A Congressional proposal that would have prevented businesses with a documented record of wage theft from getting government contracts was defeated in a party line vote last week.
The amendment, proposed for the commerce, justice and science appropriations bill, failed by a vote of 196-211. Every Democrat who cast a vote supported it. Only 10 Republicans crossed the aisle to join them.
In a joint statement, Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said House Republicans voted “to continue wage theft.”
Think about that. All but ten Republicans voted to keep sending federal dollars to companies that have broken the law. Not just companies that have been accused, or are suspected…companies whose lawbreaking has been documented and confirmed.
I bet most of them are “law and order” politicians, too.
There is absolutely no excuse for this vote. Violating the law should disqualify companies from getting lucrative government contracts.
I know I ask this all the time, but really–What the hell is wrong with these people?
Obama is for it, so Republicans are against it.
If there were a wave of bubonic plague set to wipe out all of civilization, and it could be stopped by planting a magic tree, and we had the seed for the tree and a place to plant it, and Bill Gates were willing to donate $50 billion to the government to get us to plant it, and Obama wanted us to do it, the Republicans would say no.
I really wish this weren’t true, but the Congressional Republican Party (and I’m not talking about most ordinary folks who vote Republican) has become nearly indistinguishable from the Mafia or other criminal conspiracies. It is now little more than a protections racket for those who value money and power above all else.
Beyond here there be dragons….
This country is owned and operated by an organized Business Mafia, backed by Citizens United and fueled by pseudo religious dogma. The Business Mafia are in essence slum lords; paid to keep workers at near poverty level wages while prices and taxes escalate, further keeping middle America from ever rising above their current struggle to just keep even…little chance to get ahead while the 1% basks in splendor. Their demands to repeal the ACA with no thought as to the consequences, ignoring any and all bills that will improve the jobless rate by developing a means to repair/rebuild failing infrastructure nation-wide will keep us in our assigned places as their slave laborers. This, sadly, is an American mafia, the GOP who is subserviant to the Tea Party, NRA, Koch brothers, big business selling off jobs to other countries while Americans slave to preserve their system. Our only hope is that the once responsible, rational, logical, THINKING Republican voters will remember the truth of this past few years (since November 4, 2008) and the betrayal by pretenders calling themselves the GOP who sold out to the highest bidders when they go to the polls.
I heard of this ONLY from SK. I wonder if the STAR will make a big story of it?
Plato comes to mind ‘The Allegory of The Cave.’ The Corporatist Crony-Capitalist, Steroid Capitalism, is the root of the Republican Party. They must only let their voting base see the shadows.
I heard about the Texas Party Platform. Here is part of it – A draft of the Texas Republican Party’s new platform embraces gay conversion therapy, arguing that it is a viable option for “patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle.” “Additionally, we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.”
Further – State GOP chairman Steve Munisteri confirmed to The Huffington Post that the two groups, the Log Cabin Republicans and Metroplex Republicans, were denied space. The issue, he explained, is that their position runs counter to the current party platform. A policy was established at the last convention that groups wanting to set up booths can’t advocate for positions that contradict the platform.
This nugget was in the 2012 Texas Platform – “Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
Honestly, I thought Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is what separated us from the animals and plants. Challenging A student ‘s fixed beliefs is verboten. A student with a fixed belief that 2 plus 2 equals 5 should not be challenged.