tagged w/ GOP tactics
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All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers’ collective bargaining rights, which has provoked a huge Main Street Movement to fight back.
Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX) have introduced H.R. 1135, which states that it is designed to “provide information on total spending on means-tested welfare programs, to provide additional work requirements, and to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs.”
Much of the bill is based upon verifying that those who receive food stamps benefits are meeting the federal requirements for doing so. However, one section buried deep within the bill adds a startling new requirement. The bill, if passed, would actually cut off all food stamp benefits to any family where one adult member is engaging in a strike against an employer:
The bill also includes a provision that would exempt households from losing eligibility, “if the household was eligible immediately prior to such strike, however, such family unit shall not receive an increased allotment as the result of a decrease in the income of the striking member or members of the household.”
Yet removing entire families from eligibility while a single adult family member is striking would have a chilling effect on workers who are considering going on strike for better wages, benefits, or working conditions — something that is especially alarming in light of the fact that unions are one of the fundamental building blocks of the middle class that allow people to earn wages that keep them off food stamps.
With a record 42 million Americans on food stamps during these poor economic times, it appears that the right is simply looking for more ways to hurt working class
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/23/buried-provision-food-stamps/All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to... more
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The growing push to restrict the collective bargaining rights of government employees has reached the far-flung state of Alaska.The growing push to restrict the collective bargaining rights of government employees... more
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With the Republican’s move to slash every social, education and health program that benefits the poor and working class of America, it really is a world turned upside down for most of us, but for the GOP, it’s a wonderful world built for the privileged and greedy.
With that in mind, here is our latest Veracity Video, paying tribute to the wonderful world the conservatives have made for themselves where the rest of us get royally f**ked.
http://veracitystew.com/2011/03/20/wonderful-world-a-tribute-to-fked-up-gop-priorities-video/With the Republican’s move to slash every social, education and health program... more
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ThinkProgress has been documenting conservative efforts to shift the burden of record budget shortfalls onto middle-class Americans, while simultaneously doling out tax cuts to corporations. While progressive governors have proposed raising revenue from those who can afford it, alongside painful cuts to programs, Republican governors have unveiled budgets that cut taxes for corporations and raise them on the middle-class and working poor. In this report, ThinkProgress evaluates the priorities conservatives have set in twelve states:
NEW JERSEY: Last year, Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) budget raised taxes on the working poor and middle-class by cutting the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and homestead rebates — yet still found money for lucrative corporate tax cuts. This year, Christie’s budget calls for $200 million in business tax cuts, while cutting mental health services, $540 million from Medicaid, and witholding property tax rebates for seniors until public workers give up many of their health and pension benefits. Many New Jerseyans have said they prefer a tax on millionaires to Christie’s draconian cuts.
MICHIGAN: Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) budget would make Michigan’s already regressive tax system even more unfair for the state’s poorest residents. The plan cuts taxes on business by more than 86 percent while slashing $1.2 billion in funding for “schools, universities, local governments and other areas.” Snyder also wants to raise personal taxes by 30 percent — an increase that will fall disproportionately on Michigan’s lowest income residents.
GEORGIA: Last week, the Georgia House passed an austerity budget that will increase health insurance costs by more than 20 percent for state workers, teachers and retirees and cut funding for state universities by $75 million. The House has already gutted the state’s HOPE scholarship program, and is now considering implementing a regressive new tax system that would lower income taxes for the rich while raising the sales tax on basic necessities. House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal (R), meanwhile, has introduced a bill that would implement a flat income tax rate and cut corporate taxes by 33 percent.
FLORIDA: At a Tea Party rally last month, Gov. Rick Scott (R) unveiled his budget, telling supporters he would make the state the most “fiscally conservative” in the nation. The budget would slash corporate income and property taxes, lay off 6,700 state employees, cut education funding by $4.8 billion, and cut Medicaid by almost $4 billion.
OHIO: Gov. John Kasich (R) has proposed cutting 25 percent of schools’ budgets, $1 million from food banks, $12 million from children’s hospitals, and $15.9 million from an adoption program for children with special needs. A Kasich staffer revealed yesterday that these cuts are more about politics then budget-balancing, telling the Cincinnati Dispatch that “even if there weren’t an $8 billion deficit, we’d probably be proposing many of the same things.” The plan includes tax cuts for oil companies, a repeal of the estate tax and an income tax cut for the rich that former Gov. Ted Strickland (D) halted last year because of the state’s fiscal crisis.
