In a New York Times op-ed today, President Joe Biden offered the opening salvo in his battle with the Republicans over budget measures. He outlined his promise to make the Medicare trust solvent beyond 2050 without cutting benefits. Indeed, he says, his plan will make the program deliver better value on the money Americans invest in it.
I don't know how you do this every night, Heather, but thank you. I had a 14 hour day, and I am now able to read your Letter and know both what has transpired and its contextualized importance. I am so much better informed than I was when I had no source for threading the key ideas together, and that feels vital. Now to go preorder your new book!! (Congratulations!)
Dear Heather, I know you've been working on this all day and it is past midnight where you live. Thank you for keeping at this day after day for all of us who read you religiously and thank you for weaving such convoluted happenings into the two page, single spaced document that I copy, paste and format so I can take it to bed and read it without my computer. Bless your heart! Bless your knowledge! Bless your commitments! I'm always happy too when you take a night off.
I started typing up one of my trademark rants, then I realized I was writing a very similar rant to one of my recently published rants, so I just went and tracked down that one and am reposting it, because it looks like it got stuck way down in its section on the original date, and I'm lazy and want sleep.
You know what gets me going? The trope the phony debt hawks (everyone from Joe Manchin on right) trot out to frame their stinginess as compassion: "We just can't leave this mountain of debt to the next generation." How solemnly delivered these words always are. How eminently reasonable the speaker of them always imagines themselves. They always - always - follow this up with how we need to make some "hard choices" to "be responsible."
Except the right choice isn't hard to see. There are only two choices: cut programs, or raise revenue.
DEAR SWEET GOSH AND HIS SON JEEPERS... ****RAISE REVENUE!!!!!****
Almost every domestic program currently in place suffers from the problems of underfunding and redundant red tape, not superfluousness. It's not just SS & Medicare; almost every domestic program is there for a clearly identified reason, took a heck of a lot of effort to establish, and would be missed by a lot of suddenly sad and angry people if it went away, even if they didn't know it existed prior to it going away. The Repubs - cowards all, really - know this. When it comes time to cut, they can't seem to face the potential consequences. But the only alternative to piling on more debt is unthinkable to them.
RAISE REVENUE.
You care about what you're leaving to future generations? Ask THEM what they think about the issue, why dontcha? I'm younger than almost every member of Congress, so let me briefly appoint myself spokesperson. Or actually, I don't have to. We already collectively spoke our opinion through our votes last election, and the one before that, and the one before that. Our opinion is that we want more programs, not fewer, we want them to be more robust and directly effective, and we want you to do this while ALSO lowering the debt by doing the only obviously remaining option:
RAISE REVENUE.
Preferably on people who could dance gleefully around a bonfire of Ben Franklins bills each night and never burn enough to have to part with their planet-ruining jet. But, hey, I'll pitch in too. Whatever.
But if you refuse to drop the horsesh!t that to RAISE REVENUE is some kind of sacrilege, kindly shut your condescending mouth, because we all know who is "responsible" for this debt, and it is you and your rich corporate friends.
In the name of dear sweet Yaweh, Allah, Vishnu, and Buddah, and whatever moon wizard they still pray to in some corner of the Amazon, RAISE REVENUE READ MY NIKES THEY SAY "JUST DO IT" I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU
Thank goodness President Biden gets this and is finding ways to communicate it clearly. I intend to help him do so. We all should.
“Speaking of Trump’s presidency, Tucker wrote: ‘We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.’”
What do you bet most Republicans who say they like Trump’s achievements secretly agree? But Trump’s cult must be “respected.”
Then there was HCR’s mention of the PBS report on thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of pro-Trump bots launched likely within this country to make Trump seem more popular than he really is. (And disparage Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.)
The nation's founders never could have anticipated the plight that threatens us all — one political party deciding not to govern and instead working fervently to tear down the federal government and, in the process, dismantling democracy. And most of the party's supporters really don't understand the game in which they are mere useful pawns, a game that threatens to upend or even ruin their lives.
All the while, the big money interests pulling the strings to power this wrecking ball strive to become unfettered by government to amass riches beyond the billions they already control.
Biden is right; the Republicans have no budget. They have no platform. Their one and only goal is to make it impossible for Democrats to govern, paint them as failures, and dupe enough gerrymandered voters into voting the Republicans into power.
