inthetrunkroom

Some time ago, I had the misfortune of having to be rushed to the Emergency Room. I spent the next six hours there, receiving excellent care from the nurses and doctors and other staff. I was treated and assessed at a point where the consensus was that I could return home and rest, with medications for pain and the instructions to follow up within the next week or so. About a month later, I received an invoice from the hospital in the amount of around eleven thousand dollars, an amount which my insurance company would not cover. After inquiring of the insurance company, I was told that, while they had a contract with the hospital, this contract did not extend to the Emergency Room, which I later learned, was in fact operated my a separate organization of highly specialized medical teams. I was forced to satisfy much of the bill on a credit card and the remainder was paid over time – a long time. While awaiting the decision to send me home, I observed numerous patients coming in to the ER, many being young couples with very young children. A disturbing answer to the question regarding insurance carrier was that they had none. Of course, the hospital did provide the necessary care but the cost of that care became part of a growing cost of uncovered services provided by hospitals and passed on to other patients and the taxpayers, raising the overall cost of health care exponentially. There are thousands of stories like these – perhaps millions.

In 2010, the Obama Administration signed the Affordable Care Act which directly addressed the matter of millions – near 48 million – people without health insurance. Agreed, it was sort of rammed through Congress and I accept that parts of it were not well thought through. However, the basic premise was sound – to provide access to health insurance to the millions who heretofore were without health care or were trapped in plans which were pitifully inadequate to say the least. The roll out of the ACA was a miserable catastrophe. It had to do with poor procurement practices, less than stellar leadership on the part of DHHS and, in my opinion, failure to utilize a long standing practice of introducing new programs – the pilot project. Nevertheless, the fact remains that to date nearly eight million people now have coverage who did not have it before. The ACA eliminated being denied coverage because of preexisting conditions – did you know that having been pregnant  was deemed a preexisting condition by many companies. It allowed children to remain on their parent’s policy up until the age of twenty-six – a usual age for recent graduates starting out. The law does have flaws but, as noted above, the premise is solid – access to health care.
So why does the GOP continue to characterize this as socialism and continue to waste congressional time – now fifty-one times – passing legislation to repeal P.L 111-148. It’s even more curious when one learns that the law was actually a GOP plan, originally configured by the Heritage Foundation and designed for states, particularly Massachusetts under then governor Mitt Romney !!!!!! ONE MUST ASK THE QUESTION !

The overall implementation had several components – key of which were three – the public option, the individual mandate and Medicaid expansion. The Democrats, I suspect in order to get the thing passed, took the public option provision out of the Bill but the other two remained and the battle to repeal and destroy began.The central element that was open to attack on the state level was the Medicaid expansion. Too long on detail to include here, this expansion would allow the states to increase the eligibility for Medicaid well beyond the federal poverty  level ( 138 % ) and would be at no cost to the states for the first three years and then 90 % beginning in 2022. This expansion would address the need of nearly fifteen million working poor, giving them access to quality healthcare. However, in what can only be called patently stupid, the Supreme Court ruled that the states could in effect opt out of participation, seeing it as “ unconstitutionally coercive of the states”. That placed more than five million people at risk to lose access to health care. And of course, pretty much all the dark red states controlled by GOP legislatures and heavily influenced by Tea Party demands, opted out. Again, ONE MUST ASK THE QUESTION. Access to health care, while it may not be seen as a “right” by many, certainly should be seen as a necessary part of modern life. It is key to not only social well being but also fiscal well being of nations as costs of health care are huge in every country. That being said, many countries, especially in the industrialized West, do have either single payer systems or two tier systems to provide health care to its citizenry. For example, Norway, Japan,the UK, Sweden, Canada, Finland Italy and Spain have single payer systems while Denmark, the Netherlands,France, Australia , Ireland and Israel have two tier systems. So why doesn’t the United States have a similar system. The Affordable Care Act provisions do not approach either system though they do provide for access to insurance. Medicare operates as a single payer system but, for some reason, that is not quite as offensive, except to the Tea Party disciples like the Congressman Paul Ryan cadre of village idiots. It seems that the GOP is hell bent on denying anyone health care unless they can afford the usually exorbitant premiums levied by the insurance carriers. Unfettered capitalism at the expense of the working poor, the middle class and, of course, the ailing and sick.

