Category Archives: Elections

April 6, 2011 · 8:38 am

A Tale of Two Visions: Killing Medicare, Budget Deficits and the Government Shutdown

As usual Robert Reich is dead on in his assessment of the situation in Washington.

Obama is losing the message war to the GOP and Democrats are afraid to stand up for basic Democratic principles- that we are all in this together and are socially obligated to each do their fair share and help each other when age or misfortune falls….

This used to be called Christian Duty- a term which I prefer not to use in a multi-cultural, multi-religious society.  I also hesitate to use this term because Christianity is now viewed as a hard and unforgiving religion by so many thanks to the Religious Right and their role in GOP Politics…

Instead,  I prefer to think of this as Societal or Social Duty.  It is our duty to contribute to the overall good of the nation- not to make this a a dog eat dog world/country  where the motto is “I’ve got mine, screw you.”  That is the GOP vision…

The Democrats need to call this out and fight for the middle class, the elderly, the poor, minority and women’s rights, children and those who work hard but pay more taxes than the idle rich…

Reich calls it out in the Huffington Post:

 

Obama must show America that the basic choice is between two fundamental views of this nation. Either we’re all in this together, or we’re a bunch of individuals who happen to live within these borders and are mainly on their own.

This has been the basic choice all along — when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, in the Civil War, when we went through World War I and World War II and the Great Depression in between, during the Civil Rights movement and beyond.

The president needs to remind us that as members of the same society we have obligations to one another — that the wealthiest among us must pay their fair share of taxes, that any of us who loses our jobs or homes or gets terribly sick can count on the rest of us, and that we have collective obligations to our elderly, our children, and the rest of the planet.

This is why we have government. And anyone who wants to shut it down or cut it down because they say we can’t afford it any longer is plain wrong. We are the richest nation in the world, richer than we’ve ever been. We can afford to remain a society whose members are in it together.

via Robert Reich: Paul Ryan’s Plan, the Coming Shutdown, and What’s Really at Stake.

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April 5, 2011 · 8:54 pm

CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients

These are the facts…

Now let’s see how the Republicans spin them as they try to kill Medicare…

They usually use their specially created data from the Conservative “Think” Tank, The Heritage Foundation that’s about as credible as Fox News…

However, unlike Faux News and The Heritage Foundation, The CBO is non-partisan, generally accurate and widely respected…

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s initial analysis of the House GOP budget released today by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is filled with nuggets of bad news for Republicans.

In addition to acknowledging that seniors, disabled and elderly people would be hit with much higher out-of-pocket health care costs, the CBO finds that by the end of the 10-year budget window, public debt will actually be higher than it would be if the GOP just did nothing.

Under the so-called “extended baseline scenario” — a.k.a. projections based on current law — debt held by the public will grow to 67 percent of GDP by 2022. Under the GOP plan, public debt would reach 70 percent of GDP in the same window.

In other words, the spending cuts Republicans would realize in the first 10 years would be outpaced by deficit increasing tax-cuts, which Ryan also proposes. After that, debt projections under the plan improve decade-by-decade relative to current law. That’s because 2022 would mark the beginning of the Medicare privatization plan. That’s when, CBO finds, “most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system.”

If the current Medicare system were allowed to continue, CBO found that an average 65-year-old beneficiary’s costs would be only 25 percent of what it’d be in the individual private insurance market. Under the GOP plan, those costs would jump to 68 percent.

In plain English, “the gradually increasing number of Medicare beneficiaries participating in the new premium support program [the GOP’s Medicare privatization plan] would bear a much larger share of their health care costs than they would under the current program.”

via CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients | TPMDC.

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April 5, 2011 · 7:10 pm

The GOP’s Shutdown Frenzy | Mother Jones

This is obvious, but it will be interesting to see if it is reported as such…

The GOP wants this shut down to occur to appease their Tea Party Base…

In my view, the Democrats offered entirely too much in an effort to avoid this…

I wish the Democrats had half the nerve of the GOP…

A government shutdown now looks all but inevitable, and both parties are jockeying to make sure that the other one gets the blame. But I think this paragraph makes it pretty clear which party is really jonesing for a shutdown to happen:

House Republicans huddled late Monday and, according to a GOP aide, gave the speaker an ovation when he informed them that he was advising the House Administration Committee to begin preparing for a possible shutdown. That process includes alerting lawmakers and senior staff about which employees would not report to work if no agreement is reached.

