It should be no surprise to anyone that even though Congress is back in session, absolutely nothing is likely to get done on Capitol Hill. That doesn't mean there aren't a pile of things that need tending to, from passing the Farm Bill to raising the debt ceiling to passing comprehensive immigration reform to dealing with student loans.
However, as we noted on Monday, Congress - and specifically House Republicans - have no intention of doing anything to help anyone but themselves. Greg Sargent stated it bluntly in his headline on Monday: "The problem isn’t generic 'Washington gridlock.' It’s the House GOP." We strongly agree with Greg on that, though we'd be willing to go one step further and say it's the extremists in the Republican Party that dominate the House GOP leadership right now.
Indeed, our hypothesis that mind-numbingly selfish, extremist House Republicans are the real problem is clearly reflected in the fight going on in the Senate this week over the student loan interest rates that Congress allowed to double over the holiday break.
Make no mistake - the doubling of student loan interest rates is no small small drop in a bucket. It's more like a tidal wave of financial destruction, caused by the financial cannonball of the 'college as a business' model, that's already gotten the idea of college as a wise investment all wet.
We addressed this problem in April 2012 when House Republicans attempted to take the student loan interest rate hostage in return for cuts to the implementation of Obamacare, and we noted then - student loans are meant to be a contract with society. Judging by the behavior of the House Repubs on this issue, they would still obviously prefer that contract with America's college students to be a loan shark agreement, where they get to play the part of the bully banker.
House Republicans right now are practicing that role, as they attempt to bully Senate Democrats into accepting their draconian version of a student loan interest rate "repair" bill, that easily could raise interest rates on student loans above the seven percent range where they are now, thanks to Congress' inaction.
That kind of loan sharking behavior seems especially ill-advised with student loan debt over $1 Trillion right now, and with median individual student debt at graduation now over $35,000. Students at nearly fifty percent of for-profit private colleges and universities are now more likely to default on their student loans than to graduate.
There are some states like Oregon that are pushing seriously into new and innovative ways to fund college educations, and President Obama has done a great deal to add programs to reduce student loan debt, increase Federal Pell grants, and add better repayment plans.
While all those steps have been great, the fact remains, the student loan repayment crisis in America is a massive crushing wave that will not only steal the chance for the American Dream from those in their mid forties and younger - it will also make them more educated and angry.
For a party that keeps claiming they want to expand their voting base, crushing even the potential for achieving the American dream under a wave of perpetual debt for millions of Americans under the age of 45 isn't exactly what anyone sane would consider a smart political move by the GOP.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
Ways Of Shutting That Down
We hope that over the last week and a half, while we were enjoying some vacation, and attempting to get on top of other projects, you stayed informed with other news sources and had a few days off yourself.
Quite a lot has gone on over the last two weeks. After a nearly criminal ruling on the Voting Rights Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled in surprisingly just and fair ways on both DOMA and Prop 8, while President Obama announced a series of major actions he'll be enacting toward cleaner energy. Unfortunately, a major oil spill and explosion just over the border in Canada killed five (as of publication time) and destroyed an entire town in Quebec. There was also a major plane crash in San Francisco with fatalities, major deadly fires out West, and major political shifts in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt.
There wasn't was much action on Capitol Hill, where Congress' inaction not only allowed the interest rates on student loans to double but effectively cancelled the Independence Day holiday for some of our service members and their families, thanks to the sequester cuts that Congress STILL hasn't dealt with. In fact, House Republicans are already rattling their swords, preparing to come back to Washington and demand even more federal budget cuts - meaning once again, Republicans at the national level appear ready to hold the nation's economy hostage.
We suppose that's better than what Republicans at the state level have been doing these last two weeks. In states from North Carolina to Ohio, and from Wisconsin to Texas, the GOP declared war on women once again - and this time, not even the celebrations of our nation's birthday were enough to stop the roving horde of misogynists and women haters that seemingly makes up the tattered remnants of the Grand Old Party these days.
In case you missed it, Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and the Republicans in the state legislature there jammed a series of anti-choice and anti-women legislation into a last-minute budget bill. Kasich then signed what is effectively a declaration of war on Ohio's women, flanked by only male members of the Ohio Legislature.
Not to be outdone, Wisconsin's GOP Gov. Scott Walker signed his own bill attacking doctors who perform abortions - though Walker was immediately sued by hospitals, women's centers, and abortion clinics for doing so.
