God, I love the new Republican majority:
Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.
Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.
I’m waiting for the “Kick an Orphan and Beat a Puppy Act of 2011,” which no doubt is in the works.
Hunter Gathers
They really are this stupid, aren’t they?
D. Mason
Oh, no sir! That will be the “Kick an Orphan and Beat a Puppy Act of 2012”. They wouldn’t let such a gem out in a non-election year.
Joseph Nobles
Rand Paul’s budget proposals was just a bundle of joy to read through as well. The only department not facing serious cuts (if not outright eliminated like HUD and DOE) was Defense (which Rand trimmed only by 6%). In fact, several departments lost great chunks of their authority to the Defense Department. What could go wrong?
Oddly enough, the Labor Department also didn’t really get much of an ax, despite Rand’s disparaging of it. Perhaps he has a nice “Labor Creates Freedom” initiative to announce in the near future.
Lee
I cannot wait to tell my father-in-law the good news.
He gets VA benefits (as well as SS) and is an avid teatard. Yes I point out the hypocrisy to him constantly.
salacious crumb
one has to wonder what Michele Bachmann is thinking (this is assuming she thinks) I mean even from a pure politically selfish viewpoint this is sheer stupidity on her part. Veterans tend to be some of the biggest supporters of the Republican party. Cant imagine they would be too thrilled with this move. How about asking her to freeze aid to Israel instead of screwing her own service members?
singfoom
You crazy libs have got it all wrong. Bachmann et al love the troops. They don’t want them to live hobbled lives by being given help by the government they served.
No sir, that would be disrespectful to their service.
This is tough love. PTSD seems a lot like a bunch a whining to me. They just need to man up.
Can a Representative or Senator be fired for gross incompetence? Cause as far as I can tell, they’re not doing the people’s business at alll……
JGabriel
Shorter Bachmann: We have to stand by our armed services veterans, except for the expensive whiners!
.
Zifnab25
Finally. A defense budget item Republicans are willing to cut. Perhaps we could save a bit more if we stopped issuing all that body armor.
scav
Military brass didn’t hold the official line against the dreaded ghey. Gotta be consequences.
JGabriel
@Hunter Gathers:
Damn. What does that say about the majority of the country who voted for them?
.
Joseph Nobles
Wait, you just don’t understand, guys. Guys, Michele just loves and respects veterans so much, she wants to give them the opportunity to die for their country after they come back from war as well!
Ija
@salacious crumb:
It would be a stupid move if Democrats know how to demagogue at all. But no, we don’t do that, we are civilized people. Of course Bachmann would get away with this. Democrats don’t want to be called shrill, don’t they?
dmsilev
The Kick an Orphan and Beat a Puppy Act may be delayed until next year. Remember, the GOP still has to find time to impeach Obama for the High Crime of Presidenting While Democrat as soon as possible.
dms
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@salacious crumb:
She and “they” don’t care. Why? It’s the whole “What’s the Matter with Kansas” effect. Teatards like Bachmann know they can get away with this shit with impunity. Those same vets who vote heavily right wing will continue to vote heavily right wing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_the_Matter_with_Kansas%3F
Remember, if you’ve been sold on saving zygotes as opposed to getting gubmint-funded treatment for your PTSD, you’re gonna go with the zygotes every time. Or if you are pissed off that your treatment funding was cancelled, you’ll be told it’s because they couldn’t afford to pay for it because of all the other entitlement programs going to “certain people”.
The day the fucking Democratic party learns how to effectively frame and message, global warming will be reversed.
blondie
Ahh… GOP priorities … take away your health care, protect the rapists, and harm disabled vets.
cleek
this is awesome stuff, and i hope they keep it up for the next two years. it’s the kind of stuff that can turn the GOP’s historic 2010 win into the GOP’s historic 2012 loss. the teabaggers are practically writing the Dems’ attack ads for them.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@dmsilev:
That’s just the first article. The second article will be
Presidenting while Black
morzer
I assume this entry into the Bachmann Atrocity Archive is intended to free veterans from the burden of soci.alist health-care, thereby permitting them to await, with joyous hearts, the appearance of Jeebus on a pink, airborne tyrannosaurus rex to miraculously heal them all as an initial reward for their display of faith. Presumably they then ascend to paradise and receive their quota of virgins from the genial tentacles of Sanctus Ronaldus Magnus.