In a recent article by Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Cynthia Tucker, she recounts an incident at the GOP primary debate when the tea party audience members cheered at the idea that a comatose uninsured American, unable to afford health insurance would be left to die. Republican governors, such as Governor Deal in Georgia, chastise people for using the Emergency Room unnecessarily. To a point, true but that is often the ONLY access to doctors and medical care available to them. She ends the article by saying that “…that’s a hulking bit of hypocrisy for a party that advertises itself as pro life “ .
And I reiterate, ONE MUST ASK THE QUESTION !

One must ask the question and that question is, why, in spite of examples all over the globe, does the US continue to fight against providing universal access to health care ?It is, additionally, more than just denying, it is taking away. In the so called “Pathway to Prosperity “, the blueprint for the Ryan budget, Medicare will be converted to a voucher system with an annual cap of $15,000 , social security will be privatized and managed by private industry and SNAP, the food stamp system, will be eliminated. This is not a blue print for a budget. This is a blueprint for destruction. Could it be as simple as wanting these benefits, a mainstay of countries world wide, to only be available to the upper income class ? Was the 47 per cent comment by Mitt Romney more of a commitment than a comment ? Has, as per an earlier posting, the venom now progressed and the ideology deteriorated to the point where, as Mr Romney clearly stated, if your daddy can’t afford it, then that’s too bad !!
The question is asked – and I fear the answer is that the GOP is indeed out to destroy the very social fiber of this country. It’s Social Darwinism based on wealth and totally gone amuck. The consequences are frightening at the very least.

Under Section 5 of the Voter Rights Act passed in 1964, certain jurisdictions with a long and well documented history of discrimination in election practices were required to have any and all changes in their voting procedures reviewed and approved by the Department of Justice. This was in direct response to rampant efforts, for the most part by the Republican party, at barring certain populations from voting  in several jurisdictions, mostly in the Gulf states and particularly in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas. Altogether there were nine states and numerous additional counties affected by this legislation.

In the post Watergate years, in order to minimize the influence peddling on the part of huge donors to political candidates and in direct response to the “dirty tricks” orchestrated by CREEP – the Committee to Reelect the President ( curious acronym, don’t you think ) the FEC promulgated strict rules regarding campaign contribution limits and disclosures. While influence peddling and the rigging of elections were still ongoing, especially in local and state elections, the manipulation of federal elections, while not eliminated , was at least more open to scrutiny.
And then, starting in the early period before the 2008 general election, things began to drastically turn toward leveraging elections.This was orchestrated by a small group of billionaires. The key was to make contributions to individual candidates within the prescribed FEC limits BUT funnel huge amounts of money through the national committees, specifically the RNC, and through the emerging political action committees or PACS. Dirty tricks were back in full force and along with gerrymandering districts in such a way that population numbers ceased to matter while the configuration almost guaranteed seats for the GOP candidates Elections seemed to be bought and sold on the table of the extremely wealthy. Never was it more evident that in the 2012 Presidential election when the GOP candidate, Mitt Romney, himself a multi millionaire and his fellow GOP candidates were the recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars generated by key individuals with a serious stake in the success of tea party politicians. Oil barons the Koch brothers – seeking to eliminate all regulations – and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who makes millions upon millions in his Asian casino ventures were pushing candidates who essentially were striving to have the federal government eliminated and any effort at maintaining a safety net for those in need be done away with.