Despite being blasted by North Carolina's own Republican Governor, and by Senate Democrats, North Carolina's extremist GOP jammed through even more anti-abortion laws in their state Senate. That rash act could set up a serious Republican civil war in the state that began the first American Civil War.
Last but not least, you likely heard about the eleven-plus hour filibuster by Texas Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis. Her efforts stopped Republican Gov. Rick 'I can't count to three' Perry and the Texas GOP from cramming through yet another anti-choice, anti-woman law in a special session of the Texas Legislature. Perry has since called for yet another special session of the Texas Leg, and has even bragged they'll jam the anti-woman bills through this time in under two weeks, claiming that Texans like him "want to protect life" - even as Perry signed the death warrant for Texas' 500th execution.
At this point, it almost has to be asked if some Republicans are actively trying to split their political party in two with these brainless attacks on half the population. Even if they are, for now it appears that the extremists in charge of the GOP plan on continuing to aim their misogynist policy guns at women, even after losing the war on women so badly at the polls in 2012.
To paraphrase one particular Republican loser from that election cycle, Republicans should have learned then - women have a way of shutting that whole misogyny thing down.
Quite a lot has gone on over the last two weeks. After a nearly criminal ruling on the Voting Rights Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled in surprisingly just and fair ways on both DOMA and Prop 8, while President Obama announced a series of major actions he'll be enacting toward cleaner energy. Unfortunately, a major oil spill and explosion just over the border in Canada killed five (as of publication time) and destroyed an entire town in Quebec. There was also a major plane crash in San Francisco with fatalities, major deadly fires out West, and major political shifts in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt.
There wasn't was much action on Capitol Hill, where Congress' inaction not only allowed the interest rates on student loans to double but effectively cancelled the Independence Day holiday for some of our service members and their families, thanks to the sequester cuts that Congress STILL hasn't dealt with. In fact, House Republicans are already rattling their swords, preparing to come back to Washington and demand even more federal budget cuts - meaning once again, Republicans at the national level appear ready to hold the nation's economy hostage.
We suppose that's better than what Republicans at the state level have been doing these last two weeks. In states from North Carolina to Ohio, and from Wisconsin to Texas, the GOP declared war on women once again - and this time, not even the celebrations of our nation's birthday were enough to stop the roving horde of misogynists and women haters that seemingly makes up the tattered remnants of the Grand Old Party these days.
In case you missed it, Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and the Republicans in the state legislature there jammed a series of anti-choice and anti-women legislation into a last-minute budget bill. Kasich then signed what is effectively a declaration of war on Ohio's women, flanked by only male members of the Ohio Legislature.
Not to be outdone, Wisconsin's GOP Gov. Scott Walker signed his own bill attacking doctors who perform abortions - though Walker was immediately sued by hospitals, women's centers, and abortion clinics for doing so.
Despite being blasted by North Carolina's own Republican Governor, and by Senate Democrats, North Carolina's extremist GOP jammed through even more anti-abortion laws in their state Senate. That rash act could set up a serious Republican civil war in the state that began the first American Civil War.
Last but not least, you likely heard about the eleven-plus hour filibuster by Texas Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis. Her efforts stopped Republican Gov. Rick 'I can't count to three' Perry and the Texas GOP from cramming through yet another anti-choice, anti-woman law in a special session of the Texas Legislature. Perry has since called for yet another special session of the Texas Leg, and has even bragged they'll jam the anti-woman bills through this time in under two weeks, claiming that Texans like him "want to protect life" - even as Perry signed the death warrant for Texas' 500th execution.
At this point, it almost has to be asked if some Republicans are actively trying to split their political party in two with these brainless attacks on half the population. Even if they are, for now it appears that the extremists in charge of the GOP plan on continuing to aim their misogynist policy guns at women, even after losing the war on women so badly at the polls in 2012.
To paraphrase one particular Republican loser from that election cycle, Republicans should have learned then - women have a way of shutting that whole misogyny thing down.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Apologies And Realities
There are times in life when we all fall down - and we admit, we fell down yesterday. As you may have noticed, we have a relatively small staff who also have other day jobs - and those other duties caused us not to publish our expanded daily e-mail edition yesterday. Thankfully, our commentary and cartoons for Tuesday were published through our other channels, so you can view them on the cartoon pages and at our blog site.
