Will we take the Republican road to ruin – or the Progressive road to prosperity?

You need to know this. A budget isn't just numbers - it's a statement of morality and our values. And conservatives are showing their true colors. Republicans will likely vote on Paul Ryan’s budget this week, benefitting only the top 1% of Americans, that sells off Medicare to for-profit health insurance company leeches – hands an enormous tax cut to millionaires and billionaires – and sinks our nation deeper into debt – but that’s not stepping Progressives in the House from introducing their own budget – one that serves the other 99% of the American people.
The Progressive budget saves money by ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – ending taxpayers subsidies to transnational oil corporations – closing tax loopholes – raising the estate tax on the super rich – ending the bush tax cuts – and adding a surtax on millionaires in America. With that extra money – Progressives will invest in 1.45 trillion into job creation, green energy, and education, as well as create a public health insurance option. Unlike the Republican budget proposal – the Congressional Budget Office reports that the Progressive budget will eliminate our nation’s deficit entirely by 2040.
The choice for the American people couldn’t be any clearer with these two budgets – we can take the Republican road to ruin – or the Progressive road to prosperity?
Comments


There are no safe levels for raduation. Radiation is now in our foods.

Perhaps we should begin with eliminating the tax exempt staus, i.e. 501C3 for all "churches" and retain it only for benevolent institutions that serve the poor with no greater than a 10% administrative overhead.

Thanks Thom Harthman..."those of us who disagree with Obama & voice our disagreement are now GOP".Really, how sick & twisted do you have to be to come up with such illogic.Why don't you just call us unpatriotic & treasonous.I think the same was said of me when I disagreed with GWBush's policies.
This always happen when the leader of the party in power's incompetence is slowly being realized by Americans.And seems to me Obama is just as incompetent as GWBush.

@Deacon Adolfo, good post!
I AM IN FAVOR OF PROHIBITING MEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE; I AM IN FAVOR OF PROHIBITING MEN FROM HOLDING POWER POSITIONS IN GOVERNMENT; AND I AM IN FAVOR OF CASTRATING ALL MEN.
I believe that only women should be in charge of countries, like presidents, prime ministers, etc. Men have screwed up planet, Earth. We have too many men who are certifiable lunatics in power positions.

I am freaked out. Have I read or heard correctly that Obama will speak to Americans on his plan to cut Medicare and Medicaid? The United States of Mortal Sin does not have a future for working Americans.
THANK YOU, THOM!! THANK GOD, you finally used the "T" word -- "TRAITOR!!" These people ARE traitors to AMERICA!! There is no other accurate descriptor. The Truth is TRULY they are TRAITORS and are acting in every way AGAINST our country! Let's start pushing to treat them all as traitors and prosecute -- them!! Our Founding Fathers would have jumped on that -- they would have been put out to sea, never to set foot on Our Sacred Soil again! TRAITORS!! Don't let them destroy us!! THANK YOU, THOM!!

Hey! watch out gerald......you might be called a GOPer for thinking like that.That's what the Obama sycophants are saying about dissenters.

Once again, the Obama bargaining strategy is to first concede to the most draconian Teaparty demands and proceed from a position of weakness.
It has been reported that he will now be offering up Medicare ad Medicaid to the republicans as a pre-bargain gift. I have no doubt that Social Security will follow soon.
When will we progressives realize that he has always been a Trojan horse,. his record clearly shows that he has, from the beginning, been working for corporate interests alone. We must start now looking for a progressive candidate to challenge him in his upcoming election bid.
In his term in office, he will have done more than Ronald Reagan to destroy the middle class in the name of bipartisan governance.

“The greatest evil perpetrated is the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who refuse to be persons.” Hannah Arendt
As Arendt pointed out, we must trust only those who have this self-awareness. This self-awareness comes only through consciousness. It comes with the ability to look at a crime being committed and say “I can’t.” We must fear, Arendt warned, those whose moral system is built around the flimsy structure of blind obedience. We must fear those who cannot think. Unconscious civilizations become totalitarian wastelands.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,” Arendt writes. “For human beings, thinking of past matters means moving in the dimension of depth, striking roots and thus stabilizing themselves, so as not to be swept away by whatever may occur—the Zeitgeist or History or simple temptation. The greatest evil is not radical, it has no roots, and because it has no roots it has no limitations, it can go to unthinkable extremes and sweep over the whole world.” - Chris Hedges

