Punxsutawney GOPers See Shadow, Repeal Everything In Sight
Happy Ground Hog Day! Today is the day the American people across the country — suffering from one of the harshest winters in memory — have been waiting for, the day America’s Groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, comes out of his Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania hole, while Americans watch. This morning, thanks to one of the worst snowstorms this winter, Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, foreshadowing an early spring.
Sadly, the GOP hasn’t been able to experience the same optimism as America’s Groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. It’s as if they saw their shadow, got scared, and are working to extend our long, hard winter by repealing everything good in sight.
Why is it the GOP, at the state and federal levels, are working not to move the country forward by creating jobs, but are working to move the country backwards by repealing good laws that help the American people? Despite the GOP’s campaign promise last year to make creating jobs job one, their entire focus — at the state and federal level — has been on social issues. In fact, they’ve not created a single job since taking over the House this year, nor have they produced any legislation that will.
Here’s what the GOP is “working” on:
On Tuesday, Iowa state House Republicans “passed an amendment that seeks to repeal the state’s marriage equality law, and deny any form of legal recognition for gay couples.” You’ll remember that Iowa’s Supreme Court in 2009 ruled that state’s ban on marriage equality unconstitutional. So Maggie Gallagher and NOM got those judges repealed also.
The New Hampshire GOP is playing politics with marriage equality. In an attempt to appear “moderate,” Republicans in the granite state “will ask that the fight to repeal gay marriage be postponed until 2012.” Of course, 2012 is a presidential election year, so they’re doing themselves a favor. Expect marriage equality to take center stage next year across the country as the GOP works to divide the American people and use our equality as a tool to get bigots to the polls.
At the federal level, Congressional Republicans are working on a complete and total repeal of the Democrat’s historic health care reform, for which not a single Republican voted last year. The House already voted to repeal the healthcare law. Now, Republican Senators, who hate “Obamacare,” as they disparagingly call it, so much, are willing to let a Democratic jobs bill that would add 280,000 jobs, AND re-authorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — the folks who make sure planes don’t fly into each other — die. Yes, The GOP would like to see “Obamacare,” (which will help at least 30 million Americans get health insurance,) the FAA, (which pretty much keeps the sky from falling) and 280,000 jobs, all die.
Not satisfied with repealing the agency that prevents the sky from falling, House Republicans are also working to repeal the Supreme Court-direct responsibilities of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and ban it from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
David Espo in The Huffington Post writes, “the bill would nullify all of the steps the EPA has taken to date on the issue, including a threshold finding that greenhouse gases constitute a danger to the public health and welfare.”
“In addition, it seeks to strip the agency of its authority to use the law in any future attempts to crack down on the emissions from factories, utilities and other stationary sources.”
What else is the backwards-moving GOP working on repealing? Here’s a list:
- In the wake of the Tucson shooting that left six dead and thirteen wounded, including Rep. Gabby Giffords, Arizona Republicans want to effectively repeal gun laws and “make Arizona the second state in the nation to require universities and communities to allow guns on campus and one of 10 that permit guns inside public government buildings such as the state Capitol.”
- Also in the wake of the Tucson shooting that left six dead and thirteen wounded, including Rep. Gabby Giffords, Minnesota state lawmakers are working “to eliminate state system of background checks, permits” on guns.
- More repeal from Minnesota: Rep. Michele Bachmann (who has actually said she wants to “repeal Obama,”) is working to repeal Dodd-Frank, “the landmark Wall Street regulatory law,” designed to rein-in the financial industry, in the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
- State GOPs across the country are pushing “for a constitutional amendment to allow state legislatures to repeal acts of the federal government,” by a two-thirds vote of all 50 state legislatures.
- At the intersection of federal-meets-local, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is “seeking to overturn Washington, D.C.’s marriage equality law,” which was signed into law after a thirty-day Congressional waiting period, on December 15, 2009.
- Federally, the GOP wants to repeal the 14th amendment to the U.S. constitution. “Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced a proposal to amend the Constitution ‘so that children born in the United States are only considered automatic citizens if one parent is a U.S. citizen, one parent is a legal immigrant, or one parent is an active member of the Armed Forces.'”
- House Republicans want to “repeal” the definition of rape, by “permanently prohibit some federally funded health-care programs from covering abortions, but would change the language exempting rape and incest from rape to “forcible rape.”
Repeal of healthcare, marriage equality laws, gun laws, the 14th Amendment, not to mention strangling the FAA and the EPA, etc., etc. Is there anything today’s GOP won’t do to “take their country back” — to the stone age?
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U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) is accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of pepper-spraying her in her face while she was at a local Tucson, Arizona restaurant.
