Still stinging from its losses in the 2012 election, the Grand Old Party is becoming a Grand Old Pain In The Ass. Not just for Democrats…for everyone.
While opposing a bill that would raise the minimum wage, the GOP is attacking labor unions across the nation and successfully ending defined benefit pension plans. Now the GOP is pushing a bill that would loosen the rules for overtime, allowing corporations to overwork and underpay employees.
Famously, the Ryan budget, which was passed by the House, would drastically cut Medicaid, repeal Obamacare and turn Medicare into vouchers.
Although 94 percent of Americans want comprehensive background checks for anyone purchasing a firearm, Teapublican senators are threatening to filibuster any bill that would limit the sale of guns.
In states across the nation, the GOP is pushing a variety of voter suppression laws through state legislatures under the guise of preventing voter ID fraud, a problem that has been proven to be non-existent. After gerrymandering districts to all but guarantee a Teapublican-controlled House far into the future, the GOP now senses a way to control presidential elections by changing the Electoral College. The idea is to end the “winner-take-all” approach to electoral votes for states and, instead, award each electoral vote district-by-Teapublican-controlled-district.
If successful, this would almost certainly ensure an endless reign of GOP presidents.
In North Dakota, Arkansas and elsewhere, GOP legislatures are attempting to make abortion illegal. (Of course, the bills will not actually end abortion. They’ll just drive it underground, making doctors and patients criminals.) Under the guise of religious freedom, they also want to eliminate contraceptives from health insurance plans and block sex education in public schools.
In Arizona and numerous states of the Old South, a variety of so-called nullification bills have been introduced in the state legislatures. If passed, these bills would ostensibly give the states power to ignore any federal law the GOP deems unconstitutional. (Of course, this power is reserved for the Supreme Court and the bills are in direct defiance of the Constitution’s federal supremacy clause.)
Finally, a bill introduced by North Carolina Teapublicans will allow the GOP-controlled state legislature to name an official state religion in defiance of the Constitution’s establishment clause.
Does anyone else get the feeling that the GOP would be happier if our Constitution didn’t exist?