Democrats are willing to endure a shutdown but are pretty obviously willing to compromise to avoid one. Republicans, conversely, really want this to happen. That’s been obvious from the start, and we shouldn’t allow anyone to let us to lose sight of this.

via The GOP’s Shutdown Frenzy | Mother Jones.

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April 4, 2011 · 9:16 pm

Dean Baker: It’s Time for Representative Ryan to Man Up

This guy is going to be all over the news the next few days…

He’s the one crafting the Republican Budget that destroys Medicare…

He’s the new darling of the far Right…

I really think the only thing he may be qualified for is to replace the actor playing Eddie Munster in “The Adams Family”…

Look at him closely….

Great article from Dean Baker at the Huffington Post:

Congressman Paul Ryan is the new darling of both the Republican Party and the major media outlets. He has put forward bold plans for dismantling Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Congressman Ryan is prepared to tell tens of millions of workers that they can no longer count on a secure retirement and decent health care in their old age. In Washington policy circles, this passes for courage.

Outside of Washington, people have a different conception of bravery. After all, over the last three decades the policies crafted in Washington have led to the most massive upward redistribution in the history of the world. The richest 1 percent of the population has seen is share of national income increase by close to 10 percentage points. This comes to $1.5 trillion a year, or as Representative Ryan might say, $90 trillion over the next 75 years. That’s almost $300,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

This upward redistribution creates the real possibility that many of our children will be poorer than we are. If Representative Ryan and his followers really cared about future generations, then we might expect him to push for policies that reverse some of this upward redistribution.

For example, we could break up the large banks (e.g. Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan) that operate with implicit government protection. This allows them to borrow money at below market interest rates and undercut their smaller competitors. By my calculations, the size of this subsidy to the largest banks is close to $35 billion a year, almost half the size of the long-term Social Security shortfall that concerns Mr. Ryan so much. If Mr. Ryan could man up a little, maybe he would have the courage to tell the big Wall Street banks that they will have to compete in a free market without this subsidy from the government.

It’s not only the big banks that make Representative Ryan cower. He’s also scared of the pharmaceutical industry. As a result of government-enforced patent monopolies, we spend close to $300 billion a year on drugs that would cost us around $30 billion a year. The potential savings of $270 billion a year is about three times the size of the projected Social Security shortfall.

Representative Ryan is a big fan of Medicare vouchers, however his voucher system does nothing to address our broken health care system while virtually guaranteeing that most seniors will not be able to afford decent health care. How about a voucher system that gives Medicare beneficiaries the option to buy into the more efficient health care systems in Europe and Canada, with the taxpayer and beneficiary splitting the savings? Well, that one could hurt profits of the insurance industry and major health care providers, so Mr. Ryan is against it.

MORE:   Dean Baker: It’s Time for Representative Ryan to Man Up.

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April 4, 2011 · 7:42 pm

Robert Reich: Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich

As usual, Robert Reich is the voice of reason calling from the wilderness…

It’s tax time. It’s also a time when right-wing Republicans are setting the agenda for massive spending cuts that will hurt most Americans.

Here’s the truth: The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich.

Even if we got rid of corporate welfare subsidies for big oil, big agriculture, and big Pharma — even if we cut back on our bloated defense budget — it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

The vast majority of Americans can’t afford to pay more. Despite an economy that’s twice as large as it was thirty years ago, the bottom 90 percent are still stuck in the mud. If they’re employed they’re earning on average only about $280 more a year than thirty years ago, adjusted for inflation. That’s less than a 1 percent gain over more than a third of a century. (Families are doing somewhat better but that’s only because so many families now have to rely on two incomes.)

Yet even as their share of the nation’s total income has withered, the tax burden on the middle has grown. Today’s working and middle-class taxpayers are shelling out a bigger chunk of income in payroll taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes than thirty years ago.

It’s just the opposite for super rich.

