Buying congress people isn't paying off for Big Business.
It turns out that Republican obstructionism is quite costly for big business. A new report from the Huffington Post found that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce isn't getting much return for the $69.5 million dollars they invested in Republican candidates in the last two elections. In fact, Republicans have blocked many of the measures that the Chamber supports, and supported many efforts that the Chamber opposed.
According to Huffington, the Chamber of Commerce is urging Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform and provide funding for infrastructure improvements, but Republicans refuse to allow either effort to move forward. The Chamber also pushed lawmakers to oppose Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the President's nominees for the NLRB and the CFPB, yet Republicans have gone along with nominations, and stand little chance of repealing healthcare or Wall Street reform. The Chamber of Commerce just isn't getting much for their money.
Hard-right conservative lawmakers aren't only creating problems for their party, and for our nation – they are failing to do the bidding of their corporate masters. In the past two election cycles, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce helped get 22 House Republicans and 10 Senate Republicans elected. However, 19 of those House members and six of those Senators aren't living up to the Chamber's expectations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not announced yet how much they will be spending in the 2014 election, but many Republicans may find themselves off of the big business donation list. Hard-right lawmakers still have Big Oil and the Koch Brothers to fall back on, but who knows, maybe Republicans will manage to tick off those campaign contributors as well.
Comments
"A new report from the Huffington Post found that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce isn't getting much return for the $69.5 million dollars they invested in Republican candidates in the last two elections."
You know you don't have to say "dollars" if you've already used the "$" sign, right?
How about we just kick the bucket over, get rid of these do-nothing jerks, and start gettin' people in these to get something DONE. The next time I vote, I'll be ticking-off GOPs' is fast as I can, and I pray that the rest of the country follows suit. Nothing would please me more than to see a whole bunch of these losers out of work!!! I think that the country has had/seen enough of these do-nothing politics.
Its hard to tell exactly what makes these politicians tick. One might conclude that they are simply flexing their muscle in order to generate a bidding war of bribery. By now they probably realize that any hope for reelection is tanked and simply want to leave office with their pockets stuffed as much as possible. There is little other rhyme to their reason other than ensuring that the impotent Democrats pay at the poles as well. Frankly, I'm sure they will both pay dearly there.
If these politicians were Doctors in an emergency ward acting the way they do in congress one could conclude that they were intentionally wasting time while their patient bled to death. Of course here the patient would be a metaphor for the American people. Shame we can't sue our politicians for malpractice. If we could, maybe they would take their job and responsibility a little more seriously.
On a side note, I was in Mexico some time ago and it came to my attention that you are expected to pay to use a public toilet down there. When you pay, the toilet attendant portions off so many squares of toilet paper for you to use. Toilet paper being rationed may seem a bit stingy; however, since most of the time I had diarrhea the few squares sanctioned did the trick.
Why do I bring this up? Because, I find it strange that in a country that has to sanction toilet paper and charge to use toilets that they still manage to provide free healthcare to all their citizens and visitors. What am I missing? Why don't we have national healthcare in this country? It would appear that our toilet is more important than our health? Yet, somehow, we wonder why all our other priorities are all out of whack. Maybe we should take a simple lesson from a third world country. Charge the healthy for healthy conditions and provide for the unhealthy with public care. Seems most logical to me.
Yes, the Republican party is struggling to get back on top, and yes they are playing dirty, but remember that both parties are being used as tools by the ruling elite and the ruling elite will play them both to achieve their goals. The ruling elite will use the Republicans, when they can manage to get them into power, but when the masses start thinking revolution, the ruling elite back the Democrats because the Democrats are used as panderers of false hope. They know that if they feed the ticked off people a little hope, which tends to defuse or take the pressure off of the idea of revolution, then they can sneak whatever they want later when the people's ire has subsided. It ends up making the Democrats look bad...because they are bad...they are fake people's representatives because they represent only the wealthy ruling elite. Their hope is to dishearten Democrats so that they either vote Republican or don't vote at all. What they don't want is for masses of people to vote third party. That would really upset the corrupt little game they have rigged.