Thanks Thom. The clear answer to your question for the majority of Americans is The Progerssive Road. The truth is our economic and industrial corporations are being run by criminals, for the benefit of the criminals only. The only "giant sucking sound" we hear is the criminal class sucking the life out of all of the earth. They have polluted our planet to the point of near destruction. They have caused the extinction of too many species of flora and fauna to list here. They have stolen the earth's natural resources. They have commited many heinous acts of genocide to millions in the name of profit. They have enslaved a majority of the human race. The have poisoned our homes, our water and food sources. Topping it all off they then deny their responsibilityfor causing their messes and pass on their blame to the majority of us. We cannot afford to allow the criminally insane to make the rules by which we live by anymore.

Spring (cleaning time) is here. Why doesn’t the breeze delight me?
The wasichu (i.e., greedy dishonorable person, per the Lakota language) in greed took the buffalo from the first Americans, who in some number eventually succumbed to eat, instead, the wasichu’s beef, not from the wild but broken, enslaved, acquiescing and to those in touch with the earth, lacking in spirit and vitality. Now first Americans and wasichus of the world including banksters will give up seafood and perhaps all related food as the sea with it’s beginning to end food chain, by greed, has been sacrificed; after all how much crude oil, Correctsit and now failed so-called fail-safe radiation - as is purported by oligarchs and their Toryish promoters as harmless to living things - has contaminated the sea beyond repair in all our current human lifetimes in common. Will the greedy corporatists all continue to count their billions and trillions like Scrooge McDuck as they “not so slowly” but miserably die of hunger, malnutrition and/or cancer from food that they have toxified with their greed, or from the miserable “puke, hangover and puke again” alcohol, their exclusively and purposefully cheap and “legal for America” drug of choice?
Remember the story of the farmer and his wife who were granted three wishes by a genie. The hungry farmer, ecstatic, immediately said I wish I had a big plate of sausages. A big platter of sausages appeared before them. The farmer’s wife berated the farmer saying “that’s all you’re going to wish for is a plate of sausages? That is so stupid; you didn’t even say Italian sausage.” In spite, she said “I wish that you had one of those sausages stuck to your nose.” A sausage flew from the platter and stuck fast to the farmer’s nose. No matter how hard they tried they could not remove the sausage. The farmer’s wife then of necessity (she did love the old gas bag) had to use the last wish and so wished that the sausage was off the farmer’s nose. Moral: Be careful what you wish for, and poor planning on the part of humans can mean panic on the part of other humans.
Although the powers that be scheme in so many ways to prevent education – low salaries for teachers but extravagant contracts to education administrators, architects and builders, harsh sentences for victimless crimes by youth to feed the industrial prison machine and keep the kids out of school, rewriting curriculums e.g., a history class that downplays the founding fathers but extols Reagan, the absence of humanities and health, etc. while some crimes (child molesters, white collar embezzling) with victims are minimal jail time – “The Meek shall inherit the Earth” is a good plan, the intricacies of which are in process. Now however, time is of the essence because it appears that in a very short time the Earth will be thoroughly unaccommodating and non-supportive for life forms.
Energy hogs have a new plan and are now perched to take away the last wilderness, the last remaining elk, bear and bison ranges in Utah to process sand with ravenous water usage and the building of more possible nuclear plants for bitumen for oil. It has been only a little over one hundred years since the Native Americans fought wars to save that wilderness and a life in tune with the Earth. Check it out on Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_oil_sands
So these greedy energy hogs continue unrestrained to rub out the Earth. There must be a legal way to erase them from our lives and put them where we can monitor their activities with the light on in the corners of prisons. We need to change the law, but with help from their friends offering legal lobby bribes these powers are making the laws. What do you do when someone is killing you and yours; and you are out of resources and legal moves? Defend yourself? Fight fire with fire? Incorporate? “When in the course of human events………..” we Americans are called upon, we naturally want to contribute to the common good. Pens are swords not only used in great literature and the “maybe not so great” mainstream media but pens are also in the communications, ledgers and journals of the banksters, corporate bribsters and their helpsters (congressters, governsters?) and their attorneys. In theory do not we the people, collectively, have the most money? Why aren’t we making the laws?

