Snark in Pictures - Thanksgiving, Pope Francis, Filibusters and Obamacare

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers!

The Stupid Legacy of a Lazy Heartless Congress

The Tea Party Republicans are hell-bent on shutting down the government again.

President Obama had harsh words for them over trying to limit the Debt Ceiling once again, calling their actions "extortion" of a sitting President.

Via Time

“You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt ceiling being used to extort a president or a — a governing party,” Obama told the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs.

Obama said his dispute with House Republicans over a budget for the federal government has also entered uncharted territory, with their demand to link a continuing resolution to postponing the unpopular healthcare law.
“What we now have is a ideological fight that’s been mounted in the House of Representatives that says, we’re not going to pass a budget and we will threaten a government shutdown unless we repeal the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said. “We have not seen this in the past, that a budget is contingent on us eliminating a program that was voted on, passed by both chambers of Congress, ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, is two weeks from being fully implemented and that helps 30 million people finally get health care coverage — we’ve never seen that become the issue around a budget battle.”

Congress continues their foolish quest to "Repeal Obamacare." This is a Don Quixote-like quest they say is mandated by the voters who sent them to Washington. Unfortunately, those voters don't realize that A) It's never going to happen because the ACA is the law of the land, and B) Members of their own party in the Senate think closing down the government (again) is moronic and a ridiculous waste of time.

Speaker of the House John Boehner is being squeezed between a bunch of rock-heads and a hard place. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the Tea Party troublemakers "anarchists."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) vowed Wednesday to push ahead with a bill to defund Obamacare or shut down the government -- an effort that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) panned as an "absurd" ploy inspired by tea party "anarchists."
With Congress facing a Sept. 30 deadline to figure out how to keep paying for the federal government, Boehner said in a Capitol Hill news conference that defunding President Barack Obama's health care reform was a key part of that effort.
"We're going to continue to do everything we can to repeal the president's failed health care law," Boehner said. "This week, the House will pass the CR [continuing resolution] that locks the sequester savings in and defunds Obamacare."
Many mainstream Republicans have repeatedly slammed such an approach as "stupid," and Boehner himself has tried to avoid linking Obamacare to a potential government shutdown.

Congress already has popularity lower than head lice and traffic jams, so why not prove again how stupid they are by voting against the popular Obamacare plan for the 40th - or is it 41st? - Nope 42nd - time?

These are the folks who wasted the past year screaming "Benghazi!!!!" and raking Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice over hot burning coals. Did they "get" Hillary and ruin her chances for a Presidential run? Of course not - Hillary remains as popular as ever. What about Susan Rice? While the GOP kept her from being Ambassador to the UN, they couldn't stop Obama from appointing her as his National Security Adviser, so the joke was on the Tea Party. I'm sure more than a few rather empty heads exploded.

Next, they investigated the IRS, which was supposedly "ordered" by Obama to target the Tea Party groups on their tax-exempt status, but when the dust settled, it turned out that liberal groups got the exact same questionnaires and letters.

So each "BIG" investigation reached a dead end. Feeling frustrated, the usual suspects took up the rallying cries of the anti-Obama Libertarians against the NSA thanks to Edward Snowden's leaks. While emoprog Lefties also jumped on the bandwagon - causing strange bedfellows such as Alan Grayson and Sarah Palin (!), all the nerds on MSNBC haven't managed to drag centrist Democrats along with them. In fact, the only thing to come out of the Snowdenfest is that both far-Left and far-Right are praising Vladimir Putin and giving him credit for diplomacy in Syria over our own peace-loving, Nobel-winning President. This wasn't good for the Dems who need to stay cohesive in the 2014 elections, but especially not good for the Tea Party who readily admit they would rather be on the side of a known ex-KGB dictator than the first African-American President.

History is going to judge the Tea Party in the context that they themselves won't recognize - that right now things are not on the edge of the economic apocalypse they keep predicting. The Stock Market is higher than ever under the Obama Administration, and the Deficit is shrinking. So Obama really fails at being a scary "Socialist." All the draconian measures the Republicans insist are "necessary" merely slow down the economy, and help no one. Economists are not going to leave that out of future studies and books, so the GOP is killing its own legacy.

And this Congress fails America on basic moral grounds as well. This week there was a horrible shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. by still another mentally ill man who was able to procure weapons and go onto a military base. In spite of the fact that he was known to "hear voices" and had brushes with gun violence in the past, all the screening and background checks failed. 14 people are dead, including the shooter. Flags are flying at half-mast. But this Congress and the Republican Party in general is unlikely to pass any new gun laws. Yeah, fiddle-dee-dee. What's another mass murder to this Congress?

The one bill they might pass - the Farm Bill - cuts $40 billion from the Food Stamp Program - an outrage that has the Obama Admin threatening to Veto the entire mess (Reuters).

In a statement, the White House said lawmakers should instead cut farm and crop insurance subsidies rather than separate millions of people from "one of our nation's strongest defenses against hunger and poverty."
"These cuts would affect a broad array of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, including working families with children, senior citizens, veterans, and adults who are still looking for work," the White House said.
It was the second time since June that the White House has threatened to veto large cuts in food stamps, the main federal program against hunger.
With Republicans holding a 33-seat advantage in the House, Democrats need to persuade around 20 Republicans to join them to kill the bill. Conversely, Republicans need a party-line vote to prevail. They did that on July 11 roll call to single out food stamps for cuts.

