The Republican Agenda 2021 and Forward

www.nbcnews.com

Republicans say McConnell 'blinked' on debt ceiling to save filibuster

"Republicans are folding here," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the ranking member of the Budget Committee, said in a rare criticism of McConnell. "This is a complete capitulation."
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

I realized this about 2 seconds after it was announced and news is just figuring it out days later.

I was more appalled Democrats were only threatening to do a one time override of the filibuster just to pay for Trump’s budget Republicans passed without a whimper of debt outrage. Everything else? They’ll leave the filibuster alone.
 
Chew Toy McCoy said:
www.nbcnews.com

Republicans say McConnell 'blinked' on debt ceiling to save filibuster

"Republicans are folding here," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the ranking member of the Budget Committee, said in a rare criticism of McConnell. "This is a complete capitulation."
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

I realized this about 2 seconds after it was announced and news is just figuring it out days later.

I was more appalled Democrats were only threatening to do a one time override of the filibuster just to pay for Trump’s budget Republicans passed without a whimper of debt outrage. Everything else? They’ll leave the filibuster alone.
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Not sure the budget and debt ceiling are the reasons to hang keeping or ditching a filibuster on. I'm not sold on ditching it anyway.

Be that as it may... passing a budget via reconciliation across the two chambers and meanwhile entangling a separate debate over whether to actually spring for what was appropriated in the previous session's budget is just a total crock of horse manure.

Make a debt ceiling rise automatic when appropriations are voted on and would require such a rise. Then in approving appropriations, Congress does in fact at that moment commit the USA to obligations and is seen as doing so. As it is now, they don't seem to regard a prior budget as even a lick and a promise, just a set of programs (and dollar figures proposed for them) that some prior session of Congress was foolish enough to approve.

Both parties help sustain this arrangement so they can blame the other for political gain down the road. It's smoke and mirrors, and we're stupid to let them get away with it all this time... especially since actual default would be incredibly damaging, and the two parties --now both with severe internal fissures-- appear to loathe each other enough to test brinkmanship on the debt ceiling question farther than has ever been done before.

December could be a real train wreck. It's already looking economically bleak because of supply chain and labor issues that no one has a handle on, and that most Americans don't understand are ALREADY making the holiday shopping season problematic. Throw in uncertainty as we try to open up schools and community life more fully but meanwhile head into the traditional flu season, unsure about whether we've seen the last of really bad covid variant spikes for awhile.

And now the Senate has kicked the appropriations and debt ceiling finale down the road into December just for extra drama? A pox on both parties in both houses for putting political gamesmanship ahead of the interests of the American people.

What's starting to look good to some Americans are those days in the wayback, when lawmakers met for a couple months a year and otherwise had day jobs like farming or running a store. These congress critters make five or six times what a retail clerk makes, and the leadership posts pay even more. For what? To fill up empty slots in 24/7 cable news with their soundbites? A pox on the media too!
 
Fucking do away with both the "Debt ceiling" and the ultimate segregationist tool, the filibuster. I'm not worried about the rethugicans using the lack of a filibuster once they're back in the majority. They get away with their bullshit whenever they're in control anyway.
 
Something to keep in mind when discussing the 'r' agenda, and that is the thinking that inspires the more extreme amongst them.

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1447210275325849602/
From the Iowa former 2X impeached president's rally

1. The entitled thinking born from decades privilege that says if things don't go their way, there will be some 'civil war'. Because 'civil wars' worked out great in the past in this country for the side that wanted it. 🤨 It's amazing how casually one side loves throwing out the terms 'civil war', 'nazism', and more so casually. As if blissfully unaware of the true price paid when such things occurred.

2. The overwhelming need to be the victim. To the point that they will intentionally place themselves in such positions so that if the position they put themselves in is addressed, it's time to scream "stop being mean to me". "You HAVE to like me as I am or else! I don't have to nice to you, it's MY right!"

