Republicans

"Pension Reform", "Pension Reform" -- that's what they're always saying. We hear it in the media; we hear it from the GOP. Hell, we even hear it from a few centrists Dems. The problem is that "Pension Reform" is nothing but a semantic cover-up. What the people using it really mean, is "Pension Cut", "Pension Cut" -- since that's what they'll really proposing. It's just that none of them are honest enough to admit it.

It's bad enough to be afflicted with the current Governor here in Illinois. I mean, how can his tenure not end really really badly -- what with his 'war on workers' agenda? But to have people with absolutely no idea of either the state or its dynamics come up with the following prediction:

I’d say it’s fairly likely that if Hillary Clinton wins in 2016 than Rauner is setting himself up nicely for the nomination in 2020.

I don't know where the guy got the script but it doesn't come from the Land of Lincoln.

Chicago Sun-Times:

"In a newly unearthed radio interview, Republican private equity investor Bruce Rauner admitted earlier this year that he once favored the outright elimination of Illinois’ minimum wage."

Was that before or after this Illinois version of Marie Anoinette forked over $100k to join a wine club?

Jonathan Cohn points out the GOPer advantage whenever they have to come up with an alternative health care plan:

...[T]he vast majority of Republican officials have zero interest in health care reforms that significantly increase access to care.

Banner ad paid for by 'Citizens for Rauner, Inc' [Inc?] -- trashing Kirk Dillard.

Words that will live in infamy:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) argued forcefully Sunday that the government shutdown late last year was not the Republican Party's fault, but was in fact the Democrats' doing -- a contention that even members of Cruz's own party disagree with.

"I think it was a mistake that President Obama and the Democrats shut the government down this fall," Cruz said on CBS's "Face the Nation," according to a transcript. "The reason they did so is that President Obama dug in and said he wouldn't compromise and he wouldn't negotiate."

Cruz said it was actually President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) who threatened and caused the shutdown.

"I didn't threaten to shut down the government the last time," Cruz said. "I don't think we should ever shut down the government."

More here...

The Bloomberg editorial ('Romney’s Tax Plan: Secret or Just Nonsensical?') reminds us that we've been down the road of Bad Math before:

Andres Oppenheimer catches Romney promoting his signature agenda at the Univision forum in Miami:

Time and again, Romney responded with a promise to find a "permanent solution" to the immigration problem.

Problem is, he didn’t offer specifics, which amounts to offering a non-solution.

h/t dk

I love how Republican candidates are running around the country presenting themselves as the true protectors of Social Security and Medicare. GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan just did it at an AARP confab where he claimed yet again that Obama wants to gut Medicare by $716 billion.

PBS NewsHour commentator, Mark Shields, had an extremely insightful reaction to Mitt Romney's display of "kindness and generosity" during his acceptance speech in Tampa:

The one question that was raised -- and it is a legitimate one -- is that he was -- is enormously kind to people he can see in acts of personal kindness and generosity of time. But policies affect all kinds of people you don't see, millions of people that he will never come in contact with.