Let’s stop this talk about Democrats refusing to negotiate and compromise. It’s a lie. [Photo credit: Chris Savage | Eclectablog] I am continuously astonished by how well Republicans are able to shape reality and perceptions. Honestly, with enough focus group work by Pete Luntz and poll-testing of messaging, they can convince Americans of nearly anything. The fact that our media […]

Remember that time President Bush canceled an overseas trip because Democrats shut down the government? Yeah, me neither. Photo credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog President Obama had scheduled a trip to Indonesia and Brunei over the next few days but, because Republicans insist on holding the government hostage to exact some sort of concessions from President Obama and […]

Such utterly blatant pandering ought to be below ANY politician. Even tea partiers. It was a VERY busy couple of days at the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. First, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann made an utter spectacle of herself, diving in front of cameras to slather herself in patriotic, anti O-BAH-mah rhetoric with elderly WWII vets as a […]

What IS it about Texas Republicans??? I posed this Q&A on Twitter this morning: Q: If a bad guy says, "Come closer and I'll shoot this guy" and someone comes closer, who do you blame for the guy getting shot? A: Obama. — Chris Savage (@Eclectablog) October 3, 2013 This is, at its most basic level, the situation in Congress […]

File this one under “Hypocrisy, blatant” This right here? This tells you everything you need to know about just how hypocritical Republicans in Washington, D.C. are: One other option includes canceling health-insurance subsidies for some government employees, including members of Congress and their staff. But there’s internal resistance to this measure among House Republicans, mainly because low-paid aides would be […]

“Why won’t you compromise on our refusal to compromise?!” – House Republicans That’s gonna leave a mark So, this is hilarious. After five years of Republicans refusing to compromise on just about everything and doing all they could to impede any initiatives President Obama put forward, including their own, we get these sorts of comments from GOP leadership regarding his […]

That’s what you’re trying to force millions of Americans to do. I’ll bet you’re not willing to do the same. I’m angry. Plenty of Americans are. Because we’re sick and tired of being held hostage by last-minute threats and brinksmanship that risks the health of millions of citizens and the strength of our economy. But Republican members of Congress who […]

“The House GOP’s debt limit bill isn’t a serious governing document…It’s a cry for help.” House Republicans are pretty clear what they want in exchange for not crashing the U.S. economy and maybe even the global economy by not extending the national debt limit: everything. Via Ezra Klein at the Wonkblog: The House GOP’s debt limit bill — obtained by […]

Woe be to the discontented, lazy rabble with heads filled with impossible ideas (like eating) Yesterday, on a nearly party line vote of 217-210, House Republicans passed a bill that would strip $40 billion out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, over the next 10 years. As Amy pointed out earlier this week, if […]

The GOP’s obsession with crushing the poor could create more economic woes. Which seems to be just what they want. Today on NPR’s “The Takeaway,” I heard Republican U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland (GA) say the economic recovery is so slow “I don’t know how much worse we could hurt it.” Actually, there’s plenty Republicans could do to hurt the economic […]

Aren’t there laws against false advertising??? Yesterday, I published a piece titled “Debunking the Republican lie that health insurance costs have skyrocketed under Obama”. In it, I showed how the right is telling outright lies about the rate of cost increases of health insurance under President Obama. In that piece, I missed something. The GOP is claiming that the cost […]