Why not one question about the Republican plans to voucherize Medicare & turn Social Security over to Wall Street?
By louisehartmann
There was a Republican rumble in Iowa last night – as Fox so-called News hosted eight Republican candidates for their very own debate which featured not even one single question about the Republican plans to voucherize Medicare, turn Social Security over to Wall Street, and end all support to college students. The debate was filled with heated exchanges mostly about fluff – a fight between Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty – and Newt Gingrich accusing the Fox News moderators of throwing “gotcha” questions at him.
It was a race to the bottom on taxes with Herman Cain pledging to cut the corporate tax rate to 25% - and then Rick Santorum immediately pledged to cut the corporate tax rate to zero. But the loudest applause of the night came when Ron Paul said we need to end our wars across the world and mind our own business with regard to Iran. To which Rick "don't Google my name" Santorum responded by saying if Iran gets a nuclear weapon – it would be the end of life as we know it.
Meanwhile – Mitt Romney played the role of the front-runner – stayed above the fray – refusing to engage anyone else on the stage – and instead focusing on Barack Obama the entire night. Although with Texas Governor Rick Perry likely jumping in the race tomorrow – Mitt may need to watch his back. Perry is a Texan – uses prayer as a policy tool – pollutes more than any other governor - and has executed more people than any other governor in modern history. Republicans may have just found their man.
Comments
#2
Dammit Thom, you just stole my line!
Unfettered growth is the definition of cancer.
It is good to use this line as a button to push when dealing with those who are delusional and believe that there are no such things as limits. "Earth First! We'll Strip Mine the Others Later!"
#3
Thanks for the recap. With all that's going on these days, I don't think I could stomach watching a corporate owned/operated debate.
#4
Tlhank you Louise, for making the show WAY more enjoyable w/o all the interrupting commercials!
#5
Thom One of the things I kept hearing over and over agin from those GOP candidates was the need for a strong leader.I am a grown man and can form my own thoughts and I don't need someone to hold my hand and tell me how and what I should think.I would like to tell these conservitive idiots they should pull there noses out of there fat CEO's asses and put them in some history books so they can read about some strong leader that have led there own followers to slauter!
#6
I don't like the GOP and I cannot lie.
They have castles and casinos on the sly.
They raised a different Lincoln,
with smokin', drugs and drinkin'-
Not caring if you live, or how you die.
XXXXX
#7
Here's a article about Mitt Rommey commenting that corporations are people : http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romney-says-corporations-are-people/2011/08/11/gIQABwZ38I_story.html
#8
Ron Paul Brilliant in Iowa Debate : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSMsecpsDnA
#9
"What would I have asked (during the debate)"... Why do each one of you talk out of both sides of your mouth depending on which self-indulgent side best fits your Republican religious worship of money.
#10
Court rules against Obama healthcare mandate..Unconstitutional to require all Americans to buy insurance or face penalty: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/appeals-court-rules-against-obama-healthcare-law-171829777.html Ron Paul Part Two Debate > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wItY1cDOqd4&feature=player_embedded#at=183
#11
Well, since outrageous slander, lies, inuendoes, and just plain bullshit, are rights that enjoy absolute constitutionallyprotection in these times when all of our other constitutional rights have disappeared courtesy of our fascist supreme court, here are the questions I would have asked the republican candidates:
1. Do you still beat your wife?
2. Are your children terrified of you when you are drunk or on drugs?
3. Do you still beat your dog?
4. Did they convict you when you stole $80,000 from your relatives?
5. Do you still deal drugs on the side?
6. Are you still a closet communist? I'm only asking because I've seen the photos of you having dinner parties with known communisists.
7. Would you like to talk about the five children you had with your mistress and girldfriends, and the abortions you made them get?
8. I understand you cheated your way through college and that your father had to donate $40,000 to the college in order for them to not kick you out. Would you like to admit it now, or wait until later, when the proof is made public?
9. Is it true that you get sexually excited when prisoners are executed and that you have an entire video library of executions?
10. Do you want to talk about the illegal immigrant women you have forced to have sex with you, in exchange for getting them green cards?
11. Were you ever convicted during the years when you supported your drug addiction by breaking into people's houses and stealing their belongings?
12. I understand that several farmers are suing you for sexually abusing their farm animals. Would you like to talk about that?
13. When were you planning on revealing the fact that you had a sex-change operation ten years ago?
14. I understand that one of your gay lovers is writing a book about his torid relationship with you. Would you like to comment on that?
15. Is it true that you got both your pastor's wife and his teenage daughter pregnant?
16. Would you care to comment on the fact that every year you take a sexual tourism trip to Thailand, and that your doctor says he has treated you for sexually-communicable diseases eighteen times? Isn't that some sort of record for a congressman?
18. You say that you are a Christian, and yet, in the last five months you have spent $18.296 on prostitutes. Is that ok with your wife?
