No One Wants A Bad Deal-- Including The Satanic Forces

Satan is not without allies-- Brent & Sean

Progressive activists have adopted a new mantra: "no deal is better than a bad deal" and are working to head off corporate Democrats in Congress who are willing to balance the budget on the backs of working families. This week, for example, Howard Dean sent a fundraising letter to DFA members asking for support in that group's work keeping congressional support for an Obama-Boehner Grand Sellout to a minimum.

Republicans lost big in the election, but John Boehner is trying to force his right-wing agenda on the American people anyway. Republicans in Congress are taking advantage of the fiscal showdown and trying to jam through massive cuts to Medicare that would be devastating to America's seniors.

We need to stop them. DFA members in all 50 states need to stand up right now and tell their Senators to take Medicare off the table before Republicans force a bad deal on the American people. But we need to raise at least $50,000 by the end of the day to make that campaign successful.

Simply put, the Republican plan to cut Medicare by raising the eligibility age is a foolish idea. Here's why:

• Raising the retirement age doesn't save the federal government all that much money
• Private insurers can charge seniors up to three times as much money as younger, healthier patients-- meaning many of our seniors can't afford private coverage in the years leading up to Medicare eligibility
• Medicare is our country's only universal healthcare program and it has the lowest administration costs of any healthcare plan in the country

No deal is better than a bad deal for America's seniors. Democrats need to stand strong against right-wing attacks on Medicare.

But progressives aren't the only ones mustering their forces to hold Congress accountable. Most people see Brent Bozell as... well, a bozo. But in the conservative movement he cuts a respectable figure-- and he's threatening Establishment Republicans that he'll fuck up their fundraising if they raise taxes on the millionaires and billionaires who help finance his ForAmerica, Inc scam operation. Last week he sent threatening letters to Boehner, Cantor, Cornyn and Miss McConnell and one to RNC Chair Reince Priebus vowing focus all his energy on persuading conservatives to cut the RNC off financially if Boehner and McConnell agree to raise taxes on the richest 2% of Americans.

“Reince, it pains me to say this, but if the Republican Party breaks its word to the American people and goes along with President Obama with tax increases, it will have betrayed conservatives for the final time,” Bozell wrote.

“I will make it my mission to ensure that every conservative donor to the Republican Party that I have worked with for the last three decades-- and there are many and they have given tens of millions to Republican causes-- gives not one penny more to the Republican Party or any member of Congress that votes for tax increases,” he warned.

...Bozell is not the only conservative to warn that signing onto a deal hiking taxes would prompt a strong backlash.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Tea Party caucus, warned that conservatives could back challengers to sitting lawmakers who vote for tax increases.

“If there is a bad deal, I just think you’re going to see conservatives around the country coalesce around better candidates, better-trained candidates, and to recognize the Republican Party needs to reflect more conservative principles,” he said.

DeMint said a lot of conservative donors have already stopped giving to the official Republican Party committees and sent their dollars instead to outside groups. He said that trend is a major reason why the Senate Conservatives Fund, which he founded, has raised millions of dollars.

On Tuesday, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, urged colleagues to extend the Bush-era tax rates only for families earning below $250,000 to avoid a tax increase on middle-class families at year’s end. He said Republicans could resume the fight against higher taxes on wealthier families next year.

DeMint, however, said decoupling tax rates for families earning above $250,000 per year and those below that threshold would be a mistake.

“I don’t think any decoupling of the rates is a concession we should make. I think that’s capitulation. It doesn’t help the country. For the Republicans to agree to that is bad policy and I think it’s bad politics,” he said.

In his letter to Priebus, Bozell warned of dire political consequences if GOP leaders fail to stand their ground against Democrats.

  “If the GOP again abandons its pledge of fiscal responsibility, including the promise not to raise taxes on ANYONE, again conservatives will walk,” he wrote.

“Pure and simple, in the ongoing debate over the so-called ‘fiscal cliff,’ the Republican Party is giving new definition to the word ‘surrender.’ The GOP is signaling a desire to abandon its solemn commitment to advance fiscal restraint,” he added.

Brian Darling, senior fellow for government studies at the Heritage Foundation, predicted a conservative backlash against any deal leaders strike to raise taxes.

“You’re going to have a lot of pressure in the Republican caucus against any measure that hikes taxes, that closes loopholes to gain more revenue,” he said. “Some would be outraged if a deal was cut where Republicans affirmatively voted to raise taxes. I think the Tea Party would be outraged.”

Bozell is another right-wing extremist screaming for a purer right-wing party than the GOP. "It is time for conservatives to start looking for a new home. There's precious little left for us here."