This manipulation of elections was questionable at best and outright illegal under certain FEC regulations at least until they were challenged in court. The challenges went all the way up to the Supreme Court. Then, in the stroke of three key decisions, the Roberts Court virtually eliminated any and all safeguards around the election process, leaving an open path for a small cadre of those same billionaires to control state and federal elections and thus insure their financial advancement at the expense of the ever shrinking middle class, not to mention, at the expense of democracy.
In 2010, in the decision in the case of Citizens United vs the FEC, the court ruled that there would be no limits on contributions made to candidates in elections by corporations. Alleging contributions were covered under the First Amendment and the right of free speech, this decision, along with the subsequent decision, McCutcheon vs the FEC which extended unlimited contributions to individuals, the Court simply opened the door to PACS like Americans for Prosperity – a totally plutocratic organization bought and paid for by Charles and David Koch – to buy elections using massive amounts of cash from a small group of billionaires, bringing  influence peddling to the highest level in history. In 2013, in the case of Shelby County ( Alabama ) vs Holder, the court ruled that the formula for deciding which jurisdictions should require pre clearance  for election rule  changes was out dated and therefore unconstitutional. It revoked the stipulations under Section 4(b ) of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Within hours, the State of Texas reinstated its blatantly discriminatory voter regulations passed earlier by a tea party legislature. It also let stand the way in which the state of Texas actually eliminated entire voting districts based on its demographics which did not support the GOP agenda in 2012. Numerous states which had passed similar restrictive voting procedures were to follow suit. In South Carolina, under their new provisions, over 180,000 voters were summarily taken off the voter registration rolls. The result of this decision was having what is tantamount to the highest court of the land approving the tea party agenda of restricting access to voting among populations which tend to vote democratic. While, according to legal scholars, these cases presented difficult questions under the doctrine of free speech, it all does not appear that complicated to this writer. What is clear, as shown in the 2012 election cycle in a most compelling way, is that now, while a rule of law may have been satisfied, the rule of context was shattered and the Court has taken us down the road to complete and utter dismissal of democracy. Plutocracy will reign supreme unless and until Congress moves toward a legislative remedy for this disastrous ruling on the part of the Roberts Court. It should frighten anyone who deems democracy – or rather a representative republic which is what we really have – as valued. The evidence is mounting by the week and particularly in those very states where the original Part 4(b) had compelling cause to take charge. Rigging of legislative districts along with impossibly restrictive voter registration rules will guarantee elections being the product of the demands of the few rather than the wishes of the many.

In a recent article in the Arizona Republic by Don Campbell ( a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors ), he outlines what he believes is a possibly remedy, that of public funding for elections. His key reason here is that this would give lawmakers the freedom to ignore the narrow agenda of special interest groups and allow more time to address the pressing issues of concern for the majority of their constituents. He goes on to say that, regrettably, nothing is going to change until there is another Watergate type scandal which rocks the political election world. Sadly, this is probably true and perhaps maybe not even then as there can be no doubt that huge money is virtually immune from being taken to task.
If you go to Washington and speak your mind in front of the Washington Monument or write streams of letters to elected officials criticizing government policies, that is indeed free speech. It will get you an audience in the park. It will not get you in to see your Congressman. A huge campaign contribution, however, will guarantee it.
This is what we have become and it will get far far worse because the body politic – I hold one of the most uninformed in the free world – will not see how it is wreaking havoc on every day life until it is too late. And it all started with the failure of the Supreme Court while  adhering to a horribly myopic interpretation of free speech totally ignoring the context and temper of the times. Honestly, does Chief Justice Roberts really believe that discrimination has ceased to exist, especially in places like Texas or Alabama or North Carolina, all infamous for Jim Crow ???? Does the Court really understand how elections are being bought today just as they were decades ago ?
Yes, my friends, the country is on the auction block ! It is indeed up for sale and the whores are lining up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the Bush presidency, the country was dragged into two wars, both unpaid for and  based on total fabrications and greed for oil. There was an unpaid for pharmaceutical program, blatant reckless fiscal policy and complete failure of watchdog agencies to actually watch and, in spite of starting out with a budget surplus, it ended with in excess of a six trillion dollar deficit – an increase of 71.9%, and an economy plunged in to a  Recession rivaling the Great Depression.In 2008, a new administration was elected and the process of trying to rescue the nation from economic and structural collapse began. There were bail outs of the auto industry and other expenditures which did not fair well with the right wing Republicans but  near every reputable economist agreed that in order to right the wrongs, money needed to be spent – lots of money.

Then came 2010 and, as the product of an amazing campaign on the part of very big money to discredit the new administration, the Tea Party was born and far right wing extremism did not even come close to describing this faction  of the GOP. The Senate Minority Leader, in a press conference called within two weeks after to election, went on record saying that the sole priority for the GOP was to insure that President Obama was to be a one term president. Thus began a  campaign of calculated obstructionism, senseless brinksmanship and essentially the take over  of government by the  far right fringe known as the Tea Party. The campaign included  the spreading of misinformation,  half truths and outright lies, mostly centered around the Affordable Care Act, portraying it as job killing socialism. Unfortunately,  as much of the public  seem to get their news from Fox, much of these distortions were accepted as fact.  While these millionaires in Congress have most of  their healthcare paid for by the taxpayers, they are refusing to allow the uninsured access to insurance and health care.Along with this relentless obstructionism is the blatant hypocrisy on the part of Tea Party members, especially in the House.

