Remember in "Seinfeld" when George Costanza got a new job and his employer thought he had a physical disability? He loved the benefits and attention, so he fully committed himself to the lie -- and intended to keep it up indefinitely.
The episode reminds me a bit of how Republicans treat their 2012 welfare reform lie.
As you'll recall, a bipartisan group of governors asked the Obama administration for some flexibility on the existing welfare law, transitioning beneficiaries from welfare to work. The White House agreed to give the states some leeway, so long as the work requirement wasn't weakened. It inspired Mitt Romney and GOP leaders to make up a shameless lie, accusing President Obama of weakening welfare work requirements.
The blatant falsehood didn't make much of a difference, and I assumed the issue would disappear once the election ended. But like George Costanza, Republicans have become so invested in the lie, they're afraid to let it go.
Prominent House Republicans are relaunching efforts to stop the Obama administration from giving states waivers under welfare reform.
GOP leaders of several committees reintroduced a bill Thursday that would block the policy, which Republicans say "guts" welfare's work requirement.
"This legislation makes it clear -- the Obama administration cannot undermine the work requirement that has resulted in higher earnings and employment for low-income individuals," said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) in a statement.
That the Obama administration never undermined the work requirement -- and has no intention of doing so in the future -- apparently doesn't matter. What's necessary, apparently, is to keep the lie alive, even after it's been exposed as untrue.
Yesterday, the White House criticized the House GOP bill, which has 23 cosponsors, as standing in the way "innovative" state-based programs that could help more welfare recipients into new jobs. The administration called the bill "unnecessary."
Which it is, though that doesn't seem to matter.
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The power of a Luntz tested meme over reality. Wow, just wow.
The Dems are simply being inept about the literature of politics.
Inept.
They focus on the policy without telling the story. The story that the GOP has been telling since Reagan started in on the Welfare Queens is an ancient one that resonates with every hard working society. The most popular version of this story about freeloaders is Aesop's fable of the ants and the grasshopper.
The story the fricking moron Dem leadership needs to tell is this: We need to be more like the hard working ants, but that is not where Reagan and the GOP have lead us. In NO ant colony do 80% of the ants get only 16% of the food they collected. Yet that is what has happened in Reagan-GOP crafted America. (Duke Study- Ariely [pdf])
THAT is where the inequity of our ant and grasshopper story is. That 84% of the wealth is not going to lazy grasshoppers. Though the topmost 20% of our ant colony may be as hard working, the benefits of our society are flowing to them in a ludicrously disproportionate way.
CAN Dem Political leaders tell that story loudly and clearly without causing their financial backers to fear the mob of the 80% calling for their heads? All we need to say is that meritocracy is good, our resolve to maintain strong work ethics is firm and that there should be rewards for those who have competed hard to reach their brass rings.
But that doesn't mean Winner Takes ALL. Awarding 84% of the wealth to 20% of the population is ridiculous. 1% of the population holding 37% of the wealth is ludicrous.
Is it so very hard to tell that story in simple literary terms as Reagan did? Because unlike Reagan's retelling, our story is backed up by the facts.
Maybe we should defund ACORN while we're at it? Or put a rider on the bill to make sure no federal funds ever go toward abor...
...nevermind. That rascally republicans, keeping us safe from reality. Carry on.
"Just remember: it's not a lie...if you believe it" - G. Costanza.
Putting aside the fact they're trying to legislate something that is actually nothing, aren't the GOP supposed to be the "party of state's rights?" Why do they now want to take away the ability for a state to tweak a program in a way it deems best for its citizens? Doesn't that run contrary to current GOP doctrine of big government getting in the way of states "knowing better?"
I am convinced that GOP doctrine is a barrel of monkey feces that they reach into and fling around in order to prove their imagined superiority.
This raises a good related point. Paul Ryans budge turns many fed programs into block grants for the states to run as they choose. Where is the GOP outrage about that?
The GOP is not for states rights. They are for corporate "rights."
