House Republicans Name An Already Expired Program As First Spending Item They Would Cut

Wonk Room

One program upon which House Republicans have consistently seized upon to bolster their budget-cutting bona fides is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund, a successful program that created 250,000 jobs in 37 states via subsidized employment programs for low-income and unemployed workers. And according to National Journal, Republicans are once again railing against the program:

House Republicans have targeted one of the first programs they would like to ax: the $25 billion emergency fund for people who lose their jobs, part of last year’s stimulus bill. Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said the program encourages states to increase their welfare caseloads “without requiring able-bodied individuals to work, get job training, or make other efforts to move off of taxpayer assistance.”

As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out, Price’s characterization of the fund is completely inaccurate. The program also had the staunch support of many Republican governors, including Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), who said it provided “much-needed aid during this recession by enabling businesses to hire new workers, thus enhancing the economic engines of our local communities.”

But the crux of the issue is that eliminating the TANF emergency fund will save exactly zero dollars, because the program has already expired! It was funded at $5 billion for two years, and ended on September 30, 2010. It’s over, and there is no money for Price to save.

Note several things here. One, the GOP has spent months ignoring the question "What specifically would you cut?". The answer was a variant on 'we'll see when we get in there'. Now that they're there, the first answer is to cut an already expired program.

Point number two is that they were planning to cut a program that provided relief to unemployed workers.

Read that last sentence again.

I wonder how many unemployed workers voted Republican two weeks ago? I wonder how many just stayed home? Why? There's not much else to say, just "why?". By not turning out for the Democrats, you've cut your own economic throat. and it's not like you can say you didn't know. The GOP promised to cut unemployment benefits, they consistently voted against them.

If you're not in the richest 2%, prepare for the hard times to get worse because the GOP has made it clear that they don't care about you.

Republicans are illogical asshats

Richard Shelby is blocking the nomination of Peter Diamond to sit on the Fed board of governors.

Why?

Shelby says Diamond is unqualified.

Diamond is a professor of economics at a little school called MIT.

Diamond won the Nobel Prize for economics.

Diamond was Ben Bernanke's teacher!

"While the Nobel Prize for economics is a significant recognition, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences does not determine who is qualified to serve on the Board of Governors," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.

via Cesca

Right. He's unqualified. Notice Shelby didn't say he disagreed with him - he said that he's unqualified.

This is stupidity for stupidity's sake.

John Boehner and anti-intellectualism: ‘I Don’t Need To See Numbers Or Listen To Economists’

In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, John Boehner (R-Dipshit) argued against further stimulus and in favor of extending the Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthy.

When Wallace showed Boehner GDP numbers indicating that the economic recovery is shrinking and stated that many economists were calling for more federal stimulus (the effects of which Boehner still waffles about), Boehner became blustery. When pressed by Wallace about the contradiction between the giant hole that an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthy would blow in the deficit and Boehner's self-described deficit hawk status, Boehner decided that facts are inconvenient things:

"Well, I don’t need to see GDP numbers or to listen to economists. All I need to do is listen to the American people, because they’ve been asking the question now for 18 months, “where are the jobs?”

(Later, to Wallace)
Chris, you’ve been in Washington too long because that’s all a bunch of Washington talk... This is the whole Washington mindset, all these CBO numbers,”

John Boehner

He then went on to add: "Yes, those pesky NUMBERS. Those are LIBERAL NUMBERS, bent on making us a socialist nation. As Republicans, we don't trust those Democrat numbers. Numbers lie. We go from the gut, we listen to the American people. Maybe in Washington they care about numbers, but in real America, we know that numbers lie. Stop being so naive, Chris."

OK, maybe he didn't say that, but he should have. Because it's what he meant.

Now he's going to try to hang the lack of jobs that his party has filibustered on Obama. and they're going to hang the economy, which is losing momentum for lack of further stimulus, on Obama despite the fact that it's the GOP who won't listen to numbers and facts and do the right thing. Cesca (h/t) points out: The Republicans have filibustered the jobs. And they've proposed solutions, like renewing the Bush tax cuts and cutting spending, that will sabotage economic growth.

Now Boehner is asking "Where are the jobs that we've done our damned best to kill in order to make the Kenyan Messiah a one-termer?"

Quoting ThinkProgress, this is "blind ideology". He'll oppose whatever Obama stands for. He no more cares about the direction of the country than he cares about the long-term effects of over-tanning.

By the way, can we all at least agree that the real pronunciation of his last name is actually "Boner"?

