How Do You Spell "Hypocrisy?" G-O-P

Yesterday Ryan Grim pointed out a poll that bodes poorly for the Establishment's concerted efforts to terrorize the public into Austerity, something both the Washington Post and NY Times are working on assiduously. (No need to mention the Wall Street Journal, since that's always their malevolent and misleading schtik.) So while a nincompoop like Matt Bai was reminding anyone who had forgotten that clueless Wall Street shill Paul Ryan is his kind of guy, Grim warned Obama that throwing his lot in with the reactionaries could be catastrophic for Democrats.

Social Security turns 75 this week and remains an intensely popular program with voters of all ages, who strongly oppose cutting it to reduce the deficit, according to a new survey paid for by AARP and conducted by GfK Roper.

The poll, which was provided exclusively to HuffPost, finds that 85 percent of adults oppose cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit; 72 percent "strongly oppose" doing so.

Numbers like that simply don't appear in surveys of almost any other national issue that is subject to debate.

But while conservatives nurture their seven decade long dream of dismantling Social Security, Republican leaders like John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Tom Price tried to dismantle Congress... or at least render it ineffective from November through January. Their nonsensical and hypocritical drive for an extended paid vacation after the elections was thoroughly beaten back Tuesday (236- 163), only six scurrilous, treacherous Boehner Boys crossing the aisle to vote with the Republicans-- Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Michael McMahon (D-NY), Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID) and Glen Nye (Blue Dog-VA).

Interestingly, among the Republicans following Boehner into the demand that Congress stop working-- self-proclaimed Georgia clairvoyant Tom Price asserting that Democrats could use a lame duck session "to override the will of the American people"-- were several dozen who have only recently come to their odd point of view, Price and Boehner among them.

After Democrats regained control of the House in 2006, Price was all for holding a lame duck session to advance Republican goals. "Most members feel we ought to stay in as long as we need to get done as much as we can do realistically," he said. "If that's a week, fine.  If that's four weeks, fine."

Republicans also used the lame duck session to pursue the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998, despite overwhelming public opposition. In total, 60 sitting House Republicans supported Clinton's impeachment, but hypocritically voted yesterday to bar a lame duck session this year.

Among the culprits were a gaggle of some of the worst corporate shills Congress has ever seen like oily Joe Barton, former and future lobbyist Brian Bilbray, 119-times-a-year golfer John Boehner, bailout queen-- banksters only, not teachers, firemen or policemen-- Mary Bono Mack, real estate swindler Ken Calvert, fake moderate Mike Castle, David "Living A Lie" Dreier, and Jerry "the real Duke Cunningham" Lewis.

Progressive Democrat Russ Warner, who is running for the Los Angeles-area seat currently occupied by Dreier, pointed out the hubris and unmitigated hypocrisy in the move: "This is just another example of David Dreier and the Republicans trying to bend the rules. The people's business can't wait while the Republicans try to change more than 200 years of precedent."

Deficits and Economic Recovery

And if that little slide show isn't enough for you, how about this graphic from today's Washington Post showing the difference between the Democratic and Republican tax plans? Any ambiguity? If you don't get it, Speaker Pelosi spelled it out today: "Underscoring the hypocrisy of the GOP’s recent concern for our nation’s fiscal outlook, Congressional Republicans continue to call for an extension of the deficit-busting Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest few-- saddling Americans with nearly $700 billion in debt."