Dems to GOP: Don’t like government healthcare? Prove it: drop yours.
Will any GOP member of Congress who is so opposed to government healthcare for average Americans drop his or her own benefits? My guess is they’ll neither “put up” nor “shut up” — and they’ll do it because they know their supporters will continue to vote against their own interests.
“Put up or sit down,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) to Republicans, who promise to repeal the sweeping health care law enacted in March. The congressman has introduced a bill to repeal the measure’s most popular components, such as the ban on denying coverage for pre-existing illnesses.
“This will be the big chance for Republicans to do what they’ve vowed to do,” Ackerman said, according to Mike Lillis of The Hill. “These bills will be their chance to at long last restore liberty and repeal the evil monster they’ve dubbed ‘Obamacare.’ “
Another New York Democrat, Joseph Crowley, on Tuesday sent a letter to Republican leaders challenging them to “walk the walk” if they intend to “deny millions of Americans affordable health care.”
“You cannot enroll in the very kind of coverage that you want for yourselves, and then turn around and deny it to Americans who don’t happen to be Members of Congress,” the letter read.
Dems to GOP: Don’t like government health care? Then drop yours
And this:
Incoming Republican Rep. Andy Harris ran against government health care reform (for the rabble), but was “incredulous” when he found out he’d have to wait 28 days for his government health care benefits to kick in.
“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. … “Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide.
UNBELIEVABLE!
“This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” his spokeswoman Anna Nix told Politico, before explaining that the statements were grievances about the failures of government-run health care, and therefore a perfect fit into his campaign rhetoric against health care reform.
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While Congress goes on a five-week vacation, FAA employees are left furloughed or paying to work
“The House Republicans’ insistence on attaching anti-worker provisions to an aviation bill has brought about a terrible stalemate that is hurting the economy. From day 1, House GOP leaders admitted openly — almost proudly — that they were doing this to gain ‘leverage’ toward a larger goal — undermining worker rights.” — Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said in a statement
The teaparty Republicans are leaving DC without releasing all of their hostages:
WASHINGTON — The failure of Congress to authorize a budget for the Federal Aviation Administration has put some 4,000 agency employees and tens of thousands of contractors temporarily out of work. But even some FAA workers who haven’t been furloughed find themselves in a peculiar financial jam.
Roughly 40 FAA inspectors have been asked to continue working despite the stoppage because their jobs are important for air safety. Yet since Congress hasn’t allocated money to the agency, these employees have to cover their own travel expenses until the shutdown is resolved. Although their wages and expenses will eventually be recouped, these workers will end up covering work-related credit charges — and possibly interest — until funding is freed up.
[…] Babbitt and transportation secretary Ray LaHood had urged the Senate to pass a bill Tuesday before the chamber breaks for recess and lawmakers head home, leaving thousands out of a job until September. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asked her colleagues to pass a House bill without its most controversial elements, but Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) objected to Boxer’s request.
Largely lost in the all-consuming debt ceiling debate, the FAA shutdown is now closing in on two weeks. The agency hasn’t had a long-term funding plan since 2007, instead relying on a series of short-term extensions, the last of which expired July 22.
[…] Weatherby, who normally works at the William J. Hughes Technical Center at Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey, said the irony isn’t lost on him that congressional leaders might take flights home for recess without passing an FAA bill.
“All I hear is jobs, jobs, jobs out of Washington, and here they are to put us out of work,” said Weatherby, who works on cybersecurity issues.
Weatherby, 43, said the furlough has put serious financial strains on his family. Although his wife continues to work her job with Atlantic County, the two have to support not only themselves but her elderly parents as well. Weatherby said he’s already started dipping into his savings and doesn’t know how long it will last. His colleagues have started using their vacation time and have been told they should start applying for unemployment.
“It’s getting desperate at this point,” he said. “The senselessness of all this is amazing.”
I blame the dumbasses who support insist on this behavior from their politicians — the teaparty base. These people seem to imagine a rightwing fantasy world without unions and middle-class wages, where the poor and elderly grow some boot-straps, where the wealthy pay no taxes, and where government at all levels is the size of a 7-Eleven.
In that world, future generations will live in burrows and forage for twigs and bugs off a sun-baked Hellscape, and every night they’ll do the tell to ‘member the gone-back days when people paid taxes to build a civilization and working people organized so that huge corporations might treat them fairly.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpbp7n7KWk1qf10tro1_500.jpg)
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What is Congress “doing” this week? - Afghanistan: Lawmakers expressed condolences and concern on the Sunday morning political talk shows in response to the news that a U.S. soldier allegedly opened fire on Afghan civilians inside homes before turning himself in. There are several Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committee hearings scheduled for this week that could serve as venues for senators to raise further concerns or skepticism about the war. […] Fixing Congress: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee plans to hold a hearing Wednesday to review several pieces of legislation that would change how Congress handles the budgetmaking process, including a proposal known as “No Budget, No Pay.”
GET THIS: from this same article, the Republicans say to expect three major endorsements for Romney. They consider that “doing something.” That’s “work” to them!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0s5r9fZkj1qf10tro1_500.jpg)
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BERNIE SANDERS: Congress spends day and night worrying about the wealthy – “This country faces enormous problems, the middle-class is declining, poverty is increasing, we’re worried about global warming, we’re worried about health care, we’re worried about education,” he said, “and the American people are looking to Washington and saying, ‘What’s going on? We have enormous problems, and you’re not addressing those problems.’” “One of the reasons that Congress is not addressing those problems is the power of big money in terms of campaign contributions and in terms of lobbying,” Sanders continued. “Working people are trying to keep their heads above water, and here on Capitol Hill all kinds of money is flooding into this institution so that Congress spends day and night worrying about the wealthy and powerful, and forgetting about the middle-class and working families.” He blasted the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which held that limiting corporate campaign spending violated the First Amendment. […] Sen. Charles Schumer said at the summit that the Citizens United decision was the worst since Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld state laws enacting racial segregation. “Something like 17 people have given half the Republican super PACS half of their money,” he noted. “What is happening to America?”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2qq889d3C1qf10tro1_500.jpg)
