In the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, the country has been confronted by a myriad of challenges. President Obama has faced an inherited economic recession -- including widespread foreclosures, a banking system plagued by toxic assets, and mounting unemployment -- as well as two wars, international terrorism, global climate change, millions of Americans still without health care, piracy and now, the threat of a flu pandemic. But instead of engaging in a substantive policy debate with the President, conservatives have spent the past three months immersed in a radical transformation, lurching further to the right. Indeed, the brand of conservatism now in ascendancy embraces apocalyptic rhetoric, cheers on reflexive attacks on Obama, and fuels a steady drumbeat of conspiracy theories. With control of neither the White House nor Congress, conservatives have looked to hate radio talkers like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh for leadership. The new Republican Party chairman, Michael Steele, has also championed the fringe voices of the right wing while threatening to punish members of his party who make any attempts at bipartisanship. The single greatest achievement of the conservative movement thus far has been the staging of anti-Obama, anti-tax "tea party" protests, which were attended by over 100,000 people country-wide and quickly embraced by GOP leaders as the future of the party. The tea party protests, along with the near universal party-line votes opposing Obama's agenda items show how conservatives acting on Limbaugh's pre-Inauguration Day proclamation that he hopes Obama fails.
EMBRACING RADICALIZATION: While the mainstream of America is more and more progressive in its policy solutions, the Republican party appears intent on tapping into a darker undercurrent of right-wing rage that has proliferated since Obama's election. Public servants for the "loyal opposition" started using the rhetoric of armed opposition to Obama, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) call for people to be "armed and dangerous" over Democratic energy proposals. But as the conservative lobbyist-orchestrated "tea parties" gained momentum, GOP lawmakers issued more brazen calls for violence. Appearing before throngs of anti-Obama protesters, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) called for "revolution," as he declared that the attendees were the patriots who would, quoting Thomas Jefferson, refresh the tree of liberty with the "blood of tyrants." During the tea party fervor, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) called for assassinating Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) over taxes. Speaking to reporters after a tea party, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) suggested that his state may have to secede from the Union, a call then defended by former Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX). A Department of Homeland Security report on growing threats of right-wing domestic terrorism has become a rallying cry for conservatives, as members like Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) remarked to an audience, "Welcome, right-wing activists, is that what we are? Extremists, yeah, well I'm gonna get me a button." Going forward, House Republican leaders are now routinely stating that Obama's green economy proposals equate to a "declaration of war" on the country.
REFLEXIVE ATTACKS: Although conservatives and Republicans have made a point to tell the press they are focused on simply "putting forward positive alternatives," they have spent most of the first 100 days incessantly searching for ways to smear the president. Whether they are complaining about Obama's suit jacket policy, jabbing him about his use of a teleprompter, or ridiculing his wife for serving soup to the poor, conservatives have found no alleged fault too trivial. Exhibiting a certain form of creativity, they scoured Obama's trips abroad for evidence that he somehow hates America. To conservatives, Obama's brief bow to the Saudi King was proof that he is a "hillbillie," and the fact he shook hands with the Venezuelan President an example of his "shallowness." Obama's personalized gifts to the Queen of England were a sign of his apparent narcissism, according to conservatives, and when Obama spoke to the Turkish people on America's religious tolerance, he was -- in the eyes of Fox News pundits -- betraying the "Judeo-Christian ethic." The compulsive assaults on Obama have not only generated a cottage industry of newly-manufactured insults, but they have policy implications as well. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) thought he could score political points by mocking spending on volcano monitoring programs, but a federally-funded monitoring system detected an eruption in Alaska a month later. As Republicans reflexively decried almost all spending programs in the Recovery Act as useless "pork," Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) employed the same political rationale to cut pandemic flu preparedness funds from the bill -- just months before the current swine flu pandemic threat.
