GOP hypocrisy on full display in Forbes vs HHS

For all their pissing and moaning about bloated federal budgets and the perennial effort to gut social programs like Social Security and Medicare, when it comes to two-faced displays of political crocodile tears, it's hard to beat the latest from Rep. J. Randy Forbes of Virginia.

He takes exception to a HHS decision to exclude one of his corporate benefactors from the bidding for a fat federal contract servicing Medicare public-information operations. The mere thought of his fat-cat sugar daddy taking the hit in the midst of the current austerity hysteria is equal to a waste of money, in Forbes' twisted mental state:

HHS shift could cost Chesterfield 1,000 jobs | Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, on Monday sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for answers.

Calling it an "arbitrary decision," Forbes wrote that "not allowing General Dynamics to again compete for this contract could result in devastating job losses in Virginia."

Forbes also claimed in his letter that the change would not only lose jobs and limit competition for the contract, but also cost tax dollars.

"The American people have a right to know why their hard-earned money is being wasted by this administration," he wrote."

When will these clowns 'fess up and remind us that they're working tirelessly to dismantle Medicare, turning it into a "voucher" system where seniors are given a lump sum for healthcare, and remanded to their own devices when it comes to paying for their medical needs.

Perhaps the call center here can be re-purposed for explaining how the ending of Medicare as we know it still qualifies as Medicare.

As for the 1,000 jobs on the line if the call center closes, how many of these jobs are held by GOP voters, who consistently vote against their own interests, and for those of the 1 percent who have economic and political power in the US? Since 1980, they've been reliably voting for trickle-down economics, and the fiction that a rising tide would lift their boats, and not swamp them instead.

Now that the only jobs to be had are low-paying, service-economy creations, people are starting to reap what they've sown, and yet in their ignorance cannot fathom the perfidy that animates shills like Forbes to attack the same monster that he so assiduously has cultivated throughout his public life.

Ain't that a hell of a note?