DAnneMarc: I think that a possible reason why they try to "ration" toilet paper is not so much because of a shortage of toilet paper but rather has more to do with clogged pipes. The sewer pipes in Mexico are not very substantial...they clog very easily. I had often seen baskets along side the toilets that were full of used toilet paper...as the practice is to use the basket instead of risking clogging the sewer pipes. And sometimes if a basket wasn't there...they'd throw the used paper on the floor behind the toilet. In some countries, the bidet is popular (I stayed in a hotel in Rio De Janeiro where they had a bidet right next to the toilet), and in Saudi Arabia, they just use a hose. And actually, those are way more sanitary ways of getting the job done than using toilet paper anyway. And it is really way more "green" than killing all those trees so people can wipe their butts.
http://www.booktv.org/Program/14839/quotRise+of+the+Warrior+Cop+The+Militarization+of+Americas+Police+Forcesquot.aspx
"Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces"
Radley Balko talks about the militarization of the police in the United States, including the expanded use of SWAT teams to deal with low-level crimes. Mr. Balko argues that today police officers have become conditioned to seeing American citizens as the enemy. Mark Lomax, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, provides commentary. This event, held on Capitol Hill, was hosted by the Cato Institute.
Radley Balko
Radley Balko is a senior writer for Huffington Post and a former senior editor at Reason magazine. He was named Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club in 2011. He tweets at: @RadleyBalko.
This shows the danger of the present system of government (I don't call it a represational republic or a democracy any more) is going away from the protection of its citizens to considering thke citizens to be "others", similare to the "gooks" of Viet Nam, the "chkinks" of Korea, the "krauts" of WWII and the "terrorists" of today. The $1.3B some congressment are wanting to take away from Egypt under the preeent circukmstances are actually manufactkuring operations in PA, OH and a lot of other states. They'll probably build the tanks and "lend-lease" thkem to police departments in the US so their won't be any savings to the removal of the money from Egykpt, just arming the american "gestapo" with the arems.
Palindromedary ~ Your point further supports my argument. If the sewer system in Mexico is sub-par, then their Government run health care system shines in even starker contrast with our inability to provide health care for our citizens. Thanks for that tidbit.
bobcox ~ You raise a good point. Recently a disturbed father pointed a loaded gun in an infant's mouth in order to make a point during a domestic disturbance. He soon realized that threatening to kill his child was not going to score points with his wife so he put the gun away and left. She called the police and reported the incident. The man fled to a friends apartment in a building where people I know live. For some reason SWAT was called out and circled the apartment building with military style vehicles. Without warning, and without reason, the police broke the grids on the crawl space of the building and lobbed gas grenades under the house. They threw flash grenades into all the first story apartments almost killing an infant in one apartment. The suspect who was in a second story apartment came out and gave himself up. The incident--that could have ended with a knock on the door--was finally over. In the wake, six apartments had to be evacuated. Luckily, no one was hurt. However, everything in the apartments was destroyed. All the clothing was permanently infused with the chemicals from the gas grenades and had to be discarded. The building needed to be evacuated for a month while the chemical saturation and damage was repaired. The city--we taxpayers--got stuck with the bill--the cost of the repairs as well as the cost of housing six displaced families for a month.
Militarization of the police is unnecessary, irresponsible, expensive, stupid and dangerous.
DAnneMarc: I agree, your point was well taken! I think I could put up with bad sewers if I didn't have to worry so much about a criminal system that tells you to go home, take 2 aspirins, and then charges you hundreds, or thousands of dollars, and then you die anyway because they misdiagnosed your condition..sticking your loved ones with the exorbitant bills. I could possibly even live with the fear of a stray bullet from some drug lords in Mexico but not so of the drug lords that trade, and rig the game, on the NYSE in AmeriKa. Seig Heil! Many of us don't trust the system anymore...we cannot have confidence that those who we once believed would save us in the event that we got deathly ill or involved in a life-threatening accident. All we know is that we'll either starve or we'll die from some careless mistake from some idiot doctor puppets of the profit driven death panels of insurance companies.
DAnneMarc: Wow! That sounds like what they did in Philadelphia back in 1985 when the police wiped out a whole row of row houses trying to get the MOVE members. It also sounds like what they did to Chris Dorner. They used incendiary flash grenades and burned everyone to a crisp. We need to hold these Mall Kops and their supervisors all the way up the ladder to the Mayor accountable. Prosecute these people for murder if that's what it amounted to. Militarization of our local police forces is insane...none of us are safe! If it's not drive by gang members...it's militarized local police.
Even if the police had not wanted to execute Dorner for killing police, the last thing they and our government wanted, was Dorner testifying in court about what he saw the police doing to black people, so they had two non-negotiable reasons for wanting to execute him.
I don't know whether he was telling me the truth (because he's an alcoholic and drug user and has some strange values...), but a Mexican guy I know, told me that Mexico does not have free health care for the poor or middle classes, unless you go to an emergency room in which case they have to treat you.
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Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
Let us hope the Chamber does not use their money to support blue dogs.