There go those Republicans, making up nasty stuff about the government again
The House cast a vote (unfortunately merely symbolic, because the Senate won’t be agreeing) to keep the IRS from enforcing Obamacare.
Look at the way the article describes the impetus for the bill [emphasis mine]:
The House voted Friday to prevent the IRS from enforcing any aspect of ObamaCare, a bill meant to exact revenge against an agency that Republicans say is incapable of neutral enforcement of the law…
Friday’s vote was the 40th time the House has tried to fully or partially repeal ObamaCare. But it was also a chance to slam the IRS, which Republicans say has shown itself unworthy of neutrally enforcing the controversial law.
“The IRS is already out of control, abusing its power to tax and audit the activities of honest, hardworking Americans,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said. “The IRS has betrayed the trust of the American people.
“Democrats want to give this agency more power and authority?” he asked. “They want this agency involved in Americans’ healthcare? No way.”
The entire article has 686 words, according to a word counter tool I just used. But these are the only mentions of why the Republicans may have voted this way. Nothing about the fact that there was an actual thing that the IRS actually did that has made the Republicans “say” this. Nothing about the fact that what the Republicans say is like, you know, true.
It’s as though Republicans just make stuff up out of the blue, in order to thwart Obamacare. The rest of the article continues that theme with quotes from Democrats to that effect and denials from Republicans.
It ends on a nice note:
Most Democrats said the House was wasting more time by passing a bill that was sure to go nowhere in the Senate. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who was recently honored as the longest-serving member of the House in U.S. history, offered his own historical take on the GOP bill.
“Aren’t you embarrassed to go a 40th time in a fruitless, hopeless act?” he asked. “The Republican Party is like the Bourbons of France: They forget nothing because they never learned anything.”
You know something? To a large extent I actually agree with Dingell on that score, at least in terms of political wrangling and political strategy. The Republicans seem like babes in the woods to me compared to the Democrats.
By the way, about that “longest-serving” bit, Dingell (whom I previously knew next to nothing about) is aged 87. He has been in the House, representing an area near Detroit (actually, two areas; his district was redrawn slightly recently) since—wait for it—1955.
That’s a long time indeed, fifty-eight years. All in the House. Astounding.
By my calculations, Dingell entered the House at the age of 29. Before that, he was in the army and then a lawyer in private practice and prosecutor. And before the army, Dingell was a page in the House. The page position was probably obtained because Dingell’s father was a member of the House as well, for 22 years—the same seat which Dingell junior successfully ran for and took over when his father died in 1955.
So that part of Michigan has been sending a Dingell to the House ever since 1933.
So The Hill avoids mentioning why the Repubs are doing this. Quelle suprise! A trustworthy source? Non!
And Dingell, Jr. Likely another reason Detroit has failed.
Re Dingell’s Republicans as Bourbons — it seems beyond the capacity of Democrat liberals to take the measure of the opposition with any originality — it’s just one more cheap ‘they’re stupid’ shot (‘racists’, being a hard fit here).
If Dingell had a bit of wit or imagination he might have said:
The Republicans, when they are not hams, are Hamlets. After the play within the play, in which King Claudius plays an audience participant’s role, they, like Hamlet, declare they are prepared to “do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on.” But then they, like Hamlet, jelly; to steep, perchance to re-think. This is our GOP Actor’s Studio long running play, The Evil Usurper and an endless casting call for Hamlets.
I honestly don’t know if they did it symbolically or merely as a ploy. At this point I am not sure the Republican party matters. Regardless of the outcome of 2014, or even 2016. Especially since elections are obviously hugely rigged.
“these are the only mentions of why the Republicans may have voted this way. Nothing about the fact that there was an actual thing that the IRS actually did that has made the Republicans “say” this. Nothing about the fact that what the Republicans say is like, you know, true.
It’s as though Republicans just make stuff up out of the blue, in order to thwart Obamacare. The rest of the article continues that theme with quotes from Democrats to that effect and denials from Republicans.”
Once again, we see the tactic of attacking your opponent’s motivations, rather than the actual criticism. This has been a successful tactic by the left for generations… it’s inherently dishonest and relies upon those on the right’s tendency to speak to the issue, rather than the character of their adversary.
The goal is to invalidate both the accuser and the criticism, while simultaneously placing that particular accusation ‘off the table’, having already ‘established’ that criticism to be motivated by animus, rather than an objectively viable criticism.
This has been and is, one of the primary methods by which the left controls the political debate and, thus controls the narrative and commonly accepted memes.
