Boehner, William Wallace? Um... Mel Gibson... Maybe

Gibson and Boehner are both drunken right-wing slobs. That's about as close to Braveheart as the congressional Republicans are going to manage to get. Unless David Dreier, Patrick McHenry and Aaron Schock decide to use their makeup kits to lather on some warpaint. No one can see how raising taxes on 160 million Americans a week before Christmas somehow conflates to Phil Gingrey's Braveheart moment-- with Boehner, no less, in the role of a kilt wearing William Wallace. Are these delusional handmaidens of the one-percent really that delusional?

Apparently not every single one of them. Tuesday, despairing and freaking out over Elizabeth Warren's polling numbers, Scott Brown (R-MA) called Boehner's inability to control the House Republicans "irresponsible and wrong," just a few minutes before McCain ran to CNN to whine that the House Republicans are "harming" the party. And this morning it was Tennessee Republican Bob Corker's turn, claiming his own party is "losing the public relations battle over a payroll tax cut extension and should find a way to extend the tax holiday and move on:"

"Are Republicans getting killed now in public opinion? There's no question," Corker said Wednesday on CNBC. 

"Both Republicans and Democrats have agreed that this is going to happen and probably the best thing to happen now is just to get it over with-- one more policy blunder-- but just get it over with and move on because now it's been framed as a tax increase which it's not," he said.

Gingrey needs to tell Aaron Schock to try a different kind of makeup for today's talking point

Corker was responding to a Wall Street Journal missive that basically said Boehner and his extremist House caucus are not only putting their majority in jeopardy, but handing Obama reelection and making it harder for the GOP to capture the Senate.

GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.

...House Republicans yesterday voted down the Senate's two-month extension of the two-percentage-point payroll tax holiday to 4.2% from 6.2%. They say the short extension makes no economic sense, but then neither does a one-year extension. No employer is going to hire a worker based on such a small and temporary decrease in employment costs, as this year's tax holiday has demonstrated. The entire exercise is political, but Republicans have thoroughly botched the politics.

Their first mistake was adopting the President's language that he is proposing a tax cut rather than calling it a temporary tax holiday. People will understand the difference-- and discount the benefit.

Republicans also failed to put together a unified House and Senate strategy. The House passed a one-year extension last week that included spending cuts to offset the $120 billion or so in lost revenue, such as a one-year freeze on raises for federal employees. Then Mr. McConnell agreed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the two-month extension financed by higher fees on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (meaning on mortgage borrowers), among other things. It passed with 89 votes and all but seven Republicans.

...One reason for the revolt of House backbenchers is the accumulated frustration over a year of political disappointment. Their high point was the Paul Ryan budget in the spring that set the terms of debate and forced Mr. Obama to adopt at least the rhetoric of budget reform and spending cuts.

But then Messrs. Boehner and McConnell were gulled into going behind closed doors with the President, who dragged out negotiations and later emerged to sandbag them with his blame-the-GOP and soak-the-rich re-election strategy. Any difference between the parties on taxes and spending has been blurred in the interim.

After a year of the tea party House, Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats have had to make no major policy concessions beyond extending the Bush tax rates for two years. Mr. Obama is in a stronger re-election position today than he was a year ago, and the chances of Mr. McConnell becoming Majority Leader in 2013 are declining.

At this stage, Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly. Then go home and return in January with a united House-Senate strategy that forces Democrats to make specific policy choices that highlight the differences between the parties on spending, taxes and regulation. Wisconsin freshman Senator Ron Johnson has been floating a useful agenda for such a strategy. The alternative is more chaotic retreat and the return of all-Democratic rule.

Looks like the House Republicans hadn't read the Journal's suggestions before this morning's session, when Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) gaveled the session to a close as soon as the Democrats tried to get a vote on the Senate payroll tax bill. Hoyer, playing his role, feigned concern: "You're walking out, you're walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from middle class taxpayers, the unemployed, and… those who will be seeking medical assistance from their doctors... We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing the issue of critical importance to this country." Boehner's office then turned off the CSPAN cameras as fast as they could find the controls.



UPDATE: Reid Tosses Boehner A Lifeline

A couple of hours ago Harry Reid sent Boehner a letter that could help him save face and get himself out of the predicament his insane caucus got him into:

Dear Speaker Boehner,

Our respective chambers have been seeking for weeks to negotiate a year-long extension of the payroll tax cut for middle-class families, as well as unemployment benefits and Medicare payments for physicians.

You and I agree that this should be our goal. But as these weeks have made clear, there remain differences between our parties over how to fund and implement these programs that will take longer then a few days to reconcile.

Recognizing this reality, eighty-nine Republican and Democratic senators came together to agree to a short-term extension of these programs. As you requested when we met last Wednesday, Senator McConnell and I worked together to find this common ground. Once the House of Representatives acts on this immediate extension, we will be able to sit down and complete negotiations on a longer extension. But because we have a responsibility to assure middle-class families that their taxes will not go up while we work out our differences, we must pass this immediate extension first.

As the Senate vote made clear, there is no reason for this to be a partisan issue. I am fully confident that we can work out our differences and find common ground on a year-long extension. But in the meantime, families should not have to worry that they will wake up to a tax increase on January 1, 2012.

