It honestly takes a lot to get me to feel sympathy for David Vitter, (R. La.) Like most of the world, I was floored by the voters of Louisiana returning Vitter, a religious right politician, to the Senate after his scandal involving high-priced prostitutes. However, that is precisely the unique skill of the current Democratic leadership — they seem eager to win any race to the bottom. Vitter this week opposed an Obama regulation that gives an exemption of members of Congress and their aides under Obamacare. The regulation allows Congress to pay for its own generous subsidies to avoid having to live under the new law like normal citizens. While there is a definite appeal to Vitter’s view that the Congress should live under the same law applicable to average citizens, there may be some legitimate argument that I am missing. What should be clear is that some Democrats reacted in worse possible way. Politico is reporting that it has legislation drafted by Democrats that would eliminate health care benefits for lawmakers where there is “probable cause” to believe they patronized prostitutes. If true, this is really a sophomoric act of retaliation. Politico is reporting that this is not a joke but something actually raised as a meeting of Democratic members.
Apparently even Republicans are mad at Vitter for exposing the hypocrisy of Congress imposing a law on the country while (yet again) creating an exception for itself. The law actually has language barring exceptions, but the Obama Administration issued an order during the August recess to require the Office of Personnel Management to retain the subsidy for members and their staffs.
Even if you believe Congress should be able spare itself from having to get insurance like other Americans, this alleged proposal (and other retaliatory measure directed at Senators supporting Vitter) would set a new low for Congress. I still find it hard to believe that any Democrat would draft such an openly retaliatory and vicious response. Yet, there has been no denial that a draft was circulated that I could find.
Vitter has demanded an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, specifically naming Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). A Reid spokeswoman said Vitter’s aim is a “desperate attempt to change the subject from his previous ethics issues.” That statement is troubling since I fail to see why we are discussing Vitter’s ethics at all in this context. He has a perfectly valid point in seeking to block an exception for members under this controversial law.
What do you think about the effective subsidy that Congress will continue to give itself under the regulation?
Jill,
Not to start a spat, but Congress already passed the Affordable Care Act and the Supreme Court approved it. Now, I would have preferred a single payer plan, but the AFA is an improvement for millions of people right now and even more when the exchanges open up in a few weeks.
To be fair the current House does not “like” Obamacare because it was something that was passed during Obama’s term of office. It is that simple and the Republican leadership made that clear on election night in 2008.
Federal law already outlawed federal money for abortions under the Hyde amendment so that was something started before Obama and if it was included in the AFA, it would not have passed Congress and no one would have been helped.
“A name you can trust.”
The most you can say is that he is not as bad as the opposition.
We have slipped so far that even the Democratic party can barely be distinguished from liberal Republicans of decades ago.
The conservative, right wing is winning, not be winning elections but by changing the mainstream of political discussion.
Is it really any accident the about ” 95 percent of the gains from economic recovery since 2009 have gone to the famous 1 percent. In fact, more than 60 percent of the gains went to the top 0.1 percent, people with annual incomes of more than $1.9 million”. Is it really any accident that unemployment is below 8% largely because the long term unemployed are no longer actively seeking work.
The wonder and the miracle is that there are not riots in the streets.
Many of Obama’s domestic policies are straight form the conservative University of Chicago economics, and law play book.
This administration has treated middle class working as expendable.
The good news is that this is self limiting. The top 1% cannot survive without a vibrant middle class to buy the products and services of the businesses they own.
The bad news is that we will have a lost generation ranging from hungry school children, to education cut short, and career ambitions savaged by those who believe the desperate unemployed are moochers.
Even Ronald Reagan understood that when the economic pie gets larger every body should get a bigger piece.
But you won’t find those in power talking that way today.
