On Morning Joe Joe Scarborough loses it in an epic rant against Newt Gingrich who deserved the criticism for his relentless flip-flops on every issue known to man!
Seriously?! Really?! The Daily Spectacle (6/27/11)
Today’s News
1) GOP Rep. Todd Akin claims liberals have a “hatred of God,” but fails to see his hypocrisy and his party’s hypocrisy of supporting Ayn Rand
2) States that have GOP representatives and senators attacking women’s rights have lower life expectancies for women.
3) Ten things we gave up to pay for the War in Afghanistan
4) Senator John McCain’s idiotic comments about the Arizona wildfires and undocumented immigrants
5) Newt Gingrich criticizing the same-sex marriage passage in New York
Hope you enjoy the blog post today, will be back later today with more.
Please re-tweet, repost on Tumblr and comment on my blog or on Tumblr
-Drew, Concerned American
You made your campaign shirts outside the United States, while the other candidates did not. Why would you do that?
Greta Van Susteren to Newt Gingrich (via chickenexpress)
Uh, Greta, Herman Cain did also!
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/02/283943/herman-cain-defends-manufacturing-campaign-t-shirts-in-honduras-i-dont-see-a-reason-to-change/
During a major policy address in June, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain laid out his three
economic guiding principles. Cain’s first tenet: “Production drives the economy.” Yet looking at his campaign merchandise, Cain appears to be more interested in driving the economy of Honduras than the United States.
An ABC investigation found that Cain’s t-shirts, which the campaign sells at $30 apiece, are manufactured in Honduras rather than the United States.
ThinkProgress was in attendance when ABC’s Arlette Saenz confronted the former pizza executive about his campaign’s decision to manufacture t-shirts in Honduras rather than in the United States. Cain downplayed the concern, saying “I don’t have a political statement with respect to that.” When asked if he would consider producing his campaign’s t-shirts in the United States instead, Cain dismissed the idea out of hand, saying there was no “compelling reason” to do so:
SAENZ: This is one of your t-shirts. If you look at the label, it says that it’s made in Honduras. Were you aware that that was going on?
CAIN: No, I wasn’t aware that it was made in Honduras. I just was aware that it was Fruit of the Loom, which is an American company. So where they buy their t-shirts, no, we did not look at that. […] The fact that it was made in Honduras, I don’t have a political statement with respect to that.
SAENZ: Would you consider changing your campaign gear that isn’t made in this country?
CAIN: It depends on the reason why somebody would want me to change it. Changing it because someone says it was made outside the United States alone isn’t a reason. If I had a compelling reason, yes. But if I don’t have a compelling reason, no. You want to know why? We live in a global marketplace, and we’re not going to reignite the growth in this country with any sort of protectionism.
Watch it:
Cain isn’t the only Republican presidential campaign to get caught selling merchandise that wasn’t manufactured in the United States. Last week, Newt Gingrich’s campaign was confronted for selling t-shirts produced in El Salvador. (Gingrich blamed the t-shirt snafu on his campaign’s volunteers.) Cain, on the other hand, was unfazed by his campaign’s decision to boost Honduran production in lieu of American production.
Months ago, Cain chose this as his presidential campaign slogan: “Is America Ready?” When it comes to producing t-shirts, Cain’s answer is clear: not yet.
Stuff and Nonsense: An Open Letter To Newt Gingrich
Brilliantly-worded letter to Newt Gingrich. Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Dear Newt Gingrich,
Before you get too excited that someone my age has taken the time to write you a letter, I should let you know that I have no intention of voting for you. Ever. Not in this presidential election, not in the one after it. I’m old enough to remember your “Contract with…
Fact-Checking Tonight’s GOP Debate in Iowa
ThinkProgress has one of the best coverages of the debate, fact-checking while the debate is going on.
Here’s what they wrote:
10:56: In closing, Herman Cain cites a “poet’s” lyrics that “Life can be a challenge / life can seem impossible.” The poet? Apparently, it was disco singer Donna Summer’s song “The Power of One,” featured in Pokemon: The Movie 2000.
Meanwhile, Tim Pawlenty riffs on Spider-Man, saying “With great blessing comes great responsibility.”