Rep. Grijalva in a video on social media said she saw about 40 mostly-masked ICE agents at a restaurant she frequents weekly.
The agents were “in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”
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She said that the community was “protecting their people” when she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent,” and “pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.”
“I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she continued. “So, once I introduced myself, once I did, I assumed that it would be a little calmer, but there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful, and I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”
Congresswoman Grijalva said she saw “people directly sprayed,” including “members of our press” and staff members.
She blasted President Donald Trump, saying that he “has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution — they’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”
Critics slammed the agents’ action.
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U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote that Rep. Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”
“Pepper-spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for. Period,” he added.
“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” observed Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Enforcing the rule [of] law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”
The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “quite the beginning for Grijalva, who wasn’t seated for weeks, [cast] the decisive vote to get the Epstein files, and now has apparently been pepper sprayed in the face by immigration agents.”
Also calling the action “outrageous,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote: “We are Members of Congress with oversight authority of ICE. Rep Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents. ICE is completely lawless.”
“First they tackle a sitting Senator,” noted U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Now they’re pepper spraying a Representative. It’s clear ICE is spinning out of control. We will hold the agency accountable.”
ICE just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson – a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years.
When I presented myself as a Member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed-aside and pepper sprayed. pic.twitter.com/gPx0p3IXP2
— Rep. Adelita Grijalva (@Rep_Grijalva) December 5, 2025
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Image via Reuters
A well-known conservative commentator has a warning for the Republican Party: take action now or face a repeat of the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 41 House seats in a landslide. And this time, he says, the Senate could go to the Democrats as well.
Award-winning writer and journalist Bernard Goldberg reminded readers at The Hill that in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, “Republicans got walloped … and a good chunk of that had President Trump’s name written all over it.”
Trump’s “approval ratings were in the low 40s, and independents — the folks who usually decide elections — had seen enough. They broke hard for the Democrats,” Goldberg noted. “Now here we are, staring down 2026, and you can almost hear history clearing its throat, getting ready to repeat itself.”
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Goldberg noted that Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term.
“Among Republicans, his support dropped from 91 percent right after the 2024 election to 84 percent last month. Among independents, it cratered — from 42 percent to just 25 percent.”
“If the trend continues,” he warned, “Republicans could be headed for another blue wave — and this time, it could wash away not just the House majority, but control of the Senate too.”
Why?
“It’s the economy — still,” he wrote.
“Trump is out there saying the economy is humming. Biden said the same thing before him. But voters didn’t buy it then, and they’re not buying it now. Why? Because it’s not GDP numbers that matter. It’s affordability,” Goldberg noted.
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That’s a word that President Trump continues to call a “con job,” while his own administration tries to claim he is focused on.
He pointed to a Karl Rove Wall Street Journal column and wrote: “The Republicans may have ‘avoided disaster’ in Tennessee, but the result should be a wake-up call for Republicans. He’s right.”
Goldberg asked: “will anyone in the Republican Party actually pick up the phone?”
“Because if Republicans don’t wake up — and fast — they’re going to find out the hard way what happens when you keep rerunning the same movie and expecting a different ending. To lose in 2026, all they have to do is nothing. And right now, that’s pretty much what they’re doing.”
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President Donald Trump is claiming that the top priority of Democrats is the “total obliteration” of the U.S. Supreme Court. His remarks came just hours after SCOTUS gave Republicans a 6-3 win along partisan lines, in the form of approving Texas’s redrawn mid-decade congressional maps that could help add five GOP-held seats to the U.S. House of Representatives. A lower court had ruled the redrawn Texas maps were likely racially biased.
Although there are different ways to measure, one study by Court Accountability this fall found that the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor 90% of the time.
“Most of these wins for the president came from the court’s ‘shadow docket’ slate of opinions — where the court has typically, in the past, only ruled on administrative measures,” according to Truthout. “However, in recent years, the Supreme Court has been making announcements on cases, issuing injunctions or allowances of actions to remain in place, that have the same effect, essentially, as a final decision.”
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On Friday, the president declared that the “Democrats number one policy push is the complete and total OBLITERATION of our great United States Supreme Court.”
“They will do this on their very first day in office, through the simple Termination of the Filibuster, SHOULD THEY WIN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS,” he wrote.
Trump has strongly advocated for Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster.
“The Radical Left Democrats are looking at 21 Justices, with immediate ascension,” he wrote, claiming that Democrats would more than double the current size of the court.
“This would be terrible for our Country. Fear not, however, Republicans will not let it, or any of their other catastrophic policies, happen. Our Country is now in very good hands. MAGA!!!”
Some court reform advocates have suggested the Supreme Court be expanded to 13 justices, one for each of the thirteen U.S. Courts of Appeals.
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Image via Reuters
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