnell did not like being held accountable by conservative groups including Madison Project.

We're the nation's premier PAC dedicated to electing next generation of true conservative leadership. Our efforts made us no friends in the Washington political establishment who wanted to keep their "politics as usual" friend safely entrenched in DC.

Outside of DC, we know that Mitch McConnell is no friend to conservatives. In fact, Roger Villere, Louisiana Republican Party Chairman, has called for McConnell’s resignation. Even Rand Paul, the junior Senator from McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, refuses to say whether or not he supports McConnell.

Do you agree with the Chairman Villere and Rand Paul? I URGE you to immediately donate $10 and join us in our Citizen's Censure of Mitch McConnell.

For years, establishment Republicans in Washington have gotten away with giving lip service to our principles while supporting policies that betrayed those same principles. NEVER AGAIN! Since the Republicans took the majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell has cut deal after deal with the Democrats. His record of betraying conservatives before the election has only increased after the election.

Consider that, in this year alone, he:

Forcefully defeated the valiant efforts of Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz to defund Obamacare.
Failed to support Senator Mike Lee's effort to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of their body parts trafficking scandal.
Helped Harry Reid block a vote on an amendment offered by Ted Cruz that would have prevented lifting sanctions on Iran unless and until Iran recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and unless and until Iran releases American hostages.
Allowed Senator Harry Reid and the Democrats to pass an amendment that reauthorized the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) – as a reward the lobbyists on K Street and undeniable corporate welfare. This action was so egregious that Ted Cruz boldly took to the Senate floor and called out Senator McConnell for lying.
Was referred to by George Stephanopoulos as President Obama’s "point man" in the Senate; and
Received a hand-written note of thanks from Barack Obama for his role in the confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch – the number one cheerleader for unbridled Presidential power.

Donating $10 and joining our CITIZEN'S CENSURE OF MITCH MCCONNELL will prove that the grassroots are more engaged and better informed, and we WILL NOT SIT SILENT while Republican-In-Name-Only (RINO) leaders help the Democrats enact their liberal agenda.

We MUST let Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell know that his scheming and backhanded tactics will NOT go unchecked.

Our goal isn't just to elect Members to Congress. It is to elect conservative rock stars who will shake up the status quo in Washington, DC and turn this country around.

From identifying and recruiting great candidates, to making the maximum contributions allowed by law to their campaigns, to bundling money for them from our members. . .the Madison Project's mission is to create a machine around which the conservative movement can elect great Members to Congress, hold them accountable and elect more conservatives the next cycle.

In other words, we DO NOT support politicians like Mitch McConnell simply because they have an "R" next to their name.

Your donation will put him and the rest of the Washington establishment on notice that we are not fooled and we are not deceived by these duplicitous actions.

Will you donate $10 and add your name to our CITIZEN'S CENSURE OF MITCH MCCONNELL?

For America,

Jim Ryun
Chairman, Madison Project

P.S. Mitch McConnell is no friend to conservatives. After promising to push the conservative agenda in the 2014 election, Mitch McConnell has helped Democrats at every opportunity. Will you donate $10 and join our CITIZEN'S CENSURE OF MITCH MCCONNELL?
Copyright ©The Madison Project, All rights reserved.
www.MadisonProject.com

Our mailing address is:
Post Office Box 655, Aledo, TX, 76008

he valiant efforts of Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz

the most loyal voters in his own party

haha isn't the problem here that they are actually totally disloyal and unreliable

eric hoffer to thread obv

the nra sends out like 12 emails like that daily from like 12 different branches and pacs plus an insane amount of pitches to sell merchandise. like once an hour or so, like kos + moveon + dnc + ofa cubed

Where was Ryan's concern for his family when he was up for VP? VP is, granted, a pretty chill job, but one with the potential to morph into a different job - one which is famously pretty demanding?

that excuse is a total dodge but presumably his children are different ages

now

what about the children in the House

From the McConnell article:

"This is the same GOP congressional leadership that has failed to repeal ObamaCare, defund Planned Parenthood, stop the Iranian nuclear deal, build the Keystone pipeline, defend traditional marriage, secure the border, and reject Obama's illegal executive amnesty," Huckabee said. "But now we should trust them to 'reform' Social Security and Medicare -in exchange for more deficit spending and endless debt?"

And they say conservatives are paid to not govern!

They love endless debt if it went away they would have to come up w a new trump card for cutting things that help the non-rich.

iswydt

I'm half assuming Ryan is just hoping everyone leaves him alone at this stage.

The further adventures of Denny Hastert: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/us/dennis-hastert-reaches-plea-deal-in-bank-withdrawals-case.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

So the original indictment said : Each of the two charges carries a penalty of as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the prosecutor’s office said. Mr. Hastert is to appear at an arraignment at a future date, the prosecutors said.

The plea deal might allow him to avoid jail and keep his misdeeds secret.

pissed about O's "revised" Afghanistan withdrawal plan, cue Morbz' "I told you so"

@ggreenwald
1st question on today's press call w/WH on Obama's new Afghanistan War policy: "How will President's statement impact Dem chances in 2016?"