UPDATE: They did it - the heartless GOP Congress cut the Food Stamp Program:

From Washington Post:

Late Thursday, the House of Representatives voted, 217-210, to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly (and popularly) known as food stamps, by $39 billion over the next 10 years, a 5 percent cut relative to current law.

Hello, Legacy, can we talk about hungry children? Can we talk about malnourished families? Meanwhile fat-cat Congressmen like Phil Gingrey (R-GA)and Sean Duffy (R-WI) have the nerve to complain that they don't make enough money. Apparently they don't realize that a salary of $174,000 is many, many times the $15-20,000 a year from minimum wage that many struggle to live on in this country. The disconnect is sad and tragic and infuriating on so many levels.

This Congress will go down in history as the absolute most do-nothing, whiny, incompetent, heartless, and depressing of all time. And stupid.

Senator Elizabeth Warren Explains It All ~ Updated

Elizabeth Warren has had a great week!

Harry Reid broke the filibuster deadlock with Mitch McConnell so that Obama's nominees for various posts can finally be confirmed. One of those is Richard Cordray who will direct that Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a brainchild of Warren's . She has tirelessly pushed for this vacancy to be filled and at last it is!








Next, Warren has banded together with Republican Sen. John McCain and Independent Sen. Angus King to come up with a new-improved version of the Glass-Steagall Bill which kept our banks from failing for 50 years after the Great Depression. Here she is on Morning Joe:



And last but not least, here is Senator Warren on CNBC, telling off some of the smarmy talking heads on a network famous as a mouthpiece for big business. When they ask with a cynical sneer "Why Try?" to resurrect Glass-Steagall what they are really expressing is fear that someone like Senator Warren has the guts to stand up to both them and the unfair top-heavy financial system. And she doesn't take any prisoners!

Give 'em Hell, Senator Warren!

UPDATE: MSNBC asked YouTube to remove the CNBC smackdown due to copyright - or was it? Many thought they were going after the viral video because it made the anchors of CNBC appear stupid or at least stubbornly ignorant. Jim Cramer of CNBC also tweeted about it, pointing out that clip is still available on their website, and I have replaced it below.

But the fact remains that Elizabeth Warren isn't going to play pattycake with CNBC when they try to shrug her off or say she will never get anything done. Heck, CNBC pretty much cheered when Warren dropped out of the running for Consumer Protection. They thought they had seen the last of her. Ha! Then they didn't believe she would run for Senate - wrong. And horrors! She certainly wouldn't win against Scott Brown . . . oh wait . . .

There is some weird strain of thought that CNBC got beaten by Senator Warren. I like the senator but she had NO impact. Sorry..

— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) July 17, 2013

More from Policy Mic

In the video clip removed by CNBC, Warren effectively defends the merits of reviving the Glass-Steagall Act and taking steps to prevent something like the Great Recession of 2008 from happening again. Her main point was that banking regulation does in fact keep the financial system "steady and secure" and was crucial in eradicating the banking boom-and-bust cycle from 1933 to 1980s. She even went as far to professorially correct the anchors' knowledge of banking regulations since the Great Depression. In response to anchor Brian Sullivan's comment that "We should tell the American consumer that no matter what we do, there will be bank boom and bust cycles" Warren said "no, that is just wrong … look at the history."

Even though CNBC claimed to take down the video for copyright infringements, they did not take down other YouTube videos that use CNBC footage. It seems like CNBC got embarrassed because this specific video went viral and showed its anchors being schooled by Warren. And bad news for CNBC, there is a phenomenon called the Streisand effect whereby attempts to hide or remove information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, especially on the internet. Just like Beyoncé and her Super Bowl pictures, CNBC should expect even more people see Warren educate its anchors on banking regulation history.

Off-Kilter Republicans in a State of Decline

The past week has been dotted with Republican fail the likes of which we have rarely seen in the modern era, and it shows just how off-kilter they are. Of course, as my witty husband says, were they ever 'on kilter'? Well, maybe not in terms of a philosophy we can all understand, but at least they were able to stay on the same page and agree on the same mass delusions. Right now, not so much. In fact, the re-election of Barack Obama seems to have thrown them into complete disarray that seems to echo a death knell for the national party. It's sort of like watching a rabid skunk foaming at the mouth and jumping around snapping at invisible enemies in the air. You can be pretty darn sure the rabies will get them in the end.

For instance, take Rick Santelli, please. The CNBC guy threw another tantrum on the air last Friday, calling for a "Waaaahmbulance" over Obama and tax reform. Do these guys not realize that we all know they are crying for themselves and their own bank accounts, not for the other 99% of Americans? Cry me a river. He really does seem to be foaming at the mouth, though, doesn't he?


New York Mag reported that Karl Rove and Dick Morris are now in Disgrace at Fox News for their ridiculous and over-zealous predictions that Mitt Romney would win the presidency in the landslide:

According to multiple Fox sources, Ailes has issued a new directive to his staff: He wants the faces associated with the election off the air — for now. For Karl Rove and Dick Morris — a pair of pundits perhaps most closely aligned with Fox’s anti-Obama campaign — Ailes’s orders mean new rules. Ailes’s deputy, Fox News programming chief Bill Shine, has sent out orders mandating that producers must get permission before booking Rove or Morris.


. . . Multiple sources say that Ailes was angry at Rove’s election-night tantrum when he disputed the network’s call for Obama. While the moment made for riveting television — it was Ailes’s decision to have Kelly confront the statisticians on air — in the end, it provided another data point for Fox’s critics. A spokesperson for Ailes denied any rift between Ailes and Rove, and said the two plan to meet this week.

