Tag: grover norquist
#EndorseThis: Greed And Hypocrisy As Trump Cronies Glom PPP Loans

#EndorseThis: Greed And Hypocrisy As Trump Cronies Glom PPP Loans

You may recall how the Treasury Department and the Trump White House strenuously opposed any oversight of the hundreds of billions of dollars distributed by the PPP loan program. "I'll be the oversight," barked Trump. And now we know why: His friends, family, and political cronies have bellied up to federal cash box, grabbing with both hands.

In just 90 seconds, the liberal SuperPAC #MeidasTouch delivers a sharp summary of several egregious "borrowers" in a new ad titled "Leave Me A Loan." The offenders range from Jared Kushner to Kanye West and include that lifelong anti-government crusader, Grover Norquist. (Grover no longer wants to drown big government in a bathtub. He just wants to drown his principles in million-dollar hand-outs.)

Yes, businesses owned by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Rep. Devin Nunes are among the connected outfits that got some easy loan action too. Meanwhile, deserving small businesses were left to go under.

Which stinks worse, the hypocrisy or the greed? We report, you decide.


Right-Wing Extremism: Not Just For Radicals Anymore

Right-Wing Extremism: Not Just For Radicals Anymore

On Sunday, it will be 20 years since the morning a bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and took 168 human lives. Nineteen of those lives belonged to children.

Maybe it takes you by surprise that it has been so long. Maybe you wonder where the time went. And maybe you remember…

…the ghastly pictures of that building, the front of it sheared away.

…the firefighter emerging from the rubble, tenderly cradling that dying baby.

…the bloody and lacerated people wandering dazedly from the wreckage.

…the breathless speculation that surely the culprits had to be Muslims.

And maybe you remember, too, that sense of vertiginous shock some people felt when we got our first look at the man who planted the bomb and discovered him to be, not a swarthy Muslim with a heavy beard and hard-to-pronounce name, but a clean-cut, apple pie-faced young white man named Timothy McVeigh. People could not have been more nonplussed if Richie Cunningham had shot up a shopping mall.

But the tragedy was to contain one last surprise. It came when we learned why McVeigh committed his atrocity. It seems he hated the government.

That revelation was our introduction to a world whose very existence most of us had never suspected. Meaning the so-called patriot movement, the armed, radical right-wing extremists who refuse to recognize the authority of the nation’s duly constituted and elected government. Maybe you remember the news reports of how they spent nights and weekends drilling in the woods, playing soldier in anticipation of the day ZOG — the Zionist Occupied Government — ceded the country to the United Nations and soldiers of the New World Order came rappelling down from black helicopters to seize everybody’s guns. Maybe you remember how crazy it all sounded.

But that was then. Twenty years ago, the idea of anti-government resistance seemed confined to a lunatic fringe operating in the shadows beyond the mainstream. Twenty years later, it is the mainstream, the beating heart of the Republican Party. And while certainly no responsible figure on the right advocates or condones what he did, it is just as certain that McVeigh’s violent antipathy toward Washington, his conviction that America’s government is America’s enemy, has bound itself to the very DNA of modern conservatism.

It lives in Grover Norquist’s pledge to shrink government down until “we can drown it in the bathtub,” in Chuck Norris’ musing about the need for “a second American revolution,” in Michele Bachmann’s fear that the census is an evil conspiracy. It lives in dozens of right-wing terror plots documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center since the 1995 bombing, including last year’s murder of two police officers and a Walmart shopper by two anti-government activists in Las Vegas. It lives in Cliven Bundy’s armed standoff with federal officials.

These days, it is an article of faith on the political right that “government” is a faceless, amorphous Other. But this government brought itself into being with three words — “We the people” — and they are neither incidental nor insignificant. Our government may be good, may be bad, may be something in between, but as long as we are a free society, the one thing it always is, is us. Meaning: a manifestation of our common will, a decision a majority of us made. We are allowed to be furious at it, but even in fury, we always have peaceful tools for its overthrow. So there is never a reason to do what McVeigh did.

