Republicans suddenly love tax increases...
By louisehartmann
Republicans hate tax increases... unless they're part of Paul Ryan's budget plan. The adoption of $600 billion in new revenue, fought for by President Obama and opposed by Congressional Republicans, is just one of the many surprises in Paul Ryan's new GOP budget. According to Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, new revenue generated from ending the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy is included in the GOP plan because Republicans lost on the tax issue. Despite their doomsday predictions that Obama's tax plan would crush so-called job-creators and harm the economy, Republicans are now happy to make them part of the Paul Ryan budget.
When Democrats projected $600 billion in savings from decreased war spending, Paul Ryan dismissed the idea as “phantom savings” - yet now he has those very same projections as part of his own budget proposal. Despite incorporating multiple Obama policies in their budget, don't think Republicans are giving up on their austerity measures just yet. In typical GOP fashion, Ryan's budget calls for huge cuts to vital social service programs, like food stamps, job training, Medicare, and Medicaid.
And just in case those cuts wouldn't be painful enough, Ryan's entire budget hinges on the repeal of Obamacare. Without defunding healthcare for millions of Americans, his numbers don't add up. Considering the fact that Obama has repeatedly said he would veto any attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and Democrats in the Senate would block any such legislation, we can only conclude that Paul Ryan knows his budget is doomed to fail.
It's clear that Republicans have no intention of working with the President to negotiate an honest, realistic budget plan. Ryan's budget is a farce, aimed at scoring political points with the tea party base, rather than helping the American people.
Comments
#2
You had a listener today who was complaining about his Social Security being cut because he was a retired federal employee. He can thank Saint Raygun for that. In 1984 I believe it was, he was complaining that federal employees get full Social Security and he proceeded to screw them even though they had their 40 quarters. At the same time he proceeded to screw federal employees who were employed after 1983 . These employees, upon retiring, only get a maximum of 1 percent of their salary. Employees hired before 1983 get a maximum of 2% their salary.
He really put the salami to federal employees.
I work with a lady whose husband is a retired railroad worker. He cannot get Social Security although I don't know if they paid into it or not.
I understand that Saint Raygun also screwed the military retirees out of Social Security. When I was in the Army during the Vietnam Era, I paid into Social Security. I guess this means that Saint Raygun put the screws to everyone.
Saint Raygun is also the one who imposed a Medicare tax on incomes, took away our deductions for sales taxes paid and credit card interest as well as limiting our deduction for medical care.
Saint Raygun was a real gem.
Yet, the neocons bow at the ankles daily when anyone even mentions the name. Why are republicans such bastards?
#3
Get Medicare out of politics, that's what I've been thinking. I'm so sick of hearing the same old trite sound-bite babble, "On-the-table; Off-the-table; Going tit's-up; Secure well into the future ...." -- round and round the same meaningless blather year after year, all predictable, meaningless and going nowhere.
David Goodhill in The Washington Post, "The High Cost of Medicare's Low Prices" acknowledges that Steven Brill's TIME cover Story, "Bitter Pill" is comprehensive and insightful. He also claims that while Medicare drives it's own covered costs down, Healthcare vendors simply game the system by either focusing on price (a few big-ticket items); or where prices are low, expanding Volume to maximize profits (and total Medicare expenses). While we are the healthiest generation in history, we pay a huge price for more and more procedures (real costs, including physical side-effects).
So, there are two sound-bite facts: Negotiated costs going down; total costs going up -- both true. And our political arena simply can't handle such apparent complexity. We need to somehow get such management analysis and decisions out of the political circus, and into some quiet process that is charged with responsible data-gathering, analysis and results-based management decisions -- perhaps, reporting somehow to responsible oversight.
I'm not sure the structure, nor how we might ever get there; but clearly anything more complex than scheduling recess-breaks seems beyond today's political processes. That's what I've been thinking.
#4
Two things Republicans believe in:
Unfair wealth distribution, and hypocrisy.
