Support these organizations and individuals

The National Rifle Association has published its enemies list which is, of course, our friends list.  Please support these organizations and individuals in any way you can and encourage others to do whatever they can to get on the NRA list.  We want the enemies of the NRA to grow and grow.

You can see a list of the individuals and organizations that have earned our respect and gratitude by getting on the NRA enemies list by going here.  Honor these great Americans.

Go here to see the list:  http://nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=15

Republican Illogic—Again

The House Republicans have passed an unconstitutional bill to require the Democrats in the Senate to pass a non-binding and unnecessary piece of legislation.

Here is the back story as strange as it may seem.

The Republicans in the House are upset that the Democrats in the Senate have not passed a budget resolution in over four years.  Now, that sounds pretty bad unless you know what a budget resolution is and does.  It doesn’t dictate spending and it has NO legal authority.  It is not even a law.  It isn’t signed by the President even when it is passed.  A budget is nothing more than a statement of intent, a kind of wish list of the majority party.  It can’t be filibustered in the Senate but it has NO force.  The Senate sets spending by passing appropriation bills, individual pieces of legislation, almost all of which can be filibustered and thus require 60 votes to pass.  These appropriation bills, which have their origin in the House, not the Senate, must be approved by both houses of Congress and must be signed by the President in order to become law.  Bottom line:  It doesn’t matter whether the Senate passes a Budget Resolution or not.  Doesn’t affect spending.  Doesn’t affect the debt.  Doesn’t affect the deficit.  Doesn’t affect anything.

Now, because the House Republicans are upset that the Democrats in the Senate haven’t done something that doesn’t matter, they have engaged in a bit of petty spite.  The House Repubs added to the bill extending the debt limit for a few months a provision that the mean old Senators who were refusing to do something that doesn’t need to be done but that the Repubs want anyway will just not get paid until they do what the House Repubs want.  That’s right.  The House Repubs are going to put the Senators’ pay in escrow until they do what’s unimportant and unnecessary.

The problem is this.  Such an action is unconstitutional since if violates the 27^th Amendment to the Constitution which says:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Children.  Just children.  Can we order a sandbox for them to play in?

Read more about this here:

 http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/01/23/house-gops-no-budget-no-pay-provision-is-potentially-unconstitutional/

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/01/23/the-filibuster-has-eliminated-the-point-of-a-senate-budget/

Obama’s strategies to prevent gun violence

Today Obama proposed 10 Big strategies to combat gun violence plus 23 executive orders he will sign immediately to more thoroughly implement gun violence reduction legislation already on the books.

The BIG strategies that will require new legislation are:

·         Require criminal background checks for all gun sales.

·         Reinstate and strengthen the assault weapons ban.

·         Restore the 10-round limit on ammunition magazines.

·         Protect police by finishing the job of getting rid of armor-piercing bullets.

·         Give law enforcement additional tools to prevent and prosecute gun crime including closing loopholes in gun trafficking laws and provide stiff penalties for “straw purchasers”.

·         End the freeze on gun violence research.

·         Provide additional funding to make our schools safer with more school resource officers and school counselors, safer climates, and better emergency response plans.

·         Help ensure that young people get the mental health treatment they need by, among other things, providing training for teachers to detect and respond to mental illness in children and adults to ensure that they get referrals for treatment.

All of these are reasonable proposals for gun safety that are supported by the majority of Americans. None of these proposals will prevent law abiding Americans from owning guns for sport, hunting or self-defense or limit their legitimate rights under the 2nd Amendment.   While these proposals will not eliminate gun violence in our country, they will save lives and reduce or make more difficult the ability for deranged individuals to commit mass murders like in Newtown. 

Expect the right-wing, NRA, gun nuts to go crazy and accuse Obama of destroying the Constitution and commiting an impeachable offense against God and country.  Expect the Republicans in the House to do all they can to prevent these gun safety measures from taking affect. 

Read more details here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/16/read-obamas-plan-to-reduce-gun-violence/

Unqualified for Treasury Secretary? Not

Washington Republicans and some Democrats have decided that this man is totally unqualified to serve as Treasury Secretary.  Who is he?

He is a winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics and the John Bates Clark Award, given to the best economist under the age of 40.

He speaks his mind and tells the truth even when the truth upsets some people.

He warned us in 2002, long before anyone else, that housing prices were out of line and that a collapse of the housing bubble would have devastating impact on the U.S. and world economies—which it did.

In 2008, he urged that we break up, reorganize and recapitalize the large banks and Wall Street big guys rather than just bail them out and leave them capable of causing further problems in the future.  We didn’t listen.

He warned in early 2009 that the stimulus was too small to restore full employment rapidly and that the failure to provide enough stimulus in 2009 would make it difficult to provide additional stimulus later.  He was right.

He warned that a pre-mature emphasis on austerity in Europe would lead to another recession and higher unemployment in those countries, which it did.

