Congressional Priorities! Triple DOMA Defense Funds While Defunding NPR, Again
enlarge Congress is back with a triple serving of crazy. As I watch C-SPAN on one screen and Occupy Wall Street protests on another, it makes me wonder if this is what it feels to be on a bad acid trip. Do these Republicans actually ever look beyond their ideological blinders at what is going on in this country? Surely not. Here’s a shining example: Eric Cantor has declared he will not bring President Obama’s jobs bill up for a vote. Jobs, you know. That thing not enough people have and because they don’t have it, that thing that is pushing economic growth down. Those. And even though the jobs bill is just a dent in a very large bucket, it’s a jobs bill . It does things. Like repair roads and pay for teachers and things like that. So of course, Cantor wouldn’t bring it up for a vote. Why would he? But look at what they are voting on today! Defund Planned Parenthood and NPR – AGAIN IB Times: Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are again trying to defund Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio, this time through a draft bill to fund several departments and agencies. Planned Parenthood would be banned from receiving federal funds unless the organization certifies it will end abortion services under the House Appropriations Committee’s draft legislation released Thursday. The proposed spending bill would also cut all funding to a family planning program, known as Title X. Meanwhile, the proposal includes a provision preventing the Corporation for Public Boradcasting from using federal money to support NPR. Oh wait, there’s more: In addition to the Planned Parenthood and NPR provisions, there are other controversial measures included, such as blocking $8.6 billion from being used for Affordable Care Act programs and regulations from the National Labor Relations Board. Even more important to Republicans than jobs, they will also vote to raise the “lawyer fee ceiling” on their expensive DOMA defenders. Via Think Progress : Earlier this year, Speaker John Boehner’s (R) office announced that American taxpayers would pay former Bush Solicitor General Paul Clement to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act — at a cost of $520 per hour of legal work . Clement’s original contract, however, included a $500,000 cap on the amount Clement could charge the United States to help protect discrimination. Less than six months later, Clement appears to have blown through that cap, and the House GOP now anticipates that he will take another $1 million from the American people : The [House of Representatives] agrees to pay [Clement's law firm] for all services to be rendered pursuant to this Agreement a sum not to exceed $750,000.00. It is further understood and agreed that, effective October 1, 2011, the aforementioned $750,000 cap may be raised from time to time up to, but not exceeding, $1.5 million , upon written notice of the [House] to the [firm]. I’m sorry. I must rant. Not about the Republican stupid in Congress, but about how this kind of thing lands in the news as “Washington.” NO. It’s not “Washington.” It’s REPUBLICAN wingnuts in our current Congress. As I watch the stupid reports today about Chris Christie and the iPhone 5 and how disappointed Republicans are in their choice of candidates for President it feels almost surreal to me. This idea of calling out “Washington,” as if everyone there is just sitting on their hands and doing nothing is ridiculous. When do names start being named? Is it any wonder that those kids out on Wall Street and around the country are furious? Why shouldn’t they be? They’re the victims (though not the only victims) of this, and instead of some honesty in how we talk about this it all gets mushed up into “Washington.” It’s not Washington. It’s Republican wingnuts doing wingnutty things. The sooner everyone figures that out, the better, though it may be too late by then.
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Congressional Priorities! Triple DOMA Defense Funds While Defunding NPR, Again
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on October 4, 2011. Filed under