In a stunningly partisan move that fails to take any responsibility for Tea Party brinkmanship, Congressman Gibson released a statement blaming President Obama and the Democrats for the downgrade in America's credit rating.
"This week, Congress passed and the President signed the Budget Control Act, which will cut between $2.1 trillion and $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years. This Act averted the immediate crisis of defaulting on roughly 40 percent of our federal debt obligations and influenced two of the three major credit rating agencies - Moody's and Fitch - to preserve our country's AAA credit rating. It was important to take action to avoid the chaos of the Obama Administration trying to sort through which bills to pay and which not to pay - leading to widespread panic across our country and the world. The consequences of this chaos would have been severe, resulting in a double-dip recession and possibly worse - our chances at an economic recovery wrecked. Without question, this bipartisan agreement fell short of what we needed to address our long-term debt crisis, but it was the best agreement that could be reached in a period of divided government. However, with S&P's downgrade of our credit rating to AA+, the Senate and White House must face this new reality and reassess their willingness to implement more comprehensive deficit reduction..."
Really, Congressman Gibson? President Obama was the one who created "chaos"? The fact that the GOP, fueled by the Tea Party, linked raising the debt limit with budget issues had nothing to do with it, right? It was the Democrats who refused to pass a clean bill to only raise the debt limit like it has been done every time before, right? It was Democrats who previously voted to raise the debt limit every time it came up without a peep who suddenly got religion and couldn't raise it again without taking a meat cleaver to social programs?
Reading statements like Congressman Gibson's makes one think they are in Superman's Bizarreo world -where everything is the opposite of reality on Earth.
And the Gibson gets away with it because his Tea Party supporters are low-information voters who believe what they want to believe.
Showing posts with label Rensselaer County Republicans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rensselaer County Republicans. Show all posts
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Gibson gets spanked by the Times Union
In its July 27 editorial, the Times Union has called for Rookie Congressman Chris Gibson to “put down the gun and govern.”
The TU, like the all but the most radical of his constituents, wants Gibson to stop being the Tea Party/Corporate Representative and start representing his whole district.
But it seems Gibson will have none of it, falling in line with the radial far-right freshman class in Congress; voting to kill thousands of FAA jobs in an attempt to strip transportation workers of their collective bargaining rights, focusing on symbolic votes like “light bulb free choice” and the absurd “Cut Cap and Balance” fake vote.
The TU notes that President Obama and the Democrats (much to their Progressive supporters’ dismay) have bent over backwards to meet the GOP’s demands. But as with the rest of the GOTeaParty, Gibson can’t take “yes” for an answer.
In short, the TU has called Gibson what he is – a partisan, ideological hack who will do anything, including bringing the country he claims to love, to the brink of economic disaster.
Here is the full text of the Times Union editorial:
The TU, like the all but the most radical of his constituents, wants Gibson to stop being the Tea Party/Corporate Representative and start representing his whole district.
But it seems Gibson will have none of it, falling in line with the radial far-right freshman class in Congress; voting to kill thousands of FAA jobs in an attempt to strip transportation workers of their collective bargaining rights, focusing on symbolic votes like “light bulb free choice” and the absurd “Cut Cap and Balance” fake vote.
The TU notes that President Obama and the Democrats (much to their Progressive supporters’ dismay) have bent over backwards to meet the GOP’s demands. But as with the rest of the GOTeaParty, Gibson can’t take “yes” for an answer.
In short, the TU has called Gibson what he is – a partisan, ideological hack who will do anything, including bringing the country he claims to love, to the brink of economic disaster.
Here is the full text of the Times Union editorial:
July 27, 2011 at 6:00 am by TU Editorial Board
Our opinion: The House Republicans’ all-or-nothing approach to debt and deficit talks isn’t a negotiating position, but a prescription for gridlock.
If President Obama had come out a few months ago and said that he was willing to reduce federal spending by trillions over the next decade and cut back key social programs like Medicare and Social Security in exchange for ending some tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and corporations, many in his own party might have wondered if he had cut some secret deal with Republicans.
