Action in the House has slowed down a bit this week, as the House is in and out of session. But the crazy continues, as these events from the last couple of weeks demonstrate.
We don't need no stinking facts: GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp used a study by an outfit called McKinsey and Company to claim that 30% of employers anticipated dropping their health insurance coverage for employees due to the health care reform passed by the Democrats. Trouble is, he kept citing this study even after the company that did it revised its own claims, explicitly stating that the study was NOT a predictive analysis of the impact of the Affordabel Care Act. Most people back down from a claim once the evidence they cite is shown to be wrong. Not, apparently, Rep. Huelskamp and the GOP. But, after all, it is not that big a leap from the well-documented anti-science stance of the Republican party to a simple anti-facts stance. After all, it was only a few weeks ago that some Republicans were even stating that there are actually no favorable tax breaks or subsidies for Big Oil. faulty insurance study
Comforting the comfortable, afflicting the afflicted: Rep. Cantor skipped out on debt talks in order to protect the rich. See the reports here and here. Apparently, the fact that Democrats wanted to eliminate special tax breaks for corporate jets, and phase out some credits and breaks for persons earning over $500,000 - yes, that's FIVE.HUNDRED.THOUSAND. dollars per year - was just too much for the Republicans to bear, so Cantor bravely stood up for the corporate elite and other very rich folks. Which was entirely predictable. What is not so understandable is why there is one single person in the entire United States who earns less than, say, 100,000 or so, and still believes that the GOP has any real concern at all for his or her economic well-being.
Protecting millionaires good, protecting average consumers from fraud bad: Given the GOP's determination to openly be the utterly subservient tools of the rich and the super-rich, this news should be no surprise. The GOP has made no effort to hide its determination to block regulations that might actually help to protect the finances of the typical American. So the House Appropriations committee placed a cap on funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was about half of what the Federal reserve estimated was needed for the agency. Tax breaks for corporate jets? Good. A serious, strong agency to protect consumers from financial fraud, in some cases doubtless perpetrated by companies flying their eexecutives around in those private jets? No, sorry, can't do it. Because it will cost jobs. Or it is un-American. Or something.
Rep. Akin explains it all: Liberals just hate God. Seriously. He actually said it. At the "heart of liberalism" is a "hatred of God."
Somebody should aks Rep. Akin why he thinks Jesus hates God so much. Because, after all, Jesus went on and on with tiresome exhortations to help the poor. And he actually suggested that rich people should give away what they have! And he was nice to prostitutes and tax collectors, too. Considering the twin GOP obsessions of denouncing a single penny in higher taxes for the richest 1% (while cutting services and social benefits that help out the poorest among us), and sanctimonious posturing about "family values", it's safe to say that they're not very Christ-like.
Michelle Bachmann's Astounding One-Woman Cavalcade of Crazy: We are going to see a lot more of this. A lot more. Now that Bachmann has decided to run for President, she'll have to talk a lot - because she'll be campaigning. Unfortunately for her (and the GOP), the more she talks, the worse she sounds. Here are the recent high(?)lights.
Bachmann doubles down on her claim that the founding fathers "worked tirelessly to end slavery": Yes, she still stands by that one. This time, her rationale is that John Quincy Adams was against slavery. The problem is, it's J.Q.'s dad, John Adams, who was one of the founders. J.Q. hadn't even hit puberty when the Constitution was being written.
More jobs? Just eliminate the minimum wage. Don't let anyone say that bachmann doesn't have a jobs plan! You see, to reduce unemployment, all we have to do is stop demanding that workers be paid so much. It's unclear if she still stands by a 2005 comment that eliminating the minimum wage would "wipe out unemployment completely." Of course, we did have some unemployment problems in the 1930s, when there was no minimum wage. And never mind that the minimum wage is totally inadequate to cover living expenses even for a single adult - unless you live rent-free in your parent's basement, that is.
Perks (and pork) for me, but not for thee: It also turns out that Bachmann, like so many Tea Party anti-government crusaders, is not so pure when it comes to receiving those benefits personally. It seems that Bachmann and her family have received hundreds of thousands in federal farm subsidies, and a counseling clinic run by her husband got tens of thousands in Federal dollars for employee training. And of course, her oncern for wasteful government pork does not extend to earmarking millions in Federal funds for projects in her district. Her weaselly contortions to explain all this away, when confronted by none other than Chris Wallace (on Fox News!) will make you laugh. Or cry. Or puke. Or perhaps all three. Once again, it is the sheer hypocrisy - the self-righteous posturing, while doing the exact thing she condemns - that seems a defining characteristic of the modern GOP. Now we will see how long she can get away with this act as her words and actions are exposed to the constant scrutiny of a Presidential campaign.