Mitt Romney Lies #11 – ” we remember the president’s own party had a super majority in both houses for his first two years”

“And, he blames Congress, he goes after Congress, but we remember the president’s own party had a super majority in both houses for his first two years, so you can hardly blame Congress for the faults that he’s put in place himself’.
From : http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/05/romney-demands-an-obama-jobs-plan/

‘I’m not sure how Romney defines a super majority, but my recollection was that the Dems only had a filibuster-proof majority (including two independents) from the time that Al Franken was finally seated (July 7, 2009) until the point that Teddy Kennedy passed away (August 25, 2009). That’s only seven weeks, not two years’.
From : http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/06/the-big-lies-of-mitt-romney-v-obama-had-a-super-majority-in-congress-for-two-years.html

‘Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declared Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “In fact, he’s been in office for three years. He got everything he wanted from a completely compliant Congress for two of those three years… We are living in the Obama economy.”

FILIBUSTER – ‘By forcing Democrats to find 60 votes to nearly every action, McConnell and his members were able to block major initiatives’.

FILIBUSTER -‘Democrats mounted a December 2010 push to end the Bush-era tax cuts on income over $250,000, and for millionaires. The GOP prevented both measures from achieving the 60-vote supermajority required to beat back a filibuster’.

FILIBUSTER -‘McConnell’s Senate minority also thwarted the majority in the Democrats’ DREAM Act, which failed late in 2010 even though they had 55 votes in support’.

FILIBUSTER – ‘Senate Republicans blocked key appropriations bills in December 2010 — a gambit that touched off the government shutdown fight in spring of 2011’.

FILIBUSTER – ‘On the stimulus package, President Obama’s initial proposal was well over $800 billion in new spending and tax breaks, but the 60-vote requirement shrank it to well under $800 billion’.

FILIBUSTER -‘GOP opposition to health care reform was a key obstacle to a public insurance option and remained a source of partisan vitriol for months’.

FILIBUSTER – ‘McConnell candidly explained the strategy behind the obstruction early 2011, after reaping the benefits in the midterm elections. “We worked very hard to keep our fingerprints off of these proposals,” he told The Atlantic’s Josh Green, arguing that it was important to deny Dems any claim to bipartisanship’.
From : http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/mcconnells-revisionist-history-congress-gave-obama-everything-he-wanted.php

FILIBUSTER – ‘Senator McConnell dispensed with the usual platitudes about working together and declared publicly, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
From : http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/01/strict-obstructionist/8344/

A ‘Conservative’ vision for America – ‘Republicans Vote to Block Transparency on Political Ads’ – They say it’s a ‘burdensome’ regulation

Imagine. The truth is ‘burdensome’ to Republicans.

With so much money in politics, it’s impossible to argue that we shouldn’t have complete transparency.

But some of that private money doesn’t want to be publicly known.

So Republicans call it a ‘burdensome’ regulation and hide who is paying for those ads.

The public should be screaming isn’t it our right to know?

‘The FCC voted in April to require television stations to put detailed data on political ad purchases online. The information, which includes who buys ads, for how much, and when they run, is currently open to the public but is available only on paper at individual stations’.

‘Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo. added language to an appropriations bill ordering that no funds to be used to implement the disclosure rule’.

“When there’s a campaign going on with the kind of money that is being spent today,” Rep. José Serrano, D-N.Y., who led the Democratic effort to defeat the language, said, “you as a citizen should have the right to know who is paying [for ads].”
From : http://www.propublica.org/article/republicans-vote-to-block-transparency-on-political-ads

A ‘Conservative’ vision for America – ‘Virginia Lawmaker Says ‘Sea Level Rise’ Is A ‘Left Wing Term,’ Excises It From State Report On Coastal Flooding’

 

John Kane (no relation) : ‘The public interest is best served by the free exchange of ideas’

‘Virginia’s legislature commissioned a $50,000 study to determine the impacts of climate change on the state’s shores’.

‘To greenlight the project, they omitted words like “climate change” and “sea level rise” from the study’s description itself’.

‘According to the House of Delegates sponsor of the study, these are “liberal code words,” even though they are noncontroversial in the climate science community’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/10/496982/virginia-lawmaker-says-sea-level-rise-is-a-left-wing-term-excises-it-from-state-report-on-coastal-flooding/

‘Obama’s campaign asks supporters to grade its performance’

Chris over at http://doubleyooteeeff.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/todays-fyi-our-government-is-broken-are-you-the-reason-why/ did a great post on this.

Getting involved.

The standard questions. The last question asks to rate how the campaign is doing so far and a place to vent.

You can also check the box to volunteer.

The Survey : http://www.barackobama.com/share-your-feedback?source=em12_20120609_jm_ws&utm_medium=email&utm_source=obama&utm_campaign=em12_201205609_jm_ws

‘Obama on the private sector being ‘fine:’ Was he right? Wrong’?

President Obama – “The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last … 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by … governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government.”

‘But if by “fine” you mean moving in the right direction, that’s a different story. The private sector is in positive jobs territory, having created an average of 160,000 jobs per month in 2012. It’s in positive territory for Obama’s time in office, as well. The US has created on net 780,000 private sector jobs since February of 2009, points out Ezra Klein on the Washington Post’s Wonkblog’.

“The private sector’s job creation machine is basically working, even if it would be nice to see it working faster,” Klein wrote on Friday’.

‘The overall job numbers remain weak because public sector employment – federal, state, and local jobs – has actually been shrinking. Obama’s stimulus package contained $54 billion in aid to states to help them keep teachers, police, firefighters, and other less popular government bureaucrats in their posts. That money has now been spent and lay-offs due to government belt-tightening have accelerated’.
From : http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2012/0609/Obama-on-the-private-sector-being-fine-Was-he-right-Wrong