Newt Gingrich wants to go to war with Iran and North Korea

Newt Gingrich - contender for the Republican nomination for President in 2012, cozy buddy with Sarah Palin and sure to be high in her cabinet if she were to win the Presidency - wants to start 2 more wars based on the failed ideology of Geroge W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" comments.

HuffPost

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich twice called on the United States to attack North Korea and Iran Thursday because the United States has only attacked "one out of three" of so-called "Axis of Evil" members by invading Iraq.

Right.

How do I even begin to list the reasons that this is boneheadedly stupid? We can't afford the two wars we're already in. We're broke. We'll be paying off Iraq and Afghanistan for decades to come and he wants to start two more? Our military is stressed to the breaking point, military suicides are at all-time highs, soldiers on their 3rd and4th tours through combat zones.

This is supposed to be a reasonable GOP strategy to retake the White House? Dear sweet Zeus.

Sarah Shakespeare insults Muslims, New York and English

Governor Quitter was at it early this morning, Tweeting the following:

Never mind the religious bigotry inherent in telling "peace loving Muslims" what they should think....REFUDIATE???!! Oh dear. How did Wasilla not beat out Scranton? And since when is Alaska American's "heartland"? The woman loves word props.

Not enough to let it go, she doubles down:


On the facts of the issue, it's not a "Ground Zero" mosque. Quoting LGF: "It should be pointed out (again) that the “Ground Zero mosque” these idiots are ranting about is actually a proposed community center with an auditorium, swimming pool, and restaurants, in addition to a mosque. It would be housed in an existing 13-story building that’s two blocks away from Ground Zero and has no view of the area; there are two very big buildings in between the proposed community center and Ground Zero."

The facts be damned in ZombieLand, the head zombie goes right at it again:


It's becoming a firestorm of controversy. She apparently refudiates her original Tweet and deletes it. Apparently pride in one's own stupidity has its limits. At this point, the refudiations are all over Twitter.




Now she's getting doubly-dumped on. Not just for her religious ignorance but for her Bushian abuse of the language:


Does she take the criticism humbly? Does she deflect it with an "I'm not perfect"? A "sorry"? I'd say not:


SHAKESPEARE! SHAKESPEARE! She just compared herself and her (losing) wrestling match with the English language to Shakespeare.

Cue Olbermann and Ebert:




This woman wants to be a serious candidate for the Presidency? Do we really want to go back to Stupidville so soon?

In a positive development, CBS and NBC have refused to air this bigoted, vulgar, racist, fear-mongering video.



screencaps from PalinGates

*facepalm*, I'm soooo proud

from HuffPost and thanks to Hammerito for pointing out that we're only the 10th least educated. We can't win at ANYTHING!

Ouch! Why kan't Glenn Beck speel rite?

Heroes OR villians?

Republicans say the darndest (dumbest) things

Fox & Friends, the short bus of the news media

ThinkProgress
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade has been embarrassing himself more than usual over the last few days on Fox & Friends. Yesterday, after news broke that the cap BP placed on its leaking oil well had to be removed because one of its robots bumped the well’s venting system, Kilmeade had some harsh words for the robot. “I’d love to talk to that robot that knocked…the top off the cap that was in the bottom of the Gulf yesterday,” Kilmeade said. “What was that robot thinking?” he asked in disgust.

Then today, as Media Matters notes, the Fox co-host had had this dim-witted question for President Obama:
KILMEADE: The President took a matter of hours to pick a commander in Afghanistan so why is it taking months to plug the leaking oil?

HuffPost
On Wednesday morning's "Fox and Friends," Carlson was discussing whether Obama would fire General Stanley McChrystal for his controversial remarks in Rolling Stone.

She said that "this is what being president of the United States is all about. It's these tough, huge, monumental decisions."

Carlson then compared the role of the president to that of being a host on "Fox and Friends":
"It's just like our job...what's the role of an anchor during huge breaking news? You remember growing up? You'd tune to the television, and that one moment during the year, they would have to carry a story all along, it's the same thing as being the President of the United States."

Yeah, like watch out if he becomes President or something

Watch out if Obama ever gets in a position where he can, you know, do something.

She's the Baskin-Robbins of stupid. 31 Flavors.

Sarah Palin is a stupid, stupid idiot.

