When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism.
Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today.
What we are against:
Radical Right Wing Agendas
Incompetent Establishment
Donald J. Trump
Corporate Malfeasence
We are for:
Global and Econmoic Security
Social and Economic Justice
Media Accountability
THE RESISTANCE
Despite agreeing to a budget this month, it seems Congressional Republicans are not yet done holding the economic fate of the country hostage in order to pass aspects of its agenda. In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told host Chris Wallace that it would be “irresponsible” for Republicans not to try to add amendments to a bill raising the debt ceiling, which they may need to pass as early late February. Failure to pass a debt ceiling increase would be catastrophic for the economy, forcing the country to default on its obligations:
WALLACE: So are you saying right here, “We are going to attach something to the debt ceiling”? And if so, what?
MCCONNELL: What I’m saying is we ought to attach something significant for the country to [President Obama's] request to increase the debt ceiling. That’s been the pattern for 50 years, going back to the Eisenhower administration. I think it’s the responsible thing to do for the country.
We’re never going to default — the Speaker and I have made that clear. We’ve never done that. But, it’s irresponsible not to use the discussion — the request of the President to raise the debt ceiling — to try to accomplish something for the country.
THE TURTLE
Asked for a “good example” of what Republicans could demand in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, McConnell cited the Keystone XL pipeline because it would “create jobs.” In truth, though the project would create nearly 4,000 temporary construction jobs, it would ultimately only create 35 permanent jobs, resulting in “negligible socioeconomic impacts." Upgrading existing pipelines instead would both create more jobs and help protect the country’s drinking water supply from contamination from leaks.
Since 2011 — motivated in part by the growing influence of the Tea Party — Republicans have viewed the debt ceiling as what McConnell called “a hostage worth ransoming.” It was because of that very brinkmanship that Standard & Poor’s lowered the country’s credit rating, which cost taxpayers $19 billion and lost the country over a million jobs.
NFTOS shall be going through a system upgrade the next 24 hours. In lieu of a NFTOS blog for Wednesday October 16th, we have chosen to cross post from Maddowblog Steve Benen:
When there’s a global economic crisis, investors from around the world have spent the last several generations doing one thing: they buy U.S. treasuries. The reasoning, of course, is that there is no safer investment, anywhere on the planet, than the United States of America – which has the strongest and largest economy on the planet, and which always pays its bills.
All of these assumptions, of course, were cultivated over generations, and pre-date the radicalization of the Republican Party.
But what happens when U.S. treasuries are no longer considered safe, Americans can no longer be counted on to pay its bills, and the nation’s most powerful economy chooses to default on purpose? The world starts reevaluating old assumptions, that’s what.
In Britain, Jon Cunliffe, who will become deputy governor of the Bank of England next month, told members of Parliament that banks should be developing contingency plans to deal with an American default if one happens.
And Chinese leaders called on a “befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world.” In a commentary on Sunday, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua blamed “cyclical stagnation in Washington” for leaving the dollar-based assets of many nations in jeopardy. It said the “international community is highly agonized.”
I know I've been pushing this thesis in recent weeks, but it’s important to remember the unique role the United States plays in global leadership and the extent to which Republican antics in Congress will change the dynamic that’s been stable for the better part of the last century.
No major western power has defaulted since Hitler’s Germany, so this week may add some history to the potentially catastrophic economic consequences, and the world is watching closely.
Indeed, try to imagine explaining this ongoing crisis to a foreign observer who doesn't fully appreciate the nuances of domestic politics. “Yes, we have the largest economy on the planet. Yes, we want to maintain global credibility. Yes, the process of extending our borrowing authority is incredibly easy and could be completed in about 10 minutes. No, some members of our legislative branch have decided they no longer want the United States to honor its obligations and pay for the things they've already bought.”
I suspect global observers would find this truly inexplicable. As it happens, I’d agree with them.
They’re dealing with real problems that their political systems are struggling to solve. The United States’ political system is creating fake problems that it may choose to leave unsolved.
“The United States was the one bright spot in the world recovery,” says OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria. “It was leading the recovery! Leading the creation of jobs! This unfortunate situation with the budget and debt happens at the moment it was looking good.” […]
At best, the United States is slowing its recovery – and that of the rest of the world. At worst, it’s going to trigger another global crisis. That’s why, Gurria says, his concern isn’t that the United States’ economy is weak, but that its political system is.
It’s heartbreaking that so much of the world is now laughing at us, not because we have a crises we can’t solve, but because members of one party – the one that lost the most recent national elections – insist on manufacturing new crises to advance their unpopular agenda.
To reiterate what we discussed last week, there’s a global competition underway for power and influence in the 21st century. Americans have rivals who are playing for keeps. We can either be at the top of our game or we can watch others catch up.