Should Americans assume that Boehner and House Republican leaders have been misleading the country for more than two years? Bozell wondered:

"It would be impossible to count the times and ways Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy and so many others have told America that tax hikes would kill jobs and cripple the economy. Lo and behold, that's just what they've proposed, $800 billion of them," Bozell said. "They aren't taxes, no siree. They are 'revenue,' and 'loopholes' that are closed (which also begs the question: if loopholes, why were they open?)."

Why shouldn't Obama demand $1.6 trillion in tax hikes on wealthy Americans, Bozell asked: "The Republican Party has now surrendered its principles, and is in full retreat, the Democrats taste blood, and they're going for it all. I would too."

Bozell said it's no coincidence that just before releasing his proposal, Boehner orchestrated a purge of conservatives from key positions of power in the Republican Conference.

My own two cents: despite Boehner's and Cantor's frantic attempts to rally their caucus, there are enough Republican congressmen too scared to buck the millionaires and billionaires and their political henchmen like DeMint and Bozell. So Boehner is going to need lots of Democratic votes to get the Grand Bargain through the House. The Progressive Caucus looks pretty well united right now in not giving in, not even if Obama stands on his head or threatens them or tries to bribe them. The Blue Dogs, of course, will overwhelmingly stick with the GOP. But the GOP has decimated their ranks over the last 4 years and the Blue Dogs are all bark now and no bite, so Boehner needs the conservative, business-oriented New Dems. Will the New Dems throw granny under the bus? My guess it that almost all of them will. Here's a list of New Dems (although not an updated one with all the new Members). Are any of them your congressmember? These are the ones who will make the difference in throwing seniors to the dogs:

• Terri Sewell (AL-07)
• Lois Capps (CA-23)
• Adam Schiff (CA-29)
• Karen Bass (CA-33)
• Laura Richardson (CA-37)
• Loretta Sanchez (CA-47)
• Susan Davis (CA-53)
• Jared Polis (CO-2)
• Ed Perlmutter (CO-7)
• Joe Courtney (CT-2)
• Jim Himes (CT-04)
• Chris Murphy (CT-5)
• John Carney, Jr. (DE-At Large)
• John Barrow (GA-12)
• David Scott (GA-13)
• Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01)
• André Carson (IN-7)
• Cedric Richmond (LA-2)
• Gary Peters (MI-9)
• Russ Carnahan (MO-3)
• Shelley Berkley (NV-1)
• Rush Holt (NJ-12)
• Martin Heinrich (NM-1)
• Carolyn McCarthy (NY-4)
• Gregory Meeks (NY-6)
• Joseph Crowley (NY-7), ex-Chair
• Eliot Engel (NY-17)
• Bill Owens (NY-23)
• Kathy Hochul (NY-26)
• Brian Higgins (NY-27)
• Mike McIntyre (NC-7)
• Kurt Schrader (OR-5)
• Jason Altmire (PA-4)
• Allyson Schwartz (PA-13), Vice-Chair
• Pedro Pierluisi (PR-At Large)
• Jim Cooper (TN-05)
• Charlie Gonzalez (TX-20)
• Jim Moran (VA-8)
• Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
• Rick Larsen (WA-2)
• Adam Smith (WA-9), Vice-Chair
• Ron Kind (WI-3), Chairman

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has devolved into one gigantic scam, which makes its officials even more difficult to deal with than if they were just ideologues.

UPDATE: GOP Crackpot Brigade Sends House Republicans A Threatening Letter

140 far right extremists, many very severely mentally unbalanced, like Erick Erickson, David Bossie, Foster Friess, Al Cardenas, Keith Mason (the Personhood psychopath) and Clarence Thomas' fascist wife Virginia, sent a threatening note to every Republican in the House and Senate warning them not to deal with Democrats... or else.

“If such deals are made, conservative organizations and conservative and liberty-loving voters would see that the current leadership is not an acceptable alternative to the left,” the letter says. “Let us also remind you that a great many potent conservative organizations and millions of conservative and liberty-loving voters do not believe in the divine right of incumbents to be re-nominated. Conservatives know how to recruit and support candidates.”

“Suppose just enough Republicans cross the aisle to provide Democrats a majority in vitally important legislative battles now upon us,” it continues. “They will find themselves, come election time, the targets of both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, which isn't likely to be healthy for their political careers. Suppose, on the other hand, that the congressional Republican leadership negotiates a "deal," a "compromise," with Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. The historic record of such deals shows that the Democrats usually clean the Republicans' clocks.