Tag Archives: Eric Cantor
Zero tolerance – we’ll see
Well, well, well Republican Tea Party (GOTP) puppet Eric Cantor has an opportunity to prove that he’s a real boy, and that he means what he says; when the GOTP took over the House in 2010 Cantor pledged a “zero tolerance policy” on ethics issues, “I think that as Republicans emerge as a new governing majority, it is incumbent upon us to institute a zero-tolerance policy — that we understand there are reasons for our being fired in ’06 and ’08 […] We cannot tolerate any ethics violations or behavior in terms of compromising the ethics that the people expect us to have as their representatives.” [YouTube, uploaded 8/10/10]
Cantor is now faced with the news that the National Republican Tea Party Congressional Committee Finance Chairman, Congressman Vern Buchanan (FL-13), is under federal investigation by the Department of Justice for an “extensive and ongoing” campaign finance scheme to reimburse employees who contributed to his campaign. “Will House Republican leaders including Leader Cantor and Chairman Sessions stand idly by while Congressman Vern Buchanan – the chief fundraiser to preserve their majority – is under investigation by the Department of Justice for campaign finance schemes?” asked Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “This is just the latest test of Republican’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy – will they live by their own rules?”
Will they indeed, or is Cantor just another empty suit dancing to the fiddle of the uber-conservative Tea Party? And here’s the kicker, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions appointed Buchanan as his NRCC Finance Vice Chair. The GOTP NRCC Chairman has appointed this scalawag as the vice chair of finance! It can’t get much better than that.
“Rep. Vern Buchanan is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegations that he asked a former business associate to reimburse employees who made donations to his campaign account, a local paper reported. The Bradenton Herald, which is based in the Republican’s western Florida district, first reported that the DOJ was investigating whether Buchanan, a former car dealership owner, asked his associate, Sam Kazran, to encourage employees to make straw donations to the lawmaker.” [POLITICO, 10/18/11]
It appears that while he was a car salesman – no really, he sold cars before he became a crooked Congressman? – he misused campaign funds (wow, a member of the GOTP misusing campaign funds. Isn’t that just the standard operating procedure in the House?) and his former business is under the axe, “A federal court is imposing a $67,900 fine on a car dealership once owned by Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, for what the Federal Election Commission calls an ‘extensive and ongoing scheme’ to funnel ‘secret, illegal contributions’ to Buchanan’s 2006 and 2008 campaigns.” [Florida Independent, 6/1/11]
$67,900 bucks! That ain’t chump change; we’re talking a major violation, which needs to be addressed. C’mon Cantor, you ran your mouth off all the time you were in the minority, now here’s your chance to prove you have some; or maybe you don’t. Buchanan is another corrupt GOTP Congressman, he should step down – after all, misusing tens of thousands of dollars is far worse than sending pics of yourself to people.
GOTP House passes misogynistic legislation giving Pope authority to kill American women?
So, let me get this straight, during a time when Americans are facing severe economic distress the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) House of Representatives has nothing better to do with its time than to debate and pass a bill it knows will die in the Senate?
The Huffington Post is reporting that GOTP majority House yesterday passed the so-called Protect Life Act, which prohibits women from buying health insurance plans covering abortion under the Affordable Care Act and makes it legal for hospitals to deny abortions to pregnant women with life-threatening conditions.
Whatever happened to “first do no harm”? I guess the woman’s life is to be valued less than the unborn baby’s is? Do these idiots understand if the Mom dies probably the baby does too? Are we killing two birds with one stone, or just deciding a woman who would choose an abortion isn’t worthy to live in the Tea Party’s Brave New World?
GOTP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor – of course a huge proponent of the bill – told voters last week its purpose is “to ensure that no taxpayer dollars flow to health care plans that cover abortion and no health care worker has to participate in abortions against their will.”
Earth to dip stick, NO FEDERAL DOLLARS NOW GO NOR WILL GO UNDER “OBAMACARE” TO FUND ABORTIONS!