#12
The answer to the question is simple. Fox network equals right wing propaganda. A debate seems more like a Hollywood game show. Avoid important questions, filter the truth and report lies, the people who depend on Fox are hypnotized and lack essential information for critical thinking.People have become lazy and do not want to invest time into checking things out for themselves. The Fox Network provides propaganda 24/7 molding opinion to fit corporate interests. I frequently see excerpts of personality after personality spieling the corporate right wing agenda instead of speaking truth. Their moto of " fair and balanced" is a pipe dream.
The other networks aren't much different. I remember when NBC refused to allow Dennis Kucinich an opportunity to debate during the last Presidential election thus eliminating his discourse and progressive ideas to be discussed. I am worried our voice is never heard. Why wasn't the progressive caucus allowed to communicate their Budget proposals? All we heard about was Paul Ryan's Plan and Obama's no plan, the other options are swept under the rug never to be heard or seen of again. It is really sad to see good feasible options available but instead we allow the race to the bottom.
Why isn't more being reported on the Rupert Murdoch investigation. Why isn't their outcry for the failure of Fox Network to serve the interest of the public. They have nothing but Hatred for Government and the American people.
#13
I'm an ex-fundamentalist right-winger and I've spent a lot of time inside the same mind-set as Perry, Palin, and Bachmann. I especially know how Perry thinks. I am very familiar with the preachers from the Colorado Springs churches that were around the disgraced Ted Haggard and who were instrumental in Perry's prayer effort in Texas. If you think Mormonism is wild, wait'll you see people who "bind the devil" and "bring down the Queen of Heaven over America": it's berserk. But Perry is especially strange and worrisomely charismatic. With the right-wing now out on the extremes, this guy could become powerful. He's already almost turned Texas into a banana republic. I call it "Republitopia." I used to live there. Perry reminds me of nothing so much as Elmer Gantry.
Is American fascism coming of age, wrapped in the flag and waving a Bible? I think so. If Perry makes it to the Oval Office, we are definitely, as Thom says, "screwed."
One other comment: Perry was a C and D student in college. Not a problem: many CEOs have pedigrees like that. But it begs the question: Is he ADHD? Or is there something else lurking behind his rise to Texas' longest-running governor? With Romney out saying "corporations are people" and this guy, we're headed into what may be the season of the witch.
#14
1.What was the real budget deficit that Bush left for Obama?
2.Please explain why trickle down economics has never worked in the past but will work now.
3.How could any Republican refuse to work with Obama to remove tax subsidies to companies exporting jobs overseas and give these same subsidies to American companies who hire new American workers?
4.What plan do Republicans have other than cutting corporate taxes that will create new jobs sufficient to lower unemployment by at least 2 percentage points?
5.When will Republicans learn from the past and understand that allowing corporate America to self regulate always produces catastrophe?
6.When do you plan to let the American people know that you intend to privitize Social Security, Medicare, education, prisons, the Post Office, etc?
7.Explain to the American people why your privitization plans won't reduce the number of jobs for them?
8.is it possible for Republicans to admit that what is good for Corporate America is not necessarily good for the American people.
9.Do Republicans really intend to force our children to support their parents in the future when Social Security and Medicare as we know them will no longer be there?
10.What are you going to tell the American people in 3 or 4 years after they have followed the advice of the federal government to go back to school to retrain and no jobs will be available when they do so?
#15
My first question would be about the first amendment : Do you have any knowledge regarding the history of intolerance and inquisitions, Renaissance Popes/ Vatican, St Bartholomew's. Day Massacre, Salem Witch Hunts, Church of England and the Puritans, etc. and if so why do you not believe in SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?......."Congress shall make no law respecting an establisment of religion".....
Is it appropriate for your party to prey upon and partner up with tax exempt religious right, faith based groups, and turn them into political organizations/ activists to be manipulated for voting purposes? ....Part of your GOD, GUNS, and GAYS agenda!
Do you really believe a non-evolutionary world started a few thousand years ago and why do you think every public school student should study this theory? Is your support of this just another tactic to mislead a particular group of vulnerable citizens into voting against their own best interests while behind their backs you laugh your ass off at them?
Why do you still think Americans can afford to pay health insurance CEO's hundreds of millions per year and why do you call Obama's Health Insurance Reform, Obama Health Care reform? The reform is about HOW WE PAY for the care we get .
#16
http://gowans.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/overthrow-inc-peter-ackerman%E2%8...
Read it all or at least skip down to the heading "Who Is Peter Ackerman?" and the Conclusion.