How about another Seinfeld episode, "Opposite George"
This White House should start doing the opposite of what their instinct tells them.
They could start by not being so incredibly stupid as to sign a continuing resolution for the rest of the year without a debt ceiling increase.
Democrats should vote "Present".
I'd like Republicans to be 100% responsible for pulling the rug out from under Republicans that requested the waiver.
They can then breathe a sigh of relief when Reid sticks it in a drawer and ignores it.
I wish a bill could be introduced to dock lawmakers' pay every time they waste our tax dollars and the public's time on this type of complete nonsense.
The sad part of it all is that there is no shame to their lies even when they're called out by reality. Lying may not "be a crime" but it is immoral and how can anyone trust someone/group that continues to lie brazenly? My mother always said that you can't trust a liar or a thief - in this case the GOTP are both of those and as long as their lips are moving, I know that they're lying.
And yet if you were to lie in front of congress, you would be charged with perjury, but the opposite - politicians lying to the public, is standard operating procedure these days - a strong press would help with that, but sadly those days appear to be over. Fact-checking websites are great, but people will only see them if they are actively seeking them out.
It's the Great Republican Fairy Tale. Everything good about America is because of the Republicans. Everything Evil is because of the Democrats. The president is, in particular, pure evil. If he ever does the right thing it was for the wrong reasons or at the wrong time. All science is a fraud because they know that the world is 6000 years old - after all, the Bible tells them so. Sometimes I think they are trying to make my head explode.
"This to us is something that we're not going to give up on, because we're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people." - Paul Ryan
The only legislation that stands a chance of passing the House seems to be completely useless, unneeded and based on lies kinds of legislation. thank you repubs and tea party. maybe our next prez can be the mad hatter.
I'm sure that was just an oversight. How many of them are up for re-election this year?
It's only unnecessary if you live in the world where 2+2=4. Republicans don't.
How does the Republican leadership keep all their mendacity straight? Binders full of lies?
They have a quick search database that tells them what lies they have used and whether or not they can use them again.
Everyone knows the Demcrat party is the party of takers. They support entitlements, not constitutional or god given rights. That is how we get cell phones, day care, and everything else that most people thought they needed an education and work ethic to achieve. When a single mom in PA can get 80K for doing nothing, where is the administration protecting the work requirement? All a Democrat needs to say is that it is not their fault. At that point every Democrat politician pats themselves on the back for caring by redistributing my hard earned income to the takers. It gives them "empathy bragging rights." I am a good person because I got to save the (fill in the blank).
The only takers are the wealthy they took every handout that came their way and have been taking for generations no matter how much you repeat the lie about democrats you can't avoid the truth about the wealthy, the biggest free loaders that ever existed. Which is why you will never be one of them you are so caught up in myth that you can't see you support the real free loaders, here is a clue, name 1 wealthy person in the last 50 years that did not have an inheritance or a wealthy sugar daddy to pave their way .
Bill Gates and Me. I worked in factories and on the railroad at age 15 and now am considered wealthy by your standards. Since you never worked, you are still where you are when you were a teenager.
Um, maybe Steve Jobs? Bill Gates? Elon Musk?
Ok, I figured out I should do it before someone else did. However, the basis of your post is correct---the vast majority of the 0.1% at the top of the food chain didn't earn that money. They were super-fortunate enough to be born into the DuPont family, the Walton family, the Rockefeller family, etc. I guess in republand, the welfare queen has now been updated to become the "single mom in PA (who) can get 80K for doing nothing". It's important to keep your lies and misconceptions up-to-date and trendy, after all. My guess is that the poster above is an angry old white guy who is fully supportive of the ultrarich because he is deluded enough to believe that he will someday be one of them, and play golf with them at their country clubs, dine with them on their yachts, and learn their secret handshakes. It's useful tools like him that keep them in power, and when that fails, there's always fearmongering and unabashed lies to fall back upon.
