US House Of Representatives

48th Anniversary Of Medicare: Time For Celebration, And Concern About Pension Issue Displayed By Detroit Fiscal Crisis!

Ronald 19 Comments

Medicare became law on July 30, 1965, 48 years ago, and America has never been the same!

Imagine America without this most significant Lyndon B. Johnson Great Society program, which gave the elderly, those over 65, peace of mind, knowing that they would be able to afford to survive, many on fixed incomes in retirement. without the fear of being unable to have medical treatments, including surgery that could prolong life! Nothing has been as important since the passage of Social Security under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1935!

My own mother had open heart surgery at age 80 in 1987, and lived another four years, due to Medicare, and the number of such situations are in the millions!

Yes, there is a budget crisis involving Medicare now, but that is not a reason to wish to do what Congressman Paul Ryan, head of the House Budget Committee, has proposed, to have a voucher system for future retirees, something that will assure poverty and lack of medical care, and shortening of life span. Such an idea is immoral!

The answer is to raise the percentage of tax paid on Medicare, as an essential to promote security for the senior citizens and prolonging the quality of life, as part of the responsibility of all of us for our parents and grandparents!

And not only should Medicare be protected, but also what has happened in Detroit, the threat of NOT paying pensions to senior citizens who have dedicated their lives to public service, because of a financial crisis, reminds us of the urgency of not only protecting those in Detroit, but ALL public workers who do their years of service, and should be guaranteed payment of their pensions until death, no matter what the cost!

Anything else on Medicare or pensions is unconscionable, immoral, unethical, and ultimately illegal!

This nation cannot afford to do anything else in meeting its obligations to the elderly, and if that requires higher taxation, so be it!

Time For Anthony Weiner To Withdraw From NYC Mayoral Race Immediately!

Ronald 5 Comments

Former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner was forced out of office in 2011 after a sexting scandal online, including photos of his private parts. Many thought that was the end of his political career, if for nothing else than stupidity, and disloyalty to his new wife, who was pregnant at the time.

Weiner apologized profusely to his wife, and said he was going to get professional help to overcome his behavior.

Then, suddenly, he decided to enter the NYC Mayoral race this year, claiming he had been reformed, and that he wanted to serve the city, and his ratings in polls soared, due partially to people knowing who he was, and many wanting to give him another chance, due to the belief in redemption. He was even ahead in some polls for the NYC Democratic primary.

But now, news has emerged of continued sexting and sending of nude pictures of his private parts, and extremely racy language used by Weiner, and NOT from before his resignation from Congress, but occurring in 2012, a year AFTER his resignation, after so called psychological help was sought, and his wife and he had their son!

So, in other words, nothing has changed, as Weiner is unable to control his impulses, has been disloyal to his wife again, overlooked his responsibilities to his son, and is a true embarrassment to himself and the city he claims to want to govern responsibly!

How in the world can Weiner be a legitimate, credible Mayor if he cannot control his impulses, even after resignation and humiliation two years ago?

This man is sick, and needs real, substantial help, as his behavior is self destructive, and we cannot be confident that he would not get involved in similar sexting or other sex scandals as Mayor of the largest city in America, often called the second toughest job in America, after the Presidency!

It is time for Anthony Weiner to back out of the race for NYC Mayor, and get the help he needs, and try to save his marriage and the stability his son needs! He would be a disgrace to NYC as Mayor, no matter what his capabilities!

And if he does not withdraw, the intelligent people of the Democratic Party in NYC need to send him the message of repudiation, which will finally send him to private life, where he belongs permanently!

Bob Dole Reaches 90: A Senator To Celebrate And To Honor As Republican Model!

Ronald 14 Comments

Former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, who served in the House of Representatives from 1961-1969, the US Senate from 1969-1996, and was the Vice Presidential running mate of Gerald Ford in 1976, and the Presidential nominee of his party in 1996, turned 90 years of age today.

