Apparently the House GOP are still refining their strategy to manage the payroll tax cut debacle.
If a Republican represents your district in the House, he or she would probably prefer that you did not phone their office and pile on the misery.
Find your Congresscritter here.
Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Guide for first-timers here.
Brian R.
A thing of beauty.
Call your Rep. and Senator. ESPECIALLY if they’re Republican.
Tone In DC
These guys are worse than kindergartners. Comparing these goopers to the kids is, come to think of it, an insult to all pre-schoolers.
Feudalism Now!
Pimp slapped by the WSJ, providing a wonderful visual of the Speaker walking out on Steny Hoyers request for an up or down vote on the senate compromise. He didn’t even respond just turned and walked out. The GOP walking out on the middle class and a tax cut. Sweet scadenfreude!
Holmes
Boehner refuses to bring the bill to a vote because they’re afraid it will pass, and the dissenters will be on record. In other words, their leadership are cowards. The Dems can’t hammer that point enough.
Villago Delenda Est
Since my rep is the wonderful Peter DeFazio, my call would be along the lines of “please stop rolling on the floor laughing for just a few minutes.”
gbear
I feel kind of helpless in the pile-on. All of my legistators are liberal democrats. All I can do is tell them thanks for trying (which I do, but not often enough).
Benjamin Franklin
I don’t see Steny saying ” Gonna pick a ‘foit”. so the dems have that going for them.
Yutsano
All three of my current reps are Dems. I can use my parents’ ZIP code, but they have the worthless Doc Hastings. He thinks his sole purpose in Congress is to keep the Hanford money valve flowing. Is it any wonder I moved to the Democratic Republic of Seattle?
cmorenc
The clip is wonderful raw material for a campaign ad against these GOP congressClowns. Any of us could easily figure out the correct edits for a devastatingly effective 15, 20, or 30 second ad. Question is: can the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee do so, or will they overlook it and instead blow it on some other mealy-mouthed approach?
JGabriel
Aw, we need a new theme song for the Po’ Walking Republicans. Maybe Walk Away, Renee?
.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I think I’ll send a (hand signed) letter by fax to my ethically challenged representative, Jean Schmidt, which I’ll follow up with a phone call to her local and DC offices.
dmsilev
Oh, the hilarity.
To complete the loop, has anyone asked the mobile clown brigade (aka the GOP Presidential field) where they stand on this?
Holmes
If Obama stays in Washington, while his family is in Hawaii, and spends Christmas alone, the imbeciles on the right will manage to destroy their ‘he takes too much vacation’ nonsense, and make him look more sympathetic.
Jerzy Russian
Jesus Hussein Christ. What a sad display. I hope voters remember this on election day.
dmsilev
@Holmes: That’s OK. They’ll instantly pivot to attacking him for not caring about family values by failing to celebrate Christmas with his wife and kids.
Loneoak
Just to clarify, the fight over the “extension” is not actually about that, right? On the news that I have time to read the story is framed as Repubs wants long-term fixes, which immediately strikes me as nonsense. Of course they are actually holding out for lunatic cuts to other programs to pay for unemployment benefits, but I haven’t had the energy/time to look into it. Anyone got links or some insights for me?
MattF
@dmsilev: Y’know, that’s a non-trivial question. One element of the GOP traveling clown show is that it stands apart from tiresome questions about actual incomes and actual jobs while sticking (as Noot might say) to the ‘big’ issues. If voters start to notice this, the jig is up…
amk
@Jerzy Russian: Don’t overestimate amurikan voters. Daily Mirror is probably dusting up its 2004 FP right now.
Cris (without an H)
What’s the bill number?
Edit: HR 3630
piratedan
@JGabriel: perhaps this might even be more appropriate….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4
Hill Dweller
Cowards, the lot of them.
Jim Pharo
You understand of course that most Americans get their news from the teevee and according to the teevee this is lazy Senate Democrats who wanted to cut out early for the holidays without worrying about the giant tax increase they’ve stuck the middle class with.
Just sayin’, is all. Just sayin’.
Not one iota of this will influence the election 10 months away.
KnaveRupe
Called my rep, the odious used-car salesman Mike Kelly (R, PA-3). The young lady answering the phone told me that Rep Kelly supported the House version with the one-year arrangement. When I pointed out that the Senate already passed their bill before adjourning, she got miffy that the Senate won’t drop everything and come back to take up the House’s version.
So I mentioned the fact that Boehner had already agreed to the Senate version during the negotiations, and the Senate bill is already a one-sided “compromise” giving you people nearly everything you could want, and just vote for the damn bill, thankyewverymuch, before we taxpayers take it in the pocketbook.
amk
shouldn’t the ows peeps be harassing the ‘thugs on this, instead of stupidly sitting in IA in front of obama’s election office ?
carpeduum
This is one of the cases where I think Dems should not have compromised so much on some things leading up to this point. GOPers think they can constantly call Dems bluff now and get all kinds of extra concessions.
Sooner or later you have to be willing to let the GOPers hang themselves with all the rope you gave them.
Ben
@amk:
I had an argument on FB with occupiers last night. Their argument is that Obama isn’t progressive enough and that the Democrats are anti-labor because they didn’t pass EFCA when they had legislative majorities in 2009-10. #facepalm They want to “change politics in this country” and view Obama as part of the problem along with the GOP.
Also, I’m going to a meet-and-greet tonight with one of the candidates running to replace my useless Tea Party Congressman, so that will be my contribution to this effort.
FoxinSocks
Though I’m not in their districts, I called Boehner and Cantor’s offices and left them a message, essentially telling them, very politely, to please not ruin my holidays.
Pretty much everyone I know is barely hanging on. We need that tax cut and until I know whether or not I’m getting it, I’ve stopped Christmas shopping because I can’t budget properly. If the tax cut continues, I can get some nice, small gifts, but if it doesn’t, I’ll be in survival mode.
Things are that tight.
Grrr, the Republicans really are the grinches who stole Christmas.
MCA
@Holmes:
I would predict the attack would be purity trolling the fact that he made Air Force One make two twenty hour roundtrips instead of one, and pointing out how much fuel it wasted. Bonus points for pointing out how much he inconvenienced the poor pilots and Secret Service agents who just want to enjoy Christmas with their families.
Quaker in a Basement
I don’t have to find my “Congresscritter.” Ms. DeGette lets me know what she’s up to regularly through her emails to constituents.
Carry on, Diana!
Hill Dweller
@MCA: Carney kept saying the First Lady(and family) took a military plane, when a right wing hack asked about it during the press briefing. Is that just a different name for Air Force One, or is it similar to the type of flights Senators take?
Tom Betz
@cmorenc: Unfortunately, by the terms of C-Span’s contract with Congress, C-Span video can’t be used in political advertising, and C-Span is quick to sue third parties who do use it for copyright violations.
tjmn
Done. Rep. Randy Forbes office duly called. Makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something today.
Tim F.
@Hill Dweller: Any plane with the President on it automatically becomes Air Force One.
kindness
Called my Republican Congressman. He’s a slug. I don’t expect it’ll matter because he’s deep in the teahaddist KoolAide. Luckily both my Senators are Dems although I frequently doubt Diane Feinstein’s an actual Dem.
Me, I’m enjoying watching House Repubs twist in the wind. Their side is gaining no traction outside their 27% purposefully stupid contingent.
The Populist
Called Ed Royce. It’s apparent he does not care as his people were nonplussed by my point.
The Populist
@amk: Agreed. The movement is now frustrating me. They don’t want to organize to run candidates, they don’t protest the right things (sorry, closing down ports affects MY livelihood as a small business person as well as the thousands of independent truckers and the union longshoremen who may not make it to work on time) and they could protest in front of more bankster houses!
My right leaning father in law calls them scumbags (I disagree) and talks about them “shitting” all over the place (in reference to Fox and other news outlets focusing on that instead of the message) and I can’t defend that.
I still support OWS’ core beliefs, I just want them to wake up. HAD THESE folks voted in 2010 the GOP would not have such a fucking majority in the damn house.
Dump Obama? For who pray tell? A rightie president who may get to replace 3 supremes (Kennedy, Ginsburg, possibly even Thomas or Scalia).
Sorry, the courts allowed Citizens United to come into being so the idea that anybody but Obama would be president scares the shit out of me for that one reason.
The Populist
@Ben: Whatever, baby steps people…I will say this, how many of these people voted in 2010? They want to say he’s not progressive enough, fine, but honestly it might have been more useful for us as a whole to have made sure he had the support with progressive candidates in the congress and Senate.
Sorry when Alan Grayson, a true champion of progressive ideals, Russ Feingold and a few others couldn’t win because people didn’t turn out to help them, I have zero sympathy for that argument as Obama was pushed into a corner by lack of support at the pols.
FYI, NOT making excuses for him, just adding a valid POV to this argument.
ruemara
@The Populist: I just have to second this.
Greyjoy
Unfortunately my Congressional representative is Michele Bachmann. I’d give her a call but I think she wouldn’t be able to hear the ring through the tinfoil.
Chris Gerrib
I called my Congressman, Peter Roskam (R-Ill), and asked “why they didn’t vote” on the tax cut. After getting the “we’re trying to compromise” rope-a-dope, I told the staffer that he was trying to baffle me with BS and that Roskam was willing to cut taxes for everybody but me.
The staffer said that “this is not over” and that “the House may vote again.”
Mnemosyne
@Greyjoy:
Call her anyway. It’s way more fun to call the crazy ones and hear their staffers attempt to relay the justification they’ve been given.