Monday, October 20, 2014

Last Call For Surgin' In General

Bob Cesca notes that we're in the middle of a public health "crisis" and the GOP has blocked Surgeon General nominee Dr. Vivek Murthy for a year now, and will happily continue to block him now:

Sen. Tex Cruz (R-Tex.) appeared on CNN with Candy Crowley on Sunday and was perfectly clear about why his buddy from Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), blocked Dr. Murthy.
Of course we should have a surgeon general in place. And we don’t have one because President Obama, instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an anti-gun activist.
He’s not a what? This is how badly corrupted the GOP has become. Murthy graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude with a degree in Biochemical Sciences. He earned his MD from Yale, and served his residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In addition to running a cloud-based clinical trial program, he’s also an attending physician at Harvard Medical School. But because he tweeted, “Guns are a health care issue,” back in 2012 — just a couple of months before Adam Lanza used an AR15 to mow down 25 kindergarteners and teachers at Sandy Hook — he was disqualified from becoming surgeon general. 

To recap, Senate Republicans like Cruz and Paul shut down the government ten months ago but nobody seems to care.  Much easier to say BOTH SIDES DO IT and just absolve yourself of the blame when the middle class continues to be annihilated by the right, you know?

So let's turn over the Senate to the anti-science party because we're scared about Ebola, which has killed one person, and not scared about guns, which kill tens of thousands a year.

That's a good plan, right?  Hey, Ted Cruz is letting you know exactly what the GOP-led Senate will do in 2015.

First, embrace a big pro-jobs, growth agenda. For six years, the Obama economy has been trapped in stagnation, hurting millions. A Republican Congress should immediately help Americans get more jobs by embracing America's energy renaissance. This means passing legislation to make it easier to build energy infrastructure, such as the Keystone pipeline. But, we need an energy policy that's bigger than Keystone. An effective energy plan would also protect innovative energy technology, such as hydraulic fracturing, from being handcuffed by the federal government. We can also open up land for exploration and ensure that American companies can export liquefied natural gas around the world. And, lastly, stop the EPA from implementing rules that will destroy coal jobs and drive up our electricity bills
Second, pursue all means possible to repeal Obamacare. There is a reason Obamacare has miserable 37% approval ratings: it has caused millions to lose their jobs, be forced into part-time work, lose their health insurance, lose their doctors, and pay skyrocketing premiums. It simply isn't working. We should pass repeal legislation (forcing an Obama veto), and then pass bill after bill to mitigate the harms of Obamacare. Prevent people from having their healthcare plans cancelled, prohibit insurance company bailouts, eliminate the provisions forcing people into part-time work, and repeal the individual mandate. 
Perhaps, President Obama vetoes every one. But each has powerful appeal with the electorate who are hurting under this law, and Democratic senators may not be quite so eager to join their 2014 colleagues in losing their jobs over Obama's refusal to listen to the people.

Drill baby drill and repeal Obamacare piece by piece.  The party of the future, folks!  Also included at no extra charge, deport all undocumented immigrants, hold endless hearings on the Obama administration, term limits(!?!?), the awesome flat tax, audit the Fed, a balanced budget amendment that will destroy the economy, repeal Common Core and defeat ISIS with our mind bullets.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Team WIN THE MORNING on how we got into this mess:

The Republican Party continue to trail heavily among young and nonwhite voters, losing Hispanics by 25 points, African-Americans by 74 points, women by 5 points and every age group of voters under 65. 
But the GOP maintains important leads among whites (12 points), voters over 65 (12 points) and men (4 points) — advantages that are likely to prove decisive on a midterm electoral map tilted toward less diverse and more conservative states in the South and Mountain West.

Old, scared white people vote during midterms.  The rest of us don't.  If that remains true like it did in 2010, then the GOP will take the Senate and gain even more seats in the House.

It really is that simple.  If the FOX News crowd votes, and the rest of us sit on our asses and bitch about Obama, then the GOP wins.

Go vote.

How The Dems Get To 50

Greg Sargent goes through the scenarios on how the Dems keep the Senate. (Hint: runoffs in December will decide Senate control.)

Democrats do still have paths to retaining control. But they are increasingly narrow. 
Look at the map this way. If Democrats can hold on in just one of the four following toss-up states — Colorado, Iowa, Arkansas, or Alaska — their hopes of holding the Senate remain alive. That is plausible. But a lot has to go their way after that.
Let’s give Republicans West Virgina, Montana, and South Dakota up front, while giving Democrats North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Michigan — outcomes that are consistent with the polling averages. If Dems can limit Republicans to wins in three of these four (CO, IA, AR, AK), that puts the GOP at 51 seats. 
That would probably send us into overtime, with Louisiana and Georgia likely to head to run-offs due to election rules. To keep the Senate at a 50-50 split, Democrats would then have to win one of those run-offs (so they cancel one-another out) and Greg Orman would have to win in Kansas andhe would have to caucus with Dems. Without Kansas, Democrats would have to win both those runoffs. This is not entirely impossible. As Harry Enten has explained, recent history doesn’t tell us much about how these runoffs will go, and high African American turnout could scramble them. But it’s a very tall order, partly because the outcome of these red state run-offs would decide which party controls the Senate. 
Alternatively: Democrats would have to win two out of the following four core toss-ups: CO, IA, AR, AK. This, too, is not an impossible outcome. Democrats trail by 2.1 points in Iowa and 1.5 in Colorado. As Nate Silverhas detailed, the polls only have to be a little off for Dems to win in such states. What’s more, there’s a great deal of uncertainty remaining: No one knows what sort of electorate will result from Colorado’s first experiment in all-mail balloting. Democrats insist mobilization efforts will enable Bruce Braley to close his small deficit in Iowa, a possibility that can’t be dismissed. Arkansas, which hasn’t been contested in recent presidential elections, has never seen this level of organization. (For these reasons, Dems winning one of these is plausible, too.)

Bottom line: Dems have to win 2 of the following 7 races: Colorado, Iowa, Arkansas, Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky and Kansas (with Greg Orman caucusing with the Dems) while winning in NC, NH, and Michigan. It's not impossible, but all seven favor the GOP right now.

Either way it's an uncertain, uphill battle that would only get the Dems to 50, with zero room for error.

We'll see.

StupidiNews!