Oh good…. Someone that can pay for there own fetishes….. So what is the issue….
http://wonkette.com/528683/david-vitter-demands-senate-democrats-go-probe-themselves-for-reminding-us-of-that-time-he-used-to-screw-hookers
September 17, 2013
PULL UP YOUR BIG-BOY DIAPERS 5:16 pm September 13, 2013
David Vitter Demands Senate Democrats Go Probe Themselves For Reminding Us Of That Time He Used To Screw Hookers
by Kaili Joy Gray
This will never get old
Oh, Sen. David Vitter (R-Whore House), we heart you soooooo much. No, really, we do. You are, in fact, our very favorite diapers-wearing john in the whole Senate. While some politicians might slink away from the public eye in disgrace after getting busted for patronizing professional women of the night (you know, paying hookers for sex), those politicians tend to be weenie Democrats. Not you, sir. You are a brave soul who will force your wife to stand beside you as you say you are “very, very sorry” for all those times you paid women to dress you up in diapers and do we-don’t-even-want-to-know-what to you and then insist we forget all about that stuff so you can go back to lecturing us about family values and how the gays are destroying America with their gay and also just generally being a dick.
Obama,
A name you can trust. Especially when he’s a war monger, that’s received the Nobel peace prize. Holder be holding to Wall Street…. We are in good hands. Yes, put your trust in Obama to do the next right thing.
So what if Vitter hired prostitutes….so what…. I didn’t see him texting pictures of his penis….at least if he’s in bed with the the party they are in this matter trying to do the right thing….
The poor in the states that rejected the medicaid expansion are the ones that will suffer, lee. I see your governor is coming around but it is probably too late for him. He is too far to the right for Pennsylvania.
SWM, Absolutely and it is repub, right wing govs who are willing to hurt their people and their states by rejecting the Medicaid money. And Agreed too about Corbett. I am ashamed to call him my governor and I hope he does turn out to finally e too right wing for Pa when the election comes around. (And as far as Im concerned democrat Joe Sestak’s grab for power is the reason we have Toomey as well. These guys are a pox on our state.
LJC,
Obama is on board with cutting SS. His heath insurance plan is a joke. It was written by the Heritage Foundation, taken up first as Romney care, then tweaked by a Well Point Executive. It’s a bill for ailing health insurance companies, not sick people. It’s part of the reason Congress doesn’t want it. It’s not there to help the sick. It was Obama who took single payer, universal health care off the table, even arresting Doctors of SP as they tried to deliver their proposal to the WH.
Obamaa removed the ability for the most sick and vulnerable women to buy insurance to cover abortions. These are women who will die from his choice. He only supported gay rights after a focus group told him he’d get donations for it. Had the focus group gone the other way, who know. Prior to that he was consistently anti-gay.
Obama has conducted 6 wars so far. That has not made the world safer, it has made it more dangerous. The US is dangerous to people of other nations. We are the most heavily armed nation in the world and we sell the most arms, by far, to others.
So when you vote for a war monger, this isn’t helping keep you or anyone else be safe. There are even other ways to deal with Syria than threatening to kill more civilians.
These are the facts. These were the facts before the election. It is people in this nation, right and left, who need to wake up and be honest about their “leaders”. If we don’t, things cannot change.
Children and needy, keeping SNAP, disabled, seniors, children, the ACA, many have already seen benefits (myself included) not privatizing social security or medicare and so on.
Obviously you and I disagree. Again I get your point and if there was another candidate who mirrored my social stances and was also antiwar candidate he might be my choice but we also live in a dangerous world. One can’t simple say no more war and leave it at that. That does not mean permission to say go into Iran on false information to the country and I am not so sure regime change is something we should be doing either. By the same token without the stick of military action why should Assad come to the table. Get rid of the chemical weapons or no tv for you, or no repercussion means there is no cause for him to change his behavior or his cache of chemical weapons
Jill, I get your point but the fact is look at the bills voted out by the repubs and shot down (not a pun) in the senate/by the Pres. They in fact are the ACA, abortion rights, gay rights, etc.
I don’t know why they would vote Vitter back in but that is the voter’s choice. Exactly. They voted for the person whom they felt would vote the way they wanted him to. That is the point of the system.
LJC, Which children, women, seniors and disabled people are you speaking of? You write: “I voted for him because dem social policies more mirror what I want to see, as opposed to hurting the most needy among us including children, babies and boys as well as seniors, disabled, women, uninsured, and keeping the safety nets intact rather then attempting to dismantle them.”
When the US goes to war it is hurting the needy, both here and abroad. Overseas, obviously, being in a war zone literally takes such people out. In the US, the wars are used to take money away from the people for basic necessities and social goods.