You want to know what is really happening with these so-called "Non-Violent Resistance" (NVR) movements....so-called regime changes...and who is behind them. Is it really that the people, all of a sudden, gets sparked and ticked off over being exploited by ruthless "dictators" without any help or intervention from the U.S.? Or...who ya gonna call...ghost busters....you call people like Peter Ackerman...founder of the Americans Elect group that may very well influence the outcome of the next President of the U.S. And he is not a liberal or a progressive but a very wealthy conservative who is sneaky enough to get people to believe he is progressive or liberal. And although most people would agree that they are not sorry to see such dictators fall and be put into cages, as is Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, one has to wonder to what extent the US is playing a regime change role in it all. And how much is that same group of covert operatives, using high and mighty sounding names like International Center For Non-Violent Conflict and posing as liberal or progressive organizations when they are actually working for the neoliberals and neocons in a New World Order, playing in the overthrow (or attempted overthrow) of other countries? Wow, what a gig!!...instead of wasting soldiers and money in weapons and destruction of property and people...and earning the hatred and distrust of their people....all they have to do is to foment and fund and instigate internal uprisings...gaining the praise of the people in the US(aren't we beneficent...you can love us now..we aren't killing anyone anymore)...and all the while overthrowing, controlling, and stealing the resources through their own fashioned neoliberal, but useful-idiot puppet governments that will end up starving the people even more than with the dictators. They were all our dictators once until they started playing hardball....time for overthrow!
But then we did this in 1953 in Iran with Mossadegh didn't we! And in 1973 Chile. And in the "people power" movement in the Philippines? And... And...
#17
#18
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren
Bernie and Betty, 2012
#19
Thom,
The dems need one narrative (see the Nation 5/24/2010 article called Needed: A Progressive Story by Amitai Etzioni) and message. You are the one who could write that clearly, present it at the Fightin' Bob Fest and get the dems to stay on message. It works for the GOP
#20
Better than Barney and Betty 1961. But I think no matter who is voted into the presidency...they will also be "abducted" by the same "aliens". Although, I do believe that both Bernie and Betty have the right attitudes and beliefs. Yes, I'd vote for them in an instant. But, like Obama, they would be fighting an overwhelming force. But we must keep trying.
#21
Rick Perry will pray us all into paradise. Ricky has enough pull with God to get you heathen liberals into heaven too. Ricky P for President for Life !!!
#22
It is incredibly unnerving to see a growing # of everyday people (such as Iowans) support these radical, dangerous clowns. Are we not at an all-time high in this country for misinformation disguised as fact, where most working people can't keep up and buy the FoxFacts?
Does anyone know of a progressive website *specifically* designed to debunk the BS? I don't mean all the great sites like Truthout, Alternet, Rawstory, etc, but a site that just lays out the nonpartisan facts, on key myths such as: 1) Only 50% of Americans pay taxes, 2) Is the middle class really shrinking, 3) What did the Founding Fathers have in mind in terms of people power vs corporate power (perhaps extracting points from Thom's books, as could be the case with many of these issues), 4) Healthcare stats in this country vs the world (US deaths, bankruptcies), 5) Red state reliance on federal support vs blue state), 5) global warming.
These are issues where Fox and company have twisted the logic to such absurd levels that the truth is reversed. I'm sort of adept at addressing these issues with Tea Partiers and other Righties, but I don't always have a quick link to share with people and don't have statistics memorized in the way that, for example Thom does. I wish there was a site (and there may be, or maybe I should create one), where these trigger, Koch Brothers twisted issues where addressed in a factual yet brief manner.
#23
afish: http://www.prwatch.org/
also, here's another site to get a better idea of the economy...
www.michael-hudson.com
http://www.wanttoknow.info/
And here is a web site that lists many progressive organizations.
Always beware of some organizations that sound progressive because they are just the opposite and are trying to trick progressives into supporting them...like Americans Elect. I've written a lot about this organization in past messages.
#24
Cost behind the privatization scam should be investigated. Not long ago received a letter from my former Congressman Rush Holt when I lived in New Jersey in response to the attempt of privatizing Social Security. His second to last paragraph was a topic of importance which is the first time I heard be addressed. The paragraph says:
“Privatizing Social Security is certainly not the answer. Any potential increases in yields from private accounts would almost certainly be wiped out by the rising dept burden heaped on the young from financing the transition, which could cost as much as $2 trillion in the first ten years. In the meantime, payroll taxes would have to increase or benefits would have to be cut in order to cover the shift of money into the private sector.”
I have never heard anyone in favor of privatizing government programs address the massive cost to us and the massive effort in the transition from public to private before.
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I'm afraid the next problem for the Obama administration is. Everything He has done has been stumped at every turn. We are faced with the multinational corporations who want to return their offshore assets untaxed. It's, like a gluttonous guy sitting on a pile of money crying for water. Bring me water! They are just not willing to get up off that pile of cash and help themselves. It is my hope that president Obama does not reverse tax law to accommodate them with out addressing the tax code that enabled them to amass these funds. If corporate taxes are to be lowered to 25% than all loopholes must be closed all corporations must contribute. If the Republicans were so in love with fostering the growth of small business they certainly would not have given so many outlandish tax cuts and loopholes for corporations to jump through. You just have to love Mitt Romney (well corporations are people) in bizarro world.