GOP Hijinks

Be prepared this coming year for alot of symbolics and loud noise, while your pocket will be picked by the expert corporate lobbyists now staffing the New GOP House members.

We start next year off with the reading of the full Constitution. I'm sure we will see a daily rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance next. This is the ole' Lee Atwater technique of wrapping yourself in the American flag and talk loudly about such things as the deficit but don't do anything about it.

We hear alot about the will of the people. Newt Gingrich is saying that the new Republican House could be as revolutionary as the Democratic House of the 1930s. Interesting that Newt should avoid talking about the recently ended 111th Congress, which rivalled the Democratic Congress of the 1930s in accomplishments.

This all would be interesting to observe because the internecine war has already started among Republicans, but the sad thing is that it affects all of us now. Less than half the American people even know that the Republicans won a chamber of Congress. The so-called people's will actually runs counter to the 2010 election results. It still is baffling and sometime I hope I read something that explains how the 2010 mid-terms happened.

January 1 starts the 2012 campaign. I am going to try being disciplined and not get into this nonsense at this stage. The Republican line-up already is amazingly weak. But then again so were their winning candidates in 2010. And no, I don't believe the reapportionment of congressional seats will affect the 2012 election.

What we do know is that, despite the bipartisan compromises in the Lame Duck session, we will see less of that this year. By and large, except for the debt ceiling vote and the defense budget,it's going to be an all out war by the Republicans to block, roll-back and thwart all of President Obama's achievements in the last two years. Already,key health insurance lobbyists have been hired by the House Republicans to de-fang Obamacare. Corporate lobbyists have been hired to be the chief of staffs for the incoming teabaggers. So we know the charge of teabaggers as an astroturf movement is already true.

I feel for Paul Krugman's dilemma about trying to be an urban, erudite observer of the political and economic scene without going over the edge. Krugman has already called out the Republicans as big frauds on the deficit by analyzing their new Cut-Go rules.

The Cut-Go rules in the House reverse the Democrat's PayGo rules, which mean you must come up with revenues for every increase in program spending. With the new regime, all tax cuts are sancrosanct, especially all those we have learned about in the last two years such as rewarding American corporations for out-sourcing American jobs. You got a preview of what is to come when the American Chamber of Commerce lobbied against the 9/11 Responders bill because it would close loopholes for foreign companies in the U.S. The New York Chamber of Commerce was so incensed at the national chamber that they both endorsed the bill and slammed the U.S. Chamber, which anonymously bankrolled all the Repubican Senate and House candidates in the mid-terms.

The Cut-Go rules explicitly say that tax-cuts do not contribute to the deficit--something which sent Paul Krugman around the bend. You will hear this for the next two years and Republicans will actually move to make the tax cuts for the top income-earners permanent. You will also see no decline in any defense spending by either party.

Ergo,the Cut-Go rules mean that for every increase in program spending an equal amount must be cut from somewhere. The juicy target for Republicans will be anything that is connected to the social welfare system. Despite having campaigned on preserving Medicare against the Democrats--remember that campaign slogan--Republicans will go after Medicare and Medicaid with a meat axe. In fact,anything that is effective economic stimulus will be a target--unemployment insurance,the remains of the stimulus package and state governments. Already the Republican House members have openly stated that the states, who are in dire financial shape, will receive no assistance.

The first vote we have been told is to cut Congress' budget. That actually may be a good idea for the next two years. Republicans are also toying with the idea of passing declarations of disapproval about other Obama programs. This lets them get on record about the past two years.

The war between the economic conservatives and the social conservatives has already erupted. The Religious Right wants to stall the repeal of DADT by stopping any funding for its implementation. Others on the Religious Right are vowing to attack the policy by focusing on the policy of showers in the military. That's right--showers. Already conservative groups are starting to disassociate themselves from CPAC because they accept GOProud, the Republican gay organization as members. You will see this played out on the House floor.

I find these so-called constitutionalists fascinating. If they disagree with a military policy, then if the Commander-In-Chief is a black man,you can interfere with the executive's perogative by insisting you can change it.

We will see more of that from the House--evenforeign policy initiatives, which will fly in the face of commonsense and the real national interest. Ricky Cantor has already pledged his allegiance to Bibi Netanyahu. Expect to see inflammatory statements about the Iran policy over the next two years.

There will be hearings on Radical Islam in America to gin up the anti-Muslim sentiment in the country. Also,we will see new restrictive policies on immigration.

