...Representative Joe Walsh (R-Il), a Tea Party House member known for his high levels of hypocrisy.
If the current Republicans in Congress were adolescent children, it would now be appropriate for them to be given a major, “Time-Out”.
Well, the Republicans in the House finally caved on the payroll tax extension and they and Speaker Boehner were licking their wounds as they headed home for the holiday break.
But previously on the Wednesday before Christmas, the GOP House Speaker, had assembled nine of his House Republican colleagues into his conference room, and he also invited in the TV cameras and a number of reporters, The Speaker then proclaimed that the House Republicans really and truly did want to enact the payroll-tax break that they had just defeated.
“We’re here. We’re ready to go to work,” Boehner announced.
CNN’s Deirdre Walsh, then caused the Speaker to turn an even brighter red-orange by mentioning the recent savage editorial in the conservative Wall Street Journal that had called the GOP payroll-tax strategy a total “fiasco”.
Boehner stated that he now wanted a House-Senate Conference Committee (which based on history, would have taken weeks to form) for negotiating a new 1 year tax deal.
Unfortunately. The current Speaker doesn’t know his job well enough to understand that there is a very big problem with his proposed plan.
The Senate Democrats had already negotiated a compromise with Senate Republicans, and Boehner’s Tea Party and his House Republicans had then summarily rejected that compromise.
Yessiree, House Republicans, really did vote to deny tax relief and unemployment extensions to 160 million Americans.
They keep saying they want a 1 year extension of tax relief and unemployment benefits. But they failed to mention that the Republican plan cuts the number of eligible weeks of unemployment payments in half, it requires drug testing for unemployment insurance recipients, it requires recipients to have a high-school diploma or a GED certificate and it also calls for “Means Testing” of Medicare. (Which would eventually make Medicare into a welfare program.)
Of course, to this day, the network and cable news programs (especially FOX have all failed to give out these disturbing details of the Republican House proposal.
On another front, the House Republican Leadership was later that week huddled up in a conference room in the Capitol building basement for more than two hours.
One would have assumed that they were obviously puzzling over how to explain to their constituents why they had effectively order a January tax increase on the American middle class, while the country was still in the middle of a deep recession. (And also while the Republicans were continuing to fight for much larger tax breaks for the wealthy.)
In any case, it is amazing how in the world they were able to justify the killing of a bipartisan compromise that had the support of all but eight Senate Republicans and the previous tacit approval of Speaker Boehner himself...?
But as it turns out, in that huddled basement meeting, they were not discussing how to explain their votes to their constituents.
Nosiree, not those House Republicans.
Instead, they were discussing their favorite scenes from the Mel Gibson film “Braveheart”...What you say????
Yes, approximately 10 House Republicans had gone to a podium to share their favorite memories of the movie...?
It is reported that one GOP House member mentioned the scene where the Scottish rebel, William Wallace, ordered his army to “moon” the English troops.
And another House member recounted the scene in which Wallace commanded the rebels to “hold their positions before raising their spears against the charging English cavalry”.
Yes, this whole bizarre discussion was to encourage these meeting attendees to not relent on their spending cuts approach. And, to borrow a well used Dubya reference, they were encouraged to, “stay the course” for killing the nation’s economy.
In fact, this last movie-scene discussion inspired these assembled Republican House lawmakers to actually start chanting: “Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold!”
When Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) rose to tell his colleagues that he hated the film, he then introduced a motion that all references to “Braveheart” be banned from the meeting. But of course, just like adolescent children, his Republican colleagues laughed and heckled Rep. Bishop and the motion was obviously not adopted.
What these "world history-deficient" and childish Republican House members don’t seem to realize is that the ancient Scots they are trying to emulate were defeated and slaughtered. William Wallace was captured, (possibly betrayed by his own people), and he was drawn and quartered in a British town square. His body parts were then distributed to other British and Scottish town squares as a warning against rebellion from the British king.
Yes, these are the idiots that, solely by the Democrats not turniung out to vote in the 2010 midterms, were allowed to assume their offices and to make misdirected decisions for the majority of the American people. It has become truly disgusting and embarrassing to watch day after day.
The hypocrisy of this wrong-thinking Republican group is astounding, but fortunately, it’s not going unnoticed.
Here is the latest Gallup Poll on US Congressional approval:
“Dec. 15, 2011: PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' assessment of Congress has hit a new low, with only 13% saying they approve of the way Congress is handling its job. The 83% disapproval rating is the worst Gallup has measured in more than 30 years of tracking congressional job performance.”
With President Obama’s current approval rating of 43%-47%, the current 112th US Congress doesn’t look real good for their 2012 elections. And as of today, a recent Gallup Poll says that over 55% of those Americans polled wanted to replace ALL of the current members of Congress, especially those recent Republican Tea Party Congresspersons.
For most Americans and their 2010 votes, as the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
I don’t think the American voters will be as easily fooled in November 2012.
Copyright G.Ater 2011
Follow me on Twitter: gater01
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