NOT GROUNDED IN REALITY: In their quest to discredit Obama, conservatives have increasingly left the facts far behind. Playing upon myths forged during the presidential campaign, Republicans like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and a chorus of talk radio hosts have spread the lie that Obama will "take away your gun." However, in the age of Obama, conspiracy theories have not been bound to only fringe members of Congress and right-wing radio. A bill aimed a preventing the creation of a "global currency" to replace the dollar -- a non-existent threat hyped by the right-wing echo chamber -- gained at least 30 GOP co-sponsors. The pattern has persisted on every major agenda item Obama has put forward. Republicans have falsely claimed that an MIT study showed that a cap on carbon pollution is a $3,100 light-switch tax. When the author explained the study actually found a $65 cost in 2015, conservatives declared the cost was then $3900. GOP talking points opposing Obama's Recovery Act were laden with accusations similarly made of whole cloth. For instance, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) joined other Republican lawmakers in decrying a made-up high-speed train supposedly designed to run "straight from Disney[land] ... to the doorstep of the Moonlight Bunnyranch in Nevada." And during the first public debates over health reform, the conservative establishment converged to support a "report" by Hudson Fellow Betsy McCaughey that erroneously suggested that investments in comparativeness effectiveness investments would create a "new bureaucracy" to "monitor doctors."
EQUAL RIGHTS -- TODAY IS EQUAL PAY DAY: Today marks Equal Pay Day, the day that "symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year." Significant strides in achieving pay equity have been made this year, however, with President Obama's signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. But women in the U.S. still make just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, although a new GAO report finds that the pay gap between men and women in the federal workforce is shrinking.. The average woman loses $434,000 over the course of her career; counterintuitively, the more education the woman has, the more money she is poised to lose. The Center for American Progress's Jessica Arons, Heather Boushey, and Lauren Smith write that "the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act ensures that workers can seek restitution for unequal pay, but the Paycheck Fairness Act, which still needs Senate approval, would take a number of proactive steps to close and eventually end the pay gap altogether." The Paycheck Fairness Act "would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act," which have hindered the effectiveness of the law since it passed 46 years ago. Given the context of the current economic recession, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told The Progress Report yesterday that wage discrimination "is now a heavier burden on women and the economic security of families." Pay equity "is not a woman's issue. This is a family issue," DeLauro said.
LABOR -- SWINE FLU HIGHLIGHTS HIGH PERCENTAGE OF WORKERS WITHOUT PAID SICK LEAVE: In light of the spread of swine flu -- which has now been confirmed to infect at least 50 people in the United States -- the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued guidelines for staying healthy and preventing the spread of the disease. "If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them," their guidelines state. While staying home from work when ill makes sense, a large number Americans simply may not be able to afford to do so. Currently, nearly 50 percent of private-sector workers have no paid sick days. For low-income workers, the number jumps to 76 percent and climbs to 86 percent for food service workers. These workers have to decide between the health of themselves and their colleagues, and the wages that they lose by staying home. While ill employees going to work contributes to the spread of diseases like swine flu, there is also a negative economic impact. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, "when sick workers are on the job, it costs our national economy $180 billion annually in lost productivity. For employers, this costs an average of $255 per employee per year and exceeds the cost of absenteeism and medical and disability benefits." Of the top 20 economies in the world, the U.S. is currently the only one with no national standard for paid sick days. In an effort to address the problem, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) plan to introduce the Healthy Families Act in Congress next month which would "guarantee workers up to seven paid sick days a year to recover from an illness or care for a sick family member."
ENERGY -- COAL CEO: 'CLEAN COAL' IS THE FUTURE, BUT 'WE HAVE NOT INVESTED ANY DOLLARS IN THE TECHNOLOGY, PER SE': On Sunday, CBS's 60 Minutes ran a segment about the coal industry, interviewing Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers. Duke is one of the largest electricity companies in the country, and it owns dozens of coal plants nationwide. Last month, the company announced plans for a new 800-megawatt coal-fired plant in North Carolina as it plans to continue building coal plants. CBS's Scott Pelley asked Rogers how he feels about global warming, given that his coal plants continue to billow approximately 112 million tons of greenhouse gases. "We need to go to work on it now," Rogers said. "It is critical that we start to act in this country." Rogers's solution? "We have to find a way to clean [coal] and use it," he insisted. Yet Rogers's actual plans to fight global warming are essentially non-existent. "How much has Duke Energy invested in carbon sequestration technology," asked Pelley. "We have not invested any dollars in the technology, per se," responded Rogers. "Our goal line is to substantially to reduce our carbon footprint, to decarbonize our business by 2050." "Clean coal," of course, is a myth. Moreover, the pace of Rogers's plans for "decarbonizing" his plants is pathetically slow. "2050 is too late, we would have guaranteed disasters," NASA scientist Jim Hansen told Pelley. "We are going to have to phase out emissions from coal in the next 20 years." Indeed, "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late," said IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pauchauri.