10:55: Huntsman and Cain both would not reinstate President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law.
10:46: Newt Gingrich calls for “going back as Reagan did, to sound money.” As we’ve tried to tell Gingrich before, in fact inflation was considerably higher during the Reagan era than it is today.
10:45: Herman Cain on the charge that companies will not use the money from a tax break he favors for creating jobs: “So what?” In the next sentence, he says, “that’s what I’m about, jobs.”
10:42: Huntsman attacks the “EPA regulatory reign of terror.” In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency saved the lives of over 160,000 Americans.
10:42: Bachmann says that raising the debt ceiling was a “blank check” for Obama. Politifact rightly rated this claim “false.”
10:39: Romney calls for less spending on anti-poverty programs and unemployment programs. He said that he would not extend unemployment benefits for those currently out of work. 44 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more.
10:36: Santorum says allowing a raped woman to receive an abortion would “put her through another trauma,” so we should force her to carry her rapist’s child for nine months instead.
10:34: Rep. Paul seems unaware that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution bans slavery.
10:33: “I support civil unions,” Huntsman said. “I believe our nation can do better a job with equality.” Huntsman has one of the most liberal positions when it comes to LGBT equality: he would allow states to legalize marriage, came out in favor of civil unions in 2006, and favors reciprocal beneficiary rights for same-sex couples. His campaign has even reached out to LGBT groups in Utah.
10:31: Romney: Marriage should be decided at the federal level. So much for that 10th amendment. He has the exact opposite argument when it comes to health care reform.
10:29: Crowd booing Byron York for asking Bachmann if she would be submissive to her husband as president. Bachmann says that she interprets “submissive” to mean respect. That’s not what that word means to anyone else in the world.
10:26: Gingrich on loyalty tests for American Muslims, advocates “not just for Muslims, but for everybody!” Says “there is nothing illegitimate about making sure Americans remain loyal to the U.S.”
10:21: Santorum now says Iran is under a “mullahcracy.” Finally stands up for the gays, criticizing Muslim countries that “trample the rights of gays.”
10:15: Santorum defends his foreign policy chops: “Iran is not Iceland!” Bizarrely claims Iran has killed more Americans in Afghanistan than the “Afghanistanis” have.
10:15: Paul calls for ending embargo on Cuba.
10:12: Paul says CIA tells him there’s no evidence Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.
10:10: Huntsman says he “absolutely” consider cyber hacking from China an act of war. Says hacking of private individuals is “beyond the pale.” Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch disagrees.
10:07: Newt continues his war on former Fox News colleagues, is now taking moderator Bret Baier to task for a “gotcha question” about his views on Libya and where he stands now.
10:06: Mitt Romney has given Afghanistan two years to take over security for its country.
10:07: Fox News chyron flashes — 85 percent of Fox poll respondents say we should withdraw from Afghanistan.
10:04: Pawlenty hits Barack Obama for supporting an Afghanistan withdrawal timetable faster than that recommended by either “General Petraeus” or “General Mullen.” He may have been thinking of Admiral Mike Mullen of the US Navy, Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff. Admittedly Minnesota is landlocked.
10:01: Debate comes back from commercial. No one knows where Bachmann is.
Whew, she’s back.
9:59: What this debate really needs is some Thaddeus McCotter! Don’t want to miss his debate with himself tonight.
9:59: Santorum has one of the worst records on LGBT issues — he opposes civil unions, marriage equality, or any other kind of legal recognition of same-sex couples. He would also reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
9:57 Santorum scores with first gay-bashing of the night, taking a hit at Bachmann for saying that marriage should be left to the states. He generally attacks federalist themes from his fellow candidates “there are things the states can’t do,” cites Lincoln as an authority and appears to compare state-initiated marriage equality and Mitt Romney’s universal health care plan to slavery. “Does that mean that the state has the right to impose polygamy? To pass sterilization? No! We are a country based on morals.”
9:56: Romney likes to say that his health reform law was tailored for Massachusetts. But soon after he signed it into law, Romney was arguing that it should serve as a model for the nation.
