Tracking the Conservative Point of View of Politics in Washington that affect States Rights in the South. Promoting Tea Party Politics.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Tea Party Warns Republicans to cut the Budget or else
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., spoke with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” on January 6th, 2011,about the GOP’s agenda on Capitol Hill. On the Republicans’ planned vote to repeal the health care reform law, Cantor said it was a way to “send a signal that we’re dead serious about getting rid of this spending of money we don’t have.” http://abcn.ws/dQVMCR
On spending, Cantor predicted: “We are going to accomplish more than $100 billion in cuts over the term of this Congress.”
Stephanopoulos: “But not the first year, as you promised?”
Cantor: “George, what we promised was we are going to bring spending down to ’08 levels.”
As they prepare to take power on Wednesday, Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as much as half, aides say, because the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, will be nearly half over before spending cuts could become law.
For their part, GOP leaders pushed back on the suggestion that they were breaking a promise on that score.
“There is no retreat from House Republicans’ pledge to cut spending,” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., chairman of the House Budget Committee said in a statement yesterday. “To be clear, House Republicans will vote to cut their own budgets by 5 percent this week. Next week, we will vote to cut trillions of dollars in government spending by repealing the President’s health care law. In addition to these immediate steps, we will clean up the fiscal wreckage left by House Democrats, setting spending limits for the remainder of FY2011 at pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels for non-security discretionary spending.” http://bit.ly/eYurkP
As Republicans celebrated their new power in Washington yesterday, two prominent Tea Party activists walked the halls of Capitol Hill carrying a message: we’re keeping an eye on you. Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler, the co-founders of the national group, Tea Party Patriots, aren’t taking anything for granted. They were also passing along the sentiment that the vast majority of their members across the country oppose raising the debt ceiling and support spending cuts.
Meckler expressed disgust Wednesday in response to the news that congressional Republicans plan to reduce their goal of $100 billion in budget cuts, saying the GOP needed to cut more, not less. Meckler said that the American people were no longer ignorant about government spending, so if the GOP stops at the $100 billion figure, he predicts they'll "get an earful from the American people."
Should Republicans fail to follow through, Meckler and Martin said the Tea Party Patriots won’t hesitate to bring out the “big guns” -- their term for mobilizing their considerable member base through social media, mass e-mail messages, conference calls, town hall meetings, rallies and other avenues to put pressure on lawmakers.
The tea party leader said Republicans should aim to reduce spending to the levels seen in 2000, not 2008. He suggested that Congress reach this number by putting everything, including defense spending, on the table for cuts. As CBS News pointed out, defense spending would certainly need to be addressed, as the wars in Afghanistan in Iraq, which have cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion since 2001, weren't yet on the budget in 2000.
TEA-PARTY groups are warning the GOP to cut government spending dramatically or face primary challenges, The Hill reports. Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation posted an open letter to John Boehner on his website (access for Tea Party Nation members only!) demanding "serious and meaningful cuts in the budget." http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/01/defence_cuts
Both the Republicans and The Tea Party maybe surprised and pleased that Defense Secretary,Robert Gates, just anounced Thursday to Congress the administration is seeking $78 billion in cuts to the Defense budget over the next five years on top of $100 billion in efficiencies.
Members of Congress and defense lobbyists contacted by The Hill said they are ready to oppose the cost-cutting proposal that Gates is expected to unveil on Thursday. But several sources said resisting the administration’s plans would be more difficult than in years past, partly becauseTea Party-backed lawmakers are challenging the rule of old, powerful defense committee barons. The move to ban earmarks in Congress also makes the cuts difficult to oppose, since they have traditionally been the best tool for protecting vulnerable procurement projects.
MRC.org - Media Research Center
MRC.org - Media Research Center
Appearing as a guest on Thursday’s Countdown show on MSNBC, Matt Taibbi - contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine - ridiculously accused Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Tea Party activists of racism in the form of using "coded language" to refer to "Mexican immigrants and non-white inner city, Democratic-leaning voters" as he responded to a soundbite of Boehner talking about having a social safety net for those unable to work, but that should perhaps exclude those who refuse to help themselves.
