Recently, I’ve been wondering if the upcoming Republican investigative regime may focus more on welfare queens driving Cadillacs and less on Whitewater/Lewisnky type things. The Times (via PoliticalWire):
Mr. Issa has already drawn up a list of big targets: $40 billion a year in fraud or waste in Medicare; tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to the government-controlled mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; $8.5 billion in losses by the Postal Service in the last fiscal year; tens of millions of dollars spent on redundant programs within federal agencies or squandered through corrupt contracting procedures.
Attacks on postal workers, special ed teachers, Medicare recipients, and mid-level (black) federal workers can easily be packaged for Fox/Drudge/Andy Alexander, and there is probably some political benefit for Republicans in generating an endless parade of these stories. But I still think they need to destroy Obama personally to maximize their chances in 2012. Maybe it’s wrong to see this as either/or, though.
The Dangerman
My bet is on Fannie and Freddie to prove that people bought homes that shouldn’t have (meaning, people that aren’t white).
Joseph Nobles
You don’t debut a new product in August, you don’t spit into the wind, and you don’t investigate a sitting president in an off-year.
Bnut
Black people bought homes they could not afford, black people had medical procedures they could not afford, black people have jobs we can’t afford. Am I missing something? If you add up all the money “wasted” by programs Issa will investigate, it will not add up to the amount given to a single contractor in Iraq/Afghanistan.
M. Furious
I think most of those “scandals” will do double duty in the hands of Drudge, Beck, Limbaugh, etc. They’ll easily hang them on Obama.
JAHILL10
If the people of this nation don’t have attention spans long enough to understand that health care reform actually benefits them do you honestly think they are going to read/understand/care about Medicare fraud stories?
suzanne
They’re not gonna pick on blacks. They’re gonna go for Latinos this time.
HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
It’s definitely not an either/or. After all, this is the same gang that has been perfecting guilt by association, regardless how flimsy the connection. See “paling around with terrorists” and “Rev. Wright” for details.
Yutsano
@suzanne: I don’t see that as an either/or proposition. I think they bet the farm and go after any dark skin regardless of ancestral origin. This could even possibly include Italians and Greeks.
Bernard
i don’t think Issa will just pick one minority to focus on. Issa will have a grab bag of goodies. take your pick, blacks, gays, latinos, women, Muslims especially i would think.
whatever makes good press will get special return event status.
it will be so chock full of goodies. Make Lewinsky a forgotten woman in medieval history.
i still don’t get the attacks on Latinos, so self immolating
suzanne
@Yutsano: As racist as they are, I don’t think they want to be that blatant about it. The advantage of going after Latinos is that they can pretend it’s about “making sure non-citizens who don’t pay taxes don’t get our benefits!”. Which is, of course, complete bullshit, as they’re more than happy to take benefits away from anyone, citizen or no. But this way, they can use the fragile/recovering economy as the excuse—don’t want those Mexicanz taking our JOBZ!
Snarki, child of Loki
They can start by looking at the “get a free scooter from Medicare!” thing (not that they will, unless tricked into it).
I hear that KY has had some sleazy Medicare providers, including one that was so dishonest that he set up his own “certification” organization to certify him. Investigate!
BGK
I hope Rep. Issa investigates why those stinking Latinos hate our patriotic American tomatoes so much.
asiangrrlMN
I’m worn down by all this nonsense. For those of you who have followed politics for decades, how do you cope with the crazy and the stupid?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Cuz you do get moments like what BGK linked to. Progress eventually does move, just not as fast or in the fashion we would prefer. But it does happen.
BGK
@asiangrrlMN:
Costco has coupons for Tanqueray this week. Duh.
