Backed into a corner, an animal defaults to the lowest and most primordial part of its brain — the medula oblongata, center of fear, aggression, lust and greed. With the certainty of extinction looming and the ax of Obamacare about to fall, the cornered terrorists in our Congress have officially cast aside any pretense of caring about the people of the United States.
President Obama (or “Barry HUSSEIN Obummer,” for our Teabagger trolls) made no bones about negotiating with our Republican terrorists, as he definitively stated in this interview with ABC.
But Boehner isn’t budging; like most terrorists, he’s quite willing to scream “Allah Akbar!” and blow the building to bits rather than concede failure. On September 26th, the Speaker of the Louse issued this list of demands, many of which have absolutely nothing to do with healthcare. In effect, they’re demanding that Obama start toeing the Teapublican party line, or subject all of America to the consequences of blackmail. The Terrorist of the House’s list of demands include:
- Approval of the Keystone XL pipeline
- Weakening of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in the aftermath of the market crash in 2008 to protect consumers from predatory loan practices.
- Delay implementation of Obamacare for a year. (Until the next “budget crisis” blackmail list comes out)
- Cut $120 billion in funding from federal health programs over the next 10 years by repealing Obamacare and the Public Health Fund, instituting more testing in the Medicare program.
- Increase offshore drilling and open more Federal lands for oil drilling.
- Restrict most kinds of federal regulation of the oil industry, requiring all major regulations to get a vote in Congress, and nullify regulations that are not approved in 70 days. (That way they can ignore them for 71 days)
- Block federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, essentially dissolving the EPA’s authority through the Clean Air Act of 1973.
- A ban on late-term abortions. This one didn’t make it onto the final list of demands, but only against the protest of many Teapublican politicians.
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So, that’s the list of terrorist and extortionist supreme Boehner’s demands — essentially, to completely undo all legislation designed to protect anyone but major corporations, and hand over control of the United States to said corporations.
So, what do we poor peasants get in return, if we hand over complete control of our country to Boehner’s corporate jihadis? Well, that’s the good news…they’re willing to NOT destroy the country! For a year. At which point, they’re going to issue another list of demands that will likely include every American citizen taking the oil-stained Mark of the Boehner.
Incremental as it is, this DOES seems like an oddly arbitrary list of demands for a terrorist…until you look at the people contributing cash to Boehner’s bank account(s). From Open Secrets, as of 2013:
Finance, Insurance and Real Estate: $1,300,000
Health and Big Pharma: $579,600
“Miscellaneous Business”: $757,000
Oil, Gas and Natural Resources: $547,000
He’s also the #1 recipient of funds from the Student Loan, Gun Rights and Steel Production industries, and the #2 recipient from Mining, Subcontractors, Telephone Utilities and Tobacco Industries. See Opensecrets.org for plenty more.
We could fairly call Boehner a terrorist, a traitor and an extortionist; those are all fair descriptions of his behavior. But we don’t call him that. Not because he isn’t, but only because those words imply a single person acting outside the government. Put a group of terrorists together and stick them IN the government, and we get a little thing called the GOP.
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Here’s Boehner’s official list, as circulated among members of the Grand Old Tea Party. There’s no chance Obama will negotiate with these terrorists, but it’s worth taking a few minutes to see what a terrorist’s blackmail memo looks like.
Debt Limit Brief
9/24/2013
Our Debt Limit Bill on Friday
One Year Debt Limit Increase
Not a dollar amount increase, but suspending the debt limit until the end of December 2014.
Similar to what we did earlier this year.
- Want the year long to align with the year delay of Obamacare.
- One Year Obamacare delay
- Tax Reform Instructions
- Similar to a bill we passed last fall, laying out broad from Ryan Budget principles for what tax reform should look like.
- Gives fast track authority for tax reform legislation
Energy and regulatory reforms to promote economic growth
- Includes pretty much every jobs bill we have passed this year and last Congress
- All of these policies have important positive economic effects.
- Energy provisions
- Keystone Pipeline
- Coal Ash regulations
- Offshore drilling
- Energy production on federal lands
- EPA Carbon regulations
Regulatory reform
- REINS Act
- Regulatory process reform
- Consent decree reform
- Blocking Net Neutrality
Mandatory Spending Reforms
- Mostly from the sequester replacement bills we passed last year
- Federal Employee retirement reform
- Ending the Dodd Frank bailout fund
- Transitioning CFPB funding to Appropriations
- Child Tax Credit Reform to prevent fraud
- Repealing the Social Services Block grant
Health Spending Reforms
- Means testing Medicare
- Repealing a Medicaid Provider tax gimmick
- Tort reform
- Altering Disproportion Share Hospitals
- Repealing the Public Health trust Fund
Regarding Sequester fixes: Helping the DOD is a priority for us. But the Dems really really really want increase the discretionary caps; it will be their #1 priority in any negotiation. That is part of our leverage.
The President’s position that he will not negotiate is not sustainable. There are many examples of reforms being tied to debt ceiling increases, particularly during divided government. The Senate would like to jam us with a clean increase. But we should not let that happen.
The deadline to pass a debt limit increase looks to be between mid-October and early November. No word on the CR, but “Members should plan to be here until we put a bill on the President’s desk.”
