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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

And so it begins …

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The 114th Congress was sworn in yesterday with much fanfare. Finally, according to the beltway pundits, we have Republican lawmakers ready to do the serious business of the people. Speaker John Boehner, entering his 5th year at the helm of the ship of fools known as the Republican House, is now joined by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the very very serious doer-of-the-people’s-business who once declared that the top priority of the Republican Senate was to make Barack Obama a one term president.

The 112th and 113th Congresses were marked by what they were against rather than what they were for. Repealing the Affordable Care Act consumed much of the time, forced birth initiatives consumed some and of course the investigations into the Fox scandals (IRS targeting of conservatives, Benghaziiii, the president’s birth certificate) consumed more.  But they pretty much knew that the show bills they passed were big sloppy kisses to their base rather than legislation that would be taken up by the Senate for consideration. Now, every bill they pass will be part of the resume of Republican Governance that they are building to, according to them, “show the American people how grand this ol’ party is so that they will elect a Republican president”. Remember the Bush years of glorious health and prosperity for the American people? Funny, neither do I. Maybe we can ask a beltway pundit to help us remember.

And really, do we need a Republican Congress to serve as an example of the outcome of Republican Governance? We have evidence in state after state after state where anti-women, anti-black, anti-environment, anti-poors laws have made ordinary people’s lives miserable.

The House of Reprehensibles did not take long to show us what they will consume their time with over the next two years.

Yesterday, the House issued a rule change that will lower benefits for disabled Americans receiving help from the Social Security fund:

The largely overlooked change puts a new restriction on the routine transfer of tax revenues between the traditional Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program. The transfers, known as reallocation, had historically been routine; the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said Tuesday that they had been made 11 times. The CBPP added that the disability insurance program “isn’t broken,” but the program has been strained by demographic trends that the reallocations are intended to address.

The Republicans will be unwilling to raise taxes to shore up the OASDI fund leading many to predict a benefit cut:

In a memo circulated to their allies Tuesday, Democratic staffers said that that would mean “either new revenues or benefit cuts for current or future beneficiaries.” New revenues are highly unlikely to be approved by the deeply tax-averse Republican-led Congress, leaving benefit cuts as the obvious alternative.

The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees estimated last year that the disability insurance program would run short of money to pay all benefits some time in late 2016. Without a new reallocation, disability insurance beneficiaries could face up to 20 percent cuts in their Social Security payments in late 2016

The average OASDI payment is $1,000 so a 20% cut would leave a disabled person with $800 a month to live on. Factor in Republican cuts to food stamps and cuts in housing allowances and you have created a humanitarian crisis.  

Oh, by the way, who will suffer the most? The very people who created the 114th Congress out of their fear and apathy. From SSA, the people from these states which lost a Democratic Senator (or missed a good chance at an open seat or to depose an unpopular incumbent):

Alaska 12,689 people collecting disability

Arkansas 112,741

Colorado 72,154

Georgia 253,498

Iowa     50,849

Kansas   49,071

Kentucky 190,721

Louisiana 181,598

North Carolina 234,362

West Virginia 79,136

A total of 8,363,477 people which includes 666,258 from Texas, the “we don’t need no stinkin’ federal government” state … and the home of Republican leaders like Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert.

This is what happens when 36% of the American people choose our government. When legislators know that they will not be held accountable by the voters for anything they do — Republicans were rewarded for shutting down the government in 2013 with bigger majorities in the House and control of the Senate — they will simply do what their ideological masters and donors want.

Elections matter. And we will be pulling the shrapnel from the aftermath of the low-turnout 2014 election out of our buttocks long after January 3, 2017, the last day of the 114th Congress.


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/ 24 Comments

24 comments

  1. JanF

    The headline in my local paper this morning said “Veto threat cuts pageantry short”. Awwwww, poor Republicans!!!

    Apparently the Republicans were shocked shocked that President Obama has no intention of signing onto their reign of terror. The veto threat (actually a promise) was in reference to the Keystone XL Pipeline. The president will not allow Congress to rush the process.

  2. JanF

    Congress Introduces A National Abortion Ban On Its Very First Day Back

    On Tuesday, the very first day of the 114th Congress, two lawmakers introduced a measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks, in direct violation of the protections afforded under Roe v. Wade. Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the same legislation that successfully passed the House last year.

