Tag Archives: Tea party

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Debt deal is no ‘victory’ for anyone

President Obama has called the debt deal brokered by the U.S. Senate that reopens the federal government and saves the nation from defaulting on its debts as some kind of victory.

It isn’t.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328985-obama-hails-debt-deals-passage-as-lifting-cloud-of-unease

It delays the next fight, which is going to occur early in 2014 when the federal government will come up against the next debt ceiling deadline and when the government runs out of money to keep many “non-essential” agencies running.

Sens. Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid struck a deal early Wednesday. The Senate approved it; then the House of Representatives followed suit.

The whole scene produced a disgraceful display of brinkmanship, showmanship, posturing, demagoguery and cheap politicization. In my view, the bad guys continue to be the tea party wing of the House Republican caucus, which fought almost to the very end to defund the Affordable Care Act and pursued that tactic as a method of getting their way.

What now? Well, members of Congress are supposed to begin meeting to hammer out a “permanent” budget solution. Good luck with that. Count me as one American who has no faith — zero, none — that Congress will negotiate any kind of long-term agreement that will prevent this kind of nonsense from recurring in the near future.

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FNGs making their mark on D.C.

The new breed of congressmen and women who have taken over the Republican caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives intended to change Washington for the better.

Their obstructionism has done the reverse. It has created a poisonous atmosphere in the nation’s capital.

I want to introduce a time-honored term to describe these folks, comprising mostly the tea party wing of their party.

Let’s call them FNGs.

Vietnam War veterans known the term well. It was used — often disparagingly — to describe the “new guys” who cycled “in-country.” They would walk off their plane wearing dark green jungle fatigues and shiny new boots. You could spot an FNG a mile away. The “NG” stands for “new guy.” The “F”? Well, it stands for arguably the most functionally descriptive term in the English language. I’ll leave it at that.

The FNGs who now populate a segment of the GOP have accomplished one important goal of their overall mission. They have made their mark. They’ve changed the debate in Washington. They have made their presence felt, just as they promised they would when they campaigned for their congressional offices in 2010 and 2012.

Perhaps the most well-known FNG has been Texas’s own Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican pistol who blabbed for 21 hours in a faux filibuster to protest the Affordable Care Act and who has scolded his colleagues publicly for failing to demonstrate the proper commitment to bringing change. He’s been scolded in return by his party elders, such as Sen. John McCain, for impugning the character of current and former senators — such as Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The FNGs now have taken us to the brink of default on our national fiscal obligations. It would be the first time in history that the nation has failed to pay its bills. The gray eminences of both parties know what’s at stake. The FNGs don’t have a clue. They’re about to find out if they stand in the way of a compromise reportedly being hammered out by two senior senators — Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Mitch McConnell.

Here’s some good news. They won’t be FNGs forever. It’ll take some time for them to get some seasoning. They’ll have to learn how to compromise and understand that other public officials represent constituencies with different points of view. Not everyone shares the FNGs’ world view.

I just hope they don’t contribute to the destruction of our government before they wise up.

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Why are we dickering and bickering over debt ceiling?

I’m still scratching my head.

President Obama makes sense when he says that the White House and Congress shouldn’t be negotiating over whether to increase the nation’s debt limit.

Still, here we are. Three days until our borrowing limit hits its maximum. We’re on the verge of defaulting on our national debt obligations. The implications of defaulting for the first time in our nation’s history are cataclysmic, if you believe the hundreds of non-partisan economists around the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Do those cranky members of Congress fail to grasp how angry they’re going to make millions of Americans — including yours truly — if they allow our retirement accounts to get flushed down the toilet?

Do they not read the papers — and other “mainstream media” outlets, for that matter — that tell them their standing among the public is at an all-time low? An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll puts Congress’s standing at 5 percent.

Ladies and gentlemen of Congress, listen up: You work for us. We are your bosses. We can fire you whenever the opportunity presents itself. That opportunity is coming up in about, oh, a year from now when we the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate is up for election.

Why, indeed, are you negotiating over this matter?

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Worse than ‘dog poop’? Really, Rep. Grayson?

So … just how frustrated are members of Congress getting these days?

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., took the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday and said congressional Republicans’ standing in the polls ranks them below “dog poop and toenail fungus.”

Oh, please.

An Arizona state legislator recently compared President Barack Obama directly to Adolf Hitler, which ought to qualify as the supreme insult to civilized human beings everywhere. She has refused to take back her nasty reference.

Grayson’s outburst on the House floor isn’t new for the Florida blowhard. He served a single term in the House before losing his seat in 2010. He was elected once more in 2012 and has picked up where he left off, blustering with hyperbolic references to his political foes.

Grayson fits into that category of national politician who is in love with the sound of his voice and just cannot get to a TV camera quickly enough.

The government shutdown is dragging on. Polling data suggest Congress’s public standing indeed has reached record-low levels. While Grayson and other gasbags are making headlines with idiotic references to their political foes, there appears to be some movement to ending this shutdown and lifting the federal budget debt ceiling — which is the really big deal in all of this bluster.