9:55: “I will not rest until we have a filibuster-proof Senate,” Bachmann said, demonstrating that her focus is directed at politics, not policy.
9:53: Romney said he would issue a waiver invalidating ObamaCare on his first day in office. A president doesn’t have that authority.
9:52: Pawlenty is right. Obama did pattern parts of his health care law after the reform Romney enacted in 2006. Here is a table of the similarities.
9:51: Chris Wallace gives Pawlenty another chance to attack Romney after he passed up the opportunity in the first debate to hammer on “Obamneycare“. Pawlenty: “How could I give up this opportunity?”
9:49: All candidates just raised their hands to say they would walk away from a deal that was 10 to 1 cuts to revenue increases.
9:47: Santorum says his opposition to new revenue is due to “the facts.” The fact is that revenue is at a 60 year low.
9:45: Looks like Pawlenty learned his mistake from the last debate when he failed to defend ‘ObamneyCare.’ He is really going hard after Bachmann tonight.
9:45: Santorum raises his hand to complain that he “hasn’t had a chance to say a whole lot.” Finally gets to answer a question.
9:40: Pawlenty says his tax on cigarettes, or “health impact fee,” to balance his budget does not mean you have to raise taxes to balance a budget. He says he regrets his cigarette fee.
9:40: “I don’t believe in raising taxes,” Romney said. Yet in a 2004 presentation to Standard & Poor’s, his administration touted tax hikes as a reason that Massachusetts should get its credit rating raised to AA.
9:39: None of the Republican candidates, or any of the questioners, seems interested in the fact that the quantity of unauthorized border crossing has plummeted over the past several years.
9:36: Romney claims to exalt physics PhDs…but doesn’t believe the American Physical Society‘s dire warning on global warming.
9:35: Herman Cain says that a combination of “high fences and wide open doors” is the principle the country was founded on. In fact, immigration into the United States was completely unlimited until the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Immigration from Latin America was unrestricted until the second half of the 20th century.
9:35: Asked about whether he is serious about building a moat, filling it with alligators, and surrounding it with an electric fence as a means of securing the border, Herman Cain says “America’s got to learn how to take a joke.”
9:33: Chris Wallace wonders if Jon Huntsman Jr. is “running for president in the wrong party” because he supported a cap and trade system in Utah. In that case, Romney, Pawlenty, and Gingrich are also running in the wrong party.
9:33: Teaser: Cain knows what the three problems in Afghanistan are, and he will tell you what they are. Maybe later.
9:33: Cain chides Wallace, tells him he never said that Americans have the right to ban mosques in their community. Except he did — to Wallace.
9:32: Wallace responds, if you think questions about your record are “Mickey Mouse,” I’m sorry. Gingrich replies, “there’s too much attention paid by the press corps to campaign minutia.”
9:31: Former Fox contributor Newt Gingrich goes to war against former Fox colleague Chris Wallace: “I took seriously Brett’s injunction to put away the talking points. So I wish you would put away the gotcha questions.”
9:30: Memo to Pawlenty: Here’s Obama’s plan on Medicare and Medicaid reform. You can deliver that dinner to our offices at the Center for American Progress.
9:20 Bachmann says she “fought cap and trade” by introducing legislation to reverse lightbulb efficiency laws, which has nothing to do with a cap-and-trade system, other than both originally being Republican ideas.
9:19: Watch Pawlenty and Bachmann spar on health care.
9:18: Pawlenty fires back — notes that Bachmann has a record of false statements (see ie, pants on fire awards). Pawlenty on Bachmann: “She says she has a titanium spine; it’s not her spine that we’re worried about but her record.”
9:18: Bachmann responds to Pawlenty: You supported Cap & Trade and the individual mandate. “You sound a lot like Barack Obama.”
9:17: Pawlenty wants people to look at his record in Minnesota. Like one-third of his budget relying on the 2009 Recovery Act?
9:16: Santorum says that the U.S. economy has grown at faster than five percent a year for ten years. It hasn’t.
9:15: VOTER PANDER ALERT — Pawlenty says he’ll offer a prize to anyone who can find President Obama’s plan on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reform. If they find his plan, “I’ll come to your house and cook you dinner.” Or mow your lawn. He told Romney that he would be limited to one acre of lawn mowing. Romney’s response? “That’s just fine.”