    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – who introduced a companion 20-week abortion ban in the Senate last year that was stalled by Democratic leadership – has already indicated that he plans to re-introduce his own measure in the next few weeks, too. Now that the Senate is GOP-controlled, Republicans are anticipating that they’ll have enough support to pass the ban in both chambers this year, helping the anti-choice community gain momentum for this particular tactic to limit reproductive rights.

    Er, gain momentum? So they waste congressional time passing a bill that the president will veto … that is what they call “momentum”? It is going to be a long 2 years …

  5. Diana in NoVa

    And the stock market is already crashing in anticipation of what they’ll do next.

    That, Jan, is what galls me:  the Rethugs shut down the government and yet were rewarded.

    Where are people’s brains?

  6. JanF

    House GOP Unexpectedly Fails To Pass First Major Bill In New Congress

    The bill was expected to pass handily but since it was being treated as a “suspension” Democrats were able to defeat it.

    @ChadPergram Unforced error for House GOP. House unexpectedly defeats job creation & regulation reform bill. Comms dir’s had press releases ready to go.

    Jobs/regs bill got 276 yeas, 146 nays. But was treated as a “suspension” which needs 2/3 to pass. With 422 ballots, needed 282.

    Oops!!!

    Maybe they should have checked to see if Steve Scalise knew how to count to 282 before they elevated him to the job of Majority Whip. See what happens when you defund public education …

    Democratic Schadenfreude:

    Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) quickly released a statement hailing the unexpected victory and highlighted aspects of the legislation that would have undercut parts of Dodd-Frank and the Volcker rule in particular.

    “I’m proud House Democrats stood together today to protect critical Wall Street reforms,” Ellison said in a statement. “Families are only now starting to recover from the devastating financial crisis. Congress must strengthen and fully enforce the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.”

    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi:

    “House Republicans need to rethink their special-interests-first plan for this Congress.  The American people expect Congress to champion the paychecks of middle class families, not the profits of big banks.  Wall Street giveaways introduced in the dead of night are no way to govern.

    “Democrats will continue to fight back against Republicans’ Wall Street wish list agenda.  Republicans should stop undermining the middle class, and join Democrats to build better infrastructure and bigger paychecks for every American family.”

  7. JanF

    Harry Reid Remarks

    The desks in this chamber have been rearranged, committee assignments adjusted, and a new majority assumes control for the next two years. Or in other words, it’s just another Wednesday in January at the start of a new Congress. For all the changes, our duties as United States Senators remain the same: we are here to help working Americans, and ensure our government has all it needs to serve the people.

    In spite of almost no Republican cooperation over the last six years, we’ve made significant strides in both regards. The new Majority Leader claims the Senate hasn’t achieved, in his words, “squat” in recent years. The numbers, however, tell a different story.

    Today the U.S. unemployment rate stands at 5.8%.

       – Over the last six years the American economy has added 10 million jobs.

       – The stock market has reached all-time highs.

       – Our nation’s manufacturers are thriving. The American auto industry was brought back from the brink of collapse in spite of Republican opposition.

       – And let’s not forget about the more than ten million newly insured Americans.

    While some here in Washington may see that as “squat,” the economic recovery has been very real to American families. I know how important it has been to working Nevadans.

    Ready to work together but, I hope, not holding his breath:

    … the gratuitous obstruction and wanton filibustering will not be a hallmark of a Democratic minority in the 114th Congress. The filibuster is an indispensable tool of the minority, but Republicans’ abuse of it last Congress has come to epitomize the gridlock here in the United States Capitol. To be clear, I have no intention of just rolling over. I can’t. Not when the middle class is teetering on the verge of extinction. Any attempt to erode protections for working American families – the dismantling of Dodd-Frank, the weakening of net neutrality rules, or the Republicans’ never-ending quest to repeal Obamacare – will be met with a swift and unified Democratic opposition.

    But we’d rather legislate together.  And there’s plenty of common ground for bipartisan compromise if Republicans are willing.

  8. JanF

    Via TPM

    Warren, in very clear terms, said the attempt by House Republicans to block the Social Security budgeting move that involves transferring revenues between the Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program was flat out “ridiculous.”

