John Boehner: between a tea bag and a hard place

John Boehner has been negotiating all week with President Obama and his staff to resolve the “fiscal speedbump” issue. President Obama took a step toward Speaker Boehner in the negotiations by allowing the Bush tax cuts to remain in place for incomes over $400,000/year (up from $250,000), making some cuts to entitlements to be named later and agreeing to a different way to calculate Social Security cost of living increases that would lower how much our seniors get in their monthly allocation by a smidgen — the so-called “chained CPI”.

In return, Boehner offered to extend the debt ceiling for two years and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for income over $400,000.

This was, however, a bridge to far for his tea party leadership team, according to Ezra Klein at the Washington Post. So, he offered what he’s calling “Plan B” and the response from the White House was a resounding “screw you”.

Check it all out after the jump.

But they are coming for your vaginas Unlike the right of women to make their own reproductive choices, the right to bear arms faces no serious challenge in the United States of America. This is a comparison that unsettles me, of course. Anti-abortion rights folks grant personhood to any meeting of a sperm and the egg, but no one doubts […]

So much for THAT idea…

If you read the comments section of some of my coverage of the Right to Work for Less protest rally in Lansing, Michigan last week, you’ll see countless commenters, arriving here from Breitbart.com and Twichy.com telling us violentunionthugracistdemocratliberalfreaks about how THEY are in the mainstream and that the new Right to Work for Less legislation is not only a good idea, it’s what the people of Michigan want. And they heap kudos on a governor they say has got it figured out.

Turns out they are completely full of excrement.

All the gory details after the jump.

Funny how that works, isn’t it?

The state of Michigan’s tax revenues were up in November, beating estimates, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency (pdf). The increase in revenues was driven, in part, by higher taxes on Michiganders. As I wrote in my piece last spring, “The tax timebomb that explodes in Michigan in 2012 is MUCH worse than you thought”, the tax increase passed by the so-called “anti-tax” Republicans disproportionately impacts lower income residents.

Although the state coffers are looking pretty, the same cannot be said about our cities. Many of them are laying off police officers or getting rid of their police departments entirely.

More after the jump.

Maintaining a permanent Republican majority the easy way

Yesterday, delegates to the Michigan Electoral College cast Michigan’s 16 votes for Barack Obama. The President won Michigan handily, beating Mitt Romney by nearly 10 points. However, Republicans still maintain control over our state legislature and hour Congressional caucus. How is this possible?

Gerrymandering.

Find out how Republicans are trying to exploit this by changing how we choose our president after the jump.

Depends on your definition of “represent”, I suppose…

This post is a cross-post of a terrific piece by Emily Magner from her blog Musings of a Lady. The original post can be found HERE.

In her piece, Magner talks about her treatment by two Republican legislators who “represent” her. She and a group of students did their civic duty by traveling to Lansing to meet with their State Senator and Representative to discuss House Bill 5711, a sweeping anti-abortion bill that will severely limit access to women’s reproductive health services, including abortions, across Michigan. The bill has a particularly acute impact on rural women — like the women in Magner’s area.

The treatment they encountered, while not surprising given the recent behavior of Michigan Republican lawmakers, is a story that needs to be heard.

Her essay after the jump.

How to turn your middle class into a pyramid scheme I went to see a comic perform in Grand Rapids a few years ago and he said, “So, this is the tip of the pyramid?” And the crowd sighed out laughter, knowing exactly what he meant. Grand Rapids, Michigan is the city Amway built. While the company may deny that […]

The time for this conversation is NOW

Early yesterday morning, just hours before the horrific mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the Republican-led Michigan legislature passed S.B. 59, a bill that would allow concealed weapons in public schools, churches, and day care centers. Aware of the backlash that was likely to occur after the Connecticut shooting less than 10 hours later, Michigan Republicans released an astonishing statement on their Facebook page.

That statement and a discussion of the issue of gun control laws after the jump.

We’re all in this together Wow. What a crazy week. I feel a profound responsibility to keep people informed about what’s happening in Michigan. This week we appear to have succeeded, even if only a little. Our coverage of the Right to Work for Less rally in Lansing, Michigan has been picked up nationally by the New York Times news […]

Will this session NEVER end???

The Michigan legislature concluded its inflamed duck session yesterday by passing another flurry of highly partisan legislation before they lose some of their votes.

The highlowlights of what they did yesterday after the jump.

Curiouser and curiouser… The destruction of the two Americans for Prosperity tents on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol building during Tuesday’s anti-Right to Work for Less rally has stirred interest nationally. Those on the right portray it as a violent upheaval of “union thugs” and “union goons” who acted as predicted: with violence and mayhem and racism and […]