Now that the Supercommittee failure is official, and the finger-pointing and blaming has begun, it's worth pointing out that the net effect is quite possibly zero. Across-the-board cuts would be so repugnant to the majority of both parties - although for quite different reasons - that they may yet find a bipartisan way to weasel out of the whole thing. After all, the cuts are not supposed to start for a year. Gee, do you think they thought something like this might happen? In any case - the GOP has not been slacking off in other areas, determined as they are to pursue their agenda of comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted.
Government stimulus and loans for me (but not for thee): New details about the GOP and its most fervent Tea-Party oriented members' appetite for government spending in their districts keep emerging. At this point nobody should even be able to feign surprise any more, but it is still helpful to continue documenting the facts in order to fully understand the magnitude of GOP hypocrisy. Enjoy these examples of Republican reps talking about how goverment money can create jobs in their districts (but not, apparently in anyone else's).
Special Congressional Office for making S**t Up: It is clear to all observers that Congressional Republicans hate the ability of the EPA to restrict air pollution and regulate air quality. But apparently the spectre of cleaner air to breathe does not sufficiently scare the masses into turning against the EPA and demanding bold action to dismantle it. So the GOP has turned to something it does know how to do: lie, and tell people the EPA is going to implement a "dust rule" that will lead to the government fining you for driving down your gravel road.
The one slight problem? It isn't true, and never was, and the lying Republicans know it.
Zombie ACORN infects U.S. with OWS virus: Despite the fact that it no longer exists, ACORN apparently has not lost its usefulness as an all-purpose bogeyman for the GOP. This time it's the increasingly-deranged Daryl Issa, who apparently wants some kind of investigation into the "role" played by (the non-existent) ACORN in the rise of OWS. To be completely fair, Issa claims to be concerned about a connection from ACORN to OWS through an organization called New York Communities for Change (NYCC). However, the mere fact that he was still trying to invoke "ACORN" as a symbol of corruption, when the GOP voter fraud claims against ACORN were essentially fraudulent and deceitful in themselves, is a fairly damning comment on his intellectual integrity.
The GOP's utter cluelessness about the roots of OWS in genuine populist outrage over crony capitalism, increasing income inequality, and attacks on working America was never on better display. Daryl - investigate the role of corporate greed and stagnant wages and benefits in OWS, and you'll get a lot further than invoking the specter of deceased organizations rising from the dead to torment the 1% everywhere. Halloween was a month ago.
Every sperm is sacred (and every zygote is a person): Although voters in the very conservative and pro-life state of Mississippi actually rejected a state-level personhood-for-zygotes law - in part because even conservatives were concerned about the possible effect on procedures such as in vitro fertilization and birth control - this has not deterred some GOP representatives from wanting to pursue such a bill at the national level. So much for "state's rights"; apparently, states have the right to do just about anything they like, unless the most radical members of the GOP disapprove. In any case, the effort is simply another front in the never-ending central battle of the culture wars, abortion. By legislating fertilized eggs into personhood, abortion would by definition become murder and effectively banned. As usual, there is no exception for rape or incest written into the legislation either. The GOP: so filled with respect for the person, and for law and order, that they want to force women and girls to carry rapist's offspring to term.
They'll pry my child's Twinkie from my cold, dead hands: After the War on Drugs, the Culture Wars, and the War on Climate, you'd think the GOP has just about run out of fresh enemies. You'd be wrong; now they are up in arms to fight against child nutrition. You see, schools are trying to actually provide healthier lunch and snack items for children. Fortunately, the GOP sees this for what it is: a big-government nanny-state effort to restrict our God-given right to have big food corporations sell cheap, high-fat entrees and highly salted snack foods to our kids. So they passed a bill that blocked proposals to improve nutrition in school lunches. The proposals included such outrageous socialistic measures as increasing fruits and vegetables, limiting French fries, and stopping the practice of classifying pizza as a "vegetable" if it has smidgen of tomato sauce.
Guys: the schools have no Constitutional obligation to provide food of any kind, whether high or low in nutritional value. So I'd just as soon, if they're going to do it, that they make an effort at nutritional balance. If it is so important to you that your child have pizza and Twinkies, then give them pizza money and pack the damn Twinkies yourself. Isn't that the parents-taking-responsibility kind of approach that the GOP claims to admire and love so much?
Bachmann is back: We haven't heard much from Rep. Bachmann, ever since she tanked in the polls for the race to be the GOP nominee and the media started ignoring her. So maybe she thinks becoming a cheerleader for torture will get her mojo back. Bachmann proclaimed that she would bring back waterboarding because it's merely an uncomfortable, enhanced interrogation technique. On the other hand, she also explicitly stated that it's absurd to suggest that she should get waterboarded herself, just to demonstrate how nifty and non-torturous it actually is. To give her the benefit of the doubt, it IS possible that she may just be completely unaware and uninformed of the United States' own long history of prosecuting waterboarding as torture and as a war crime. Of course, such a level of ignorance on such a key War-On-Terror issues also says something about her qualifications for the Presidency...
He's Upton no good: When, oh when, will the GOP stop trying to pick winners and losers in the free market? It seems GOP Rep. Upton didn't get the memo. Apparently, Upton tried using his influence to promote a loan to a solar company that is now going bankrupt. I guess the GOP is still trying to figure out how to have a consistent and principled position on tax breaks subsidies, and loan guarantees for energy companies. Memo to Upton: tax breaks for Big Oil companies - good. Loan guarantees for financing nuclear power plants - good. Breaks, subsidies, or guarantees for solar energy: bad. That wasn't so hard, was it? Following this rule will keep you a principled member in good standing of your party!
GOP Congress's biggest success: making Americans hate Congress even more. No, really. Today's U.S. Congress is less popular than, well, just about anyone and anything. Less popular than the big banks. Less popular than big oil. Less popular than the U.S. actually going Communist, which surely is a first in American history. Apparently, if anyone can destroy the American government by totally undermining the faith of the people in its ability to actually represent their interests and govern wisely, it's the GOP. Which certainly is an accomplishment, but probably not one they want us to pay attention to.
Another few weeks of ignorance, lies, and hypocrisy. This is all getting pretty predictable.