Here is another reason Republicans are sadly our best hope for protecting Social Security. The powerful conservative group Americans For Tax Reform, founded by Grover Norquist, called chained-CPI a middle class tax increase. Supporting it would be a violation of the tax pledge most Congressional Republicans have signed. From Americans For Tax Reform: On the [...]

I like to compare Norquist’s pledge to a pledge to never shoot a panda. Any member of Congress who walked down to the National Zoo and shot one of the giant pandas would see their political career ruined, whether or not they signed a “no panda shooting” pledge. Their problem would be that shooting a panda is deeply unpopular. The fact that they broke a pledge about it would be only a very minor secondary concern.

The American people overwhelmingly think the Super Committee will fail to reach a deal on the deficit. According to Quinnipiac polling, an overwhelming 67 percent think the Super Committee will fail to come up with a plan, while only 27 percent think it is likely that they will. Probably part of the reason the American [...]

The Republican congressional leadership have made their six selections for who will serve on the new Super Committee, according the National Journal. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) chose Senators Jon Kyl (AZ), Pat Toomey (PA) and Rob Portman (OH). From the House side Speaker John Boehner (OH) selected Jeb Hensarling (TX), Dave Camp (MI) [...]

Over at Politico Byron Tau and Ben Smith are raising the red flag about the possibility of Republicans using the expiration of the 18.4 cent per gallon gas tax on September 30th as their new hostage in the next stage of disaster legislating. The anti-tax Republicans are already making noises about not extending this tax. [...]

When you give in to hostage-taking, you set a pattern that just encourages people to take more hostages, and ask for bigger ransoms every time. This is exactly what is happening thanks to President Obama previously declaring that he must give in to Republican hostage taking tactics. From the Hill: House Republicans are considering a [...]

Small government activist Grover Norquist is calling for Republicans to begin a serious debate on the Afghanistan war. Not surprisingly, Norquist was focusing on the cost of financing our seemingly endless military commitment to the country. From Dan Froomkin: Norquist said the question for those who want to reduce government spending is this: “If you [...]

Subbing for Rachel Maddow Tuesday night, Chris Hayes on the passage of Audit the Fed: CHRIS HAYES:  Something truly remarkable happened in Washington today.  The United States Senate passed something, by the way of a 96 to 0 vote — 96 in favor, 0 against.  Which means Democrats and Republicans voted together, for the same [...]

As Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos said, “remove the mandate or kill this bill.” We’ve opened a “war room” at Firedoglake with information about calling your member of Congress to demand that this provision to bail out the insurance industry be removed from the health care bill before they agree to cast their vote in favor of it.

And nobody needs to pass an ideological purity test before they can use it.

Join us to oppose the mandate. Enter the war room.