#5
Since Reagan, budgets have mainly been used to facilitate the upward redistribution of wealth. What the rich are doing to the middle class is simply what the middle class already did to the poor. When the Great Society (welfare) was wiped out, who didn't know that the New Deal (Social Security) would be next? Each time the richest few gained too much power over our politics/policies in the past, the poor and middle class united to push back, to the benefit of both. This generation almost pushed back with Occupy. Occupy began as a powerful peoples' movement that had the potential to actually change the course we're on, which made the right wing very nervous. But it was quickly redefined -- largely by media marketed to liberals and progressives --as being all about, only about, mddle class workers, the better-off. The rest of us walked away, and Occupy fizzled out. Any resistence to the right wing agenda was effectively divided and conquered.
#6
Democrats believe in the same things as Republicans.We have maybe 7 jobs for every 10 people who need one. It was a Democrat, Clinton, who cut the lifeline for those pushed out of our job market. Dems embraced Clinton's welfare "reform," which violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that says a lot about today's Dems. Liberal media calls for economic justice, but ONLY for middle class workers, which negates the very concept of "economic justice." The US job market is like a giant game of musical chairs. Each time the music stops, more people are permanently pushed out of the economy. Reality: Not everyone can work, and there simply are not jobs for all who need one.There can be no economic justice when there is no poverty relief for those pushed out. Even though Democrats have done virtually nothing to protect the jobs/unions that created the massive middle class that we once had, and even though they cut the rungs off of the ladder out of poverty (yep, welfare played a powerful role in growing and strengthening the middle class), they take it for granted that the non-rich will support them. Note that after Clinton took an ax to the safety net, we ended up with Bush.
#7
HEY KEN WARE...Check out post 66 from just this past Friday. I'm interested to hear your answers to my direct questions...Of course I'll be expecting your comentary, but I am more interested to hear your answers.
namsté
#8
JohnBest Wrote: "Why are republicans such bastards?"
Because money is the root of all evil. Republicans worship money.
#9
For starters 8 out of 10 citizens oppose cutting Medicare and Medicaid. So as usual Ryan's plan has nothing to do with representation of the will of most people. This even includes those, who because of some bizarre impulse, voted for him.
Ryan's role as the House Budget Chairman reminds me of one of those clowns who has himself videotaped in the act of some outlandish stunt, usually self injurious. It's kind of like the stunt where someone stands waiting for a basketball to be whipped into their junk area. Next thing you know the poor guy is bent over and breathless holding his mid-section. Funny thing is, he still has that grin and is quite pleased with all the attention his Tea Party gets and likewise they're quite pleased with his repetitive idiocy on their behalf.
So once again Ryan will stand there and take a hit and the House Teapublicans will bend over breathless for the billionaires with synchronized voting on the budget plan. This will also once again afford us all with the opportunity to spread the word that the Teapublicans voted yes on legislation virtually 80% of us oppose.
Will this also mean that come 2014 the Republicans get no more than 20% of the vote?
#10
Reply to #9
DAnneMarc: Republicans also worship those who "have" most of the money.
#11
2950-10K Wrote: "DAnneMarc: Republicans also worship those who "have" most of the money."
...as most Demons worship Satan. Metaphor, parallel, or the same thing by another name? You decide! To me, Greed and Evil are the same thing. If you try to separate the two you find you can't have one without the other.
#12
Reply to 2950-10K (= -7050) Post #10
Great "Watch this" analogy.
I'd thought it was just adolescent teen boys that did that; but well ... 'splains a lot.
#13
Maybe I'd have just a wee bit of respect for Paul Ryan if he had the guts to just say, "I want to get the government OUT of providing health insurance for our citizens." Instead, he looks into the camera with that sincere, puppy-dog expression, and says, "Health insurance vouchers are GOOD for you !" Do Republicans, in their heart of hearts, really think we're that stupid....or trusting....or naive ?