Bob Dole also served as Republican National Chairman during the Watergate era, and was often criticized as too partisan for Richard Nixon, too loyal to the man as a freshman Senator. He also could give as good as he got in partisan wrangles throughout his service in the Senate, which included terms as Senate Majority Leader and Senate Minority Leader, and gave Bill Clinton plenty of headaches in his first Presidential term, before running against him for President in 1996.

There were times when Dole’s aggressiveness, outspokenness, and sharp tongue annoyed this author, but yet, there has always been a sense of respect and admiration for his willingness to defend his viewpoints and beliefs without any retreat!

Dole always came across as one, who despite his strong views, could work across the aisle when required, and is shocked at the growing influence of the Tea Party Movement, which has denounced him as a turncoat, a traditional conservative, who they have no problem in criticizing and condemning.

So his own party in the Senate has seen too many who show lack of respect and appreciation of the role he played in the Senate and his party for over 30 years.

Here is a man who could work on nutrition matters with fellow Democratic Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee, who was vastly different in views, but the two men worked together on a common cause which no Republican today would dare even consider or care about, because that would show concern for the poor among us!

Bob Dole gave up part of his body in World War II, having no use of one arm for the rest of his life, and was not only a war hero, but also has been a hero to all those who believe in decency, compassion, principle, and patriotism!

He and Gerald Ford become the second Presidential campaign team to have reached the age of 90, following George McGovern and Sargent Shriver, who did so earlier. So the losing side in 1972 and 1976 prove that longevity of life is becoming another trend that is very much to be applauded, whether among the political class or in society!

So Happy 90th Birthday, Bob Dole, and many more alongside your wife, former Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina!

Senator Rand Paul, Confederate Sympathies, And Racial Insensitivities

Ronald 19 Comments

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul is making clear his desire to be the GOP Presidential nominee in 2016, and this was known even before he won the Senate seat in 2010 over the opposition of fellow Kentuckian, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Following in the footsteps of his father, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who gained the backing of naive college students when he ran for President in 2008 and 2012, Paul hopes to mine the support of Tea Party activists and libertarians to overcome the business establishment, the Neoconservatives who wish military intervention overseas all of the time, and mainline Republicans who see Paul as an alarm bell for the future of the Republican Party.

Rand Paul, meanwhile, has demonstrated again and again of his sympathies with Confederate types who still fight the Civil War, and has shown lack of sensitivity about racism.

Paul has kept on his Senate staff an individual who goes around in Confederate uniform and mask, a person by the name of Jack Hunter. And Paul has expressed in the past his view of his doubts about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And he comes across as naive about the outside world, and his libertarian views, while appealing to naive people, has never worked, and will never occur in reality!

Face the facts: Rand Paul is a lunatic, a weirdo with no qualifications, no message of significance, and with troubling connections to racism (which his father has also shown in his political career), and the odds of his being the GOP nominee against all of the other Republican factions is less than zero!

Were he, somehow, to win the nomination, which would require a miracle, it would lead to the total destruction of the Republican Party, worse than Barry Goldwater in 1964 or Alf Landon in 1936, both men of intelligence, which Rand Paul is not!

And imagine Paul against Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. She would walk all over him in a debate, and would join Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt in a massive win over their Republican opponents!

Strong Reaction Against Liz Cheney Bid For Wyoming Senate Seat

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Dick Cheney has become the most controversial, outspoken Vice President in American history, and his daughter, Fox News commentator Liz Cheney, is adding to that Cheney family image by her announced run for a Senate seat in the smallest populated state in America, Wyoming.

Liz Cheney, who has been a Virginia resident for years, but recently moved back to Wyoming, is seen by many there as a “carpetbagger”, who has moved back where she grew up only with the expressly clear cut reason to continue the Cheney tradition in American politics, knowing full well that she could not win a Virginia Senate seat, in strong hands with Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

She is challenging a sitting Republican Senator, Mike Enzi, who has been a loyal conservative Republican in his voting, but is not as outspoken as other conservatives. Enzi, however, has had the “gall” to work occasionally with some fellow Senate Democrats on some legislation, and that makes him somehow regarded as not loyal enough to the conservative tradition.

