A pair of Republican doings from last night. This from Atlanta, via the Associated Press:
November’s elections will mark the “expiration date” for the Democratic majority in Washington, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele predicted at a gathering of Georgia Republicans.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele/Associated Press
“What they’re doing in Washington is all bad,” Steele told the Georgia Republican Party’s 2010 Republican “round up,” a grassroots training session for GOP activists and candidates.
Steele said he wants to put his “footprint on the neck” of Democrats.
“I like that image,” he said with a smile to laughs from the crowd.
And yet, Steele also counseled volunteers not to get caught up infighting, recriminations and name-calling that often characterizes tough political years:
“You have an incredibly good opportunity, don’t waste it on stupidity,” he said.
Then there’s this from Richmond, Va., also via Associated Press:
Until Republicans can retake Congress and repeal the new health care reform law, former U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday, Republicans there now have a duty to thwart its implementation by blocking its funding in the federal budget.
Gingrich said that government health care spending at the pace the Democratic-passed law anticipates will amass enough debt to wreck the American economy just as Greece’s debt-ridden economy has floundered.
“You don’t have to repeal the bill. You just have to have an appropriations rider that says no money can be spent to implement it,” Gingrich said at a forum that advanced the conservative health care objectives of his Atlanta-based Center for Health Transformation.
Gingrich, a persistent critic of what he calls “Obamacare,” said that the new policy can never succeed because there isn’t enough capital worldwide to lend to support the trillions of dollars he says it will cost.
“We’re right at the edge of a catastrophic failure of government-funded and government-directed health systems, and there is going to be a great deal of turmoil as they try to implement this,” he told reporters after the forum.
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33 comments Add your comment
DannyX
May 15th, 2010
11:27 am
Today the same AP released a new poll showing the Democrats AHEAD of the Republicans in the 2010 election.
“The tenuous 45 percent to 40 percent preference for a Democratic Congress reverses the finding a month ago on the same question: 44 percent for Republicans and 41 percent for Democrats. The new readout came as the economy continued showing signs of improvement and the tumultuous battle over the health care law that President Barack Obama finally signed in March faded into the background.”
Get with the times Republicans, you are so last summer. You gambled, you lost.
God Bless America.
PCBobby
May 15th, 2010
11:38 am
Steele is an embarrassment and so are the dolts who attended last night’s speech. These GA GOP members are living in their own delusional world.
GOP Voter
May 15th, 2010
12:15 pm
I hope the extreme partisan politics of Steele and Gingrich fail – for America’s sake! Gingrich tried these scorched earth tactics and he was forced out as Speaker in DC – I hope people remember! Also, for you Christians – he has changed wives twice since then – a real hypocrite!!! REMEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KeninEastman
May 15th, 2010
12:23 pm
PCBobby,
Whistling past the graveyard, aren’t you?
The surest sign Republicans are doing something right is when liberals offer “helpful ” advice. Thanks for the confirmation.
Lifelong Georgian
May 15th, 2010
12:36 pm
Having Michael Steele lecture Georgia Republicans on fiscal responsibility is like asking a hooker to give Sunday School lessons to teenagers. Both will do naughty things for money and have uncontrollable urges.
BPJ
May 15th, 2010
1:01 pm
You Republicans drove the car into the ditch. Now, while the rest of us try to pull the car out of the ditch, you want the car keys back!?! No! Y’all can’t drive!
Interesting to hear Gingrich & other Republicans try to lecture us on health care costs. Whenever we try to implement cost containment, they scream “death panels!”.
If you care about reducing deficits, vote for Democrats. The record is clear: when the GOP runs everything, deficits mount; when Democrats are in charge, we actually get to a surplus (the present situation is the exception, because a financial crisis and major recession is the one time when it makes sense to run a deficit).
bpj is dumb
May 15th, 2010
1:06 pm
You are stupid,
J. Johnson
May 15th, 2010
1:14 pm
Due to his recent extravagant spending, does anyone believe anything Steele says? Would you want him handling your bank account?