    “It’s ridiculous – but not surprising – that on the very first day of the new Congress, Republicans are manufacturing a Social Security crisis to threaten benefits for millions of disabled Americans – including 233,260 in Massachusetts alone,” Warren said on Facebook. “We can’t turn our backs on the promises we’ve made to our families, friends, and neighbors who need our help the most. House Republicans should stop playing political games to put America’s most vulnerable at risk.”

    Republicans are seeking leverage to go after all earned benefit programs and feel that this is one way to do it. Certainly they could not care less about the plight of the disabled so it is easy for them to sacrifice those folks on the altar of their ideology. They know that Democrats will seek compromise rather than having the baby cut in half.

  9. Diana in NoVa

    benefits, I am very bitter about this. He’s old–well, a couple of years younger than I–and simply not able to hold down a job. That’s why he’s been on SSD.

    Gods, I hate Republicans!

  10. JanF

    I don’t normally link to Dana Milbank but I will because I want to highlight something from his column that tickled me.

    Mitch McConnell is off to a bitter start

    Mitch McConnell, the new Senate majority leader, has an exceedingly high opinion of his own power.

    In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday morning outlining his priorities for the new Congress, the Kentucky Republican suggested that the GOP takeover of Congress – not yet 24 hours old – had already boosted the American economy. […]

    By McConnell’s logic, Americans began to spend freely in July, August and September because they had a hunch Republicans would win the Senate in November and take control in January.

    This:

    … his self-aggrandizing claim about the economy brought to mind [Senator Robert] Byrd’s withering criticism of Republicans as pygmies who “stride like colossuses while marveling like Aesop’s fly, sitting on the axle of a chariot, ‘My, what a dust I do raise.’ ”

    Har!!

    Poor sad Mitch apparently expected to be greeted as a liberator. But his how-dee-do was less than cordial:

    McConnell, when he wasn’t taking credit for things that preceded his ascent, gave a remarkably angry and ungracious first speech to the body he now leads. It was an 18-minute snarl, dripping with contempt and packed with campaign-style barbs for the president. […] If this opening speech was a sign of McConnell’s leadership, it’s going to be a long and unproductive session.

  11. JanF

    Pew Poll

    Few Americans are expecting much cooperation between parties despite talk that Obama and the Republicans might be able to find common ground on some issues in his last two years in office.

    Just 18% of Democrats believed that Republican leaders would cooperate a great deal or fair amount with the White House and 37% of Republicans shared that view.

    It doesn’t help when Republicans really have no interest in getting anything done:

    … 66% of Republicans said in a poll conducted just after last November’s elections that they wanted GOP leaders to stand up to Obama even if it meant getting less done in Washington.

  12. JanF

    The House voted  252 to 172 to change the ACA definition of “work week” from 30 hours to 40 hours.

    The change, which the president indicated he would veto, would eliminate coverage for 1 million workers and their families and increase the budget deficit by $50 billion.

    America’s New Congress™: who luvs ya’, America?

  13. JanF

    The Right’s Wrong Idea of Governance

    The problem for the Republicans who now control both the House and the Senate is that they are divided between their right and their far right. The number of bona fide moderates can be counted on one hand — although, if you wanted to be generous, you might get to a second hand. As a result, the Republicans’ own measures of success will be out of line not only with President Obama’s priorities, but also with what most middle-of-the-road Americans would take as reasonable tests of what it means for government to work.[…]

    How far have the goal posts been moved in the GOP? Just because Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell say they want to avoid government shutdowns and debt-ceiling hostage taking, they are to be regarded as heroes of sane policy-making. But if we’ve sunk so low that this is now the test of “governance,” we are still a long way from the real thing.

  14. JanF

    Battle lines drawn for immigration executive order fight

    … here’s how it could work. First the House would pass a bill to renew DHS funding with an add-on to prohibit the department from using funds to process work permits for people in the U.S. illegally. Then the Senate would take up the bill, hoping to win over enough Democrats to secure 60 votes and defeat an expected filibuster. That’s uncertain. But if the legislation passes both chambers, Obama would likely veto it. Then Republicans would have to decide whether to stand firm or back down. If neither side blinks, DHS funding would run out on Feb. 27. […]

    Given Obama’s commitment to his immigration changes, it is a risky battle for Republicans to wage, and could backfire if DHS ends up shutting down just two months into their tenure controlling both chambers of Congress. Top Republicans are insisting that DHS will be funded, particularly in the wake of the searing terrorist attack on a satirical publication in Paris, making it unclear how far the party is willing to go in using it as a pawn in the immigration fight.