Of course, Bachmann could just be a hate-filled, ignorant teabagging jackass who urgently needs to install a bi-manual posterior location device as well as a functioning brain.
MattR
I’m almost afraid to ask “what’s next?”
JGabriel
John Cole:
But the GOP won’t call it that. They will call it the “Pedic Defense Against Parentless Misfits And Rabid Mongrels Act”.
.
dmsilev
@blondie:
There’s got to be some Grand Unified Bill which can combine all of these. Something which takes privatizes the health care of veterans who were disabled as the result of being raped. And gives tax cuts to the wealthy of course.
dms
gnomedad
FTFY.
PeakVT
Q: How stupid is Michelle Bachmann?
A: She is so that stupid she put specific, identifiable cuts into her deficit reduction proposal. Eeeevery Republican knows not put specific cuts into their proposals.
morzer
@dmsilev:
The Rape, Plunder, and Pillage America Patriotic White Male Act perhaps?
Uloborus
@JGabriel:
If it helps any, the GOP didn’t get more votes than usual, our side just kinda went ‘Eh’ and didn’t vote at all. I guess that’s a slight improvement.
Lee
OT: something to share with teatards.
Ayn Rand took government assistence for MEDICAL reasons.
I can not wait to watch some teatard’s head exploding over this.
tamied
@JGabriel: That’s the majority of the people who voted, not the majority of the country.
RJB
No, no, this is all wrong. It is either the “Repeal the Job-Killing Laws Against Orphan Kicking and Puppy Beating,” or else the “Job-Creating Kick and Orphan….” etc. Or maybe Liberty-Defending.
“Pedic” sounds all elitist and science-y to me.
stuckinred
They only give a fuck about vets when it suits them.
morzer
@RJB:
How about “Conservapedic” rather than “Pedic”?
blondie
Do I hear a violin? Wait, I smell something burning!
4tehlulz
I look forward to the SFAK Act of 2011.
cleek
Rand Paul wants to eliminate everything in the Dept of Education except the Pell Grant program.
he also wants to cut 62% of the FDA’s budget. and in a nice bit of synergy (for food-borne bacteria): reduce the Center for Disease Control’s budget by 28%, and the National Institute of Health’s by 37%.
visionary!
Persia
Tell me again how job creation was their first priority. I need to laugh at something.
Litlebritdifrnt
This is par for the course for these jokers, they loves them some fetuses right up until the moment that they are born and then they couldn’t give a shit about them and would just as soon let them starve on the streets.
Same with the Troops they are all gung ho for them while they are wearing the uniform and getting shot at but if one happens to cease to function correctly as a good soldier due to either physical or mental injury then they would also just as soon let them starve on the streets.
Mumphrey
Yeah, well, those puppies and orphans have it coming. I bet they’re Muslims. Or maybe godless atheists. Maybe both.
trollhattan
“Even the Liberal ‘Air Force Times’…”
Bachmann’s enjoying her time in front of (yet not looking at) the camera. She and Sarah certainly share that trait. The infighting is going to be interesting.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/82379/republicans-secretly-hate-michelle-bachmann
asiangrrlMN
@Lee: And, Paul Ryan attended college using his father’s Social Security benefits. Same as it ever was.
Oh, and I apologize for Bachmann. Truly.