Liz Cheney is ridiculing Enzi’s age of 69, while her father is older, and would not be alive without a heart transplant, which could have gone to a much younger person, rather than the 72 year old Cheney, but Cheney and his family have long felt entitled to whatever they want, and to speak their mind, no matter how divisive it might be!

Liz Cheney takes the view of her father, a no holds barred, confrontational, refusal to cooperate or compromise with the Obama Administration on ANYTHING! Just simply go on the attack and take no prisoners is the approach to what Liz Cheney wishes to do in the Senate, and if others are hurt in the process, so be it!

So we have seen former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson; the other Wyoming Senator, John Barrasso; Wyoming’s only Congresswoman, Cynthia Lummis; Kansas Senator Jerry Moran; and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, all condemn the entry of Liz Cheney as bad for the Republican Party in Wyoming.

Moran and particularly, Paul, are Tea Party types, and it is clear that what Liz Cheney is doing is making bare the massive split in the Republican Party, not only in Wyoming, but nationally, as this is not just a personal battle for the Cheney family against the Republican Party in that state, but an example of the struggle between the neoconservatives who took America into two massive wars that we have not won, and the Rand Paul wing of the party that wants America out of foreign interventions. So Liz Cheney is declaring war on Rand Paul, and wishes, as her father does, to take away any strength he might have to win the GOP Presidential nomination in 2016 or beyond!

It is very clear that Liz Cheney has greater ambitions, and IF she wins the Senate seat in Wyoming in 2014, do not be surprised if she comes out of the gate as a quickly announced Presidential candidate, who would be supported by the neoconservatives who want us to intervene in Iran and Syria and Egypt, and have no problem with the use of military force all over the world, with the budget issue being unimportant!

And we can be sure that Liz Cheney would continue to back the “Birther” myth about Barack Obama, and continue to infer that Obama is a secret Muslim who is against what is good for America. She has no ethics or scruples, as she intends to be a dominant figure in the Republican Party future, and does not care to make friends among Democrats, and really has little regard for fellow Republicans of any stripe!

That is why the first goal must be the defeat of Liz Cheney’s grandiose ambitions in the Wyoming Republican Senate primary, but by causing a massive rift and split, it would be wonderful if the Democrats could win that seat, and hold it for a generation, as moderate Democrat Gale McGee did from 1959-1977.

The Imploding Of The Republican Party, As Factions Develop Around John Boehner And Mitch McConnell!

Ronald 5 Comments

The nation is witnessing the implosion of the Republican Party, as their leaders in Congress, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, are being ripped apart by factional division in both houses!

When the Republican leadership in both houses of Congress is being torn apart by ideological and personal rivalries, that is a sign of the GOP falling apart, and indicates there could be an internal rebellion that forces both out of leadership roles in the present Congress, an unheard of idea historically!

In the House, the key battle has been over immigration reform, and in the Senate, it has been over filibuster reform.

In the House, the key opposition has been the Tea Party loonies, but in the Senate, it is the mainstream conservatives, who are “comparative moderates”, as somewhat rational and reasonable on the issue of avoiding changes in filibuster rules, by allowing President Obama his choice as the administrators of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Secretary of Labor. So it is John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Bob Corker, and Susan Collins who saw the virtues of some compromise arranged to avoid a permanent change in the filibuster rules.

There is no respect, no diplomacy, no tact any more in the Republican caucus in either house, and it is a danger sign that the party may be unable to overcome their internal divisions and operate as a responsible political party for the long term future!

Centennial Of Gerald Ford’s Birth: A Time To Honor Our 38th President!