And it’s against this backdrop that House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican colleagues shut down the government, threaten default, fight tooth and nail to strip Americans of their health care benefits, and keep spending levels so low we’re kicking children out of Head Start centers while our global competitors invest heavily in education.
It’s as if some have a vision in which we no longer lead and we aim for second place on purpose.
Great nations can’t function the way we’re struggling to function now. The United States can either be a 21st-century superpower or it can tolerate Republicans abandoning the governing process and subjecting Americans to a series of self-imposed extortion crises.
It cannot do both.
China is talking about “a de-Americanized world.” It’s time for Republicans to decide whether they intend to help them.
POLL SHOWS GOP MOST UNPOPULAR SINCE THE GROUP BEGAN POLLING
The American Teahadists mission, suicide by politics, is not going so well - as the radical group has sunk to an all time low - with just a 28 percent favorable impression of them.
According to the latest monthly Gallup tracking poll. The number ” is the lowest favorable rating measured for either party since Gallup began asking this question in 1992,” the polling company stated.
At this very moment, root canals, cockroaches, and genital herpes are more popular than the conservatives.
Rachel Maddow opened her show Wednesday night highlighting the GOP’s record low poll numbers in the midst of the government shutdown. And, as Maddow put it, things aren't going to get better anytime soon for them, because, as she put it, today their strategy “just collapsed.”
Maddow brought up the new spate of “denialism that the debt ceiling matters at all” and how Wall Street is now “freaking out” because they’re realizing some Republicans being okay with default means the U.S. could actually default. And that’s not good for anyone.
Alan Grayson the other day sought to bring a resolution declaring that the government shutdown had been a blight upon the dignity of the legislature, citing multiple polls that showed public opinions of Congress worse than toenail fungus, hemorrhoids, and zombies.
YOU ARE LESS POPULAR THAN DOG POOP
In yet another poll - The Public Policy Polling survey found that Americans prefer witches and hemorrhoids to Congress as a whole, according to USA Today.
Toenail fungus is 41 percent more popular than Congress. Dog shit beats legislators by 47 percent and jury duty is widely preferred by 73 percent. Forty seven percent of people polled would prefer a zombie apocalypse over the GOP lead House of Representatives.
Considering the number of polls of late, and the general disgust of conservatives - with the overwhelming numbers showing "very unfavorable" - how many more does it take before a critical mass of revolt occurs towards the conservative?
Maybe if this country had a modicum of tenability, this polling trend, this downward spiral, would lead the to the American Taliban tanking completely.
One would think that these polls would cause the Right Wing Nut Job to turn apoplectic.
As we have seen of late, voting has consequences, severe consequences.
What's the best way to prevent us from being held hostage every six weeks? Vote these RWNJ's who put us in this mess out of office. Democrats currently have a lead over Teahadists in 17 swing districts, and it just so happens that 17 seats is all the Democrats need to take back the house.
Jon Stewart took on the Obamacare fight Monday night, and while he did go after the “fucking nuts” conservatives, Stewart did have some choice words for the White House for all the bugs on the Obamacare website, even after three years of working on it.
Stewart brought up the “galaxy-destroying force known as Obamacare” and how despite the supposed tech-savviness of the Obama administration, the website isn't exactly working well.
Obamacare 'Incompetence,'Fucking Nuts
Regarding website errors - One might suggest - that even with our small media group, that certain topics generate high volume hits to out website, which has rendered it to not function at times, but to continue with this pathological diabolical scheme, to not know the facts, to skew facts, and to then attempt to crash not only our country, but the global market as well, for ideological outdated failed measures of the GOTP- is a group who finds themselves "un-tethered from reality".
The GOTP has long been un-tethered from the anchor of reality - ever flowing on a tide of bile. These domestic terrorists are prepared to swallow anything that echoes their prejudices, no matter how bloviated with ignorance their ideals are. They are the Fifth Column emitting ignorance of gloom and doom at every corner.
Many conservatives seem to live in an alternative universe, consuming content from only bullshit mountain, [Fox News] the news outlet that tells them only what they want to hear, ir-regaurdless of facts or truth. This meets the classic definition of tinfoil hat society, where everything not of their kind is slanted in their world view. Facts don't matter, data and science are rendered irrelevant and fear mongering is a daily activity for these "special patriots".
The American Taliban needs to accept the fact that America has changed in both the mix of its citizenry and the values of those citizens, and it is not changing back. Every generation brings a different perspective to the table and the beliefs of modern Americans are vastly different from those of Americans two generations ago, yet that is the era that the tinfoil hat society is still mired in.
Species become extinct when they are unable to adapt to an ever changing environment, and that is pretty much what is happening with the GOTP. If this radical party continues to stubbornly refuse to adapt to these changing times, especially as it relates to upholding the most basic principles of democracy - equality, then their days are numbered, and their prospects are dim.
