Chris Matthews: Republicans would have blamed Obama for 9/11

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

On his show Tuesday night, MSBNC host Chris Matthews said Republicans would have blamed the September 11 terror attacks on President Barack Obama if he were in office at the time.

The liberal TV host began by calling on Republicans to stop blaming Obama for failing to clean up the mess they created during the Bush administration. He also accused Republicans of stoking so-called birther conspiracies about Obama.

“Imagine if Democrats played this rough,” Matthews said. “Imagine if they blamed the Republican Party for a failure of national security on the eve of 9/11? Does anyone doubt they’d have done it to the Democrats had the horrible attacks occurred on Obama’s watch? Really. Can’t you hear the birthers and tea partiers gyrating with righteous indignation over that one?”

He said Republicans were “dying” for voters to “reward them for the single virtue of having lost the last election so they didn’t have to be here cleaning up the mess they left behind.”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

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Will the GOP stop wasting time?

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5 Ways Republicans Have Sabotaged Job Growth

By Jeff Spross/Think Progress

New numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the economy added a mere 80,000 jobs in June. That’s down from an average of 150,000 jobs a month for the first part of the year, and far too little to keep up with population growth.

Republican intransigence on economic policy has been a key contributor to the sluggish recovery. As early as 2009, Republican fear-mongering over spending and their readiness to filibuster in the Senate helped convince the White House economic team that an $800 billion stimulus was the most they could hope to get through Congress. Reporting has since revealed that the team thought the country actually needed a stimulus on the order of $1.2 to $1.8 trillion. The economy’s path over the next three years proved them right. Here are the top five ways the Republicans have sabotaged the economic recovery since:

1. Filibustering the American Jobs Act. Last October, Senate Republicans killeda jobs bill proposed by President Obama that would have pumped $447 billion into the economy. Multiple economic analysts predicted the bill would add around two million jobs and hailed it as defense against a double-dip recession. The Congressional Budget Office also scored it as a net deficit reducer over ten years, and the American public supported the bill.

2. Stonewalling monetary stimulus. The Federal Reserve can do enormous good for a depressed economy through more aggressive monetary stimulus, and by tolerating a temporarily higher level of inflation. But with everything from Ron Paul’s anti-inflationary crusade to Rick Perry threatening to lynch Chairman Ben Bernanke, Republicans have browbeaten the Fed into not going down this path. Most damagingly, the GOP repeatedly held up President Obama’s nominations to the Federal Reserve Board during the critical months of the recession, leaving the board without the institutional clout it needed to help the economy.

3. Threatening a debt default. Even though the country didn’t actually hit its debt ceiling last summer, the Republican threat to default on the United States’ outstanding obligations was sufficient to spook financial markets anddo real damage to the economy.

4. Cutting discretionary spending in the debt ceiling deal. The deal the GOP extracted as the price for avoiding default imposed around $900 billion in cuts over ten years. It included $30.5 billion in discretionary cuts in 2012 alone, costing the country 0.3 percent in economic growth and 323,000 jobs, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute. Starting in 2013, the deal will trigger another $1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years.

5. Cutting discretionary spending in the budget deal. While not as cataclysmic as the debt ceiling brinksmanship, Republicans also threatened a shutdown of the government in early 2011 if cuts were not made to that year’s budget. The deal they struck with the White House cut $38 billion from food stamps, health, education, law enforcement, and low-income programs among others, whilesparing defense almost entirely.

There have also been a few near-misses, in which the GOP almost prevented help from coming to the economy. The Republicans in the House delayed a transportation bill that saved as many as 1.9 million jobs. House Committees run by the GOP have passed proposals aimed at cutting billions from food stamps, and the party has repeatedly threatened to kill extensions of unemployment insurance and cuts to the payroll tax.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, those policies — the payroll tax cut, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and discretionary spending for low-income Americans —have the highest multipliers, meaning more job boosting potential per dollar.

Republicans Expose Themselves as Enemies of Millions of Americans Health and Well-being

By: Rmuse/politicususa

When voters go to the polls, they assume their chosen representatives will work for the interests of all the people to provide an environment that allows every citizen to prosper in the pursuit of happiness whether it is a good job, a decent home, or good health. For the past three years, Republicans have demonstrated their ideology demands protecting the wealthy and big business at the expense of the majority of Americans, and when possible, punish the rest of the populace out of sheer contempt and for political expediency. Whether it is labeled collateral damage or ideological consistency, the GOP is unfazed when their policies cause undue harm to the American people and it has become the hallmark of the party’s agenda regardless the issue. Of course, the issue of the moment is the Affordable Care Act’s implementation after the Supreme Court ruled the health insurance reform law is constitutional, and Republicans are taking extreme measures to block implementation of the law regardless the consequences to millions of Americans.