IOWA: Gov. Tom Branstad (R) began this year proposing a budget that included a $200 million tax cut on commercial property taxes and corporate income but would freeze spending on schools, cut $42 million to state universities and lay off “hundreds” of state workers. Since then, the Governor has already begun laying off state nursing home workers and frozen funding for mental health services. The budget is now moving through the politically divided legislature, where Republican-controlled House committees have gone even further, approving tax refunds for upper-income Iowans while cancelling infrastructure investments, eliminating preschool for 4-year-olds, closing Iowa workforce development offices, and making even deeper cuts to public universities.
PENNSYLVANIA: Gov. Tom Corbett (R) presented a budget last week that would cut taxes for corporations, while freezing teacher salaries, cutting dental care for Medicaid recipients, and eliminating more than half of the state’s universities. Yet the state has lots of revenue potential in northern Pennsylvania, where out-of-state energy companies’ “fracking” of natural gas has reaped them hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. Corbett has refused to tax these companies, many of which helped fund his gubernatorial campaign, and has instead opted to lay of more than 1,500 state workers.
MAINE: Despite calling for “shared sacrifice” Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) budget would cut income taxes for Maine’s wealthiest one percent, while actually raising property taxes for the state’s middle class. This so-called “jobs budget” freezes healthcare funding for working parents, cuts money for schools and infrastructure and raises the retirement age for public workers. Yet LePage was still able to find more than $200 million in tax cuts for large estates, business and the rich.
WISCONSIN: The tax cuts Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed earlier this year worsened his state’s fiscal condition, so now Walker is planning to raise taxes on the poor, eliminate $26 million in tax credits for seniors and single mothers and cancel property tax rebates for low-income Wisconsinites making less than $24,000 a year.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has proposed ending the state’s corporate income tax, even while she calls for cutting physical education, K-12 schools, and Medicaid. Haley has received pushback from Republican colleagues: last week the legislature rejected her plan to force state employees to pay more for health insurance.
KANSAS: Facing a $493 million budget shortfall, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has called for eliminating the corporate income tax while proposing a $50 million cut to education. With majorities in both Houses, Republicans have proposed a cut to the federal Earned Income Tax Credit that would push 6,500 families below the poverty line.
ARIZONA: Last October, as she ignored 26 other possible funding solutions, Gov. Jan Brewer (R) implemented painful cuts to the state’s Medicaid program, which resulted in 2 deaths and left 98 Arizonians waiting for transplant funding. After months of protests, Brewer finally agreed to set aside $151 million in an “uncompensated-care pool to pay health-care providers for ‘life-saving’ procedures, including transplants.” However, House Republicans refused to restore funding for organ transplants because, as House Appropriations Committee chair Jon Kavanagh (R) said, “not enough lives would be saved to warrant restoring millions in budget cuts.” Then, while peoples’ lives were in danger, Brewer eagerly signed tax cuts for businesses that will cost the state $538 million.
Despite calling for “shared sacrifice” in their plans, Republican governors have yet to ask corporations to share the burden of record budget shortfalls. Ultimately, choosing big business over Main Street could undermine the already slow economic recovery. However, a Main Street Movement in many of these states has emerged to protest placing the burden of deficit reduction solely onto the backs of the middle-class and public employees.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/16/gop-state-corporate-tax-cuts/ThinkProgress has been documenting conservative efforts to shift the burden of record... more
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The GOP’s bizarro economics | The Week
With the economy finally, plainly on the mend, the Republican response — perhaps predictable from the party of death panels — is to deploy a bodyguard of lies* about both the causes of the crash and the reasons for the recovery.The GOP’s bizarro economics | The Week
With the economy finally, plainly on... more
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If some GOP lawmakers get their way, it could be a whole lot tougher for people across the country to cast a ballot in the upcoming 2012 presidential election.If some GOP lawmakers get their way, it could be a whole lot tougher for people across... more
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Female Sexuality Still Terrifying to Conservative Lawmakers | Alternet
The dusty old argument that female sexuality is a subversive force that needs to be strictly controlled is alive and well in the GOP.Female Sexuality Still Terrifying to Conservative Lawmakers | Alternet
The dusty... more
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WASHINGTON — With a wary eye on Wisconsin, Republican leaders in several states are toning down the tough talk against public employee unions and, in some cases, abandoning anti-union measures altogether.