I still think that every congressperson who decries sockulism and universal healthcare and whatnot should be forced to give up their own. Anything they want to pass, they have to follow. Seems fair enough to me.
morzer
@Persia:
That will be dealt with in the Patriotic American Right To Poverty Act.
trollhattan
@cleek:
Not to mention: let’s eliminate repressive gummint reg-you-lay-shun over eyecare.
Punchy
You snark, young padawan, yet remember, they (Joe Plummer et al) vociferously opposed Missouri’s attempt to legislate vile puppy mills.
Since they dislike vets so much, it’s no surprise they hate their animals, too.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Except it will be called something like “Stop the Job Killing Orphans By Ending Abortion Act of 2012”.
freelancer
@singfoom:
I know this is snark, but I can’t help myself. I read some where in my RSS feed in the last week or so that we’re losing more veterans to suicide than we are actual combat casualties. If someone can source that, help me out, because if true, that’s ridiculously disgusting that we can’t address, reach out to, and help those in need.
numbskull
I encourage you to read the entire article at Military Time (or Air Force Times, or Army Times, etc.), then go read the comments. Kinda disheartening. Even when the Republicans are taking a big ol’ dump right on their heads, several of the military (active or retired) just can’t quit them.
Persia
@freelancer: It actually dropped a little in 2010. It’s not clear if there’s any connection to PTSD, as I recall.
Rosalita
Hey John, speaking of puppies, how about a Lily and/or Tunch fix? Between the politics and the snow, it would be nice touch of zen.
Mattminus
The Paul and Bachmann budget plans are part of the con. They throw this batshit insane stuff out there so that when the mainstream republicans release a plan thats only 75% as horrifying, it’s seen as the reasonable compromise.
scav
The Defense of Poverty Act, 2012. Because Socialist are coming to take your poverty away! “They’ll pry my overdraft out of my cold dead hands.”
grandpajohn
And this is different how from the last 20 – 30 years?
How many times has Lucy pulled the football away from Charlie Brown, and how many times have the republicans pulled the same shit persuading voters that they are for the common people while screwing them royally after getting their votes. As Long as we continue to have a massive willfully uninformed and ignorant electorate This country will continue on its downward spiral toward third world status, ably aided by our whoring media.
Buck
Oh leave Michele alone. She’s wise enough to know that those VA hospitals don’t have beds – they’re HAMMOCKS!
El Cruzado
@JGabriel: Repeal the Job-Killing Prevention of Kicking Orphans and Kittens Obamalaw?
catclub
I would argue that Bachmann is actually on the side of the majority of US history in how we have treated veterans of our wars. Exceedingly crappily. How were Vietnam vets treated? How about Civil War and WWI vets? – they were fired on by US troops in Washington.
The EXCEPTION was how WW2 vets were treated – because they were so meny*.
*Obscure “Jude the Obscure” reference.
Mike in NC
“Emancipation Proclamation Repeal and Confederate Apology Act of 2012”
You just know they can’t help themselves…
stuckinred
@catclub: WWI vets, you are thinking of the Bonus Army at Anacostia Flats.
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
Me likie. Can we add “Reparations for the Nawthern Woah of Aggresshun” to your sparkling list?
Ruckus
@morzer:
Of course, Bachmann
couldis just be a hate-filled, ignorant teabagging jackass who urgently needs to install a bi-manual posterior location device as well as a functioning brain.Fixed
Also it would help her to find that brain if it wasn’t located in that posterior orifice.
It still wouldn’t be working but at least she could locate it.
Ash Can
@Litlebritdifrnt: Broken soldiers don’t make for very effective props.
catclub
@trollhattan: Read the tail end of the 14th amendment. They don’t mention it, but would be happy to repeal that part, too.
Cacti
More of this please.
People need to be reminded of what a pack of sociopaths GOP politicians are.
Ruckus
@stuckinred:
They never give a fuck about vets. Or anyone else not themselves or their paymasters.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Lee:
But that’s different! She was special!
