Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
"If it's Sunday, It's John McCain." The Sunday morning bobbleheads are his base. No one else gives a damn.
The man who could not remember if he owns 8, no wait is it 9, no 10 homes, was on TeaNN (formerly CNN) on Sunday to explain why someone who made his fortune the old-fashioned way -- he married it -- voted against extending long-term unemployment benefits to the unemployed and is opposed to raising the minimum wage: Obama derangement syndrome.
Arizona's angry old man does not feel empathy and compassion for the less fortunate. Screw "Christian values" -- Fuck em! It's all about the sanctity of Senate procedures that only the Beltway media clutches their pearls over.
Heather at Crooksandliars.com nails it. McCain: Jobless Benefits, Minimum Wage 'Clever Strategy' of 'Anything But Obamacare':
If Sen. John McCain really wants to help the Republicans with their "messaging" on unemployment benefits and minimum wage, he might want to start by staying off the air.
Here's Grandpa McGrumpy telling CNN's Candy Crowley that the real problem is not their cruel stance on unemployment benefits or raising the minimum wage, it's that they haven't done enough carping about that mean old Harry Reid stopping them from being able to grind the Senate to a halt with poison pills and adding an unlimited number of amendments to bills so they never see the light of day.
Who knew that was their real problem instead of looking like they don't care one iota about the poor and working class in America?
CROWLEY: Domestically, one of the things that we knew from the exit polls in the last election, that when people felt that the premier quality of a president should be that he cares about people. President Obama won that vote 81 -- by 81 percentile. 81 to 18 with Romney. The most important quality. Now the Republican Party is facing votes on extending jobless benefits for the long term unemployed and, b, raising the minimum wage. Is there any way from a purely perceptual standpoint that Republicans will not take the hit for looking as though they, "don't care about people"?
MCCAIN: Well, first of all, I think it is a very clever strategy on the part of the Democrats anything but Obamacare. Second of all, we Republicans have to be better in our messaging. For example, Senator Reid will not allow us a single amendment on the unemployment insurance. We think we know ways to make it better. Not a single amendment is allowed in the United States Senate.
CROWLEY: Right. I think he's changed his mind on that, has he not? And said he will allow some amendments?
MCCAIN: Well, he changes from day to day. We'll see. I've had numerous conversations with him about it. We should have amendments on -- we've had four Republican amendments in the last several months in the United States Senate. People don't believe that. So we have to be careful how we message. But this is a system that needs to be fixed. It needs to be modified. We needed to have it reviewed. We need to have it paid for. All of those things. And if we could have open debate in the United States Senate and amendments, then maybe we could make it better in the long run. There are negotiations going on as we speak. Instead, it is being rammed through, cut off debate, no amendments, and that's not the way the Senate should function. Now have we got that message across well enough yet? No. But I think we can.
The GOP's got their own strategy. It's called let's talk about anything other than the fact that we've been sabotaging the economy intentionally for political gain.
I would add that the GOP wants the UI extension "paid for" by taking it from other appropriations. Where was this "pay for" requirement for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations (a tax expenditure), tax extenders (allowing multi-national companies to park their tax liability overseas), and the government subsidy to Big Pharma under the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit?
Democrats should not agree to this "pay for" requirement because it sets a precedent. Republicans will only hold future UI extensions hostage for further concessions. Republicans in the past have always agreed to UI extension when unemployment was as high as it is now. This is not your father's GOP -- this is a Tea-Publican brand of cold-hearted cruelty not seen since before the Great Depression.
The GOP strategy for 2014 is to blame "ObamaCare" for everything: My car didn't start today: it's ObamaCare. I stubbed my toe: it's ObamaCare. This is obsession which has become a collective insanity on the right.
UPDATE: Jon Stewart of The Daily Show explains the GOP's "pay for" hypocrisy in the way only he can.
Part 1
Part 2
Republicans to the US middle class, a quote from Stalag 17, "Droppan die dead".
Posted by: Frances Perkins | January 13, 2014 at 03:08 PM