Government shutdown. A GOTP timeline:
Oct 2008: "You'll never get elected and pass healthcare." Nov 2008: "We'll never let you pass healthcare." Jan 2009: "We're gonna shut you down every time you try to pass healthcare." July 2009: "We'll fight to death every attempt you make to pass healthcare." Dec 2009: "We will destroy you if you even consider passing healthcare." March 2010: "We can't believe you just passed healthcare." April 2010: "We are going to overturn healthcare." Sept 2010: "We are going to repeal healthcare." Jan 2011: "We are going to destroy healthcare." Feb 2012: "We're gonna elect a candidate who'll revoke healthcare NOW." June 2012: "We'll go to the Supreme Court, and they will overturn healthcare." June 2012: "We can't believe the Supreme Court just upheld healthcare." Aug 2012: "American people will never re-elect you-they don't want healthcare." Oct 2012: "We can't wait to win the election and explode healthcare." Nov 2012: "We can't believe you got re-elected & we can't repeal healthcare." Feb 2013: "We're still going to vote to obliterate healthcare." July 2013: "We're going to vote like 35 more times to erase healthcare." Sept 2013: "We are going to leverage a government shutdown into defunding, destroying, obliterating, overturning, repealing, dismantling, erasing and ripping apart healthcare." Oct 2013: "WHY AREN'T YOU NEGOTIATING???"
Breaking the debt limit may cost millions of Americans to lose their jobs and cause economic disaster world wide, but we can't say for sure because no one has ever been dumb enough to attempt it.
Dear SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force Units,
I'm being held hostage by radical GOP extremist and fundamentalists who are trying to destroy my Government and Economy. Send help!
This is because, in his view, “we need to have that moment where we realize we're going broke.” He firmly told the paper, “I’m not going to raise the debt ceiling.” He also characterized the current government shutdown as “the tremor before the tsunami.”
Few agree with Yoho that a failure to raise the debt ceiling, which would mean the United States government would not have adequate funds to pay for all of the debts it owes and would likely default on at least some, would be beneficial. Last week, the Treasury Department released a report that warned that a default could create “a recession more severe than any seen since the Great Depression.”
It came to this conclusion by looking at the consequences of the near default in 2011, which led to a sharp decline in consumer and business confidence, a hit to the financial markets, and a slow down in job growth. The impact on the financial markets from nearly defaulting on the debt and getting a first-ever downgrade on the debt from Standard & Poor’s “persisted for months.” The brinkmanship that time around also meant a $2.4 trillion drop in household wealth, an $800 billion drop in retirement assets, and a hit to mortgages. It increased the government’s borrowing costs by $1.3 billion.
This all happened even though the U.S. didn't actually default in 2011. If that were to happen, investors could become unwilling to lend to the country, leaving it with an immediate cash shortfall and creating unknowable (yet clearly devastating) ripple effects throughout the markets and the global economy.
Threatening to not raise the debt ceiling unless Republican demands are met is a relatively new tactic. Historically, the limit was routinely raised, including seven times under President George W. Bush, and even House Speaker John Boehner used to warn against using it as leverage.
Where does the tinfoil hat society come up this stuff? All this manufactured bullshit by these pseudo patriotic, these so-called Christian conservatives, whose real job is to spread dishonestly without integrity - full of lies and misinformation.
The long history of American anti-intellectualism is now complete. This idea to allow the country to default on its bills, would be just like getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick - and that somehow this sharp jab in the eye will improve your vision.
Yoho is definitely reaching for the lofty levels of stupid routinely attained by Steve King, Louie Gohmert, and Michele Bachmann. Why is it that stupid is the only thing that the universe provides us an infinite amount of?
Groundswell Group Stoked Scandals with Help From GOP
When David Corn broke the Groundswell story last week, the general reaction among the politerati was a shrug and a giggle. Even influential NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen called it "no big deal."
"WHO ME"
But audio of a May Groundswell meeting obtained by C&L from a source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals Groundswellers met with top Congressional leaders to lobby for a select committee endowed with subpoena power to investigate the White House. Lobbying may be too mild a term, since they really are plotting with those same leaders to invent very real scandals with very real investigations in order to sink the country into a mire of inaction and sabotage the remaining years of President Obama's term.
C&L AUDIO
Catherine Engelbrecht "facilitated" the May 8th Groundswell meeting. Engelbrecht is the president and founder of True the Vote, a Texas group dedicated to challenging voting rights among the poor, students, and minorities. In addition to their regular work attacking sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act via lawsuits, Engelbrecht was the media go-to person for the media on the phony IRS scandal. That story broke on May 9th, after the Benghazi hearings had more or less fizzled out the previous day.
There was wave after wave of headlines about these so-called scandals. Some people wrote about what an awful week the White House had. It wasn't coincidence. It was orchestrated and planned by this group of people, who had the will and the power to secure the participation of people like Darrell Issa, John Boehner and more.