Yet even as Mr. Obama and many Democrats in Congress are ready to accept those very terms, compromising on many of their core positions just to secure a deal to keep this country from defaulting on its debt, House Republicans continue to dig in. While the President has been willing to risk alienating many in his party’s liberal wing, House Speaker John Boehner and his more mainstream colleagues appear to be cowed by a minority of radical freshman whose influence far exceeds their numbers.
They refuse to budge from an anti-tax, anti-government position, holding the nation and its economy hostage. The gun to America’s head is the threat of its first default in history, with potentially disastrous consequences for this country and the world.
With just days to go before the nation reaches its debt limit, it is time for them to end the brinkmanship.
It’s time for them to remember — or perhaps come out of their self-absorption and realize for the first time — that Americans didn’t elect them alone. They didn’t vote to hand the reins of government over to a relatively small bloc of ultra-conservative armchair economists.
Instead, in 2010 they left the Democrats in charge of the Senate and gave the Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives. They elected liberals, conservatives, moderates. They elected newcomers and incumbents. They elected people with different ideas of what the Constitution means, what government is for and how best to fix the economy and create jobs.
In short, they gave no one an absolute mandate.
It is time for intransigent House Republicans, from the tea partiers to the Capital Region’s Chris Gibson and the Hudson Valley’s Nan Hayworth, to accept that nobody gets to win their most extreme position in a negotiation.
It is time for them to heed conservative voices like Mickey Edwards, a former House Republican leader during the years of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Mr. Edwards has looked at what Democrats have offered and said that “If I was there, I would say, ‘My God, declare victory.’”
It is time for them to accept a plan that puts the debt limit battle to rest at least through the 2012 elections, not just patch it up for a few months and thrust it into the election season for political gain.
And if they could stop shouting anti-tax slogans for just a little while, they might see that it’s also time to take advantage of the opportunity before them, right now, to cut the deficit that they supposedly went to Washington to trim.
That would be the responsible thing to do.
But if the Republicans aren’t up to that — if they’re determined to spend this entire session and the rest of this President’s first term doing nothing but campaigning for the next election — next year’s budget deliberations certainly offer another chance to engage in that debate, and in plenty of brinkmanship.
Right now, though, it’s time to put down the gun, step away and govern.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Gibson's puppet show
Rookie Tea Party Rep. Chris Gibson pretends that he cares deeply about the federal deficit, to the point that he is willing to join his fellow radical Republicans in crashing the country's economy by refusing to raise the debt limit.
In this as with most of his votes this year, Gibson is a reliable puppet of Republican House leaders John Boehner and Eric Kantor in refusing to support any tax increases or corporate loophole closings to deal with the alleged debt emergency.
More than that, Gibson is also a puppet of disgraced Republican political operative Grover Norquist -- Gibson has signed Norquist's pledge to never ever raise any tax or close any loophole.
Norquist famously wants a federal government so small that radical Republicans can drown it in a bathtub.
Which would mean the end of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental regulation, VA hospitals, etc.
Gibson did four Independence Day events Monday, and evidently said nothing about his lack of independence as our Member of Congress, since he is more beholden to John Boehner, Eric Kantor, and Grover Norquist than he is to his constituents.
But then puppets never say anything that would upset their puppetmasters.
In this as with most of his votes this year, Gibson is a reliable puppet of Republican House leaders John Boehner and Eric Kantor in refusing to support any tax increases or corporate loophole closings to deal with the alleged debt emergency.
More than that, Gibson is also a puppet of disgraced Republican political operative Grover Norquist -- Gibson has signed Norquist's pledge to never ever raise any tax or close any loophole.
Norquist famously wants a federal government so small that radical Republicans can drown it in a bathtub.
Which would mean the end of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental regulation, VA hospitals, etc.
Gibson did four Independence Day events Monday, and evidently said nothing about his lack of independence as our Member of Congress, since he is more beholden to John Boehner, Eric Kantor, and Grover Norquist than he is to his constituents.
But then puppets never say anything that would upset their puppetmasters.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Who's funding Gibson?
Rookie Rep. Chris Gibson had a relatively mediocre first quarter in fund-raising, according to this diary at Daily Kos.
Follow the link in the diary, and you'll find who's funding our Congressman who wants to eliminate Medicare.
There are the usual local Republicans, developers and builders mostly, and lots of PACs and lobbyists interested in Gibson's committee assignments (Agriculture and Armed Services).