The Representative from the 6^th District in Minnesota was a key player here, proclaiming that  according to the CBO,the  ACA would cost more than 800,000 jobs. That she was not quoting the CBO but rather a study done by the NFIB ( two years prior to the Act being passed ) didn’t seem to matter. This is the same member of Congress who received over $260,000 in farm subsidies but voted to pull SNAP funds from the Farm Bill in 2013. Similarly,  her colleague from the 8^th District in Tennessee  voted to pull SNAP funds from the Farm Bill while receiving over $9,000,000 in farm subsidies for his agra business. The Representative from the 1^st District in Wisconsin continues to sing his song about the “makers and  takers” and that government doesn’t create jobs but one has cause to wonder. His budget plan – the blueprint for the Tea Party Caucus – calls for privatizing Social Security, to be managed by Wall Street firms, turning Medicare in to a voucher system with a  $ 15,000 cap annually and the elimination of the SNAP program, a move which, in the face of a critical shortage of jobs, could cost over 170.000 veterans their food  subsidy. This from someone who collected social security survivor benefits which helped pay for his college education and has never held a job outside of government since those college days. This means the taxpayers covered his education and have been covering his salary, health care and travel since he was sixteen. So who is the real taker here, one must ask.

In addition to all this obstructionism is the what can only be described as extortion, hostage taking of the American people, if you will, and the brinksmanship each and every time budgets of debt ceilings come to renegotiation time.  In spite of the more than pressing needs in job creation, infrastructure rebuilding and energy conservation, the House has failed to address any of these and has spent its time repealing the Affordable Care Act no less than forty-two times. This time around, the “Extortion List”  contains  elements such as the killing of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau – a new watchdog agency set up to  protect consumers from predatory lending practices so prevalent during the Bush years, the construction of the Keystone Pipeline – transporting tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast for distribution over seas. [ Even the company which owns this notes that, for the US, we’re only talking about 1600 jobs and many of them are part  time. ]We won’t even talk about the environmental safety issues but just ask the folks in Mayflower, Arkansas or Ripley, Missouri, or Marshall, Michigan.

Then we move to the States where Tea Party controlled legislatures have wreaked havoc with everything from access to medical care for women to access to voting for millions of people, operating contrary to the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings all along the way. Tea Party states are  refusing to participate in Medicaid Expansion –  mostly paid or by the federal government, by the way – which is a key component of the Affordable Care Act.  There are Nullification laws moving through state houses and wholesale gerrymandering of  voting districts which near guaranteeing GOP/Tea Party control of elections. In  Arizona, a less than esteemed  Tea Party member of Congress pushed a Bill that would open the Grand Canyon to mining interests – yes, the Grand Canyon !!! From the patently mindless nonsense about birth certificates to now targeting any progress  on Immigration reform, the Tea Party has gone from absurd and idiotic to toxic and dangerous.

Time has come to lose the strategy of statesmanship – which has long gone away anyhow in this writer’s opinion – and forget the idea of civil discussion and even compromise with some common ground as the starting point. There is no common ground and there is no discussion, civil or otherwise in the halls of the legislative branch – in either house.The time has come to call this all for what it really is and take whatever steps can be taken by executive fiat in order to bring an end to this drive to destroy our representative republic and replace it with the upper two percent controlling everything. The GOP candidate for president in 2012 made it perfectly clear what the posture of the Tea Party is – if you can’t  afford college, then too bad ; if you need medical services, just go to the Emergency Room ; if you need social services or mental health services, just go to your church. Off shore accounts, outsourcing and tax evasion on profits earned overseas, elimination of the minimum wage law – all perfectly acceptable agenda.It is time.

Black’s defines “Treason” as the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance. The Tea Party has forsaken their Oath of Office in deference to the Oath to Grover Norquist. Webster defines Domestic Terrorism as the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce especially for political purposes. The FBI elaborates on that definition by adding “….. intimidate or coerce the government, the civilian population or any segment thereof in furtherance or political or social objectives.