After host Keith Olbermann played a clip of the House Speaker contending, "But do we have a responsibility to help those who won't compete? I would have serious doubts about that," Taibbi found it "amazing" that Boehner "would say it so openly," and went on to suggest that the House Speaker was showing signs of racism, tying in Tea Party activists. Taibbi:
On MSNBC, Rolling Stone's Taibbi Accuses Boehner & Tea Party of Racist 'Coded Language'
Thursday, January 06, 2011 11:56 PM EST
After host Keith Olbermann played a clip of the House Speaker contending, "But do we have a responsibility to help those who won't compete? I would have serious doubts about that," Taibbi found it "amazing" that Boehner "would say it so openly," and went on to suggest that the House Speaker was showing signs of racism, tying in Tea Party activists. Taibbi:
It's amazing that he would say it so openly, but I know when I go to cover Tea Party events, I almost inevitably end up talking to people who are on Medicare or collecting unemployment insurance or government pensions, but they're railing against government welfare. I say, "Well, do you see any contradiction there?" "No, I deserve this. I work hard. It's those other people."Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Thursday, January 6, Countdown show on MSNBC:
And we know who they mean when they say "other people." It's Mexican immigrants and non-white, inner city, Democratic-leaning voters. So that's, it's coded language when he uses that kind of language.
KEITH OLBERMANN: Mr. Boehner was also asked about his philosophy of governing, what the government should do for people. He said he believes in the social safety net, but then he gave a stunningly clear outline of who it is he thinks needs the social safety net. Despite figures showing more people are forced into bankruptcy by catastrophic medical costs than by anything else, Mr. Boehner thinks it’s people who are unable to compete in the job market, and suggested there are Americans - he didn't identify whom - who will not compete.-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center
JOHN BOEHNER, HOUSE SPEAKER: I believe in the safety net. You know, we live in a competitive society. We live in a capitalist society. For those who can compete and do well, fine. Some Americans can't compete. I think we have a responsibility as a people to help those who can't compete. But do we have a responsibility to help those who won't compete? I would have serious doubts about that.
OLBERMANN: A new Rolling Stone profile of Mr. Boehner chronicles his life on the dime of rich patrons, spending almost $83,000 on golfing in 2009, renting an apartment for years from a health insurance lobbyist, running up a $67,000 tab at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Florida. With us now, the author of that profile, Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi, the author most recently of Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That is Breaking America. Good to see you, Matt.
MATT TAIBBI: Good to see you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: As I said before, I’m really beginning to like this guy.
TAIBBI: He is going to be a lot of fun.
OLBERMANN: But who are the Americans that can't compete versus the ones who won't compete? Do you have any insight into that?
MATT TAIBBI: Yeah, absolutely, I mean, it's amazing that he would say it so openly, but I know when I go to cover Tea Party events, I almost inevitably end up talking to people who are on Medicare or collecting unemployment insurance or government pensions, but they're railing against government welfare. I say, "Well, do you see any contradiction there?" "No, I deserve this. I work hard. It's those other people." And we know who they mean when they say "other people." It's Mexican immigrants and non-white, inner city, Democratic-leaning voters. So that’s, it's coded language when he uses that kind of language. But in Boehner's case, what’s so funny about it, the people who can't compete, I think, in his eyes, if you go by his TARP vote, it's J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. I mean, those are the people he’s talking about when he's talks about a social safety net, I think.
Dixie Rising: The House takes a symbolic vote on healthcare
Dixie Rising: The House takes a symbolic vote on healthcare: "House Republicans cleared a hurdle Friday in their first attempt to scrap President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul, yet it was..."
The House takes a symbolic vote on healthcare
House Republicans cleared a hurdle Friday in their first attempt to scrap President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul, yet it was little more than a symbolic swipe at the law.
The real action is in states, where Republicans are using federal courts and governors' offices to lead the assault against Obama's signature domestic achievement, a law aimed at covering nearly all Americans.
In a post-election bow to tea partiers by the new GOP House majority, Republican lawmakers are undertaking an effort to repeal the health care law in full knowledge that the Democratic Senate will stop them from doing so.
Republicans prevailed Friday in a 236-181 procedural vote, largely along party lines, that sets the stage for the House to vote next week on the repeal.
Shortly before the House vote, Republican governors representing 30 states opened up a new line of attack, potentially more successful.
In a letter to Obama and congressional leaders, the governors complained that provisions of the health care law are restricting their ability to control Medicaid spending, raising the threat of devastating cuts to other critical programs, from education to law enforcement in a weak economy. It's ammunition for critics trying to dismantle the overhaul piece by piece.
Moreover, a federal judge in Florida is expected to rule shortly in a lawsuit brought by 20 states that challenges the law's central requirement that most Americans carry health insurance. A judge in Virginia ruled it unconstitutional last month, while in courts in two other cases have upheld it. It's expected that the Supreme Court will ultimately have to resolve the issue.