We all know that, of course. But 20 years after the day they brought babies out of the rubble in pieces would be an excellent time to pause and remind ourselves, just the same.

(Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL, 33132. Readers may contact him via email at lpitts@miamiherald.com.)

Photo: Standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch, Nevada. Screenshot via YouTube/The Alex Jones Channel

On Gas Tax Increase, Obama Is Wrong — And (Some) Republicans Are Right

On Gas Tax Increase, Obama Is Wrong — And (Some) Republicans Are Right

It doesn’t happen often, but Washington is now debating an important issue on which the United States Chamber of Commerce, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Fox News pundit Charles Krauthammer, and a growing posse of assorted right-wingers are right – and President Barack Obama is wrong.

Those voices on the right, along with many on the left, are urging consideration of an increase in the federal gasoline tax, sorely needed both to maintain America’s transportation infrastructure and to reduce greenhouse gases. Yet for reasons best known to him alone, the president is resisting that excellent idea.

As every sentient American adult knows, the price of gasoline at the pump has fallen precipitously in recent months. Filling a 20-gallon tank today costs about $30 less than buying the same volume of gas cost last summer. To raise the federal gas tax by 15 cents per gallon would only recoup 10 percent of that consumer bonanza – and would bring tax revenues roughly in line with inflation since the last time an increase passed in 1993.

Since then, of course, America’s roads, bridges, tunnels, and transit systems have continued to decay, without sufficient funding or will to keep them in decent condition. Congressional revulsion at raising taxes, thanks to the mania enforced by Grover Norquist at the misnamed Americans for Tax Reform, has left the Highway Trust Fund on the brink of bankruptcy since last year. A modest gas tax increase would begin to solve the problem, at least for the transportation sector. (The rest of the nation’s infrastructure – everything from airports and dams to state universities, public buildings, and water mains – is falling apart, too, but that will require bigger solutions.)

Were we inclined, as a nation, to consider what we owe both our ancestors and our descendants, Washington would have embarked on a program of national reconstruction years ago, to take advantage of negligible interest rates, an idled labor force, and under-utilized capital. No comparable opportunity to rebuild cheaply and efficiently, while creating the kinds of jobs that support families, has existed since the Great Depression. And much of what we now take (and use) for granted was built in those years, and in the early postwar decades, when public works were widely seen as a public good.

But the ideologues who now dominate our politics under the rubric of “conservative” are not in the business of conserving anything – not our natural resources, not our environment, and certainly not our infrastructure. Their frothing opposition to government and taxation has actively encouraged decay. Today, the radicals represented by the Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity (another misnomer) will seek to block even a very modest gas tax increase, as they are doing on the state level in Iowa – without any plausible proposal for infrastructure repair that everyone knows is essential.

Ask for their alternative solution to financing infrastructure, and the geniuses at the Heritage Foundation, for instance, demand an end to transit spending and a cut in construction wages. Others on the right simply mumble about “reducing waste.” What they don’t propose is a plausible, equitable, sustainable way to rebuild.

These people shouldn’t call themselves the Tea Party. With their strange urge to ruin the transportation systems that made this the strongest country in the world, they’re more like a Termite Party. Termite is also the proper term for Republicans in the House of Representatives, where Speaker John Boehner brags that he has never, ever voted to increase the gas tax. (After all, it doesn’t fund golf courses or tanning beds.)

The limits to such madness may be on the horizon, however. When a right-wing stalwart like Inhofe – a noted climate denier and stooge of the oil industry – acknowledges that a gas tax increase may be inevitable, then sanity could break out, even on Capitol Hill.

For President Obama to situate himself among irrational opponents of an increase is perplexing. Perhaps if enough Republicans and corporate leaders insist on a gas tax hike, he will abandon that position and join their ranks. And then at last, the “bipartisan” approach he still cherishes, against so much evidence, might produce something of value to this country.