True the Vote led the charge to sue the IRS and serve the highest-profile plaintiff among the "aggrieved" groups. Yet this audio recording shows their president "facilitating" a clearly partisan, right-wing activist group meeting of people who claim to be fighting a "30-front war." No big deal? When is the last time anyone you know could ring up the Speaker of the House and the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee and take a face-to-face meeting in the wee hours of the evening with approval from the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice?
In the first 20 minutes of the meeting, a lot of ground was covered. The audio of the final hour or so is available, but the quality is not clear enough at this time to publish it. However, they helpfully provided handouts at the meeting relating to their voter suppression efforts discussed later on. Here are some highlights from the audio and then parts that came later.
Benghazi "Scandal"
At 3:45, Jerry Boykin advises the group of the meetings he and Frank Gaffney had with Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa concerning Benghazi on the evening of May 7th about how the Benghazi investigation is progressing. This was the night before the last Congressional Oversight Committee hearing was held on Benghazi, where the so-called whistleblowers were to testify.
In the late-night meeting with Gaffney and Boykin, Boehner advised both that they needed to allow the regular order of committee meetings to play out before he would push for a select committee. Issa told him the same thing. Boykin and Gaffney reported this to the group, along with a promise that there "would be answers." Both reiterated that they and former Rep. Allen West were very concerned about the lack of a military response and assured the group that "what we'll find today is that Hillary Clinton made some egregious decisions and the president was basically absent from his post and did not make the decisions that as the Commander-in-Chief he should have been making...because he was focused on some other things."
They further assured the group that they weren't backing away from their demands, but instead they "kind of have a pledge from...Issa and the Speaker."
Future Debt Ceiling Battles
Just past the Benghazi discussion, the group received a report about upcoming debt ceiling negotiations, where they are advised that a survey has gone out to conservative lawmakers to see "what they're looking for in exchange for their votes raising the debt ceiling."
Of course, you'd never know from the press they get that there was any intention of raising the debt ceiling at all. Now we all can see that they will in fact do it reluctantly, as Shonda Weery reports when she advises that it's "not a vote they'll want to give without getting back something in return." Let the horse-trading begin.
Voting Rights
During the meeting, True the Vote made a presentation (document below) about their plan to attack groups who are actively working to protect voting rights around the country, particularly after the Supreme Court gutted most of the protections. Code-named "Hydra", True the Vote argues that the left is undermining voting rights, and must be stopped, by hook or by crook.
Let's review that timeline.
On May 8, 2013, True the Vote is a facilitator and presenter at a meeting where Ginni Thomas and others are key players. TTV presents their plan to attack "the left" for daring to register voters. They're committed to stopping them from challenging any and all efforts to disenfranchise voters. Or as they describe it, securing the vote. Others might call it democracy corrupted.
On May 9, 2013 the IRS "scandal" breaks after Lois Lerner plants a question in a conference Q&A about IRS "targeting."
On May 21, 2013, True the Vote, represented by ActRight Legal Foundation, sues the IRS for not granting their tax-exempt status and targeting them for their beliefs. ActRight Legal Foundation uses Cleta Mitchell as one of their consulting attorneys. Mitchell is a well-known and very high profile litigator on behalf of conservative causes. There are very few conservative nonprofits that don't have Mitchell's fingerprints all over them.
True the Vote goes all over conservative media with their tale of woe. Their message: The IRS was used as a tool by the liberal president to target conservatives and suppress their free speech rights. Until True the Vote was a victim of the terrible IRS, they were under Congressional investigation for voter suppression, by the way.
In fact, the IRS had ample reason to believe they were a partisan, political group who was not simply acting on behalf of voters everywhere. But that did not stop Engelbrecht from pushing forward with her anti-voter initiatives while simultaneously leading the charge against the IRS.
But wait, there's more. True the Vote wrote a letter in opposition to the nomination of Thomas Perez for Secretary of Labor, complaining that "Mr. Perez, through political appointment and action, has made clear his intent to ignore key functions in federal election law – namely Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA)."
In TTV's document entitled "Hydra with Footnotes", the battle lines are drawn with very partisan rulers. After making their case that the "Organized Left is preparing a massive campaign to promote 'Universal Registration' and threatening to block citizen observers from the polls," TTV vows to target those groups however they can and defeat the terrible lefty Hydra by "attack[ing] the source of its strengths", which they view as the usual right-wing targets: unions, the NAACP, Common Cause, Project Vote, Demos, Center for American Progress, The Nation Foundation, and more.
While this flurry of organizing and activism is happening, TTV is front and center in the press with loud, strident claims that the IRS "targeted" them.