Awesome Hedges quote Making Progress... The Arendt formulation applies to any of us who bite our tongue (which is fair enough) but the Hedges formulation makes it clear who the really bad actors are.
Link for the Progressive Caucus People's Budget: http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70§iontree=5,70

Obama seems to be saying "Take the Republican Road!!

I believe that the banking institions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.. Thomas Jefferson .

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shinning, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain... Mark Twain... >>> A bank is a place that will lend you money if you prove that you don't need it. Bob Hope.

Watch about the first 10 minutes of Max Keiser report>>>> Murderer of the middle class, and how the wealth effect equals the poverty effect.> http://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/poverty-wealth-gold-dollar/

Paul Krugman, Nobel prize in Economics wrote in his blog today that of thev five points of Ryan's budget proposal, two might be possible and three ere fraufulent suggestions.
"1. Savage cuts in programs that help the needy, amounting to about $3 trillion over the next decade.
2. Huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, also amounting to about $3 trillion over the next decade.
The fake points are:
3. “Base broadening” that makes those tax cuts revenue neutral. Ryan has refused to name a single tax preference that he would, in fact, be willing to get rid of; all he and his party do is keep repeating “revenue-neutral” in the hope that people believe them.
4. Unspecified cuts in spending outside Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that would shrink the government — including defense! — back to 1920s levels.
5. Replacing Medicare with vouchers that would leave most seniors unable to afford insurance."
Personally I have more faith and respect for Paul Krugman than I have for any GOP members of Congress and some Dems.

Reading Paul Krugman the other day made me think. He said, 'even the wealthy will regret this' and I was thinking on that note that we should appeal to their sense of greed. Remind them that everything wonderful about USA was built from the middle class and it's enormous tax base that it provided, fantastsic sports arenas, music venues, museums, libraries, parks . . . The list goes on and on. They won't have those things and if we don't turn this around they'll be prisoners in their gated communities because there won't be police for normal neighborhoods and the 'have nots' will be in areas ruled by hooligans and thugs and won't be safe for wealthy. We need to really project out the true consequences of these choices.

I totally agree with you. I'm about to change my political party to Socialist and see if we can get more Bernie Saunders in. OMG, I heard him on another progressive talker's show yesterday and I've never heard him so angry. Maybe we could talk him into running for office. We need another FDR.
Paul Ryan is an idiot. I'm tired of civility towards greedy B---terds. I was up late last night and suddenly popping into my fronze (head) was the beginning of a realized fear.
The fear that one day I'll wake up and the scales have permanently tipped to the negative, to a country that is washed up - run by a government fragmented, divided, and sold off to the highest bidders. A government in word only. I'm a reasonble human, I've worked in various government bodies from municipal to federal in natural resource fields. I've made a difference. But I also know just how close this country is to a government in name only - and it's close. Pual Ryan's 'concept' is sheer lunacy. I've yet to hear anyone mention just how many seniors there'll be by 2040. Take away the safety net, and just how will any elders pay for anything? Are we to assume that the huge health conglomerates will exercise devine benevolence and take care of them?
Greed has been with humanity as soon as it was realised that trinkets could be used to build and wield power, I'm not a dooms-dayer, we can intellectualize issues all we want but it doesn't change a natural and fundamental flaw of humankind - that some are dilluted with the sickness of money and power: Greed. We can divide it up in oh so many ways but it all comes back to the same foundation. Never mind all the other global issues that are near. The day when I wake up to that feeling will also bring with a reality that to change it back will be the turning point in history - I hope we will be able to.

It's time for a R E V O L U T I O N !
I am tired of hearing so many negative things about our president. If he has the power of the corporations to help him sway the legislative branch the left will condemn him. Without the power of the corporations he has little or nothing to sway any gop to help the American people.
According what I've heard from the so called progressives they don't want a president who has the backing of the corporations, so for him it's a lose lose situation with the left.
He isn't a right wing dictator of a banana republic to take matters into his own hands and pass laws in spite of who is in the minority so he must either compromise, veto or just go along with the gop and its affliates.
According to what I've heard from the progressives they don't want a right wing dictator nor the banana republic. Again the President is in a lose, lose situation.
I've come to the conclusion that the so called progressives won't be happy no matter what happens, and my fear is that just like in 2000 we will again have someone from the gop in the white house and we will go back to a more disaterous economy than we have now.
BTW is the grandstander nader running again to insure that the gop will win again?