Did you fall out of your clown car and get dragged down the street your head bouncing repeatedly on the pavement?
How many times is the GOTP going to perpetrate this falsehood? Talk about propaganda – telling the big lie long enough for everyone to believe it; well fortunately we don’t all have out radios tuned to Limbaugh and our TVs locked on FOX.
The Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) already keeps public dollars separate from the private insurance payments covering abortion, and a federal judge ruled in August that the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List had to stop making the claim on its website that “Obamacare” subsidizes abortions because the assertion is false.
“The express language of the [Affordable Care Act] does not provide for taxpayer-funded abortion,” the opinion states. “That is a fact, and it is clear on its face.”
Maybe the Judge needs to include the GOTP in his ruling? Cantor is a schmuck; he knows there’s no public dollars going to fund abortion and he’s using it as a flag to wave in what he further knows is going to be a very tough re-election year for his GOTP majority.
Huffington reports H.R. 358 goes beyond the issue of taxpayer dollars to place actual limits on the way a woman spends her own money however; the bill would also prevent a woman from buying a private insurance plan that includes abortion coverage through a state health care exchange, even though most insurance plans currently cover abortion.
So, the GOTP which prides itself on proclaiming how it’s opposed to government intrusion into private lives has absolutely no qualms about intruding into private lives when it comes to abortion?
What’s even more abhorrent about the bill is that allows hospitals that are “morally” opposed to abortion, such as Catholic establishments, to do nothing for a woman who requires an emergency abortion procedure to save her life, to basically condemn a wife, daughter, mother, sister, aunt, cousin or friend to death; talk about death panels – now we’re going to allow the Pope to decide (with Congressional approval) who lives and who dies? When did the United States become a protectorate to the Vatican?
Reportedly, current law requires hospitals give patients in life-threatening situations whatever care they need, regardless of the patient’s financial situation, but the Protect Life Act would make a hospital’s obligation to provide care in medical emergencies secondary to its refusal to provide abortions.
Democratic Congresswoman Jackie Speier said she personally faced a situation in which an abortion was medically necessary.
“I was pregnant, I was miscarrying, I was bleeding,” she said on the House floor Thursday. “If I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today. What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to do is misogynist.”
Yes Congresswoman it does appear that way, but what’s worse is that the uber-conservative GOTP House majority is trying to enforce its limited Draconian view of Christian ethics upon the country. Talk about Shariah law – clearly they don’t understand the concept of separation of Church and State.
Of course all the uber-right morons have done is given their opponents another stick to beat them with come November 2012 – they threw Grandma under the bus going on record supporting Ryan’s economic plan and now they’re on record throwing the rest of the women in the country under the next bus.
This bill is DOA when it reaches the Senate, and as I said at the beginning of this post, Americans are facing economic distress and this is what the GOTP spends its time on? You ran on a platform of creating jobs in 2010, do you really think 100 + bills seeking to eliminate a woman’s right to choose is going unnoticed? And what’s more, heaven help any of you when some woman you love is dying and some Neanderthal of a doctor – dressed in Papal gowns – refuses to save her life because the baby is more important. What kinds of Gods do you pray to that would require the life of the mother in order to prove some show of faith?
Who knows, since you’ve opened up this box of Pandora’s, maybe some future Congress will pass a bill allowing hospitals the right to refuse to perform prostate surgery in order to save a man stricken with cancer because it might interfere with his ability to procreate.
Reagan would have supported President’s jobs bill?
CBS News is reporting that President Obama has said that former President Ronald Reagan would have supported his plan to raise taxes on Americans who make more than $1 million per year, known as the “Buffett rule,” and to back up his statement he quoted the Gipper from a 1985 statement saying, “Some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. It’s time we stopped it.”
And, oh surprise, just as the President Obama noted, Republicans never accused Reagan of being a “socialist” for wanting a bus driver to pay lower tax rates than a millionaire.
