In Violation of their Oath, Are House Republicans Holding the Debt Celling Hostage for Cong Ryan Budget?

After a week away, some things don't change as the GOP House is still the same bunch of obstructionists now wanting to hold the debt ceiling hostage to pass Paul Ryan's austere budget while cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

House Republicans will hold the national debt ceiling increase hostage until President Obama agrees to mandatory spending cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the National Journalreports, and will seek to use the leverage of default to force Democrats to enact the policies in Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget. 

Since slashing discretionary spending to historic lows — the discretionary side of the ledger has grown at a slower rate than inflation since 2007 and now makes up a smaller share of the economy than it did before the Great Recession — the GOP has shifted from demanding dollar-for-dollar immediate spending cuts and is now focusing on drafting a range of options to significantly restructure mandatory benefit programs.

What happened to the Oath of Office Republican House members took when they were seated as members of the House?  Looks like in their small minds it was just words that mean nothing to them as they obstruct and hurt the economy following the lead of their wealthy donors:

That Republicans are even considering holding the debt ceiling hostage again is in violation of the oath of office they swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. So help me God.” The 14^th Amendment of the Constitution that every Republican swore to defend and support against domestic enemies like corporate CEOs and Wall Street executives says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law…shall not be questioned,” and yet holding the public debt that Republicans created as a hostage to reward the rich, punish the people, and enrich the private insurance industry is questioning the validity of the debt, and by any stretch of the imagination approaches criminal abrogation of their oath of office.

Have this group of House Republicans forgotten what it was like when they took the oath and it meant something? Are they so corrupted by the wealthy donors like the Koch's that they have forgotten what it was like to be proud to be a member of Congress who actually would work for their constituents and the American people.  Now the House GOP has no empathy for those less fortunate and only care about doing what the Koch's and other wealthy donors demand.

The very nerve of them wanting to put the debt on the backs of those who can least afford it, is a 'sin' since they throw the Bible at us like it is their guiding principle which it is not.  Not even close.  Jesus fed the poor -- this group of Republicans wants to make the poor go without food and necessities because they believe they are on a free ride.  The free ride belongs to the House Republicans with their 3-day work week, numerous recesses, and lack of passing anything but social issues.  Heaven forbid if they passed a jobs bill to actually help people.  Not this group who want to cut the SNAP program for families which includes babies.  Those same babies that the GOP in states demand must be born.  The problem is after they are born they want to cut off food and medical care.  Bunch of heartless people are in the GOP Caucus in the House and elected around the Country.

President Obama has stated openly that he will not agree to the cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid the heartless Republicans want in exchange for a 'yes' vote on the debt ceiling:

President Obama warned Republicans he is not going to negotiate (read pay a ransom) over raising the debt limit and cautioned Republicans against threatening the credit-worthiness of the United States by “bartering over the borrowing limit.”  Republicans are certain the President will concede defeat and pay whatever ransom criminal Republicans demand, but without an election looming, it is doubtful he is bluffing. Apparently their worst fear is that the President will wait until the last minute and make a bipartisan deal with the Senate and dare House Republicans to accept an unfavorable agreement or take responsibility for a credit default and another downgrade on the U.S. credit rating, but even making a deal is paying a ransom for a constitutionally mandated action Republicans followed without deviation during the Bush administration.

The GOP House wants to make sure that their spending spree from 2001-2008 is paid for on the backs of the elderly and poor while their wealthy donors like the Koch's get to keep their tax breaks and loopholes.

Republicans Expect the Elderly, Poor and Unemployed to Pay Off Their DebtBy: RmuseJul. 8th, 2013
more from Rmuse

Most Americans fail to recall when the elderly, poor, and unemployed Americans blew up the nation’s debt and deficit with two unfunded and unnecessary wars, huge tax cuts for the rich, and Wall Street greed that contributed to crashing the economy, killing millions of Americans’ jobs, and ushering in the Great Recession of 2008. For some curious reason, only Republicans remember that it was the poor, public sector workforce, and retirees who created the country’s economic malaise, and subsequently they are duty-bound to make them pay restitution with Draconian measures to enrich the insurance industry, satisfy Wall Street’s lust for the Social Security Trust, as well as provide the wealthy with a new round of tax cuts. To see their punitive measures through to fruition, Republicans are preparing a laundry list of their most coveted programs to eliminate for President Obama to choose from in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit to repay the GOP’s debt and deficit they put on the nation’s credit card from 2001-2009 (the 2009 budget was George Bush’s). 