Obama made history last year when Congress finally passed the law after months of contentious debate, closing in on a goal that Democrats had pursued for generations. Republicans say they changed history by taking back the House in the midterm elections, partly on the strength of their pledge to tea party supporters and other conservatives to undo the divisive law, whose final costs and consequences remain largely unknown.
Some Republicans hope to get enough momentum going to force Obama and the Democrats into an early capitulation. "If you have to do an amputation, get it over with," Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a repeal leader, said after the House vote. "We need to get this showdown over so we can go on to other issues."
But Senate Democrats say what King and other House Republicans think matters little, since they will block any repeal legislation on the other side of the Capitol.
During last year's election campaign, many Democrats sought cover when the health care law would come up. On the House floor, they unleashed a full-throated defense, accusing Republicans of trying to take away benefits that many people are already receiving, such as lower prescription costs for Medicare recipients, extended coverage for young adults on their parents' plan and newly available insurance for people with serious medical problems.
"Repeal this bill, and you're going to find more Americans dying," said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif. Obama's grassroots political operation, Organizing for America, sent out an e-mail requesting donations for a campaign against repeal.
The overhaul would provide coverage to more than 30 million now uninsured, expanding Medicaid to pick up more low-income Americans and offering tax credits to help the middle-class. Most Americans would be required to carry health insurance, either through an employer, a government program or by purchasing their own. The legal challenge to that mandate is coming mainly from Republican state attorneys general.
Polls suggest the public remains divided over the underlying law as well as the question of whether it should be repealed, scaled back or expanded.
That leaves House Republicans with few clear options. They could try to deny the administration money to carry out the law, but that may not work. Major elements, such as tax credits to help make health insurance more affordable, were written as entitlements, meaning that they will be automatically funded. And if a drive to deny the money threatens to shut down the government, it could backfire politically.
Leading proponents of repeal acknowledge it may take the election of a Republican president to accomplish the goal. Both parties will probably take the major issues in the health care debate to the voters in 2012, when Obama is expected to run for a second term and the House and Senate will again be up for grabs.
The repeal drive has opened Republicans up to charges that they would increase the federal deficit. The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan budget referee, says the legislation would increase deficits by $230 billion from 2012 to 2021. That's because spending cuts and new taxes more than offset the cost of expanding coverage.
Republicans counter that even if that's technically true, it would save money in the long run to repeal a big new program before it gets off the ground.
GOP governors, in their letter to Washington leaders Friday, argued the law is already limiting their options by requiring them to maintain certain levels of Medicaid coverage to continue receiving crucial federal money. Medicaid is a federal-state program that serves more than 50 million low-income people.
"The effect of the federal requirements is unconscionable; (they) force governors to cut other critical state programs, such as education, in order to fund a one-size-fits-all approach to Medicaid," wrote the governors, calling on Congress to lift the requirements. If the request advances, it could open the door to other attempts to change the law, or undermine it.
Voting with the Republicans on Friday were four Democrats who had opposed the law last year _ Reps. Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Mike McIntyre and Larry Kissell of North Carolina, and Mike Ross of Arkansas.http://townhall.com/news/us/2011/01/08/house_takes_symbolic_step_to_repeal_health_law/page/full
The Birthers won't let this rest;Obama's Eligibility
THANK YOU THERESA CAO! STAND FOR THE CONSTITUTION!
Theresa Cao
Just when the media and Congress think they’re ‘handling’ the Birther aka Constitutionalists’ factual assertion that Obama does not meet Article II qualifications, up pops a Patriot, a woman not afraid to tell the truth, and takes them all by surprise. 
Shouting clearly, Theresa poured out all our cries after the reading of the natural born citizen portion of Article II, saying
Shouting clearly, Theresa poured out all our cries after the reading of the natural born citizen portion of Article II, sayingExcept Obama! Except Obama! Help us Jesus! My Name is Theresa!
I hear her saying this and know the song; we all do–this is what we are singing. Millions of people heard this today, it was a great day for America!!! 
And how perfect: Obama is the exception to natural born citizen, we all know it including Congress, it is deeply, spiritually serious, and adding her name proudly to those who have taken a stand in front of the world. That is real, that is the truth.
What? That elephant is the birth certificate??
As they stand there and read our founding document–for many it was clearly the first time–the exception they have willfully ignored landed right in their laps on the floor of the House, with “TC from DC” properly exercising her First Amendment Rights, unfiltered, on National TV. And Theresa Cao forced everyone to name theobvious elephant in the living room. Nicely done! 