Rove may have lost Ailes for the present, but he is still probably laughing all the way to the bank with his Super-Pac money. Dick Morris is in a different place, tangled up with Glenn Beck and his scary conspiracy theory, Agenda 21. As you may recall, a guy in Georgia named Chip Rogers organized an embarrassing seminar on how Obama was practicing "Mind Control" on us all (thanks to the evil U.N.) and soon the black helicopters will come to take our guns (if we have any) and herd us into the concentration camps.


Dick Morris was featured in a video shown at the conference which in turn was filmed by progressive watchdog group Better Georgia. Now the be-clowned and delusional Chip Rogers has resigned from the GA Legislature and Dick Morris has no cover for any of this. With any luck, he will just fade into the woodwork, never to be seen again.

Another "Dick" had to resign this week: Former House member Dick Armey, who broke his association with tea party group Freedomworks over a badly negotiated book deal - at least that's what he says. Cushioning the blow is the fact that he is running away with an $8 million golden parachute - for doing what, I wonder?
Time Magazine has more here.

Then in a move that surprised many on the Right and the Left, Senator Jim DeMint R-SC left the Senate to become the new head of the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation. While most think he did it for the money, other pundits assume DeMint was tired of having to vote with the more moderate members of his party (the few that are still there), and wanted to be among a group of like-minded wingnuts. That's probably a mistake for the Party, as Ezra Klein pointed out in a Washington Post piece called The Death of the Think Tanks.

Incredibly, the pundit who has often been most-described as "rabid" in the past - Ann Coulter - seems to have found a truth antidote and is now the voice of reason. She went on Fox News and schooled Sean Hannity on the new reality, telling him that Democrats are "going to win" the tax battle with the House, and it's "not winning" to raise taxes on everyone just to save the top 2%, a message he did NOT want to hear! Transcript Here


And finally, we reached the height, the apex, the crowning glory of Republican Off-Kilterness yesterday when Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, pretending to introduce legislation on the Debt Ceiling in an effort to show up Harry Reid, was forced to filibuster his own bill when "Honey Badger" Reid called his bluff.

*DERP* With leaders like McConnell, Boehner, Jim Demint, and the Fox Fools, it can only get worse before it gets better!

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Elizabeth Warren Will Serve on Banking Committee

Sources told Huffington Post today that Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, has been tapped to serve on the Banking Committee. This is happy news and a coup for Democrats since Warren, a consumer advocate and economics expert, was blocked by Republicans from serving as head of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during Obama's first term.

From Wall Street Journal

Ms. Warren, who beat Republican Sen. Scott Brown for the Senate seat in November, emerged as a high-profile Wall Street critic after the financial crisis and hit on many of the same populist themes during her campaign. "Wall Street CEOs, the same ones who wrecked our economy...still strut around Congress...demanding favors," she said in her speech at the Democratic National Convention in September.

She embraced several policy positions that bankers dislike, including calling for a return to Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era law that separated commercial and investment banks.

. . . Several financial industry officials admit they're concerned about Ms. Warren being on the panel, given her policy positions and industry criticisms, but they said they don't know of any banks or lobbyists working against her selection.

With Ms. Warren on the banking panel, it may be harder for Republican critics of that agency and the banking industry to win any changes, such as replacing its director with a bipartisan commission structure.

Going Down the "Fiscal Slope" in January

What is the Fiscal Cliff?  Or is it more of a Gentle Slope?

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The term refers to the tax cuts that would expire and the automatic spending cuts that would take effect if Congress fails to act by year's end.

Why the deadline? Congress created it to compel action if a so-called supercommittee failed to find common ground on deficit reduction. It failed.

Tax increases: Expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, along with a scheduled increase in the payroll tax, would raise taxes on all Americans by several percentage points.

Spending cuts: Federal spending would be trimmed by $1.5 trillion over the next decade. The few exempted areas include Social Security, Medicaid, military pay and veterans benefits.

Unemployment: About 2 million Americans will lose jobless benefits if the extended safety net program expires on Dec. 29.

Source: The Economist

What has Obama offered the Republicans so far? 
He sent Tim Geitner to Capitol Hill with this plan:

From Huff Post

Geithner's offer would delay the sequester -- automatic spending cuts to the Pentagon and social programs -- for a year, and effectively eliminates the congressional requirement to lift the debt ceiling in perpetuity. The offer included an extension of unemployment insurance, the payroll tax and even money to help homeowners modify mortgages and invest in infrastructure. "I think there was a leprechaun in there somewhere, too," quipped one GOP aide.
The proposal is based on a two-step plan that would decouple the high-end tax and capital gains rates from the middle-class rates, extending only those for the middle class. It would revert estate taxes to their higher 2009 level, and raise an additional $600 billion in taxes elsewhere, according to the GOP summary. It then proposes tax reform required to raise at least as much as the tax hikes, and entitlement reform that would trim $400 billion from the programs.

Are Republicans really going to reject all offers to deal with Obama?
Will they remain loyal to the Tea Party and Grover Norquist?
Most sources behind the scenes say the smart people among them know taxes have to go up and they have to deal. Speaker Boehner seems to be holding to the Tea Party talking points, but interestingly his back-up team are getting the word out, so we can assume he is probably posturing for the camera.