9:14 Tim Pawlenty completely dodges the point that five percent annual growth for a decade has never happened before, not even close, not even during the era of the great Ronald Reagan.
9:13: Huntsman told us to look at his record as governor to see how he would act as president. But during his tenure, the state’s uninsured rate remained steady at 11 percent, even though he had promised to halve that number in half.
9:12 Newt Gingrich rings in with first mention of Ronald Reagan at debate. Says Reagan’s 1981 tax cut led to seven years of growth. Unsurprisingly, he failed to mention Reagan’s 1982 tax increase.
9:10: In case you were wondering, CNN’s Piers Morgan is countering Fox’s debate programming with an exclusive hour-long interview with actor Jeff Bridges.
9:09: Ron Paul: “If we have to cut, we can’t be so determined that we can’t cut one nickel out of the militarism around the world.”
9:08: Ron Paul getting fired up about not dumping debt on the people and explaining his plan to fix the U.S. economy. Baier asks if he can get his plan through a divided Congress. Paul says yes because he’d have to since we’re likely to still have a divided Congress.
9:07: Romney says he wouldn’t raise the debt ceiling without first rewriting the Constitution to make it impossible to fund Social Security, Medicare and the military at the same time.
9:07: Just a casual observation: Bachmann is wearing her grey announcement outfit.
9:06: Romney says “capitalism is about people, not just capital” a funny observation for someone who earlier today said that corporations are people.
9:05: Baier already asking Romney about the “Mittness” protection program to question his leadership and why he was not vocal on the debt ceiling debate. Romney responds: “I’m not going to eat Barack Obama’s dog food.”
9:04: Romney, contra Bachmann, declines to say how long it will take him to turn the economy around.
9:02: Admonition from host Bret Baier: “Put aside the talking points. … Level with the American people, speak from the heart.” Bachmann, the first responder, opens with a talking point: “Barack Obama, you will be a one-term president!”
9:01: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) appeared to receive the loudest applause from the audience during the introductions.
Source: thinkprogress.org
Here's What The GOP Candidates Should Have Been Asked
As they campaign around Iowa ahead of the Ames Straw Poll on Saturday, GOP presidential candidates are revealing who they are fighting for. And it’s not most Americans.
At the Iowa State Fair today, angry Iowans confronted Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor responded by arguing, “Corporations are people, my friend.” And he also said the U.S. should consider a higher retirement age for Medicare and Social Security, a proposal that would have a regressive impact on lower-income Americans.
After a busy summer of backyard speeches and bus tours, the thing that is most clear about the Republican Party and today’s GOP field is that they are beholden to an increasingly small and extreme Tea Party fringe – a fringe that would rather end Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security than make the wealthy, Big Oil, and hedge fund billionaires pay their fair share.
Tonight, eight Republican candidates will meet in Iowa for the second presidential debate. After they have campaigned on business-friendly policies that would protect the rich and further damage our economy, here are questions about the economy we think each candidate should have to address at tonight’s Iowa Republican presidential debate:
Mitt Romney
As governor, you touted the new revenues from fees you increased and the tax loopholes you closed in Massachusetts as a reason Standard & Poor’s should increase the state’s credit rating. Now, after the U.S.’s credit rating has been lowered by S&P, the rating agency has cited Republican intransigence on raising new revenues as a reason. Would you consider any new net revenues as part of a deficit reduction bill in order to increase the nation’s credit rating?
Michele Bachmann
Previously, you have suggested that the U.S. should raise taxes on the poor, but the IRS reported last week that in 2009, nearly 1,500 millionaires paid no income taxes at all. Given our nation’s serious debt and deficit problems, is it fair for millionaires to not pay any taxes while the middle class is forced to bear more of the burden?
Ron Paul
Unlike most of your rivals, you have called for cuts to defense spending. The first round of the debt deal passed last week calls for $350 billion in cuts to defense spending. Do you think additional savings are required from the Pentagon?