So if you don't like their cherished leader whom the majority of the country did NOT, you MUST not like them as well.

No. If you're not liked it isn't solely based on who you have hitched your wagon to. It might be because you are an unpleasant person who sees a "civil war" on the way, because you didn't get your way.
 
JayMysteri0 said:
Something to keep in mind when discussing the 'r' agenda, and that is the thinking that inspires the more extreme amongst them.

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1447210275325849602/
From the Iowa former 2X impeached president's rally

1. The entitled thinking born from decades privilege that says if things don't go their way, there will be some 'civil war'. Because 'civil wars' worked out great in the past in this country for the side that wanted it. 🤨 It's amazing how casually one side loves throwing out the terms 'civil war', 'nazism', and more so casually. As if blissfully unaware of the true price paid when such things occurred.

2. The overwhelming need to be the victim. To the point that they will intentionally place themselves in such positions so that if the position they put themselves in is addressed, it's time to scream "stop being mean to me". "You HAVE to like me as I am or else! I don't have to nice to you, it's MY right!"

So if you don't like their cherished leader whom the majority of the country did NOT, you MUST not like them as well.

No. If you're not liked it isn't solely based on who you have hitched your wagon to. It might be because you are an unpleasant person who sees a "civil war" on the way, because you didn't get your way.
Click to expand...

Even if you take Trumpism and Democracy dismantling out of it, I fail to see how Republican platforms and policy is going to lead to anything other than civil war when given oxygen long enough. They preach hatred and divisiveness and on policy they are screw everybody except the rich. People regardless of political leanings are tired of living check to check while watching the rich get exponentially richer. The only masses calming tool Republicans seem to be willing to use is tax cuts. That extra $100 (or whatever) a month in your paycheck isn’t going to come anywhere near offsetting the cost of housing, healthcare, higher education, and childcare. A major percentage of the population isn’t going to feel they are substantially better off under complete Republican rule.
 
Chew Toy McCoy said:
Even if you take Trumpism and Democracy dismantling out of it, I fail to see how Republican platforms and policy is going to lead to anything other than civil war when given oxygen long enough. They preach hatred and divisiveness and on policy they are screw everybody except the rich. People regardless of political leanings are tired of living check to check while watching the rich get exponentially richer. The only masses calming tool Republicans seem to be willing to use is tax cuts. That extra $100 (or whatever) a month in your paycheck isn’t going to come anywhere near offsetting the cost of housing, healthcare, higher education, and childcare. A major percentage of the population isn’t going to feel they are substantially better off under complete Republican rule.
Click to expand...
Which is why spotlighted on who often is the one calling for a civil war, and how well it works out for them.
 
https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1447990489442029580/
giphy.gif


Why is she wearing FLAG pins about a security clearance in the Dept of Energy?
 
Man. The Republican Party was always going to have problems trying to detach from Trump when his perceived usefulness ended.

But now they're eventually going to go down in flames as a serious political party at all, because they can't even detach enough sane Republican officials from all the insanity that Trump and his authoritarian followers managed to stir up.

K-street still writes the big ticket legislation in the USA. They speak with industry dollars. Those guys don't like the level of pure unpredicability that seems to accrue to any of the pro-Trumpers these days. Markets don't like massive uncertainty very much for very long, and the idea of Trump actually ever returning to hold the nuke codes in hand again is anathema to American industry (heh, except maybe to AT&T, the corporate dolts with enough idiocy on board still to be claiming they are not who made OANN a viable fake news outlet by funding its startup).
 
One thing they need to work on in their next agenda, "sweat the details"! Get your crap right!

FBlTZJrXsAAKqyb


Tries to make a point about the president's failing plan that hasn't passed yet, and uses a pic of empty shelves of a grocery store that has the price in pound.

For...

🤦‍♂️

No wonder some of them are so bad at gov't, want to be in gov't, then go on instead about culture war issues. Details matter. It's hard. Running gov't is hard. Grifting not so hard, ...these days.