Doom,
You bring up two issues, the lesser of which is whether the elections are ‘hugely’ rigged. My subjective perception is that they are not because it is unnecessary. All that is needed is to rig key swing state elections ‘just enough’ to win the needed electoral votes to ensure victory. I point to Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The larger issue is whether the Republican party no longer matters. I agree that from the perspective of restoring small government, constitutional principles, that they do not. Unfortunately that leaves us between the proverbial ‘a rock and a hard place’. Perhaps 35% of Americans are natural small government conservatives. The other 20% needed to win the elections are libertarians, independents and Reagan democrats.
To reach that 20%, BIG campaign money is needed and that means Republican big donors. But Republican big donors do NOT support small government, constitutional principles. Evidenced by, Top GOP donors tell party to legalize illegal immigrants
If we walk away from voting for republicans without a viable alternative third party that has ‘big money’ support, necessary to viability, all we do is hand the country over to the left. If that happens, we shall never regain the ground we’ve lost and civil war or capitulation become our only choices.
The one thing money cannot buy. Resurrection of dead, rotting, decapitated corpses.
Money can’t buy that miracle.
As the Left said, those who have no money… get to do other things due to their morally desperate justifications.
Geoffrey Britain Says:
August 3rd, 2013 at 1:07 pm
And to do that, you only have to rig certain carefully-selected districts and precincts.
As I’ve said before, I believe that is the reason why one of Obama’s first acts as President was to put the Census under the direct control of the White House. It was done in order to use that vast amount of data for the purpose of rigging elections.
rickl, very perceptive.
There’s a large manpower requirement to rig elections. Much of that money comes from Leftist funding, to pay campaign workers and ACORn people. An appropriate strategic move is to cut off Leftist funding by taxing it to 95-99%.
Let them all launder the money when it is on government books, not private books that can be easily cooked.
Dang. I forgot about Count Zero moving the US Census in-house. Did the bastard get away with it?
Re his remark about lawyers — that was just another snotty way of saying all opponents of His Excellency are a bunch of knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers. Who couldn’t begin to get into Occidental College.
ACORN, meanwhile, just went underground for a while: IIRC, it has been resurrected in a different form. The Left have really figured out what the Founding Fathers knew: blackguards who have no honor or shame cannot be ruled by the Constitution.
OT, but I just wanted to mention this book: John Bachelor had an hour-long interview tonight with the author of Voices of the Pacific, a memoir of 15 Americans who served in the war against Japan.
Unvarnished, hair-raising, brutal: most of these men are still alive now and in their 90s, and they paint a searing picture of the island-hopping campaign. It is, of course, available through Neo’s amazon linkie.
Neo…
FYI, Pelosi (when first Speaker) kicked Dingell out of a chairmanship — giving it to the southern California wonder boy, instead.
(Waxman)
She didn’t want Dingell to carry on the good work — of representing the Big Three.
Thought you’d want to know.
Continuing…
The ejection of Dingell meant the loss of a vast, dark, stream of Federal largess — going back to 2007.
Many, many, many, of Detroits urban renewal projects were funded via a 85/10/5 Federal/ Michigan/ Detroit ‘split.’
That 20:1 leverage explains the shear number of edifices around the city.
Trouble was — and is — the Federal monies dry up when it comes time to sustain the infrastructure once built.
While the wage rate in the local construction trades gets entirely warped by Davis-Bacon schedules and the Big Three projects. (Such high wage projects draw in White labor from miles around. No-one inside the city can maintain their craft skills (at the level required for Federal projects) with the sporadic tempo of said wonder projects.)
The same phenomena has been seen in Murtha’s district. He ended up becoming virtually the only construction employer in the county. No-one else could afford his craft rates/ Davis Bacon/ union wages. He’d thrown around so much sugar that the locals had become economic diabetics.
People have heard bout Congress bringing home the bacon. What they might want to look into is that this is turning into something indistinguishable from the patronage of Medieval nobility.
For once I’d like to see the look on their faces when the Trayveon legions are single handedly picked out and their support for rapist Hollywood directors, child prostitution rings, and various other “shady deals” are exposed for the hypocrites they become.
A decimation is effectively because it is carried out by one’s own comrades, battle buddies, and society. It wouldn’t be effective if merely enemies were doing the killing.
continuing…
One project that DIDN’T make it: a $400,000,000 urban light-rail project/ slush fund that was to run FIVE MILES along FLAT land — inside the median of an existing arterial road that at this time is now wildly over sized. (!!!)
It was a casualty of Dingell’s un-Chairmanship by Pelosi.
Even Waxman realized it was an insane proposition. The main drag in question is so free flowing that you could drive at freeway speeds at this time. It has no ‘rush hour.’ (!) It takes business employment to create a rush hour, of course.
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– Crochet pates legeres.
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