In a letter from Republicans Jim DeMint and Michele Bachmann to states with Republican governors, they asked for assistance to punish Americans by refusing to implement provisions of the Affordable Care Act. “By refusing to create an exchange, you will assist us in Congress to repeal this violation,” and it is part of their campaign to demean the law they consider “reprehensible” regardless it passed both houses of Congress, was signed into law by the President, and declared constitutional by the High Court. The beneficiaries of repealing the Affordable Care Act are the insurance industry who can return to immoral practices of refusing to provide health care consumers pay dearly for, and as is usually the case for Republican policies, to punish Americans. There are already several Republican governors promising to opt out of a plan intended to give millions of poor Americans health coverage, and in a continuing Republican practice, they are lying to justify their decision.

Florida governor Rick Scott epitomizes Republican hatred for the people and on Sunday he announced that his state is opting out of an expansion of Medicaid, a joint federal-state health care program, and choosing not to build a state-based health insurance marketplace known as an exchange. The ACA always allowed states to “opt out” of building an exchange, and if they did refuse to set up the health care marketplace, the Department of Health and Human Services will do it for them. Florida is a particularly noteworthy example because by opting out of the Medicaid expansion, they are leaving a significant portion of their citizens without health care.According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, Florida has the second-highest rate of uninsured Americans at 21 percent. If Scott did not opt out, Medicaid expansion would have covered 951,622 people according to Kaiser and it informs the level of contempt Scott, a typical Republican, has for residents of his state.

In what has become a typical Republican tactic, Scott lies and says Florida can’t afford the expansion, but for the first two years the federal government pays 100% of the Medicaid expansion and after 2017 when states begin paying their share they will never contribute more than 10% of the cost. Scott is not the only Republican governor to opt out of the Medicaid expansion or exchanges that threaten nearly a million people in Florida alone, and depending on the number of states opting out, the Medicaid expansion helps provide healthcare coverage for more than half of the 31 million Americans without healthcare insurance, or 16 million Americans who are mostly children, seniors, and the working poor according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, Republicans have revealed their true intention if they are able to repeal the ACA, and it is that they have no plans to help over 31 million Americans gain access to affordable health care.  Over the weekend, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “the lack of healthcare is not an issue” Republicans are concerned about, and Speaker of the House John Boehner was hard-pressed to contain his anger at being questioned on how Republicans would replace the ACA if they repeal it. Boehner admitted “all of those provisions, popular provisions, many of them very sound provisions can, in fact, be done in a common-sense way,” but only in small incremental steps after Republicans were finished“ripping Obamacare out by its roots.”

McConnell revealed the real issue for Republicans and it is not whether Americans had access to healthcare insurance, it is protecting the health insurance industry from providing services policy holders pay for. In fact, Republicans admit that if they cannot win big in November and repeal the ACA in its entirety in 2013, the law’s benefits will be nearly impossible to take away from the people as they begin seeing the real benefits. It is astounding that Republicans are finally admitting the people will love the law once its “popular and very sound provisions” take full effect, and yet they claim vehemently that the American people hate it with a passion. However, as the law takes effect and insurance providers beginning sending out $1.1 billion in rebate checks for failing to spend consumers’ premiums on providing healthcare services, the recent 50% approval rating will increase and that is precisely why congressional Republicans are urging governors to opt out of the program now to prevent the American people from realizing that the ACA is nothing but good news for all the people and anathema to Republicans.

More than anything, Republicans are exposing themselves as enemies of the people they are elected to represent and provide an environment where all Americans are able to prosper in the pursuit of happiness, and that includes access to quality, affordable healthcare insurance. The American people should be aware by now that Republicans have no compassion for anyone who is not in the top one-percent of income earners, and that they will pursue any means to punish the people. The ACA will create jobs, reduce the deficit, and give 31 million Americans healthcare for the first time in their lives and the GOP is panting to “rip it out by its roots” to protect the insurance industry. The past year-and-a-half have given the American people a preview of a Republican-controlled Congress and White House, and it portends a Draconian existence for all but the wealthiest Americans as the GOP rips out social safety nets by their roots and replaces them with more tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts to education, environmental protections, and eliminating Medicare, food stamps, police, firefighter, and construction jobs.