QED  – the Tea Party is nothing more than a destructive, toxic  party of domestic terrorism .

There’s an old saying that goes something like just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean they are not  out to get you.  I heard this a lot in learning all about defensive driving. It’s sort of a way of  accepting that a certain level of paranoia is probably a good thing. It’s like fear – fear can be a good thing as it is one of those emotions that in given circumstances, keeps us awake and alert. Of course, being overcome by fear, or other emotions, well, that’s where problems arise. Paranoia is no exception. Some people see conspiracies in pretty much everything. Sometimes humorous, often sad,  sometimes insulting to ones intelligence and sometimes down right dangerous – these conspiracies and those hard case conspiracy theorists can drive otherwise logical people to the brink of stupidity and then over the edge to that abyss of irrational thinking.

Down through the years, we have seen numerous conspiracy theories. There was Joe McCarthy who saw a communist  in every phone booth and many lives were ruined during his quest to cleanse the nation of this mostly fictional danger.  In more modern times we have  what just might be the mother of conspiracy theories – the Birther Theory. This utter crap  conjured up by one Orly Taitz and fed week after week after week by the likes of Glenn Beck, Joe Arpaio and Donald Trump was simply stupid.  But there are a few which defy  the realm of rational thinking. The whole idea that the attacks on 911 were orchestrated by the government is no less than insane. I contend that the President knew that an attack was coming and he needed it to happen to kick start his Iraq agenda. But to assert that the government actually planted explosive devises in the Twin Towers, let alone the assertion that there was no aircraft involved in the attack on the Pentagon – I think the boys in the white coats need to do a sweep and clear here.  There is an equally mindless theory advanced by that total  and insufferable idiot, Alex Jones, that the tragic slaughter of children and teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was a carefully planned hoax and the  victims were actually actors – that’s why we never saw the bodies. I won’t even comment on that level of insanity. There are  others, so many others that make me wonder just what is in the water supply that people such as Hannity,  Jones, Corsi, Beck and Limbaugh are drinking. Of course, these have all pretty much been completely debunked and while many still have some desperate hold on them as being fact, they simply are not. The DaVinci Code was fiction, people – really !

However, there is one conspiracy – one major, nation threatening, highly organized, well funded  and well orchestrated conspiracy which is real, is progressing and , if not stopped in its tracks, will bring this country to complete social and economic collapse. In partnership with its Tea Party extremists, the GOP plan is to bring any semblance of social and economic equality to an end and bring the federal government  to a complete standstill while creating what can only be described as a two tier society  controlled by the upper five per cent.This is, in my opinion, a most dangerous agenda and what is frightening is that it is gaining traction, especially in the deep red states.

On a legislative level, one has to wonder how on the one hand GOP members are howling about economic recovery but on the other, their legislative hand, they are setting more roadblocks to recovery than there are on Interstate 76 after a harsh winter.  In the Senate alone, take a look at what has been waylaid, delayed or completely scuttled by procedural nonsense and the abuse of the filibuster rules.There is the DREAM Act which a path to citizenship to citizenship top college graduates who were brought here by their parents, who may have come here illegally, but are penalized because of that. Ask the Valedictorian of Arizona State University of the Class of 2012 – a Cum Laude graduate in Engineering.There is the DISCLOSE Act, which would compel corporations to disclose their political spending. The is the Public Option portion of the Affordable Care Act, which speaks for itself. There was the American Jobs  and Ending Off Shoring Act which would have kept corporations from benefitting from outsourcing to foreign countries and receiving deferred tax benefits for profits earned overseas. There was the Paycheck Fairness Act which required fair and equal pay for equal jobs. There was the repeal of Subsidies for oil companies, the most profitable corporations in the world. And my favorites, the American Jobs Act. This Act, languishing around the Hill since 2011, would have provided a tax incentive to Small Businesses, saved almost 280,000 teachers from layoffs, provided funds for rehabilitating thousands of homes and school buildings, reformed the Unemployment Insurance structure and created an Infrastructure Bank focused on highway, bridge and rail  rebuilding. The Senate killed this effort and the House, in the person of the Speaker and House Majority Leader  went clearly on the record stating that if this Bill ever passed the Senate, it would be DOA in the House and would never come to the floor – this while the Speaker sent twenty-six bills to the Senate which he called jobs bills but in reality were deregulation bills.                                                                                             One other most recent piece of legislation must be noted here. After the tragic murder of children and teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, over 90 % of people across the board wanted to see a Bill implementing universal background checks  for sale of firearms – including those sold at gun shows – to be passed. Senator Joe Manchin ( D-WVA ) and Senator Pat Toomey ( R- PA ) composed just such a bill, hammered it out across the aisle and brought it to the Senate which, in spite of overwhelming popular support was crippled in a filibuster and finally, after the Speaker of the House went on the record saying he would kill the bill  if and when it got to the House, was defeated. So much for Congress representing the people !!