Oklahoma Senator Tom Cole on NPR's All Things Considered:

SIEGEL: . . . a surprise from one of the top Republicans in the House. He broke ranks with his GOP colleagues. While they are holding out for an extension of all Bush-era tax cuts, Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole told members of the leadership team yesterday that they should hurry up and extend tax cuts for the bottom 98 percent of taxpayers.

BLOCK: As for the top 2 percent, Cole argues, Congress can worry about them later. NPR's David Welna caught up with Cole today and has this report.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole just got re-elected to a sixth term in the House. He serves there as the GOP majority's deputy whip, and he's a close friend of Speaker John Boehner, which is why a lot of his colleagues were surprised when Politico first reported that Cole urged his colleagues in a closed-door meeting to approve an extension this year of all the expiring tax cuts except those that affect only the top 2 percent.

REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS JEFFERY COLE: We have an opportunity to make sure that the tax rates for 98 percent of the American people don't go up. I think we should do that sooner rather than later.

WELNA: That's Cole this afternoon.

COLE: I'm not trying to persuade anybody. I was asked: In my opinion, what's the best position for us to take? You know, what's in the best interest of the American people? What's in the best interest politically? I think that position that I outlined - that is, making sure that 98 percent of the American people have tax security, so to speak, and then continuing to fight on the other issues, and it doesn't mean giving in to rate increases. I don't believe in that. That's the right thing to do.

Senator John Thune (R-SD) on Fox News via ThinkProgress

MARTHA MAcCALLUM (HOST): What I’m asking you is are Republicans willing to hold the line, to say to the President, I am sorry, we will never agree to a deal that involves an increase in taxes? Are they?

THUNE: I think any deal that passes up here that raises taxes and raises taxes as I mentioned earlier on small businesses, Martha, is not going to enjoy Republican support. Now, there may be enough Republicans who would vote for something like that to pass it in the House of Representatives, they need to get to 218 votes.

MAcCALLUM: Then it would be done, right?

THUNE: We’ll see about that. We don’t know what that. We don’t know what the contours of a final deal might look at this point. Everybody right now is sort of in their corners and doing the posturing.

What happens if Congress does nothing? 
This article has a good explanation of what would probably happen:

Guardian UK

. . . all this discussion about a fiscal cliff is a bit of a misnomer – a cliff suggests a precipitous fall to a likely demise. But in reality, this cliff is more of a slope, or a slow but steady decline, down the road of fiscal austerity. Yes, tax and spending policies will shift after 1 January: taxes will go up and spending cuts mandated by law will begin to go in effect. But these are changes that will unfold over many months, and even years. Indeed, the immediate impact of the "fiscal cliff" will be relatively minor. As the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities noted recently:

"A relatively brief implementation of the tax and spending changes required by current law should cause little short-term damage to the economy as a whole."

This isn't to say that markets won't have a collective freakout or that confidence in Congress to actually do its job will decline further, but those are manageable issues, particularly because, once Washington goes over the cliff, it becomes much easier to quickly reach a deal between Republicans and Democrats.

. . . Let the tax cuts expire on 1 January, with taxes going up on every American. Then, Congress can quickly pass a massive tax cut for those making less than $250,000, retroactive to 1 January. Neither side will want to wait long and force Americans to pay higher taxes, but especially Republicans won't – as they will likely be blamed if no deal is swiftly reached. To do so would mean that all sides are politically satisfied: President Obama can say he stuck to his word about raising taxes on rich Americans, and taxes will have gone up without Republicans having to cast a vote; and both parties can reap the political benefit and claim credit for having cut taxes for the middle class.

Harry Reid: Romney Hasn't Settled Tax Question

Yesterday Mitt Romney finally released one complete tax return from 2011, and an affidavit stating the supposed tax situation for the past 20 years. But was it enough to settle questions about his tax liability?

Not according to Harry Reid:

From the Las Vegas Sun

The Nevada Democrat continued to hammer on the Republican presidential nominee, who is slated to speak in Las Vegas this afternoon, dismissing the summary of tax information Romney released Friday.

“It’s rich to hear Mitt Romney complain about people not paying income taxes,” Reid said on a conference call with reporters, referring to Romney’s secretly recorded comments about the 47 percent of people who don’t pay federal income taxes. “An outline by some accountant about his blind trust? That’s not going to do it.”

Later he said: “He’s hiding something. He’s hiding something! It is so evident he’s hiding something!”

From the same article, a quote from the Obama camp:

Ben Labolt, national press secretary for Obama’s campaign, said the summary demonstrates that Romney has the ability to release the returns.

“It’s clear that Romney has 20 years worth of returns prepared, ready to release to the public,” Labolt said on the call. “Instead of providing the rate on tax returns each year, they blended it together over 20 years...I think that’s telling.”

Indeed! And Obama has a shiny new ad based on the Romney tax documents:




View Tax Document Here: New York Daily News

From Bloomberg

Romney and his wife, Ann, have paid 100 percent of the taxes they owe, Brad Malt, a partner at the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston who manages the Romneys’ investments, wrote in a blog post on the campaign’s website.

Romney makes most of his income from investing an estimated $250 million fortune, and much of that income is taxed at a top rate of 15 percent, rather than the top rate of 35 percent that applies to wages. Romney, 65, is a former Massachusetts governor and co-founder of Bain Capital LLC, the Boston-based private equity firm.

. . . The campaign said it will release a letter from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which prepares Romney’s returns, summarizing his filings for the past 20 years.

