senate republicans

Since taking control of Ohio in January, the Republicans, lead by Governor John Kasich, have been on a rampage of right wing ideological legislation. Now the Ohio Assembly is set to take up another slice of that agenda:

Abortions in Ohio would be banned at most publicly funded hospitals, clinics and other facilities under a proposal Senate Republicans are considering putting in the state budget, a Senate GOP official told The Associated Press on Monday.

The official, who had direct knowledge of the changes being discussed, requested anonymity because the revisions were still a part of negotiations.

State senators are also weighing a separate amendment to restrict public employees' insurance from covering abortions, the official said. Not included would be those public employees of the state's two chartered counties and chartered municipalities, which account for roughly two-thirds of the cities in the state.

This can be added to the growing list of idealogical legislation either passed or in the process of being passed, which includes: stripping unions of bargaining rights, opening Ohio parks to oil drilling, stopping the voter approved casinos, allowing people to carry guns into bars, etc., etc., etc.

The Republicans have no intentions of creating jobs in Ohio. They don't care about our state's economy. All the Republicans are worried about is rushing through an agenda based upon their social agenda.

The Defense Reauthorization Bill, which included repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, just fell to yet another GOP filibuster:

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation that would have repealed the law banning gays from serving openly in the military.

The partisan vote was a defeat for Senate Democrats and gay rights advocates, who saw the bill as their last chance before November's elections to overturn the law known as "don't ask, don't tell."

With the 56-43 vote, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. It also would have authorized $726 billion in defense spending including a pay raise for troops.

Senate Democrats attached the repeal provision to the defense bill in the hopes that Republicans would hesitate to vote against legislation that included popular defense programs. But GOP legislators opposed the bill anyway, thwarting a key part of the Democrats' legislative agenda.

As Drudge points out, one of the Democrats who voted with Republicans was Harry Reid:

It finally looks like the White House is going to get out front and show America who the party of no really is:

The White House is preparing late this week to aggressively go after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his GOP colleagues on financial reform.

A Democratic party source said Thursday evening that the White House was preparing to take an "aggressive stance" against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over Senate Republicans' vocal opposition this week to a financial regulatory reform bill set for debate on the Senate floor.

Democrats released a new video Thursday night to that end seeking to portray McConnell as parroting talking points that Frank Luntz, a GOP pollster who specializes in word choice, had recommended to Republicans in the financial debate.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. So much of the Tea Party is built out of anger over the bailouts of Wall Street; the same bailouts that were started by a Republican President. Now the Democrats are working to put a system in so that we can avoid these disasters in the future and (right on cue) we have the Republicans opposing it. So the very thing the Tea Party was founded to oppose is now being protected by the GOP. That makes for some very interesting political theater.

Every blog needs to do a post on it because it shows a serious fracture that is developing in the GOP this week:

In the wake of the passage of health care reform, nearly the entire slate of Republican senatorial candidates seems ready to run on a repeal of the bill. But now, the lawmaker overseeing their election strategy is softening the message. Rather than promising to scrap the bill in its entirety, the GOP will pledge to just get rid of the more controversial parts.

In a brief chat with the Huffington Post on Tuesday, National Republican Senatorial Committee chair John Cornyn (R-Tex.) implicitly acknowledged that Republicans are content with allowing some elements of Obama's reform into law. And they'd generally ignore those elements when taking the fight to their Democrat opponents as November approaches.

"There is non-controversial stuff here like the preexisting conditions exclusion and those sorts of things," the Texas Republican said. "Now we are not interested in repealing that. And that is frankly a distraction."

What the GOP will work to repeal, Cornyn explained, are provisions that result in "tax increases on middle class families," language that forced "an increase in the premium costs for people who have insurance now" and the "cuts to Medicare" included in the legislation.

TPM has obtained a list of new talking points being about the Scott Brown victory being circulated by Democrats:

It is mathematically impossible for Democrats to pass legislation on our own. Senate Republicans to come to the table with ideas for improving our nation and not obstructionist tactics.

When did Republicans ever say “well we only have a 9 seat majority, we can’t do any of our plans”? Answer – NEVER. Republicans never even had a 9 seat majority. The weak kneed leadership the Democrats have just want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Then there’s this point I just love. It kind of goes hand in hand with the one above:

When they were in control, Senate Republicans voted seven times to raise the debt limit and refused to pay for the costs of major initiatives. Their claims of fiscal purity do not square with their record of wasteful spending and excess.

And yet they were able to do this without having a 10 seat majority. How in the world can they even put this tainted logic to print?

So why even vote for Democrats now? Really – the Senate Democrats just made us ask ourselves that. Have a super majority is a very uncommon thing in the Senate, with the last time being in 1965. Now the Democrats are saying “well we can’t do anything unless we have a super majority again”, or in other words, “go ahead and stay home Democrats”.

This really shows that Democrats excel at one thing – being losers. We need a tidal wave of new blood in the party to push out the old farts, who are driving the Democratic party into the grave with them.

Ignore the stimulus for a minute, and look at some other legislation that took place this week. Nate Silver has highlighted it and shown how there is a major divide between Senate Republicans and House Republicans:

It's not just the goose egg that the House Republicans laid on the Democratic stimulus package yesterday: Boehner's Boys have been equally uncooperative on other matters. Case in point: a bill yesterday to delay the transition to digital TV. This measure was approved unanimously by the Senate; every Senate Republican gave it the green light. But 155 out of 178 House Republicans voted against it, which resulted in the measure's defeat since a two-thirds majority would have been required for passage under the House's suspension of the rules.

Or, take the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a seemingly fairly popular/populist (if not inscrutable) piece of legislation on gender-based pay discrepancies. This was something that Barack Obama whacked John McCain on on the campaign trail, with McCain offering little rebuttal. In the Senate, five Republicans -- out of 41 -- voted with the Administration on Ledbetter, including all four Republican women. In the House, just three Republicans did -- out of 178.

That is exactly the problem. All parties have basically agreed on an agreement - Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, The White House and House Democrats. The ones not on board? House Republicans. Then to show how little they understand the economy, or how little they care about the American people, we have this little gem:

According to one GOP lawmaker, some House Republicans are saying privately that they’d rather “let the markets crash” than sign on to a massive bailout.

So everyone in America with a 401k would end up being screwed over also. How many retired people out there would end up having to find work because of this? How many people nearing retirement would have to work longer?

Fuck you America - signed the Republicans.

You know what this reminds me of? A party divided. Apparently that can only be used to describe Democrats though. A divided Republican Party also seems to be exactly what is emerging:

Senior House Democrats slammed McCain and House GOP leaders for the breakdown in the discussions, claiming that they are pushing a proposal that Paulson and the White House have already rejected.

It really sounds like the House Republicans are playing politics on this. They know that they are in a losing battle this year, so now they will hijack this entire country. And everyone can thank John Boehner for this, along with John McCain. Both of them proving how little respect they have for you and me.

So much compassion that they filibuster helping out our vets, elderly and poor:

Senate Republicans blocked a move by Democrats on Wednesday to add more than $40 billion in checks for the elderly, disabled veterans and the unemployed to a bill to stimulate the economy.

The 58-41 vote fell just short of the 60 required to break a GOP filibuster and bring the Senate version of the stimulus bill closer to a final vote. The Senate measure was backed by Democrats and a handful of Republicans but was strongly opposed by GOP leaders and President Bush, who objected to the costly add-ons.

What compassion!