Byron Mathison Kerr
May 15th, 2010
1:55 pm
It seems you can’t even be a Republican anymore unless you join the media hacks and obstructionist politicians who are so far right they’ve actually fallen off the edge and are holding on by their fingers.
Just Nasty & Mean
May 15th, 2010
2:39 pm
BPJ–What a complete dolt you are! For goodness sakes, man, READ. Oblablama has quadrupled the deficit after being in office just over a year!
Have you got your head up your butt so far you lack oxygen? Good Grief! Get it together and try not to be a complete and utter ignoramus.
Chief Wiggum
May 15th, 2010
3:17 pm
Folks, this is why the Tea Party matters. George W. Bush ran the economy into the ground, and Obama has take Bush’s lead, and done even worse. Bush was so worried about being a “compassionate conservative”, that he forgot (or doesn’t care) that when you cut taxes, you also need to cut spending. But Obama has run up budget deficits far worse than anything Bush ever did.
Michael Steele is part of the Republican establishment that still doesn’t get it.
Some may whine that blocking the funding of the healthcare bill is obstructionist, but if that is what it takes to keep from bankrupting our children, so be it. At home, when times are tight, you simply can NOT keep charging stuff to the credit card, hoping that you can pay it some time in the future. You’ve got to make the hard decisions, like dropping the cable, skipping Starbucks, etc.
Larry Munson
May 15th, 2010
3:36 pm
Hunker down and vote GOP this November. Time to rid the USA of the stench from Obama, Reid and Pelosi.
DannyX
May 15th, 2010
4:39 pm
Lol Chief Wiggins. The biggest victory for the Tea Party so far is getting the AJC to go along with their pc demand to ban the natural nickname given to Tea Party members.
Crist is up 6 over Rubio in the Florida Senate race right now. Even Rassmussen has Crist up by 4.
Exactly what type of message is this? That Florida supports the stimulus plan that Crist supports? That moderate Republicans are more electable? There are some angry people out there. They are exactly the people you would expect to be angry. The angry are that same 30% that cheered Bush on until the end.
Tea Party, lol.
Stephen Fleming
May 15th, 2010
4:43 pm
Republicans can scream all the want but nobody mentions the $700 Billion wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush Administration removed constraints on how big companies could get; they relaxed government oversite on the energy industry and they cut taxes in the middle of an economic boom and took the country from a surplus to a deficit in the first month. Now, it’s all Obama’s fault for making sure that every dollar being spent is on the books (unlike the previous administrations failure to show how much the wars really costs). But for all of you who believe that the US would be better off without the new health care bill, ask yourself this, whose going to pay for Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. There are more baby boomers in this country than any other group. The numbers just don’t add up.
DannyX
May 15th, 2010
4:46 pm
So when do the Republicans plan on blocking the funding for the unfunded Medicare Part D Chief?
Base
May 15th, 2010
5:08 pm
Newt is a wacko has been.
BPJ is right
May 15th, 2010
5:50 pm
The Republicans screwed up the economy. Now, they hope there are enough mindless idiot tea partiers out there who will vote to give them back the keys to the kingdom. Their obvious philosophy is, “If we lie enough, and keep repeating the lies over and over, pretty soon people will begin to believe that the lies are the truth.” And, with Fox SoCalled News helping out as one of their mouthpieces, they have had amazing success in running this country into the ground. God save us if they have any more successes.
Bubba
May 15th, 2010
6:26 pm
So what is their solution for insuring people with preexisting conditions?
Lyla
May 15th, 2010
6:31 pm
To Danny x Bite my Republican A$$
Charich1
May 15th, 2010
8:01 pm
Republicans are so full of hate. The are polarizing the country. This why in November they will be the party that will be surprised.This country is becoming more and more diverse. The republicans will never succeed until they represent this diversity.Wake up it is 2010!!
Drago
May 15th, 2010
9:04 pm
NO says the party of NO
adam
May 15th, 2010
10:41 pm
Why do you report what reverend Newt Gingreyinch has to say? WHO GIVES A ^%$& ?