Another active member of Groundswell, J. Christian Adams, contributes content to the True the Vote site on issues such as whether any fix to the Voting Rights Act is possible after it was gutted by the Supreme Court in June. Adams serves as counsel to the Election Law Center, yet another right-wing effort to suppress the vote.
The efforts of this group should not be marginalized, given that what they are saying is repeated in the halls of the House and the Senate on a daily basis. It isn't just right-wing crazy people being crazy. These are activists with contacts in high places who are using those contacts to strip people of their rights, to invent scandals to undermine the President at every turn, and to marginalize Hillary Clinton if she should choose to run in 2016. Those are just a few of their goals. They have power and they're not afraid to use it.
Group members are the water-carriers and action arm of the billionaires' tea party. Listen to the full 20 minutes of that audio, or read the transcript here to see just how destructive they intend to be.
This is the first of a two-part series. Tomorrow, I'll look more closely at Ginni Thomas' involvement to see whether Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas engaged in unethical conduct or colluded with his wife and her associates.
True The Vote's Hydra document presented at the meeting:
This story is very revealing about the lengths that the American Taliban will go to - to undermine the president. Make no mistake his is planning for a coup, it is directly organizing activities, not to win an election, but to destabilize a sitting government - and it is being led by Christian deconstructionists, radical teabaggers, and the talibangelicals.
How many different kinds of disgusting do you have to be to conduct this kind of business?
This is war. And you don't win war by challenging the way your enemy fights in court. You win it by fighting the same way. Instead of watching the poll watchers, progressive groups need to be poll watchers and challenge the voting rights of suspect individuals. Like, oh, old white men. What's needed is several weeks' worth of right-wing outrage ginned up by television footage of dark-skinned people challenging the right to vote of traditionally Republican voters -- especially in heavily Republican precincts. Imagine the gloriousness of it all: New Black Panther Party poll watchers demanding old white Teabaggers provide proof of their right to vote -- and all in accordance with the very laws. True The Vote is so desperate to implement.
The 14th Amendment, Giving The GOP The Right To Sit Down And STFU!
Often the case, we hear the GOP complaining about two amendments, the first and the second - as if these where the only amendments to the United States Constitution. Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and house teapublicans have made it clear of their intent to, once again, hold our country hostage, with future debt ceiling deals. The last time they did this, in August 2011, it resulted in the downgrade of the credit rating, and huge losses in the stock market. Lying within this next major battle is one simple solution, the President's ability to use the 14th Amendment to declare the debt limit unconstitutional. This constitutional right is a welcome development in a debate too often characterized by fly-by night economics and outright demagoguery from the radical GOP. If the President seizes the moment, we could not only end this damaging political grandstanding, but redirect the national conversation to what really matters: fiscal policy that addresses the needs of ordinary Americans. Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan admin official wrote an essay on the subject, "The Debt Limit Option President Obama Can Use,"
which of late has started to gain significant policy traction. More recently, Treasury Secretary Geithner has made much the same point:
The budget/debt ceiling negotiations have focused on spending cuts and tax hikes which are neither necessary nor desirable at this juncture. This is not the time to invoke reduced government spending, especially when our economy is nowhere near operating close to full capacity. Progressives need to stop accepting the false logic that we "need to be responsible" and "deal with the budget deficit at some point in the future" on the spurious grounds of "affordability", solvency", or "because the bond markets won't fund us any longer." That's all malarkey!
Here's an idea; Invoke the 14th amendment and then stop talking about the budget deficit altogether. The US is not broke and cannot go bankrupt. Let go of that myth. When invoking the 14th amendment, the President could argue that the deficit reduction principles embodied in the debt ceiling limit should never be an object of government policy. He can point out that non-discretionary elements of the budget -- the automatic stabilizers like unemployment insurance -- will fall as economic growth resumes, thereby reducing the deficit. He can remind us that there is only one reason why growth slows relative to productive capacity: Some sector spends less than before while another sector does not plug the spending drain. The American Taliban is trying to strap yet another bomb to the torso of America. The fourteenth amendment section four says:
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. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Furthermore:
In Freytag v. Commissioner (1991), the Supreme Court held that the president has "the power to veto encroaching laws . . . or to disregard them when they are unconstitutional." The final word still may lie with the Supreme Court, but in the interim, the president need not wait for its opinion. "As a simple matter of constitutional logic, the president can refuse to enforce a statute he believes violates the Constitution," said Professor Barry Friedman of NYU Law School in a telephone interview with me...
It is also unlikely that the action would be successfully challenged in court. Only Congress would have standing to sue, but doing so would require a joint resolution, something a Democratic-controlled Senate would almost certainly block.
You know how you control overreaching radical congressmen and women? You give them benchmarks, guidelines, and requirements. You give them very little variance for screwing up. Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:
"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.