Highlights include:
Longtime county GOP operative Rich Crist, who lies about his employment, gave $500.
Former county resident. and state and county GOP chair, Bill Powers, who now lives in Massachusetts, gave $250, and his kids gave another $950.
Mike Russo, a union guy who worked for Kirsten Gillibrand when she held this seat and now does PR for Global Foundries, gave $500.
Gerry Solomon's widow, in for $500 from her government entitlements.
Lots of money from sugar-related PACS -- American Sugarbeet Growers Association ($500), Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group PAC ($2,000), Great Lakes Sugarbeet Growers PAC ($1,000), Snake River Sugar Co, ($1,000), Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative ($1,000), South Texas Sugar Cane Producers ($125), Florida Sugar Cane League PAC ($375), Alexander And Baldwin Federal PAC ($62.50), and the American Crystal Sugar PAC ($5,000).
Lots more from special interests who agree with Gibson on killing Medicare -- Covidien PAC ($1,000), Independent Insurance Agents And Brokers ($2,000), MVP Health Care Federal PAC ($1,500), New York Life Insurance Company PAC ($5,000), Rain And Hail Insurance Society ($1,000), and Blue Cross/Blue Sheild South Carolina ($385).
The military industrial complex has bought instant access to Gibson -- BAE Systems PAC ($1,000), Boeing Company PAC ($2,000), Honeywell International PAC ($6,134.38), ITT Corporation PAC ($1,000), Lockheed Martin Corporation Employees' PAC ($2,000), Rockwell Collins Good Government Commitee ($1,000), and, last but not least, General Electric Co. PAC ($1.000).
These lists are necessarily incomplete, because some contributors have no doubt, like Rich Crist, decided to disguise the real reason they are giving to Gibson.
But one thing is crystal clear -- Gibson is and will be more interested in public policies that benefit his benefactors than he ever was in representing the interests of the working people of the 20th Congressional District.
His voting record so far has shown that in spades, and will continue to do so for what remains of his one term in Congress.
Follow the link in the diary, and you'll find who's funding our Congressman who wants to eliminate Medicare.
There are the usual local Republicans, developers and builders mostly, and lots of PACs and lobbyists interested in Gibson's committee assignments (Agriculture and Armed Services).
Highlights include:
Longtime county GOP operative Rich Crist, who lies about his employment, gave $500.
Former county resident. and state and county GOP chair, Bill Powers, who now lives in Massachusetts, gave $250, and his kids gave another $950.
Mike Russo, a union guy who worked for Kirsten Gillibrand when she held this seat and now does PR for Global Foundries, gave $500.
Gerry Solomon's widow, in for $500 from her government entitlements.
Lots of money from sugar-related PACS -- American Sugarbeet Growers Association ($500), Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group PAC ($2,000), Great Lakes Sugarbeet Growers PAC ($1,000), Snake River Sugar Co, ($1,000), Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative ($1,000), South Texas Sugar Cane Producers ($125), Florida Sugar Cane League PAC ($375), Alexander And Baldwin Federal PAC ($62.50), and the American Crystal Sugar PAC ($5,000).
Lots more from special interests who agree with Gibson on killing Medicare -- Covidien PAC ($1,000), Independent Insurance Agents And Brokers ($2,000), MVP Health Care Federal PAC ($1,500), New York Life Insurance Company PAC ($5,000), Rain And Hail Insurance Society ($1,000), and Blue Cross/Blue Sheild South Carolina ($385).
The military industrial complex has bought instant access to Gibson -- BAE Systems PAC ($1,000), Boeing Company PAC ($2,000), Honeywell International PAC ($6,134.38), ITT Corporation PAC ($1,000), Lockheed Martin Corporation Employees' PAC ($2,000), Rockwell Collins Good Government Commitee ($1,000), and, last but not least, General Electric Co. PAC ($1.000).
These lists are necessarily incomplete, because some contributors have no doubt, like Rich Crist, decided to disguise the real reason they are giving to Gibson.
But one thing is crystal clear -- Gibson is and will be more interested in public policies that benefit his benefactors than he ever was in representing the interests of the working people of the 20th Congressional District.
His voting record so far has shown that in spades, and will continue to do so for what remains of his one term in Congress.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)