Lynn43
May 15th, 2010
11:02 pm
Newt Gingrich is an embarrassment to decent men everywhere. Any man who flips from woman to woman without any consideration for his wife needs to just “be quiet”. We know where his thoughts are coming from.
The Man
May 15th, 2010
11:51 pm
Michael Steele is an Uncle Tom. The only reason he’s chairman of the RNC is because President Obama won the election and the Repubicans (KKK) wanted to look like they are inclusive. I’m tired of these shuffling negroes like Michael Steele and Herman Cain allowing the Republican Party to use them as puppets.
The Man
May 15th, 2010
11:53 pm
Lynn43, didn’t he cheat on his wife when she was on her death bed or maybe that was Bob Barr?
SuperB
May 16th, 2010
1:48 am
The US is spending $708 billion on the military this year. This is why we have no $$ left for anything else. Thank your Republican ex-president and Congressmen for this “Vietnam II” reality show.
Iknowanidiot
May 16th, 2010
6:25 am
Super B., The Man and BPJ…..THANKS for letting those Republican A$$holes know who REALLY piled up an ENOMOUS debt , for an UNWINABLE WAR!!!, Michael Steele is just another “hankerchief head house NI##*(ER like Clarence Thomas…before you idiots reply, I am Black
georgiadawg70
May 16th, 2010
7:19 am
all fo you government employeees and union members keep repeating your talking if you wish. Come November you are going to get your clock cleaned.
Shar
May 16th, 2010
9:07 am
It makes my stomach turn to read Steele’s ambition to put his footprint on the neck of fellow citizens. If a national from any other country on earth had expressed such a wish, we’d all recognize it for what it is – an attack on all citizens for the selfish aim of an elite few.
I’d consider voting for Republican candidates if they could bring themselves to admit their mistakes under Gingrich and Bush and articulate what they’ve learned (at our expense!) and how they will change from that learning. Obduate obstructionism and blame game politics show they’ve learned nothing at all. We can’t afford to pay for more of their mistakes.
BPJ
May 16th, 2010
12:38 pm
I read widely: The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, The New Republic, etc., and a number of online resources. One thing they all agree on (except the WSJ editorial pages, where they live in FoxNews world) is that the greatest contribution to increased deficits in recent years has been a decline in revenue. In the past two years, the deep recession (caused by inadequate bank regulation) has been the main cause of declining revenue. (Before the financial crisis, the greatest contributors to the deficit were the Bush tax cuts, and the two wars.)
I know this is hard to accept for people who live in FoxNews/Tea Party land. There, it is unquestioned dogma that “out of control social spending” and “giving my $ to lazy people” is THE cause of the deficit. The problem with this belief is that it is just that – a belief – which does not match up with reality. Declining revenue has been the greatest contributor to the deficit, followed by spending on very popular programs which send money to fairly well-off seniors. Inconvenient, but true.
Kevin
May 17th, 2010
8:30 am
Male, pale, and stale.
The GOP is toast, and is now only a sad wholly-owned subsidiary of Focks Noose.
Good luck – nobody who is educated, well-traveled, or under 30 will vote GOP.
Lola
May 17th, 2010
2:40 pm
Let me get a NOOSE and come from Michael Steele. As far as Newt is concerned; he is pathetic. People wake up and see that these two people are totally for Big Business. They want to prevent you from getting Jobs, Insurance, etc…. Keep putting them on the pages, my generation will make sure they are ousted in November. We got it right at the President’s level..now it’s time to CLEAN HOUSE and TAKE OUT THE TRASH. Be very scared all of you ultra, neoconservs it’s a new generation taking the helm. GOP is toast.
Jonathan
May 18th, 2010
10:15 am
For all of you people who have nothing nice to say about the Republicans you’re all out of your minds. The Republicans in this year’s election will massacre the Democrats. It’s discraceful that you don’t see what’s going on around you in this country. Most of the country is feed up with what’s going on with these power grabs by Obama and his Democratic buddies. They don’t want this third world country mentality of “spread the wealth”. You people are like someone looking for something where you’re looking looking to the sides and in back of you. The problem is you don’t realize that what you’re looking for is right in front of you. How tragic.