(And, ahem. Got Misprision of Felony? Speaker Boehner Bonehead, there is no proof, and the Speaker of the House shouldn’t be guided by hearsay.)
Tweeting from the House floor, like the regime’s ‘judges’ tweet from the bench, the irresponsible and intellectually dishonest democrat Jim Himes Hiney-like behavior texts to twitter: ‘birther’ interrupts the reading of the constitution…as he and other democrat anti-Americans deride the reading of the Constitution as a fetish.
(Note to Congress: If you think the Constitution is a ‘fetish’ then you have perjured yourself in your oath of office and should resign immediately.)
Intellectual Dishonesty and Disinformation
Because the lame stream media did not cannot control Theresa Cao, they immediately dismiss the story (FAUX) or misrepresent facts and spread disinformation. They are wholly intellectually dishonest lying. First, the use of the term “birther” now means that Constitutionalists believe Obama was born in Kenya. From the lame stream media’s point of view, it can’t be that no one knows where he was born. It can’t be that it doesn’t matter where he was born, he is a dual citizen with foreign allegiance, he is not full-blooded American. Falling back on clever editing they perpetuate misinformation. From Commander Charles Kerchner:
MSNBC engages in disinformation and misinformation by factual omissions in reporting the disruption point of the reading of the U.S. Constitution in order to convey a false reading of the Constitution to be implied to their readers.Notice in this story by MSNBC that they incorrectly report the point of interruption of the reading of the Constitution today in such a way to make it sound like the Constitution only says right after the phrase “natural born Citizen, that to be President a person only has to be a Citizen.That is where MSNBC stopped quoting (improperly and falsely in the MSNBC story) what happened and what the House Rep was reading verbatim from the Constitution and had read and what he actuall got read and said prior to the interruption from the gallery. The Constitution says that you must be either a “natural born Citizen” or a “Citizen of the United States at the time of adoption of this Constitution”. Both those Citizenship status requirement options were read by the House Rep prior to the interruption. But that is not what NBC reported. They truncated off many words in the Constitution in their report.According to my listening to the audio the interruption from the gallery occurred much later in the reading of the eligibility clause in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 … after the word “office” was said. This is what got said by the House Rep in his reading prior to the shouts of “Except Obama” from the gallery.No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;Then the interruption came from the gallery shouting “Except Obama”. (note edit by drk, started right after the first “President”, and was on-going when the next phrase was read, ‘neither shall…”Here is the actual audio/video of the event today. You listen to it and see if MSNBC reported the point of interruption correctly. They did not.These disinformation people in the media should be arrested some day. This was deliberate by MSNBC and others reporting what happened to give a deliberately false interpretation of what the Constitution says and what was read prior to the interruption from the gallery. Others are also saying she shouted out something about Obama’s birth certificate which is not true either.Read more coverage of what actually happened here. MSNBC talking heads and writers in other major media doing such blatantly misleading and false reporting and engaging in convenient omissions to mislead the American people as to what the Constitution really says in the presidential eligibility clause of the U.S. Constitution should be fired.
Amen.
Friday, January 7, 2011
The Tea Parties Revival of the Constitution
Congress has just done what has never been done in the Chamber's 221 year history,They have dusted off the Constution of the United States and read it outloud on the House Floor.
They will require that every new bill contain a statement by the lawmaker who wrote it citing the constitutional authority to enact the proposed legislation.
Call it the tea party-ization of Congress.
"It appears that the Republicans have been listening," said Jeff Luecke, a sales supervisor and tea party organizer in Dubuque, Iowa. "We're so far away from our founding principles that, absolutely, this is the very, very tip of the iceberg. We need to talk about and learn about the Constitution daily."
Brash and young though it is, the Tea Party movement has already added something distinctive to contemporary political discourse. It has made the Constitution central to the national conversation.
Not a few constitutional scholars say that it is possible to quarrel with the particulars while welcoming the discussion. And not just because it is nice to know that people read and care about the nation’s sacred text. The larger point, these scholars say, is that the Supreme Court should have no more monopoly on the meaning of the Constitution than the pope has on the meaning of the Bible.
Surveys conducted by Quinnipiac University indicate that some 40 percent of Americans say the Supreme Court should employ originalism in interpreting the Constitution; slightly more say the court should take account of changing conditions.
"The Tea Party movement in the United States now enjoys an approval rating which is four times higher than the United States Congress. The reason is simple. We believe in the need for lower taxes, limited government, personal freedom and individual responsibility",this according to MARK BARIE; founding chairman of the Upstate New York Tea (UNYTEA) Party.
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