Then whines about liberals when she gots clowned for it across social media.

How hard is it to pick a photo with empty shelves with the prices in American dollars?

But I guess when you're making up crap to fit in with the other kids, facts ain't going to mean a thing.

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1448297879160901640/
 
JayMysteri0 said:
One thing they need to work on in their next agenda, "sweat the details"! Get your crap right!

FBlTZJrXsAAKqyb


Tries to make a point about the president's failing plan that hasn't passed yet, and uses a pic of empty shelves of a grocery store that has the price in pound.

For...

🤦‍♂️

Then whines about liberals when she gots clowned for it across social media.

How hard is it to pick a photo with empty shelves with the prices in American dollars?

But I guess when you're making up crap to fit in with the other kids, facts ain't going to mean a thing.
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Reminds me of the scary pictures of “Biden’s America”, showing things happening on Trump’s watch.
 
Another part of the current agenda that we keep leaving out, ...ignorance.



If they don't understand something, it must be bad.

Bonus points for one of the congress people possibly more ignorant, MTG nodding along. Or trying to stay awake, it's hard to tell with her, as she has nothing to do in congress anyways.
 
Revisited Louis CK’s “Of course…but maybe” bit which contrasts the just way of thinking about things against darker thoughts. Of course we should protect kids with peanut allergies…but maybe if touching a peanut kills you you’re supposed to die. Of course getting killed or injured in a foreign war is tragic…but maybe if you go to a foreign country and get shot by the guy you were just shooting at it’s a tiny bit your fault. Of course slavery was the worst…but maybe mankind’s greatest achievements are the result of throwing endless amounts of human suffering at it.

This made me realize how much right-wing media leans on the “but maybe” side of the argument.

Of course the vast majority of wealth is held by those at the top….but maybe the only expanded wealth you could have access to is given to the poor and immigrants.

Of course voting is an important part of democracy…but maybe if the results don’t land in your favor you don’t have to accept them and can call it a fraud.

Of course the cost of healthcare in this country is astronomical…but maybe massive unchecked price gouging is the only thing that drives innovation.

Of course higher education helps people get ahead in life….but maybe that’s only for the rich and we should make dumb people a protected class in lieu of higher wages.

Of course racism is a problem…but maybe an equal problem is white people living under the oppression of being called out on their racism related shit.

Of course white people commit crimes...but maybe not being white or an American makes you predisposed to being a criminal.
 
lizkat said:
Man. The Republican Party was always going to have problems trying to detach from Trump when his perceived usefulness ended.

But now they're eventually going to go down in flames as a serious political party at all, because they can't even detach enough sane Republican officials from all the insanity that Trump and his authoritarian followers managed to stir up.

K-street still writes the big ticket legislation in the USA. They speak with industry dollars. Those guys don't like the level of pure unpredicability that seems to accrue to any of the pro-Trumpers these days. Markets don't like massive uncertainty very much for very long, and the idea of Trump actually ever returning to hold the nuke codes in hand again is anathema to American industry (heh, except maybe to AT&T, the corporate dolts with enough idiocy on board still to be claiming they are not who made OANN a viable fake news outlet by funding its startup).
Click to expand...
The Republican Party stopped being a serious entity (in the sense of being committed to effective governance for the betterment of the country and a devotion to democratic principles) years ago, though it's worse than ever. Their only goal now is to retain and/or grab power, regardless of what it takes. Yes, business people and markets don't like instability, but they were mostly fine with Trump and the Republicans who gave them corporate tax cuts.

Nothing will change until the people who vote for Republicans realize the people they're putting into office don't care about them. I believe they represent a sizable percentage of the Republican electorate, but their voices are drowned out by an increasingly militant faction. And, the longer we go without meaningful legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the more likely Republicans will reach their aims by gerrymandering and/or overturning election results outright.
 
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