Its True: Obamas Political Demise is the Republicans Single Most Important Goal

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Senate and House Republicans have all said essentially the same thing. And that evokes certain questions: Whats really at the heart of Americas gridlocked dysfunctional Congress, could it be nothing more than a republican strategy to make President Obama look like an incompetent boob? Is to paint President Obama as unelectable more important than our nations economic recovery, jobs and unemployment, education, debt and deficit; does it supersede the healthcare and wellbeing of any American? And McDonnell said that the only way the American people would know that a great debate was going on was if the measures were not bipartisan. However, every now and then, there is collaboration and bipartisanship, but its been few and far between. For instance, Congress passed a student loan and highway jobs bill. But in light of election year politics, and an election that is a little less than four months away, is this change of heart really more political than just doing something right for America. More often, the republican-led House seems to be hell-bent on stonewalling and stalemating legislation, or moving legislation along that they know Senate democrats and Obama would never approve. Or, they seem hell-bent on repealing previously enacted legislation rather than working to improve it. And, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Congress should be focusing on creating jobs and helping the middle class, not re-fighting old battles for political gain, he was exactly right. For example:

Jobs: Despite claims to the contrary, the House has not acted on job legislation. Speaker John Boehner says that the democrat-led Senate has failed to take action on about two dozen job bills that passed in the House. But those bills are not job bills, even though they may be titled as such. The American Jobs Act is a bill proposed last year by President Obama. The President said that it provided measures designed to get Americans back to work. He repeatedly urged Congress to pass the bill, and said the bill would not add to the national deficit, that it would be fully paid for. Nevertheless, despite all the job rhetoric, and the republican requirement that legislation needed to be funded before they would approve it, the House would not bring it up for a vote, and the Republicans conducted a successful filibuster in the Senate. Healthcare: For the 33rd time, House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Again re-fighting old battles for political gain, and once again, they certainly know its a waste of time. Senate Democrats and Obama will never approve a repeal of what is their signature legislation. The republican rhetoric is all around repeal and rarely is replace mentioned. But in light of the fact that Obama and the Democrats have said its not perfect, inexplicably, republicans seldom talk about working to make it better. Deficit Reduction: Last year, the super committee failed to agree on a deficit reduction plan. They instead threw it back at Congress to come up with a plan before an automatic $1.2 trillion budget cut takes effect in January. Attempts to pass a plan have been achieved in the House, but have failed in the Senate. So, on July 6, a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from Representative Buck McKeon, co-signed by other House Republicans, insisted that Democrats develop a plan that would avoid the mandated cuts. The squabble this year is no different than last year. Democrats are steadfastly against maintaining the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy and proposed cuts to welfare programs. On the other hand, republicans call for maintaining the tax cuts and cuts to welfare programs in order to lessen

mandated deductions in defense spending. So today, we are again re-fighting old battles. Any deficit-reduction plan that does not include increasing taxes on the wealthy, President Obama has threatened to veto. Obama, again, will be forced to sign separate legislation maintaining the Bush-era tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in January, in order to avoid tax increases on middle-class Americans. When republicans say its their overwhelming desire to incapacitate Obama in any way that will achieve their goal, until we know differently, we have no choice but to believe it is their single most important thing to achieve, no matter what damage it may do to America.

Sources: Michael Cohen, Did Republicans deliberately crash the US economy?, The Guardian.co.uk Alan Fram and Joan Lowy, Congress passes student loans, highway jobs bill, Associated Press Carlo Munoz, House GOP demands Senate vote on sequester alternatives, The Hill Obama threatens veto of bill combining tax cuts for middle class, top earners, Fox News