At least with regard to William Henry Gates III (William H. Gates II is the "Gates" in Preston, Gates, and Ellis -- the infamous lobbying firm) it's remarkable that the "humble origins" meme is still around.
Clue, peeps: Daddy was (as noted above) a very successful corporate lawyer and lobbyist, Momma was on the board of the United Way and First Interstate Bank (she's the one who suggested to her contacts at IBM that they look into making a deal with her little boy for software for the IBM PC). Grandpa was well-enough off to leave little Bill a million-dollar trust fund (which was worth quite a bit in the 70s) and Bill went to Harvard on a legacy admission after graduating from an exclusive prep school.
So let's ditch the "Bill Gates made it without inherited privilege" thing, shall we?
so who is the single mom in PA getting $80M for doing nothing? I'm not aware of any programs with those kind of benefits - enlighten us with specifics, black coffee.
Or maybe it's your former wife or former daughter in law collecting alimony from your wealthy family?
Try looking it up. I think she is a distant relative to the Poll worker that voted six times in the last election.
tried looking it up...all I found is a HYPOTHETICAL anaysis by a local station in Michigan showing what programs a hypothetical single mom could potentially apply for...and some tweets of that. BTW, the station's list would mean she'd have to be a teacher in a low-income school dstrict, have kids in preschool, kids in grade school and smart kids in college majoring in math/science, and no anaylsis if all of those programs could be accessed by one person at one time. Plus many of those benefits/programs are not cash paid to the hypothetical individual (i.e. tax credits, school lunch, etc). So no evidence that anyone is actually reciving that amount of benefits.
So, back to my question - what single mom making $19,000/yr is getting $80M in benefits?
PS: I was a republican for 30 years until I started paying attention in 2002 and realized the republican leadership and elected officials are fiscally irresponsible, are war-mongers, and wanted to get into my body, bedroom & religion.
PSS: I make good money and support my family.
It is funny how all this Democrat class envy basically comes not from a work ethic, but from demanding things they haven't earned. If a persons works hard, educates themselves, saves, and eventually aquires wealth, they are the evil rich. So the only acceptable behavior in Dem land is to be lazy, complain, and demand redistribution. If you were around in the 60s and 70s when the socialists failed you understand one simple fact, those that work hard don't want to have it taken away by the slugs.
Sorry black coffee dude (or dudette). I changed to the more compassionate, empathetic and humane...and fiscally responsible...party. Maybe you need to come out of the 1960s and realize things have changed, especially welfare requirements....look it up
Everyone of these "unnecessary" bills should be renamed as:
George Costanza Bill #1
George Costanza Bill #2 and so on.....
This is the best article I've read all day!!!
Regarding Instant Replay, why can't we give the House Republicans a recent History Exam. If they can not correctly answer 7 out of 10 questions regarding which part of Obama's record is true and which part was made up, then they would have to relinquish their House Seat. I was trying to think of who we could best bestow their seat upon and the Public School Teachers in those republican districts that were threatened with competency tests came to mind.
In any case, I think we could make the test questions easy enough. For example 1) When Obama said he would drop Drones on American citizens on US soil, was it before or after he requested a geopolitical map indicating where the most concentrated Republican Gerrymandering took place. 2)When Obama decided that the USA should be a socialist state, was that before or after he retained his campaign workers in order to go door to door asking the top 1% for our money back. 3) When Obama flushed $1/2 billion down the tubes by loaning it to the Tesla Auto Company, was that before or after it cut the profits nfrom big oil by 70% ...those kind of questions (We don't want to make it too hard)
Republicans live in a bubble. They are experiencing a very real case of "incestuous amplification". And it's having deleterious effects on both them and their country. They have told so many lies for so long that they no longer know what is true and what is false.
Just one example is they have told themselves and each other that trickle down economics work so often that they actually believe it, even though all evidence points to the contrary. They ignore any and all evidence that doesn't support their ideology. And it will destroy them.
The question is, are they going to take the rest of the United States with them when they finally succumb to incestuous amplification, greed, naked ambition and ignorance?