The good news is that the new House Republican policy of 72 hours to circulate a bill before a vote will turn out to be unworkable. First, the committee chairperson has to determine the constitutionality of the law, then the full committee will have 72 hours to examine the bill, then the committee vote. Second, before a full House vote, the bill again must be determined to be constitutional--with a specific citing of the appropriate article. Then we have 72 hours before the vote.

Now let's backtrack to Gentleman John Boehner's schedule--Two weeks on, One Week off. The House meets Tuesday through Thursday. So 72 hours equals a House week. So by my calculation, it will take at least one month to six weeks before a bill goes from committee through the full House. That doesn't include time for debate.

So the game to watch is what little rewards to corporations get plugged into legislation. The GOP knows no voters care about these things, while they are the real reason they are there. With the new army of lobbyists now holding official staff positions,these little treats will get too numerous to mention or keep track of.

John Boehner keeps calling Obama's agenda "job-killing"--even though the private sector under Obama has created more jobs than the entire Bush Administration did in eight years. But one key promise by the new House Republicans is to create jobs. They will not have any excuse--although they will make one up. But anything like an infrastructure initiative,etc. will be done directly between the House and Senate Republicans and President Obama. I also feel the same with the debt ceiling measure.

Otherwise,let loose the dogs of war.

Let The Looting Begin!

The GOP House Republicans have released their Pledge to America, mimicking the Contract with America in 1994. From a rhetorical point of view, it is good political propaganda. From a policy point of view, it is ruinous to both our national well-being and future. The preamble to the Pledge is an amalgem of Tea Party sloganeering about the oppression of the government and the words of the Declaration of Independence and a commitment to the "original intent" of the Constitution. There are some fantastic flourishes like the elevation of the 10th Amendment as a fundamental principle and a nod to states' rights. There is absolutely no self-reflection or historical recognition of how we got to the present place in time. The Pledge is long on lamenting the national debt, the deficit and the chronic joblessness in the country, but very short on any concrete solutions to anything other than a rigorous pledge to allocated all resources necessary to our men and women in uniform, even though Senate Republicans blocked the first Defense Appropriations Bill in 48 years.

The House Republicans pledge to greater transparency in their operations, a smaller, more accoountable government,fiscal responsibility, and of course Lower Taxes and protecting life except those who are actually living. Eric Ericksson over at Red State, a conservative website, even pronounced the ideas in the Pledge as "drek."

Republicans will permanently stop all "job-killing taxes" in the name of families keeping their hard-earned money and small businesses will have the stability to invest in creating new jobs. Note to reader: Senate Republicans are still blocking the small business bill in the Senate which would lower small business taxes and allow for greater credit to small businesses. Republicans are running on the issue that if the Bush tax-cuts expire as mandated by law, then there will be Obama tax hikes for everyone. They maintain their support for tax cuts for the very wealthy. And they pledge to repeal the entire Healthcare Bill and substitute their own--which was proposed during the healthcare debate and would only extend insurance to 3 million additional Americans and create a deeper deficit.

The Republicans say they will end all bailouts permanently, canceling TARP and reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They will cut Congress' budget, impose a hiring freeze on non-security federal employees, and review every current government program to eliminate wasteful and duplicative programs. They also plan to read the Constitution before every bill to see whether it's constitutional.

Of course,Republicans will provide additional resources and authority and support to the military, including full funding to missile defense. Not only that but they will not "import terrorists to America" and keep Gitmo open because terrorists should not be tried in our courts and put in our prisons. It should be noted that the conviction rates for terrorists in our criminal courts far outweigh convictions in so-called military commissions. Oh and yes, they will put more resources to protect our borders from illegal immigrants.

To give assurances to business (here only small businessesare mentioned in the text), there will prevent all tax increases and new regulations so as to protect investors. And they will stop all stimulus spending and return what remains to the treasury. This is all in the name of being pro-family. The government budget would be brought to pre-stimulus levels and a hard cap would be put in discretionary spending. They would privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Their language on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is murky at best--ensuring them for today's senior and future generations. However, they insist on reviewing them regularly and preventing the expansion of unfunded liabilities. This is a sugar-coated way of incporating some of The Blueprint for the Future language ,which would have privatized Social Security for future generations.