/wingnut
stuckinred
Army Times
Buck
@cleek: Sounds like Rand Paul is trying to thin the herd.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Bachmann is no doubt calculating that crippled vets can’t get out to vote anyway, so fuck ’em.
Jeebus, I just used Bachmann and calculating in the same sentence. I blame low blood sugar.
Davis X. Machina
The truth is, she could have her way, veterans benefits could be cut, and a substantial minority of them would be cheering her on anyways. Because she’s pissing liberals off, and Everybody Knows® liberals don’t respect the troops, don’t care about veterans, and are soft on defense.
(Everybody Knows®, and the Everybody Knows® line of products, including Everybody Knows Republicans are Fiscally Responsible®, Everybody Knows Democrats are Soft on Defense®, and Everybody Knows Liberals are the Real Bigots®, are trademarks of the Republican National Committee. All rights reserved. Used with permission.)
Zifnab
@grandpajohn:
Typically, the ignorant don’t vote. Waxing poetic about the ignorant and their voting habits is foolish on its face.
I think “stupid people voting” is a lot less of a problem than poor people getting disenfranchised. We’ve seen states like Ohio, Texas, and Florida aggressively purge voter rolls, intimidate minority voters, and engage in all sorts of sleazy tactics.
Combine this with an incredibly archaic voting system where you have to register a month in advance to a very specific but difficult to identify district so you can show up at every-changing polling locations on a fucking Tuesday, and you’ll understand a bit more about why retired land-owning whites always tend to take the lion’s share of the ballots.
I had four roommates that I physically dragged to the voting booth last November, only to discover they were all still registered back in their college towns and couldn’t cast a ballot. (Stupid me for not checking, I know). They were all solid blue votes, but that didn’t fucking matter, because they hadn’t properly kept up with the dysfunctional voting system game.
I mean, holy shit. If it was as hard to pay your taxes as it is to cast a ballot, the IRS would be crawling up the asses of half of America. But for some crazy reason we’ve got an entire federal bureau dedicated to one and not the other.
/rant
stuckinred
@Davis X. Machina:
Everybody knows this is nowhere. . .
Ruckus
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Same with the Troops they are all gung ho for them while they are wearing the uniform and getting shot at but if one happens to cease to function correctly as a good soldier due to either physical or mental injury then they would also just as soon let them starve on the streets.
This could explain why a lot of officers are rethugs. Almost all of the one’s I met while serving had the same attitude that if you weren’t one of them, they considered you to have the desirability of dog shit they just stepped in.
jwb
@JGabriel: Hopefully, that voters weren’t paying attention. Because the alternative is that this is the sort of shit that We, the People actually want. I really don’t believe that this is what We, the People want, but I have to admit that most Republicans were actually not particularly dishonest in how they ran their campaigns on these matters. I mean, are any of us really surprised that this batshit insane legislation is being proposed? If we’re not surprised, that’s because the Republicans pretty much told us that this is what they had planned.
Buck
As someone pointed out, most veterans vote republican. So why get upset? If they’re willing to shoot themselves in the foot every election – LET THEM!
We should be laughing our asses off over this.
rapier
Shouldn’t it be the Beat an orphan and kick a puppy act of 2011?
MattR
@stuckinred:
(video)
morzer
@jwb:
I think a good chunk of the People doesn’t know what this legislation means, doesn’t care to investigate, much less know how to do so, and pulls the lever for the Repugs because they’ve been told that it’s the only way to stop evil liberals from having hot gay sex in churches while setting up concentration camps for heterosexual white Christian males who weigh more than 300 pounds and watch NASCAR.
PurpleGirl
@Hunter Gathers: No, they aren’t stupid. They aren’t incompetent. They aren’t ignorant. They ARE mean, nasty, cruel and evil. They ARE immoral.
ETA: They are in no way followers of any religion but greed and selfishness and they have set themselves up as if a god.
Mojotron
Shorter Shorter Bachmann: We have to stand by our armed services veterans, except for those who can’t stand by themselves.
