Thom's blog - Monday January 3rd, 2011

You need to know this. In 2 days – Congress will reconvene for it’s 112th session – with Republicans firmly in control of the House of Representatives. On that day – a series of votes will be taken to approve new rules for the House – set by the Republican majority. Among these new rules: each new piece of legislation will now be required to include a statement regarding its constitutionality – also the Democrats’ previous rule known as PAYGO – which required all new spending legislation to be paid for by cuts to other programs – will be dismantled to exclude tax cuts for rich people from having to be paid for. Say hello to even higher deficits thanks to tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. But perhaps the most audacious new rule created by the Republican majority is one that gives the new Republicans Chairman of the Budget Committee Paul Ryan “stunning and unprecedented” powers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Under this new rule – if there is disagreement between the House and Senate Budget Resolutions – which is likely this year in a divided Congress – then Chairman Ryan will have the power to set spending levels completely on his own - without debate. Ryan has already made his intentions clear – he published a memo entitled “Roadmap for America’s Future” in which he calls for the privatization of Medicare and Social Security, handing both of those programs over to the traders and hustlers on Wall Street who helped fund his campaign for election. And now – if these new House rules pass – Ryan will become one of the most powerful men in Congress – able to carry out his radical agenda with a single stroke of the pen – and no debate.
Comments


Re: Government mandated health care
It seems to me that it is pretty much the same as government mandated auto insurance, which also has a penalty levied for not having auto insurance.
The problem I have with "Obamacare" is that it does little to nothing to lower the cost of healthcare, and is instead a boon to the insurance companies.

"Either we begin to practice a fierce moral autonomy and rise up in multiple acts of physical defiance that have no discernable short-term benefit, or we accept the inevitability of corporate slavery. The choice is that grim. The age of the practical is over." - Chris Hedges
‘The Left Has Nowhere to Go’ - by Chris Hedges - posted on 1/3/2011 http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/the_left_has_nowhere_to_go_20110102/
“The more outrageous the Republicans become, the weaker the left becomes.” “The more outrageous they become, the more the left has to accept the slightly less outrageous corporate Democrats.” - Ralph Nader
“The black swan question is whether something will erupt that is rare, extreme and unpredictable,” Nader said. “It is amazing that it hasn’t happened in any pockets of the country. How much more can the oppressed take before they revolt? And can they revolt without organizers? These are the two important questions. You have got to have organizers, and as of now we don’t.”

Lets start refering to republicans as " corporate republicans" lets brand them with that label. Its what frank lunce would do!

I love Pete DeFazio! His blunt honesty is much like mine. He doesn't intend to be funny, but the tone of his voice, and the way he points out the folly in our politics with such candidness, makes me laugh out loud. Plus, he would know. It's hard to believe he's Roman Catholic.

The Big Lie - Robert Reich
"Republicans are telling Americans a big lie, and Obama and the Democrats are letting them. The Big Lie is that our economic problems are due to a government that's too large, and therefore the solution is to shrink it.
The truth is our economic problems stem from the biggest concentration of income and wealth at the top since 1928, combined with stagnant incomes for most of the rest of us. The result: Americans no longer have the purchasing power to keep the economy going at full capacity."
http://robertreich.org/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/post_1496_b_803900.html
Perhaps the reason President Obama supports Michael Vic it he wished to continue treating the middle class just like Vic treated dogs . . . http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/27/barack-obama-michael-vick-eagles_n_801476.html.