Second of two parts
Re “As I Was Saying and Saying and Saying, Says Bass”
In the act of playing hostess to a Mortgage Relief Town Hall and Resource Fair workshop last Thursday evening, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City) once again used the Senior Center as a launching pad for a rambling tirade against the Republican party.
Ms. Bass is a true believer in the faultlessness of President Obama, believing all criticism should be directed at others, any others.
After explaining the honorable purpose of the evening, which attracted a large crowd, Ms. Bass rhetorically detoured back to Washington:
“A couple things I just wanted to say about Congress specifically:
“Everybody knows the partisanship that has been going on. And if you’re confused about it, turn on your TV tonight (for the Republican National Convention) and hear the same thing.
“I listened to the speeches last night, and, you know, I know Paul Ryan. I serve with him. He is chair of my committee, our Budget Committee.
A Time for Teasing
“And so I kind of sit there and watch him become a big man and kind of laugh. I have been teasing him, calling him Mr. Veep for months because he’s really almost like a cult figure. But the thing about Mr. Ryan and Mr. Romney, Mr. Romney, everybody knows, we don’t know what kind of core he has, what values he has, because even his staff says he’s etch-a-sketchy. He kind of goes away. But because he doesn’t have a core, he went and found a core because Paul Ryan has a core. And if anybody has any confusion about Paul Ryan, read his manifesto.
“I call it The Manifesto. He calls it The Path to Prosperity. I call it The Manifesto Against the American People. But when it comes to Medicare, when it comes to Medicaid, which is MediCal in our state, he has put in writing his thoughts. And his thoughts have been consistent for years. When President Bush, a few years ago after he won his re-election, the first thing he tried to do was privatize Social Security. Well, who, who authored the bill to privatize Social Security? It was Paul Ryan.
“And he has backed away a little bit from that right now because that’s just too, you know, uh, explosive. But he said what he believes, and privatizing Medicare and all of that.
“You know, that’s kind of what we’re fixing in the next 60-some days when we re-elect the President. But, uh, that’s what we’re facing.
Look What Happened
“So I’m in my second year in Congress. But in my first few months, one of the things the Republicans tried to do was to eliminate all of the housing counseling. You know, the programs we complain about because they’re not strong enough, which is what eventually led to the bust, they wanted to eliminate those. You know, the Dodd-Frank bill that had the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that will absolutely be very helpful. Remember they blocked the appointment of that individual so long that the President just appointed him over a recess last year, and now what they’re trying to do is block the money from him. And so what we are facing now is very critical.
“But what we have to do in the next 60 days is even more important because this situation is not going to be resolved in 60 days. So what we have to do is make sure we have the leadership in place that is absolutely going to put much more teeth and power and weight behind what we need to do because you should know that the delegation from California, uh, we have been fighting hard to make these laws stronger and to hold the banks more accountable.
At Least We Have Tried
“We have been trying very hard, but until we make some changes over the next 60-plus days, things, you know, are kinda gonna be where they are now.
“We are at least fortunate in California because we have a warrior in Sacramento with our Attorney General (Kamala Harris).”
And then Ms. Bass led the friendly crowd – that lapped up her flaming red meat diet – into the evening’s agenda.
Fortunately, Ms. Bass did not deny she is one of the inflexible, hardline partisans impeding paths to legislation.