Compassion and concern for the general welfare of citizens is as foreign to Republicans as flying is to a rhinoceros, and to further their ideology of opposing everything proposed by an African American President, they will punish the American people with extreme prejudice. For over three years, Republicans have opposed every piece of legislation that protects Americans whether it was jobs programs, banking reform, payroll tax cuts, or healthcare reform. The Republican’s champion to win the White House, Willard Romney, promises to exceed the GOP’s expectations of creating a nation of peasants to serve the wealthy, and besides repeal banking, healthcare, and environmental reforms to enrich corporations and himself, it informs his cult’s belief that the accumulation of wealth and power supersede protecting all the people.

Americans living in states like Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina are fortunate that in spite of their Republican governors refusing to create insurance exchanges, the ACA’s provisions allow the federal government to do the work for them. However, for states like Florida and Wisconsin that plan to opt out of the Medicaid expansion program, millions of poor, seniors, and children risk losing healthcare coverage so Republicans can make a point that regardless the consequences to the people, they will pursue their twisted, Draconian ideology of punishing the people to protect corporations. This is the Republican Party America is suffering, and after trying and failing for sixty years, Democrats were finally able to provide healthcare for nearly every American and the GOP is using every means possible to strip it away from the people. However, no American should be surprised because regardless if it is a low-life Republican governor, a cry-baby Speaker of the House, or a lying Mormon seeking the White House, stripping away beneficial programs from the American people is the first order of business in Republican ideology and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Republicans hate America.

Why The Individual Mandate Is Not A ‘Massive Tax Hike’ On The Middle Class

By Travis Waldron/Think Progress

The Supreme Court ruled today that the Affordable Care Act, the comprehensive health care reform package signed by President Obama in 2010, is constitutional. The Court upheld the law’s most controversial provision, the individual mandate, ruling that it is constitutional under the government’s authority to levy and collect taxes.

Republicans have falsely claimed the mandate was the “biggest tax increase ever in American history,” so of course, conservatives immediately jumped on the idea that the individual mandate was a massive tax hike on the middle class, reviving an argument Republicans have made since the law passed more than two years ago:

WISCONSIN GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R) declared that it was a “massive tax increase.”

INDIANA SEN. DAN COATS (R) said “Right now we have something with a big tax and the American people who rejected that in 2010 are going to have a chance to break the tie in 2012.”

LOUISIANA GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R) said “Ironically, the Supreme Court has decided to be far more honest about Obamacare than Obama was. They rightly have called it a tax. Today’s decision is a blow to our freedoms.”

IDAHO SEN. MIKE CRAPO (R) touted that the mandate was ruled a tax. “Now, we’re back into that argument,” he said.

Watch Coates:

The mandate can indeed be characterized as a tax, as the Court found. But it is not a massive tax hike on the middle class, much less the biggest tax hike in American history. The tax imposed by the individual mandate amounts to either $695 or 2.5 percent of household income for those who don’t have insurance and are not exempt based on income levels. By comparison, the payroll tax cut extension Republicans repeatedly blocked earlier this year would have added 3.1 percentage points to the tax and cost the average family $1,500 a year.

The mandate, meanwhile, would hit a small amount of Americans — somewhere between 2 and 5 percent — according to a study from the Urban Institute. The number could be even lower depending on the law’s success: in Massachusetts, the only state with an insurance mandate, less than 1 percent of the state’s residents paid the penalty in 2009.

The majority of the Affordable Care Act’s other taxes, such as a payroll tax increase and a tax on high-cost health plans, are aimed at upper-income Americans. In exchange, millions of jobs will be created as new people enter the health care system and millions of people will gain access to affordable, quality insurance that they otherwise would not have. And, as we detailed earlier today, the Court’s decision to uphold the entirety of the law will have significant benefits for the nation’s economy.

Tell Congress that you stand with Obamacare by adding your name here.

UPDATE

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) characterized the mandate as a “middle class tax increase,” claiming that millions of Americans are going to have “an IRS problem.” Watch it:

With Gas Prices Expected To Drop Below $3, Republicans Suddenly Silent On Obama’s Role

By Rebecca Leber/Think Progress

Experts predict average gas prices may fall below $3 this fall after dropping 14 centsin two weeks. When prices hit a record high, Republicans attributed sole responsibility to President Obama, even though there isno evidence that factors like drilling impact what consumers pay.

Just two months ago, Republicans said Obama shouldered the blame for rising gas costs, and that only he had the “key” to lower gas prices:

Mitt Romney, March 18, 2012: “He gets full credit or blame for what’s happened in this economy, and what’s happened to gasoline prices under his watch, and what’s happened to our schools, and what’s happened to our military forces. All these things are his responsibility while he’s president.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), April 6, 2012: “The president holds the key to addressing the pain Ohioans are feeling at the gas pump and moving our nation away from its reliance on foreign energy. My question for the president is: what are you waiting for?”