And it’s all coming apart at the seams. Fox News (Hah!) Channel is caught outright lying to its audience. CPAC this year was a bad joke that nobody went to. TFG is losing more of his mojo every day inspiring primary challenges that are likely to succeed. His diehard MAGA core will stick with him even as the jail cell door clangs shut guaranteeing a split Republican vote in 2024. The new radical wing of the Republican Party suffers from almost daily foot-in-mouth disease. (Memo to Lauren Boebart , MTG, et al; best leave Pete Buttigieg alone. He’s smarter than all of you put together and he bites back.)
The Republican Party stumbles and crumbles toward the 2024 elections making Democrats look more and more like the adults in the room.
The GOP's willingness to burn down the house because they don't like the curtains would absolutely become a generational problem.
It amazes me that the GOP is willing to wear this as their answer to.....what exactly? Is this their familiar go to, "owning the Libs" ?
I was surprised at McConnells' response to the release of the videos to FOX "News". I figured he would be more of the "if I ignore it, they can't blame me stance" kind of guy.
The Democrats need to keep up the beat down of the MAGAS on their self destruction tour.
Good to see Pres. Biden speaking out and making his case. But he should be doing it not only in the NYT, but also in all the medium-sized and small town papers and media around the country. Get all his people and Democrats everywhere out into the country and talking up his program. Not everyone reads the NYT or WAPO. Thank you, Heather, for all you do.
"The Republican Party is in its current chaos in part because it has been boxed in by the former president. Trump’s base has forced party leaders to take impossible extremists stands like, for example, a showdown over the debt ceiling. New materials released tonight in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against the Fox News Network confirm that Fox News Channel executives and hosts did not believe that Trump won the election in 2020, although they continued to push that lie on their channel to hold Trump viewers."
When will this end?! The repub party seems intent on ruining America. I honestly don't feel like there are ANY reasonable/rational r's in office at the moment. Some of them make reasonable/conciliatory statements on occasion, but none of them have the fortitude to do what is right.
This is exhausting and it shouldn't be. :-( I can't wait for trump to go away...
Where to start? That’s the question every day. As you, Professor, share the repub dirty tricks, obstruction and lies, it’s still reassuring to see you highlight the good policies and programs President Biden and the Democrats and a very few repubs are planning and implementing for the people. One concern is how much will repubs claim are their ideas or conversely bash the proposals and bills. One day at a time. In the mean time, repubs continue to push their agenda against women, making the abortion pills harder to access. And Walgreens is helping them out by planning to drop these pills in states where repubs threaten legal action. But here’s good news: In a Tweet yesterday Gov. Newsom wrote “California won’t be doing business with @Walgreens-or any other company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk.” And included a link to the news coverage. It’s time for Democrats and the Public to pushback on the destructive and biased repub actions and policies that are blatantly against women. Boycott businesses that cave to repub threats. “Walgreens and mifepristone: Abortion pill move leads California to cut ties…”https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161590750/california-walgreens-mifepristone-abortion-pill
Watching the Republicans bicker, squabble, and cast shade on anything the Dems and Biden do has been somewhat agonizing as i wait for the other shoe to drop! Caught in so many blatant lies the Republicans still are shrill enough to keep the attention of the MSM away from matters of substance. I am so eager for the cult of Trump and all who have acquiesced to it to be sent packing by voters.
It's shocking to see the private comments of the Fox opinion hosts expressing the same feelings most of America has for Trump. All this time I thought they were all best buddies. It was also astounding to hear Rupert Murdoch say something to the effect of being afraid to cross Trump. They are but mortals.
It is hard to believe that Republicans will fare well in the 2024 elections. There’s no more platform, there’s no more message of hope for a better life, there’s only hate. The only places I see Trump signs and flags are on the richest homes and the poorest shacks.
With that said, it is important to note that when reports of bots on social media amplify the MAGA Republican base, American voters mustn’t get discouraged. DEMOCRATS ARE THE NEW SILENT MAJORITY! There are plenty more of us, or else why would we ever win at all? It’s time Democrats stand and be proud of what we stand for - a society that is strong, compassionate, and fair to all - in the law and in taxation.
EDIT: I offer this suggestion to all who spend their time on social media. It’s time for Dems to fight back. I’m not saying that you should engage the bots or the memes that are so crowded with comments. Rather, you should go after political pages - the House Oversight Committee or the House Republicans pages and start asking for the budget. Also if you have a Republican rep, ask him/her on their page - where’s the budget? They are the weak links, not the general public.
Thank you, Heather ,for making me hope that we are approaching a point where the mendacity and lies of the Republicans are no longer going to be able to be ignored by a large enough majority of Americans to get us back on safe ground. I am not hoping to see any of the MAGAts change but there will no longer be any way an independent can support the Republicans.