Tim Pawlenty
You opposed the debt deal congressional Republicans negotiated with President Obama, noting you supported the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan. That plan would’ve required that Balanced Budget Amendment pass both the House and the Senate before the debt ceiling could be raised — a position that Senator John McCain called “not fair to the American people.” So would you have chosen a default on our obligations short of achieving the demands outlined in the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan?
Rick Santorum
In your plan to boost the economy, you call for increasing domestic energy production, and have previously called for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (although it would do little for the economy). Yet investing $150 billion in clean energy would create 1.7 million jobs and do more to improve domestic energy production. Why are you not promoting clean energy to improve the U.S. economy?
Jon Huntsman
You said it is “criminal” for corporations to use loopholes in order to avoid paying their tax burden, including GE not paying a dime on $5.1 billion in profits last year. And while you support loopholes, you say you would oppose tax reform that increased the tax burden. But as corporations make record profits, does the government have a role in reining in corporate power? If so, how?
Newt Gingrich
You have adamantly insisted that tax increases should not be a part of any debt ceiling deal, but Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who is a member of the super committee that will make recommendations for the debt ceiling deal, has indicated that he would not be opposed to tax reform to generate revenue in the deal. Do you agree with Portman’s opinion?
Herman Cain
In the plan you’ve laid out for improving the economy if you were president, the first step is to lower the corporate tax rate. But corporations, unlike most Americans, are making more than ever and paying less by taking advantage of tax loopholes. Despite record profits that grew 81 percent in 2010 at the largest 500 corporations, the share of profits those corporations actually paid in taxes are near all-time historic lows because of credits, write-offs and other special loopholes. Instead of simply lowering the corporate tax rate, should these tax breaks be eliminated, saving America $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years?
Five Things I Learned From Last Night’s GOP Debate
Good morning, ladies and gents. Hope you had an amazing night.
The day after a debate, whether it is Republican or Democrat, is always the most interesting. Then, in a couple of days, the brouhaha is gone, the pizzazz has left the building.
While I was watching the debate (yes, me partly being liberal, I did watch the debate, I’m also libertarian too) there were five things that I learned from the debate. Hope you enjoy the things, and please reply or reblog if you agree with me.
1) Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty seriously do not like each other!!
Watching the two spar like clawless cats on the stage in Iowa was actually very entertaining to watch. Tim Pawlenty called out Michele Bachmann on her lack of a congressional record, which he is completely right on about. In this term alone, Bachmann has only been present a third of the time in the legislature. For the debt ceiling vote (which she voted against), she snuck in and then left again.
I also loved how Pawlenty hit straight on against Bachmann on her refusal to raise the debt ceiling, and her refusal to listen to the American people. For that, I would shake his hand and buy him dinner.
Later on in the night, Bachmann claimed that Standard and Poor’s “proved me right” when she didn’t vote for the debt ceiling to be raised. Michele, in a parallel universe, that might have benefited you. You’re on Planet Earth, in America, where Standard and Poor’s blamed your party for the credit rating downgrade. You lost the AAA credit rating because YOU, THE LAWMAKERS were skeptical of a default happening if the debt ceiling wasn’t raised.
You and the Republican Party are squarely to blame for the downgrade, no one else!!
2) Tim Pawlenty will be having to make lots of dinners across America. He lost his dare with the American people!!
Last night at the debate, former Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty went into his typical Obama-bashing, and at the end of the question he was asked about the economy and the debt ceiling, he made a dare for anyone to find President Obama’s plan for fixing the economy.
Well, Pawlenty, you will have to fix me dinner and mow my lawn also.
Here’s Obama’s plan:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/13/fact-sheet-presidents-framework-shared-prosperity-and-shared-fiscal-resp
I want lasagna, garlic bread, and iced sweet tea for my dinner.
Pawlenty was at war with Bachmann last night. Looks like the two fellow Minnesotans are brawling it out.
3) Newt Gingrich thinks every question he is asked is a “Gotcha” question. Sounds like he is wanting to be the male counterpart to Sarah Palin!!
Newt’s chances of becoming President of the United States have practically become slim to none, so what do you think he did to try to salvage his campaign?
By saying that every question was a “gotcha” question.
NO, SERIOUSLY HE DID!!! He only answered maybe three questions, and the others he claimed that Fox News was trying to catch him on something.
