GOP Staffer on Vitter Amendment: "Congress Literally Threw Staff Under The Bus"

GOP Staffer on Vitter Amendment: "Congress Literally Threw Staff Under The Bus"
The latest Republican assault on Obamacare involves jacking up health insurance costs for members of Congress and their staffers. That has some GOP aides upset.
—By Erika Eichelberger | Mon Sep. 30, 2013 3:29 PM PDT


There's a new front in the battle over Obamacare: Republican congressional staffers are angry at their bosses for trying to deprive them of affordable insurance. [...]

"I understand it politically, and as a talking point," one rank-and-file Republican staffer says of the Vitter and McCaul measures. "But Congress literally threw staff under the bus on this…You're hurting staff assistants who are sorting your mail."

Staffers don't make as much money as you may think, he adds. "When I started on the Hill answering phone calls, I'd hear people saying, 'You're a rich congressional staffer,' and I'm like, 'you must be out of your mind.'" Some low-level congressional employees make as little as about $28,000 a year; House staff salaries are the lowest they've been since 2007.

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the rest:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/obamacare-employer-contribution-exemption-vitter-amendment%20?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2Fmain+%28MotherJones.com+Main+Article+Feed%29

Unicorns spotted

OBAMACARE IS AWESOME.

IT'S A GOOD SOLID DEAL FOR MILLIONS OF AMERICANS

IT'S A HELL OF AN ACCOMPLISHMENT.

IT WILL LEAD, RAPIDLY, TO A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM







mho, mr. pete and i say

about time

President Obama said Monday that funding the government "is not a concession to me."

Rebuffing Republican demands that he concede ground on Obamacare to get a government spending bill passed, President Obama said Monday that funding the government "is not a concession to me."

"One faction of one party in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, does not get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election," Obama said. "Keeping the people's government open is not a concession to me. Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of Americans on the job is not something you give to the other side. It is our basic responsibility."

"You do not get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you are supposed to be doing anyway or just because there is a law there that you do not like," Obama said. "The American people sent us here to govern. They sent us here to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make their lives a little bit after, trade new jobs, to restore economic security, to rebuild the prospects of upward mobility. That is what they expect."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-funding-government-is-not-a-concession-to-me

Sen Angus King (I-ME) goes there on GOP/ACA: “That’s a scandal—those people are guilty of murder"

Senator Angus King (I-ME) goes there:

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“That’s a scandal — those people are guilty of murder in my opinion,” Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with Democrats, told me in a Friday interview. “Some of those people they persuade are going to end up dying because they don’t have health insurance. For people who do that to other people in the name of some obscure political ideology is one of the grossest violations of our humanity I can think of. This absolutely drives me crazy.” (h/t TPM)

MORE:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sen-angus-king-conservatives-who-urge-people-to-avoid-obamacare-are-guilty-of-murder

Except For The Fact That He Beat Them Twice-Conservatives Really DON'T have Any Reason To Hate Obama

The Precious

Except for the fact that he beat them twice, conservative really don't have any reason to hate Obama. "Obamacare" is just the Heritage Foundation health care plan, aka Romneycare, and otherwise, uh, what?

I'm not making the argument that Obama is just like a Republican, just making the point that he really hasn't given them much to work with. They've seized on Obamacare because it's the big legislative accomplishment, but they're mostly incoherent (or lying) about why it makes them so bad. It's just the thing they've chosen to rally behind because they really don't have anything else.

I suppose there's Benghazi!
by Atrios
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2013/09/the-precious.html

AL GORE: “We as US citizens need to pay careful attention to the fact-our democracy has been hacked"

Former Vice President Al Gore says democracy has been overtaken by corporate special interests, and it’s up to web-based activists to take it back.

“We as U.S. citizens need to pay careful attention to the fact that our democracy has been hacked,” Gore told Motherboard. “Big money has perverted our democracy, hacked it, taken it over and twisted it to serve the purposes of special interests.”

Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush as the result of a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, said Americans must recognize that new reality and then accept the challenge of fixing it.


“We need an ‘Occupy Democracy,’ if you will,” Gore said.



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/30/al-gore-our-democracy-has-been-hacked-and-survival-of-civilization-at-risk/

THE Dallas Morning News!: Editorial: Give health exchanges a chance to work

Editorial: Give health exchanges a chance to work

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Critics of Obamacare would be wise to stop throwing wrenches into the gears of the developing system and instead allow the exchanges a chance to work. For example, Gov. Rick Perry has urged more rules for the federally funded navigators assigned to help people evaluate the insurance plans. Given that 2 million Texans will be eligible for insurance through the exchanges, far better for Perry not to undermine implementation. After all, getting the uninsured to pay for their own coverage -as opposed to having taxpayers foot the bill - would be a great thing for all of us.

Most reasonable people would agree that the economics of healthcare must change. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the blueprint for that transformation, so lets give it a chance.

the rest:
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20130927-editorial-give-health-exchanges-a-chance-to-work.ece

The purpose of a gun---And No, they do not double as a set of kitchen utensils.

MON SEP 30, 2013 AT 05:46 AM PDT
The purpose of a gun
by brooklynbadboy


These do not double as a set of kitchen utensils.

Each NY Prison Inmate Costs $167,000 a yr...Same Cost To Put A Young Person Thru Harvard for 4 yrs

"Ho Ho! Hey Hey!" - Tea Party freedom fighters --- by Tom Tomorrow