Good, I hate this racist asshole:
http://www.politicspa.com/...
Americans United for Change (AUFC), a national liberal PAC, released a TV spot on Wednesday that criticizes Rep. Lou Barletta for his involvement in the government shutdown.
The ad aligns Barletta with the Tea Party, and blames him for promoting their uncompromising agenda. It looks and sounds like a radio ad set to a slideshow as a narrator lists Barletta’s supposed transgressions.
“Lou Barletta joined with Tea Party Republicans in Congress and shut down our government, putting hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work, putting critical benefits for veterans, seniors and the disabled at risk, denying cancer treatment for kids, and halting food inspections,” a narrator says.
Barletta initially flirted with moderate compromise in the wake of the government shutdown. He joined 4 other Pa. Reps in saying that he would be willing to vote for a ‘clean’ CR that would fund the government with no preconditions.
However, on Tuesday, Barletta went back on this offering, saying he would oppose a clean CR and would instead support a bill that cut the medical device tax from Obamacare. - Politics PA, 10/9/13
Here's a little more info on Barletta's flip flop:
http://www.timesleader.com/...
When asked as recently as Monday afternoon on whether the congressman would vote for what’s called a clean continuing resolution, Barletta’s spokesman Tim Murtaugh said he would. But sometime between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, things changed.
“The whole process is a series of moving targets, and negotiations change hourly,” Murtaugh said.
He noted “a growing number of Democrats emerged that would support repeal of the medical device tax.” That momentum has led to Barletta hitching his cart to that horse and seeing if it can pass the House and the Senate and end the shutdown while also repealing another part of the unpopular with the GOP Obamacare.
“I’m a former mayor, so I’m looking for solutions to problems. Sometimes being in Congress means practicing the art of the possible. We can keep the government open and dismantle a major funding source of Obamacare,” Barletta said. “We’ll get rid of an Obamacare tax that kills jobs, raises costs of important medical equipment and best of all can pass the House and Senate.”
The switch in support came right around the same time U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, sent a letter to House Majority Leader John Boehner urging for a vote in that chamber on a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government. In the letter he noted, “the majority of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation, including five Republican members of the House of Representatives, is publicly supportive.”
Barletta was included as one of those five. - Wilkes Barre Times Leader, 10/8/13
Barletta is just following the lead of his buddy Rep. Devin Nunes (R. CA-22) in trying to dismantle Obamacare:
http://www.slate.com/...
Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta, who is also often placed on the whip lists, had the same stance as Nunes. "I'm not in favor of a clean CR," he told me. "I'm past that. There haven't been several whip counts—it was at 1 a.m. after we'd taken three shots at keeping the government open. At the time, I was in favor of a clean CR for a week or two weeks so we could keep negotiating. Since then I've found a group of Democrats who are willing to repeal the Medical Device Tax, which I think would be a great compromise, since it seems very obvious that the Senate and the president are not going to deal away Obamacare. If we can dismantle Obamacare piece by piece, I think that's another step forward."
Barletta went on to say that he actually favored attaching a balanced-budget amendment to the debt limit, so he's really not in a cave-in mood. But what's the larger point of Clean CR Mania? It's that the media wants to see Republicans cracking and caving on a "clean CR," and the party isn't actually doing so. - Slate, 10/8/13
Barletta of course isn't the only target AUFC is going after:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
The ads will target Reps. Tom Latham (R-IA), Richard Hanna (R-NY), Dan Benishek (R-MI), Lou Barletta (R-PA), Jeff Denham (R-CA), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Bill Johnson (R-OH), Andy Barr (R-KY) and Rodney Davis (R-IL), according to the Huffington Post.
The ads begin by saying that each member joined the Tea Party in shutting down the government, and then list impacts that the shutdown has had on Americans, like ceasing food inspections and putting veteran benefits at risk. - TPM, 10/9/13
AUFC is hoping that their ads will pressure guys like Barletta to vote for a clean CR:
http://www.pennlive.com/...
“Make no mistake: Congressman Barletta refusing to support clean legislation to keep the government open at the 11th hour was the act of a politician that that welcomed a shutdown,” said Brad Woodhouse, President, Americans United for Change. “Barletta joined with the extortionist Tea Party crowd in Congress who demanded a ransom they knew they would never get: killing the Affordable Care Act.”
Woodhouse called on Barletta “to give up his obsession” on trying to defeat the health care law.
“Maybe the prospect of losing his job will,” he said. “Barletta has a chance to get right with his constituents by calling on Speaker Boehner to allow a vote on a clean CR today before any more middle class families get hurt. Just vote already.” - The Patriot-News, 10/9/13
The DCCC is working on getting former Congressman Chris Carney (D. PA) to move to the 11th district (he's from PA-10) to challenge Barletta. Hopefully we'll be hearing a decision from him soon or we'll score another top tier candidate. Either way, I would love to see Barletta pay at the polls next year.