Here’s Newt and Chris Wallace going at it about Chris asking him about his former campaign members jumping ship, which normally is not a “gotcha” question:
At this rate, Newt will claim that the question “What is your name?” is a gotcha question.
Later in the evening, he did the same thing over his views switching on Libya.
For once, I actually like what Fox did to each candidate, making them respond to their flip-flopping.
4) The Republicans have selective amnesia, only remembering things that they did that will help them in polls and in the election, and forgetting to tell Americans their true opinions.
Here’s what the candidates failed to mention about either their records, or about history of American politics.
Newt Gingrich-Invokes Ronald Reagan first in the debate, saying that Reagan’s 1981 tax cut led to a seven-year growth in the US. He failed to mention Reagan’s 1982 tax increase.
After all, for seven of Reagan’s eight years in office, the top tax rate was higher than the current 35 percent. In six of those years, it was 50 percent or more. And every year that Regan was in office, the bottom tax bracket was higher than the current ten percent.
For a family of four, the “average income tax rate under Reagan in 1983 was 11.06 percent. Under Clinton in 1992, it was 9.18 percent. And under Obama in 2010, it was 4.68 percent.” During Reagan’s time, income tax revenue ranged from 7.8 to 9.4 percent of GDP. Last year, it was 6.2 percent and is not projected to climb back to 9 percent until 2016. In fact, in 2009, Americans paid their lowest taxes in 60 years.
Republicans are very fond of saying that the U.S. has “a spending problem, not a revenue problem.” But the truth is that revenue has plunged due to the recession and to continued misguided tax cuts, and revenue needs to be raised to eventually bring the budget into balance. And Reagan knew that taxes were an important part of the budget equation. After all, he “raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office,” including four times in just two years.
Jon Huntsman-Told Americans to look at his record as Governor of Utah to see how he would act as President.
Doesn’t look very promising. During his presidency, he promised to cut the state’s uninsured rate, which was at and continues to be at 11%, in half. He didn’t.
Huntsman’s goal hasn’t been realized: The state’s uninsured rate remained steady at 11 percent in 2010, meaning 300,000 Utahans went without coverage.
Count that promise as broken!!
Rick Santorum-Claimed that the US economy has grown at faster than 5% a year for 10 years…IT HASN’T!!
Tim Pawlenty-Wants Americans to look at his record in Minnesota. You sure of that, Pawlenty? Are you really sure that you want Americans to know that you relied on the 2009 Recovery Act for 1/3 of Minnesota’s budget? I doubt it!
Pawlenty revealed his proposal to balance Minnesota’s budget. The proposal would cut “$250 million from aid to cities and counties and $347 million from health and human services programs” while lowering taxes for businesses. The Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that “nearly one-third of the governor’s budget fix would rely on $387 million in federal stimulus money. That money isn’t yet in the bank and, if it doesn’t come through, the cuts could be far deeper.”
Michele Bachmann-Claimed that she “fought cap and trade” by introducing legislation that would reverse lightbulb efficiency laws. That had nothing to do with the question she was asked, which was about cap-and-trade. Anyways, both cap-and-trade and lightbulb efficiency laws were Republican in origin!!
Here’s the Republican origin of cap-and-trade, the conservative darling who was actually a Democrat, Ronald Reagan:
The Reagan White House conceived the first cap-and-trade program to reduce pollution, used in the 1980s to phase out lead in gasoline at a lower cost. It was developed as a more flexible, market-based system to reduce environmental pollution compared to the so-called “command and control” model employed by environmental laws in the 1970s. The old system required each polluting facility to make a fixed reduction in air or water contamination, which ignored that some facilities could cut pollution more cheaply than others.
And, here’s the Republican origin of lightbulb efficiency:
Lately it seems that the House Republican leadership is against everything that isn’t pre-approved by Big Oil or the Tea Party. Perhaps the most outlandish example of this Groucho Marx approach to public policy is today’s vote on the BULB Act, H.R. 2417. It would repeal the energy efficiency standards for light bulbs established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, or EISA, P.L. 110-140. It would also prevent California from setting its own light bulb efficiency standards. The original author of the provision is House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (R-MI), who is now supporting the repeal of his own idea after conservatives attacked it along with other clean energy programs.