Conservatives Tell GOP: Look Past Obama Order On Immigration

Conservatives Tell GOP: Look Past Obama Order On Immigration

By Franco Ordoñez, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — As Capitol Hill prepares for political warfare over President Barack Obama’s planned executive order on immigration, a coalition of business executives and prominent conservatives is warning Republican leaders not to get further mired in the rhetorical battle that already has spiraled into threats of lawsuits, impeachment and a government shutdown.

At least one former GOP presidential candidate, along with business leaders and Republican donors who have raised millions on behalf of party candidates, will come together today as part of a new push to convince lawmakers that, regardless of what Obama does, they should continue to work on a congressional solution to the nation’s immigration woes.

Among the efforts today will be organized commentary in conservative the conservative press, local news conferences around the country and events such as one in D.C. featuring Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and national business leaders.

Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the Partnership for a New American Economy, said the demographics of the country are rapidly changing. Leaders can’t ignore the speed with which the Latino and Asian voting bloc is growing if the party wants to remain competitive in 2016 and beyond, he said.

“I think there will be a negative reaction to what Obama does among some circles in the Republican party, but at the end of the day congressional action is such an important economic thing to do, but it’s also such an important political thing to do,” said Robbins, who heads the business coalition established by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The group supports an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.

Obama is expected to issue an executive order as soon as this week that would shield as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. The leaked plans have set off a wave of discontent among Republicans who see the move as an unconstitutional power grab. Republicans leaders including incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) say the move would poison future cooperative efforts with the White House.

Robbins cites his group’s own findings that there are more than 13.2 million unregistered Hispanic and Asian eligible voters in the United States, with high numbers in swing states such as Texas (2.4 million), Florida (814,000), Colorado (272,000), and Nevada (154,000). By 2020, another 4.2 million Hispanic and Asian residents are expected to become naturalized citizens and therefore eligible to vote, the partnership found.

It was only two years ago that many Republican leaders, like Boehner, appeared to be harnessing their political futures to passing an immigration overhaul. Obama’s re-election in 2012, with overwhelming support from Latinos, plunged the GOP into an identity crisis as members wrestled with an image problem.

The Republican National Committee conducted a months-long review that concluded that Hispanics thought Republicans “do not care” about them. Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called on the party to embrace changing the immigration law or risk shrinking to the GOP’s core constituency. But two years is an eternity in Washington.

Those leading the charge for change are some of the biggest names in business and conservative circles, including Norquist, Bloomberg, Bill Marriott, Jr. of the Marriott International hotel company, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They’re seeking, among other things, a labor pool with more high- and low-skilled immigrants.

To gain support, they likely will first focus on encouraging the original 14 Senate Republicans who helped pass the Senate immigration bill in 2012 to speak out. That legislation, which was never taken up by the House, would have boosted border security and put millions of undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship. But some of senators, such as Republican Marco Rubio of Florida, have disowned the bill.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) followed party talking points last week, telling McClatchy that Obama would be “poisoning the well” of cooperation if he enacts the executive order. He said Obama should at least give the new Congress a chance to find a resolution.

But McCain stopped short of saying that issuing an executive order would eliminate the possibility of Congress taking up the matter again before the 2016 elections.

Orrin Hatch (R-UT) went a little further. Obama should not act on an executive order, Hatch said, but he added that even if the president does go forward, it is important to find a congressional solution.

“I still think we have to take it back and do it right,” Hatch said in an interview. “I’m willing to work on this because it’s an important set of issues. And it’s something that needs to be done.”

The White House reiterated Tuesday that Obama plans to issue the executive order by the end of the year. But Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the president would back off on his executive order if House Republicans would take up and pass the Senate bill.

“Republicans can certainly prevent the president from taking this executive action,” Earnest said.

The president wants to cement an image that Republicans oppose the needs of immigrants, according to Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Nowrasteh said Republican leaders will not act on an immigration overhaul now because, he said, they would risk looking like they’re “kowtowing” to the president. He argued Republicans should override Obama’s actions by passing piecemeal immigration reform bills that nullify the executive orders, but also overhaul the system in way that appeals to conservatives, such as creating a larger guest worker program.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr