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It’s President Obama, Not McCain, or McMorris Rodgers

A few months ago, I signed up to get newsletters in my email from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-5). I know it seems foreign to me and contrary to what this blog is all about, but the reason I did that was to keep track of the right wing in our state to see if they go moderate or stick to the far-right fringe. So far, McMorris Rodgers hasn’t disappointed. She is neck deep in the right-wing spin on all the top issues.

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers wrote:

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-5)

Thanksgiving Message 11-25-09


From: Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers [cathymcmorris.rodgers@congressnewsletter.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 3:32 PM
To: Tom
Subject: Thanksgiving Message 11-25-09

Military Family Caucus

Earlier this month, I co-founded the Military Family Caucus. The purpose of this caucus is to support military families. I firmly believe that when a service member joins the military, it is not just a job; it is a family commitment to our country. As our country continues to deploy troops overseas, we see the impact it has on family members at home. It is important that we ensure these families are taken care of when their loved one is fighting for our freedoms. To read an editorial from the Spokesman Review about the caucus, please click here http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/nov/07/new-caucus-right-to-help-families-of-military/

I just discovered that this is a dead link, and pretty much a dead issue to boot. We have been undulated with calls to help military families since Bush led the invasion of Afghanistan back in 2001, and then turned the nation toward a straw bogy-man, illegally, in Iraq. I support helping military families being a veteran myself, an Army retiree, and with a service member in our family who completed a tour in Iraq a short time ago. But, this smacks of wrapping a political agenda inside the flag. She says nothing about the deep scars that may be left for decades to come inside our military and their families due to continual wars that were began by the right-wing and the repetitive rotations in and out of the theater of operations. Yes, let’s support them while they are called up once again and let’s enable them to be called over and over because of that support.

She continues:

Afghanistan

Over the last few months, we have been waiting for the President’s decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan. President Obama is expected to address the nation next Tuesday at 8:00 PM. I believe this decision is long overdue and recently sent a letter to the President expressing my concerns about the delay. As the President considers his decision, I believe it is paramount that he should be listening to our commanders on the ground. Please click the following link to read the letter I sent to the President. http://mcmorris.house.gov/uploads/11-19-09%20HPM%20and%20Leadership%20to%20POTUS%20re-Afghanistan.pdf

I have been pondering what I personally have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and I think that I am thankful that this first year of a new presidency did not belong to John McCain. Where would health care reform be with McCain in office? It would be dead, or centered on more tax cuts for the rich and corporate welfare. When a Republican uses the talking point of “listening to the commanders on the ground” what they really mean is “let’s do everything the generals want to do to escalate this war”. It is not the generals’ decision to send troops or not send troops. Let’s send LESS troops, not MORE. Anyway I am very thankful that president Obama is taking his sweet time making this very important decision. I hope that his message Tuesday focuses on how this thing will end instead of how it will continue.

Health Care Debate Continues in the Senate Last Saturday, the Senate voted 60-39 to continue debating health care reform.  

 

I voted against the House version of the bill, and continue to oppose the current plans:

 

· The trillion-dollar government takeover of health care will force small business to shoulder job–killing taxes for years to come.

· Seniors will be forced to pay higher premiums.

The relationship between doctors and patients will be damaged, with bureaucrats stepping in the middle to guide health care choices.

Last week we saw what government rationing of health care would look like when the United States Preventative Services Task Force, a panel appointed by the federal government, recommended that women under age 50 skip getting mammograms. Sadly, these recommendations mirror penny-pinching and ineffective policies in single payer nations like England where women over 50 are invited once every three years to be screened. We cannot go down this same path. We all know that early screening and detection saves lives.

…and costs more for yet one more medical test that is unnecessary.

McMorris Rodgers falsely asserts that health care reform is a “trillion dollar takeover”. First of all, the consolidated bill from the Senate is going to cost about $890 Billion over the first ten years. That amounts to $89 Billion per year, and it won’t start until 2013 when the government CBO estimates that the economy will be much better. Do you still think that $86 Billion per year is too much? Comparatively,the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost $864 Billion this year alone – almost ten times the price of the health care bill. The wars have cost over $2.1 Trillion since we invaded Afghanistan in 2001, then Iraq in 2003. Secondly, as far as a “takeover” goes, according to Fact Check, President Obama has never suggested a government-run plan such as Canada or England, in fact, he rejected the idea.