We need to stop being a war/death cult in this nation. You can’t do that if you keep voting for people who gladly participate in wars.
LJC,
Think again, if you really believe a person and party who commits war crimes cares about the “little people”.
You must also allow your enemy the same excuse for their vote as you give yourself for yours. They voted for Vitter because his social polices mirrored what is important to them.
Instead, it would be better for everyone to vote out war and other criminals. You can find candidates who are not either and who will support your social policies. To keeping voting for them will only keep them in office and further keep their crimes going.
Trust me, someone who kills children does not really care about poverty, abortion, civil rights etc. They just don’t.
Great catch ap!
Jill I voted for President Obama, not because I ignored what he has done with drone strikes, NSA, etc, carrying on and adding to horrendous Bush policies. I voted for him because given the alleged 2 party system, since more and more they are more alike then different absent social policies, I voted for him because dem social policies more mirror what I want to see, as opposed to hurting the most needy among us including children, babies and boys as well as seniors, disabled, women, uninsured, and keeping the safety nets intact rather then attempting to dismantle them.
Get the money out of politics as a start. That will bring more folks to the table who are not beholden to the lobbyists and money people.
Thanks for the reminders/link, Swarthmore mom.
8/24/12 6:05pm
Why Was Philandering Senator David Vitter Tweeting to This Young Lady Last Night?
http://gawker.com/5937761/why-was-philandering-senator-david-vitter-tweeting-to-this-young-lady-last-night
” The tweet could have been a simple mistake on Vitter’s part—or that of an aide with access to his Twitter account—but when people began pressing Scott to explain why Vitter might be reaching out to her, she seemed to suggest that the contact was very intentional. “I know something you don’t know,” she tweeted coyly to a man attempting to get to the bottom of Vitter’s contact. Even more suspicious is that that and the other tweets in the photo at left were almost immediately scrubbed from Scott’s Twitter feed.
Again, this could all be an honest mistake, but if so, why all the secrecy and quickly covered tracks? Perhaps Vitter’s nine lives are about to run out. If you know anything more, email me.
UPDATE: Vitter and Scott both follow each other on Twitter, too.”
Blouise,
The three gentlemen that you mentioned also are in trouble with sanity.
Part of the reason that people who have committed war crimes and other truly vicious crimes are still in power has to do with partisan citizens.
Under Bush, these are the people who excused everything Bush and Cheney did because those were nice, god-fearing Republican men. Under Obama, these are the people who excuse everything he does, to include killing babies, children and 16 year old boys, because he is a god-fearing, wonderful, Democratic guy.
People in power could not get away with that crap if citizens stopped supporting criminals in office. The people who voted Vitter into office are very similar to the people who voted for Obama in 12. While each group hates the other and does not think they are anything alike, ironically, they are nearly identical.
To get off the vicious cycle would take radical honesty and integrity. I’m hoping that understanding becomes clear to more people, because otherwise, we will keep electing criminals to office in the name of mindless, soulless, partisan loyalty.
SwM,
Historically, the longer a party is out of power the more moderate it’s choice for Presidential candidate. Cruz and Rand ( and Koch, of course) are hoping to buck that trend.
The problem for all three is that many within the Republican Party see this Obamacare push as self-destructive to the party. If they shut down the government, then soldiers don’t get paid and if they make an exception for the soldiers and Obama vetos it, then they could well get the blame in the court of public opinion which bodes badly for 2016 … either way, it’s very dicey for the Republicans.
Cruz, Paul, and even Vitter don’t have a problem with their constituents in Texas, Kentucky, or Louisiana, it’s the rest of the country and especially their fellow Republicans colleagues’ support that Cruz and Paul will need in 2016 … just ask Santorum or Gingrich who should well remember Romney.
Risky political business.
Swarthmore,
thanks for bringing us up to speed on Vitter’s past. He is continuing lies about the ACA and as suggested above, he is pandering to the Tea Party. Gene’s description of him was way too king. 🙂
Obama, a man you can trust…..
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/05/01/507285/-Sen-Diaper-David-Vitter-s-madam-commits-suicide The madam killed herself and Vitter is still in the senate.