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Will
they Shut Down the Government?
by Elise Foley
After an all-night session, House
Republicans early Saturday morning passed legislation that would
slash $60 billion in government spending between now and the end of
September, setting up a showdown
with Obama, who has vowed to veto the measure. The cuts, which were
passed without a single
Democratic vote, are aimed primarily at domestic social spending but
also have policy goals -- going
after the Environmental Protection Agency, the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau and the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission....
Efforts by Democrats to restore funding to agencies were mostly voted
down. Rep. Rush Holt's (D-N.J.)
amendment to restore some funding to the CFPB was struck down on a
party-line vote Thursday 163-265,
leaving the bureau with only half of its current funding in the final
bill. Frank attempted to restore $131
million in funds to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but that
amendment also failed in a 160-270 vote.
"I've talked to a lot of people about whether they like the freedom to
be cheated on credit cards, to be
cheated on mortgages, to be cheated on overdraft fees, and I found that
was not really a freedom they valued,"
Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) said on the House floor on Thursday. "They
don't really value that any more than
Americans 100 years ago valued the right to buy rancid beef."
An amendment to end a tax loophole for major oil companies, introduced
by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.),
failed in a 251-174 vote on Friday. Democrats aimed to end subsidies to
Big Oil as a revenue-booster to protect
social programs, but found little support from Republicans.
"Republicans once again sided with BP, Exxon and the oil companies, not
with the American taxpayer and the
poorest Americans most in need of help," Markey said in a statement.
‘This legislation focuses on just the kind
of special interest loophole that should be closed before we open
attacks on programs for the poorest Americans.’"
We wouldn't be in this mess if:
A. Obama had a clue of how to fight.
B. If Obama hadn't ignored the Teabaggers for 14 months, allowing them to become a force
which now means having to compromise with insane assholes like Palin and Bachmann.
Why did he go to sleep for those 14 months?
Why did he fight so hard to get this job, only to call in sick for 14 months?
Obama is singularly focused on getting re-elected, which every politician does, but he's doing it
on the backs of the poorest Americans and he seems to have no shame about that.
AND HOW CAN THE GOP TALK ABOUT CUTTING SPENDING AFTER THEY
DEMANDED THAT OBAMA GIVE A TRILLION DOLLARS TO THE SUPER-RICH?
One of the items the sons of bitches are going after with their ax is nutritional aid to poor pregnant women
and very young children so they can falsely claim they're "deficit hawks" and Obama looks the other way.
I wish our president had the will to fight.