As Republicans anticipate holding the nation’s creditworthiness hostage again in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, they fundamentally picked the most Draconian measures in Paul Ryan’s Heritage Foundation budget and will demand the President choose which demographic is going to suffer the most or force the nation into its first credit default in history. Republicans are big on historical firsts, and it was in 2011 that after 50 years of automatically raising the debt limit that they first demanded offsetting spending cuts for every dollar the debt limit was increased creating America’s first credit downgrade. For historical perspective, and to demonstrate the GOP’s criminal, and unconstitutional, economic hostage taking, Republicans raised the debt limit for George W. Bush seven times without slashing one penny from the budget. They did, however, specifically raise the debt limit in May 2003 to pay for $350 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and it is that type of debt Republicans are now insisting the elderly, poor, and infirm repay through loss of benefits they paid for during their working lives.

Read More about America Held Hostage by the GOP House at Politicususa.com 

You realize how much the House Republicans have sold out to wealthy donors and Wall Street when you see the percentage of Americans who oppose the cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and yet the GOP House is still pushing forward with the cuts.  Being bought and paid for by wealthy donors screams out  In fact more then 50% think the retirement income from Social Security is too low when you retire at 62.

In a survey by the National Academy of Social Insurance: 

• 82% believe it is critical to preserve Social Security regardless it means increasing Social Security taxes 
• 87% insist that Social Security is preserved for future generations even if it means raising taxes paid by the rich 
• 84% believe current Social Security benefits do not provide enough income for retirees 
• 89% said Social Security benefits are more important than ever
• 75% said increase benefits so Americans can retire at age 62 and not be poor.

How much money have wealthy donors spent on these House Republicans that is not reported for them to continue down this path?  How many houses have been paid for or money put in the bank by the likes of the Koch Bros, wealthy donors, CEOs, and Wall Street to sell out the elderly and poor?   There is something very wrong here as you can smell the odor of corruption from today's GOP office holders.  They have taken their oaths and turned them upside down in order to follow the whims of the wealthy by signing pledges like from the Koch's anti-climate pledge agreeing to obstruct any new action.  It is out in the open they are bought and paid for and could care less about the Country and all of us who are not part of the Top 2%.

Seems to me that when a member of Congress who has taken an oath signs a pledge to obstruct they are breaking their oath and should be removed from office.  As we have witnessed since the GOP took over the House in 2011, their word to the American people is worth zero, zip, nada but their word to their wealthy donors like the Koch's is golden.  The Republicans are attempting to sell the American Middle Class and poor down the river so that the wealthy can control everything we do.  We must follow the lead of State Senator Wendy Davis of Texas who was willing to stand up to the Texas GOP thugs in the Senate, Lt Governor, and Governor's office who put their agenda over the health of the women of Texas.  Another case of where they want to pass a draconian abortion bill while already having cut health benefits for the poor.

Time for action is now - roll up the sleeves to go register new voters and make sure that every voter has the ID required to vote.  Start now rounding up monitors for elections and have lawyers standing by to challenge voter suppression since the SCOTUS said no need for the Voting Rights Act.  Would say in a normal world that it is time for Congress to act on ensuring that all Americans have equal access to vote but that would mean the House Republicans would have to get on board and that's not happening.

GOP already gerrymandered districts to keep their seats but what they didn't count on were Republican rank and file getting so mad at them for playing to the hard right 'new' base of the party who only care about social issues that we would support Democrats in elections.  The GOP office holders and social conservatives are a perfect match with telling everyone else how to live to meet their version of  'Christian' standards which is playing up to the 'money changers' and ignoring those less fortunate.  Maybe they should start following the New Testament before preaching at the rest of us.