FOLLOW-UP: After the House Republican leadership realized they had a big PR problem. They were being hit with huge anger from the people they are suppose to represent and knew it will hurt their reelection potential in 2012, so the leadership allowed a vote on the house floor. It passed, as was expected. Now it has been signed into law by Pres. Obama.
However, the freshman members are outraged that the leadership, specifically Speaker Boehner, didn't stay true to their cause and demand to not bring the bill forward, but to force the Senate into conference to reconsider the bill with all these poison pill amendments added to it. Speaker Boehner's may not be elected again to that position come January. He may be challenged by Eric Cantor, the majority leader, who is more of a Tea Party supporter than John Boehner, so that could make 2012 an impossible year to get anything done in congress. Total gridlock.
ORIGINAL COMMENT:
As the House Republicans again fail to pass legislation to extend the reduced social security payroll tax on those who receive a paycheck, mostly the working class of America, we clearly see that the Republicans are not at all concerned about the economy and the middle-class. As usual they are attaching all sorts of undesirable bills to this very simple one. They claim it is their way of paying for this tax reduction extension.
When they had control of the White House and both houses of Congress, why didn't they worry about paying for Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit and two wars? They just passed them and that was that. Sen. Hatch stated on TV that the "Republican never intended on paying for them from revenue, but to borrow the money from treasury notes." It was a way to give something to seniors to get their vote at reelection that didn't cost anyone directly with either a tax increase or a reduction in some other service the people like and would be angry to have reduced. However, the national debt nearly tripled because of it. Now they are all worried about the debt?
Here is their added bills they claim will fund the tax reduction extension:
They want to reduce the funding for those currently receiving unemployment insurance payments, thus less money circulating in the economy and more people that will loose their homes to foreclosure. Not the brightest idea in a recession, or as I would like to call it a depression. The economy need demand for goods and services to create a demand for companies to hire more workers. If there is less money and thus less demand for goods and services, then these same companies will layoff workers, not hire them. This is very simple economic 101.
They attached a bill that would de-fund the part of Obama-Care Medicare reform that pays for preventive health services for Medicare recipients, like annual physicals, life saving diagnostic screenings like mammograms, prostate cancer screening, breast cancer screenings, etc. All of these preventive services are designed to reduce to total cost of health care by catching problems early and treating them so they don't become very expensive critical issues later. Why do they want to kill off those who can't afford these services out-of-pocket. Medicare did not pay for any type of preventive care before Obama-Care, so many seniors who had life threatening conditions were not descovered early enough to effectively treat at the lower cost, and they were then costing the the system more to be treated with more expensive and aggressive treatment procedures in hopes of saving their lives.
They attached a bill that would de-fund the EPA and prohibit it from enforcing current and proposed clean air regulations on polluting power plants, their research to determine if FRACING for oil and natural gas is harmful to the environment and contaminating our underground drinking water.
They also attached a bill to change the part of the Senate bill that demands Obama to make a decision regarding the 1,700 long oil pipeline from Canada oil-sands to the Gulf of Mexico to process it into products. The House wants the pipeline approved as part of the tax extension, not a separate decision by Obama based on the scientific data he is waiting for. This pipeline will run just feet above the largest aquifer in the United States that serves most of the mid-west with their drinking water. If a break occurs for any verity of reasons; like corrosion of the pipe, as we have experienced with the pipe under the Yellowstone River that ruptured and even the Alaska pipeline, and because it crosses several seismic riffs and earthquake faults, this aquifer could become badly contaminated so that the mid-west, our major food supplier, would go dry. Do we risk such a major water reserve for a few million gallons of oil?
The claim that they want the tax reduction extension for a year is true, but it is also word game to cover for these other demands they want attached to the tax extension. Again holding the American working-class hostage to get what they want and not accept the compromise that occurred in the Senate by a large bi-partisan vote.
As I have asked before of my Republican family and friends, why do you continue to support this party that is bent on destroying the country for the profitability of corporations and the wealthy? Is it not clear by now what their intentions are?
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