The last Democrat in office, Bill Clinton, took an ax to desperately needed welfare programs, using that money for corporate tax cuts instead. Americans yawned with flat indifference. We feared that the next Democrat in office would "reform" Social Security, just as Clinton "reformed" welfare programs. It appears that Obama is continuing the this economic strategy; it starts with cuts and "adjustments," and ultimately leads to ending the programs. As a direct result of our welfare "reform," which isn't considered worth discussing even in most progressive media, the longevity rates of America's poor have actually fallen below that of some Third World countries. What chance do our disabled and elderly have?
I think we all know that the way to resolve the deficit is by ending the massive tax cuts for the rich, and for those corporations that have already used tax cuts to export hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deeply harming this country. What are the odds of that happening?

To start with. The last Democrat in office ended basic poverty relief for Americans (i.e., welfare), in spite of the fact that not everyone can work, and that this has never been a full-employment nation (made much worse by the massive exporting of American jobs since Reagan). People say, "No way would a Democratic prsident cut off Social Security," but until Clinton came along, most people believed that there was no way that America would turn its back on babies and children in deep poverty. Just as welfare was "reformed" by first reducing benefits (and, at that time, swearing that government had no intentions of ending welfare), Obama will begin "reforming" Social Security for the disabled and elderly. The "reforms" will continue until the program is wiped out. Think about it; today, the lion's share of taxes paid goes directly into only two things -- the military and handouts (tax cuts, etc.) to the rich. The rich are insatiable, and while our government has given more and more to them every year since the Reagan admin., they continue to howl for more. Well, if you want a lucrative job in government, you need the sort of campaign funding that only the super rich can provide, so you do what you need to do to keep them happy. People have been calling for an end to war(s) and handouts to the super-rich for decades now, with no results.

It's neither a matter of race nor gender, but class. Hillary Clinton, for example, was the leading proponent of welfare "reform."
Lysis - you hit thew nail on the head! This is what 99.9% of the progressives fail to realize - AMERICA IS NOT A DICTATORSHIP!
It is amazing to me that these super progressives don't realize that we have a representative government, of which there are 3 legislative branches and one Judiciary, the Supreme Court.
We have a Constitution and we have laws. Obama is stuck with it all. He cannot one day wake up and ipso facto fix everything - he has to work within the system, and the system we have, DEMOCRACY, does not lend itself well to DICTATORSHIP!
And all these progressives miss this when they yell at him!
So ok. He could have stood his ground, said no to the cuts, and there would have been a government shutdown. So who would that of benefited? Absolutely no one. If fact it would of hurt our economy terribly, put 1.0M people out of work, and maybe have sent us into another recession. So he compromised.
We would all LOVE that Obama could at a flick of his pen magically fix all our problems. But then, as you state, he would then be just another 2-bit dictator. Progressives seem to miss the fact that a Republican with the same power they wish Obama had, would wreck unimaginable havoc and disaster to America!
But this I have to state: Obama needs to put boxing gloves on and play the game he inherited a bit more aggressively! He is a bit too cerebral, a bit too willing to compromise and a bit too willing to play by the rules. The Republicans haven’t the former and certainly despise the second and they do NOT play by the rules!
Obama needs to stand his ground. If he does not, the Republicans will take him out to lunch. They are already doing it and they have pegged him – ask for the most outrageous and Obama will move to the Right and give it to them. This has to stop.
If Obama in his speech tonight states that he will try to “Fix” Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, etc, and he again tries to Compromise with the repugs, in 2012 I’m voting for my Pekinese!!
I am really sick of it all!