The President also mocked Republican Tea Party (GOTP) claims that his effort to pass the Buffett Rule — which would establish a minimum tax rate for those making more than $1 million per year in order to ensure they pay as much in taxes as lower-income individuals — amounted to “class warfare.”
“I know a lot of folks have short memories, but I don’t remember Republicans accusing Ronald Reagan of being a socialist or engaging in class warfare because he thought everybody should do their fair share. Things have just gotten out of whack,” he said.
Isn’t it amazing how it’s not class warfare when we lower the tax brackets for the wealthiest 2% while advocating cuts to the poor and needy?
The President quoted Reagan once again during remarks at Eastfield College later in the day in which he called on Republicans to pass his $447 billion jobs bill, which he sent to Congress last month. He noted in that speech that Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor has vowed not to let the jobs bill come up for a vote.
“Well I’d like Mr. Cantor to come down here to Dallas and explain what exactly in this jobs bill does he not believe in,” he said. “…Does he not believe in rebuilding America’s roads and bridges? Does he not believe in tax breaks for small businesses, or efforts to help our veterans?”
He went on to urge Cantor to “put this jobs bill up for a vote so that the entire country knows exactly where every Member of Congress stands.”
“Do your job, Congress!” he added.
Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring responded to the comments by saying that “President Obama needs to understand that his ‘my way or the highway’ approach simply isn’t going to work in the House or the Democratic Senate, especially in light of his abysmal record on jobs.”
Ah yes, of course, the “my way or highway” tactic is the expressed copyrighted property of the GOTP House and the President isn’t allowed to use it. Well Brad, he just did, and the GOTP is going to have to put up or shut up. Vote it down and stand by it if you think it’s that bad of a bill; oh, and if I were a spokesman for a GOTP member of Congress right now, mentioning abysmal job performance is probably not the way to go, especially when you schmucks ran on the promise of creating jobs in 2010.
GOTP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has reportedly called for an immediate vote on the bill in an effort to show it doesn’t have the unified support of Democrats, but Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid objected to bringing up the proposal, offering Republicans the chance to formally move to a debate on the bill; they declined the offer.
Well sure they declined the offer; they don’t want to go on record for actually opposing the creation of jobs.
The President’s bill would reduce payroll taxes on both workers and employers, extend long-term unemployment benefits and invest in public works and teachers, police officers and other public servants. It would be paid for through the tax increase on high earners and the closing of some corporate tax loopholes.
And what’s to argue here? Ah yes, I forgot, Darth McConnell has sworn an oath to the Dark Lord to make sure President Obama only has one term, and Cantor is a frightened little rabbit who likes to make a loud noise from his hutch but lacks the courage of his convictions to go on the record voting against it. Guess what boys? You’re already on the record opposing jobs, and it will come back to bite you in the butt come November 2012.
President goes on offense?
Original photo official White House photo
President Barack Obama using the strength of the bully pulpit took the battle into the enemy’s home turf today pitching his $447 billion jobs program of tax cuts and new spending in Richmond, VA, the home District of the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) whiny boy – House Majority “Leader” Eric Cantor.
“I know that folks sometimes think they’ve used up the benefit of the doubt but I’m an eternal optimist,” the President told more than 8,000 people at the University of Richmond. “I’m an optimistic person. I believe if you just stay at it long enough, after they’ve exhausted all the other options, folks do the right thing.”
Thus far, the GOTP has remained “noncommittal”, which is much better than remaining “diametrically opposed”.
“The proposals the president outlined tonight merit consideration,” GOTP House Speaker John Boehner, said after the president’s speech. “We hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well.
“It’s my hope that we can work together,” Boehner added.
You hope the President gives serious considerations to what ideas? The ideas the GOTP voted for in lock step to dismantle Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Veteran’s benefits? The so-called “plan” put forth by Paul Ryan? Is that what passes as ideas today in Boehner’s world?
