Now come issues such as the sequester. It doesn’t matter that it harms the country. The tea party doesn’t believe it. They believe taxes of any kind are a sin. To read Paul Ryan’s budget proposal with its draconian cuts to Medicare is shocking.

I guess they believe old people are disposable, no matter what those people may have accomplished in life. The rich would have to support them; what a shocking concept!

They can blame President Obama all they want, but they refused to put taxes on the table. So there was no position of compromise Obama could take that would work for them. Any proposal he would make would be a nonstarter.

As polls show, the Republican Party will suffer greatly from its actions. Last I saw, 19 percent supported it.

The GOP needs to look to past leaders such as Ronald Reagan, who believed taxes were always part of the picture. He also advocated that the wealthy pay more taxes because they were better able to pay.

If moderates don’t take charge of their party, the GOP will become a nonplayer. Democrats will be able to do what they want.

The government only works well when both sides work together. Compromise is the key.

Thank you, Teabillies, for making it impossible for moderate and attached-to-reality Republican leaders to even think about responsible governing.

They had a chance to work on a compromise last week, but since Republicans control the congressional schedule, they opted for a “work week” and forced everyone in the House to leave.

President Obama has a deficit-reduction package on the table of half taxes, half budget cuts. Nothing could be more fair and balanced. But Republicans won’t deal.

When poor children in Head Start programs and their teachers are denied education and employment, Republicans will say, “The effects of these cuts are exaggerated,” because no one notices the poor. The rich will still have their deductions for vacation homes, yachts and private jets.

When scientific research into diabetes and cancer is defunded, Republicans will shrug because they don’t believe in science.

When sequester cuts weaken our military readiness, Republicans will say, “Obama doesn’t defend the nation.”

These Republican saboteurs hate Obama more than they love America. They want America to fail under our first black president, because they desperately fear the fall of white male dominion.

Yet their power is nothing compared to the power of the rainbow and the one-world family. Americans know it. This folly will be the end of the Republican Party.

Shame on The News Tribune. This article was nothing more than a hit piece on the Republican Party by an obvious Democrat hack. With this article The News Tribune bent over backwards to blur the line between real news and someone’s biased opinion.

This was a hit piece disguised as news. The main thrust of the piece was that Republicans should never disagree with President Obama or any other Democrat. Democrats good, Republicans bad.

Do we not have more than one political party and more than one branch of government? According to the article, Obama should be allowed to dictate his wishes with no opposition. You should be ashamed of yourselves for running that anywhere but on the opinion page.

But whatever policies he puts forward, however smooth his delivery and regardless of the tempting morsels he tosses to the tea party, in my opinion the GOP will remain divided. Estimates are that 15 to 20 percent of his Republican audience will represent the more libertarian tea party and they’re not open to any kind of compromise; it’s their way or the highway.

So, eloquent as he may be, Rubio’s message will fall on the ears of many libertarians who have nurtured a third party and indicated they will support their savior, Rand Paul, and his unique response to the president’ speech.

Have we seen history made: the birth of a third party?

For example, Jindal’s America:

• Relegates women to the lowest form of human life – following men and the unborn. Denying women the right to make their own medical decisions is the worst form of tyranny.

• Shoves gay people back into the closet by denying them the right to marry whom they choose.

That’s just for starters. Perhaps the speech was written long ago and he didn’t want to change it, but given that two major indices were closing in on all-time highs the same week he was bashing government economic policies rendered his comments uninformed at best.

To stop being the stupid party is an admirable goal. I hope the Republicans keep trying.

Yet it was Republicans who blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that would have beefed up security at U.S. embassies around the world.

Generation of hypocrites!

The letter writer congratulates Republicans’ efforts to get women the right to vote in 1920. However, that was 93 years ago and it might have been the last effort by the GOP to help women.

With their continued talk of “legitimate rape” and the Republican-led House’s refusal to vote on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the Republican Party continues to show its true colors towards women. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another 93 years for Republicans to return to a position benefiting women.

The letter also claimed that nearly every cabinet woman in the current administration has left or been run out. This is patently false. Four of the five female cabinet secretaries from the first term are staying on, and Ambassador Susan Rice would have succeeded Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if not for Republican opposition in the Senate.

In addition, President Obama has nominated two women to the Supreme Court. These do not seem to be the actions of a president and a political party supposedly “waging a war on women.”

Republicans today apparently neither respect nor like women. Republicans want to end subsidies to Planned Parenthood, which provides health care to low-income women. Republican governors pass laws forcing women to undergo uncalled-for medical exams if they’re seeking an abortion.

Republicans failed to renew the expired Violence Against Women Act (enacted in 1994) and stall on renewing the International Violence Against Women Act. Republicans huff and puff about Social Security and Medicare, the recipients of which are mostly women.

Granting women the vote 93 years ago does not forgive today’s Republicans and their misogyny.

On Saturday, we learned that on Jan. 12, 1915, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment allowing women to vote. The House was Democrat, as was the Senate.

In 1920, a constitutional amendment adopted by the House gave women the vote. The House was Republican, as was the Senate.

Funny, isn’t it, how Republicans are shamelessly attacked and lambasted as women haters? The White House is held by the political party waging war on women. Barack Obama just appointed or selected nothing but white men to run our current administration, while nearly every cabinet woman in the current administration has left or run out under this president and his white-male staff.