Boehner, April 6, 2012: “The president’s own policies to date have made matters worse and driven up gas prices.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Feb. 28 2012: “This President will go to any length to drive up gas prices and pave the way for his ideological agenda.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), March 13, 2012: Obama is “fully responsible for what the American public is paying for gasoline.”

Are Republicans now reversing their rhetoric and giving Obama credit for falling gas prices? Of course not.

Former Virginia Sen. George Allen, who is running to reclaim his old seat, is another lawmaker who has misled on the gas prices. Last month, ThinkProgress reported that Allen is pushing a graphic that not only compares gas prices to an artificially low amount, but lists a “current” price from April, even though Virginia gas prices are now more than 40 cents lower per gallon.

Obama’s policies haven’t changed since April: the Keystone XL pipeline has not been built, drilling hasn’t drastically changed, and the same regulations are in place. Yet gas prices have fallen. Economics says he isn’t responsible, either way.

Former Romney Adviser: Republicans Are ‘Rooting Against The Economy’

By Travis Waldron/Think Progress

A media strategist who was a senior adviser to Mitt Romney when he ran for governor in 2003 said that he thinks Republican lawmakers are “rooting against the economy” to ensure that President Obama doesn’t win re-election.

Rob Gray, a senior adviser on Romney’s gubernatorial campaign, is a Republican media strategist who owns Gray Media, which lists an assortment of Republican officials among its past clients. Gray worked for Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and, according to Gray Media’s web site, has advised former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld (R), Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey (R), the Republican National Committee, and Romney. He did not respond to inquiries from ThinkProgress about whether he currently advises Romney or his campaign.

Appearing on Boston’s Fox 25 news channel this morning, Gray said he bought the idea that congressional Republicans were “rooting against the economy somewhat” because they believed “short-term pain” between now and November would be better than four more years under Obama:

HOST: Plenty of pundits, Rob, are suggesting that GOP lawmakers might be dragging their heels when it comes to trying to turn it around in fears that it might actually help the president. Are you buying that?

GRAY: Well, I’m not buying that they’re dragging their heels. I am buying that they’re rooting against the economy somewhat because they think that the short-term pain of, you know, the next four months is much better than having additional four years of pain under Obama. They believe the government should spend less and that they have better economic ideas than the president does. So, you know, if we have to suffer between now and November to get a better president for four years, they’re all for it.

Watch it:

Democrats have made similar allegations of congressional Republicans in the past. After Republicans blocked the American Jobs Act last October, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Americans were “tired of Republicans in Congress rooting for the economy to failinstead of working with us to secure our economic future.”

Republicans playing games with the economy

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Republican summer plans don't include jobs

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Barney Frank slams Republicans: They’re going to get repudiated

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) on Thursday blasted the Republican Party, which he claimed had become so partisan that it was unwilling to work with Democrats.

“American politics has always had two factions, one that wanted slightly more government and one that wanted slightly less government, each side understood the legitimacy of the other,” he said. “There are no Democrats who don’t believe in a free enterprise system as a generator of wealth and goods and services.”

But after the 2010 elections, when a wave a tea party Republicans were elected to Congress, that was no longer the case.

Not since the Civil War has there been a faction of a political party that took over a political party so far from the center,” said Frank. “And I think they’re going to get repudiated. You know, in 2010 they won because people were mad at us. But now people are looking at what they are saying and I don’t think people are ready for this.”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

House Republicans Want To Strip LGBT, Immigrant and Native American Protections From Violence Against Women Act

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is facing another struggle to stay intact, this time in the House of Representatives. The House GOP looks likely to rewrite the domestic violence prevention bill, whichpassed the Senate last week, with the aim of stripping provisions for Native Americans, undocumented people, and the LGBT community — the same provisions that Senate Republicans tried to remove from the bill.

But despite the Senate’s ultimate passage of the bill — which included the support of 14 Republican senators, including all of the female Republicans — the House is ready to fight these provisions again. Their version of VAWA also removes the protections for marginalized communities. According to Congressional Quarterly, a watered-down bill, of which Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL) is the lead sponsor, is likely to pass in the House:

The House bill also would eliminate Senate language that supporters say would do more to help victims of domestic violence including gays and lesbians, immigrants and American Indians. Adams considers those provisions unnecessary, a spokeswoman said. “The grants are available to all victims, and there is no evidence to conclude that victims are being turned away,” said spokeswoman Lisa Boothe in an email.

The backing of Smith, of Texas, and California’s McCarthy signals the House measure is on a fast track to passage — and a showdown with the Senate.

