Fractious Facts

As the President and the new Congress prepared to do battle, it seems that each side is simply digging in their/his heels, pretty much leading to nothing more than political showmanship, primarily between extreme edges of both parties. Stroke and counterstroke. Passing legislation and veto. The Democratic cry of “income inequality” with an under-regulated, under-taxed mega-wealthy class at the top… is now also the new GOP platform with a solution of reducing taxes and regulations as the solution. Huh? Spend money on healthcare and education vs. don’t spend money on healthcare and education. Trickle down/ supply-side economics, which has not worked since it was put forth in the Reagan era vs. an untested direct financial intervention in healthcare and education. Can two profoundly opposite philosophies remotely result in helping depolarize our economic future? Pretty obviously not.

So Congress and the President are picking their positions, not out of sense of what can be done realistically, but simply in staking positions and in making the other side look bad in anticipation of the 2016 elections. Hell of a way to run a country! Let’s look at some of the fun facts that are generating along the way.

Last November, “The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released its report on the Benghazi attacks and concluded there were issues with Obama administration talking points on the attacks, but overall ‘no evidence of an intelligence failure’ and no one in the CIA was ordered to stand down… The report concludes a two-year investigation from the committee, and says the CIA did not turn down any requests for increased security and they ‘received all military support that was available.’” Mediate.com, November 21^st.

Not good enough for the diehard Tea Party faction; they needed a clear finding of fault against then-Secretary of State and probable future Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. Solution? Beat a dead horse, mount a new Congressional investigation in which Democrats will be marginalized and start over again. The House Select Committee on Benghazi held its first hearing on January 27^th. It seems that they will push until they can “clearly” lay blame on Hillary Clinton.

The Affordable Care Act is still in the Tea Party-driven GOP’s crosshairs, and there are many in Congress who will not rest until every word of that statute is repealed, leaving approximately 9+ million people without healthcare insurance. Claiming that the “job creators” (those at the top of the economic ladder) cannot afford that statute’s mandate to cover employees, and that the government shouldn’t have to pay a dime in the effort (unlike Medicare????), they probably weren’t happy when late this January the Congressional Budget Office revised the expected charge to the federal budget (for the period 2015-2024) downwards by $68 billion from its April 2014 estimates. And, of course, those numbers do not include the costs that the public bears when the uninsured visit emergency rooms for their de facto “free” primary healthcare.

That priorities are very different, seemingly very traditional “white” rural, in Congress these days can be seen in “little things.” Tea Party stalwart, “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee this month and announced the members of the six subcommittees [in late January]. With Grassley’s announcement, the subcommittee formerly known as the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights suddenly became the Subcommittee on the Constitution…The new chairman of the newly named subcommittee is Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). His office confirmed that it made the switch.” Huffington Post, January 23^rd. Little things. Like Civil Rights and Human Rights.

The legislative battles within the GOP itself have forced the overall vectors in favor of the ultra-right wing Evangelical Tea Party faction, but there has been a pushback by moderate Republicans who fear veering so far to the right as to kill any prospects to win the presidency in 2016. So the dysfunctional GOP has taken to blaming the weather for their inaction. “Another week, another piece of legislation that was expected to pass easily is pulled from the House floor schedule by Republican leaders… In this case, it was a new border security bill set for a vote on [January 27^th] that the party decided to delay, saying that the snowstorm snarling travel in the Northeast would make it difficult to survey members for their opinions in time.

“The action came after Republicans last week had to abandon an anti-abortion bill because of last-minute objections by some of the party’s women and moderates. The border bill was lower profile, but it had its Republican detractors. They feared the measure would allow Republicans to back down in the immigration fight with President Obama by saying they had taken steps to secure the border.

“‘Advancing any immigration measure, even border security, before reining in this lawless president is putting the cart before the horse,’ said Michael A. Needham, chief executive of the group Heritage Action… The bill’s supporters say the extra time will allow them to sell the measure to skeptical Republicans.” New York Times, January 27^th. Global warming and creationism anybody? There’s still time! Keystone! And they’re side-stepping gay marriage now that the Supreme Court has accepted that political football.

Why am I not talking about all those new pieces of legislation proposed by Democrats? Really, and what would those be, and exactly how would the Dems get anything through the GOP-controlled committees, much less through the GOP-controlled House and Senate? I can’t talk about what doesn’t exist.

Based on all these factious facts, when you think of the expected spending on those 2016 elections, media outlets have to be drooling. Ad sales will skyrocket for everybody, and political ads will make some folks richer. To make that drool wetter and drippingly-longer, there is a third force that expects to spend as much as each of the Republicans and Democrats will probably spend in 2016… if not more. “The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history.

“The spending goal, revealed [January 26^th] at the Kochs’ annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, Calif., would allow their political organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican Parties. It would require a significant financial commitment from the Kochs and roughly 300 other donors they have recruited over the years, and covers both the presidential and congressional races. In the last presidential election, the Republican National Committee and the party’s two congressional campaign committees spent a total of $657 million.” New York Times, January 27^th. Good to know that Democracy is alive and well for those who can afford it.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you ever want clear lessons in how to destroy what was once the greatest democracy on earth, read the news every day!