“You should pass it right away,” the President told GOTP lawmakers more than once, and he pledged to campaign for its enactment “in every corner of this country.”
The President masterfully made his point about where he would take the fight when he identified the need fix a certain bridge; “There’s a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky,” he said. Coincidently the two states represented by the Speaker and Senate GOTP leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell was not fazed, and retorted in typical obstructionist fashion, “For months, we’ve been engaged in a national debate about spending and debt, about the need to get our nation’s fiscal house in order, about the need to rein in government. … Yet here we are, tonight, being asked by this same president to support even more government spending with the assurance that he’ll figure out a way to pay for it later.”
Yes, that’s right Mitch always with the negative ways. But what is to be expected from a Senator who declared his number one priority is to make sure President Obama only has one term? Not to put Americans back to work; not to defeat Al Qaeda; but to make sure President Obama only has one term. Wow, what a sterling example of unselfish service to our country. Kind of makes you want to run right out and add Mitch’s likeness to Mount Rushmore doesn’t it?
Meanwhile, getting back to meaningful, adult, conversation on the country’s troubles, the President said the tax cuts he’s recommending would mean $1,500 a year for the typical working family and $80,000 for businesses with 50 employees of average pay, and he said he would outline legislation in coming days to offset the bill’s $447 billion price tag so it wouldn’t add to federal deficits.
All-in-all, the President’s asking for $253 billion in tax cuts, with an additional $194 billion in new spending to fund highway and other construction projects, modernize schools, stabilize blighted neighborhoods and help states hire teachers and first responders.
Of course McConnell wasn’t the only GOTP dinosaur to oppose the President’s challenge, soon to retire – thankfully – Senator Jon Kyl whined, “Rather than offer a new road map for recovery and reform, he merely dusted off a tired agenda of old ideas wrapped in freshly partisan rhetoric.”
Very insightful offering from Kyl, who’s serving on the newly formed uber-committee responsible for finding ways to cut the nation’s debt and has threatened to walk out if anyone suggests further cuts in defense spending. If I were a Democratic Senator I would suggest it every time the committee met just to push his buttons and see if he would be true to his treat, or to just see if his head would explode.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat, was as hopeful as ever saying he hoped the proposals would “present a litmus test to Republicans. I hope they will show the American people that they are more interested in creating jobs than defeating President Obama.”
Yeah, you hold on to that happy thought Senator, that and some fairy dust and one day you may just fly. Are you kidding me? Do you really believe the GOTP members of Congress are going to do anything to willingly help this President get the economy going? Most of them want things to stay as bad as possible in hopes of defeating him in 2012; and no, that is no exaggeration.
Democratic House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi is coming out swinging at her GOTP counterparts, “Republicans have a choice to either work with Democrats on the immediate need to create jobs or waste more time when American families are demanding action.”
Personally Congresswoman, I predict they’ll do nothing. They’ll hope to stall as long as possible. From a political point of view it’s a disaster either way for the GOTP. If they help the President the rabid Tea Party members of the far-right will eat them alive; but if they do nothing, the President and any Democratic opponents will be able to truthfully paint them as the do nothing party they’ve become. It’s a win-win for the President, and a masterful play.
If his GOTP presidential opponents come out against the plan then they have to defend why. Again, a masterful play by the President; he’s put them in an indefensible position. They can stall, or oppose, and be portrayed as being anti-recovery and friends to the wealthy, or they can come out in support and be devoured by the Tea Partiers.
In going on the offense the President looks Presidential, while the GOTP presidential crazy 8’s in comparison look like fools.
Relief from Irene Tied to Budget Cuts?
Once again Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Majority Leader Eric Cantor has shown what a true putz he really is, saying that any federal relief to repair damage and offset costs of dealing with Hurricane Irene should be tied to – or funded by – cuts elsewhere.
But wait Cantor isn’t alone in this way of thinking, Congressman Scott Garrett is in agreement, claiming – through a spokesperson that it’s the “responsible thing to do.”