Benen via Cesca

On Fox News last night, Bill O'Reilly and former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin (R) discussed their belief that "America is a Christian nation." Palin -- who I'd swear is getting dumber -- offered viewers this gem:

"[O]ur Constitution, of course, essentially acknowledging that our unalienable rights don't come from man; they come from God. So this document is set up to protect us from a government that would ever infringe upon our rights to have freedom of religion and to be able to express our faith freely."

First, "inalienable" isn't in the Constitution; it's in the Declaration of Independence. Second, the Constitution makes literally no references to our rights "coming from God." In fact, the Constitution doesn't mention God, Christianity, the Ten Commandments, or Scripture at all. Palin doesn't have any idea what she's talking about.

Specifically defending the practice of the federal government encouraging Americans to engage in worship, Palin went on to argue:

"I think we should kind of keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They're quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 Commandments. It's pretty simple."

Perhaps "simple" in the idiotic sense, but not in reality. For one thing, if we take Palin's advice and honor what the Founding Fathers thought, we wouldn't have a National Day of Prayer. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison explicitly rejected state-sponsored prayer days. Palin has this backwards because she doesn't know what she's talking about.

The worst thing that could happen to Sarah Palin is for John McCain to die in the next 18 months. The collective shudder down the backs of mainstream America will be palpable. It's one thing to have an idiot for a vice-president. But for Americans to internalize that this nudnik could have been in the Oval Office during this time of tremendous change and risk?

McCain dying in the next year or so will put a dagger in the Palin Tea Party's (somehow still slightly breathing) hopes of being taken seriously.

Speaking of seriously, Keith Olbermann Tweeted this recently. It's a chat from the Washington Post with Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips.

Check out the last question/response:

Maryland: I am sorry but your answer of "I think the political class is afraid of the Tea Party movement. After all, we get people out as volunteers and get them to the polls. For them, it cannot be the same as usual in D.C. A lot of them are going to be unemployed after the first of the year and that does scare them" is really offensive. This us vs. them mentality is really repulsive to me. I am a hard-working middle class American and I don't agree with anything you are saying, and I have a right not agree with you. But you splitting the citizenry into classes of "elites/political class/Washington insiders/liberals" vs "real Americans" is just plain wrong! and that's the problem with your movement.

Liberals are just as American as you are and you and your movement has no right to question people's patriotism or Americanness just because they disagree with you.

Judson Phillips: Yes we do. You folks in the left do far worse. Patriotism is not something that cannot be measured. It can be. And you folks on the left, as a general rule are not patriotic. You do not love this country. You are embarrassed by us.

I hate to tell you this, but those of us in fly over country are the real Americans.

There's the Tea Party vision of America folks.

Sarah Palin is an idiot. Inadvertantly calls Fox "lamestream media".

Just to clarify, calling Fox News stupid doesn't make her an idiot. Her lack of comprehension makes her an idiot.

via Cesca

"This is the problem with that lamestream media throughout our country, it's not just this issue but so many. One of the media outlets the other day just, ah, just was killin' me on this one, Sean, where they had a caption across their screen that said this Arizona law will make it -- it will make it illegal to be an illegal immigrant -- some bizarre type 'a headline like that where it was just this illustration that they just don't get it."

Sarah Palin on the Hannity Show last night

Uh, Sarah?

Rep. Johnson: U.S. Military could cause Guam to tip over and capsize

You are not reading that incorrectly.

The Hill

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) is afraid that the U.S. Territory of Guam is going to "tip over and capsize" due to overpopulation.

Johnson expressed his worries during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the defense budget Thursday.

Addressing Adm. Robert Willard, who commands the Navy's Pacific Fleet, Johnson made a tippy motion with his hands and said sternly, "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize."

Willard paused and said: "We don't anticipate that."

Like other islands, Guam is attached to the sea floor, which makes it extremely unlikely that it will tip over, even if there are lots and lots of people on it.

Go to 1:20 in the clip.

GOP dilemma: how to take a position when doing so will expose your incoherence

the Republicans have done such a great job of spraying nonsense all over the place that as we get closer to a real vote, they're stuck in an awkward position. They've been for nothiong except "No" for so long, that they're 1) afraid to commit to a position because 2) they have no position.

They want to put forth some, you know.... ideas. But putting forth ideas means having them. Having ideas means taking a stand on an issue. That is quite different than the current practice of saying "We're for whatever makes the black guy look bad, so whatever he says is good, we think it's socialism and he's probably a Kenyan Nazi. Or something. Boo."

