Republicans’ approval ratings of Congress edged up to 12% from 6% in January, while Democrats’ ratings also were up slightly, from 15% to 19%. [...]
The overall average for congressional job approval since Gallup began measuring it almost 40 years ago is 33%, meaning that Congress’ image is in significantly worse shape now than it has been throughout most of the last four decades.
“Obama has been offering to reduce spending on Social Security and Medicare for two years now, in return for Republican agreement to spread the burden of the fiscal adjustment. They won’t take the deal… if Republicans want to reform their party’s identity and make it into something other than absolutist advocacy of low taxes for the rich, they need to come up with some negotiating position on fiscal issues other than ‘no tax hikes for the rich of any kind no matter what we get in return.’”
In the state of Washington, there is radioactive waste leaking at the Hanford nuclear site. Call me crazy, but it’s my feeling that wind doesn’t leak, nor does solar power… but that’s another argument for another day.
Today let’s concentrate on cleaning up yet another potentially lethal nuclear mess.
An aging tank of high-level radioactive waste is leaking at the Hanford nuclear site in south-central Washington state at the rate of up to 300 gallons a year, federal authorities disclosed Friday after discovering a dip in the volume of toxic sludge in the tank.
Gov. Jay Inslee said, “This raises concerns not only about the existing leak that has been recently discovered, but also concerning the integrity of the other single-shell tanks of this age, some of which have experienced prior leaks.”
Meh, no worries:
State officials say there is no immediate public health threat, because it could take years or even decades for the leaked material to reach the groundwater and move on to the nearby Columbia River.
See? It could take years before Washington residents have to worry about things like “public health threats,” or as I like to call them, fear, pain, suffering, cancer, and death.
What’s everyone getting so worked up about? Relax. There are plenty of hard-working federal employees who are working to clean up the toxic slop before anything really bad happens. They are the heroes of this story. They are on it.
But Inslee said the timing of the leak’s discovery coincided unfortunately with a report this week from Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee that more than 1,000 federal employees now working on cleanup at the site could be placed on unpaid leave for six weeks if threatened federal budget “sequestration” cuts occurred on March 1.
Breathe, people. Obviously, Congress is all over it. They’d be fools to let something as dangerous as this slip by them, right?
Oh… Excuse me, something is coming through my imaginary earpiece, hang on…
Ed Schultz and his guests Reps. Jerry Nadler, Sheila Jackson Lee, and John Garamendi helped to clarify, again, how Republicans are trying to cut, cut, cut their way into another recession, are willing to take us straight to the bottom with sequestration, are threatening to destroy (privatize) “the Big Three”: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and head-scratchingly voted to recess for several days instead of doing what they were elected to do: find ways to create jobs and provide for the health and welfare of their fellow Americans.
Garamendi:
“They’re headed towards another manufactured disaster.”
If the GOP has its way, up to a million jobs could be eliminated. We’ve already cut the deficit in half in record time, which as Nadler (among others) points out, happened a little too quickly for comfort. When things move this fast, there is a real danger of more, not fewer, job losses.
Ed:
“Where’s the sense of urgency here? What are you doing on vacation?”
Garamendi:
“Well, we’ve been told not to be… in Congress. Speaker Boehner controls the agenda, controls the calendar for the House of Representatives, and he sent us home. The Democrats… voted not to go home, but to stay and work next week.”
House Democrats have spent the week arguing that the House should not recess for the week, so that it can work on a sequester replacement plan. But the House voted 222-190 on Friday morning to recess next week — every Democrat voted against it, along with just four Republicans.
Within the hour, the Democratic-led Senate agreed to that same resolution, H.Con.Res. 5, by unanimous consent.
Hey you guys, this is hard! You want to try it? Get in the ring:
It’s called the U.S. Postal Service because it is a service, not a corporation. Who decided the Postal Service must be profitable? Do other government agencies, like the Defense Department and the Department of Education, have to turn a profit?
Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general, and the Post Office has effectively served the American people for 237 years. But now it is under attack because, gasp, it’s losing money. No wonder: The Republicans in 2006 made postal workers pre-fund their retirement 75 years in advance, making it nearly impossible for the USPS to make a profit.
Let’s be honest: Conservatives want to privatize the Postal Service, home to two of the nation’s largest unions. If Congress insists that the USPS be profitable (and it shouldn’t), then the solution is simple: Raise the price of stamps a few cents.
You see, the post office is required by law to provide universal delivery, regardless of geography and regardless of whether or not they’re going to make a profit. It’s a big service for America. This is a rights issue. This is more not so much about convenience, this is about what you in Real America voted for: Tea Party America.
Bipartisan legislation to help the struggling U.S. Postal Service could be enacted and sent to President Obama’s desk within months, top lawmakers said Wednesday.
Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), testifying before a Senate panel, said that last-minute efforts at postal reform in the previous Congress came very close to a bipartisan agreement.
Cummings, the ranking Democrat at the House Oversight Committee, even went so far as to say the legislation could make it through both chambers before the end of March.
President Obama holds a press conference to mark the end of his first term and answers questions about the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling with Republicans in Congress and potential legislation or executive orders to prevent gun violence.
Asked about the upcoming deadline to raise the debt ceiling, President Obama said the debt ceiling is not about authorizing any new spending, it is authorizing the government to pay the bills for the expenses it has already incurred. He said not doing so would be like going out to eat and then deciding to not to pay the bill.
He also said that the start of his second term was a good time to stop negotiating with congress about fiscal matters “through crisis.”
“I want to be clear about this: The debt ceiling is not a question of authorizing more spending. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending. It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to. These are bills that have already been racked up, and we need to pay them. So while I’m willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they’ve already racked up.