Bernard
what really amazes me is the way these men, mostly, keep up the talking points. the script. how there is this accepted set of commandments, knowing them, they read from every morning noon and night to remind them just what exactly they can’t say and how they can say.
that i find the most amazing thing about Republicans. they are so fucking well rehearsed. they know their script/roles so well.
these are Actors, not some B type Ronnie Reagan, company spokesman out selling. These men are so polished and refined in their hatred. they have mastered the tone of destruction with a finesse only professional have.
just fucking amazing to listen and it’s so consistently the same.
absolutely amazing, like watching a TV show, but live with best.
now they are the best money can buy. they have been bought and we paid for it.
that’s the rub. lol
Nick
@asiangrrlMN:
you don’t expect much
Xecky Gilchrist
Wow! If he shuts down all that fraud, waste, and abuse, we could use the tens of billions to pay for an hour of the Iraq occupation.
Odie Hugh Manatee
They are going to destroy everything they can while trying to destroy Obama then blame the mess on Obama and the Democrats. We already know that about 40% of the people believe anything the repubs say so they only need another 11% to swallow their story.
We is fuckered.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@suzanne:
Yup. Nothing like the vision of swarthy brown people coming across the border to get conservatives clutching their gun and bibles while wetting themselves. Tried and true, works every time. It’s the Republican method for getting out the vote. Repubs know their constituents come pre-programmed and all they have to do is press the right combination of buttons to get what they want out of them.
Votes. Without uninformed rubes, the Repubs are nothing. Unfortunately we have an abundance of rubes. It’s one of the few things that we are still manufacturing.
The Dangerman
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
So, if non-Rubes promise to marry/breed with Rubes, they will die off.
Cliff
@asiangrrlMN:
Ummm… ummmm ..
Repeating “The Stupid!! It Burns!! The Stupid!! It Burns!!”, sometimes quite loudly, helps a tiny tiny bit…
edit: apparently triple ! points disappear when typed.
suzanne
@asiangrrlMN:
I read lots of FMLs and laugh my ass off. I’m not afraid to admit that schadenfreude improves the hell out of my mood.
Yutsano
@suzanne: The thought of being able to have a dry martini in less than a month don’t hurt. I asked my friend after she had her baby if she had her hubby’s habanero vodka bloody Mary right after her spawn came out, she said her first drink was a beer.
suzanne
@Yutsano: Damn straight. I want a drink in the worst way.
Yutsano
@suzanne: I should have clarified: this was her hubby’s homemade habanero vodka. I had a sip. It’ll knock you on your butt but the taste is fucking amazing.
daveinboca
Thought I’d drop in on fucktard central to hear the wailing and the whining and the gnashing of teeth in spermburper hell.
frosty
@asiangrrlMN: My approach in 1973 was to have the LA Times delivered (back when it was a decent paper), then carefully separate the sections, read the comics, and throw the rest away.
Once Watergate blew open, I read the whole thing front to back. Sadly, I don’t think that will be the case this time around. The Republican Party has purged everyone even remotely like Howard Baker, who asked of the Republican President “What did he know and when did he know it?”
My coping mechanism today remains the same as it was 37 years ago: bourbon and comic strips.
frosty +4
PPOG Penguin
@Xecky Gilchrist: Of course while spending those tens of billions to extend the Iraq occupation we would have to make sure they were not “squandered through corrupt contracting procedures” or otherwise handled in an irresponsible and unauditable way. Because Issa would totally jump on all that “fraud, waste and abuse.” You betcha.
mslarry
@suzanne:
Suck It Up!
@Yutsano:
nope. brown skin only.
bob h
“But I still think they need to destroy Obama personally to maximize their chances in 2012. ”
The Republicans must know that 140 million plus are going to vote in 2012, and there are just not enough angry, old white people to go around.
Nickws
@daveinboca:
Ffs sober up and get some help.
You can’t rely on posting obscene rants at a blog that doesn’t censor anyone to help get you through life.
I thought you people were supposed to have access to ‘faith based’ counsellors to help ease the pain and loneliness. That grand social experiment appears to not be working so well…
WereBear
Perhaps on some level. But that is sooooooooo not the level they operate on. And certainly not the level they live on.
David
They can’t even stand up to Sarah Palin. The Republicans ceded control of their party to the Teabaggers.