#14
The Republicans want one thing, and one thing only: to split the Democratic Party into pieces. They want Obama to give them something, anything they can use to create dishonest attack ads. This stunt by Paul Ryan is a perfect example of that. He puts it forward knowing it would never be passed. This is not a good faith effort at negotiation. It's a publicity stunt. This is not "serious," because he does not care if it passes. Everything the Republicans do is theater for the television cameras. Paul Ryan threw this out right before CPAC so that the television talking heads would have something "serious" (lol) to discuss when they interview young Republicans who know nothing about economics. Let's all watch and see if the t.v. talking heads choose to discuss this dead-end instead of discussing the fact that Republicans are responsible for cuts to unemployment, meals on wheels, and a multitude of essential services to the needy.
The blessing in all this is that America's very active senior citizens have already pegged Paul Ryan and they despise him. It's amazing that the Republican Party is putting this forward with a straight face. I guess they don't want to put forward anyone who might actually run for office in the next few years. His role is to distract America away from the truth. I just wish that Democrats weren't dancing to the Republicans tune. You do not have to respond to every Republican stunt, Democrats. Use your time on the airways to educate and inform.
#15
MMmmNACHOS in #8 asks KEN:
Who was "the U.S.'s" enemy during Viet Nam, Korea, WW II...Who was threatining us as a soverning nation? What were you - a U.S. AirForce Pilot defending? What were you fighting for? And if we did have a legit "enemy" why does our U.S. government have to lie in order to gain and maintain support for war?
It's a critical question, as explanation for what's going on in the US these days (several decades leading to now). I offer several comments.
1. Those past wars all have one thing in common: Battles over who is to be top-dog in the Southeast-Asia/Pacific Economic Trade Area. China, Japan, the USA, or other indiginious smaller powers? It's my firm belief that all wars are economic, generally using religion to either divide the natives, or rally the grunts into fighting for the ruling (financial) power-elite's interests.
2. In recent decades (since WW-II, accelerating lately), we've seen the expansion of "Supra-National Ccnglomerates" that transend any Nations -- that feed on and from nations that they control, while expanding control into others. Actually, predicessor groups go back before colonial times (Hudson Bay Company), however these tended to have European National Identities as they expanded their Nationalist Colonial Empires. Today's Neo-Supra-Nationals, have no such National attachment or allegiances
3. By the 70s US Labor had priced itself out of the world marketplace. We were okay within our own market-area. With our industry, we were productive; but as other cheap-labor countries developed high-skills, US Labor simply could not justify 20:1 pay diferentials in international markets. So, it's been decided to dumb-down the US population, breed them as consumers, and by selling them trinkets, loot their inherited common wealth -- which is well under way.
4. The US, has now become no more than a colony, whose resources (military, financial, industrial, financial and military) are to be looted and used in the furtherance of these Supra-National (offshore) Consortiums. Witness the Cheney/Bush Administration with the Carlyle Group, Halburton, Saudis, etc, etc, -- following PNAC-like {Project for a New American Century} Plans for Global Empire, basd in and out-of the Middle-East.
5. "Our" military hasn't defended "our" Freedom and Democracy from enemies foreign or DOMESTIC for decades. Where were they when we needed them (Corruption in high-places; WTC attack; and Our borders leak like sieves)? They were out supporting unimagenably-rich Individuals, Families and Corporate-interests, and colonializing the world -- for WHO? {See #2 above}.
MMmmNACHO the pieces are all there; the parts to the puzzle fit and make an almost complete picture. It's an old-old story, transforming itself into tommorow's new form. What difference does it make? Well, it helps to at least understand what's happening -- to avoid wasting energy and effort.
#16
Most economists agree that austerity programs are a failure to economic growth. But spending, like the program President Eisenhower used to rebuild our infrastructure, the building the Interstate road system, building schools, is the proven path to prosperity. We know in fact that spending works and there has never been a country in the history of the world that used austerity measures as a path to prosperity. These Republican leaders like Paul Ryan have to know that their measures will not work and therefore they fall into the category of being cruel. If the Republican leaders genuinely believe that their austerity program is good for the country then, to use President Eisenhower’s phrase in his letter to his brother Edgar, “they are stupid”.