“With $16 trillion in debt and budget deficits as far as the eye can see, the last thing we should be doing is spending money we don’t have,” Garrett spokesman Ben Veghte said.
Yeah, because if there’s a natural disaster – which no one can predict, and for which you can’t budget money ahead of time – no doubt Garrett wanted to say, “We should cut spending to wasteful programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.” Because you know there’s no way they would ever suggest cutting money to defense, or to Congressional operations.
Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell disagrees with the dynamic dimwits saying that emergency funding can – and should be – handled as it has been in the past, with emergency funding provided outside the normal budget process.
“I’ve always seen, whether it was a big fire out on the West Coast or a calamity in one of the Northern states during a snowstorm, America’s always been there, Congress has always been there,” he said. “Mr. Cantor can’t even run his own caucus. I don’t know how you can expect him to say anything reasonable or sane. This storm isn’t hitting Democrats, it’s not hitting Republicans, it’s hitting all of us.”
Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg said in a statement it was “unconscionable that anyone would hold up emergency aid for this storm over ideology. People are going to need urgent help, and I will fight like the devil to deliver it.”
Earlier this year, after tornadoes ravaged the Midwest and south, a bill was approved practically along party lines in the GOTP dominated House seeking to cut spending, including about $450 million allocated to Amtrak for upgrades in Central Jersey, to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund.
Fortunately, like most of the ludicrous bills coming from the Neverland of the GOTP controlled House, it hasn’t seen the light of day in the Democratic controlled Senate; but, the Federal Railroad Administration has since approved Amtrak’s project, making it more difficult for Congress to cut the funding.
According to the Associated Press (AP), FEMA’s disaster fund covers a variety of costs, including emergency workers’ overtime, repairs to public works such as roads and utilities, and temporary housing for victims. Fifteen New Jersey counties buried by a post-Christmas blizzard last year, for example, received $19 million this year from the disaster fund.
Cantor and company want to make every dime political hoping top score points with FOX PAC Americans by demonstrating how fiscally responsible the GOTP is compared to the Democratic Party; but all they’re doing is showing how heartless, reckless and moronic the GOTP is. For eight years these same members of Congress funded Bush’s war off budget pouring billions of dollars into Afghanistan and Iraq, and not one of them insisted on cutting spending somewhere else to do that, and they cut taxes – a fundamental economic blunder when fighting a war – but now they want to cut the budget to pay for disaster relief to Americans? I think they’re going to find a boomerang effect from voters in 2012 and then they’ll realize they’ve greatly overplayed their hand.
President should raise debt ceiling under 14th Amendment
As the debt ceiling lunacy continues, and the rabid Tea Party factions continue to become more and more unhinged, placing the United States’ full faith and credit in danger, and the economic stability of the country at risk, all this while American servicemen and women continue to fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan, the President should give the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) controlled House until midnight on 1 August to grow up and pass a spotlessly clean raise in the debt ceiling or he should instruct the Secretary of the Treasury to do so under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
This is not something that should be considered at any other time, but our country is still at war. 278 Americans have given their last full measure of devotion while the morons on the right have postured and paraded around. 46 have died in recent weeks while Speaker John Boehner pontificates and loses his grip of control. Leadership requires leading and right now he doesn’t have it.
If the President raises the debt ceiling, without the approval of Congress, the GOTP will scream bloody murder and some will cry out for impeachment, while the talking heads (Limbaugh, Hannity, et al) will absolutely come unglued screaming that it’s a takeover, that the socialist dictator has finally made his move, blah, blah, blah; but if the President does this stating to not extend the debt ceiling, while the country is still at war, would be unacceptable and would weaken the nation’s economy when it can ill afford to be weakened he paints the GOTP as unpatriotic, as not caring for either the welfare of the nation or for its military; he comes across as a strong President and as a strong Commander-in-Chief.