Indiana's governor urged GOP lawmakers to give up on a "right to work" bill for fear the backlash could derail the rest of his agenda. In Ohio, senators plan to soften a bill that would have banned all collective bargaining by state workers. And in Michigan, the Republican governor says he'd rather negotiate with public employees than pick a fight.
That's hardly enough to set labor leaders celebrating. They still face a slew of measures in dozens of states that seek to curb union rights. But union officials say they believe the sustained protests in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states are making an impact.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41778126/ns/politics-more_politics/WASHINGTON — With a wary eye on Wisconsin, Republican leaders in several states... more
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One more outrageous assault on women and children by old white haired stupid controlling men.
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/16/gop-head-start-marry/
"Many women in the county were outraged by the commissioners’ statements. “It’s shocking in this day and age when life is difficult and challenging for so many families,” said Sue Oehmig, executive director of Hope Alive, a shelter that serves homeless women and children. “I would like them to say that to the hundreds of single women that call us every year asking for help.
I’m embarrassed for Frederick County. We’ve just been set back 20 years.” “The reality is that people are struggling to make ends meet with two incomes,” added former City of Frederick Mayor Jennifer Dougherty (D) “What does family and marriage have to do with the economy or creating jobs, which is what they ran on?”One more outrageous assault on women and children by old white haired stupid... more
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As Alice (in Wonderland) stumbles upon the Matter Hatter’s tea party, the Cheshire Cat greets her with, “Come on in, we’re all mad here.” The Cheshire Cat should be posted at the door of the new House of Representatives. With the Republicans turning Congress into a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party,As Alice (in Wonderland) stumbles upon the Matter Hatter’s tea party, the... more
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I Stand With Planned Parenthood
The U.S. House of Representatives has just voted to bar Planned Parenthood health centers from all federal funding for birth control, cancer screenings, HIV testing, and other lifesaving care.I Stand With Planned Parenthood
The U.S. House of Representatives has just voted to... more
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With a turn of phrase that ranks right up there with “I’m alright, Jack,” “We care about the small people,” and “Let them eat cake,” House Speaker John Boehner voiced the Republican response to concerns about the consequences the GOP’s budget cuts for millions of Americans, their families and their communities: “So be it.”With a turn of phrase that ranks right up there with “I’m alright,... more
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the House marched steadily on Friday toward approving the largest spending cuts in modern history, Republicans easily pushed through amendments to deny government financing for Planned Parenthood, to block money for carrying out the big health care overhaul and to bar the Obama administration from regulating certain greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.the House marched steadily on Friday toward approving the largest spending cuts in... more
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House Republicans will wait until the budget fight this spring to attack Social Security head-on. But in the meantime, they're coming after America's favorite entitlement at an angle. In the current spending bill, they're proposing to slash the administrative funds that federal employees use to run the program. Democrats warn this will lead to furloughs and other service interruptions that could delay checks and prevent new retirees from enrolling.
"To jeopardize a lifeline for half a million new Social Security beneficiaries in order to score short term political points is simply bad policy," said Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee. "This reckless proposal would mean hundreds of thousands of Americans won't get their Social Security checks this year. It's a perfect example of how little House Republicans seem to care if their rigid ideological crusade hurts real people."
In a statement, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), who chairs the Social Security subcommittee under Levin, says, "[T]his Republican plan would close down Social Security offices for an entire month this year. That means half a million American seniors, disabled workers and surviving family members--working people who have earned their Social Security benefits--will find themselves placed into a backlog of unprocessed claims. It means phones going unanswered, claims going unprocessed and a ripple effect of backlogged cases that will continue well beyond this year."
The Republicans claim the cuts amount to about $1 billion below what President Obama requested. But when dig in deeper, Democrats have found the cuts add up to about $1.7 billion -- a hefty chunk of SSA's operating budget.House Republicans will wait until the budget fight this spring to attack Social... more
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On a conference call with reporters and bloggers this afternoon, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) characterized the GOP’s recent legislative effort to restrict access to abortion and contraception as “the most comprehensive and radical assault on women’s health in our life time,” promising to wage a campaign against the effort. Pelosi was referring to the Republican-backed H.R. 3 “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” and H.R. 358, “Protect Life Act,” as well separate measures to eliminate federal funding for family planning.
