Republicans just don’t care what the nation thinks by Robert Reich

[DonViejo]

If you think Boehner and the House GOP will bow to public pressure to reach a "fiscal cliff" deal, think again

BY ROBERT REICH, ROBERTREICH.ORG

Are House Republicans – now summoned back to Washington by Speaker John Boehner — about to succumb to public pressure and save the nation from the fiscal cliff?

Don’t bet on it.

Even if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell cooperates by not mounting a filibuster and allows the Senate to pass a bill extending the Bush tax cuts to the first $250,000 of everyone’s income, Boehner may not bring it to the House floor.

On a Thursday conference call with House Republicans he assured conservatives he was “not interested” in allowing such a vote if most House Republicans would reject the bill, according to a source on the call.

Democrats are confident that even if the nation technically goes over the cliff January 1, Boehner will bring such a bill to the floor soon after January 3 — once House Republicans have re-elected him Speaker – and it will get passed.

But this assumes Boehner and the GOP will be any more swayed by public opinion than they are now.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/republicans_just_dont_care_what_the_nation_thinks/

[pipoman]

1. And I don't care what Reich thinks..

he is a traitor to US labor..

[PoliticalBiker]

3. What??

What has he done to give you that idea?
RR has always been on the side of the American worker. Always
The fact of the matter is, he's right. No matter what the democrats propose, if it has higher tax rates for the wealthy, they will not pass it. The republicons care nothing about the American worker, the plight of the poor, medicare/medicaid recipients, student college costs, science, etc. The are there to coddle the wealty. More specifically, their wealthy donors. Nothing else. Their wealthy donors say impeded anything Obama tries to do, they do it.
Problem is, their electorate is to stoopid to realize it. They are so in the dark they are willing to vote against their own self interests for blind loyalty.
These are the things RR says at his speaking engagements... you hear him saying those same things on his guest appearances.
Have you read any of his works?
He is NOT a traitor to labor.

[pipoman]

4. I am old enough to remember

when he was actually in a position to advocate for US labor as Sec. of Labor. He chose instead to champion the NAFTA against the wishes of as much as 80% of labor.

Apparently, some people think it's big news that Robert Reich has decided to publicly endorse Barack Obama. We shouldn't be surprised. For months now, Reich has been criticizing Hillary Clinton on his blog and elsewhere, distorting her policies and her positions. He's criticized Senator Clinton's solutions on the foreclosure crisis, on health care and trade. He's been in the Obama camp for some time.

Despite his reputation as a liberal and a friend of working men and women, Reich knows how to walk both sides of the street. I recall that he rarely, if ever, mentioned unions during his four years as Secretary of Labor. He has no problem backing proposals that cheer business more than labor, like ending the corporate income tax. If you read his recent book, Supercapitalism, you would think Steve Forbes was the writer. But no, it's the former Secretary of Labor calling for eliminating a tax that helps keep down the tax burden on working men and women across this nation. Does Senator Obama support that Reich idea? Is eliminating the corporate income tax going to be part of the "change we can believe in"?

Reich says that corporate responsibility is counterproductive. He thinks it's a distraction. That's beautiful. Here we have a former Secretary of Labor, someone who should know better, taking the GOP line that corporations need to focus on making money and forget about everything else. The movement for social responsibility has promoted ethical decision-making in business, community development programs, day-care centers, HIV-AIDS training, family-friendly workplaces, and more. To suggest that those developments are a distraction from the responsibility of corporations to amass profits for shareholders, as Secretary Reich does in his book, is shameful.

So is his support for NAFTA. Reich says unfair trade pacts bear no responsibility for the decline in manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Two months ago, Reich wrote that "it's a shame the Democratic candidates for president feel they have to make trade - specifically NAFTA - the enemy of blue-collar workers and the putative cause of their difficulties. NAFTA is not to blame." He's wrong on NAFTA, just as Obama's chief economic advisor Professor Goolsbee was wrong on NAFTA.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-mcentee/robert-reichs-endorsement_b_97450.html

Now he likes to go around in feigned disbelief that things aren't getting better for labor, pointing fingers here and there but refusing to acknowledge the impact of his own sell out to big industry.

He is a traitor to US labor.

[Flashmann]

2. Republicans just don’t care what the nation thinks

The amount of money the "Nation" pays them is a pittance,chump change,to what they can command in bribes........What the Nation thinks and what those who PAY the bribes think,is much too often at odds....

Over simply put:Why should *I*,as a thuglican,who possesses no empathy or moral character,am sexist,racist,homophobic and am wholly out of tune,do what I'm paid $xx to do,instead of what my REAL masters pay me $XXXXXXXXXXX to do?.....

*I am NOT athuglican*

[Aristus]

5. More accurately: Republicans don't care about Americans who think.

n/t

[otohara]

6. They Didn't Care What The World Thought

millions of protestors in every corner the world didn't deter them from marching into Baghdad.

[Filibuster Harry]

7. Remember when Michele Bachmann said on Chris Matthews that there should be investigations

on house members because there are members who don't care about america. She was right. The Rs in the house and senate don't care about america or its people.

[backscatter712]

8. The only way we can truly win is by coercing the subhuman fucks.

They will not negotiate in good faith, EVER.

We need to be repeatedly smashing their skulls in with a baseball bat until they surrender or are subdued.