Boehner has no control of his caucus, and Majority Leader Cantor has only an illusion of power, because who can lead a rabble? As for the good old boy from Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already openly declared his top priority is to defeat the President and prevent him from having a second term, so he’s proven where his loyalties are, and they’re not to the nation, they’re to his party.
The President has time to let the GOTP come to its senses, but he needs to back away and tell them flat out they have until 1 August and then he acts. Let them stew in their own juices, and let them fail, while saving the credit of the country. They can scream and rent their clothes, but they will have proven to the vast majority of Americans that they’re loyalties are to puppet masters holding pledges and not to the Constitution they’ve sworn to uphold, and not to the young troops defending the same; they will have proven they’re unfit to hold office. It’s a win/win for the President, but more importantly it’s a win/win for the country.
Soldiers are fighting and dying while Tea Party plays games with debt ceiling
OK Tea Party, you love America so much, and you love and revere those who have fought and died for your freedoms, and yet you play games with our national security by threatening to undo our economy at a time when American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen continue to fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan?
You disgust me. You’re not patriots, you’re traitors. You’re allying yourselves with Al Qaeda and every other terrorist group and enemy of our Republic.
Michelle Bachmann is a traitor. She’s openly stated she won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling. Are we no longer at war? No, we’re still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan; 278 Americans have died there in 2011, while she and her Tea Party friends have played games with the country’s economy. Men and women are dying while she’s making glib remarks.
Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are all traitors. They’ve openly colluded with the enemy during a time of war by attempting to bring down the nation’s economy. Men and women are dying while these three screw around with the debt ceiling; 46 have died during the past few weeks while they’ve been opposing raising the debt ceiling. They’ve gleefully endangered our nation’s security while 46 Americans have bled out far from home.
Enough already! Don’t ever speak of your so-called love for this country again, you’ve proven otherwise. Raise the debt ceiling and then play games. Americans are dying while you pontificate! Shame on you! A curse upon you and your posterity, and upon all who support you! You and they do not deserve the rights and liberties you claim to cherish; you are not worthy to lace the boots of those who will willingly go into harms way so you can sit safe and secure with your PAC monies and your fat cat supporters.
Choose you this day for you cannot serve two masters; either support the oath you swore in your respective chambers to protect and defend or support the pledges you swore to the Tea Party, but choose. You cannot serve both, for you will love the one and hate the other; right now it appears you love the pledge and hate the oath.
Boehner and McConnell push to give legislative branch unconstitutional powers?
OK Republican Tea Party (GOTP) types, where is your outrage that Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader McConnell want to seriously unbalance the constitutionally mandated balance of powers by creating special powers in a super committee of Congress to determine budgetary matters?
How about the GOTP House do its constitutionally mandated job and pass a “real” budget (instead of these far right uber-conservative budgets from Wonderland), raise the debt ceiling (as they have more than 80 times since the first debt ceiling was raised) and then move on to “fixing” things?
And if you’re going to play this game of pretending to care about the debt and deficit then let’s cut some real drains on the government – Social Security benefits don’t add one penny to either the debt or deficit, and anyone with half a brain, obviously excluding then the Tea Party members of the House majority, knows that – like saving $2 billion dollars each and every week by bringing all our people home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Once you’re (GOTP) willing to do this then people might start listening to talks of cuts in the so-called “entitlements”.
Raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% – the so-called “job creators” – and eliminate loopholes in the tax system which favors the same uber-wealthiest 2%. Once you’re (GOTP) willing to do this then people might start listening to talk of cuts in the so-called “entitlements”.
The GOTP “my way or the highway” approach may have worked with their prom dates, but the rest of us aren’t that easy and have money in our pockets to call for a ride; time for the GOTP to put up, or shut up. November 2012 will be here soon, and if they’re not willing to negotiate then this group of newbies, this group of probationary congressmen – probies – will be sent packing. They’re destined to be the largest group of one term members of congress in our nation’s history, and they don’t even know it.
The Liberty Tree 
