The real issue with Styrofoam™ is it has a half life in landfills about like nuclear wastes, and after a landfill is covered over, the crap leeches into the ground water and pollutes the rivers for the next 30,000 years. So yeah, going back to Styrofoam in place of biodegradable materials is just another in a growing list of Boehners.
Now that all the spin of the question’s details is out of the way, let’s take up the actual question, “What won’t the Republicans do to control congress?” I don’t think we’ve seen the worst yet, but there is a very determined and very well funded drive underway to rig the landscape so that Republicans will soon be able to achieve their long sought single party rule.But here are some of the things they have already tried.
In New Hampshire, they are pushing a move to prohibit college students from voting in their college town. They would have to travel back to their permanent home to vote. The State Speaker of the House said those kids just “lack experience” and “vote their feelings.” Translation, they overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. So vote suppression is on the table.
Then there is Union Busting. That’s going on in Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. And while every governor says it’s about the budget shortfall, in each case their own tax giveaways to corporations and the rich created the shortfall they have to close with union concessions. Far-right blogger Andrew Breitbart actually boasts that it is designed for electioneering.
In Wisconsin, Scott Walker gave businesses $1.4 million in tax breaks, then said he needed $1.37 million in concessions on wages and benefits from state workers to pay for it. Not only that, they had to give up virtually all collective bargaining rights, something that has zero impact on this year’s budget. The same story is playing in Ohio and Michigan with new Republican governors fabricating budget shortfall crises
If Unions can be stripped of their membership and money, Republican election dominance will take a giant leap forward. That would leave just one Democratic leaning funding source in the top 10 political Donor Organizations. The other 9 would all be huge Global Corporations or front groups for them. So using fabricated crises as a pretext to shape the election landscape is on the table. Union busting is on the table.
But wait, there’s more. In Michigan, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is resorting to moves that border of fascism in its rise. Gov. Snyder wants the right to declare that a school district or town is in financial crisis, and that would give him the right to:
1—Install his own administrator (from his government or a corporation he outsource it to)
2—Abrogate any union contracts.
3—Overrule and suspend elected officials, replacing them with his choice, or the selections of his appointed administrator or his subcontractor’s choice.
4—Disincorporate a city, town or school district or merge it with other entities.
Simply declaring fiscal emergencies at the sole decision of one man, and using that pretext to rule by fiat and to throw out elected officials if they happen to be for the “wrong” party. This is Shock Doctrine.
Oh and then there are all the old tricks such as gerrymandering and having insiders owning the company that makes most of the nation’s voting machines. Those electioneering methods are all on the table. Oh, and the Supreme Court’s judicial legislation in the Citizens United decision.