Congress

What Matters

Charming. Just charming. Nice going, “centrists.”Nice fucking job:

$40 billion State Fiscal Stabilization

$16 billion School Construction

$7.5 billion of State Incentive Grants

$5.8 billion Health Prevention Activity

$4.5 billion GSA

$3.5 billion Higher Ed Construction (Eliminated)

$3.5 billion Federal Bldgs Greening

$2.25 Neighborhood Stabilization (Eliminate)

$2 billion broadband

$2 billion HIT Grants

$1.25 billion project based rental

$1 billion Head Start/Early Start

$1.2 billion in Retrofiting Project 8 Housing

$1 billion Energy Loan Guarantees

Via Kos, that’s what got cut from the stimulus bill. Bipartisanship is the victor! Huzzah, huzzah, we all feel good about ourselves for being friends! Wheee! Way to go, Senator Nelson, Senator Collins, Senator McFuckingCaskill. Way to be. You cut some kids’ textbooks and made sure we’ll get our asses kicked by the Chinese IN SPACE just to continue going to lunch with your favorite people in the whole wide world: One another.

So you schoolkids, trying to do math problems with the windows nailed shut and your coats on, who walked through doors with padlocks and chains just to show up today, you can just bugger off, because the Republicans and Democrats still love each other, and that’s what matters.

You families, living in your apartment on Section 8 vouchers in the only part of town your snotty suburb will allow Section 8 housing built, wondering why your heat is off in January and you can’t get hot water and the sewer backs up and your locks don’t work (which is good, because the crackhead next door likes to come in at all hours) and the roof’s caving in? Not as important as maintaining Senate collegiality and crowing about working together.

You parents, trying to raise little kids while working the five jobs you work to be “uniquely American” and pay your mortgage? Not as big a deal as being able to Twitter joyously that you aren’t for pork and earmarks, no siree.

You know, I think I really wouldn’t have a problem with bipartisanship.
But this isn’t bipartisanship, making these cuts in order to make these friends. This is narcissism. This is the same
mirror-kissing bullshit that got us FISA and the Military Commissions
Act, that got us the war and the spying and the debt and the death. This is prioritizing being friends over improving people’s lives, and that’s not bipartisanship, that’s institutionalized selfishness.

I have a news flash for Nelson and McCaskill. Nobody really gives a shit about you. Nobody really cares if you can still pass notes to Susan Collins in the coatroom betweenclasses sessions. Nobody out here in the world in which our local governments can’t pay people to do such trivial work as teaching people to read gives a shit about how you look on the Sunday shows because we’re too busy working extra hours towatch the Sunday shows.

We only care about “ending the gridlock in Washington” and “working with Congress and the president” and “moving things along” when it results inour lives being better.Otherwise we don’t really care that much. So quit sucking face with your reflections and acting like it means something to us. It’s embarrassing.

A.

12 thoughts on “What Matters”

  1. What A said.
    Your final paragraph just nails it. Too bad these fucks don’t get that.

  2. I think I wouldn’t have a problem with bipartisanship if the other side of the partisan divide weren’tcompletely fucking insane. There are just certain things I don’t compromise on, and reality denial is one of them. In fact, given that at least one of the sides here is ostensibly working from reality, fuck “bipartisanship,” I’d like to see some actual damn partisanship from anybody except the reality-denying ideological whackaloons.
    After all, when one side is saying the sky is blue, and the other side is saying the sky is puce with orange polka dots, it is not sensible to compromise on the “centrist” position that the sky must be blue with orange polka dots. A five-year-old knows this; what the fuck is wrong with American politicians?

  3. I hope you send that to each and every Senator. No, really. The asses need to be told over and over again that they AREN’T HELPING.

  4. building greening is just TOO TOO LIBERAL. NOT RITE ENOUGH. and WHY do they hate states??? they removed THE MOST LIBERAL SHIT!. a pox on centrists. A POX! maybe the presser and conferance committee gets some back in. REMOVE THE TAX CUTS!

  5. Seriously I co-sign that. What the fuck is the supposed “whip” doing? I told you what would happen when you put these DLC legacy watching Moles. I blame Rahmnbo and his supposed strength…oops…bitchassness.
    Seriously they folded so easily, because they(republicans) know the only card they had was the suicide bomb. When it comes down to it they just don’t give a fuck about the economy and it could implode for all they care. And I’m sure they’ve told plenty of Dems that. But they put too much bullshit in there and now their letting these idiots extract real stimulus.
    Never trusted Claire. Susan Collins????? it’s like they went on the street and found the raunchiest street whore they could find and paid her Ashley Alexandra Dupre scale.
    The fix is in, they just want it to look like they had to buckle. Susan Collins should be cultivated and worked, not capitulated to…

  6. Sing it A!
    Are we having a crack van/ first Presidential Press Conference edition, tonight?

  7. There is no ‘bipartisanship’ in this congress. Nor will there be. The old days of give and take, go to lunch and hammer out a deal that everyone can sign on to are hopelessly (and thankfully?) gone.
    For the last eight long years, bipartisanship meant the Repugs taking the Dems lunch money only to have the Dems say it OK ’cause their having spaghetti anyway.
    They’ve become so accustomed to giving it up that they wouldn’t know what to do with their lunch money when they can keep it. So, they go back to the Repugs and ask how to spend it.
    Obama is on the right track by going to the people and selling the plan. But he needs back up. He needs his staff to hit the talk shows and show some heat. Hammer back and Snuffleupyourass, Broder, and Will. Don’t let them control the debate. Stay on message and pound, pound, pound. Dems in Congress should hold dissenters’ feet to the fire and get some flesh under their nails. Sens. Nelson, Snowe, and Collins should have their states taken off the list. No stimulus for Maine and Nebraska. None. Zero. Sorry, no vote, no goods. Tell that to the people back home.
    Get mean, this is our livelihood we’re talking about. People are losing their homes. The post office will have to start delivering mail to freeway bridges and dumpsters.
    Obama needs backup. He can’t do it alone. Watching the Democratic leadership let him twist in the wind is outrageous.
    la liberté et la justice, commencent la révolution !

  8. I have a question. I know all this capitulation, I mean, negotiation, in the senate is driven by the need to have 60 votes and withstand a filibuster. Why not call their bluff and make them filibuster and force them to defend stripping out all the stuff A talked about? If you believed in what you were doing with a good bill, couldn’t you persuade folks that a bunch of dangerous radicals were obstructing you?

  9. I agree Scott. over at TP was an economist estimate comparing price saved to jobs created, and even a straight division said it only costed $14 k per job – which is a bargain if I ever knew one.
    That didn’t even try to add in the fact that each dollar spent recirculated.
    And I’d love to see the good senator from KY try to defend filibustering a job creation bill !
    Perhaps the Dems will grow a spine and learn from the last 89 years. I can always hope.

  11. Is Obama really that attached to this whole “team of rivals” bullshit? How long will it take for him to ditch these laughable notions of “bi-partisanship” and get the fuck to work?

  12. he is trying to get rid of the newt mentality the republikkkans have devolved into. step away from jabba the rush. step away from fuxt.

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