Thom
It would be good to begin pounding away at our country's "Empire" expenses. We are blowing billions overseas. The two wars, the troops and bases in many countries-why? The list is endless: you could list each day as a feature a few of these black holes in which we pour millions. For crying out loud, the HQ for the US Navy's 5th fleet is in Bahrain! Why do we have troops and bases in Germany. I've read that we have over 150 overseas military installations!
For instance, there is a false argument that we need to check the Chinese by stationing troops in Japan, Guam, Korea, etc.. Well, aren't the Chinese MORE compelled to contest us because we are in their back yard with American military presence? How would we feel if the Chines had 50,000 troops stationed in Cuba, Canada and Mexico?? Last summer we were running naval exercises and war games inthe Sea of Japan! How would we feel if the Chinese were doing the same in the Gulf of Mexico? Clearly, we are the aggressors in this situation. We should butt out.
And America wonders why the Iranians are so belligerent. Well, we are waging war in the two countries that border Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. (How would we feel if the Chinese were waging war in Canada and Mexico?) No wonder that regime is paranoid. I can't say anything good about the Iranian regime, but don'cha think that our presence actually makes the Iranian regime rule more harshly and gives them an excuse to do so because of the fear of the "Great Satan" on their borders?
There are billions to be saved by shrinking our military empire-and it would enhance our stature in the world and make us more secure if we used diplomacy instead of guns to represent our interests.

Listening to NPR's news this morning there was a repeating of one of the freshman House republicans expressing that there is more than enough collected in tax revenue to pay the interest on the debt. I found this to be quite intersting. As if that were the main goal of collecting taxes. Which led my to question who are the ones collecting on that interest. Is it ridiculas to wonder weather there are any strong ties to the top 1% Thom has been talking about. If they were fairly taxed it might actually go to paying off the actuall debt. Anybody out there have further insight on this one????
I saw the video in your tweet:
Training Tea Party Activists In Guerilla Internet Tactics - BUSTED!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGB8Uuffi4M&feature=player_embedded#at=60 ;The results of your poll suggest that these traitors have infected your site and are on the road to destroying the social media as any free and open community based on the HONEST exchange of ideas.Thom, loved the way you handled "Vaughn" on Tuesday.

Ladies and gentleman bend over and grab your ankles Obama has a plan!
Waiting to compare his budget to Paul Ryan’s right wing, crazy ass, plan leaves as they say, a lot of space in the middle, because the middle has been moved so far right you can’t see left from there.
If we progressives let him get away with this new betrayal, we deserve what we get. I have not seen the specifics but you just wait my friends we are going to get screwed, no candy, no flowers, no kiss.

Thom Hartmann continues to think that all that is needed is for everyone to read more anti-ruling-class literature at various web sites, etc. So what will that do except continue to enforce the reader's opinions or perhaps, depending on the true motives of those media, keep people convinced that they should be mad as hell but still vote for Democrats. When some Democrats turn out to be lying sacks of sh!t traitors to those who elected them in the first place, then it's time to send a really big message and vote Independent...in the very least...if not a violent revolution. No, don't vote for that A-hole twit, Trump, that gets off on firing people and made his reputation and persona on that draconian and machiavellian schtick...what a clown!
Jessie Ventura is looking, and sounding, like a really great possibility...but I wonder how well even Jessie Venture would hold true to his preelection convictions. I wonder what our constitution concerning elegibility for president (in re: dual citizenship..Jessie did say that he is considering dual citizenship with Mexico where he currently lives)...the Repubs would have a sh!t fit over that and continue to give comedians like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher more fodder for their audience's funny bones. I think that even the comedians like Maher and Stewart are acting like a kind of steam release valve that may even help keep the lid on and defuse outright revolution. They act as a kind of catharsis..a comic relief..so that we can continue along our not so merry way struggling for a better life while it all slides down the slippery slope into the sh!tter.
But since the rich have degradated the honor of the office of the POTUS by rigging the elections to put into office those circle-jerk dummies, including Obama, and criminalized not only our government in general, and the supreme count, congress, and the presidency specifically, some people (maybe a lot of people) may be thinking that only a violent revolution is the only answer.
So, I wonder just how Thom Hartmann, and some of those organizations, who pretend to be on the side of working and retired Americans, who say all kinds of things we want to hear....just how much are they really on our side? They are playing the money game as well...although I imagine Thom doesn't get the big bucks that someone like Sean Hannity, et al, gets. After all that Obama has done against those who voted for him, siding with the rich, it makes absolutely no sense to continue supporting Obama or any of the turncoat Democrats. It's the old bait-and-switch game. A game to keep people hopeful that change will occur. That's what the Democrat party has become....a smoke-and-mirrors, bait-and-switch illusion of democracy. There's no democracy here...it's an illusion. It's as corrupt as any third world country dictator, aping democratic elections which are obviously rigged, and proclaming that they are a democratic country. The rich are our dictators and they use a dangling puppet useful idiot in the guise of some pompous ass pretending to be honorable and fair while making backroom deals and using state of the art propaganda to keep us all from a raging rebellion.
Some people might look at history and see that it eventually took violent revolution to make things right. It's a struggle. And if you think that all it takes is to read more stuff, and get others to read it, and show up at meetings and get active....for what purpose to get more voters? We had more voters when we elected Obama and look what happened...and now Thom Hartmann is saying we should all work harder to get him reelected? How dumb is that? It is nice to hear most of what Thom, et al, says in support of the majority of Americans, the non-rich, but I cringe everytime he tends to indicate that reelecting Obama, or just the Democrat party is the answer. We did that with Obama already. Fool me once...but never again!