These times require serious men and women to speak seriously to us about how they intend to govern. Alan Grayson does not fit that category of public official.

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GOP fails to heed the message

Two new polls should turn congressional Republicans downright apoplectic.

The Associated Press/GFK poll puts congressional approval at 5 percent. That’s bad enough. Now comes a new Gallup Poll that says 28 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the GOP, a record low for the Gallup organization.

http://news.msn.com/us/poll-republicans-get-the-blame-in-shutdown

To be sure, Democrats aren’t faring much better. Public opinion surveys are blaming Congress — not the White House or the president — for the government mess that now threatens to blow the economy to smithereens.

And by Congress, I mean members of both parties.

However, since Republicans control the budget-writing arm of the legislative branch — the House of Representatives — they are going to get bulk of the blame if the parties fail to agree on a way to reopen parts of the government and increase the nation’s debt ceiling.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-on-the-potomac/2013/10/republican-approval-rating-falls-to-lowest-point-in-gallup-poll-history/

Some of us keep harping on the obvious: The GOP strategy, which has been all but abandoned, of trying to link defunding of the Affordable Care Act to approving a new budget is a sure loser. Smart Republicans keep harping on that to the wild-eyed crazies comprising the tea party wing of their party.

Now they’re messing with the debt limit, even suggesting that defaulting on our nation’s financial obligations isn’t that big of a deal.

I do believe it is a very big deal.

Failure to resolve this matter is going to wipe out what’s left of the GOP’s paltry support.

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Bring ‘CR’ to a vote … and reopen government if it passes

President Obama laid it out there for all to see and hear.

If the speaker of the House of Representatives is right, that a continuing resolution to fund the government lacks the votes in the House, then put the issue to a vote to decide this matter. Period.

Speaker John Boehner keeps insisting the continuing resolution doesn’t have enough support to pass. With that, we’re supposed to take his word for it. Never mind that some independent analysts have suggested at least 22 Republican House members would vote “yes” on a CR, putting the issue over the top assuming all Democratic lawmakers would vote for it.

The president held a news conference today and spelled out as plainly as possible: Put the issue to a vote and let’s find out who’s right.

It cannot be that hard for the speaker to bring the matter up for a vote of the full House. He is the speaker, the Man of the House, the guy with the gavel. Do it, Mr. Speaker.

Then he and the rest of his gang can get back to an even more serious matter: raising the debt ceiling to enable the U.S. government to keep paying its bills.

Obama used some strong language today in excoriating what he called a “radical” bunch of GOP lawmakers. He accused them of extorting the government to get their way.

We’ll raise the debt ceiling, but only if we get everything we want. That’s how Obama framed their argument. Is that wrong? Isn’t that what they’re demanding? Has he misrepresented their argument? I think not on all counts.

If they don’t get what they want, the nation defaults on its obligations, it refuses to spend money already appropriated by Congress, its credit rating gets downgraded — again — and the markets are going to react very badly, taking a lot of retirement account balances into the crapper.

First things first. Vote on the continuing resolution to determine who’s got the votes. If it passes — which I’m betting it would — the government can get back to functioning fully.

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Patrick tells only part of in-state tuition story

State Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston has launched his first TV ad touting his candidacy for Texas lieutenant governor.

Wouldn’t you know it, he distorts a critical issue in this still-developing campaign. He said he is the “only candidate to oppose in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.”

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-politics/2013/10/patrick-launches-border-security-tv-ad/

Good for him.

Except to say in-state tuition applies to all “illegal immigrants” ignores a key provision that’s been supported by the likes of former Gov. George W. Bush, current Gov. Rick Perry and other reasonable Republicans. The provision applies to those immigrants who came to Texas as children, those who were brought here by their parents, those who have grown up as Texans.

Back in late 2011, when Perry was running for the GOP presidential nomination, he got in trouble with the far right of his party when he spoke out in favor of granting in-state tuition to those immigrants. He stood firm against the criticism, to his great credit.

I see nothing wrong with granting those Texans who came here as children and who qualify academically for entrance into our many fine public colleges and universities the same tuition rates as granted to other Texans.

They have grown up as Texans and Americans. Give them the education they deserve at a price they can afford.

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Boehner’s backside is on the line

Poor John Boehner.

He wanted more than anything to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He got his wish when Nancy Pelosi handed the gavel to him as the 112th Congress convened in 2011. But now he’s like the dog who kept chasing the car … but didn’t know what to do when he caught it.

The Republican speaker is being whipsawed by factions within his own party.

Does he “cave” to demand to end the government shutdown by agreeing to put a Democratic measure to fund the government to a vote? Doing so would anger the tea party clique that is calling the shots in the GOP caucus.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/03/20804176-john-boehners-legacy-on-the-line-in-shutdown?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

Does he want to remain speaker or — as he insists — does he want to do what’s best for the country and get the government, all of it, back in action?

Therein lies his dilemma. He must appease the raucous minority within his own caucus or he must do what most of the rest of us want, which is to end this ridiculous stalemate.

