Thursday, September 01, 2011

Harry "Boehner" Potter and the Half-Brained Congress

"If Americans wanted a responsible Congress, ready and willing to act in the nation’s interest, and able to work constructively in response to critical challenges, they made a tragic mistake in November 2010. "


President Obama gets more utter rejection from Republicans - whose number one priority, as they have repeatedly stated, is to get a Republican elected to the presidency in 2012, no matter the cost to the nation. So it was no surprise that Obama's request to address a joint session of Congress on jobs was refused by Republican Speaker John Boehner.

If they can't agree on when to talk and listen, then there is small hope any advances or changes in economic policy will take place. Ever.

The GOP and Rep. Boehner might need to answer the clue phone which has been ringing and ringing for months now - the disapproval rating for Congress stands at between 80 and 84%.

Since the GOP is focusing on their presidential candidate debates next Wednesday, where they'll keep talking about cutting government spending, none of them will speak to the estimated $60 billion in fraud and waste in government contracts for the war and reconstruction efforts cited this week by an investigative committee.

"
Overall, the commission said spending on contracts and grants to support U.S. operations is expected to exceed $206 billion by the end of the 2011 budget year. Based on its investigation, the commission said contracting waste in Afghanistan ranged from 10 percent to 20 percent of the $206 billion total. Fraud during the same period ran between 5 percent and 9 percent of the total, the report said. Fraud includes bribery, kickbacks, bid rigging and defective products, according to the commission.

“It is disgusting to think that nearly a third of the billions and billions we spent on contracting was wasted or used for fraud,” McCaskill said.


Instead, we're hearing that funds for job creation, for disaster relief, for the poor, for the sick, for the elderly, for education, for the nation's roads and transportation, just cannot be spared.

2 comments:

  1. Tammie Olaker6:53 AM

    I'm never voting for another Republican again, period. I wish I could say I was surprised by this, but you are exactly right. They think if they can anger enough people and then convince them that President Obama is to blame for it, they can win in 2012, and they're right; the American vast majority of the American public IS that stupid. Those of us who voted for Obama need to make a commitment to vote for him again and to vote against any and all Republicans who ever run for office, even if the alternative is your neighbor's dog. I actually just read a post on Facebook blaming the President for the rising food prices and the falling food stamp allocations. What moronic nonsense! Start the movement now. NO MORE REPUBLICANS, EVER. Until this party cleans house and gets out the fundamentalists and the teabaggers, there is no hope for them or for us if we vote them in.

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  2. the blamethrowers are out in force, no doubt Tammie.

    but it is not just at the national level - the entire 14 member Hamblen County commission is Republican, the Tennessee governor is Republican, the Tennessee legislature has Republicans in the majority .... they are dug in deep and all the while these same folks rail against the evil of government ...

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