Have the Republicans kept any of their promises from two years ago or ever? Where’s the fiscal responsibility and jobs they promised before they took over the House in the mid-term elections? If they have nothing to do with the current situation then why are they there?
Republican responsibility isn’t even in the narrative today. Reality has been papered over with false tales repeated by 1,000 lying rightwing blogs. Their android followers consume it unquestioningly and vomit it out at your feet with a level of satisfaction they don't realize is incongruous. They’re not being criticized, harassed, and attacked every day. They're dishing it out. They know the routine. Their job is easy. Deliver a fabricated lie and let you scramble in defense. It always diminishes you. They know that.
Claims and assertions delivered without proof can be dismissed without proof. Plaintiffs with unsubstantiated accusations have no case and won't be heard. Plaintiffs, who keep it up with more charges and no basis in fact, get stern warnings. No one has responsibility to refute or disprove a lie. Tell them that. A claim of considerable size and impact needs extra proof to match. Ask for it.
In Western societies, we don't entertain political arguments based on what "could be." There would be no end to it. Either something is or it isn't. Assertions must be based on fact.
You are facing Soviet style tactics. Your legitimate concerns will be trivialized. The orderliness of society will be broken when you let them shift their burden of proof to you. Deconstruct their methods and scatter the bits and pieces well.
You may have heard rightwingers gleefully announcing that President Obama's budget went down to defeat in the Senate by a vote of 99-0. Maybe you heard the President's budget is so lacking in worth that he couldn't get even one of his party members to vote for it. If you have a good nose, you'll immediately notice something here doesn't smell right.
The New York Times reported on this phony "vote" engineered by Senate Republicans to obtain the 99-0 result on May 16, the date of the vote. They called it a rebuke in the headline. It was really just a successful publicity stunt.
The 99-0 vote wasn't on the President's budget. It was a resolution introduced by Jeff Sessions (R - AL) which should alert anyone to the rotten smell. Why would a Republican introduce the President’s budget and how could he when the Republicans in the Senate constantly whine about Harry Reid shelving all their bills? Never mind because rightwingers won’t question a 99-0 Obama loss, even when it stinks. Even if they imply that the President's budget lacks merit, they feel no obligation to mention what was wrong with it. The tale stinks all the way through.
Sen. Sessions used an obscure rule to bring a vote. His resolution wasn’t a budget, it couldn’t become a budget and it wasn’t binding. More importantly, Sessions presented the resolution as if it was the President’s Budget without explaining what, how, or why it varied from the President's actual budget.
The New York Times article explains that it has never been customary to put the President's budget to a vote in Congress. The President's budget is a recommendation only. Any member of Congress who votes in favor of the President’s budget would be falling into a trap. It's contradictory to the Constitutional separation of powers to put the President's budget to a vote and it was only done to put the Senate Democrats in an awkward position as they were obliged to vote "No."
"For lawmakers to approve a presidential budget as it is presented would be to forgo Congress’s constitutional power of the purse."
Jonathan Weisman
New York Times
May 16, 2012
There was still one more reason to vote against this resolution. It contradicts the Budget Control Act which was passed into law in 2011. Harry Reid actually delivered a statement about that in the Senate on the date that the Republicans played their little game.
Why do such a thing? It's part of the propaganda campaign and a thousand rightwing blogs dutifully reported that the President's budget went down to a 99-0 defeat. The Republicans are more interested in gamesmanship than the work of legislating. They can holler all they want about the budget, but their own behavior explains why they can't be trusted.