House GOP "Stop Government Abuse" Week was a Bad Joke!

This is a round-up from NARFE of what the Republican House did in the last days before a five-week recess.  Most worthless House ever IMHO as Republicans refuse to vote on bills they know might pass instead voting again to defund Obamacare knowing it is going no where.  The House Republicans need to refund some of their salary to the taxpayers.

Still haven't recovered from the biggest abusers in DC, Republican House, having e a "Stop Government Abuse Week" which is an insult to anyone with the slightest bit of intelligence.  That took nerve but one thing we have learned out of the Republicans in Congress is that nerve is their middle name as they push an agenda that is bogus and adds not one thing to help the 98% of American people. When a Party wants to cut food stamps by over $30B, it says it all - they could care less about those less fortunate because they don't fund their campaigns.  Republicans play to their new hard right base along with wealthy donors led by the Koch Bros and expect others to go along.  More and more long time Republicans are telling the GOP Goodbye!

NARFE Legislative Hotline – August 2, 2013

Message from NARFE President Joseph A. Beaudoin
“As lawmakers depart Washington for five weeks starting today, the stakes are high. The ball is in your court. Use the congressional summer recess to meet with your representative and both senators. Defend the benefits you earned and were promised during your career of service to the American people.”

#1 ‘Stop Government Abuse’ Votes Held
This week, the House of Representatives unveiled and voted on a series of bills targeting the federal government and federal employees as part of “Stop Government Abuse” week. In total, the House had planned to vote on 10 bills denigrating, one way or another, civil service and, in one case, even usurping state law as it relates to taping phone conversations. Most of the bills were on the House calendar under “suspension,” which means debate was limited and passage required two-thirds approval of the voting body. While some of the bills passed by voice vote, the House majority quickly learned it could not pass three of the bills by the required supermajority. It pulled the three bills from consideration and rolled them into one – Stop Government Abuse Act, H.R. 2879 – and voted on the bill yesterday, requiring only a simple majority. The bill passed by a vote of 239-176. To see how your representative voted, please visit: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll436.xml.

Even though passed as a package, these bills were exposed as material for campaign ads and not legislation deserving enactment. The federal community expressed satisfaction in forcing the bills off the suspension calendar. NARFE sent two strongly worded letters to the Hill in advance of the bills, one when the bills were scheduled to be voted on individually and one when the packaged was revealed. NARFE also signed a Federal-Postal Coalition letter opposing the bills. All three letters can be found here.

The bills have little chance of Senate consideration and are likely to die at this point. The attacks on the federal community, however, are unlikely to slow.

#2 Chained CPI Coupon Collection Goal Reached! The NARFE National Officers and Legislative team thank you for your tremendous generosity in sending grocery coupons for a planned September media campaign around the Chained CPI. We have exceeded our goal of $48,000 worth of coupons, and we are working to use the additional coupons in the media campaign. If you have coupons ready to be mailed or if your chapter has a coupon-cutting event planned, please go ahead and submit those coupons.  After the campaign, we will be sending all of the coupons to organizations across the country that provide coupons to our military and their families. Thank you again for your enthusiasm and generosity.
 #3 Take Advantage of ‘NARFE Grass-Roots Advocacy Month’ NARFE has 1,319 chapters and 54 federations, and each has a president listed on our website. These leaders should be in the process of planning meetings with representatives and senators during the congressional summer recess, August 3 through September 8. These five weeks are designated as “NARFE Grass-Roots Advocacy Month,” when NARFE leaders will need the help of every member. This is our opportunity to inform the many new members of Congress, remind many second-termers and re-educate long-time incumbents on the issues important to NARFE members. In the August issue of narfe magazine, President Beaudoin’s column, “Silence Is Not Golden” (page 4), and Sarah Weissmann’s article, “Grass-Roots Advocacy Month” (page 6), call on each NARFE member to defend their earned benefits. Take action now to do just that, and report your activity to the NARFE Legislative Department at leg@narfe.org.

The GOP House is using the bogus 'Groundswell' talking point papers back in their districts and states to try and blame Obama for the mess in DC.  There is only one group to blame -- Republicans with their trek to the hard right.

House Republican leaders have armed their members with their August recess talking point. If you hate government, it is all Obama’s fault. 

The AP reports, “House Republicans will take a carefully orchestrated, staunchly anti-Washington campaign to voters this month, blaming President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats for Americans’ unhappiness with government.” The AP story goes on to mention that it might be difficult for House Republicans to blame Democrats and Obama for everything being that they control the House of Representatives, but John Boehner’s spokesperson Michael Steel already had an answer for that, “We have control of only one-half of one-third of the federal government.” 

The House Republican argument is that you hate the government because Republicans don’t control enough of it. This argument ignores the fact that most Americans are upset with Washington because there is no cooperation, and it is House Republicans who are behind the vast majority of the gridlock. Then there is the problem of the policies that House Republicans are advocating. John Boehner’s Circus of Dysfunction can only seem to agree on doing one thing, voting repeatedly to repeal Obamacare. That’s it. The House has wasted 15% of their time in session trying to repeal Obamacare.

(snip) 

House Republicans have embraced a plan that only an idiot could love. They are going to insult the majority of the country by pretending like we are all stupid and don’t know what is really going on. It isn’t just insulting. It is should be offensive to anyone with one functioning brain cell, and it is destroying the Republican Party. 

Republicans are going to be in for a shock in their gerrymandered districts when all those Republicans they are counting on who they tossed under the bus in favor of the hard right social conservatives, religious right, Tea Party, John Birchers, Libertarians, and militia, decide to vote Democrat and tell the GOP to shove it.  The Republican Party doesn't seem to have a clue about how mad former Republicans are at what has happened to the GOP and how the new base has treated long time Republicans.    GOP may have the big donors but those don't equate to votes.

Republicans don't deserve to be in charge of anything with their obstructionism, wasting tax dollars, and voting on bills they know will never be law.  Yet bills like the jobs bills including for veterans, immigration bill, and appropriations bills just sit there while they work 126 days this year doing nothing except appeasing their new base and wealthy donors.  That they do well.  Being honest with integrity and doing what is best for the American people earns them an F!