We have met the enemy and he is Issa Congressman Darrell Issa is determined that he’s going eventually uncover an actual scandal. If it’s not regarding Benghazi then it will be regarding the IRS. If it’s not the IRS then, by God, it will be about the security of the healthcare.gov website. Yesterday he held yet another hearing to “prove” […]

Senate Republicans stopped a bill that would restore emergency unemployment insurance for only three months on Tuesday. Republicans want to end the additional help for those looking for work at a point when the government never has before because they don’t believe in it. But they can’t say that. So they say we can’t afford it. They demanded that the […]

Shameless This afternoon, at the invitation of Michigan Republicans, the Koch brothers-funded corporatist front group Americans for Prosperity debuted a new attack ad aimed at Senate candidate Gary Peters. Portrayed as an anti-Affordable Care Act “issue ad”, it clearly targets only one candidate, Democrat Gary Peters and represents another example of the corrosive grip corporate “dark money” has on our […]

It’s getting very deep in here… Earlier this month, I wrote about how Michigan Republicans were going to soon begin a campaign of deceit in which they attempt to convince Michigan voters that they are tax-cutting warriors determined to return budget surplus funds to the taxpayers to whom they belong. This week, House Speaker Jase Bolger began a propaganda campaign […]

Republicans fear their anti-poverty message could cloud their pro-poverty message The Washington Examiner’s Bryon York wants to know why some high-profile Republicans — Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Mike Lee — have decided to tell people that they care about poverty now. He’s not wondering this because the GOP doesn’t actually have a anti-poverty agenda or because these […]

They hate it when you call them on their hypocrisy Yesterday I posted a tweet that went pretty viral on Twitter and on Facebook. Anne worked her magic and, by the afternoon, it had become this meme which went even more viral: Last evening, journalist E.J. Dionne retweeeted it (and again this morning). This caused all manner of self-described libertarians […]

Republicans can’t let the Tea Party catch them caring about the unemployed. UPDATE: Land came out for the extension right before the Senate’s first procedural vote on the bill, which surprisingly passed with 6 Republican votes. Last weekend, 43,800 Michiganders who have been out of work for more than 5 months lost their unemployment insurance. If Congress doesn’t act 86,500 […]

They think you’re stupid and gullible. Don’t prove them right. In February of 2012, I penned a piece titled “The tax timebomb that explodes in Michigan in 2012 is MUCH worse than you thought”. In it, I showed how Michigan Republicans raised taxes on over half of the people in our state. Worse than that, the brunt of the tax […]

How the right justifies cutting 1.3 million Americans — including 20,000 veterans — off emergency unemployment insurance The economic case for emergency unemployment insurance is pretty simple. When the long-term unemployment rate is high, offering unemployment benefits to those who have been out of work for six month puts money immediately back into the economy, as there is little-to-no chance […]

More like “Didn’t say it, did it anyway” or “Said it, did the opposite” Eclectameme by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog Discussing possible campaign slogans during his non-announcement of his candidacy last fall, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said, “One that I really do appreciate, that I’ve used in my life is, ‘Said it. Did it.’”. In other words, according to […]

When the numbers don’t support you, myth-making is your only other option Last week House Speaker Jase Bolger told the Detroit Free Press that Governor Snyder’s biggest challenge as a campaigner is his biggest asset as he governs. “The governor insists on no credit and no blame,” said Bolger. This was only one day after the Michigan Republican Party sent […]