Defuse this bomb that the American Taliban has strapped on our country Mr. President, use the very documents that the American Taliban so profoundly misunderstands, and give them a dose of their own medicine….. Go “Constitutional” on them! A petition is making its round this am, be a true patriot and send the American Taliban a message, “not on our watch”! NFTOS Editor-In-Chief Roger West
Debt Ceiling Deal Will Cost 1.8 Million Jobs In 2012
The Economic Policy Institute, a top nonpartisan think tank, estimates that the deal struck this weekend to raise the nation’s debt limit will end up costing the economy 1.8 million jobs by 2012. Today the Senate is expected to approve the package passed yesterday by the House and send it to President Obama. But while the unemployment rate remains above 9 percent, the deal does nothing to address chronic joblessness.
The agreement would reduce spending by at least $1 trillion over 10 years, but even the near-term cuts could shrink already sluggish GDP growth by 0.3% in 2012. According to EPI, the plan “not only erodes funding for public investments and safety-net spending, but also misses an important opportunity to address the lack of jobs.” In particular, the immediate spending cuts and the “failure to continue two key supports to the economy (the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed) could lead to roughly 1.8 million fewer jobs in 2012.”
Top economists and CEO’s have also weighed in against the deal and said that GOP concessions to the Tea Party will cost our economy dearly. Pimco CEO Mohamed El-Erian warned that the deal will lead to less growth, more unemployment, and more inequality. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called the plan “a disaster” and “an abject surrender” that will “depress the economy even further.”
The Center for American Progress’s Michael Ettlinger and Michael Linden argue that while the deal “goes straight in the wrong direction,” Congress can redeem itself by using the so-called “super committee” mandated by the bill to focus on job creation. The committee, made up of six Republicans and six Democrats, is tasked with finding an additional $1.5 trillion of deficit reduction over the next 10 years, and must report a plan by Thanksgiving.
Linden and Ettlinger write, “It’s especially important for the committee to produce a plan that creates jobs and spurs growth because the committee’s proposals will come on top of a set of already-dramatic spending cuts that will have adverse economic consequences.”
As ‘Irresponsible,’ ‘Worst Kind Of Absurd Theatrics,’ U.S. Politicians A ‘Laughing Stock'.
The rhetoric over raising the debt ceiling had become increasingly harsh as Democratic and Republican congressional leaders trade barbs back and forth. But as the U.S. inches closer to defaulting on its debts for the first time in history, criticism of Congress is starting to come from beyond our own borders. From France and Germany to China and India, countries around the world are angry that American politicians play with the possibility of a U.S. default like a yo-yo with little regard for the international economic system that depends on American solvency.
Radical Tea Bags
Despite China’s traditional preference of staying out of the domestic affairs of other nations, senior Chinese officials’ frustrations are growing louder and louder. Stephen Roach, the non-executive chairman of Morgan Staley Asia, said senior Chinese officials told him the debt ceiling debate in the U.S. is “truly shocking.” “We understand the politics,” a Chinese official said, “but your government’s continued recklessness is astonishing.” And newspapers around the world are voicing discontent with Congress’s handling of the debt ceiling:
The German mass-circulation Bild: “What America is currently exhibiting is the worst kind of absurd theatrics and the whole world is being held hostage… Most importantly, the Republicans have turned a dispute over a technicality into a religious war, which no longer has any relation to a reasonable dispute between the elected government and the opposition.”
French newspaper Le Monde:”The American politicians supposed to lead the most powerful nation in the world are becoming a laughing stock.”
Chinese state-owned newspaper Xinhua: “Given the United States’ status as the world’s largest economy and the issuer of the dominant international reserve currency, such political brinksmanship in Washington is dangerously irresponsible.”
Conservative German Die Welt: “There are few signs of self-doubt or self-awareness in the U.S. The Tea Party movement sees the other side as their enemy. Negotiations with the Democrats, whether it’s about appointing a judge or the insolvency of the United States, are only successful if the enemy is defeated. Compromise, they feel, is a sign of weakness and cowardice.”
The founding documents of many nations around the world take their inspiration from and quote the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution. But now, foreigners don’t seem to be too inspired watching the intransigent wing of one political party that controls one house of one branch of the federal government hold the entire U.S. hostage. American soft power has taken a self-inflicted hit as a result of the debt ceiling debate.
Even though Congress seems to have managed a deal and they should be able to deliver a bill to President Obama’s desk today raising the debt ceiling before default, but the damage to our international standing has already been done. Other nations won’t forget how some members of Congress were so careless to allow the international economy fall into another financial disaster in order to score a few political points.
David Frum says his Republican Party should focus on the economy and jobs, but it's so pessimistic and panic-stricken that it's willing to sacrifice America's well-being for a point.
“They’re playing Russian roulette and all the chambers have a bullet.”