It’s called SARAHCIDE.
cmorenc
If Rep. Issa would focus his investigative energies on where the bona fide BIG-SCALE SYSTEMATIC fraud and abuse are – military contracting (especially for exotic weapons systems of questionable tactical or strategic value)…I’d be all for it.
aimai
@mslarry:
Wow. That wins this and every other thread ever.
aimai
El Cid
@Suck It Up!:
Back when the Southern European migrant hordes were arriving en masse in the US, especially the 1910s and 1920s, those screaming about their inferior Mediterranean blood polluting our great nation certainly saw them as brown people. And also Catholics, the evil Shari’a law terror baby Muslims of their day.
Then later they magically became white and the other even darkier people were still not.
aimai
Seriously, though, I think they’ll take whatever they can get. The Lewinsky Scandal started back with Whitewater and actually came up during depositions on other subjects (IIRC). If they can turn up any sex/reverend wright/bill ayres style stuff while doing other investigations they will.
Second of all merely finding Obama cheating on Michelle is both unlikely and unsatisfying since it remasculinizes a guy they’ve spent ages feminizing. I actually think they will go after Obama *by* going after Michelle–they consistently believe that people don’t like Michelle and are susceptible to charges that Michelle is some rich bitch. They won’t really want to do anything that creates sympathy for Michelle and the kids, or draws attention to Obama as a family man in a good way. I think they are far more likely to try to exploit what they see as America’s rightful anger at having a dark skinned first lady enjoying those prerogatives (like the attack on Obama for having a pastry chef as though he wouldn’t have been roundly attacked as a micromanaging corrupter if he had “fired Bush’s pastry chef and replaced him with someone else.” The travelgate style headlines write themselves.)
But again, they will take what they can get. I think in general they will try to exploit what they think is white/middle class/male and female resentment of the Obama’s as happilly married, good parents, working couple. Expect to see more stories about how unfair it is that the Obama’s enjoy a date night, or that Michelle wears expensive plastic jewlery, or that the children go on vacation with her while the real america is suffering.
aimai
El Cid
The Medicare corruption investigation is actually a brilliant choice, because whenever I talk to people I know about how cutting it would harm people, even people such as them, they tell me how they know that X% of the Medicare budget (whatever, 10, 20, 50) is simply wasted by giving money to illegal immigrants, or fraud by people pretending to be eligible to get it, or politicians giving special contracts out.
In other words, Medicare isn’t having a problem just because of rising health care costs (which again, is caused by all the illegals and the Democrats who want them to vote for them) or Democrats destroying the economy so no one can pay their taxes any more.
It’s having a problem because a good portion of its money is going to fraud & corruption and see if you just make sure to get rid of all that then there won’t be any problem at all.
It’s the general view on the whole government budget: we don’t lack money in the budget, we are just spending so much on unworthy brown people and the fraud that goes with it that all you have to do is get some tough types with gumption, especially including good strong blacks to take on their own people, to go after all the evil people sucking the money out.
And once you do that there will be plenty of money to do everything that Real America wants, they can lower the taxes, the jobs will come back because the deficit will go down, and so on and so forth.
Svensker
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Nuf said.
Svensker
@Suck It Up!:
My Greek-American uncle is the spitting image of Saddam Hussein.
Paris
All of the medicare/caid fraud investigations I’ve read about resulted in the prosecutions of doctors gaming the system. So we’ll see where that one goes.
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
I think you’re right, but if they do, it will be an utter disaster for them. Michelle is one of the most popular First Ladies ever, especially with all of those “soccer moms” who vote Republican unless you give them a good reason not to. And attacking Michelle would count as a good reason for them.
ricky
Well I am not sure anyone could be surprised. After all,
because of their propensity to attack, attack, attack, it was inevitable Republkicans would take aim at actual waste in federal programs. Is nothing sacred?
anothervoice
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-8-2007/money-for-nothing
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2852426&page=1
Darrell Issa called the loss of $12 billion dollars on pallets just a drop in the bucket and we shouldn’t worry about it.