Billy Long

KCTV sums it up:

HOUSE DECISION WOULD RAISE YOUR TAXES

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -The U.S. House of Representatives failed to take action Tuesday to extend the payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits for millions.

The House rejected a two-month extension to 160 million Americans on their payroll taxes. This means if you made $50,000 annually then you'll pay about $1,000 more in taxes in 2012.

The Senate-approved bill would have allowed millions of unemployed Americans to continue receiving jobless benefits.

This afternoon, in a purely political move, House republicans voted to hike taxes on 160 million working Americans effective January 1 by rejecting the Senate's extension of the payroll tax cut.

By a final vote of 229 - 113, including Rep. Akin, Rep. Emerson, Rep. Graves, Rep. Hartzler, Rep. Long, and Rep. Luetkemeyer, republicans violated their pledge of not raising taxes.

When asked about his willingness to work with the President on a jobs plan, Billy Long dismissed the need for a job creation plan and proceeded to make up at least one word.

President Barack Obama next week is to unveil a new jobs plan. Long said the nation “doesn’t need a jobs project. We need to make it easier for American companies to do business.

“Now, we over-regulate, over-tax-ate and over-litigate.”

I guess Billy Long is taking partisanship gamesmanship as far as it will go, but only at the expense of unemployed Missourians.

It sounds like Billy Long may reluctantly support John Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal. However, he doesn’t think anyone really knows what would happen if the debt ceiling is not raised.

"No one knows the ramifications of not passing a debt ceiling increase, and this plan prevents us from finding that out," said Rep. Billy Long. R-Mo. "When Republicans only control one-half of one-third of the government, this is about as good of a deal as we are going to get."

Maybe, he should listen to people with Moody’s, S&P or the Bankers the GOP is always protecting from those pesky government regulators. All are in agreement that the country’s credit rating could be downgraded and there would be “very grave” consequences for the economy.

via The Turner Report

Billy Long did an intervew with KZRG, and he seems generally baffled as to why people would be offended by him using a person's death as a political talking point. 

Also, we learn that he wrote the apology himself and didn't send it out sooner because "no one asked for it." 

Listen to the full interview here:

h/t Turner Report 

Although Billy Long did send a statement to the Springfield News-Leader apologizing for his tweet comparing the U.S. government to deceased pop star Amy Winehouse, there is still no such apology on his Twitter feed. However, the infamous Tweet is still there.

Here is his statement printed in the News-Leader: 

"Although I do believe spending 42 percent more than we take in is an addiction, I certainly meant no disrespect to Amy, her family or her fans. She was one of the few true artists to come along in a long time. What happened to her was a senseless tragedy and drawing an analogy wasn't meant to minimize the loss of life. If anyone took offense, I sincerely apologize."

I don’t think the whole unapologetic nature of this apology can be summed up much better than Randy Turner put it:

He used the word apologize (or more likely, one of his staffers used the word), but there is no evidence that there is any sorrow about the statement. He is only sorry that some people were offended by it

If the apology contained one shred of sincerity, Billy Long would have removed the offending tweet. As of this writing, it is still there, in all of its glory.

No, this is not a joke.

Billy Long got a pretty good (and deserved) earful about his refusal to support raising the debt ceiling from the Springfield News-Leader Editorial Board today. Thankfully, it sounds like he has brought his rhetoric more in line with reality. He even admitted, "We need to get it done."

The last few paragraphs of the editorial make it obvious that Billy Long's "fed up" act is starting to wear thin. 

Common sense tells you we should not play games with the country's credit rating by defaulting on our obligations.

Common sense tells you we should pay our bills -- and not just the priorities that Long has suggested: Social Security, Medicare, troop payments and other funds for national security.

Common sense tells you it's time to make a deal with Obama and the Democrats, and we think Long's job is to work toward the best possible compromise, not take an absolutist position.

Being "fed up" is wearing thin.

During the past week, Republicans like Representatives Vicky Hartzler, Todd Akin and Billy Long have suggested that letting the government default on its debt is really not that big of a deal. Never mind the fact that failing to raise the debt limit could plunge our economy into a deep, dark hole.

Well, someone decided to ask Senator Roy Blunt why he thought his colleagues were suggesting that it might be acceptable not to raise the debt ceiling.

Rep. Todd Akin, R-Wildwood, said this week he thought missing the Aug. 2 deadline would offer a lesson in living within our means and "shock us as a nation into saying that we really have to deal with this problem."

Responding to a question, Blunt said he had no explanation as to why some of his fellow Republicans feel that way.

"I do think there will be problems if we don't change the debt limit and I do think there will be problems if we change the debt limit and don't change behavior," he said.

Blunt should have said I have no explanation because that is a completely reckless and irresponsible position. When Roy Blunt sounds a bit like voice of moderation and sanity for the Republican party, something has gone terribly wrong.

Representative Billy Long is playing a dangerous game with talk of not raising the debt ceiling. He told the Springfield News-Leader that there is no way he will vote to raise the debt limit:  

"We are not going to raise the debt limit and they need to know that now instead of August 2nd," Long said, accusing Geithner of picking that date "out of the clouds.”

As a lawmaker, Long certainly has the right to take a stance against a proposal that he views as wrong or unnecessary. However, it is clear that not raising the debt limit would have a serious negative impact on our economy – according to credit rating agencies like Moody’s and S&P:

Two major ratings agencies -- Moody’s and Standard & Poors -- publicly announced that they were reassessing whether U.S. Treasury Bonds merited the top possible credit rating. These ratings, issued by agencies that are independent of the government, provide guidance to investors about how secure bond investments are.

Political gamesmanship is standard practice in Washington, but here’s hoping that cooler heads prevail in this situation. This is an issue that needs to be resolved, and the American people will remember who refuses to come to the negotiating table.

Who could have guessed that Americans don't like the plan to privatize Medicare supported by Todd Akin, Roy Blunt, Vicky Hartzler, Jo Ann Emerson, Billy Long, Sam Graves and Blaine Luetkemeyer?  

According to the new CBS News poll, 31 percent of Americans support converting Medicare into a sort of voucher program. Fifty-eight percent said they support keeping the program’s existing structure intact.

[The House GOP plan supported by all of the Missouri Republicans in Washington] plan would eliminate the traditional single-payer Medicare system and replace it with vouchers that could be used in the private insurance market.

Via Current.com:

h/t Bungalow Bill and Randy Turner

Happy Friday.

h/t Eli Yokley and Bungalow Bill

h/t Think Progress 

h/t Randy Turner

No one could have predicted that the House GOP's plan to phase out Medicare as we know it while giving the very wealthy even more tax cuts would be unpopular: "Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich distanced himself on Sunday from a House GOP plan to make cuts to Medicare, calling it 'too big a jump' for the American people."

From Meet the Press:

Boo hoo: Vicky Hartzler, Billy Long and 39 other Republican freshmanare asking President Obama to "rein in" criticism of their votes to phase out Medicare and replace it with a voucher program that will radically alter the lives of seniors for the worse.

This plea comes just months after Hartzler, Long and almost every other federal Republican candidate spewed disingenuous claims about Democrats "cutting" Medicare, and comes as Hartzler continues to lie about the health care reforms passed by Democrats.

If Billy Long and Vicky Hartzler don't want constituents to get grumpy about their votes, they should rethink how they're voting. 

Read their plea here.