He has been right in his predictions most of the time and the country would have been better off if it had listened and adopted his ideas and suggestions.

He is smart, has great ideas and is one of the best and brightest economists we have.

For Republicans and some Democrats that makes him unqualified for Treasury Secretary.
His name is Paul Krugman and he won’t be Treasury Secretary.  He is too smart.  SAD, so SAD.

Truth about the debt and debt ceiling

Here are two useful charts to share with your Republican/Tea Party/”Hell NO, we won’t raise the Debt Ceiling” friends.  The first shows who we owe.  The second shows what bills we could NOT pay on March 1, 2013 if we had to rely upon month receipts and cash on hand.

Chart One: The Truth About the Debt  

Republican/Tea Party/”Hell NO” folks say that all this debt means we are mortgaging our country to the Chinese and other foreigners.  The problem with this line of argument is that it is bull.  Take a look at this chart.  Two thirds of the debt we owe, we owe to ourselves—U.S. citizens, Social Security Trust Fund, U.S. Civil Service Retirement Fund, U.S. Military Retirement fund, and so on.  We owe just 8% of our debt to the Chinese and 7% to the Japanese.  So tell the Repubs to shut up already about mortgaging our future to foreigners.  The only people we are mortgaging our future to are ourselves.

If you can't see the chart, go here: http://www.hillbillyreport.org/diary/4375/some-debt-truth

Chart Two: The Truth About the Debt Ceiling

Let’s leave aside for a moment the fact that proposing to cut spending by not raising the debt ceiling would be like a person proposing to cut spending by not paying bills they have already run up on their credit cards.  You don’t cut spending by refusing to pay for things you have already bought.  You cut spending by not buying new stuff and running up NEW debt.  So, this idea of not raising the debt ceiling as being a way to cut spending is just bull.  

So, what would it really mean if we didn’t raise the debt ceiling and the U.S. Government had to rely totally on incoming revenues each month to pay its bills?  Take a look at this chart.  March 1, 2013 the U.S. Government would have $20 Billion in revenues but $83 Billion of bills to pay.  The $20 Billion would not be enough to pay Social Security benefits due and barely enough to pay Medicare/Medicaid bills.  Someone would have to make some choices.  Ask your Repub/Tea Party/Hell No friends what they would do.  Ask them if they would just cut off Social Security retirees.  Sorry grandma and grandpa, no Social Security deposits to your bank account, not until we get some more money.  Or, maybe they would not pay Defense Vendors or not send out IRS refunds or not pay soldiers on active duty.  Maybe they would tell Senators and Congressmen and their staffs that their paychecks would be a little late, if they got them at all.  

Tell your Repub friends to put up or shut up.  Who would they pay?  Who would they give the shaft in the name of cutting spending?  Then, ask them what they are really prepared to do to cut future spending.  How much are they prepared to reduce Social Security benefits for current recipients?  Which defense contracts are they prepared to cancel?  How much are they prepared to reduce the size of the military? Which military bases are they willing to close?   How much are they will to cut their own paychecks or those of their staff?  Bet they won’t have an answer.  They never do.  Why?  Because it is just more Repub/Tea Party bull. 

 If you can't see the chart, go here: http://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/staff-paper/debt-limit  and scroll down to page 40 of the report.

The Spoiled Congressional Children at play

The Congressional Children (our elected Representatives) are already at play.  Both parties sent the incoming Freshman House members of the other party a welcome card.

Republicans welcomed the Democratic Party "LapDogs."  Democrats sent incoming Republicans their "Official" Tea Party Membership Card.

Glad everyone is having so much fun.  Of course there is that little problem of not being able to get anything done because of the lack of trust and respect between the two parties.  Do we have to start out a new relationship by doing everything we can to piss the other side off?  Guess we do if we are spoiled children in Congress.

Mr. Speaker Irrelevant

John Boehner was re-elected Speaker of the House today but his handling (really non-handling) of the Fiscal Cliff negotiations coupled with his repeated failure to manage his caucus in the last Congress has made him largely irrelevant when it comes to negotiating with Obama and the Democrats.  Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has signaled that he will be the Republican chief negotiator as we go forward.  McConnell will be making the deals and has shown that he has the power to force any deal he reaches on a sufficient number of Republicans in the House to pass the legislation.  Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated that she, not Boehner, is the true leader of the House.  McConnell will do the negotiating with the Democrats and Obama.  Once the Senate passes bi-partisan legislation, Pelosi will secure near-unanimous Democratic support in the House and McConnell will assemble the necessary additional Republican House votes to pass the legislation he negotiated.  Boehner  will give in and bring the legislation to the floor but other than that he will be irrelevant as will the ultra-right T-Party Republican nuts.  That’s how legislation will move forward in the new Congress.  As the song says, “Bye, bye Boehner/T-Party, bye, bye.”

Read more at this link: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/01/03/mitch-mcconnell-lays-down-his-marker-on-the-debt-ceiling-negotiation/