A large part of the Pledge is on repealing the entire Healthcare Reform. Most of what they write about it is false but it sounds so friendly by strengthening your relationship with your doctor. In other words, all the rhetoric used against Healthcare Reform in the Tea Party town meetings last year is here , dressed up in politicalese. But no death panels. I guess they thought that was going too far. They also repeat the myth that 16,500 new IRS auditors will be needed to collect new taxes from the healthcare reform. It also goes on to maintain that Medicare savings but cracking down on fraud is actually a cut in benefits. We have been down this road before. Perhaps, this was written in support of the GOP candidate for Florida Governor, who was forced to pay the largest fine in American history because of Medicare fraud.

The clause for fully funding Missile Defense is because of the threat posed to the United States by Iranian ballistic missiles.

Now one has to give credit to the authors, who have lobbies for AIG, Enron, Pfizer and other coporations, for avoiding direct mention of the tremendous economic benefits corporations will receive from this Pledge. Also, President Obama is right when the GOP is banking on the American people having amnesia how this mess got started. And the GOP bet may be right. Remember all Republicans beginning with Reagan have promised smaller government and all Republican Presidents have vastly expanded Federal Government. George W. Bush went a couple of steps further--expand the executive branch larger than FDR and privatize it also. So you always must keep expanding defense spending for instance because half a trillion dollars goes to private companies. So it's the one solid profit center in the federal government.

As to concerns about the national debt. Ezra Klein at the Washington Post has already laid out the problems with the Pledge. The tax-cuts for the rich already represent another $3.9 trillion in additional debt and repeal of the Healthcare Reform will add several trillion more to the debt. And let's add their Defense increases with the fully funded Missile Defense and tag on another $2 trillion. Any serious attempt at a reduction in the national debt would have to come from virtually gutting the social safety net and all government services. That is why Republicans candidates this year are openly campaigning on privatizing social security, calling it a Ponzi scheme.

As I have explained over several posts, Social Security with its .09% administrative overhead is probably the most successful social benefit program in the world and is in fine shape. But the real game is to get Social Security funds into Wall Street, where the trading fees will add billions more to the trading firms and permanently preclude any return to the government run system.

As I wrote on the Blueprint for America, the GOP ideal of America is for it to be an Aircraft Carrier with no governmental benefits for any of its citizens. Remember when we called the Soviet Union "a Third World Country with nuclear weapons". That's the ideal but with an oligarchic class owning the rest of the country. You, dear citizen and patriot (we always have to throw that it in), will be able to worship your God freely and educate your child that ancient kids played with dinosaurs.

The Pledge quotes the current Governor of Virginia, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Thomas Jefferson (Boy has he been used this year) and JFK. The favorite JFK quote is about the horrible effects of a high tax rate on the country's development. He was commenting on the 91% rate under Ike. The GOP argument, which has been refuted time and time again, is that cutting taxes increases government revenues. There is an objective point where this isn't true, and we past that almost ten years ago.

So with all this pledge to fiscal responsibility, if you tally up the numbers,the Pledge to America guarantees that if fully implemented that the GOP promises you to equal the exact debt of $11 trillion left by George W. Bush. In effect, despite all the trickle-down, small government baloney, the GOP promises you they will double the current national debt with their plan. But they have said it openly and I fear people will buy this stuff. It's so nice to have this new thinking applied in a Depression. And given their pledges, no American except the defense industry, the health insurance business, Wall Street traders will receive a single benefit. But it's only if you teased out what is really said that this becomes evident.

As Ronald Reagan said,"I didn't leave the party, the Party left me". This goes for me with Republicans. I do agree with the Pledge that America is an idea. That's why I voted for Barack Obama to preserve that idea. We came just a hair's breadth from seeing it disappear with the last crowd. Apparently, Republicans didn't learn anything. Andrew Bacevitch wrote that he came to the conclusion midway in the Cold War that America would win. He said it was because the Soviet Union was ideological, America was pragmatic. What we saw in the Bush-Cheney years was pure ideology and it continues with the Tan Man, and Newt's little friend Cantor.

Save the Pledge because I believe it will be the National Platform of the Republicans in 2012.

Parallel to this Pledge, is Rep. Issa's long laundry list of investigations he wants to conduct in the Obama Administration, which are divided into all areas of government policy. Despite pledges to cut Congress' budget, Issa has already planned on hiring several dozen lawyers to conduct these investigations.

As Bernie Sanders said, the Republicans plan to roll back everything positive that the Obama Administration has done.