Sadly, we weren't the only ones to fall down yesterday. America itself also fell down, or more specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States fell down by failing to uphold justice.
In case you missed it, the highly activist, majority right-wing Supreme Court declared open warfare on minority voters across the nation on Tuesday, by cravenly striking down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In short, the Court invalidated the ability of the DOJ to use the Voting Rights Act to stop or prevent abuses of voting laws, designed to minimize the participation of young people, poor people, and people of color - all of whom tend to vote heavily Democratic.
Today, the Court is scheduled to release their opinions on both DOMA and the Prop 8 case from California - though frankly, we have strong doubts about the current Court's ability to justly decide anything anymore.
As we've noted previously, it truthfully shouldn't matter who someone makes a legal contract with, so long as both parties in the two-party contract are eligible and amenable to the contract's conditions. Indeed, in a civil marriage contract, eligibility and acquiescence are the only things that matter.
The fact is, if more gay people do get married, it will drive up demand for wedding planners, florists, DJs, bands, and caterers, all of whom we're sure will appreciate the new business.
Regardless of how the Court decides today, the fact remains that the Roberts' Court has done grievous and harmful damage to our collective faith in the American governmental system, with the poor decisions they've already made this term. If the Court is going to simply ignore the massive amount of fact findings in any case, and decide according to whatever the whims of it's members are, then Americans must truly begin to ask how much longer our system of government can last.
Congress - specifically the House - has proven they can no longer pass basic laws.
The Supreme Court has now displayed that it can no longer be trusted to dispense justice fairly.
President Obama is still doing almost everything he can, as he proved with his major policy announcement of actions his administration is taking to fight climate change immediately, without Congress - including the effective temporary denial of the Keystone pipeline. Still, the Executive's chair in the Oval Office only seats one person - and no matter who that individual is, they cannot be expected to handle all of the responsibilities the other two branches of our government cannot seem to handle.
**Service Note** Due to emergency personal and professional issues, we will be taking our annual holiday vacation a bit early, starting tomorrow, June 27, 2013. Throughout our break, fresh cartoons will still be added at PaulFellCartoons.com. Our normal publishing schedule will resume July 8, 2013.
Sadly, we weren't the only ones to fall down yesterday. America itself also fell down, or more specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States fell down by failing to uphold justice.
In case you missed it, the highly activist, majority right-wing Supreme Court declared open warfare on minority voters across the nation on Tuesday, by cravenly striking down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In short, the Court invalidated the ability of the DOJ to use the Voting Rights Act to stop or prevent abuses of voting laws, designed to minimize the participation of young people, poor people, and people of color - all of whom tend to vote heavily Democratic.
Today, the Court is scheduled to release their opinions on both DOMA and the Prop 8 case from California - though frankly, we have strong doubts about the current Court's ability to justly decide anything anymore.
As we've noted previously, it truthfully shouldn't matter who someone makes a legal contract with, so long as both parties in the two-party contract are eligible and amenable to the contract's conditions. Indeed, in a civil marriage contract, eligibility and acquiescence are the only things that matter.
The fact is, if more gay people do get married, it will drive up demand for wedding planners, florists, DJs, bands, and caterers, all of whom we're sure will appreciate the new business.
Regardless of how the Court decides today, the fact remains that the Roberts' Court has done grievous and harmful damage to our collective faith in the American governmental system, with the poor decisions they've already made this term. If the Court is going to simply ignore the massive amount of fact findings in any case, and decide according to whatever the whims of it's members are, then Americans must truly begin to ask how much longer our system of government can last.
Congress - specifically the House - has proven they can no longer pass basic laws.
The Supreme Court has now displayed that it can no longer be trusted to dispense justice fairly.
President Obama is still doing almost everything he can, as he proved with his major policy announcement of actions his administration is taking to fight climate change immediately, without Congress - including the effective temporary denial of the Keystone pipeline. Still, the Executive's chair in the Oval Office only seats one person - and no matter who that individual is, they cannot be expected to handle all of the responsibilities the other two branches of our government cannot seem to handle.
**Service Note** Due to emergency personal and professional issues, we will be taking our annual holiday vacation a bit early, starting tomorrow, June 27, 2013. Throughout our break, fresh cartoons will still be added at PaulFellCartoons.com. Our normal publishing schedule will resume July 8, 2013.
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