Not that Republicans give a damn about the majority.

Polls: Americans oppose defunding Obamacare | ABQJournal Online

Three polls released this week confirm that Americans oppose defunding Obamacare — even though the polls also show dissatisfaction with the law.

Polls: Americans oppose defunding Obamacare | ABQJournal Online

House backs bill to boost logging in nat’l forests | ABQJournal Online

The Republican-controlled House has approved a bill to sharply increase logging in national forests.

Supporters say the bill would create jobs in rural communities, particularly in the West. And it would help reduce wildfires and add hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from additional timber sales.

Opponents call the bill a giveaway to the timber industry and say it would harm water quality and habitat for fish and wildlife and would jeopardize recreation areas in national forests.

The White House has threatened to veto the bill, which was approved on a 244-173 vote.

The Obama administration says the bill would jeopardize habitat for endangered species, increase lawsuits and limit the president’s ability to create national monuments.

The measure is expected to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

House backs bill to boost logging in nat’l forests | ABQJournal Online

In the first 8 years of the new century, Republicans gave the Idiot Tyrant everything he wanted. In the process, they almost bankrupted the nation and lost considerable power and any and all possible respect. Republicans lost in 2008 and 2012 but don’t accept that fact any more than climate change or other truths. Since 2008, the only “idea” Republicans have is to destroy Obama. Impotently, they have wasted countless hours on nonsense and they continue to do so. I’m so tired of these fools.

Eugene Robinson: Obama must not yield on Obamacare, debt ceiling or shutdown – The Washington Post

Mature adults in the GOP should have explained reality to these tantrum-throwing tykes long ago: It simply is not within their constitutional power to make Obamacare go away. They can scream at the top of their lungs, roll around on the floor, hold their breath until they turn blue, waste everybody’s time with 41 useless votes — whatever. All they can really do is hurt themselves or others. …

I happen to believe that Obamacare is a great accomplishment, providing access to medical insurance to millions of Americans who lack it and bringing the nation much closer to universal health care. It’s an imperfect law, to be sure, but it could be made much better with the kind of constructive tinkering that responsible leaders performed on Social Security and Medicare.

Even if Obamacare were tremendously flawed, however, it would be wrong to let a bunch of extremist ideologues hold the country hostage in this manner. If Republicans want to repeal the reforms, they should win the Senate and the presidency. If not, they’re welcome to pout and sulk all they want — but not to use extortion to get their way

Eugene Robinson: Obama must not yield on Obamacare, debt ceiling or shutdown – The Washington Post

Gessing does what he’s paid to do: promote views and policies that benefit his employers. He’s a shill.

Letters to Outlook | ABQJournal Online

Under the conservative mantra of “the government is bad,” the U.S. has steadily fallen in the rankings of the quality of life among the wealthy democracies. The countries that appear at the top of lists for highest quality of life, highest life satisfaction, strongest democracies, best health care, best educated – are primarily the highly taxed and regulated countries of northern Europe.

This is not to say there is some utopia out there, or that all taxes and regulations are good. But Paul Gessing and his ilk aren’t pushing polices that are designed to raise the boat for everyone, rather they are pushing polices that support only the 1 percent.

John Liebendorfer

Albuquerque

Letters to Outlook | ABQJournal Online