The top 1 percent’s share of national income has doubled over the past three decades (from 10 percent in 1981 to well over 20 percent now). The richest one-tenth of 1 percent’s share has tripled. And they’re doing better than ever. According to a new analysis by the Wall Street Journal, total compensation and benefits at publicly-traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record in 2010 — $135 billion. That’s up 5.7 percent from 2009.

Yet, remarkably, taxes on the top have plummeted. From the 1940s until 1980, the top tax income tax rate on the highest earners in America was at least 70 percent. In the 1950s, it was 91 percent. Now it’s 35 percent. Even if you include deductions and credits, the rich are now paying a far lower share of their incomes in taxes than at any time since World War II.

More:  Robert Reich: Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich.

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April 4, 2011 · 7:39 pm

Budget Deal Would Give Pentagon Extra Funds In Exchange For Social Program Cuts

As  President Eisenhower said in his farewell address: “Beware the Military Industrial Complex”.

The Defense budget is one of the largest and most bloated parts of the Federal Budget.  The Secretary of Defense has even said they need to cut spending…

But the GOP and their Campaign contributors think otherwise….

The Republicans prefer to cut small, but important social programs that make a real difference in the lives of many poor people, women, children or the elderly, instead of cutting anything from Defense Contractors.

Mind you….this is the best place to find bloated and unnecessary spending that could be cut without hurting our National Defense or anyone but Haliburton and other parasitic contractors….

 

While media attention focuses on the cuts to government spending demanded by House Republicans and broadly accepted by Democrats, the Pentagon is poised to reap billions more in federal funds, according to sources close to the discussions. The confines of the budget negotiations established by the two parties results in a system where every extra dollar going to military spending ends up being offset by a dollar reduction in spending on domestic social programs.

via Budget Deal Would Give Pentagon Extra Funds In Exchange For Social Program Cuts.

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April 4, 2011 · 7:27 pm

Republicans to Call for Ending Medicare

It’s rare for me to be stunned by anything in Politics, but this one is a stunner…

The GOP is actually going to proposed doing away with Medicare- one of the most successful and beloved programs ever created- and replacing it with private insurance.

If this one doesn’t kill them off, they have more lives than the average cat…

How can they even think about doing away with a program that benefits so many elderly Americans- who generally vote more dependably than another group and tend to vote Republican?

I hope the Democrats finally find their voice and stand up to this….

If saving Medicare isn’t a winning political issue, I don’t know what is…

House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is set to outline a budget plan on Tuesday that is expected to propose phasing out traditional pay-for-service Medicare and instead provide government subsidies for the elderly to obtain healthcare through private insurers.The change would be for future retirees. Anyone currently over 55 would be enrolled in the current system.The proposal represents significant political risk for Republicans who made big gains in last years congressional elections running against Obamas healthcare overhaul, which they said would cut benefits for Medicare recipients.”The Ryan plan is likely to become a lightning rod for Democrats in the 2012 elections,” said Chris Krueger, political strategy analyst at MF Globals Washington Research Group.

via Republican to call for sweeping Medicare changes | Reuters.

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April 2, 2011 · 5:21 pm

The End of Compassionate Conservatism

The House Republicans have done the almost impossible:  Made George W Bush look good compared to themselves…

Most Progressives, like me, always thought the concept of Compassionate Conservatives was Public Relations BS.  And it was…

But we obviously had not anticipated this heartless bunch of new GOP House members…

And of course the Democrats don’t now how to fight this- either in Congress or with a coherent message strategy.

The good news is I think the GOP over reach will eventually be their undoing.  At least for a while…

We will just have to hope they don’t kill too many people in the meantime….

From the New Republic:

House Republicans want to cut funding for health programs abroad and for community clinics here at home. And although the projected savings are small, at least relative to the size of the federal budget, the philosophical shift they signal is big. This is the end of compassionate conservatism.

You remember compassionate conservatism, don’t you? It was George W. Bush’s slogan, going back to the late 1990s, when, as a candidate, he told audiences that “Prosperity without purpose is just materialism” and vowed to “rally the armies of compassion in our communities to fight a very different war against poverty.”

Cynics saw it as empty rhetoric or, worse, a deliberate distraction from policies that were actually quite harsh to the nation’s least fortunate. The cynics had a pretty good point. Bush raided the treasury, in order to give wealthy people huge tax cuts, and the resulting budget crunch has forced all sorts of cuts to vital programs over the years.

Still, Bush never gave up the rhetoric of compassion. And on at least a few occasions he lived up to it. Community clinics were one example: As president, he doubled their funding. According to an account by Kevin Sack in the New York Times, that led to the creation or expansion of more than 1,200 clinics around the country. “This is a really good use of the taxpayers’ money,” Bush said at the time, noting that good primary care helps keep people out of the emergency room

AND

Today, by contrast, Republican leaders are perfectly content to walk away from these programs and many others without so much as acknowledging the consequences, let alone addressing them. Poor people in the U.S. might not be able to get basic medical care? Victims of HIV abroad might lose their life-sustaining drugs? If Republicans have paused even a moment to think about these things, they sure haven’t shown it.

 

via House Republicans Turn Out The Lights On President Bush’s Compassionate Conservatism | The New Republic.

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April 2, 2011 · 9:38 am

What Does John Boehner Do for a Living? Less Than Half in Poll Know

This is actually better than I thought it would be…

I’m convinced if Democracy ultimately fails in America, it will be because of ignorance and inattention…

That thought was re-enforced by last year’s election of so many Republicans so soon after they nearly destroyed the world economic system…

From Poll Watch:

Most Americans know that “No Child Left Behind” has something to do with education, that Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State and that Moammar Gadhafy is the leader of Libya, but when it comes to Congress, less than half of the public knows that John Boehner is the Speaker of the House or that the Republicans now have a majority in that chamber, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 17-20.

In its regular News IQ quick, Pew found that 80 percent correctly identified “No Child Left Behind,” 73 percent knew what Hillary Clinton did for a living and 71 percent could name the country where Gadhafi has ruled for more than 40 years.

But only 43 percent knew that Boehner was the top House Republican and just 38 percent were aware that the GOP had a majority in the House. Republicans in the survey were predictably the most aware of their good political fortune with 50 percent knowing Boehner was Speaker and 49 percent knowing their party was a majority. Forty-two percent of Democrats knew who Boehner was and 33 percent knew the GOP controlled the House. Forty-one percent of independents correctly identified Boehner’s job and 39 percent knew the Republicans had a House majority.

Nineteen percent thought that Democrat Nancy Pelosi was still the Speaker.

However, Boehner is slowly but surely getting better known. In November, Pew said 38 percent correctly identified Boehner as the speaker-in-waiting. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in February said 37 percent did not know his name or were not sure of their opinion of him, which was an improvement over the 44 percent in that category last November right after the elections, and 52 percent in October 2010, just before Election Day.

via What Does John Boehner Do for a Living? Less Than Half in Poll Know « Poll Watch Daily.

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April 1, 2011 · 6:42 pm

Florida Republicans upset Democrat said ‘uterus’ on state House floor | The Raw Story

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I’ll let this speak for itself…

For some Republican lawmakers in Florida, uterus is a dirty word.

During a debate over a bill that would prohibit governments from deducting union dues out of a worker’s paycheck last week, Florida state Rep. state Rep. Scott Randolph (D) argued that Republicans seem to only be against regulations when it comes to big business.

In his speech on the state House floor, Randolph even suggested that his wife could “incorporate her uterus” if it would stop the GOP from passing more restrictive abortion laws.

Republican leadership scolded the Democratic congressman, telling him that talk about body parts was unwelcome.

“The point was that Republicans are always talking about deregulation and big government,” Randolph told The St. Petersburg Times Thursday. “And I always say their philosophy is small government for the big guy and big government for the little guy. And so, if my wife’s uterus was incorporated or my friend’s bedroom was incorporated, maybe they (Republicans) would be talking about deregulating.”

“It’s not like I used slang,” he added.

He said Republicans told him they were concerned about young pages hearing the word.

“I think it’s a sad commentary about what we think about sex education in the state,” Randolph said.

via Florida Republicans upset Democrat said ‘uterus’ on state House floor | The Raw Story.

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