More From Ezra Klein's Wonk Blog on Washington Post

In 2011, Romney earned $14 million, mostly from investments that are taxed at a lower, preferential rate. He also gave a very large amount of money to charity—more than $4 million. So, thanks to the charitable deduction in the tax code, he was technically allowed to reduce the amount of income subject to the income tax even further.

The trouble is, if Romney did that, he would have ended up paying less than 13 percent of his income in federal taxes (back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the amount would have likely been somewhere around 11 percent). That would have conflicted with his statement in August that he has paid at least 13 percent the past ten years. So Romney opted to limit his charitable deduction to just $2.25 million, essentially agreeing to pay the government more in taxes than he needed to. In the end, Romney had an effective federal tax rate of 14.1 percent.

There’s nothing wrong with voluntarily donating a bit more to reduce the federal deficit. Although there is this awkward quote from Romney during a primary debate in January: “I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more,” he said. “I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.”

BuzzFeed got more clarification on the overpayment

An email to the Romney campaign account dedicated to responding to questions about tax returns, returns@mittromney.com, produced this response:
He has been clear that no American need pay more than he or she owes under the law. At the same time, he was in the unique position of having made a commitment to the public that his tax rate would be above 13%. In order to be consistent with that statement, the Romneys limited their deduction of charitable contributions.

~

Rat Overboard on Good Ship Romney

Tim Pawlenty is the biggest rodent to jump overboard so far, but expect more in coming days. The people on Romney's team are stressed out, and are going to start looking out for number one in 3-2-1 . . . Resumes are probably flying out in all directions.

Via The Hill Blog

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will take over one of K Street’s most prestigious jobs as CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable.

The group announced Thursday morning that the former GOP candidate for president would replace longtime CEO Steve Bartlett. Pawlenty has stepped down as co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign to take the position.

. . . Pawlenty said his acceptance of the Roundtable job meant he had agreed not to consider any positions in a potential Romney administration.

Romney in a statement said he was sad to see Pawlenty leave his campaign.

"He’s brought energy, intelligence and tireless dedication to every enterprise in which he’s ever been engaged, and that certainly includes my presidential campaign," he said. "While I regret he cannot continue as co-chair of my campaign, his new position advancing the integrity of our financial system is vital to the future of our country."

And the folks on Capital Hill are running from the press, according to Harry Reid:

Huffington Post Story

"Everybody is running away from Romney,” Reid said. “That's why Republicans all over the country are running away from Romney as fast as they can."

He made that point to reporters earlier Wednesday.

"We have a long line of people who are running from Romney as if the Olympics are still on," Reid told reporters. He ticked off the names of GOP politicians -- Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.), New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Connecticut Senate nominee Linda McMahon -- who have publicly distanced themselves from Romney over the matter.

Martinez is "running really fast," Reid said, and Brown is "sprinting out there."

LOL :)

Also this:

At least two senators in tight races were far more adamant in slamming Romney. Nevada Sen. Dean Heller and Brown both stood by statements distancing themselves from the party standard-bearer.

"It's not how I think. I think that people who are in those situations are not there by choice," Brown said. "I'm going after every person's vote, regardless of their economic station in life, regardless of their political party."

"I have a very different view of the world. I believe that the federal government has certain responsibilities," Heller said. "I also believe in a safety net for individuals that need the help. So that's why I would respectfully disagree with the comments that he made."

Harry Reid Snarks that Romney Would Be "President of Half the United States"

You gotta love it! :) Our honey badger strikes again!

Harry Reid Via RawStory

“This week we learned that Mitt Romney only wants to be president of half the United States,” he explained. “If Mitt Romney were president he wouldn’t waste time worrying about the 47 percent of Americans who he believes are ‘victims,’ who Romney believes are ‘unwilling to take personal responsibility.’”

Reid continued: “For all we know Mitt Romney could be one of those who have paid no federal income tax. Thousands of families making more than a million dollars per year pay nothing in federal income tax. Is Mitt Romney among those? We’ll never know because he refuses to release his tax returns.”

“We know that Mitt Romney pays a lower tax rate than middle-class families, thanks to a number of things he’s done: Swiss bank accounts, Cayman Islands tax shelters. And we can only imagine what new secrets would be revealed if he showed the American people a dozen years of tax returns like his dad did.”

Reid Sees Hypocrisy in Romney Louisiana Trip

In his speech to the Republican National Convention last night, Mitt said:

President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise...is to help you and your family.

This line got a big cheer from the anti-science crowd in Tampa, but the appalling irony is what all those nice dry overfed people weren't thinking about ~ the devastation of New Orleans in Hurricane Isaac going on simultaneously to the Republican Convention. We can assume they were just glad the storm went west and didn't flood their little get-together. Who cares about Louisiana, right?

But today in a strange turnaround, Mitt Romney visited Louisiana to commiserate with his little buddy, Governor Bobby Jindal. Nice photo-op for both of them - just ignore that rising water, ha ha ha.

Official Honey Badger of the Democratic Party, Harry Reid is calling them out on their hypocrisy.

Huffington Post Story

"It is the height of hypocrisy for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to make a pretense of showing sympathy for the victims of Hurricane Isaac when their policies would leave those affected by this disaster stranded and on their own," Reid said in a statement.

Romney visited Lafitte, La., Friday to meet with Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and first responders to the hurricane. "I'm here to learn and obviously to draw some attention to what's going here,” Romney told Jindal, according to a pool report. "So that people around the country know that people [down] here need help."

