What Republicans Didn't Want Their Anti-Immigrant Base To Hear

While teahadist pig castrator Sen. Joni "Make Them Squeal" Ernst (Tea Party-IA) was giving the official Republican response to the President's State of the Union Address last night, Hispanic Republican Congressman Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Little Havana) was tapped to give essentially Ernst's rebuttal in Spanish.  See if you spot the difference between Cubelo's speech and Ernst's English version.

Cubelo:

 "We should also work through the appropriate channels to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, modernize legal immigration, and strengthen our economy. In the past, the president has expressed support for ideas like these. Now we ask him to collaborate with us to get it done."

Ernst:

= crickets = 

That was pretty easy, wasn't it?! Well, to be completely accurate, Ernst did say that "We'll work to correct executive overreach," presumably including the President's Executive Order on immigration. So, the Republican/ New Confederate/Stupid/ White Supremacist Party plan remains to try to undo the President's modest immigration reform executive action.  Certainly that's the message they want their white nativist base to hear, while Curbelos' Hispanic audience got a more conciliatory (albeit dishonest) tone.

We're counting on the Republican-wired "mainstream media" to make sure no one will notice the discrepancy.

BONUS:  Here's racist crackpot Rep. Steve "Cantaloupe Calves" King (R-Deport 'em) representing the true id of the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ White Supremacist Party, demonstratingwhy Rep. Curbelo's wan and dishonest attempt to sell his Hispanic audience on Republican "permanent solutions" won't fly.

State of Disunion Cartoon

(click to enlarge)

From the day he took office in January 2009, when the Rethuglicans launched their "Caucus Room Conspiracy" to block every single action proposed by Obama, their party has stayed unified in their absolute rejection and loathing of the President.  There's absolutely no reason to believe that they will develop any interest in "governing" a Government that they despise.

UPDATE:  A nice overview of the SOTU is provided by Paul Lewis of the Guardian.

UPDATE II:  Looks like the President hit a home run (click on image to enlarge):

Attribution: CNN/ORC

UPDATE III:  Charlatan Sen. "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz (R-Calgary), not ready for prime time.

(cartoon:  Tom Toles, via Gocomics.com)

Here's The State Of The Union Address We'd Like To Hear Tonight

We would like to see President Obama use Charles Pierce's stripped-down State of the Union address tonight.  It gets right to the point:

"Mr. Speaker, Mr. Majority Leader, thank you for inviting me here tonight to discuss the state of our union. The state of our union is strong, and it's all because of me, motherfkers, and no thanks to your sorry, wrinkled white asses. I did everything I could do to pull the economy out of the shallow grave your deregulatory frenzy and the two-term nitwit who preceded me dug for it. You stood there like squeaking eunuchs and blocked everything you could, and a narrow slice of the electorate gave you virtually unprecedented control over the entire national legislature. I don't care. Your party has sold its soul and lost its mind. I'm not going anywhere. So I'm'a gonna do what I goddamn well please, because the state of our union is strong, motherfkers, and it's all because of me. Nice to see you all again, though."

(Photo:  Looks like VP Biden has the right 'tude also.)

SOTU Preview: Obama To Propose Working Families Relief

In Tuesday's State of the Union address, President Obama is expected to propose raising taxes on the wealthy and big banks to support programs to help working families.  Specifically,

... Obama will propose raising the capital gains and dividend tax rates to 28 percent for high earners; imposing a fee on the liabilities of about 100 big financial institutions; and greatly broadening the amount of inherited money subject to taxes. 

Obama will also seek to boost private retirement savings by requiring employers without 401(k) plans to make it easier for full-time and part-time workers to save in individual retirement accounts, which could assist as many as 30 million people. The administration would provide small employers tax credits to cover costs.

The administration estimates that the tax rate proposals would raise $320 billion over the next 10 years.  Ninety-nine percent of the impact of the tax increases would fall on the top 1 percent (i.e., the "establishment Republican" base). The funds would be used for supporting such programs as the President's free community college tuition initiative and child care tax credits for working families. Boosting private retirement savings might help partially restore a social safety net that Republicans (and conservaDems) have been working to weaken for three decades by union-busting and Wall Street's gambling with other peoples' money (i.e., middle class savings) -- another reason why the Wall Street reforms, as imperfect as they were, must not be allowed to be rolled back by Republicans eager to please their plutocrat backers.

It should be noted that this has to be considered an ideological marker for the administration to clarify which party's on the side of working families, since it's not a proposal that the Wall Street plutocrat/ reactionary Republicans in Congress would enact in whole or in part.  It should also be noted that raising the capital gains tax rate to 28 percent would put it at the same rate as it was when Republican St. Ronnie of Rodeo Drive left office in 1988, so big gummint socialism!

Once again, Democrats must keep aggressively pushing a "Share the Growth" agenda that includes these proposals, as well as raising the minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, paid sick leave, etc., to help America's working families take part in the benefits of the growing economy. It's no time to cower;  it's time to be staying on offense.