While Adams may think the provisions are unnecessary, there is ample proof that she is mistaken. Cases of LGBT domestic violence increased 38 percent from last year. Seven people died from domestic abuse. And of those who sought it, 44 percent of LGBT victims were turned away from traditional shelters. As for Tribal victims, Native American women face the highest rate of domestic violence in the US — three and a half times higher than the national average — and can currently not seek any protection if the perpetrator is non-Tribal.

And undocumented victims? Maybe they aren’t “turned away” in Adams’s definition, but that’s because they fear that if they call the police, they will be deported.

Members of Congress have already seen heated debate around VAWA, with one member even recounting her own experience of being raped as a girl. With the attempt to strip out provisions for particularly vulnerable communities, the fight is likely to get even more difficult.

Republicans Protest ‘Judicial Activism’ While Seeking It For Obamacare

Zachary Bernstein/guest blogger for Think Progress

There appears to be little reason for the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act. As Ronald Reagan’s former Solicitor General, Charles Fried, said after the oral arguments, the legal rationale used by opponents of the law was “beneath contempt,” but should the Justices accept it, they would be breaking nearly two hundred years of precedent and writing new meaning into the Constitution.

That would be judicial activism, which, ironically, happens to be a favorite line of attack for Republicans against liberal justices. For example:

REP. STEVE KING (R-IA): If we’re going to respect judge-made law and stop praying in our public schools, that was the beginning of the judicial activism that’s begun to break down this civilization, and this culture.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Unelected and serving with lifetime tenure, andsubstituting their view for the views of the people’s…the people and their elected representatives. That’s not the way our democracy is supposed to work.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): Judges are not policymakers. That’s what we are in the Congress of the United States. Judges are called on to decide the facts and to apply the law.

Watch:

As E.J. Dionne wrote of the Court’s deliberations, “It fell to the court’s liberals — the so-called ‘judicial activists,’ remember? — to remind their conservative brethren that legislative power is supposed to rest in our government’s elected branches.”

FLASHBACK: Two Years Ago, GOP Predicted ‘Armageddon’ If Health Reform Became Law

By Igor Volsky and Jeff Spross/Think Progress

Today is the two-year anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the Affordable Care Act, which, once fully implemented will cover 30 million Americans and begin to lower the rate of growth in health care spending. Since reform passed, however, Republicans have voted to repeal or defund the law at least 25 times and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is preparing to focus largely on health care as he charts “a course for a Republican Senate in 2013 and what could be a bruising reelection bid in 2014.”

During the nearly 10-month legislative battle that preceded passage and in the years after, the GOP characterized the bill as a “socialist” “government takeover” and warned Americans that the bill would destroy lives and American society, hurling apocalyptic warnings that seem downright satirical two years later:

Below are some of their most outrageous claims:

– REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH): Passage of health reform is “Armageddon” because the law will “ruin our country.” [3/20/2010]

– FRMR. SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R-PA): Health reform “will destroy the country” because, “in the next year or so,” America will have to “dramatically cut the military because we can’t pay for it.” [10/23/2010]

– SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK): “There will be no insurance industry left in three years.” [10/12/2010]

– REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): “On page 16, you can read for yourself thatno new health insurance policies can be written once this federal plan comes into effect.” [7/17/2009]

– GLENN BECK: “This is the end of prosperity in America forever … the end of America as you know it.” [11/19/2009]

– SEAN HANNITY: “If we get nationalized health care, it’s over; this is socialism.” [11/2/2009]

– REP. PAUL BROUN (R-GA): “That’s exactly what’s going on in Canada and Great Britain today…and a lot of people are going to die.” [7/10/2009]

– REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): “I would hate to think that among five women,one of ‘em is gonna die because we go to socialized care.” [7/15/2009]

– REP. VIRGINIA FOXX (R-NC): “The Republican plan will] make sure we bring down the cost of health care for all Americans and that ensures affordable access for all Americans and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.” [7/28/2009]

– SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK): “I have a message for you: you’re going to die soon…When you restrict the ability of the primary care givers int his country to do what is best for their senior patients, what you are doing is limiting their life expectancy.” [12/1/2009]

– REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): “Socialized medicine is the crown jewel of socialism. This will change our country forever.” [11/3/2009]

– HERMAN CAIN: “If ObamaCare had been fully implemented when I caught cancer, I’d be dead.” [8/18/2011]

– NEWT GINGRICH (R): “I think it is a disaster. I think, candidly, Governor Palin got attacked unfairly for describing what would, in effect, be death panels.” [10/11/2011]

– RICK SANTORUM (R): “What got me into this race was Obamacare…I believe, final death knell will be to America of having government control that very critical aspect of our life, which is access to the care that we need to stay alive.” [12/13/2011]