Goodlatte to furloughed workers: Let them eat BBQ

Bobblehead Bob...
overdosed on tea.

Bob Goodlatte is hosting a BBQ at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds this rainy Sunday afternoon. I thought about going and asking how he could be hosting a social event when so many federal workers are furloughed and when businesses and federal contractors throughout the 6th District are severely impacted. Shouldn't our congressman be in D.C. trying to figure out a way out of this Republican/tea party ignited mess?

But, prudence took over when I re-read the letter I recently received (a friend got an identical one) from him. It doesn't take a genius to understand that our representative lives in Republican La-La Land where all blame is heaped on Senate Democrats and President Obama. Bobblehead Bob failed to address a single point in my original communication to him. Apparently his staffers just scratched through the Boehner & Friends book of "Tea Party Talking Points" and cobbled together a generic letter to send to anyone who asked him to please drop unreasonable demands and end the shutdown while moving away from the brink of default.

Looking at the invitation I realized today is not a BBQ for constituents where our congressman would listen to all points of view. Nope, not even close - this is a campaign event (the RSVP goes to his campaign) that he'll use to pick pockets of adoring lemmings for his next election (once again breaking his term limit promise). Our congressman won't do any listening this afternoon. Instead, he'll be railing against our President and against any Democrat he can find while taking irresponsible positions to make sure he doesn't get challenged from the right. I could show up but my words would fall on deaf ears and I'd risk being run out on a rail.

Better to stay home and check out what prudent steps to take as Congress Attacks America. Then maybe I'll call some family and friends who are among the groups taking the brunt of this GOP shutdown and offer some empathy or maybe a meal. Then I'll do a little reading, maybe to reassure myself that, in spite of the group gathered at the fairgrounds, Americans as a whole are pretty much a practical, common sense people. Three-quarters of us know the current impasse is driven by Republicans. As one of the pollsters in the recent NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll noted,“These numbers lead to one inescapable conclusion: The Republicans are not tone deaf; they are stone deaf.”

Government is the enemy

"Government is the enemy

until you need a friend."

William Cohen, Republican Senator from Maine, 1996

Hey Bobblehead Bob, under current Republican leadership, government has become the enemy: of tourists and small business, of farmers, and indeed of all Americans.

Bobblehead Bob Goodlatte, it is long past time to represent your constituents. It is long past time to represent the American people. NOW is the time to sever your perverted subservience to the tea party terrorists.

American disconnect

Republicans are masters at spinning false facts into tea party "realities" that are deadlocking our government and undermining our nation.

Weak Tea

The tea party types... well, let's just say they must like it weak. Weak arguments + weak facts + weak reality = weak tea. For all their mindless rhetoric, Americans are actually paying less taxes this year. Cumulatively, some $173 billion less in federal taxes (state taxes went up by $28.6 billion). True, if the debt continues to increase we'll have to cut spending and/or raise taxes... probably some combination of the two. But, for these economic times the combination of tax cuts and spending in the stimulus was the right prescription... although more infrastructure spending putting people to work would have improved the dosage.

Tea party folks have only a weak grasp of reality - for example, they conveniently forget about the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan. To date the wars have cost $983,268,475,000 and counting as I type... up, up, and away. The teabaggers seemingly have no problem with that. That figure doesn't include the costs of keeping troops in Europe, or Japan, or Korea a half century after those conflicts ended. How long will we have troops in Iraq? Afghanistan? Beyond that, defense accounts for over 20% of the federal budget.

About 45% of the federal budget goes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Now, a fair number of the teabaggers I saw on TV are probably collecting at least two of those three. Do they want to give up their benefits? Or have them reduced? Doubtful... after all, they paid in and expect what they were promised. We do have to make adjustments... for example raising the SS age and the amount of income on which the payroll tax is collected. Even so, their protests are hypocritical. Nothing more, nothing less. Like most Americans, they like government spending when it benefits them and hate it when it benefits you.

If the tea parties are nonpartisan, how come most speakers and many organizers are Republican (not to mention some being racist or threatening violence)? Me thinks they doth protest too much. If ya gotta keep saying you are nonpartisan or bipartisan... you probably aren't.

Well, I've been very busy in the yard and garden, with family things, and counting Americans. No time for tea parties. But, I do enjoy and must have my morning coffee.

Tea Party Terrorists

The actual, real, documented acts of violence by the tea party folks are a long long ways from patriotism... they are acts of domestic terrorism. Eric Cantor, John McCain, John Bainor and other Repugs are tiptoeing around condemnation of vandalism/violence and encouragement of broken glass and cut gas lines... not quite telling the wingnuts to stop while saying words like "target" and "reload" are appropriate in this heated political environment.

I ran into a tea party type at a local grocery this week. She was in her 70s and her car sported a variety of flags like "Don't Tread on Me" and bumper stickers calling President Barack Obama a "socialist." She pulled in close so I asked her why she had all those flags and stickers. Her answer - "healthcare reform is socialism, a government takeover." I asked if she was on Medicare and happy with it. "Yeah," she said, "and they're trying to take it away." Huh?? She said "it was time to eliminate Obama and those damn Democrats who support him..." Now I don't know what she meant by "eliminate" but it sounds like PalinSpeak. Hunt 'em from helicopters??

Do you see the hypocrisy and misinformation in her comments? Can you hear idiots like Glen Beck echoing in her shallow brain? Or maybe the hate spread for months by local yokel politicians. It is time for Repugs to move beyond hate and into real policy. Into solving problems instead of creating divisions. I ain't holding my breath.