My point is that McMorris Rodgers gets her talking points from conservative TV ads that are baseless lies. She repeats these falsehoods to her interested constituents to relay the drum beat against health care reform. She, like the rest of the conservative wing of the republican party cares little about health, yours and mine, and everything about allowing the insurance industry to continue to excerpt it’s control over which treatments you can get and where you can get them. This is how their profits are made – by denying care, not giving care. And as long as these corporations continue to bribe our lawmakers, this practice will continue.

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Krugman Will Not Acknowledge Obstructionism – Blames Obama

Re: Op-Ed Columnist – The Phantom Menace – NYTimes.com , By PAUL KRUGMAN, Published: November 22, 2009

Paul Krugman

In December 2008 Lawrence Summers, soon to become the administration’s highest-ranking economist, called for decisive action. “Many experts,” he warned, “believe that unemployment could reach 10 percent by the end of next year.” In the face of that prospect, he continued, “doing too little poses a greater threat than doing too much.”

Ten months later unemployment reached 10.2 percent, suggesting that despite his warning the administration hadn’t done enough to create jobs. You might have expected, then, a determination to do more…

…Most economists I talk to believe that the big risk to recovery comes from the inadequacy of government efforts: the stimulus was too small, and it will fade out next year, while high unemployment is undermining both consumer and business confidence.

Krugman kills me. He will stop at nothing to ignore history and stretch as hard as he can to point a finger at Obama, and his reasoning behind this weeks slam on Obama is a long stretch. With good lefties like Krugman, who needs the Republicans.

The truth here is that there was tremendous opposition to even a small stimulus. Republican governors in southern states like Texas and South Carolina even fanned the flames of succession over the stimulus bill. Republican leaders in Congress bashed Obama relentlessly, filibustered, and used the right-wing echo machine to do anything they could do to stop the stimulus from passing. The Republicans did everything they could do to undermine a stimulus package that was as big as Obama could politically make it with over a third of the total package in tax cuts to appease them.

He says that the impediment to recovery is a lack of government effort. I say he is full of s**t. I say that the main impediment to recovery is what it has always been – right-wing obstructionism. The party of “no”. How can there be more government effort when the right uses procedural gimmicks, the media, and Republican governors to stop any good government action?

And besides that, Krugman never mentions how all this got started in the first place with the right-wing deregulation, never looking beyond his nose to point a finger where it should go – straight at George W. Bush. He doesn’t even mention what the Republican stimulus plan revolved around. No spending, just more tax cuts for the rich!

Now Krugman says that Obama didn’t do enough. Here’s what I say to Krugman, F.U.!

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Lieberman: “I’m Scared That This Bill Will Pass”

Senator Lieberman (I-CT)

Re: Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Appearing on the “Meet the Press,” the Connecticut independent said that neither he, nor anybody else believed the current version of legislation will get the 60 votes needed to stop debate in the Senate.

Actually, he and everyone else knows that the bill will pass if it reaches the final vote.

If Lieberman was wiling to let the bill go to debate, then why is he scared to let the bill go to a final vote if it contains the Public Option?

Answer: Because he knows that it will pass if it gets to the floor vote.

If it gets by the procedural vote to close debate, then all that is needed is 50 votes to pass, not 60, and they have those (counting the veep in case of a tie).

The main reason he is on the wrong side of this is because the Republican Party bought him during his floundering re-election camapign in 2006. He had to invent an independent party because he lost  the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont (who may be mounting a run for Governor).

The Republican Party then threw their weight behind Lieberman. Backing someone who had a committee chairmanship and much more power than a new junior senator was much more appealing. They subsequently dropped their own candidate, Alan Schlesinger, who only garnered 10% of the vote, like he had the plague.

Lieberman was bought and paid for by the Republicans. He owes them. Well, them and the big insurance industry that his wife represents.

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