    “At the end of the day,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “we’re going to fund the department, obviously.“

    Oops! Your cards just fell open on top of the table, Senator.  

  15. JanF

    Inside The GOP’s Long Game To Ignite A New Battle Over Social Security

    Republicans are seizing a once-every-20-years opportunity to force a crisis in the Social Security disability program and use it as leverage to push through reforms, a long game that they have been quietly laying groundwork for since taking control of the House in 2010.[…]

    The hostage in this metaphor is the disability insurance program and a late 2016 deadline, at which point it won’t be able to pay its full benefits to its 11 million beneficiaries. The new Republican House has approved a rule that says Congress can’t just transfer tax revenue from the Social Security retirement fund, as it has been done routinely in the past, to cover the looming shortfall. If nothing is done, beneficiaries would face an estimated 20 percent cut.

    Most members on both sides presumably wouldn’t want to see that happen, especially during a critical election cycle, giving Republicans powerful leverage to bring Democrats to the negotiating table. One of the co-sponsors of the rule change, Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY), said that his intention was to “force us to look for a long-term solution” to the disability program.

    But the rule itself says it will allow a revenue transfer if the “overall health” of Social Security, encompassing both the retirement and disability programs, is improved. That’s what Democrats are warning about, but some conservative analysts who have consulted with House staffers are also hoping that the GOP uses the threat of benefits cuts to go big.

  16. JanF

    R.J. Eskow: The Right Tries (and Fails) to Justify Its Attacks on Social Security and the Disabled

    Republicans moved to cut Social Security disability benefits by blocking a routine reallocation of funds. That’s bad enough, but their end game is even worse: broad Social Security cuts and the privatization of the entire program.[…]

    Heritage’s defense of the House is a good example of the right’s timeworn strategies for concealing — perhaps, at times, even from itself — the moral and human implications of its actions. It’s written by Romina Boccia, the “Grover M. Hermann fellow in federal budgetary affairs in the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation” — now there’s a title! — and is called “The House Just Made It Harder for Politicians to Steal From Social Security Retirement Fund.”

    See what they did there, before we’ve even read the text? They changed the subject from “disabled Americans” to “politicians.” (People hate “politicians,” right?) But the money wouldn’t go to “politicians,” who have generous retirement and disability plans. It would go to the disabled. And it wouldn’t be “stolen.” It would be borrowed – from the same payroll tax which funds retirement benefits.

    This:

    “This change,” Ms. Boccia writes of the House’s move, “sets the stage for comprehensive Social Security reform in the 114th Congress.”

    Well, of course it does. Disability benefits are just the prelude. They’re after bigger game. The right wants what it has wanted ever since Social Security was first created: its dismantlement.

    Merriam-Webster tell us that to “reform” something is “to improve (it) by removing or correcting faults, problems, etc.” It does not mean “to shrink, truncate, terminate, slash, or cut.” But then, that’s how the right creates buzzwords: by hijacking real words and giving them new, zombified meanings.

  17. princesspat

    Free college? It’s already in our wheelhouse

    But free college is not only not crazy. It’s already happening for huge numbers of students, especially right here in Washington state.

    Did you know we have a program here that offers free college to nearly half the state’s public high-school students? And it isn’t just two years of community college. It’s four years of university tuition, plus a $500 per year book stipend, all free.

    It’s called the College Bound Scholarship, and though the state Legislature passed it with zero fanfare back in 2007, the ramifications of it are enormous.

    It guarantees four years free at public-university rates for anyone who signs up by eighth grade and whose family income is low enough to qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch program. About half of the state’s public-school students are this poor ($44,000 or less for a family of four), and so are theoretically eligible to get four free years of college.

    I didn’t know about this program, but now I do. An even bigger surprise is that the vote in our polarized state Senate was 46-0.

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