To provide middle-class families the certainty they deserve, I urge you to reconvene the House to act on the Senate’s bipartisan compromise as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Senator Harry Reid

ANOTHER UPDATE: How's This Playing Out In The Congressional Districts With Hot Elecions?

You're not going to find House race anywhere with a clearer difference than in northwest Arkansas where one-percenter Steve Womack is desperately fighting off a challenge from blue collar progressive Democrat Ken Aden. Womack, as always, rubberstamped the House leadership's decision to torpedo the unemployment extension and the payroll tax cut for middle-class workers. As Ken showed us last night, that means the average Arkansas working family will have $900 a year left in their pockets to spend every month. Boehner, who lives in a gated golfing community, dismissed that as "chickenshit." Womack should know better; Ken Aden sure does.

Congressman Steve Womack’s vote yesterday against bi-partisan legislation extending tax cuts to middle class families is the equivalent of a giant lump of coal in the stockings of thousands of Northwest Arkansas families and seniors, the campaign of Ken Aden, Democratic candidate for Congress from Arkansas’ Third Congressional District said early Wednesday.

Aden notes that not only does Womack’s vote against the tax cut harm middle class families now facing a tax hike, but it hurts the district’s long-term unemployed because an extension of unemployment benefits were included as part of the legislation. In addition, Womack’s “no” vote on the bi-partisan legislation places many Medicare recipients in jeopardy of loosing access to affordable healthcare, as the bill included a two-year fix preventing drastic cuts to physicians serving Medicare patients.

"Congressman Steve Womack gave the voters of the 3rd Congressional District an early Christmas present yesterday when he joined with Speaker Boehner and radical elements in the House in rejecting a bipartisan plan to extend tax cuts to the middle class, give a hand-up to the long-term unemployed, and protect our seniors on Medicare from loosing access to their doctors,” Aden said. “Womack’s holiday gift to his constituents, is a tax hike for middle class families, seniors on Medicare getting shut out of their doctor’s offices, and the long-term unemployed being sent into poverty,” he continued.

Aden said it is time for Womack to stop doing the bidding of House Speaker John Boehner and the radical Tea Party elements in Congress and do what is right for middle class families.

"Speaker Boehner has devised a perfectly evil plan for the citizens of this country. His plan raises taxes for middle class families and adds in massive amounts of red tape to the heart wrenching process of filing for unemployment insurance-- and Steve Womack is sticking with Boehner like a wrapper on a candy cain,” Aden said. “It is unconscionable,” he noted.

Finally, Speaker Boehner and his ally Womack, have added in a proposal to use American tax payer funds as part of a scheme to build out the KeystoneXL pipeline, the primary purpose of which is to aid Canadians in selling oil extracted from tar sands to China.

“Why on earth Rep. Womack would rather help China than his own constituents should be perfectly understandable. He's not there to represent the people of Arkansas, he's in Congress to help out Speaker Boehner. It's offensive and positively anti-American."

By contrast, while Womack was voting in Congress to kill unemployment benefits, raise taxes, and block seniors on Medicare from their doctors, Ken Aden and his campaign staff were collecting and distributing toys to children’s homes across Northwest Arkansas.

“The citizens of the Third District should look carefully at these two men and observe this contrast. While Womack is in Washington voting with Speaker Boehner to hurt thousands of people in our district, Ken is out helping he less fortunate,” said Jacob Burris, campaign director for Aden’s campaign.

You can help Ken Aden get Womack out of government by contributing to his campaign here. And just west of Arkansas, is great big Texas, where all the Republicans voted against the payroll tax break for the middle class and against an unemployment extension. Dan Grant recently declared he'd be taking on reprehensible reactionary plutocrat Michale McCaul, a multimillionaire who married into the Clear Channel family. Dan sent a summary of what happened yesterday to Austin area voters:

Yesterday, millionaire Michael McCaul, the single richest member of Congress, voted to do nothing to stop a tax increase on working families that will take effect on January 1st. He rejected a bipartisan measure backed by nearly 90% of the Senate, and supported across America. This forces Congress into another dangerous game of political chicken that threatens to add $1000 annually-- or $40 per paycheck-- to the tax burdens of millions of families while the country is still struggling out of the worst recession in decades. This complete refusal to act and rejection of the most basic Congressional responsibility-- to govern-- hurts all Americans and threatens our economy. It’s a shameful failure of both priorities and leadership in Washington.

This is infuriating. But sadly it's not surprising.

Michael McCaul and this out-of-touch Congress have spent more time playing politics than doing their jobs: supporting political theater, showdowns, and standoffs, rather than working to address the issues that truly matter.

We need more people in Congress who understand that their job is to look out for hardworking families, not to play games with their lives and livelihoods. We need people in Congress who understand what $1000 dollars means to a family at Christmas, to a family saving for college, or struggling to stay afloat in these tough times.

And, despairing, one of Miss McConnell's top aides told media sources that the House Republicans have put the party into an untenable position and that their stupidity and blundering is "inexcusable... This is a lose/lose situation for us. They've let the Democrats get the messaging advantage and more specifically we've turned one of our key issues on its head. The Republicans look like they are the ones blocking tax relief... The House Republicans pulled defeat from the jaws of victory."