“They’re proposing raising taxes on small business,” Pelosi said of the two bills. “Under current law, women can buy insurance that covers a full range of reproductive health care. Under the Republican plan, women in private plans can’t use their private money to purchase a full range of reproductive health care, effectively taking away the right of women to spend their own money on the health care they choose.” “Small businesses that received tax credits for their employees will lose their tax credit if they choose a full range of plans that cover women’s health,” Pelosi added.
H.R. 3 would eliminate any tax breaks for health care plans that include abortion coverage, denying tax credits to employers or other entities that pay for health plans that cover abortion, while H.R. 358 would also prohibit federal funding for abortions under the Affordable Care Act and “prevent funding from being withheld from institutions that refuse to provide abortions.”
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), who joined Pelosi on the call, warned that the GOP proposals went beyond restricting abortion, and would also limit access to family planning services. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has said that he plans to offer a proposal to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, which provides contraceptives and family planning services, and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) yesterday released a plan that would eliminate Title X funding. “This is a very, very, real threat,” DeGette warned. “The first vote could come as early as next week and we’re expecting a vote within the next few weeks or months.”
“Heck, out of all the things you can say about their approach, that they don’t even have funding for family planning and contraception is something that we’ve never been able to convince the public of but it is true and it has always been their agenda,” Pelosi added, before saying that Democrats will work to pressure moderate pro-life Republicans on the spot to push them to vote against cutting off funds to family planning services.
While some would expect abortion opponents to support family planning programs that reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, Pelosi argued that conservative Republicans are “in a different philosophical place on…all engagements that result in a child. So that’s why homosexuality, that’s why birth control, all these things that are not consistent with their beliefs that are all about procreation.”On a conference call with reporters and bloggers this afternoon, Rep. Nancy Pelosi... more
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House Republicans on the appropriations committee released a plan Thursday that would eliminate $1.6 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency's budget.
The news, as first noted by Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones, is part of a broader GOP assault on the EPA as the Obama administration seeks to use the agency to control greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA, created by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1970, is tasked with enforcing standards for environmental laws in tandem and state and local governments. It also researches and monitors potential environmental health hazards.
In President Barack Obama's first two years, Republicans successfully blocked Democrats' attempts at passing comprehensive energy and climate change reform through Congress. As a result, the administration decided to use the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, Republicans have increasingly called for eliminating or reducing the role of the EPA.
GOP lawmakers have described EPA regulations as "job killing."
As part of the effort, House Republicans this month unveiled legislation that would forbid the EPA from controlling carbon emissions. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a fierce climate-change denier, has drafted a similar plan in the Senate.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson decried the proposals, saying it would "eliminate portions of the Clean Air Act, the landmark law that all American children and adults rely on to protect them from harmful air pollution."
"This bill appears to be part of a broader effort in this Congress to delay, weaken or eliminate Clean Air Act protections of the American public," she said in a committee hearing.
The efforts reflect a concerted GOP effort to combat the notion of human-caused climate change.
Progressives and environmentalists fret that with Republicans making it effectively impossible to limit greenhouse gases through the legislative process, the EPA may be the last best chance for Washington to try and combat global warming.
An overwhelming majority of climate scientists say global climate change is being significantly exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal and will have disastrous environmental impacts across the world.House Republicans on the appropriations committee released a plan Thursday that would... more
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This is truly beneath contempt. Is there no limit to how far these people will stoop? Legislation in the 21st century has become a farce in which the chosen few, safe and secure behind their monied walls of healthcare and security, make laws to benefit themselves which in turn damage the citizen populace. The millionaires in congress have no loyalty to the people they represent, only the people who line their pockets.This is truly beneath contempt. Is there no limit to how far these people will stoop?... more
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The House Republicans’ first major technology initiative is about to be unveiled: a push to force Internet companies to keep track of what their users are doingThe House Republicans’ first major technology initiative is about to be... more
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Some of the most pointed comments in the wake of Saturday’s tragic shooting in Arizona regarding the dangers of vitriolic political discourse have come from Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who said his state has “become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”Some of the most pointed comments in the wake of Saturday’s tragic shooting in... more
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In 1968, the sanitation workers of Memphis tried to form a union. The city resisted. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life. Eventually the sanitation workers got their union.In 1968, the sanitation workers of Memphis tried to form a union. The city resisted.... more
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