Ronald 3 Comments

Today is the centennial of President Gerald Ford’s birth, and a moment to celebrate and honor our 38th President.

Gerald Ford will never go down as a great, near great, or above average President, being ranked right in the middle of our 43 Presidents, but he made a vast difference to our nation.

Gerald Ford demonstrated decency, humanity, courage, conviction, and decisiveness when such attributes were needed.

Gerald Ford became President by accident, having had no desire or ambition to be President, but steadying the ship of state after the Watergate Scandal led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Thank goodness the nation had found out about the corruption and venality of Vice President Spiro Agnew, forcing his resignation, and the implementation of the 25th Amendment, just passed and ratified six years earlier.

Nixon picked Ford as Agnew’s successor due to his popularity with both his Republican colleagues and the respect and high regard that he was held in by the opposition Democrats, who controlled both houses of Congress.

Ford had served 25 years in the House of Representatives from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and had been the Republican leader in the House for nearly nine years, when he was tapped for the Vice Presidency.

Ford had always had the ambition to become Speaker of the House one day, if only the Republicans were to gain control of the House, which they did not do for 40 years from 1955-1995.

Ford had to “walk on eggs” for the eight months of his Vice Presidency, being there to help Nixon but not be too closely associated with him, and he acted totally in an appropriate manner.

Gerald Ford was a likeable “regular guy”, and graced us with his First Lady, Betty Ford, a truly elegant woman who dignified and added to the role of First Ladies during her two years and five months as a woman of principle, courage, and openness not typical of most earlier First Ladies.

Gerald Ford served only two years, five months and eleven days, a total of 895 days in the Oval Office, the fifth shortest duration of any occupant in the Presidency, with shorter terms of Warren G. Harding, Zachary Taylor, James Garfield, and William Henry Harrison.

Ford faced tough challenges with the decision to pardon Richard Nixon; The Mayaguez Affair with Cambodia; the difficult Recession of 1974-1975, the worst since the Great Depression; the challenge for the 1976 Republican Presidential nomination by former Governor Ronald Reagan; and the difficult election campaign against former Governor Jimmy Carter.

Ford also faced the unbelievable threat of two assassination attempts within seventeen days in September 1975, fortunately ducking bullets twice in an heroic manner.

Ford stood out as a moderate conservative who always could work across the aisle with his rivals, the Democrats, something that would not be admired today by the Tea Party Movement element which has damaged the heritage, tradition and future of the Republican Party.

If Gerald Ford were here today, he would be shocked at the social conservatism of the religious Right and the venal attacks on Barack Obama by conservative ideologues, and would probably not be accepted in the GOP of 2013 as legitimate!

Gerald Ford outlived Ronald Reagan by six weeks, and remains, as of now, our longest lived President, and it is appropriate to wish him a happy 100th birthday!

And I am thrilled to announce that later this week, I will be visiting the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with my younger son, and am thrilled that the timing is such as to coincide with the Centennial of Gerald Ford’s birth! I am looking forward to learning more about the historical contributions of our 38th President, who deserves our respect and thanks!

The Kennedy Half Century Began 53 Years Ago Today!

Ronald 2 Comments

On this day in 1960, John F. Kennedy was nominated for President by the Democratic Party at their national convention in Los Angeles. He went on to a very tight and much debated close victory over Richard Nixon, including widely accepted accusations that his election was fixed in Chicago by Mayor Richard J. Daley!

Kennedy’s impact on the nation was massive, and made greater by the fact that he was assassinated, and even though we learned about his controversial sex life in the White House, and he has faced growing criticism on his policies and actions in office as the years have gone by, it is still a reality that he is adored by vast numbers of the American people, and made out to be an icon!

His brother, Robert Kennedy, was also martyred after a controversial career as Attorney General under his brother, a short Senate career, and his assassination while seeking the Presidency in 1968 to finish the work of his brother.