But Reid didn't see it that way. He used the visit as an opportunity to bring up Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget, which he said would "gut disaster funding, making it much harder to get aid to our fellow Americans in their time of need."

"This is yet another example of Mitt Romney's extreme right wing agenda, which asks middle class families to sacrifice in order to protect millionaires and billionaires from paying their fair share," Reid said.

Did Romney Pay 13% Income Tax Each Year?

Romney still won't release the tax returns and expects us to trust him. I'm with Harry Reid - I'm not drinking the kool-aid. That is echoed in the message from the Obama Campaign: Prove It!

From CNN Political Ticker

"I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past ten years I never paid less than 13%. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. I paid taxes every single year," Romney said, explaining he had gone back to check his records after being asked by a reporter about the tax rates he had paid. "Harry Reid's charge is totally false. I am sure waiting for Harry to put up who it was that told him what he says they told him – I don't believe it for a minute by the way – but every year I paid at least 13% and if you add in addition the amount that goes to charity, why, the number gets well above 20%."

~~~~~~~~~~

A spokesman for Reid, Adam Jentleson, said in a statement Thursday after Romney's press conference, "We'll believe it when we see it. Until Mitt Romney releases his tax returns, Americans will continue to wonder what he's hiding. Romney seems to think he plays by a different set of rules than every other presidential candidate for the last thirty years, all of whom lived up to the standard of transparency set by Mitt Romney's father and released their tax returns."

The Obama Campaign Response: Prove It!

"Mitt Romney today said that he did indeed 'go back and look' at his tax returns and that he never paid less than 13% in taxes in any year over the past decade," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "Since there is substantial reason to doubt his claims, we have a simple message for him: prove it. Even though he's invested millions in foreign tax havens, offshore shell corporations, and a Swiss bank account, he's still asking the American people to trust him."

Tim Pawlenty Admits Giving Romney "A Bunch" of Tax Returns

Mahahahahahahahaha!!!!! This made my day!!!

Found Via Scott Wooledge

Tim Pawlenty, ex-governor of Minnesota, who was also courted by the Romney campaign to be Veep before they chose Paul Ryan, had a deer-in-the-headlights moment on ABC's This Week when George Stephanopoulos asked how many tax returns Pawlenty provided to the Romney camp while being vetted for Vice President. After a long, long pause, he said:

Via ABC News

PAWLENTY: There were several years, I believe. Well, we don’t get into the details of the vetting process, but I gave them a bunch of tax returns. I don’t remember the exact number of years.

Ha! So we can assume that Paul Ryan also had to turn over tax returns, which begs the question why it's fair game for Veep Vetting but not for Presidential selection? When will Romney release his tax returns to the American people? This isn't going away.

Harry Reid Responds to Republican "Henchmen" and "Cowards"

Harry Reid has responded to all the Republican accusations on the Sunday Talk Shows, as posted here: Journalism Derp and Question Fail

Give 'em Hell, Harry Reid!!!

From Politico

“They’re a bunch of cowards and they’re avoiding the issue,” said David Krone, Reid’s chief of staff, in an interview with POLITICO on Sunday night. “Lindsey Graham, Reince Priebus - they’re a bunch of henchmen for Romney and they’re all reading off the same talking points. They couldn’t hold a candle to Harry Reid.”

Krone added: “What Harry Reid said is the fact of what he was told. To turn it around, all their childish rants this weekend about calling Reid a ‘liar’ and all that, it just shows you how scared they are that Harry Reid was telling the truth.”

Via Talking Points Memo

Late Sunday morning, Reid’s spokesman Adam Jentleson responded via email to TPM.

“Republicans can try to cover up for Mitt Romney’s stonewalling all they want, but this issue is not going away until Romney decides to be straight with the American people and release his tax returns. It is sad that the most secretive candidate since Richard Nixon has forced his party to defend his decision to hide the truth about his tax returns. As Senator Reid has said, an extremely credible source informed him that Mitt Romney did not pay taxes for ten years. From the one year of returns Romney has released, we’ve seen that he uses secret offshore accounts in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It’s clear Mitt Romney is hiding something, and the only way for him to clear this up is to be straight with the American people and release his tax returns.”

Some stories are so juicy that you wish they would never end. I almost hope Mitt Romney never releases his income taxes so that Harry Reid can keep the Republicans in an uproar about this, Sunday after Sunday, till the election, LOL.

Sunday Talk Shows ~ Journalism Derp and Question Fail

The Sunday talk shows were horrible this week, with even seasoned journalists lined up in bipartisan support with Republican pundits, trying to save Mitt Romney from the dastardly clutches of the evil Harry Reid, who dared ask the national candidate to do something every other politician or federal employee has to do and release his taxes.

Both Bob Schieffer and George Will said Reid is practicing McCarthyism. Hmmm, I don't remember them ever saying anything about Michele Bachmann and her witch hunts.

. . . isn't this kind of like Joe McCarthy back in the era when he said, "I have here in my hand the names of 400 people in the state department who are communist?" It turned out he didn't and he was saying the way to prove that they're not is for them to come forward here. I mean, asking somebody to come forward to, to just because there's been an unsubstantiated charge, that's a little thin to me.
~ Bob Schieffer on CBS Face the Nation

Look, in 1950, Joe McCarthy went to West Virginia, didn’t know what to tell to the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, so he said I have in my hand a list of 205, we think that are — 205 communists in the State Department. Didn’t have a list. Harry Reid doesn’t have any evidence either. This is McCarthyism from the desert (ph).
~ Republican pundit, George Will on This Week

