I know this is no surprise but Republicans are considering privatizing Medicare. Months after they hammered Democrats for cutting Medicare, House Republicans are debating whether to relaunch their quest to privatize the health program for seniors. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is testing support for his idea to replace Medicare with a fixed payment to buy a private […]

Like last year, where Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You LIE!” at President Obama in the middle of his State of the Union Address, this year’s Address had a similarly offensive moment, this one courtesy of a tweet from Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia: Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism. Strangely, he followed this up […]

The Republicans have now been in office two weeks so I thought it was worth taking stock of what they’ve accomplished. I’ve just completed a rather in-depth analysis of the bills and resolutions that all 242 GOP members of Congress (not the Senate) have either sponsored or co-sponsored. What I found was that, on the average, 46% of the bills/resolutions […]

This is messed up: A nasty battle between factions of Legislative District 20 Republicans and fears that it could turn violent in the wake of what happened in Tucson on Saturday prompted District Chairman Anthony Miller and several others to resign. Miller, a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a […]

I wrote this blog entry on Eclectablog nearly a year ago in March 2010. When you read it, consider the fact that Democrats made a concerted effort back then to rein in the use of violent metaphors and language/rhetoric. In the wake of the passage of the Affordable Care Act when emotions were high and passions were higher, the Democrats […]

Just wanted to highlight something from my post earlier today where I looked at 17 of the bills submitted by the GOP in the past two days. Six bills to repeal all or parts of the health insurance reform law. One to repeal Wall Street reform. One to lower the wages of minimum wage workers lucky enough to get health […]

[NOTE: Edited to include the name of the sponsor of each bill.] Here’s a snapshot of what we have to look forward to this year from the Republicans. As of this writing, just over 200 bills have been submitted in Congress. Here are some of the most odious ones. H.R. 2 (Eric Cantor)- Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act […]

Yesterday, House Republicans read aloud the Constitution of the United States. Quick run-down on the multiple levels of fail: They read it a few sentences at a time and each reader had to be recognized “I now recognize the Representative from the great state of Ohio” “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Section 12, subpart (a)…[blah, blah, blah]… I yield”. “The gentleman […]

It’s actually getting better. The government is expected to report Friday that businesses stepped up hiring in December, a trend likely to gain momentum in 2011. Economists are predicting that employers added a net total of 145,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate dipped to 9.7 percent. Some are even more optimistic after a private payroll firm estimated […]

File this in the “Are you effing kidding me???!” file: Republicans Go ‘Nah, Nah, Nah’ and Ban Word ‘Labor’ from Committee Petty. Petty. Petty. With major issues like jobs and the economy straining for attention, House Republican leaders took a big step to solving the nation’s problems when they boldly acted—drum roll, please—to change the name of the Education and […]

A landmark piece of legislation passed during the lame duck session that puts more regulations in place to guard our country’s food supply than any law in many decades. And the GOP is going to try to make sure the food safety law doesn’t get funded. The legislation would greatly strengthen the regulatory hand of the Food and Drug Administration, […]