Mumphrey
@grandpajohn:
Well, it really is a great racket. They screw the [insert name of constituency here], and thenbmake them believe it was Obama and the Democrats who did it. To go on with yor simile, it’s like Lucy yanked away the football and then got Charlie Brown to blame Linus for it instead.
GregB
Randian anarchy.
Sasha
You know this helps the establishment GOP.
All they have to do is declare that Bachmann’s position on vets does not represent the GOP platform and suddenly every crazy thing she espouses EXCEPT cuts to vet programs are moderate GOP positions (i.e., the centrist baseline that Dems are supposed to embrace).
Repubs are masters at turd polishing.
joe from Lowell
@Hunter Gathers:
Hey, gang, we squeaked out a narrow House majority in the first mid-term election of a new presidency, with unemployment up near 10%, against a party that spent two years legislating and ignoring politics!
You know what that means? Everyone really wants right-wing ideology, that’s what!
morzer
@GregB:
We really can achieve our own private United States of Somalian Randitude right here in America.
stuckinred
@MattR:
Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure:
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor,
and there’s a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong.
You see, you hear these funny voices in the tower of song.
Marc McKenzie
Why am I not surprised by this?
I mean, what the hell is next?
Davis X. Machina
@joe from Lowell:
Depends on the packaging. More often than not, the answer is ‘yes’.
2006 was an anomaly, and 2008 was a miracle. The stupid doesn’t always win, but it usually covers the point spread.
jeffreyw
Remember, fiber is an important part of a healthy diet.
MarkJ
@Cacti: That’s exactly the problem. The dems will take these PR gifts and . . . do exactly nothing with them to brand the repubs as the dimwitted out of touch extremists they are.
stuckinred
@jeffreyw: Who’s payin for that knee trooper???
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@MattR: First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin?
joe from Lowell
@Davis X. Machina: Spare me the beaten-puppy crouch. It isn’t 1988 forever.
Don K
Just as the right to life begins at conception and ends at birth, supporting the troops begins when they deploy and ends when they return. At that point, after all, they’re not troops anymore; they’re just more freeloaders on the government dime.
Buck
@Don K: Sounds about right.
joe from Lowell
@MarkJ:
No, what’s actually going to happen is that the Democrats, led by Obama, will pursue a low-key, steady strategy over the next 20 months of branding the Republicans as hateful, dimwitted, out-of-touch extremists, while some emo kids on the internets wail and gnash their teeth because Barack Obama doesn’t scream and yell and jump up and down, and then right before the 2012 elections, those kids will look up, notice that the Republicans are profoundly unpopular while Obama is poised to cruise to re-election with a newly-Democratic Congress, and scratch their heads.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@joe from Lowell: From your keyboard to G-d’s ears, even if it has to go through 11 levels to get there.
But I doubt it, because I’m not a callow youth and although it’s theoretically possible for the process to work like this, I sure as hell have never seen it happen.
Mark S.
Via Benen, fellow House goopers sound off (anonymously) on Bachmann:
One reason for all the anonymity: Bachmann raised $13 million last year.
Mnemosyne
@Davis X. Machina:
Nassau County believed their teabagger county executive when he swore that he could cut taxes and increase services. Now they’re bankrupt and about to be taken over by the state.
How much you want to bet this incompetent idiot gets re-elected? I’d say it’s at least even odds, because the Republicans have successfully instilled a Pavlovian reaction to “tax cuts” into voters. Even when tax cuts make no sense, they’ll vote for tax cuts.
