Today in Washington, D.C. - July 21, 2010 - RINO Graham in Spotlight - Senate Leaders Reid & McConnell "Duke It Out"

Senate resumed post-cloture consideration of the House message to accompany H.R. 4213, the vehicle for an unemployment insurance extension which would add $34 billion to the national debt.

SCOTUS Nomination: Yesterday, the Senate voted 60-40 to invoke cloture on the House message to accompany H.R. 4213, following the swearing in of the new West Virginia Senator, Carte Goodwin (D). Also yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to send the nomination of Elena Kagan to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court to the full Senate. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) betrayed conservatives and voted for Elena Kagan. Graham didn't even need to vote as evidenced by his "mush mouthed" statement defended his vote, "The Constitution in my view puts a requirement on me as a senator to not replace my judgment for his [the Presidents], not to think of the 100 reasons I would pick somebody differently, or pick a fight with Miss Kagan." Graham is apparently saying there are no good reasons not to confirm Kagan.

Graham's repeated efforts undermining fellow Republicans has caused some to focus on Graham. "CBS News originally reported the SCOTUS nominee to be an openly homosexual Lesbian, but later described her as a closeted Lesbian." William Gheen of ALIPAC stated, "I hope this secret isn't being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality." Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt responded. "If Gheen's allegations are correct, it could logically explain why the Homosexual Graham supported the Lesbian Kagan, against the pleas of thousands of phone callers and faxers who demanded Graham filibuster Kagan." It is evident that Graham is in the spotlight again but it is primarily because of his own admitted unwillingness to do "due diligence" as a Senator. This combined with Sen. Specter changing from RINO to Democrat and with Graham's backroom deals with democrats has identified Graham clearly as the top RINO.

Democrat's Job-Killing Agenda: This morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell addressed this agenda: “For more than a year and a half, the President and his Democrat allies on Capitol Hill have pushed an anti-business, anti-jobs agenda on the American people in the form of one massive government intrusion after another. . . . As I stand here this morning, millions of Americans are struggling to find jobs — and yet all they see in Washington are Democrats passing massive bills that, at their core, seem to have one thing in common: more job loss.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took exception to this, and claimed that none of the major points made by Sen. McConnell is really true. But the counterpoints Reid employed in his response simply get the facts wrong.

Sen. McConnell said, “Later this morning the President will sign a financial regulation bill that was sold to the American people as a way of reining in Wall Street. Anyone who believes that didn’t read beyond the cover sheet. Because if they did, they’d discover instead a far-reaching government intrusion that was endorsed by Wall Street and opposed by Main Street.” But Reid took issue with this, proclaiming, “To think that banks, Wall Street, liked Wall Street reform is a stretch beyond our ability to comprehend.” Reid must have missed Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, telling a Senate subcommittee, “I listened to a speech by Barack Obama at Wall Street, and one of the points he made resonated with me because I’d said it myself. He said that the biggest beneficiaries of reform will be Wall Street itself.” While Citibank and J.P. Morgan also offered praise for the Democrats’ bill, but community bankers and small businesses are worried the bill will adversely affect them.

Sen. McConnell also noted, “As a result of the health bill, small businesses, student loan centers, tanning salons, medical device manufacturers, hospitals, and major American employers have all either laid off employees or are trying to figure out how not to.” Reid’s response was to assert, “Remember, any poll you see today, the majority of the American people support what we did here with health care.” But in July alone, 3 polls have come out showing that no more than 40% of Americans support the Democrats’ costly health care legislation. Two polls actually showed 35% or 36% support for the health care bill, and the one poll that showed 40% support, from PPP, showed 53% oppose it.

Sen. McConnell pointed out, “Just this week we read a report that during the process of the auto bailout, this Administration decided to shut down auto-dealers, without cause, effectively costing thousands of Americans their jobs.” Reid replied, “My friend says that we bailed out the auto industry. Well, isn’t that a good thing we did? . . . If it were up to them [Republicans], Ford Motor Company would probably be gone.” Did Reid forget that, as The Hill noted, Ford was “the only U.S. automaker not to take a bailout”? Not only that, The New York Times reported in April, “The Ford Motor Company had its best quarterly performance in six years, earning $2.1 billion, and now expects to return to profitability this year, executives said . . . .”

Clearly, Democrats don’t want to talk about the fact that their agenda has featured one job-killing piece of legislation after another: bailouts for auto companies, a massive takeover of the healthcare system that Americans never wanted, and now a burdensome financial regulation bill “that does nothing to reform the government-sponsored enterprises that many people believe to have been at the root of the financial crisis this bill grew out of; that was meant to rein in Wall Street, but which is now supported by some of Wall Street’s biggest banks; and that’s meant to help the economy, but which is expected to stifle growth and kill more jobs,” as Sen. McConnell described it today.

He explained, “Americans are tired of this kind of ‘reform.’ Job stifling taxes, regulations, government intrusion. These appear to be the three pillars of every Democratic legislative effort. They’re also the three things lawmakers can do that are guaranteed to kill more jobs. That's why it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that unemployment’s been scraping double digits since Democrats started ramming these so-called reform bills through Congress.”

The bottom line, Sen. McConnell said, “It’s almost as if it’s a prerequisite for any Democrat legislation: If it leads to more job loss, they’ll pass it.” These aren’t the reforms Americans wanted and this isn’t the kind of change they were looking for.

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