The name of this GOP natural disaster: STUPIDITY

How many different ways can the GOP shoot themselves in the foot?  Here are a few examples from just this past week:

• In response to the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that rattled Virginia and states up and down the eastern seaboard, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor commented that in order to assist those people affected, “those monies” need to be “offset with appropriate savings or cost-cutting elsewhere.”

• As Hurricane Irene approached, Tea Party darling and GOP Presidential hopeful, Congressman Ron Paul renewed his call for the elimination of FEMA, stating that funding FEMA contributes to the “deficit financing” of the Federal Budget.

• This past week Republicans actually came out in support of a TAX INCREASE. Would the proposed tax increase come from letting the Bush Era Tax Cuts for the wealthy expire? Oh no. It would come from letting the Payroll Tax Holiday expire on those that earn less than $107,000 of earned income. That translates into a tax increase of $1,000 on those earning $50,000 per year, and $2,000 for those that make $100,000 per year.

If you're keeping a running tally, add all the above plus the bill that Speaker Boehner was pushing just prior to the August 2nd deadline to raise the Debt Ceiling, which was held hostage by Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, until the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) was added to the bill.  Should I mention that Boehner's bill was DOA without the BBA?  Or that virtually every credentialed economist, to a one, has concluded that a BBA is one of the dumbest public policy ideas ever conceived?  

It seems as if the GOP is going out of its way to say “screw the working poor and middle class in this country. They don’t pay their fair share anyway. And you can clean up your own mess, figure out how to restore your own power, get clean drinking water, bandage your own wounds, search and recover your own dead bodies from the aftermath of an earthquake and hurricane.” 

WOW!  And this group want to lead our nation?  Thanks but no thanks.  I'll take my chances with another natural disaster over leadership like this, ANYTIME. 

How in the world can this political party say they care about America, they love this country, but if you don't do as they say, they'll destroy the nation unless their political agenda and policies are adopted?  How can any American support people like this?  

Image found at:  http://www.carolinalifestyles.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/hurricane-warning-flag.jpg 

Michele Bachmann is knock, knock, kockin' on the GOP Leadership door

In all due deference and respect to Guns 'n Roses classic, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", the first real test of the Tea Party's influence is Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's bid to move up into the GOP Leadership.  Click here for the story from Politico. 

If there's a poster child for demagoguery and evangelical nationalism, Michele Bachmann fills that role perfectly.  Let's see if the Speaker-in-waiting, John Boehner, and the Majority Leader-in-waiting, Eric Cantor, will answer the Tea Party darling's call. 

John Boehner, GOP going ALL IN with a recycled Agenda of Failure

I would really like to see the polling that GOP House Minority Leader John Boehner is seeing that indicates Americans have totally forgotten that their social and economic agenda drove this nation into a ditch.  Click here for Politico's coverage. 

What's even better, he is calling on the President to fire Treasury Secretary Geithner and Economic Advisor Larry Summers.  Two people, who have strong personalities and a measure of culpability for the 2007-2008 economic collapse, who know a whole lot more about economic policy than Boehner and Eric Cantor. 

The best line from Boehner's speech this morning: 

“It’s time to put grown-ups in charge,... I’ve also told my girls how I was raised to never accept the next best thing for myself or my country.”

Words to live by and good advice.  I'm just wondering who are the grown-ups Boehner's talking about?  If Boehner thinks the recycled GOP Economy Wrecking Agenda (that killed millions of American jobs) is better than the emergency measures the Obama Administration (lets not forget, with Republican support) and Democrats implemented, then he needs to check his cigarettes to see if someone switched his brand for something more exotic. 

Image found at:  http://www.usnews.com/dbimages/master/11483/FS_DA_090617boehner300.jpg

Wall Street Reform: Is the GOP really that out of touch with reality?

There's more evidence that the 2010 Campaign Season is in full swing.  Invoking the mantra of "Repeal" used as a call-to-arms for Health Care Reform and reason to turn the keys to the Federal Government back over to them, the GOP is now using this same campaign theme on Wall Street Reforms.  Seizing on the broad dissatisfaction with President Obama's first major legislative victory with Health Care Reform, with most Americans feeling the reforms didn't go far enough, House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are calling for the repeal of Wall Street Reform, the second major legislative victory for the Obama Administration this year.  The problem with this move, Americans across the board support these reforms. 

The question now is how disconnected from reality are the GOP with regard to Wall Street Reform that includes the strongest consumer protections against predatory financial products, ever?  Also, massive Government bailouts will never happen again (at least as long as this legislation stays intact). 

Just like with Health Care Reform, the Wall Street Reform legislation is not prefect by any means but it does put the Federal Government in a position to implement corrective measures and fixes to make it better over time. 

As far as claims that this legislation will kill jobs, stifle economic growth, raise interest rates, and make it harder for people to borrow money, we are already there because of Republican/neo-con/deregulation economic philosophy that lead the American Capitalist System to financial ruin and almost drove us off a cliff. 

As for the chances of the GOP repealing anything, Health Care Reform or Wall Street Reform, the 2010 Mid-term Elections would have to produce such a massive repudiation of Democratic Party governance that upwards of 70 House seats or more would be needed, as well as more than 20 Senate seats, to give the GOP the legislative muscle to override any Presidential Veto.  The best estimates right now indicate that the GOP have a shot, at shot, at winning back control of the House and in the Senate, the Democrats will have a much smaller majority but still retain control. 

When I was a teenager, my family had a 1977 Honda Civic that survived my two sister's and college at Radford University before I got a turn at the wheel.  When I got my chance, I made sure that I had a lot of fun in that car.  I gunned the engine and made donuts in the gravel parking lot of my High School with a good friend of mine, among some of the more noteable activites.  It was my chance to have control and freedom to go places without parental oversight. 

Then I blew the head gasket.  No big deal, dad will fix it.  I had no idea what that entailed.  In order to save money, my dad took the engine apart and replaced the head gasket.  Then I went out and did much of the same, not changing my behavior or the way I drove the 12-13 year old car by then.   Blew another head gasket.  My dad looked at me and asked what I was doing (but he knew).  I played dumb and said I don't know why its blowing head gaskets because I was driving responsibly and not reeving the engine, too much. 

The second time my dad took that engine apart to replace the head gasket, I could tell that he was pissed.  But, he didn't take the keys away from me and continued to let me drive.  It wasn't unit I was a father and had kids have I realized the time and money I cost my father because I acted irresponsibly and didn't change my behavior.  But as I look back on those events, my father should have also taken the keys away from me when he knew what was going on.  You don't just blow two head gaskets because of responsible driving behavior. 

As we look back on where our nation was, heading into 2008 and 2009, with millions of jobs lost, people loosing their homes, people declaring Bankruptcy because our nations finances were mismanaged, we will have no one else to blame but ourselves if we give the keys back to the people that brought us to the brink of another Great Depression, and that is still not totally out of the realm of possibility. 

Since the Democrats have been in charge, they have taken our financial engine apart to fix the damage cause by conservative/neo-con economic deregulation practices that blew our economy apart.  The GOP have learned nothing from their mistakes and we will pay the price, again, if they get the keys back to the nation's economy.