Dan
How would this work? What constitutes “proof” of rape? Is a conviction required? Charges filed? Will an accusation suffice?
morzer
@joe from Lowell:
I hate to be a downer, but I believe some polls are now showing the GOP viewed favorably for the first time since 2005. Two years of low-key showing up of the crazy GOP haven’t really produced much in the way of results, frankly.
piratedan
@blondie: glad to see that Jobs are still priority one, isn’t it?
jeffreyw
@stuckinred: Primary is the State of Illinois, also Mrs J has me on her medical as a dependent, she retired as a control room operator at an electrical generating plant owned by Ameren. I haven’t seen any bills yet but it’s pretty early days. The state insurance watchdoggie sent me a letter that the request for an MRI scan was denied, got it the same day the scan facility sent me a letter saying I was good to go for the test.
artem1s
now that DADT has been repealed, the teaparty will routinely make a habit of dissing the regular troops. and the GOP only cares about the part of the defense budget which leads to giagundous government contracts for Haliburton and Sugarbush and mercenary baby (not fetus, never fetus) and puppy killers.
geg6
@cleek:
I saw an interview with Paul Ryan on ABC, I think Wednesday evening. He was claiming he could open any page of the federal budget and find hundreds of millions, if not billions, of cuts on every page. The reporter challenged him and Ryan opened his copy of the budget, pointed to the page triumphantly, and said, look! Right here! The Direct Loan Program! A total waste of money and billions in savings!
Frank
I suspect that most of these dreadful creatures proposing such Draconian cuts to social services have themselves never been in need. It would be great if instant karma were just a little more instant and publically evident. I am so waiting for Bachmann, Palin, et al to have some big public meltdowns. I wonder if there is any truth to that National Enquirer “story” about the “First Dude” stepping out on Sister Sarah. That would at least be a start to a big fat piping-hot bowl of crow (served with a turd sandwich).
stuckinred
@jeffreyw: The swines! Course you know I was just foolin around!
PS
@morzer: The polls are strange right now. Obama’s approval is rising (he’s at +4.9 at the TMP average) but so is the generic Republican (+6.9). I think what this says is that it’s way too early to use either to predict an election that is more than 20 months away. My money is on Obama’s reelection, but I’m not as sanguine as Joe about Congress.
Mnemosyne
@scav:
That’s going to be their excuse to the teabaggers. Republicans just luuurve to cut veterans’ benefits, though, so I’m sure one of their idiots was going to propose them anyway.
geg6
@Buck:
I know the plural of anecdote is not data, but as a veterans certifying official at a university (I take care of their educational benefits), I don’t know a single vet who is a Repuke. Even my VV friends at the local VFW all vote Dem. I don’t know any WWII or Korea vets any more since all the ones I once knew are now dead.
GregB
Time to pull up the ladder on future generations! Prepare the boiling oil!
Did anyone not think this would be the end game of all of these creeps?
Time to get Xe and Dyncorp back in the states, there’s gated communities that need protection.
chopper
no no, it’ll be called the ‘stop the job-killing democrats from hurting our orphans and puppies act of 2011’, which will of course legalize killing orphans and puppies.
soonergrunt
@geg6: That’s because all the vets you deal with are my age and younger.
I’d join the VFW, but the national org is still almost as bad as the American Legion.
IAVA is my group.
Midnight Marauder
@Joseph Nobles:
That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from 40 Year Old Virgin.
morzer
@PS:
I agree, and would add that a 25+ seat swing has only been achieved twice over the past 50 years in elections in a presidential, rather than a mid-term, year, so the prospects aren’t tremendous. Of course, Boehner might be caught with a lobbyist, a goat and Jamie Dimon in a Satanic orgy, but we can’t rely on it.
A bit more detail on the various prospects for 2012:
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/itw2011012701/
jwb
@soonergrunt: Also, my experience is that the enlisted personnel are much more likely to be Dems than the officer corps. Every officer I know is crazy right as a loon (though I mostly know older, retired officers).
a gbear at balloon juice
@gnomedad: OMG! How long have these job-killing puppies been thwarting our freedoms?? How did those sneaky liberals keep this hidden for so long. Thank god that Michele Bachmann is protecting our liberty.
geg6
@soonergrunt:
Well, I don’t know how old you are, but the Vietnam Vets at the VFW that I know are most decidedly NOT young. All over the age of 60, at least. And they’re all Dems. The kids at school are, yes, young. At least, to me they are. :-)
Our local VFW is a pretty chilled place and I am a social member. I have no idea about the national organization, but the local one is a cool place.
