GOP leadership urged the President today to not "poison the well," to avoid inflammatory statements that would stand in the way of creating a cooperative, mutual, bi-partisan path forward to a better America and the governance thereof.
Of course, quoth John Boehner, now that he and his buddy Mitch are large and in charge, one of their top priorities is "renewing our commitment to repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans’ health care."
Oh, and to nobody's surprise, "These bills include measures authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which will mean lower energy costs for families …" [overseas, where the refined products from the Keystone XL pipeline will be shipped, which is the whole purpose of building a pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf].
And as for their priorities overall, we have this laundry list of "pressing challenges":
• The insanely complex tax code that is driving American jobs overseas;
I.e., "Reduce taxes on businesses enough that those who don't find dirt cheap labor in the third world attractive will earn higher profits while in the US, a certain percentage of which will then be forwarded to the GOP."
• Health costs that continue to rise under a hopelessly flawed law that Americans have never supported;
Those would be the health costs that are already growing at a far slower rate than they were before the ACA, right? The law whose individual provisions the American public has always supported, but whose overall label has been convincingly turned into a curse word by the GOP.
• A savage global terrorist threat that seeks to wage war on every American;
Because foreign policy is always more successful when run by committee.
• An education system that denies choice to parents and denies a good education to too many children;
I.e., "More vouchers to help the people who are already sending their kids to private school."
• Excessive regulations and frivolous lawsuits that are driving up costs for families and preventing the economy from growing;
I.e., "Businesses shouldn't have to treat the environment well, keep their workers safe, or produce products that don't hurt the public, so we'll both remove the regulations that require those thigns and limit the ability of people to sue when businesses don't.
• An antiquated government bureaucracy ill-equipped to serve a citizenry facing 21st-century challenges, from disease control to caring for veterans;
Because disease control and veterans affairs abruptly changed when the calendar turned over to 2001. (Wait, who was president then?)
• A national debt that has Americans stealing from their children and grandchildren, robbing them of benefits that they will never see and leaving them with burdens that will be nearly impossible to repay.
I.e., "We'll reduce the national debt by cutting taxes! Because reducing income always reduces cost overruns!!"
But don't poison the well, Obama!
Yeah, it's going to be an entertaining two years.
Speaker.gov | Boehner/McConnell Op-Ed: “Now We Can Get Congress Going”
Looking ahead to the next Congress, we will honor the voters’ trust by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy. Among other things, that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years with bipartisan support, but were never even brought to a vote by the Democratic Senate majority. It also means renewing our commitment to repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with…