Echoing his colleague Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) teed off on House Republicans’ brinkmanship on the debt ceiling, saying intransigent GOP congressmen are willing to risk destroying the county’s economy to get what they want. Voinovichtold Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson:
“They’re playing Russian roulette and all the chambers have a bullet.” “They’re flamethrowers. ‘We’re going to get what we want or the country can go to hell.’”
Meanwhile, Bruce Bartlett, a former policy adviser to Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush, lambasted House Republicans yesterday on MSNBC’s Hardball for playing with fire on the debt ceiling:
I think at this point, there’s nothing that can pass the House of Representatives. … I think a good chunk of the Republican caucus is either stupid, crazy, ignorant or craven cowards, who are desperately afraid of the tea party people, and rightly so.
Even House Speaker John Bohener (R-OH) admitted that “a lot” of his caucus members are willing to unleash economic “chaos” to get their way on the debt ceiling.
Majority whip: "House will not vote tonight on Speaker John Boehner's latest proposal to raise debt ceiling, and cut spending."
House Republicans called off a vote late Thursday night on Speaker John Boehner's plan to raise the nation's debt ceiling while enacting sweeping cuts in government spending, but the possibility remained that the measure could come up on Friday.
The delay in voting on the proposal revealed a deep rift within the GOP that could undermine the party's latest attempt to avoid an unprecedented national default and stave off potential economic catastrophe.
Boehner was unable to muster sufficient support from his own caucus to guarantee his proposal would pass in the face of expected unified Democratic opposition.
Whether Boehner can push the measure through remains an open question. Tea party-backed conservatives staged a virtual revolt against the bill over the past two days, complaining that it doesn't do enough to shrink the size of government and stem the tide of Washington's red ink
Mr. Boehner can't control his radical banshees, so no vote tonight. Mr. President invoke your exec power and slam the 14th amendment down their throat. The rubber just doesnt meet the road for Johnny, and his party is in complete disarray!
The majority leader can't pass a bill with his own party, what does this say? Radical teas whom never ever held office before now hold the world at bay, and time is ticking toward economic disaster. Have we learned our lesson yet about voting republican? We have a obligation to our debt readers, whether you like it or not its reality.
We here at NFTOS hear the thunder of the 14th amendment walking the halls of justice or at least the halls of the White House - how aprapo is this, as republcians always invoke a amendment or two in their daily screed....not sure they ever heard this one before, as its hard for them to count pass that second amendment.
Boehner: ‘A Lot’ of republicans want to force default, create ‘Enough Chaos’ to pass balanced budget amendment.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday that some members of his own caucus who are refusing to agree to a compromise debt ceiling deal are hoping to unleash “chaos” and thus force the White House and Senate Democrats to make bigger concessions than they’re already offering. As many as 40 House Republicans, especially Tea Party members and freshmen, have demanded nothing short of changing the Constitution to include a balanced budget amendment before they would vote to raise debt ceiling, even though that has zero chance before the U.S. faces potential default on Aug. 2.
Speaking on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham’s show this morning, Boehner agreed that failing to raise the limit before the deadline would be devastating, and said the “chaos” plan won’t work when asked by Ingraham what’s motivating the recalcitrant Republicans:
BOEHNER: Well, first they want more. And my goodness, I want more too. And secondly, a lot of them believe that if we get past August the second and we have enough chaos, we could force the Senate and the White House to accept a balanced budget amendment. I’m not sure that that — I don’t think that that strategy works. Because I think the closer we get to August the second, frankly, the less leverage we have vis a vis our colleagues in the Senate and the White House.
Listen here:
Boehner offers only political calculus for why this Tea Party plan wouldn’t work. He completely ignores the devastating effect a downgrade in U.S. debt and potential default would have on the American people and the global economy, who happen to be innocent bystanders to this high-stakes hostage negotiation.
Many on the left have been arguing all along that some Republicans are more interested in extorting concessions than addressing the debt issue, and are willing to blow up the economy if they don’t get their way — it’s refreshing, if troubling, to see that their leader agrees.
How Boehner’s debt plan produces ‘The Greatest Increase In Poverty And Hardship’ in American history.
Picture courtesy of Taylor Jones
John Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal would add $1 trillion to the current $14.3 trillion debt limit (which would be expected to allow the government to continue borrowing into April of 2012), reduce spending immediately and cap future spending to save $1.2 trillion over 10 years, and establish a 12-member joint committee of Congress charged with reporting back to both chambers by Nov. 23 with recommendations to reduce the deficit by an additional $1.8 trillion over 10 years. The plan also calls for a vote on a constitutional balanced budget amendment before the end of 2011.