Herman Cain-Claimed that he didn’t say that American neighborhoods could ban mosques, when asked about it by Chris Wallace, who witnessed the statement being made by Cain in the first place.
Here’s Cain’s original statement:
He also claimed that “high fences and wide open doors” were what the country was founded on. He tried to claim that the United States has always been hesitant to allow immigrants into the country.
WRONG, LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!!!
Immigration into the United States was unlimited until the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Also, immigration from Latin-American countries went unrestricted until the last half of the 20th Century!!
Also, the amount of illegal immigrants crossing over into the United States has PLUMMETED in the last several years, but both Fox News anchors and Republican candidates and legislators are oblivious to that glaring fact.
5) Republicans are really desperate to win the 2012 Presidency, so much that they make it their initiative to flat-out lie about their own positions and Obama’s!!
Never in my whole life have I heard such flat-out lying about President Obama and from the candidates about their own positions. Also, I haven’t heard such flat-out self promotion, other than on QVC.
The talking points were supposed to not have occurred last night, but by the candidates bringing up Obama every other minute, it was business as usual in the Republican Party and Fox News, the third wing of the Republican Party.
It was two hours of how 8 people said that they would solve everything, and then get to office and not do any of it.
It would have saved me the trouble of watching it if I summed it up like this:
“An old fart, a Sarah Palin wannabe, two men no one knows, two Mormons, a pizza mogul, a stimulus-hugger, and a cheater walk onto a stage, in the middle of the Midwest, to talk for two hours, not offer any solutions to anything, promote themselves, and end the debate worse than it started, with no one knowing anything new.”
Yeah, that about sums it up!!
-Drew, Concerned American
Politifact's Ratings on Candidates Telling The Truth In Last Night's GOP Debate
PolitFact staffers are watching the Republican debate from Iowa. We’ll be updating this story throughout the night. When the candidates say something we’ve checked before, we’ll post links to the previous Truth-O-Meter items. Mitt Romney complained about the growth of government. “Back in the days of John F. Kennedy, the federal government took up, along with the state and local governments, 27 percent of the economy. Today, government consumes 37 percent of the economy. We’re inches away from no longer having a free economy,” he said. He made the same “inches away” claim in his announcement speech. We rated that Pants on Fire. Tim Pawlenty attacked Rep. Michele Bachmann’s record of accomplishments in Congress. “Look, she has done wonderful things in her life, absolutely wonderful things, but it is an undisputable fact that in congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent,” he said. We fact-checked a very similar claim when Pawlenty said her record was “offering failed amendments.” We rated that Mostly True. Bachmann replied by saying that Pawlenty had supported cap and trade when he was Minnesota governor. Indeed, we found that was true when we put his cap and trade position to the Flip-O-Meter. She also accused him of saying that “the era of small government is over.” We rated that Mostly True. Newt Gingrich likened his campaign’s problems to Ronald Reagan’s. PolitiFact Georgia checked that a few weeks ago and rated it Mostly False. Pawlenty attacked Romney saying that “ObamaCare” was patterned after “RomneyCare.” We rated that Mostly Truewhen it was said by Howard Dean and wepublished a quiz to see if you can tell the difference. Gingrich was asked about his position on military action against Libya. He claimed that was a “gotcha” question. We explored whether he flip-flopped and rated it Full Flop. Bachmann said raising the debt ceiling gave Obama a “blank check.” PolitiFact Virginia checked that when Eric Cantor said it about a debt ceiling plan from Harry Reid and found itFalse. You can follow us on Twitter at @politifact. While you’re at it, “like” us at our Facebook page and visit our home page, PolitiFact.com.
Truth meters on the 2012 GOP Presidential candidates.
This goes to show that ALL POLITICIANS LIE!!!
Source: politifact.com
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the GOP presidential race this morning, after having a dismal vote in the Ames Straw Poll yesterday.
His rival, Rep. Michele Bachmann, won the Ames Straw Poll and barely beat out Dr. Ron Paul.