I don't know how you do this every night, Heather, but thank you. I had a 14 hour day, and I am now able to read your Letter and know both what has transpired and its contextualized importance. I am so much better informed than I was when I had no source for threading the key ideas together, and that feels vital. Now to go preorder your new book!! (Congratulations!)
Dear Heather, I know you've been working on this all day and it is past midnight where you live. Thank you for keeping at this day after day for all of us who read you religiously and thank you for weaving such convoluted happenings into the two page, single spaced document that I copy, paste and format so I can take it to bed and read it without my computer. Bless your heart! Bless your knowledge! Bless your commitments! I'm always happy too when you take a night off.
I started typing up one of my trademark rants, then I realized I was writing a very similar rant to one of my recently published rants, so I just went and tracked down that one and am reposting it, because it looks like it got stuck way down in its section on the original date, and I'm lazy and want sleep.
You know what gets me going? The trope the phony debt hawks (everyone from Joe Manchin on right) trot out to frame their stinginess as compassion: "We just can't leave this mountain of debt to the next generation." How solemnly delivered these words always are. How eminently reasonable the speaker of them always imagines themselves. They always - always - follow this up with how we need to make some "hard choices" to "be responsible."
Except the right choice isn't hard to see. There are only two choices: cut programs, or raise revenue.
DEAR SWEET GOSH AND HIS SON JEEPERS... ****RAISE REVENUE!!!!!****
Almost every domestic program currently in place suffers from the problems of underfunding and redundant red tape, not superfluousness. It's not just SS & Medicare; almost every domestic program is there for a clearly identified reason, took a heck of a lot of effort to establish, and would be missed by a lot of suddenly sad and angry people if it went away, even if they didn't know it existed prior to it going away. The Repubs - cowards all, really - know this. When it comes time to cut, they can't seem to face the potential consequences. But the only alternative to piling on more debt is unthinkable to them.
RAISE REVENUE.
You care about what you're leaving to future generations? Ask THEM what they think about the issue, why dontcha? I'm younger than almost every member of Congress, so let me briefly appoint myself spokesperson. Or actually, I don't have to. We already collectively spoke our opinion through our votes last election, and the one before that, and the one before that. Our opinion is that we want more programs, not fewer, we want them to be more robust and directly effective, and we want you to do this while ALSO lowering the debt by doing the only obviously remaining option:
RAISE REVENUE.
Preferably on people who could dance gleefully around a bonfire of Ben Franklins bills each night and never burn enough to have to part with their planet-ruining jet. But, hey, I'll pitch in too. Whatever.
But if you refuse to drop the horsesh!t that to RAISE REVENUE is some kind of sacrilege, kindly shut your condescending mouth, because we all know who is "responsible" for this debt, and it is you and your rich corporate friends.
In the name of dear sweet Yaweh, Allah, Vishnu, and Buddah, and whatever moon wizard they still pray to in some corner of the Amazon, RAISE REVENUE READ MY NIKES THEY SAY "JUST DO IT" I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU
Thank goodness President Biden gets this and is finding ways to communicate it clearly. I intend to help him do so. We all should.
R
A
I
S
E
R
E
V
E
N
U
E
Good night.
“Speaking of Trump’s presidency, Tucker wrote: ‘We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.’”
What do you bet most Republicans who say they like Trump’s achievements secretly agree? But Trump’s cult must be “respected.”
Then there was HCR’s mention of the PBS report on thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of pro-Trump bots launched likely within this country to make Trump seem more popular than he really is. (And disparage Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.)
The nation's founders never could have anticipated the plight that threatens us all — one political party deciding not to govern and instead working fervently to tear down the federal government and, in the process, dismantling democracy. And most of the party's supporters really don't understand the game in which they are mere useful pawns, a game that threatens to upend or even ruin their lives.
All the while, the big money interests pulling the strings to power this wrecking ball strive to become unfettered by government to amass riches beyond the billions they already control.
Biden is right; the Republicans have no budget. They have no platform. Their one and only goal is to make it impossible for Democrats to govern, paint them as failures, and dupe enough gerrymandered voters into voting the Republicans into power.
And it’s all coming apart at the seams. Fox News (Hah!) Channel is caught outright lying to its audience. CPAC this year was a bad joke that nobody went to. TFG is losing more of his mojo every day inspiring primary challenges that are likely to succeed. His diehard MAGA core will stick with him even as the jail cell door clangs shut guaranteeing a split Republican vote in 2024. The new radical wing of the Republican Party suffers from almost daily foot-in-mouth disease. (Memo to Lauren Boebart , MTG, et al; best leave Pete Buttigieg alone. He’s smarter than all of you put together and he bites back.)