And then, there was Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother, who was first seen as a lightweight in the Senate, had the scandalous Chappaquiddick incident in which a woman died in his car as it was being driven by a drunk Kennedy, and was totally defeated in his later attempt to take the 1980 Presidential nomination of his party away from President Jimmy Carter.

But Kennedy went on to a distinguished, record setting career of 47 and a half years in the Senate, honored as the “Lion” of the Senate, and regarded as one of the greatest Senate giants in its more than two century history as an institution.

And then there was Joseph Kennedy II, son of Robert Kennedy, who served in the US House of Representatives from Massachusetts for 12 years; Patrick Kennedy, son of Ted, who served in the House from Rhode Island for 16 years; and now Joseph Kennedy III, grandson of Robert Kennedy and son of former Congressman Joe, who serves in the House of Representatives from Massachusetts since the beginning of this year.

And there have been other Kennedys or Kennedy relatives who have been in public office, including Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of Robert Kennedy, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland; and JFK brother in law Sargant Shriver, who headed the Peace Corps, the War On Poverty, and was Ambassador to France.

So the Kennedy half century of influence is marked today by the JFK nomination for President in 1960, and it continues in politics and in history!

Republicans In Congress Reach A New Low With Elimination Of Food Stamp Program In House Vote!

Ronald 6 Comments

So now the Republican Party in Congress, specifically in the US House Of Representatives, have decided that the Food Stamp Program should be eliminated. They have decided that basic needs for food and nutrition among the poor and the disadvantaged are not something government should be engaged in! They have decided that children, the elderly, veterans, the disabled should shift for themselves, if they happen to be disadvantaged! They think it is God’s will that all fetuses be born, but once here, it is not the job of government even to make sure people have adequate food and nutrition!

What could be lower than this vote, with only 12 Republicans having the decency to vote with all of the Democrats in the House of Representatives against legislation that has zero chance of being reconciled with the Senate bill in conference committee?

What kind of message do Republicans feel is being sent by their vote? Does it indicate that the party has any concern for anyone who is not wealthy and powerful? What is wrong with their heads and their hearts? How indecent can any group that calls themselves “legislators” become? The GOP should hang its head in shame, and Speaker John Boehner should denounce his own caucus and announce his resignation, as he will not be party to the total destruction of the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, and Reagan!

The few moderates that remain in the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives and those reasonable, sane members of the party in the Senate, and those Republicans in the states who realize what the Tea Party lunatics have done, need to stand up now, and demonstrate their principles and renounce what has happened, and that they are ready to form a new political party based on the respectable Republican Party of the past.

This is a new civil war for the future of American democracy, against the power of the religious Right and the extremists, who hate immigrants, minorities, women, labor, and the middle class that they have helped to decimate in the name of a false patriotism!

Conservative Split On Immigration Reform: Real Victims Are The Children Of Undocumented Immigrants!

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The National Review and the Weekly Standard have come out against the Senate immigration reform bill, while The Wall Street Journal, representing the business community, has come out for it.

George W. Bush has endorsed the immigration bill, along with 14 Senate Republicans, including cosponsors John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Jeff Flake, but the other 32 Senate Republicans and a vast majority of House Republicans, including the Tea Party extremists, have made clear their opposition.

It now seems likely that the immigration bill will never come up for a vote in the House, unless Speaker John Boehner decides to risk his Speakership, and allow a vote, whereby a minority of House Republicans join the vast majority of Democrats in passing it.

The implications for those who supported the legislation in the Republican Party will be massive, as it will harm Marco Rubio particularly, and embolden his rivals for the GOP Presidential nomination, particularly Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

It will also leave the GOP divided on an issue that will affect the political future of the nation, and add to the political chasm that exists between the two major parties.

And meanwhile, the children of those who came illegally, the theoretical DREAM ACT kids, will be denied what other children have, an equal chance for success in America. That is the real tragedy of this situation, the future generation being pushed aside as inferior to other kids! Very sad indeed!