Edited to add:
Yes! This!
Buck
@geg6: Interesting. I always heard different.
Who knows for sure…
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@geg6: I’m a military brat, married to another, and related to or work with still more. Data/anecdote yadda yadda aside, I know dozens and dozens of vets, both officers and enlisted. The only two who are Republicans are my wingnut brother, who loves him some Rush (and, sadly, is increasingly obviously mentally ill) and my dad’s old submarine buddy who was always a right-winger, mostly because of religion and social issues. All the others: consistent Democratic voters, but pretty quiet about it unless asked.
Of course, I live in California, which despite having 10% of the country’s population somehow doesn’t count for anything.
jwb
@morzer: The big thing is that it’s hard to see how Obama gets re-elected while boxing the GOP in sufficiently that the Dems can make large House gains (and hold the Senate). The teatards acting so irresponsibly that the business community decides that they are better off siding with the Dems is the best bet there. I think it’s a distinct possibility and I believe that’s Obama’s strategy. Nevertheless, because the big issue remains the economy, if that improves sufficiently to allow Obama’s re-election, it’s also likely to improve sufficiently to lower voter motivation to punish the GOP, however stupid they might act. So it’s likely that the election would play out similarly to 1996. If the economy doesn’t improve, all bets are off—though, barring the GOP nominating Palin, it’s hard to see how Obama survives it.
rapier
Shouldn’t the new definition of rape have a Julian Assange exception? Like if Julian Assange looks at a woman he is a rapist and should be put to death?
cyntax
@soonergrunt:
Know what you mean, but since Eubank said this in response to Bachmann, I might have to look at the VFW again:
Sentient Puddle
Yeah um, about that…there’s something happening in Utah…
geg6
@Buck:
I think it depends on if you’re talking about an officer versus non-com or enlisted and in what part of the country the vets are. Here in my little part of PA, they tend to be Dems.
catpal
hey doesn’t Cranky McCain get over $50,000 in Veterans Disability pension/benfits that the Crazy Bachmann wants to cut?
I want to see the Cranky beat up on The Crazy Woman because she wants to cut out one of his TEN Houses. I’m betting on the Cranky to win this smackdown.
morzer
@jwb:
The economy does seem to be improving, but the kicker remains unemployment, which may have fallen somewhat by Election Day, but is likely to remain too high for comfort. That said, I don’t see that the GOP has anyone who can feel confident going up against Obama, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Teabaggers make fools of themselves and try and run their own pure white jackass candidate. There’s a remarkable absence of declared GOP candidates for the nomination at this point, which makes me think they’ve accepted a loss in 2012 and are saving themselves for 2016, when the Dems will have to find a way to replace the magic. Overall, I feel reasonably confident that Obama will win re-election, barring some Act of Dog, but I don’t think the Dems will regain the House this time around. I am somewhat worried about their prospects in the Senate, although we ought to be able to kick Scott Brown out in Massachusetts.
soonergrunt
@geg6: I’m 41 next week. I was, of course, referring to the ones you deal with in your role as a VA certifying official. I doubt that you work with a lot of 60+year-old vets in that job.
There are quite a few cases where the local VFW or even the local American Legion don’t agree with the national orgs, just like the thing with the Chamber of Commerce. I was a member of a VFW post in the town I used to drill in. Pretty chilled out, and for a lot of us just back from a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, a place where we could get some help or advice from somebody who understood, or just drink a beer or two with good people.
I haven’t found anything like that here in the city. The posts here seem to be overrun with teabaggers.
The DAV has been pretty helpful, when I need it, though.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
A few more bright ideas like this and Rusty Orange Boner will crawl into his tanning bed and refuse to emerge.