Nice to see you both got your talking points straight, fellas. Does Reince Priebus email them to you directly? And speaking of our favorite Republican leader (not), here is Priebus on ABC This Week calling Reid a "dirty liar" and saying he hasn't released his taxes either. Oh yeah?

RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus: And as far as Harry Reid is concerned, listen, I know you might want to go down that road, I’m not going to respond to a dirty liar who hasn’t filed a single page of tax returns himself. Complains about people with money but lives in the Ritz Carlton here down the street. So if that’s on the agenda, I’m not going to respond to that. This is just a made-up issue. And the fact that we’re going to spend any time talking about it is ridiculous.
George Stephanopolous: Mr. Chairman, you say you're not going to respond, but you just called him a 'dirty liar.' You stand by that, you think Harry Reid is a dirty liar?”
Priebus: I just said it.
ABC News This Week with George Stephanopolous

Most Democrats were probably screaming the obvious point at the TV, which Stephanopoulos ignored - it's easy to prove whether Reid has released his taxes as a member of the Senate. Why didn't George just say that? And you know what? Reid has released his taxes for many years.  Going back to 1995. Yet George Stephanopoulos didn't question that outrageous statement at all, even after cuckoo Ann Coulter repeated the lie, and she was babbling like an idiot.

Must be a good gig to get on these shows and lie your brains out week after week with no "journalist" to call you on it. Coulter also tried to deflect the criticism back on Obama and even on Bill Clinton for some unknown reason, but all of it still begs the question of why Coulter  is so afraid for Romney to release his taxes. She might as well have been talking to herself for all the questioning anyone gave her. She even implied that people are asking for Romney's taxes because he is a Mormon, which is absurd because Harry Reid is also a Mormon, LOL. Derp de Derp.

He absolutely should not release any more tax returns. He has released two years. Bill Clinton wouldn’t release his medical records. You know, people kind of wondered about that. We know after the JFK presidency, you could have an issue with a drug addict president, but he just dug in his heels. We have two years on Romney. You know perfectly well, the media, this is Obama’s modus operandi, and unfortunately Romney isn’t divorced. Hopefully, his vice presidential candidate won’t be divorced. It’s always dirty politics. You remember when Romney was — or Obama was running against McCain and Sarah Palin. What did we get? False rumors of a McCain affair. We had investigations into the Palin marriage, claims they were getting divorced. They have nothing on this Mormon, and they want his tax records. If they releases 10 years, they’ll demand 20 years.
~ Ann Coulter on This Week

Everyone expects Coulter to sound like a partisan wingnut, but what about a so-called "Senior White House Reporter," in this case Jonathan Karl of ABC News? What's his excuse for protecting Romney? And how does this guy "know" that Mitt Romney paid any taxes at all? He doesn't know!

It's one of the most outrageous charges that I've ever seen actually made on the Senate Floor. . . . When Harry Reid takes to the floor of the Senate and makes this outrageous charge that has absolutely no evidence. . . I mean Mitt Romney paid $3 million in the one tax return we've seen. He's paid taxes, so it's a completely false charge.
But Reid loves this. The Democrats love this. Because no matter how he digs in, no matter how much he gets attacked, you know - here or by John Stewart - or anywhere else, it gets the story out there again and again.
And I tell you - Mitt Romney played right into this by telling Harry Reid to 'put up or shut up,' so it becomes this back-and-forth. Instead, he should have laughed it off, he should have made a joke about Harry Reid's imaginary friend, and moved on . . .
Jonathan Karl, ABC senior White House reporter, on This Week

Over on CNN, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, also called Reid a liar, and "journalist" Candy Crowley was just too busy and in a hurry to ask any follow-up questions. *snort* What a joke! These alleged "interviews" are like little commericials for the Mitt Romney campaign.

Senator Lindsey Graham: I think he's lying about his statement about knowing something about Romney's . . .
Candy Crowley of CNN: That's pretty stiff. You think the leader of the Senate is lying?
Lindsey Graham: I really do - I think he's created an issue here, I think he's making things up. And at a time when the country is just about to fall apart.
. . . I just can't believe that the Senate Majority Leader would take the floor twice, make accusations that are absolutely unfounded in my view, and quite frankly making things up. . . .
Candy Crowley: Senator Lindsey Graham, I wish we had more time. I've got to run. Thank you so much.
From CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley

Of course, CNN as usual had "two sides" so everything could cancel out evenly, and at least Robert Gibbs got in a few lines of truth:

We can put all of this to rest tomorrow. Mitt Romney can go to Kinko’s, he can photocopy his tax returns, they’re several hundred pages. He can hand them out to people like CNN, he can hand them out to reporters all over the country, and you know what? We wouldn’t talk about this tomorrow.
~ Robert Gibbs on CNN, quoted by Politico

Indeed! Come on Mitt - show us the taxes!!!

The Fierce and "Decent" Harry Reid

Who would have thought that the Democrat who would finally throw down the gauntlet and not back down an inch on Romney's taxes would be the usually reticent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? And this story is getting bigger and bigger almost by the hour.

Harry Reid to Huffington Post

"His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son," Reid said, in reference to George Romney's standard-setting decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.

Saying he had "no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy," Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.

"Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying.

"He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain," said Reid. "But obviously he can't release those tax returns. How would it look?

"You guys have said his wealth is $250 million," Reid went on. "Not a chance in the world. It's a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don't pay taxes for 10 years when you're making millions and millions of dollars."

On Wednesday, Reid spoke out again on the Senate Floor, repeating his accusation that Romney hasn't paid any taxes in ten years.

