Laying out the first plans for his party’s presidential ticket, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took some factual shortcuts Wednesday night when he attacked President Barack Obama’s policies on Medicare, the economic stimulus and the budget deficit. Sen. Rob Portman, a former U.S. trade representative, glossed over his own problems when critiquing Obama‘s trade dealings with China. A day earlier,…
Tag: gop
Republican Platform Calls Medicaid a ‘Black Hole.’
Talking about dismantling health care for the poor might seem to clash with balloons and funny hats, but this is a Republican convention, so it fits right in with the celebratory mood. Many in the parade of governors scheduled to speak tonight have long complained about how much they are forced to spend to keep…
GOP team is wrong prescription for patients
One major concern for me and every American is the future of our nation’s health care system. The quality of that system affects us all, and we need details about the candidates’ approach to health care, not high-level talking points. I write this as a lifelong Republican and registered nurse. The foremost priority for me…
2012 or Never for GOP’s White Base
A Republican strategist said something interesting and revealing on Friday, though it largely escaped attention in the howling gusts of punditry over Mitt Romney’s birth certificate crack and a potential convention-altering hurricane. The subject was a Ron Brownstein story outlining the demographic hit rates each party requires to win in November. To squeak out a majority, Mitt…
Paul Ryan and Todd Akin Partnered On Radical Personhood Bill Outlawing Abortion And Many Birth Control Pills
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that Rep. Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin R-MO and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan both cosponsored the bill that introduced America to the despicable term “forcible rape.” As it turns out, this may only be the second most sweeping attack on reproductive freedom that both men partnered on. Ryan and Akin also…
Ohio GOP Election Board Member: Our Voting Process Shouldn’t Accommodate Black Voters
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s recent decision to prohibit early voting on nights and weekends in all districts has many concerned about the effect on voter turnout in the state, particularly among low-income and minority communities. But one Republican Party chairman is content to suppress votes among this vulnerable demographic. Doug Preisse, chairman of…
GOP pros fret over Paul Ryan
Away from the cameras, and with all the usual assurances that people aren’t being quoted by name, there is an unmistakable consensus among Republican operatives in Washington: Romney has taken a risk with Ryan that has only a modest chance of going right — and a huge chance of going horribly wrong. In more than…
House Republicans To Boehner: If We Can’t Repeal Obamacare, Shut Down The Government
Since much of the implementation of ObamaCare is a function of the discretionary appropriations process, and since most of the citizens we represent believe that ObamaCare should never go into effect, we urge you not to bring to the House floor in the 112th Congress any legislation that provides or allows funds to implement ObamaCare…
Senate Republican Plan Raises Far More People’s Taxes than the Senate Democratic Plan
Senate Republicans would raise taxes on millions of families at the end of this year. In fact, based on our analysis, the Senate Republicans’ plan would likely raise taxes on more than 20 million families—about 10 times as many people who would see higher taxes next year under the Senate Democrats’ plan offered by Majority…
Republican Jobs Bills Won’t Actually Create Jobs, Say Economists
The GOP jobs package, which currently includes 32 bills, represents Republicans’ hallmark legislative accomplishment over the past two years. In the months ahead of the election, they will lean on it as proof of two things: that they are not the do-nothing obstructionists that Democrats paint them as, and that they are working hard to…
Health Providers Support Medicaid Expansion As Govs Draw Line In The Sand
Even as state executives such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Rick Scott remain firm in their opposition to the health law’s Medicaid expansion, health providers such as Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tony Cosgrove express their support for it. The Associated Press: Working Poor Stand At Center Of Medicaid Debate Families like…
GOP To Make 31st Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Act
The House Rules Committee takes up a bill Monday called the “Repeal of Obamacare Act.” And just like it says, the bill would wipe away the president’s Affordable Care Act. A vote of the full House is planned for Wednesday. It’s the first legislative response from House Republicans after the Supreme Court upheld the law….
Congressional GOP Planning Rollback Of Individual Health Law Provisions
As the House Rules Committee schedules a hearing on the bill to repeal the full 2010 health law, Republican members and staff examine how to target individual provisions through budget reconciliation. Politico Pro: Gaming Out Repeal By Reconciliation If Mitt Romney wins the White House and Republicans take back total control of Congress in November,…
Want to read the over 300 lies Romney has told in the past few months?
For those who are watching the 2012 presidential race closely, Mitt Romney’s penchant for falsehoods is hard to miss. Michael Cohen summarized the issue nicely this week in a piece for The Guardian: Granted, presidential candidates are no strangers to disingenuous or overstated claims; it’s pretty much endemic to the business. But Romney is doing something very different…
Yes, Iraq Definitely Had WMD, Vast Majority Of Polled Republicans Insist
A Washington Post poll in September 2003 found that nearly 70 percent of all Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks — even though he was not. Bush, Cheney and others consistently linked al Qaeda to Hussein in speeches they gave in the run-up to war, and the…
Republicans Likely Renege On Their Pledge To ‘Replace’ Obamacare
The GOP’s internal disagreement and unwillingness to offer a unified comprehensive plan suggests that they consider health care a low legislative priority. For instance, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the GOP’s spokesman on economic issues — told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that the party will “articulate our vision” to replace the law, but wouldn’t…
House and Senate Unanimously Reject Obama Budgets — Or Do They?
While the Sessions and Mulvaney bills put forward the same topline numbers as those in the president’s budget, neither offered any specifics. The Sessions legislation was 56 pages long; actual budgets are closer to 2,000 pages long. Thus, a White House official said, the Sessions proposal was a “shell that could be filled with a…
Nearly Two-Thirds Of Private-Sector Jobs Added In Last 50 Years Came Under Democratic Presidents
Republicans have made a show of their supposed job creation efforts over the past three years, decrying “job killing” regulations and taxes on “job creators.” They have a web site — 4jobs.gov — devoted to their job creation agenda and have even named legislation the JOBS Act. They have also slammed President Obama, saying that…
Right-Wing Claims Obama’s New Campaign Slogan Reveals His Secret Communist And/Or Fascist Allegiances
One word; seven letters; so much nefarious hidden meaning. The Obama campaign’s new slogan, “Forward,” may seem like a typically oblique and anodyne piece of political branding — but thankfully, right-wing bloggers are here to reveal its true meaning, and predictably, it involves socialism and Hitler. The president’s reelection campaign unveiled the slogan yesterday in…
Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal…