OK, guys, here's the deal. The House yesterday passed an extension of the middle-class tax cuts and only the middle class tax cuts. Lookit:

The House on Thursday passed a bill that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts only to the middle class, a mostly symbolic measure that nonetheless allows Democrats to draw a contrast with Republicans on the issue.

The bill passed by a 234-to-188 vote, with 20 Democrats bucking their party to oppose the measure and three Republicans voting in favor. The proposal would extend the Bush-era tax cuts only to individuals earning $200,000 or less per year and families earning $250,000 or less.

[...]

The bill stands little chance of passing in the Senate, where Republican leaders have vowed a filibuster.

"Regardless of what the majority forces House Republicans to do, it's not going to go anywhere," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday night. "We are going to extend the current tax rates; we're not going to raise taxes on anybody. The only thing we're discussing now is just how long that extension will be."

OK, now here's where the tricky part comes in. You guys have the GOP right where you want them. If they want to filibuster, you need to say, "Go ahead." And once they do, you blanket the airwaves and repeat, non-stop, the following message: "The House has already voted to keep taxes low for 98% of Americans. Senate Democrats are eager to pass this extension as well because the last thing we want to do is raise taxes on 98% of the country in this economy. But the Republicans won't give us an up-or-down vote. They would rather see everyone's taxes go up if it means that Paris Hilton and LeBron James might not be able to buy their ninth houses."

Or even more simply: "The GOP is holding your tax cuts hostage because they want Paris Hilton to be able to afford another pool."

Guys, this is a layup. I'm begging, begging, begging you to not eff this up. The GOP will eventually cave on this as they don't want to be responsible for everyone's taxes increasing in January. This is your chance to make these guys eat a giant crap sandwich and come out of it on top. Please, please, please do the right thing. Demand an up or down vote on the middle class tax cut extension.

That is all.

UPDATE: Just after I typed up this post last night, I came across this:

The White House isn’t overly impressed with Nancy Pelosi’s rapid passage of a measure permanently extending tax cuts only for middle-class earners – or by reports that a deal with the GOP on the cuts is imminent.

In a statement seemingly intended to douse the entire Hill in cold water, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs faintly praised Democrats’ passage of the extension for families making $250,000: “The President continues to believe that extending middle class tax cuts is the most important thing we can do for our economy right now and he applauds the House for passing a permanent extension.”

He quickly added: “But, because Republicans have made it clear that they won’t pass a middle class extension without also extending tax cuts for the wealthy, the President has asked Director Lew and Secretary Geithner to work with Congress to find a way forward. Those discussions started just yesterday and are continuing this afternoon.”

Hill Democrats were unimpressed and said Gibbs’s statement only served to reinforce their fear that the administration had already given up the idea of challenging the GOP to vote for the middle-class cuts – or let all of them expire by the end of the year.

But if a deal is really in the offing, Gibbs warned that it would come later rather than sooner.

That does it. Obama needs to face a strong primary challenger. And no, I don't care if it costs the Democrats the White House in 2012. Obama had a golden opportunity to have an actual victory -- the first he's had since he killed that fly back in 2009 -- and he's flushing it down the crapper. We cannot have this guy representing us anymore. He is too weak to lead.

Stop me if you heard this one: A conservative GOP representative-elect, who trashed his opponent for his support of "Obamacare" and the "Obama/Pelosi/Hoyer agenda" is indignant that he doesn't get his government-paid health care plan immediately. And the punchline? He's a physician with one of the most prestigious hospitals in the country.

Irony meters everywhere just redlined:

Republican Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist who defeated freshman Democrat Frank Kratovil on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, reacted incredulously when informed that federal law mandated that his government-subsidized health care policy would take effect on Feb. 1 – 28 days after his Jan. 3rd swearing-in. “He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”.

“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.

Harris, a Maryland state senator who works at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and several hospitals on the Eastern Shore, also told the audience, “This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” his spokeswoman Anna Nix told POLITICO.

Cry me a river, Dr. Harris. Some of your constituents have had to struggle without health insurance at all, thanks to your party's demagoguery of health-care reform. Congratulations, teabaggers. You boneheads who want the government out of their Medicare now have an ally in Congress

That's Nancy Pelosi walking up the steps of the Capitol building, carrying the same gavel used when Congress passed Medicare in 1965. The rule debate is beginning now. Twitter users can follow along here. Or watch streaming video of the debate via C-Span. Huff Po:

At Pelosi's side were Georgia congressman and civil rights-era leader John Lewis and her close friend Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.).

Speaking to HuffPost's Arthur Delaney, Rep. Dingell expressed confidence that reform would pass when asked if he thought Democrats had the votes.

"I wouldn't be walking this way if I didn't," said the Michigan Democrat, who ambled into the meeting on crutches instead of in a wheelchair. The caucus could be heard applauding him when he entered the room.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) told HuffPost that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and his anti-abortion bloc of Democrats were not discussed during a last-minute morning meeting of Democrats. He echoed Speaker Pelosi in saying he expected the bill would pass. Asked whether Stupak would be a 'yes' vote, Rep. Sandy Levin said, "I think so."

Final vote on the Senate bill: 219-212

video courtesy of Media Matters

Those uppity females in Congress. Who do they think they are, trying to participate in our democracy on one of the biggest bills in front of Congress?

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), one of the GOP's minions, continues the Joe Wilsonification of Congress to prevent discussion over Stupak's amendment, one that may actually lead to effectively a ban on abortion for low income women:

“The real goal of abortion opponents isn't to maintain the status quo. It's to extend federal prohibitions into private pocketbooks. By restricting coverage offered through the exchange, they hope to make abortion coverage so unattractive that insurers eventually stop offering it in the market for individual and small-group policies.”

And they don't even want us to discuss it. Those white men of the GOP don't want women to insert their remarks into the record.

How dare they? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Party of No:

UPDATE: from Think Progress: GOP Gone Wild!

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Woot! I love it when we get some plain-spoken truth on the House Floor. Such a refreshing change from the Republican lies and fear-mongering.

The Republican record defies their rhetoric. Remember their so-called Prescription Drug Benefit for Seniors passed in the dark of the night? No one read the bill, didn’t know what was in it. Cost 700 billion dollars ‘cause that was subsidizing the pharmaceutical and insurance industry. But now, they’re worried about costs. It gave the seniors a donut hole.

Now their concern is not about what they’re stating. It’s about their patrons in the insurance industry. Because this bill has real reforms of the worst abuses of the insurance industry. It takes away their unfair anti-trust immunity, so they can no longer collude to drive up premium prices or restrict coverages. The Republicans would continue the anti-trust exemption. This bill outlaws the unfair pre-existing condition restriction. Republicans would continue that for the insurance industry. This bill would not allow the industry to cancel your policy even though you’ve been paying your premiums when you get sick. It’s called recission. The Republicans allowed that abuse to continue. This bill, on our side, outlaws the small print that limits your lifetime coverage, which bankrupts families every day in America. The Republicans allow it to continue.

And that’s not enough. They’ve opened up a new loophole, their so-called national plan: a company would only be regulated by the laws of the state in which it was based when it sold you a policy. If you live in Oregon, but you bought a policy that was written--and oh, by the way, they expand the definition of state to include the territories in the Mariana Islands—so if you’ve got a problem, call the Mariana Islands Insurance Commissioner. That’s the Republican plan and profits to the insurance industry!

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What color is the sky in Mean Jean Schmidt's world? Because we are clearly through the looking glass when the Wicked Witch of Ohio claims that most Americans are against this bill (LIES), that the CBO says healthcare costs will not be reduced (LIES, although in fairness, they trashed the Republican version), and reduced Medicare benefits (LIES).

Maybe if the Republicans have nothing but lies and scare tactics to offer up as their objection to health care reform, that should tell their tea-baggin' supporters something.

Jeez, all we need now is one less liberal to push those damn Blue Dogs into doing the right thing. From Rep. Wexler's site:

“Today, I am announcing that I will be accepting the position of president of the Center for Middle East Peace and will leave Congress effective in January of 2010.

“More than anything, I want to thank the voters of Palm Beach and Broward Counties who have allowed me the privilege of representing our community in the United States House of Representatives and the Florida Senate for the past nineteen years. I have truly cherished the opportunity to serve my constituents – many of whom make up the generation that sacrificed in World War II and Korea and rebuilt our nation after the Great Depression.

“I have both admired and learned from my constituents, especially their love of country and commitment to community.

“I am proud that everyday I have sought to advocate for and provide a voice to my constituents: whether it was fighting for a legitimate vote during the 2000 election, working toward enacting a voter verified paper trail in Florida, or advocating for health care, education, Social Security and countless other issues. Therefore, my decision to leave Congress did not come easy.

“Those who know me, and those who have followed my career know that one of my overriding passions has been my work on the Foreign Affairs Committee helping to strengthen and preserve the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel, and working toward a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab world. Additionally, I have made a special effort to improve congressional relations with key allies in the Muslim world by founding the Turkey and Indonesia caucuses. Moreover, it was an extraordinary honor to serve as a Middle East advisor to President Obama during the presidential campaign, and I treasure the experiences I had traveling the country, and especially throughout Florida, advocating for the President’s Middle East agenda.

“Taking over as president of the Center for Middle East Peace offers me an unparalleled opportunity to work on behalf of Middle East peace for an important and influential non-profit institute. After much discussion with my family, I have decided that I cannot pass up on this opportunity.

“My one regret is that I will be unable to complete my current term in office, but I truly believe there is no time to waste. We are at a unique and critically tense moment in the history of the Middle East with both significant opportunities to succeed in the Arab-Israeli conflict as well as major challenges involving Iran, Hamas, and al Qaeda. In the coming months, Israeli and Arab leaders will be faced with monumental decisions that will dramatically affect the region and the entire world for decades to come. Critically important American security and foreign policy interests are also at stake. I am convinced that now is the time for me to engage on these issues on a full time basis.”

Continue reading »

h/t Right Wing Watch.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) is not exactly known as a towering intellect, although he's a panderer to wingnuts par excellence. Just days *after* he assured an FDL crew that he knew that Obama was born in Hawaii, he told a town hall audience that he wanted to file a lawsuit demanding that Obama produce his long-form birth certificate. It would appear Franks has calculated that there are votes in them thar wingnuts, because his statement at the Take Back America conference over the weekend is clearly tapping into that angry, violent undercurrent:

Obama's first act as president of any consequence, in the middle of a financial meltdown, was to send taxpayers' money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children in other countries...there's almost nothing that you should be surprised at after that. We shouldn't be shocked that he does all these other insane things. A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.

You stay classy there, Trent. Remember when the GOP lost their minds because one of the Dixie Chicks said only that she was ashamed of being from the same state as the president? How in the world can they justify such over-the-top nastiness now? If the majority party wasn't so gutless, I'd think a formal censure in the House would be considered.

John Amato:

Calling Obama an enemy of the people puts a big fat target on his back. These elected officials are acting like militia members who fly to DC in black helicopters and are helping to plan a violent act against him. It's dangerous and disrespectful and he should be called out publicly for his behavior.

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Showing that once more that Republicans have no class and no respect for government and Americans, Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelled out "You lie!" when President Obama reassured Americans that his health care reform plan did not include illegal aliens. Politico:

"There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false - the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally," President Obama said.

A loud voice from the Republican side of the hall answered, "Lie" -- my colleague Glenn Thrush reports it was Rep. Joe Wilson (R - S.C.) -- drawing a second "It's not true," from Obama and a shake of Nancy Pelosi's head.

The bill is designed to exclude those immigrants, though some Republicans have called for more explicit bans on funding for illegal immigrants and have claimed the bill will funnel money to illegal immigrants.

FactCheck.org described those claims as "false" and noted that one version of the legislation already includes an explicit bar on federal funding for illegal immigrants' health care.

Disgusting. Can you imagine the uproar if a Democrat had so little class as to do that during one of Bush's speeches? To be fair, Wilson was condemned on both sides of the aisle. Even McCain said that Wilson should apologize.

There is an http://act.ly/iq petition going viral, asking @CongJoeWilson to apologize for yelling "YOU LIE" in President Obama's speech.

If you'd like to sign,please click here.

UPDATE: Joe Wilson is being challenged by Rob Miller for SC-02. You can donate to Miller's ActBlue page here.

UPDATE #2: Wow. In less than two hours, challenger Rob Miller has raised over $11K. Clearly quaking in his boots at the disgust leveled at him, Wilson has issued the following apology:

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

The House plan, naturally, is looking a hell of a lot closer to reality as we live it than the proposals spawned by the Millionaires Club they call the Senate:

House Democrats on Friday answered President Obama’s call for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system by putting forward a 852-page draft bill that would require all Americans to obtain health insurance, force employers to provide benefits or help pay for them, and create a new public insurance program to compete with private insurers — a move that Republicans will bitterly oppose.

The bill was unveiled by a trio of committee chairman, George Miller of Education and Labor, Henry Waxman of Energy and Commerce, and Charles B. Rangel of Ways and Means, who have worked jointly for months to develop a seamless proposal. But the chairmen said they still did not know how much the plan would cost, even as they pledged to pay for it by cutting Medicare spending and imposing new, unspecified taxes.

Hey, I have an idea! We can invade an oil-rich country, take over their oil to get cheap gas and... oh. Never mind.

The three chairmen described their bill as a starting point in a weeks-long legislative endeavor that they said would dominate Congress for the summer and ultimately involve the full panorama of stakeholders in the health care industry, which accounts for about one-sixth of the nation’s economy. They described their efforts as the historic culmination of a half-century of failed attempts across the tenure of a dozen presidents.

Mr. Miller, a Democrat of California, said that completing a bill would require extraordinary cooperation among lawmakers. “In order to change American’s health care system,” he declared, “Congress itself must change.”

House Republicans, who have had no involvement in the development of the health legislation so far, quickly denounced the Democrats’ proposal as a thinly disguised plan for an eventual government takeover of the health care system.

Here's hoping for that government takeover, guys!

“Families and small businesses who are already footing the bill for Washington’s reckless spending binge will not support it,” the Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, said in a statement. “Raising taxes, rationing care, and empowering government bureaucrats — not patients and doctors — to make key medical decisions is not reform.”

I'd like this amoral buffoon to say this to my face without laughing.