So, the word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t. We already know from one partial tax return that he gave us, he has money hidden in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and a Swiss banking account. Mitt Romney makes more money in a single day than the average middle-class family makes in two years or more.

Then he told reporters that he has more than once source to back up his claim.

LA Times Story

In a conference call with Nevada reporters on Wednesday, he broadened what he said were his sources for the contention that Romney was able to avoid federal taxes.

"I have had a number of people tell me that," said Reid, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, while refusing to elaborate. "I don't think the burden should be on me," Reid told the home-state reporters. "The burden should be on him. He's the one I've alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn't he release his tax returns?”
On Thursday morning, Reid said that a nominee for a Cabinet position couldn't get confirmed by the Senate if he made as limited a release of tax information as Romney has thus far.
"Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn't," Reid declared, then adding that “Mitt Romney makes more money in a single day than the average middle-class family makes in two years or more

This is throwing the Romney camp for a loop - and as we know, it doesn't take much to get them into a tizzy of alleged victimization by the mean old Democrats. Romney said on Sean Hannity via Mediaite:

Well, it’s time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry’s going to have to describe who it is he spoke with, because, of course, that’s completely and totally wrong. It’s untrue, dishonest, and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources, and we’ll probably find out it’s the White House.

Also on Thursday, Romney spokesperson Eric "Etch-A-Sketch" Fehrnstrom accused Reid of "McCarthyism," which is rich coming from a campaign that has ignored the witch hunts of Michelle Bachmann and her pals.

Harry Reid's statements are baseless and untrue, and I would ask him one simple question - 'Have you no sense of decency, Sir?' Is there nothing that you won't do to debase yourself and the office you hold, in the name of dirty politics? . . . This reminds me of the McCarthy hearings back in the 1950s.

From Huffington Post

"I don't think there is anything behind it. He hasn't produced any evidence," Fehrnstrom said Thursday in an interview with Fox News. "I'm telling you speaking on behalf of the governor that those charges are untrue, they are baseless and there is nothing to back them up."
"This reminds me of the McCarthy hearings back in the 1950s," he added.
Fehrnstrom's line, "Have you no decency, sir?" is a paraphrase of what Army lawyer Joseph N. Welch asked Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy in 1954, when he famously stood up to the powerful, witch-hunting senator who was falsely accusing people of being Communists.

On this issue, not only is Reid standing fast, but he is practically begging the media to keep talking about Romney's taxes, and especially to investigate people at Bain who would know the truth.

The elegant flourish of the whole thing is that Romney can't complain that people are picking on him because he is a Mormon, since Reid is also a Mormon. Ann Romney tried to play that card in the "You People" interview in which she mentioned tithing to the church, and how that meant they could be trusted on the tax issue. But it doesn't really work when another Mormon is saying it, plus where are all the other Mormons out there who should be speaking out on Romney's behalf? *crickets*

Tonight both CNN and MSNBC covered the tax return issue for hours. Lawrence O'Donnell offered a Romney-tax montage and discussion, while CNN's Dana Bash told Anderson Cooper that Reid's sources are good or he wouldn't be standing firm.

Mitt Romney could "shut up" Harry Reid. Mitt Romney could "shut up" all of us by doing what every presidential candidate does and show his tax returns. Every day that Mitt Romney refuses to show his tax returns costs him politically and therefore logically casts more and more suspicion on why he is not releasing his tax returns.
~ Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC


Tax Montage & Discussion from Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell

 

Transcript: Dana Bash on CNN's Anderson Cooper, August 2, 2012

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We now have a couple of responses, Anderson. Let me read you the first one, that is, "Senator Reid stands by his comments. Governor Romney's continued refusal to release his tax returns raises legitimate questions about what he is hiding and whether he paid any taxes at all. Governor Romney can easily end this debate by following the precedent set by his father and releasing his tax returns."

And as you were coming on the air, Anderson, I got a follow-up like the statement, which also stands by what they call his credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years, and he's calling Romney playing tricks, many tricks at his disposal for avoiding taxes. So not backing down at all.

I got to tell you, covering Harry Reid for a lot of years, there are times when he says things off the cuff that make his aides wince, like talking smelly tourists in the capitol. I'm not making this up. This is not one of those times.

This is one of those times where he knows exactly what he's doing. He's doing it on purpose. He's doing it for political reasons because he wants this issue, Romney's taxes, to be talked about on programs like yours, and wants it to be headlines in newspapers, and wants Mitt Romney to respond on this issue, which they think is a negative for Romney as opposed to issues that Romney wants to talk about.

. . . But this is -- when Harry Reid doesn't like somebody, he goes for the jugular. And that is what he is doing now. He is an old boxer and he still likes to be a political street fighter. He knew full well that he was going to be questioned over and over again on who his source was. And he said -- he's told people close to him who I have spoken today that he didn't care. He's not telling going to tell who his source is.

But I did speak, I just have to tell you, that I did speak to one source who's very close to Senator Reid who claims to also know who this Bain investor is that Reid spoke with, and insists that this is a credible person and this person if we knew the name we would understand that they would have the authority and the ability to know about Romney's tax returns. Whether we'll find it out ever, who knows. But they're doing this on purpose so that this is the discussion.