He is the speaker of the House, which defines him as a very powerful politician. He’s second in line to the presidency, after the vice president. He can make the speaker’s office as weak or as strong as he wants.

My sense is that Boehner wants to be seen as a strong speaker in the mold of, say, Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn. He’s wired to cut deal with the other side, just as Rayburn was during his many years as speaker.

However, he’s got that faction within his own party that thinks it knows best. It doesn’t know anything. Its members have no institutional knowledge of what happened to their caucus the last time they orchestrated a government shutdown in 1995. They had their heads handed to them at the next election.

Another speaker, Newt Gingrich, knows what happened. He’s been trying to counsel his tea party pals about the folly of their mission. It’s been to no avail.

Meanwhile, the current Man of the House is being flummoxed. Poor guy. Maybe he shouldn’t have wanted to be speaker quite so badly.

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‘Civil war’ not a new thing in U.S. politics

Intraparty warfare has engulfed the Republican Party.

It’s the tea party vs. the establishment wing. Not sure yet who’s winning. To be honest, I don’t really care who wins this one. Rest assured, the GOP will emerge from it eventually. I’m not sure it will be any stronger as a result. Then again, I don’t really care about that, either.

It fascinates me, though, to see the GOP entangled in this imbroglio, this struggle for what’s left of its soul. Why? Because I thought I’d seen the worst of the worst political party civil wars. It happened to the Democrats back in the 1960s and early 1970s.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/republican-civil-war

Some of us remember those times. The Vietnam War was raging. It was hawks vs. doves back then.

The hawks were led by some stalwart Democrats. I can think of the late Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington and the late Vice President (and later Sen.) Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota — who, by the way, served in the Senate before being elected VP in 1964. The doves were led by equally stalwart Democrats, such as the late Sens. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, George McGovern of South Dakota and (my first real political hero) Robert F. Kennedy of New York.

They fought equally hard for the soul of the Democratic Party. They all were patriots. They loved their country in equal measure, just as Republicans love their country today. They fought with each other back then over the terms of how we should prosecute and eventually end the Vietnam War.

One interesting similarity emerges between then and now. The Democratic hawks accused the doves of being not quite patriotic enough. Today, we hear the “tea party patriots” accusing establishment Republicans and even those dreaded Democrats of, um, being somewhat impure and tainted, that they aren’t the true believers.

The Democrats’ civil war ended eventually. It took a constitutional crisis, Watergate, to coalesce Democrats behind a winning candidate, Jimmy Carter in 1976. They hit a major bump four years later when the economy tanked and Iranian militants took Americans hostage on President Carter’s watch. Republican Ronald Reagan took the White House back in 1980. Bill Clinton recaptured it for the Democrats in 1992.

How will the current GOP battle end is anyone’s guess. The tea party is calling the cadence within the party, which still comprises some smart folks who know how to make government work.

I’m going to sit back and watch this one play out.

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House speaker is held hostage

I can’t believe what I’m about to say … but I’m actually beginning to feel a little sorry for U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

He’s being held hostage by a cabal of his Republican caucus, the tea party wing of his party. He seems powerless to do anything about it.

At issue is this partial government shutdown. House of Representatives Republicans — or shall I say a minority of their members — dislike the Affordable Care Act so much they want to attach defunding mechanisms to any spending bills, which is a non-negotiable item to House and Senate Democrats, not to mention the Big Democrat in the White House, the president of the United States.

The tea party wing has Boehner scared. He doesn’t want to rile them. He doesn’t want to lose his speakership over this issue. So he’s being forced to go along with what they want.

Boehner is the Man of the House, if you will. He is one of 233 Republicans who comprise a majority of the 435 members who serve there. Each of them represents roughly 700,000 Americans, given that the Constitution requires each member’s district to be apportioned equally.

So, a country of some 310 million or so citizens is being “governed,” more or less, by a group of lawmakers whose combined constituency accounts for about 21 million Americans. Let’s see, that amounts to a good bit less than 10 percent of the country, correct?

Let’s play this out a little further. Republicans control one legislative chamber. Democrats control the other one. The White House is being occupied by a Democrat, who appoints a staff and a Cabinet of like-minded individuals, which the Constitution allows him to do. The third branch of government, the judiciary, is ostensibly non-political, although partisans on both sides accuse the court system of comprising “judicial activists,” meaning they’re actually politicians in judges’ clothing.

President Obama tried the other day to make this point as the Affordable Care Act took effect. He said essentially that a “minority of a minority” is calling the shots.

If the House speaker could have his way, he’d bring this whole matter to a vote of the entire House — and the government shutdown could come to a halt. The park system and other “non-essential” offices could reopen, veterans could get their disability checks on time, Americans could get their passports. The government would become fully functional, serving the people whose money pays for it.

John Boehner can’t have his way. He’s being held captive by members of his own congressional caucus who — if you’ll pardon my borrowing this phrase from another tea party sweetheart, Sarah “Barracuda” Palin — have “gone rogue.”

This is no way to govern.