So they've now come up with a reason NOT to put out any ideas:

Politico

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor wants a document, akin to Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract With America, that identifies specific pieces of legislation Republicans could pass if they win back the House. He thinks Republicans should “put up or shut up,” an aide close to the process said. So does Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, the House Republican Conference chairman. The party doesn’t need “sloganeering,” someone familiar with his thinking said.

....But Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who is leading the effort to craft the document, says that including specific legislation in the contract would smack of the backroom deals the GOP accuses Democrats of making, so “you won’t see it written out.”

The other issue with "stands" and "ideas" is that putting out more than one will display the fundamental incoherence of their positions.

On the topic of bank reform, how do you choose to run on the standard GOP practice of being anti-regulation when doing so leaves us open to another meltdown, AND reminds people that it was largely your policies that allowed the meltdown to happen in the first place?

Steve Benen
Sen. Scott Brown (R–Mass.) explaining that he can't support financial reform because it's "going to be an extra layer of regulation." Which is like saying that you don't want better brakes on your car because "they're going to slow me down." And when the reporter followed up to ask what he wanted fixed in the current bill, he just got completely flummoxed: "Well, what areas do you think should be fixed?" he said. "I mean, you know, tell me. And then I'll get a team and go fix it.''

Are people really considering voting for them? They've said "we're for nothing in particular, but we're against what Obama is doing because he's (insert racially-tinged, politically-inaccurate, stubbornly-dumb, hypocritical epithet here).

(via Mother Jones)

America is a stupid country - the reality of 'throw the bums out'

Let's look at the reality versus the truth that's being spun regarding this president and his "failures".

John Cole/Balloon Juice

When the President was elected and this congress took office, we were losing over half a million jobs a month. Now, we are gaining jobs.

In the past year and a half, they’ve stabilized the banks, the economy, and the major car companies, they passed health care reform that adds thirty million people and cuts the deficit long term while getting rid of the worst abuses of the insurance companies, extended the solvency of Medicare for a decade, we’re drawing down troops in Iraq, we are making progress with green energy, there has not been one successful terrorist attack on American soil, we’ve just signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty and re-examined our use of nuclear weapons and we are making great progress on the global stage. Hell, the DOW is up over 3,000 since we got rid of the bums. Personally, we’re getting a road paved near me that was a disaster, and it is being paid for with stimulus money. We’re gonna put some people to work and have a nice paved road! And Obama and company did it all without getting blowjobs from interns.

And we’re going to reward them by kicking a lot of them out of office. We’re a really stupid country.

Ford's turning a profit, the president made $8 billion for the nation in the Citi bailout, jobs are up, if START II passes the threat of nuclear holocaust is pushed back, the troops in Iraq are coming home without it turning into a bloodbath, we've avoided terroist attacks on our homeland (unlike Bush), we've captured or killed 10 top terrorists in just over a year.

Yeah, throw the bums out.

If we do, this is what we get: a reversal of all of the gains we made. And a return to the world created by this guy. Don't believe me? Here's the guy who shut down government and drove us to our knees 15 years ago in the name of dogmatic conservative "principle":

Dave Weigel

"Stage one of the end of Obamaism will be a new Republican Congress in January that simply refuses to fund it," said Gingrich -- that last word was drowned out in a standing ovation.

Gingrich ribbed the media for suggesting that this wasn't possible. "I think they forget that once upon a time I used to be Speaker of the House," he said. "Under our Constitution, Congress doesn't have to pass the funding."

What's funny is that Republicans claim to be for tax cuts. They're not - they're for them as political leverage when they deliver them. When President Obama cut taxes by 10% for 95% of all Americans, that's bad.

Bad.

So bad that Glenn Beck wants you to give it back.

Here's the President in his Weekly Address

Benen

"So far, Americans who have filed their taxes have discovered that the average refund is up nearly ten percent this year -- to an all-time high of about $3,000. This is due in large part to the Recovery Act. In fact, one-third of the Recovery Act was made up of tax cuts -- tax cuts that have already provided more than $160 billion in relief for families and businesses, and nearly $100 billion of that directly into the pockets of working Americans.

"No one I've met is looking for a handout. And that's not what these tax cuts are. Instead, they're targeted relief to help middle class families weather the storm, to jumpstart our economy, and to bring the fundamentals of the American Dream -- making an honest living, earning an education, owning a home, and raising a family -- back within reach for millions of Americans."

The reality is that this President is standing up for the economic needs of the core demographic of Tea Partiers. Except, you know, he's black.

Yes We Can't