The Senate's Theoretical Vote On Shared Sacrifice-- Teactionary Filibuster Broken... And The GOP's Efforts In The House To Shut Out The Lights

S.1323 is Harry Reid's bill that "expresses the sense of the Senate that any agreement to reduce the budget deficit should require that those earning $1 million or more per year make a more meaningful contribution to the deficit reduction effort." Reid and his colleagues have, perhaps, been shamed by Bernie Sander's relentless work in the area. Bernie, in fact, cosponsored the resolution with Reid. Needless to say, the Republican extremists, lead by teabag phony Jim DeMint moved immediately to filibuster it and prevent a vote. Shockingly most Republicans joined the Democrats and passed a cloture motion to end the filibuster last week. The right-wing filibuster failed 22-74, only one putative Democrat, Nebraska reactionary Ben Nelson, joining the likes of Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, Jim Inhofe, Ron Johnson, Tom Coburn, Dean Heller, Chris Lee, Rob Portman, Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt and the rest of the far right garbage who feel millionaires and billionaires shouldn't pay their fair share of taxes. These are the followers of the fascist ideology first propounded by American pro-Nazi plutocrat Lammont DuPont in a 1942 address to the National Manufacturers Association:

"We will win the war by reducing taxes on corporations, high income brackets, and increasing taxes on lower incomes, by removing unions from any power to tell industry how to produce, how to deal with their employees or anything else, by destroying any and all government agencies that stand in the way of free enterprise."

The far right believed it then and they believe it today. DuPont introduced the far right's freshly minted new religion: so-called "free enterprise." Among the conservative Republicans voting with the Democrats against this creed-- and against the sociopaths in their caucus-- included Miss McConnell, Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn, John McCain, Jon Kyl, John Thune, David "Diapers" Vitter, Pat Roberts and Dan Coats.

Meanwhile over in the House-- run by sociopaths and nihilists-- they have a vote scheduled today that would repeal energy efficiency standards for light bulbs set in 2007 with strong bipartisan support. Republicans no longer support anything that makes sense and will surely vote en masse to take a giant step backwards. The standards the Republicans plan to gut today will save consumers about $100 per family per year, or about $12 billion nationally, when fully implemented. They will also reduce energy demand, avoiding the need for 30 large power plants. The standards will prevent more than 100 million tons of carbon pollution per year-- the equivalent of taking 17 million cars off the road. And the new standards are sparking investment in American jobs-- prompting manufacturers to build new U.S. plants and create new U.S. jobs making more energy efficient lighting technologies. For example, TCP, a bulb maker that traditionally has done all of its manufacturing in China, plans to open its first U.S. plant, in Ohio, where it will make new CFL bulbs. When’s the last time you heard of something like that happening? Does that explain their opposition? Progress is a horrible thing for reactionaries; it always has been-- which is why they are always on the wrong side of history.