House Republicans called an "emergency meeting" last week, suspending the usual procedures to rush an urgent piece of legislation to the floor.
Had the new majority finally come up with a job-creation bill? A compromise with Democrats to rein in the deficit?
Not quite. This particular emergency involved the lower end of the FM-radio dial. Republicans, in an urgent budget-cutting maneuver, were voting to cut off funding for National Public Radio. All $5 million of it – or one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of the federal budget.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office ran the numbers and calculated the impact this emergency measure would have on government spending: "No effect."
Five minutes after acting on this “budgetary emergency,” House Republicans voted to continue the war in Afghanistan – which costs about $10 billion. Per month. They then flew home for a vacation. [mjh: quotes added]
Asked about the massive protests against Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), [U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue] said that public servants have “over bloated” compensation:
Donohue turned truculent when asked whether events in Wisconsin are weakening unions and the right of workers to collective bargaining. [….] He went on to express his concerns that public sector pensions are “out of control” and that public workers compensation is “over bloated.”
Speaking of “over bloated” compensation, Donohue “travels in a chauffeured Lincoln and a leased jet, and his salary, $3.7 million last year, makes him the sixth highest paid lobbyist in the country.”
Donohue apparently has no problem taking cheap shots at people who have dedicated themselves to public service, but what does he do to deserve so much money? As we’ve reported, Donohue runs nothing more than a shell organization to help big corporations pursue nasty lobbying campaigns under the brand of the “U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” a group misleadingly associated with local chambers of commerce. For instance, the health insurance industry secretly funneled $86 million to the Chamber in 2009 to try to kill health reform. Similarly, oil companies, chemical firms, and defense industry corporations have used to the Chamber to run ads or lobby against regulations.
10. Just in case you were wondering, this national holiday does not appear in congressional records. It’s just another made up holiday by snack food industry marketing geniuses.
Asked about the massive protests against Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), [U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue] said that public servants have “over bloated” compensation: