Office by Alex Penny
Politics • Snark • EcoFriendly • Veggie • Photos I Like • Doctor Who
When the world says, Give Up, Hope whispers, Try it One More Time.
http://bit.ly/tt-blog; http://bit.ly/tt-pins; psychedelictara.etsy.com
[NOTES* from Leftish - are always in brackets]
BRILLIANT!!
The deficit deal Republicans fear the most is the one they already cut when they created the Super Committee.
If the Super Committee fails to pass a deficit reduction bill, a number of budget cuts will automatically be triggered. These cuts, which include defense spending but spare Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits, are much less damaging that what’s on the table.
All the Democrats need to do to save our social safety net is stand strong.
But according to recent reports, Democrats on the Super Committee have floated a proposal that would not only make deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, it would also pave the way for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to be made permanent.1
Paul Krugman summed up the situation nicely when he wrote:
I thought I had worked out all the worst-case scenarios for the supercommittee (there was never a best-case). But this is even worse than my worst imagining: a deal to undermine key social insurance programs in return for a promise that Congress will come up with a plan for raising revenue at some future date. If you think that promise has any credibility whatsoever — if you have any doubts that the end result would be to gut Social Security and actually cut taxes for the wealthy — I have this Nigerian bank account that can be yours if you send me $100,000 in expenses.2
WTF is wrong with these people?
“If you take the money out of the economy, there’s less money for people to spend, and that means fewer jobs. One thing that is not being said - there’s a big LIE being perpetrated by Republicans, and it transcends this entire Deficit/Debt Issue, and the LIE is that ‘if the Government reduces its spending that somehow we create more jobs.’ That is exactly the reverse of reality.
The reality is that because of Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security payments, people have more money to spend. Because of Roads, and Bridges, and Light Rail, and Education, and basic Research and Development, people have more jobs.
The whole notion that the Budget Deficit is the biggest enemy that we face in this country is wrong. The biggest enemy is joblessness, unemployment, low wages, that’s the thing that’s haunting this American Economy.”
~ Robert Reich, Prof, UC Berkeley
[NOTE* from Leftish: Hm…I thought that the last section there was going to say that the biggest enemy that we face in this country is the TEABAGGERS!]
A split within the Republican Party has the potential to give the House Democrats leverage to block any deal on the debt ceiling that includes benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
A large number of House Republicans are so opposed to government itself that they will vote against any deal to raise the debt ceiling (even one blessed by Speaker Boehner). This means that any deficit deal will need some Democratic support to pass the House.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has been an outspoken advocate for taking benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid off the table in debt ceiling negotiations. And now Reps. Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, are circulating an emergency sign-on letter to Leader Pelosi strongly agreeing with her position.
Tell President Obama: Don’t cave. Protect SocialSecurity, Medicare and Medicaid!
SO FUNNY!! GOP FL SEN Candidate KICKED OFF Radio Show for SPIN!
HA HA! U.S. Senate Candidate, and current Florida Senate President, Mike Haridopolos was kicked off the Ray Junior Radio show for hemming and hawing and doing his best to dodge the question, whether he would or would not vote for the Ryan Plan.
[This is textbook Question Dodging. Funny thing is the interviewer was a REPUBLICAN RADIO HOST, and even HE thought it fitting to kick the GOP Senate Candidate off the air! Haridopolos probably thought he’d only be getting softball questions…His non-answers were classic! What a jackass!]
— the shameless promoter of the gospel of aggressive self-interest. This makes sense to me as I read Congressman Ryan’s new budget proposal. I wish he had his staff reading the Bible instead.
While widely lauded by conservatives, Congressman Ryan’s budget isn’t really about deficit reduction. It’s about choices — choices that will determine what kind of a country we become. And Paul Ryan has made the choice to hurt people who don’t have the political clout to defend themselves.
“Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims — laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children. What will you have to say on Judgment Day, when Doomsday arrives out of the blue? Who will you get to help you? What good will your money do you?” (Isaiah 10:1-3, The Message)
Paul Ryan’s budget seems to follow, almost line by line, the “oppressive statues” Isaiah rails against. Ryan’s budget slashes health care for the poor and elderly by gutting Medicaid and undermining Medicare, and cuts funding for food stamps, early childhood development programs, low-income housing assistance, and educational programs for students. ~ Jim Wallis, for Rethink Afghanistan by Huffington Post
Ha-ha-hangover 2!
Let’s restrain Medicare spending by letting Medicare negotiate drug prices the way the VA does, and save $300 Billion over 10 years. Let’s stop occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, and not spend $110 Billion a year there. Let’s not pay Agriculture Subsidies to wealthy agri-businesses and individuals. And let’s go to Millionaires in this country and ask them to pay just a little more toward reducing the deficit. How about that plan?”
~ Rep Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
We have an alternate plan to the Paul Ryan plan. Our plan is called Medicare.
~ Nancy Pelosi
Medical Costs will continue to go up, and older people will use less, get sicker, and die quicker, or they will be poorer, because they will have to spend so much of their money on Health Care. ~ Bill Clinton
all this happened since “Blingrich” had a disastrous showing on Meet the Press…just four days ago!
Does he also make sure to tell everyone that, in actuality, Ayn Rand, herself collected both Medicare and Social Security, at the same time as disapproving of others doing so?
“An interview with Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand’s law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand’s behalf she secured Rand’s Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O’Connor (husband Frank O’Connor). As Pryor said, ‘Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out’ without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn ‘despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently… She didn’t feel that an individual should take help.’ But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so.”