It’s a plan that the usually “mild-mannered” Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is describing as “tantamount to a form of ‘class warfare’” that “if enacted, it could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship produced by any law in modern U.S. history.” Since Boehner’s blueprint contains no tax increases and his first round of cuts targets discretionary spending, the joint committee will have no choice but to achieve its $1.8 trillion in budget reductions by cutting entitlement spending, Greenstein explains:
As a result, virtually all of that $1.8 trillion would come from entitlement programs. They would have to be cut more than $1.5 trillion in order to produce sufficient interest savings to achieve $1.8 trillion in total savings.
To secure $1.5 trillion in entitlement savings over the next ten years would require draconian policy changes. Policymakers would essentially have three choices: 1) cut Social Security and Medicare benefits heavily for current retirees, something that all budget plans from both parties (including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s plan) have ruled out; 2) repeal the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions while retaining its measures that cut Medicare payments and raise tax revenues, even though Republicans seek to repeal many of those measures as well; or 3) eviscerate the safety net for low-income children, parents, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. There is no other plausible way to get $1.5 trillion in entitlement cuts in the next ten years.
In short, the Boehner plan would force policymakers to choose among cutting the incomes and health benefits of ordinary retirees, repealing the guts of health reform and leaving an estimated 34 million more Americans uninsured, and savaging the safety net for the poor. It would do so even as it shielded all tax breaks, including the many lucrative tax breaks for the wealthiest and most powerful individuals and corporations
Congressional Quarterly’s Richard E. Cohen also reports that Boehner’s powerful panel has “no precise parallel” and will have to overcome severe logistical hurdles. “The panel would then be required to complete its work before Thanksgiving — a period of less than four months that includes the monthlong congressional August recess, two additional weeks of scheduled House breaks and three other weeks when the Senate is slated to be gone.”
It would also “have to work with existing House and Senate committees with longstanding jurisdictional claims on the issues in play and build majority support in both chambers of a divided Congress. The GOP has already cautioned that it “will not appoint any members who will approve tax hikes,” a selection criterion that “Reid and Pelosi would most certainly not follow.” The committee’s recommendations would then face up-or-down floor votes in the House and Senate without additional amendments.
It takes a special kind of arrogance to play chicken with our economy just to satisfy your personal quest for political power. Unfortunately, Virginians already know that if anyone is capable of doing just that, it’s Congressman Eric Cantor....
Cantor standing in background...where he belongs
For years now, Cantor has been an embarrassing fact of life for the people of this Commonwealth. From his patented sneer to his condescending tone and his record of putting right-wing special interests ahead of working Virginia families, he has made a career of climbing the political ladder by any means necessary without regard for what’s best for our state or our country.
While serious leaders in Washington are working to reach a deal to cut spending and raise the federal debt ceiling, Cantor is standing in the door, defying the President and even his own party in pursuit of his own personal agenda. If Cantor succeeds in sinking a deal, the United States could default on its debt and we could sink right back into another recession. We can’t allow that to happen.
Why is Mr. Cantor so pompous you ask?
Perhaps it’s because he rose to the top so quickly. Eric Cantor was elected to the House of Representatives in 2000. After only one term, he was appointed Chief Deputy Republican Whip. This made him a major Washington insider while still in his thirties.
Or, it might be the fact that the Seventh District of Virginia was designed as a safe district for Republicans. Eric has been reelected four times, never getting less than 63% of the vote cast. The district has been represented in the Congress by Republicans since 1971. In the last three presidential elections, the district has voted Republican.
Or, maybe it’s because Representative Cantor has led a charmed life in Washington. Although he was closely connected with the corruption of Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay, Mr. Cantor came away unscathed.
I guess it’s not surprising that Eric Cantor radiates an aura of arrogance. He is the golden boy. He is destined to rise to higher positions of power in Washington. And Eric Cantor is not going to let a little thing like debt ceilings get in his way.
Does Eric Cantor like to talk to his constituents? Sure, he will gladly talk with any constituent so long as he or she is committed to his position. Those constituents are bound to further inflate his ego. But he doesn’t want to see or hear from those who oppose him. First of all because anything they might say is obviously wrong. Second because he doesn’t want any of the real voters in Washington to think that he is anything but the most beloved favorite son of the Seventh District.
One other thing—because he is a golden boy and his constituents are mere mortals, Eric Cantor doesn’t expect anyone will notice if he says a few things that are very radical. For example, Eric has the chutzpah to be the lone guy in this debt ceiling debate. Here’s a guy who has been a Washington insider for at least the last eight years and he thinks we won’t notice if he portrays himself as an outside reformer. Eric also portrays himself as a fiscal conservative. When exactly did this transformation take place? When he lusted for advancement in the party and therefore voted consistently with the Bush Administration, Eric Cantor voted to cut taxes and to significantly increase federal spending. During the years when George W. Bush was president, Eric Cantor voted to increase our federal debt by an outrageous four trillion dollars. Eric Canter a Fiscal Conservative?
Eric is like most radical teas, clueless of reality, and delusional on his visions of hardcore choke and puke republican politics.