“If congressional Republicans refuse to pay America’s bills on time, Social Security checks and veterans’ benefits will be delayed. We might not be able to pay our troops or honor our contracts with small business owners. Food inspectors, air traffic controllers, specialists who track down loose nuclear materials wouldn’t get their paychecks. Investors around the world will ask if the United States of America is in fact a safe bet. Markets could go haywire. Interest rates would spike for anybody who borrows money, every homeowner with a mortgage, every student with a college loan, every small business owner who wants to grow and hire. It would be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth, might tip us into recession, and ironically, would probably increase our deficit.
So to even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It’s absurd.
“The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.
“… What you can count on is, is that the things that I’ve said in the past — the belief that we have to have stronger background checks, that we can do a much better job in terms of keeping these magazine clips with high capacity out of the hands of folks who shouldn’t have them, an assault weapons ban that is meaningful — that those are things I continue to believe make sense. (Inaudible) — will all of them get through this Congress? I don’t know.
“Well, Chuck, the issue here is whether or not America pays its bills. We are not a deadbeat nation. And so there’s a very simple solution to this. Congress authorizes us to pay our bills.
Now if the House and the Senate want to give me the authority so that they don’t have to take these tough votes, if they want to put the responsibility on me to raise the debt ceiling, I’m happily (sic) to take it. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, had a proposal like that last year, and I’m happy to accept it.
“But there’s one way to get around this. There’s one way to deal with it, and that is for Congress to authorize me to pay for those items of spending that they have already authorized. And you know, the notion that Republicans in the House or maybe some Republicans in the Senate would suggest that in order for us to get our way on our spending priorities that we would risk the full faith and credit of the United States — that, I think, is not what the founders intended. That’s not how I think most Americans think our democracy should work.
“Congress has not been able to identify $1.2 trillion in cuts that they’re happy with, because these same Republicans say they don’t want to cut defense. They claim that they don’t want to gut Medicare or harm the vulnerable, but the truth of the matter is, is that you can’t meet their own criteria without drastically cutting Medicare or having an impact on Medicaid or affecting our defense spending. So the math just doesn’t add up.
“I mean, this is not a complicated concept. You don’t go out to dinner and then, you know, eat all you want and then leave without paying the check. And if you do, you’re breaking the law… If Congress wants to have a debate about maybe we shouldn’t go out to dinner next time, maybe we should go to a more modest restaurant, that’s fine.
“We’ve got to stop lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis when there’s this clear path ahead of us that simply requires some discipline, some responsibility and some compromise.
“I’m confident that there are some steps that we can take that don’t require legislation and that are within my authority as president… I think, for example, how we are gathering data, for example, on guns that fall into the hands of criminals and how we track that more effectively — there may be some steps that we can take administratively, as opposed — through legislation.
As far as people lining up and purchasing more guns, you know, I think that we’ve seen for some time now that those who oppose any common-sense gun control or gun safety measures have a pretty effective way of ginning up fear on the part of gun owners that somehow the federal government’s about to take all your guns away. And you know, that — there’s probably an economic element to that. It obviously is good for business.
But I think that, you know, those of us who look at this problem have repeatedly said that responsible gun owners, people who have a gun for protection, for hunting, for sportsmanship — they don’t have anything to worry about. The issue here is not whether or not we believe in the Second Amendment.
The issue is, are there some sensible steps that we can take to make sure that somebody like the individual in Newtown can’t walk into a school and gun down a bunch of children in a — in a shockingly rapid fashion? And surely we can do something about that… I think it’s a fear that’s fanned by those who are — are worried about the possibility of any legislation getting out there.
“You know, when I’m over here at the congressional picnic and folks are coming up and taking pictures with their family, I promise you, Michelle and I are very nice to them, and we have a wonderful time — (scattered laughter) — but it doesn’t prevent them from going under the floor of the House and, you know, blasting me for being a big-spending socialist.”
At the end, the president said this:
“…Personal relationships are important, and obviously I can always do a better job, and the nice thing is, is that now that my girls are getting older, they don’t want to spend that much time with me anyway. (Laughter.) So I’ll be probably calling around, looking for somebody to play cards with or something, OK, I — because I’m getting kind of lonely in this big house.”
Poor Congress. Everyone’s always picking on them just because they never accomplish anything; and persist in playing political games instead of doing their jobs; and act like spoiled, entitled, tantruming brats; and continue to use the filibuster and other obstruction tactics more than any other Congress in the history of ever; and introduce anti-women’s rights legislation instead of working on behalf of the Americans they represent who need, you know, jobs (aka “jobortion” bills); and parade in front of Tee Vee cameras when they should be bending over backwards to get this country out of an economic mess; and refuse to approve the president’s judicial and cabinet nominees; and take more recesses than a kindergarten class; and… Shall I go on?
Did I mention the fight over Hurricane Sandy relief?
Americans give Congress a 14% job approval rating as the new year begins, the lowest since September of last year and down from 18% in November and December. The disapproval rating for Congress is 81%. [...]
Republicans’ approval of the job Congress is doing dropped to 6% in January, from 14% in December. This eight-percentage-point decline fits with the finding that rank-and-file Republicans had the most negative reactions to the fiscal cliff agreement reached at the end of the year. But Democrats’ approval of Congress dropped by a similar degree — six points, to 15% from 21%. Independents’ approval rating was more constant at 17%, compared to 19% in December.
In the broadest sense, one bit of good news for the new Congress is that its current job approval ratings are so low that they have practically nowhere to go but up.
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