The Republican Party stumbles and crumbles toward the 2024 elections making Democrats look more and more like the adults in the room.
"It’s a circle he is unlikely to be able to square." Love that well known geometry analogy!
Thank you Heather.
The GOP's willingness to burn down the house because they don't like the curtains would absolutely become a generational problem.
It amazes me that the GOP is willing to wear this as their answer to.....what exactly? Is this their familiar go to, "owning the Libs" ?
I was surprised at McConnells' response to the release of the videos to FOX "News". I figured he would be more of the "if I ignore it, they can't blame me stance" kind of guy.
The Democrats need to keep up the beat down of the MAGAS on their self destruction tour.
Be safe. Be well.
Good to see Pres. Biden speaking out and making his case. But he should be doing it not only in the NYT, but also in all the medium-sized and small town papers and media around the country. Get all his people and Democrats everywhere out into the country and talking up his program. Not everyone reads the NYT or WAPO. Thank you, Heather, for all you do.
"The Republican Party is in its current chaos in part because it has been boxed in by the former president. Trump’s base has forced party leaders to take impossible extremists stands like, for example, a showdown over the debt ceiling. New materials released tonight in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against the Fox News Network confirm that Fox News Channel executives and hosts did not believe that Trump won the election in 2020, although they continued to push that lie on their channel to hold Trump viewers."
When will this end?! The repub party seems intent on ruining America. I honestly don't feel like there are ANY reasonable/rational r's in office at the moment. Some of them make reasonable/conciliatory statements on occasion, but none of them have the fortitude to do what is right.
This is exhausting and it shouldn't be. :-( I can't wait for trump to go away...
Where to start? That’s the question every day. As you, Professor, share the repub dirty tricks, obstruction and lies, it’s still reassuring to see you highlight the good policies and programs President Biden and the Democrats and a very few repubs are planning and implementing for the people. One concern is how much will repubs claim are their ideas or conversely bash the proposals and bills. One day at a time. In the mean time, repubs continue to push their agenda against women, making the abortion pills harder to access. And Walgreens is helping them out by planning to drop these pills in states where repubs threaten legal action. But here’s good news: In a Tweet yesterday Gov. Newsom wrote “California won’t be doing business with @Walgreens-or any other company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk.” And included a link to the news coverage. It’s time for Democrats and the Public to pushback on the destructive and biased repub actions and policies that are blatantly against women. Boycott businesses that cave to repub threats. “Walgreens and mifepristone: Abortion pill move leads California to cut ties…”https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161590750/california-walgreens-mifepristone-abortion-pill
Watching the Republicans bicker, squabble, and cast shade on anything the Dems and Biden do has been somewhat agonizing as i wait for the other shoe to drop! Caught in so many blatant lies the Republicans still are shrill enough to keep the attention of the MSM away from matters of substance. I am so eager for the cult of Trump and all who have acquiesced to it to be sent packing by voters.
It's shocking to see the private comments of the Fox opinion hosts expressing the same feelings most of America has for Trump. All this time I thought they were all best buddies. It was also astounding to hear Rupert Murdoch say something to the effect of being afraid to cross Trump. They are but mortals.
It is hard to believe that Republicans will fare well in the 2024 elections. There’s no more platform, there’s no more message of hope for a better life, there’s only hate. The only places I see Trump signs and flags are on the richest homes and the poorest shacks.
With that said, it is important to note that when reports of bots on social media amplify the MAGA Republican base, American voters mustn’t get discouraged. DEMOCRATS ARE THE NEW SILENT MAJORITY! There are plenty more of us, or else why would we ever win at all? It’s time Democrats stand and be proud of what we stand for - a society that is strong, compassionate, and fair to all - in the law and in taxation.
EDIT: I offer this suggestion to all who spend their time on social media. It’s time for Dems to fight back. I’m not saying that you should engage the bots or the memes that are so crowded with comments. Rather, you should go after political pages - the House Oversight Committee or the House Republicans pages and start asking for the budget. Also if you have a Republican rep, ask him/her on their page - where’s the budget? They are the weak links, not the general public.
Thank you, Heather ,for making me hope that we are approaching a point where the mendacity and lies of the Republicans are no longer going to be able to be ignored by a large enough majority of Americans to get us back on safe ground. I am not hoping to see any of the MAGAts change but there will no longer be any way an independent can support the Republicans.
How does the message get to Magats when they ONLY watch faux and faux will never air anything about the Dominion trial?