“MACARTHURCARE” HAS NEW JERSEY HOUSE GOP RUNNING FOR COVER -- LITERALLY

[Trenton] — Efforts to revive the Trump administration’s attempt to cut off health care insurance coverage for 24 million Americans have New Jersey’s House Republicans running for cover -- literally.

Although the revised bill has allowed Rep. Tom MacArthur to attract the national spotlight, it has also sent him running from reporters. In fact, there were numerous accounts (here, here) of the third-term Congressman's cowardice.

MacArthur’s proposed legislation, which is designed to curry favor with the radical, conservative House Freedom Caucus, has largely been panned by policy experts for being worse than the previous bill. It would once again allow insurers to cover fewer benefits and charge older and sicker patients exorbitantly high premiums. And in a classic display of hypocrisy, the Republican's amendment carved out an exception for the Congress and its staff.

While MacArthur dodges accountability, Rep. Frelinghuysen is also scrambling to find ways to appease his leaders. News reports indicate that he was forced to apologize for his opposition to the flawed bill, and his perceived insubordination even prompted the Republican leadership to consider removing him from his committee chairmanship in retaliation.

“Put aside for a moment the widespread unpopularity of these hastily-crafted bills and the questionable political motives at work. New Jersey’s House Republicans are not only considering how to harm their constituents’ health while enriching corporations, but their biggest priority appears to be how to get away with it,” said John Currie, the Chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee. “At best, these guys have forgotten that they serve their constituents, not special interests. At worst, they are being compelled to do what is wrong for their communities for political reasons. Either way, it is disturbing, and it is reason enough to remove them from their elected offices.

Pallone to House Republicans: Don’t Shut Down the Department of Homeland Security

LONG BRANCH, NJ – Today, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) visited U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook to urge House Republicans to immediately pass clean legislation to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). With only 10 calendar days and four legislative days until DHS shuts down on February 28th, Pallone highlighted the critical resources at stake if the agency is not funded. Pallone was joined by Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and Atlantic Highlands Councilman Roy Dellosso.

“The department charged with ensuring that our country is safe is set to run out of funding in less than two weeks all because House Republicans insist on pandering to extremists in their own party,” said Congressman Pallone. “Keeping American families safe should be the first priority of Congress. With increased threats around the world and real impacts here at home, holding this funding hostage is the height of irresponsibility. This is not governing. House Republicans must stop with the partisan stunts and, instead, vote to continue funding DHS immediately.”

House Republicans insisted on attaching riders that would disallow enforcement of President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration to the legislation that would continue to fund DHS. The bill, with these extreme anti-immigrant measures attached, was unable to pass the U.S. Senate, and now House Republicans still refuse to pass a clean proposal. Last week, however, every House Democrat cosponsored clean legislation that will continue funding DHS.

On Monday, a United States District Court ruled against President Obama’s executive actions, and DHS has subsequently announced that it will temporarily suspend implementation of the executive orders until legal issues are resolved. Despite this delay, the GOP is still forcing a shutdown by refusing to bring a clean bill to the House floor.

“Local fishermen depend on the Coast Guard when they find themselves in emergency situations out on the water,” said Jim Donofrio. “And forcing these officials to work without pay will cause a distraction that is not needed when lives are at stake. We need to make sure that DHS is fully funded so that essential personnel are ready and available if needed.”

“We know that the effects of shutting down DHS will be felt here in our community and in communities across the country,” said Councilman Dellosso. “It is reckless to simply ignore the impacts that a potential shutdown will have on our residents and those that serve our community. Putting Americans’ safety at risk all for a partisan stunt is no way to run the government.”

If House Republicans refuse to vote on a clean DHS funding bill, approximately 30,000 employees, who perform critical tasks every day, would be furloughed under a GOP shutdown. Additionally, although tens of thousands of frontline security personnel would continue to work in the event of a shutdown, they would be forced to do so without pay. Among those expected to continue serving and protecting the American people without getting paid would be:

· More than 40,000 Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection Officers;

· More than 50,000 TSA aviation security screeners;

· More than 13,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement law enforcement agents and officers;

· More than 40,000 active duty Coast Guard military members;

· More than 4,000 Secret Service law enforcement agents and officers.


A potential GOP shutdown would also close down the bulk of DHS’s management activities and support of the homeland security infrastructure, built following the 9/11 terrorist attacks that continue to keep our country safe on a daily basis. A DHS shutdown would undermine our national security in the following ways:

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would have to close down its training activities with local law enforcement on possible Weapons of Mass Destruction events
• DHS’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, which helps coordinate the efforts of local law enforcement agencies across the country since 9/11 to detect and report dangerous nuclear materials, would stop operating.
• Research and development activities at DHS would come to a halt. These current R&D activities include working on enhancing passenger screening equipment, enhancing cargo screening technologies, improving nuclear detection equipment, and developing countermeasures to biological threats.
• All DHS and FEMA personnel working on state and local grants programs would be furloughed, further delaying essential state and local grants that help protect the homeland, improve local law enforcement, and keep our communities safe.