Outside the beltway, the cancer continues to grow. Senator Jeff Flake ( R-AZ ) and Peter Hoekstra ( R – MD ) want all the states to band together and force a repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment which would return the choosing of the Senate to the state legislatures. Red states one after the other are trying to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal dollars -specifically Medicaid – because they allegedly don’t want to fund abortions. ( One more way to cut benefits under Medicaid to pay for tax breaks for the upper 2 % ) The fact that over 90 % of what Planned Parenthood does is provide screening and general medical care for millions of low income women or that federal funds are barred from paying for abortions doesn’t seem to enter in to the conversation. And then there is the rampant initiating of what are clearly voter suppression laws and the rigging of the Congressional Redistricting process  in order to guarantee that the GOP and the Tea Party will eventually take over the government. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, no less than seven  red states have enacted such legislation and fourteen bills are active in an additional eight states. Changing polling places, eliminating days the polls will be open, ending early registration and same day registration and not allowing college students to vote in the location of their colleges are just some of the new rules of the game.                                                                                                                                                        This is convincing and compelling evidence of a widespread, well orchestrated and, as I said above, a dangerous conspiracy designed to completely remove democracy from government, return us to a Confederation of States and have the federal government become essentially a combination of a trade association and a war machine .The sole purpose of the Tea Party is to obstruct. The sole purpose of the GOP is to create wealth for their Wall Street puppeteers.  As I have said many times, it is long overdue that people need  to wake up and see the destruction being wrought by these extremist domestic terrorists. Let’s stop this lemming approach to citizenry and demand that government actually govern.

MY RANT – I AM ENTITLED TO ONE PER YEAR

There are numerous topics one may wish to explore here but, accepting the label”political wonk ” as I have, one ought to expect that much of my posts will be devoted to political issues and , of particular interest, how politics affects our every day world. While keeping the discussion relatively balanced – OK, a bit to the Progressive Left -a serious attempt to hold to the originating stipulations has been fairly successful. However, with all that has  transpired over the past year with the election and inside the Beltway with all its what can only be described as chaos, I take the liberty of posting a total  RANT.

While it may not be as balanced as it should, perhaps this venting will awaken some to ask deep and serious questions about where government as we know it is heading and whether or not most will finally abandon the posture of lemmings and begin to take a stand. With all that has been taking place inside the Beltway over the past year and especially within the past several weeks, it is painfully evident that our system of government is broken. Indeed, I contend it has been for a number of years but lately the evidence is overwhelming. While one can point fingers, it is fact that there is plenty of blame to go around and, though I agree with that, I must contend that the GOP  and its Tea Party cohorts are the prime suspects.