America’s China Bashing: A Compendium of Junk Economics
September 29, 2010
By Michael Hudson"...by the time you finish this article, you will understand more than 99% of U.S. economists and diplomats striking this self-righteous pose."
http://michael-hudson.com/2010/09/america%E2%80%99s-china-bashing-a-comp...

The President clearly described the progressive approach today. Before his speech, I wrote down what I wanted to hear. As he spoke I checked them off and ALL of them were there, even in the order I wrote them down. He expressed my vision and I think the vision of most Americans toward dealing with our fiscal problems.
Here's the sticky point, progressives. He can't do it alone! And he can't do it with us constantly second guessing everything he does. We have to rally (literally) popular support for the agenda he outlined, because the forces against us - the corporistas, banksters and soggy tea bags - have more money, more media, more power. They hold the House right now and thata's a huge obstacle.
If we don't get there, I'm not going to fault President Obama. It will be our own fault for not helping him fight for what we all believe in.

Would you please explain why social security is mis-named as a entitlement. I believe it has something to do with the resistance to re-pay the treasuries at their proper maturity date. That's the only reason one would call ss an expense.

Isn't it tragic? that this country needs RFA. Radio Free America, just like Radio Free Europe for the behind the Iron Curtain countries back in the cold war days.
Thom’s rant on April 11, 2011 was great. He needs to use the turn off or turn down volume for a questionable guest and his or her filibuster because such behavior is appropriate and necessary for Thom’s progressive listeners. Is Thom slowly becoming convinced that the United States of Mortal Sin does not have any future? Obama seems to continuously throw working Americans under the bus. Was Obama programmed to be president by our shadow government to any hope for working Americans future? The powers-that-be put up a lame fascist-Nazi ticket in McCain and Palin. Obama has $150 million in trust plus he and Michelle have fabulous retirement pensions to live very well. Is Obama a fascist-Nazi plant to destroy any hope for Americans and for America’s future?
Thom was on a roll and for good reasons on April 11, 2011. He does a good job of educating and informing us and he saw before his eyes the rigging of an election in Wisconsin for a judgeship. We are not a democracy!!! The fascist-Nazi Party plans to lower the tax bracket for the rich by 10 points and privatize Social Security because it is out of money. These Satan disciples have educated their minion disciples with nonsense. How will lower taxes for the rich and the elimination of Social Security lower our deficit? You add money to Social Security by increasing the ceiling for payment into Social Security from $108,000 to $200,000; you raise the taxes for the rich in graduated earning steps from 35% to 50% to 70% to 91%.; and you cut the fat out of pork programs. You enhance health care for all like Medicare; you raise wages and the minimum drastically; you increase Social Security and entitlement programs; and you stop policing the world with our American hypocrisy, such as we are going to war to stop wars and having our CIA entrenching dictators around the global. The Republicans will have their way because the Democrats are a stupid mass of amoebas.
There was an essay in the April, 2010 of Harper’s. The title was “The Vanishing Liberal: How the Left Learned to be Helpless” by Kevin Baker, pages 29-37. Here are some highlights from the essay – Democrats are reduced to a state of psychological helplessness; they are no longer able to overcome political obstacles; the progressives have rejected nations of destiny; they prefer the authority of experience to the claims of ideology; and for a generation or more liberalism became an almost perfect machine for the reformist impulse. When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, our democracy has ended forever.
Does Obama have what is needed in a leader?????
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110412/ap_on_re_us/us_spending_showdown_taxes
I shutter at the language but George Carlin answers the questions for our many problems succinctly!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q&feature=player_embedded#at=33