Well, one down, Santorum, Gingrich, and Bachmann need to go!
Newt Gingrich blasts Washington D.C. elites at uber-elite Washington D.C. Heritage Foundation gathering.
Newt Gingrich: The gift that keeps on giving.
Have I mentioned that Newt lives in a multimillion-dollar home 20 minutes away from D.C., where he spent two decades as a member of Congress, one of the most elite bodies on Earth?
Again, the hypocrisy astounds me, but it doesn’t surprise me!
Five 2012 GOP Candidates Want To Eliminate The Capital Gains Tax, Giving The Rich A $1 Trillion Giveaway
The GOP is taking your money hostage again, or, rather, they want to!!!
Yesterday, 2012 GOP presidential long-shot Jon Huntsman unveiled an economic plan that, in addition to including standard conservative tropes about repealing the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, would eliminate the capital gains tax entirely. This proposal came just a week after Huntsman hinted that he may be open to raising the capital gains tax, which currently stands at 15 percent.
But Huntsman is far from alone in the GOP primary in proposing full elimination of the capital gains tax. In fact, five GOP presidential candidates have proposed the very same thing:
At least five Republican presidential candidates support eliminating taxes on capital gains, proposing even deeper cuts than former President George W. Bush endorsed and standing in contrast to advocates of higher investment tax rates such as Warren Buffett.
According to published reports or their websites, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former pizza executive Herman Cain and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have said they back getting rid of the capital gains tax, which now has a top rate of 15 percent for most assets held for more than a year.
Republicans have proven time and again that they really love tax cuts for the wealthy, but completely eliminating the capital gains tax is nothing but a pure handout to the ultra-rich. At the moment, the richest 0.1 percent of Americans pay 44 percent of the capital gains tax, and 68.3 percent of the tax is paid by the richest 1 percent. The bottom 95 percent of Americans pay just 10 percent of capitals gains taxes.
But the tax still brings in a substantial amount of revenue. Complete repeal, using data from the Congressional Budget Office, would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years. [See methodology below.]
As billionaire investor Warren Buffett wrote in an op-ed, “I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off.” Indeed, the conservative claim that lower capital gains rates leads to increased investment and job creations doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Perhaps that’s why conservative icon Ronald Reagan actually equalized the capital gains rate with the regular income rate, a fact that conservatives tend to forget.
Methodology: Projected capital gains receipts on a current policy baseline (which assumes that the Bush tax cuts expire and the tax goes from 15 percent to 20 percent) from the Congressional Budget Office are included in Table 4-3 here. The change in revenue from extending the 15 percent rate until 2021 is in Table Revenues—Option A-1 here. To calculate the cost of full repeal, we assumed that the 15 percent rate would be extended for 10 years.
The Republicans love their payouts to the rich!!! They are practically bosom buddies!!
Despicable!!!
-Drew, Concerned American
GOP DEBATE.
And, this is as interesting as the GOP Debate gets…basically bobbling bozos blaming Barack, offering nothing but nonsensical, nincompoop, nanny-state hating, non-new ideas…in two hours of non-entertainment that the citizens of America will never get back!!
A football game is more interesting than these blowhards struggling to become frontrunners, and bumbling around without a sense of reason.
Michele Bachmann wants the Department of Education to disappear…
Ron Paul wants FEMA to disappear…
Rick Perry wants Social Security and Medicare repealed…
Rick Santorum claims that same-sex marriage is like the difference between a napkin and a paper towel (which the only difference in the two types of towels is one is more absorbent)…
Newt Gingrich can’t keep his views straight, as nor can Mitt Romney…
Herman Cain has cheese on the brain, and alligators, and moats…
Put them all together, and you have…A REASON NOT TO VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2012!!!
-Drew, Concerned American
When Newt Gingrich talks about education reform, he even bores himself.
Who do you think won the GOP debate last night? -msnbc
So apparently 15% is more than half of 54%. Bar graph fail.
Gary Johnson FTW. C’mon people, stop eating up this media garbage!
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Christian apologetic/existentialist/progressive/interdenominationalist/freethinker/some agnosticism, library assistant, liberal blogger, Unite Blue member, DJ, respectful 2 all!
