Serious People Reject Unserious Eric Cantor

Bob Cesca
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!
07/14/2011

It’s about goddamn time.

Behind the scenes, leading members of both parties have concluded that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is an impediment to resolving the debt limit standoff, and should back down. Now, Democrats are publicly calling for him to get real or go home.

“House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has shown that he’s shouldn’t even be at the table,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in a blistering floor speech Thursday morning. “And Republicans agree.”

Oh yeah. Cantor belongs with the Crazy Caucus (Steve King, Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert), not in a negotiation where the entire American economy is at stake — an economy he’s personally betting against by short selling t-bills. That alone should have disqualified him from the beginning.

http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/07/serious-people-reject-unserious-eric-cantor.html

Copyright 2011 Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!

A Hand In The Talks

“Republicans need to accept the need to raise more revenue.” Bill O’Reilly


When Republicans lose O’Reilly, they should probably begin to panic.

JM Ashby
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!
July 13, 2011





Artist – Dave Granlund

In other news, Congressman Ron Paul has announced that he is retiring from congress and will not seek reelection, and a city clerk in New York decided she would rather quit her job than be forced to sign a single same-sex marriage license. Good riddance to both.

http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/07/a-hand-in-the-talks.html

Copyright 2011 Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!

Pathetic Republican Children

Bob Cesca
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!
07/10/2011

The other day on the podcast, I said the Republican will not compromise in any way shape or form. And two days later…

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner is rejecting President Obama’s offer to make historic cuts to the federal government and the social safety net, saying in a statement Saturday evening that he can not agree to the tax increases Democrats insisted on as part of the bargain. [...]

Obama had proposed to Republicans a “grand bargain” that accomplished a host of individual things that are unpopular on their own, but that just might pass as a huge package jammed through Congress with default looming. Obama offered to put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts on the table in exchange for a tax hike of roughly $100 billion per year over 10 years.

They know the president will be a grownup and try to reach an agreement in order to avert disaster. And they’re using it against him in order to get what they want — everything. The president’s only recourse here is to stonewall and give them nothing.

http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/07/the-pathetic-republican-children.html

Copyright 2011 Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!

Not Even Hiding It Anymore

Broadway Carl
Broadway Carl's Blog-O-Mania!
Friday, July 8, 2011

If there was any doubt that the Republican Party has no problem with sacrificing the American economy, the American people, the unemployed and underemployed in the country, and possibility of sending the world into a global recesssion, then look no further than at one of its shining stars. They're not even trying to hide the notion that they're selling America down the river solely for political gain. 

“Does it strike you that as the unemployment rate goes up, your chances of winning office also go up?” host Carl Quintanilla asked. “Well, that could be. Again, I hope so,” Bachmann replied.

http://www.broadwaycarl.com/2011/07/not-even-hiding-it-anymore.html

Copyright 2011 Broadway Carl's Blog-O-Mania!

Big Oil Welfare

ThinkProgress War Room
Progress Reports | ThinkProgress
July 6, 2011

GOP Tax Giveaway of the Day: Big Oil Subsidies

Oil from a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline is coursing through the picturesque Yellowstone Riveras we speak, but Big Oil’s real gusher is located on Capitol Hill. Big Oil’s best friends in Congress make sure that year after year, billions of dollars in taxpayer funds flow into the coffers of the most profitable companies the world has ever known. In return, Big Oil spends millions each year to make sure that its friends keep their seats.

Here’s why it’s time to make the easiest of all choices — the one to end taxpayer-funded giveaways to Big Oil.

WHAT: Wasteful and unnecessary taxpayer subsidies for oil companies

HOW MUCH THEY WASTE: $77 BILLION from 2011-2021

WHO BENEFITS: Oil companies large and small, including the five largest oil companies who raked in $32 BILLION in profits in just the first quarter of 2011. ExxonMobil alone made nearly $11 billion in profits during the first quarter of this year.

WHO ELSE BENEFITS: Big Oil’s friends in Congress benefit from millions in campaign cash from the oil and gas industry. During the 2010 election cycle alone, the oil and gas industry pumpedmore than $21 MILLION into congressional campaign accounts — more than three-quarters of which went to Republicans. These same Republicans have voted repeatedly — and nearly unanimously — in favor of keeping oil subsidies over the past several months. In addition to lavish spending on direct campaign contributions, the oil and gas industry also spent awhopping $145 MILLION last year to lobby Congress.

DINNER TABLE FAST FACTS:

• The average American pays an effective federal income tax rate of 20.4 percent, while ExxonMobil had an effective tax rate of just 17.6 percent over the past three years. That is of course far below the statutory corporate tax rate of 35 percent.
• Even Big Oil CEOs themselves admit that they don’t need the subsidies. ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva told Congress: “With respect to oil and gas exploration and production,we do not need incentives.”

IN ONE SENTENCE: Instead of ending Medicare to pay for more tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and huge corporations, we need to end the billions in taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil.

IN ONE CHART:

NOTABLE QUOTABLE — former President George W. Bush: “I will tell you with $55 oil we don’t need incentives to the oil and gas companies to explore. There are plenty of incentives. What we need is to put a strategy in place that will help this country over time become less dependent.” (Bush said this in 2005 when oil was around $55 a barrel; oil is currently hovering around $95 a barrel.)

Evening Briefing: Important Stories That You May Have Missed

Republicans have officially unveiled a slash-and-burn budget plan for the environment, with drastic cuts to environmental agencies and numerous riders to exempt polluters from science-based regulation.

The Republicans’ proposed increase in military spending over the next six years is almost as much as their proposed transportation budget in total.

What’s wrong with the Obama administration’s Medicaid cuts.

Ten ways for the new Arab democracies to not make American mistakes.

U.S. military presence worldwide 1950-2007.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claims a U.S. presence in Iraq past 2011 wouldn’t necessarily comprise “combat troops.”

If only 25 of the nation’s top hedge fund managers lost their tax loophole, the U.S. governmentwould get $4 billion a year in extra revenue.

The only reason GOP presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann got a law degree was becauseher husband told her to do it, and because God told her to listen to her husband.

Alto, a Texas town with a rising crime rate already above the state average, laid off its entire police force due to budget cuts, leading some residents to carry guns around.

Georgtown professor Hans Noel suggests in an interview with Columbia Journalism Review that political journalists should zoom out at look at the party rather than the candidate, which Matt Yglesias thinks exposes a Michele Bachmann weakness.

Reflecting on a photography show about contemporary Vietnam he saw, Philip Weiss looks to the Middle East and hopes that U.S. and other conflicts there need not create resentment forever.

http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/big-oil-welfare/

© 2005-2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund

Must Reads

Pat Bagley

Clay Bennett














http://www.broadwaycarl.com/2011/07/must-reads.html

Copyright 2011 Broadway Carl's Blog-O-Mania!

Shouldn’t There Be Investigations?

Bob Cesca
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!
07/01/2011

Chuck Schumer repeats the Republican Sabotage accusation:

“Now it is becoming clear that insisting on a slash-and-burn approach may be part of this plan — and it has a double-benefit for Republicans,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “It is ideologically tidy and it undermines the economic recovery, which they think only helps them in 2012.”

It’d be nice if they weren’t talking trash and actually meant it. After all, if there’s evidence the Republicans are deliberately undermining the economy, that has to be illegal. Or at least a violation of an oath or two. For that matter, why hasn’t anyone pressed Eric Cantor about shorting the U.S. Treasury while also refusing to vote for raising the debt ceiling?

http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/07/shouldnt-there-be-investigations.html

Copyright 2011 Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!