Glenn Greenwald Retweeted
‏@BarackObama 12 Oct 2012
FACT: Romney and Ryan don't have a plan for our troops in Afghanistan. The President has a clear plan to end the war in 2014. #DetailsMatter

I don't know why leaving troops in Aghanistan means the war isn't over. There are still troops in lots of countries. Often they remain because, like in Afghanistan, there are continuing threats to the govt in power. Obv the US troops in Afghanistan are in a hotter conflict than in S Korea or Germany but that's because the Taliban are still trying to retake the country. If anything I think it's good that he's leaving troops there - shows he learnt from his mistakes in Iraq.

hey, it's the guvmint in power

https://www.marionettes-puppets.com/images/P/3_marionettes-ru029.jpg

shows he learnt from his mistakes in Iraq.

iirc, the US gov definitely wanted to keep some troops in Iraq, but the al Maliki gov refused. so how does this become Obama's mistake?

iirc al Maliki gov just refused to grant US troops total immunity from prosecution from future war crimes committed while they were in the country. Obama decided it was better to just remove them all than deal w/ that headache. Instead he got a different headache.

https://twitter.com/barackobama/status/260415484674068481

@BarackObama 22 Oct 2012
FACT: President Obama kept his promise to end the war in Iraq. Romney called the decision to bring our troops home “tragic.”

lol these clowns:

In an interview with WIBX 950 in New York on Wednesday, moderate Republican Rep. Richard Hanna said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was speaking the truth when he said this month that the committee had successfully injured Clinton.

“Sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth,” Hanna told the upstate New York radio station. “This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.”

love the whole game of trying to pretend like this was not completely obvious

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5e20fcd92aee49e699149aef93595e49/apnewsbreak-us-spec-ops-knew-afghan-site-was-hospital

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/15/top-party-official-accuses-democratic-national-chairwoman-of-lying-questions-her-leadership/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_daily202&_r=0

Wouldn't it be great if she had to quit that position? But probably won't happen

lol Reid doing some classic knife-twisting here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harry-reid-paul-ryan-house-speaker_5626879de4b02f6a900e20a4?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592&ref=yfp

only in this bizarro world could a statement of "we'll be able to work with him" be misconstrued as FIRE BAD

Harriet Miers again

A group of conservative House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to raise the debt limit through March 2017 that also calls for mandatory spending cuts.

The Republican Study Committee's "Terms of Credit Act" would raise the debt ceiling by roughly $1.5 trillion -- to a total of $19.6 trillion -- through March 2017.

But the committee is setting a steep price for the debt limit increase. The bill would require congressional committees to produce legislation within 90 days that would cut more than $3.8 trillion in mandatory funding over the next decade. Mandatory funding covers programs like Medicare, Social Security and food stamps.

They also have a condition to impose on their colleagues in the Senate: the measure would eliminate the filibuster for an initial procedural vote on spending bills any time after Oct. 1. The legislation would also freeze all regulations until July 1, 2017, several months into the next presidential administration.

The bill would require congressional committees to produce legislation within 90 days that would cut more than $3.8 trillion in mandatory funding over the next decade

hmmmm sounds like a real legislative winner, good luck with that guys

2011 obama/biden might be into that

I like how they think the House can pass laws that apply to Senate rules, really adorable

no joke

all Harry Reid has to say is, "I support these freezes on regulations" and the GOP will drop them.

haha yeah Harry Reid should just say he supports whatever ludicrous shit the Freedom Caucus comes up with

Paul Ryan babbling about solutions, children, and propositions.

Someone needs to form the Too Funky caucus

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/10/20/whats-in-store-for-federal-pay-and-benefits-if-ryan-becomes-speaker-a-likely-hit/

Nothing new in that article regarding Ryan's plans, but maybe it will remind inside the beltway types whom he really is (not likely, but I can dream, and they are probably happy to blame federal government workers )

Grover Norquist talks to Michael Grunewald:

MG: I’m giving you an opportunity to declare victory here. Because it seems like as a percentage of the economy, historically, taxes are pretty low today.

GN: Lower than they have been. Not as low as they should be.

MG: The fiscal cliff deal in 2013 did raise taxes on everyone making more than $450,000 a year, and you were actually OK with that.

GN: That was a phenomenal victory. All the Bush tax cuts were going to expire on January 1. All Obama had to do was twiddle his thumbs and go for a walk, and taxes were going to increase by $5 trillion over a decade. He would have gotten the largest tax increase in the history of western civilization. Not only didn’t he do that, he allowed 85 percent of the Bush tax cuts to be made permanent, for 99 percent of the country.

MG: But taxes went up, and you were OK with it. A lot of people expected you to take the maximalist position, that you can’t vote for anything that allows taxes to go up.

GN: The pledge has been a powerful tool because it’s written down, it doesn’t move, it’s simple. It’s one line: You can’t vote for net tax increases. It’s a binary thing: Fred either voted to raise taxes from the status quo or he didn’t. It’s a guardrail. When the law says a tax cut has lapsed, I can’t say that the failure to renew it is a tax increase, even if I want it renewed. Yes, voters might think that, but the pledge is the pledge. If I changed the pledge to fit the circumstances, Harry Reid would be right when he says, 'Oh, Republicans just do whatever is Grover’s thought of the day.'

MG: My one quibble is that you make it sound like Republicans snookered Obama into cutting taxes for most Americans. I think he was happy to cut taxes for all but the very wealthy. Even Democrats are coming around to the Grover way!

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/10/grover-norquist-tax-interview-000288

The entire GOP platform is boiled down to simple one line pieces of bullshit

and the Dems have absorbed it.

where is the story about Grover Norquist sleeping with a giant Mr. Peanut next to his bed