In 2008, I was uneasy for the young senator from Illinois who was elected President . Not because I didn’t think he was the right candidate – Mr McCain would have been a complete and utter disaster – but for other concerns. At that time there were several reasons, most of which were born out over the next four years. It was frightfully difficult for him but, after four years of calculated obstruction, many felt that the reelection of the President would allay much of that. I sensed the worst was yet to come and so far that seems to be a correct assessment. I fault the democrats for some of it – mostly based , in my opinion, on the complete and total lack of leadership in both the House and the Senate. I also believe that the administration has been given some rather poor advise on the the domestic front. The biggest issue was and still is the overly conciliatory nature of how they conduct  business. I give the team the first two years but after the 2010 mid term election and that insane lame duck session in which so many poor choices were made, one would think they would have learned what the GOP underlying agenda was. And if they didn’t, the Minority Leader of the Senate spelled it out in no uncertain terms at a press conference less than two weeks after that election ! And so the obstruction and hostage taking continues and they are driving us to total economic collapse, even when solutions to some issues are quite plain.
A good lead in to the other side of the aisle – the GOP. It used to named the “Grand Old Party” but now, with less than 10 % approval rating, the tag should be the “Grand Obstructionist Party” and if anyone doubts that and doubts that this is a calculated, planned and orchestrated strategy on both the national and on the state levels, then all I can say is please watch something else besides Hannity and listen to someone other than Limbaugh.
In a recent interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Colin Powell made the comment that there is a dark vein of intolerance in the Republican party. He was addressing the issue of continuing racism in our country and particularly in the political arena, citing recent comments by John Sununu and Sarah Palin. And, while I agree with the former Secretary of State, I sense that there is far more than just racial intolerance involved. There is an outright disdain for forward thinking and for those who understand that government is about all the people, not just those who pay you to advance their agenda. The level of hatred for progress is unfathomable !
Case in point. The incoming Republican administration was handed a budget surplus for FY 2001 of $452 billion dollars. After two terms, the administration presented the new president with a budget deficit of over $11 trillion dollars, raising the national debt by 27% and the deficit by over 40 %  With unpaid for tax breaks costing over $2 trillion and two unpaid for wars, we sank deeper in to debt.  With the complete abdicating of oversight responsibility, the Administration allowed Wall Street  to be equally as reckless in its trading, mortgage lending and general financial dealings. The 112th Congress, in an effort to pay for all of the recklessness of the previous  eight years without raising ANY  tax revenues, decided to find the funds at the expense of cutting Medicaid by $810 billion, privatizing Social Security, eliminating Medicare by converting it to a voucher system with an annual cap of $15,00, cutting the SNAP by $133 billion, reducing Pell grants to a level 30% of the current level, eliminating the federal emergency unemployment fund and cutting all remaining non defense discretionary funds by 35%. Take note – these are all budget items which directly affect some of the more vulnerable populations in the country – the elderly, the children survivors, the disabled and even the returning disabled veterans and their families. This plan, the Ryan Path to Prosperity Plan – would by all CBO accounts, add $240 billion to the overall deficit. There are  other elements of the GOP strategy which are equally disheartening. The House GOP Women’s Caucus – 24 members – polled 22 members voting AGAINST the Violence Against Women Act, polled 15 members voting against the Lilly Ledbetter Act and 13 members voting against the Paycheck Fairness Act (Cf., International Business Times and the Congressional Record ). The House refused to fund the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau and has blocked confirmation of its Director for months.
There are many other elements which demonstrate just how far removed the everyday people the republican party has strayed.
One in six children go to bed and then show up at school the next morning hungry and yet the plan is to now totally eliminate the SNAP program. Educationally, we are, among the thirty-four industrialized nations, seventeenth in science and twenty-fifth in math and yet the GOP plan is to reduce or eliminate Pell assistance and indeed, the entire Department of Education – all this while facing the fact that of sixty per cent of jobs coming in the near future only twenty per cent are matched by the U S workforce. An interesting statistic, considering job training programs will not survive the budget cuts either. ( The Stem Crisis ; Harvard University Program for Education Policy and Governance).
How can the 113th Congress , as it continues  the obstructionism of the 112th, dare to hold Disaster Relief funds hostage to more cuts in the safety net, while the GOP had no problem pushing funds for relief in the Gulf States – RED GULF STATES – in the aftermath of  Katrina  ??
Why is it that we tolerate members of Congress taking an oath to the likes of Grover Nordquist whose policy is completely devoid of a basis in the reality of how government works and what role tax revenues play in that ?  Should  they not be  bound by their Oath of Office first and above all else ??
And a final observation – how long are we, the people, going to tolerate the machinations of the Tea Party whose agenda is not to obstruct the administration but  “… to reduce the federal government to the size of a bath tub and drown it..”.
It would be a sad time of it if the “Nullification” legislation or Secession legislation being introduced in so many of the  Tea Party Red States would actually be enacted. The nation would truly be destroyed and, while I do not usually succumb to overall panic, I believe that this is the way we are headed – that “Road to Perdition”, as it were and people need to rise up, rid us of these domestic terrorists and demand a government focused on the needs of the nation and the promotion of the general well being – yes, that IS IN THE CONSTITUTION.