Cris
The reason Republicans can sustain their weird vendetta against the VA is that a lot of veterans have frustrating experiences trying to get their benefits, so they end up with a general dislike for the organization. Kind of like we all tend to feel about the DMV. But I think most of us realize that cutting Motor Vehicle’s budget will result in even worse service.
But that’s what the anti-VA mindset says. “Mad at the VA? Let’s take away their funding! That’ll show them!”
Shalimar
Which will be known as the “Orphan and Puppy Tough Love Act.” It has to be a good bill, it even has love in the title. Because they care.
soonergrunt
@rapier: I thought the Julian Assange exception is that if somebody the BJ commentariat likes is accused (like Assange,) it must be a vile plot by the Pentagon, otherwise the man is guilty and should be hung.
PS
@morzer: Thanks for that link. Interesting data. If I were a bettin’ fellow, I’d put a small amount on a dead-heat Congress if I could define that as +/-5 either way in the House and +/-2 in the Senate. Something like that. (Of course the Senate, especially, might run into some interesting caucus decisions.) And I’d put a larger one on Obama.
I once actually did put a pound on a UK hung Parliament (1970, I believe) and might have won a small fortune (20 quid?) had the election been two or three days earlier. The Tories came from behind in a major upset and squeaked out a win.
stuckinred
@geg6: I think it tends to be regional. We have a local Nam Vets group here and they are pretty right wing, shocking that it would be like that in Georgia! When I go up to Illinois my fellow Nam Vets are as, or more, left than I am. BTW, I’m 61 and that’s fairly young for a Nam vet. I went in in 66 on my 17th birthday. I have friends who are older than me but didn’t go in until 68 or 69.
Cris
@soonergrunt: as they say at Pandagon, both/and.
Brian
@Lee: – Actual response in the comments of another site, paraphrased:
Social Security taxes are theft, and Ayn Rand was merely reclaiming her property from the government.
It’s like arguing with a very selfish and naive wall.
chrisvee
They send them into war with impunity, then don’t want to take care of them when they come home. Unreal.
Joseph Nobles
My vote for the real name of the Kick an Orphan and Kill a Puppy Act of 2011: The Expanding American Exceptionalism Act of 2011. You want something that will look great on the fundraising letter after Obama vetoes it.
ETA: This abbreviates to EAEA, the God-given American sound you make when kicking orphans or killing puppies.
NR
@morzer:
Two years of nonstop praise for and one-sided “compromise” with the Republicans by Obama probably has something to do with that.
Why shouldn’t people vote Republican? Obama likes Republican ideas!
Karen
Can’t someone just air an ad on TV about how she and the other Pubicans love Veterans as cannon fodder and don’t care about them once they’re home?
Woodrowfan
are their voters that stupid? These are the same people who thought that Reagan didn’t raise their taxes, but Clinton and Obama did, so yes, they are that stupid…
The Other Chuck
@Lee:
Why would they? Hypocrisy is the very air they breathe.
Caz
How ignorant you all are. Do you even care about the FACTS??
She’s proposing to cut disability benefits by the amount of social security disability that the vets also receive, instead of letting them get double recovery there.
How about getting the facts straight? Or is it just more fun to bash Bachmann, so the facts don’t really matter too much. They’ll get plenty of disability benefits, and still more than non-military disabled persons.
At least she’s proposing to cut SOMETHING! The reason we’re in this mess is not because of the “teatards,” it’s because of the PROGRESSIVE RETARDS.
Davis X. Machina
@joe from Lowell: The spread — the amount of seats the can lose in the House and still retain control, the number of seats the Democrats have to defend in the Senate v. the number the GOP do — favor the GOP. Control of the White House is nice by itself, but it’s only nice if it’s by itself.
It’s not a protective crouch. It’s the math. Only Karl Rove gets to have his own math.