Pallone: GOP Bill Fails Women and Puts Their Health At Risk

Washington, DC –  Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) released the following statement on H.R. 1797, the Nationwide 20-Week Abortion Ban Bill passed by House Republicans today:

“The House Republicans’ decision to debate and vote on another extreme and dangerous bill that chips away at a woman’s constitutional right to choose is outrageous. Instead of debating and voting on bills to create jobs, the House GOP is pushing a measure to prevent women from controlling their own health and medical decisions. Even the provision added to address cases of rape and incest is so narrow that it would not be applicable to the majority of sexual assault cases.

“It is alarming how out of touch Republicans are on the issue of women’s health. A woman’s medical decisions should be private and made with input of doctors, not Republican politicians. I voted against this legislation, and I vow to continue to fight to protect women’s health in Congress.

President Obama's Weekly Address 7/28/12: The House of Representatives Must Act on Middle Class Tax Cut Extension

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to act on his proposal to protect middle class families and small businesses from being hit with a big tax hike next year. Everyone says they agree that we should extend the tax cuts for the middle class and the Senate already passed the President’s plan to prevent a typical family from seeing a tax increase of $2,200, but Republicans in Congress are holding these tax cuts hostage until we extend tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The President called on Congress to pass the middle class tax extension so that we can continue to grow the economy and create jobs the American people.

New York's 26th Not Alone; ALERT BASED ON A NEW NATIONAL SURVEY

Democracy Corps
Greenberg,Quinlan,Rosner Reasearch

Republican leaders and conservative pundits have spun Democrat Kathy Hochul’s upset win in New York’s 26th Congressional District as exceptional – with peculiar ballot lines, Tea Party independents, quality of the candidates, and Democratic message discipline. We concede: yard signs in Upstate New York did read “Save Medicare: Vote Hochul.” But our national poll completed on Wednesday shows that New York’s 26th is not alone. It is an advance indicator of a sharp pull back from Republicans, particularly those in the House.

Disapproval of the Republicans in the House of Representatives has surged from 46 percent in February to 55 percent in April to a striking 59 percent now. Disapproval outnumbers approval two-to-one; intense disapproval by three-to-one. For the first time in more than a year, the Democrats are clearly even in the named Congressional ballot – an 8-point swing from the election – and Obama has made a marked gain in his job approval and vote against Mitt Romney – with the President now leading by 4 points. This period captured the introduction of the Republican budget plan and vote by the House – and voters do not like what they see.

Perhaps most notably, this survey flags a major retreat from the Republican approach to deficits and spending, the economy, and jobs. As the Republicans have unveiled their plans and approach during this four-month debate on the deficit, priorities and the economy, they have pushed many voters away.

On Wednesday, Democracy Corps will release a major multi-study report on the economy and economic messaging, but we wanted to release these political findings before the holiday weekend.

The memo and frequency questionnaire can be found at:
Democracy Corps.

President Obama's Weekly Address 10/16/10: GOP Rewarding Corporations that Create Jobs Overseas

The President lays out his agenda to foster investment here at home. He vows to close the tax loopholes for sending jobs and profits overseas that Congressional Republicans have tried to protect.

President Obama's Weekly Address 9/25/10: Crossroads on the Economy

The President lays out the choice between his plan to keep our economy moving forward, and the agenda put out by Republicans in Congress taking us backward to the special interest economy that created this mess.

Paul Ryan's Plan to Tax You More

From Kevin Drum @ Mother Jones

Rep. Paul Ryan's tax and spending "roadmap" is a fascinating critter: conservatives all praise it to the skies but none of them want to actually commit to supporting it. The reason for their hesitation is obvious: Ryan's plan would cut spending dramatically, and supporting it would mean having to explain what, exactly, they'd cut. That would be electoral suicide and they know it. They much prefer their usual game of loudly denouncing "spending" without ever having to say what spending they're actually opposed to.

However, their reason for supporting Ryan's plan is also obvious: it would cut taxes on the rich dramatically, and there's nothing conservatives like better than cutting the tax bills of America's wealthy. But how much would it cut taxes on the rich? Citizens for Tax Justice has run the numbers and the answer is: a lot. The very richest of the rich would see their tax bills go down by an average of over $200,000, a whopping 15% of the income. Ka-ching! To make up for that, everyone with an income under $100,000 would have their taxes increased by about $2,000 per year.

It's a sweet deal for the rich. But even with all the tax increases on the middle class, Ryan's plan still raises less revenue than today's tax code. "It’s difficult to design a tax plan that will lose $2 trillion over a decade even while requiring 90 percent of taxpayers to pay more," says CTJ acerbically. "But Congressman Ryan has met that daunting challenge." Details are in the table below, where you can find out how much more you'd have to pay under Ryan's plan. Enjoy.

Colbert: The Audacity of Nope

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, assuming his best fake-conservative pundit persona, was wildly enthusiastic on Thursday about the Republican House members' unanimous refusal to vote for President Obama's stimulus program.

Declaring Today's Word to be "The Audacity of Nope," Colbert exclaimed, "We don't neet a package filled with handouts -- we need one filled with balls! And yesterday, 177 House Republicans put their nuts on the line and said, 'No! We will not vote for this bill that we know will pass anyway!'"




Read more about the Audacity of Nope from Raw Story >>> Here