"Countries around the world began tightening their border and immigration controls Tuesday as the number of confirmed cases of swine flu continued to rise." As many as 152 people, all in Mexico, are believed to have died due to the flu while the number of confirmed cases in the United States stands at 50.
Rep. David Obey (D-WI), who included $420 million in pandemic flu funding in the House's stimulus bill that was later removed by "moderate" senators, intends to "again request additional funds in the upcoming supplemental." "We are not prepared today," Obey said.
The Obama administration is moving to tighten a last-minute rule promulgated by President Bush that allowed coal companies to dump waste from mountaintop mining operations close to streams. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will ask a federal court to re-institute a 1983 Reagan-era rule prohibiting dumping within 100 feet of a stream.
In 2007, former CIA officer John Kiriakou launched a media blitz defending waterboarding, telling ABC News that Abu Zubaydah cooperated after being waterboarded for "probably 30, 35 seconds." Recently released memos reveal, however, that Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 separate times. "[L]ost in much of the coverage was the fact that Mr. Kiriakou had no firsthand knowledge of the waterboarding," the New York Times notes today.
"Twenty-eight groups representing millions of hunters and sportsmen" are demanding that Rush Limbaugh end his work with the Humane Society because they fear the organization has a "secret agenda to end all hunting in America." Limbaugh recently recorded two PSAs for the organization.
Congressional Democrats "sealed an agreement" last night on a budget plan that sets the stage for President Obama to "overhaul the health care system but allows his signature tax cut for most workers to expire after next year." Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) "forced cuts of $10 billion from Obama's $50 billion boost for non-defense programs funded by Congress each year."
In an indication that Barack Obama's presidency is "altering the public perception of race relations in the United States," a new New York Times/CBS poll found that "[t]wo-thirds of Americans now say race relations are generally good, and the percentage of blacks who say so has doubled since last July." "Despite that, half of blacks still say whites have a better chance of getting ahead in American society."
Gay and lesbian couples celebrated the legalization of marriage equality yesterday in Iowa. At least "360 couples applied for marriage licenses statewide on the first day that the high court's decision took effect," though "same-sex marriage opponents had urged county recorders not to issue marriage licenses."
And finally: Utah County Republicans have defeated a measure titled, "Resolution opposing the Hate America anti-Christian Open Borders cabal." Delegate Don Larsen claimed that left-wing foundations were "pumping money into the Democratic Party to push for looser immigration laws and anti-family legislation" because "Democrats get most of the votes cast by illegal immigrants and people in dysfunctional families." "Satan's ultimate goal is to destroy the family," Larsen said, "and these people are playing a leading part in it." Larsen's fellow Republicans argued that the GOP shouldn't be pushing out Latinos and the resolution "would do the party more harm than good."
A new New York Times/CBS News poll released today finds that 42 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, a 9 point jump from March.
PENNSYLVANIA: Residents "are finding that their drinking water now contains methane, the largest component of natural gas."
FLORIDA: Gov. Charlie Crist (R) and state Senate leaders "put the brakes on a bill to open the door to near-shore oil drilling off Florida's coast."
MISSOURI: Debate over stimulus money causes House Democrats to stage a walk-out at the Capitol.
THINK PROGRESS: Former senator Rick Santorum: Reconciliation "has never been done before" -- except for when I used it.
WONK ROOM: Why expedite Vice President Cheney's request for memos?
YGLESIAS: The Henderson County GOP is offering implausible spin on behalf of Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC).
CALCULATED RISK: The homeownership rate is now back down to 2000 levels.
"Let's have a big debate about whether the Bush administration acted properly or not, and whether the Clinton administration acted properly or not...I think it's a healthy debate."
-- Bill Kristol, 4/27/09, supporting an inquiry into the use of torture on Fox News
VERSUS
"The idea that we're going back and even raising the possibility of criminal prosecution is so appalling that it renders me almost speechless."
-- Kristol, 4/21/09
The Progress Report"
thinkprogress.org
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