#17
Morning SHFabian, what ended the Occupy movement is that they never came to gether, got a platform and ran with it. Each group just did what they wanted and it never made any sense. The media did call them on that, and they never changed. Yes the Right was upset so much that they did they swiftboat act on them
#18
Listen, the teapublicans have either sold their soles to the wealthy/corporations and are afraid to cross them in fear of losing their job in 2014, or they are just very dumb people, that can not see what their party has done to cause the mess that they put the USA in. They obviously do not know and understand anything about the Great Depression and what caused that. FDR and his very mixed congress knew that Capitalism was the best tool that the USA had, but they also knew that it could no longer be left unchecked, because greed would once again be our down fall. So they struck up 5 regulations that would keep the Nations homesteads safe, (1. heating fuel, 2. electricity, 3. telephone, 4. gasoline, 5.banking) for the next 48 years the USA built a strong middle class to go with the strong upper class and we became the strongest nation in the world.
Starting in1982 with huge loophole/tax breaks for the wealthy/corporations, the downward spiral for the middle class and the Nation begain. In 1984 they de-regulated/broke up AT&T giving the right to the wealthy to put a name on a building, call it a teleco and start selling telephone numbers(which the real teleco had to service, maintain, update, while giving a 35% discount on each line stolen). This worked out so good for the wealthy that they did the same thing to the Electric CO. , do you remember Enron? Then they added our heating fuel, gasoline and banking to the mix and the screwing of the citizens of the USA was complete.
The first manufacturing factories began moving to other countries in 1982 taking millions of middle class jobs and millions of minimum wage jobs. This caused the lose of the middle class tax base, and forced millions of families on to welfare. Now since the upper class tax base disappeared with the giving of the loop holes& tax welfare, we the USA was left with a very small tax base, so small that it force congress to borrow the money to pay it's bills each year. You can thank RREAGAN, GHWBUSH, WM.ClLINTON, and GW BUSH for this no one else, except those elected into congress that can not seem to admit or are just not able to understand that this has caused all of the mess that the USA is in.
Our President has it right, the only way out for the USA is to eliminate all loop holes, all pork barrel spending, place all regulations back where they belong, fine every off shore account, not allow any off shore US Company to bring their products back into the our country, then spend to create jobs, rebuild our bridges, roads, ETC. in the USA. Then cut wasteful spending in our budget. This approach will give us the road back to the top, with a strong upper & middle class tax base, less families on welfare, and no more borrowing money. Hankk
#19
Your on the right track HANKK MI. However just to clarify...Congress won't change until you abolish corporate personhood and get the money out of Washington/politics.
#20
Thank you HALFONTS, for taking a moment to share your insight regarding the questions that I posed. Seeing as KEN WARE never replys to the post I direct to him - I find several people ignor me when I try to engage them in discussion and debate - I do appreciate you for doing so.
I completely agree with everything you laid out; especially your first point about control over S.E. Asia/Pacific economic trade. And yes it is all economic. The only war - in my opinion that the U.S. ever fought that wasn't completely motivated by "economics" - and I argue with myself on this - was the Revolutionary War. At least that war had some merit regarding Independence, and Liberty, as a soverning nation though our individual liberties were quickly diminished by the big bank take over, even though Jefferson and Jackson both - in their time - warned of such foolishness.
On a side note; I often times wonder if the woes we suffer by is Karma for the way we stole this land and treated the locals. And now we are branching out doing the same thing around the world. The United States isn't really all that great when you stop denying the truth.
In your opinion HALFONTS - AND ANYONE ELSE THAT CARES TO CHIME IN - will we (society) ever learn that violence begets violence, war begets war, and economics is the root of our demise? I think we both agree that we all are forced to do things we do not truely agree with. Things that we teach our children not to do, but eventually in order to survive...Yet it's a double edge sword.
The late George Carlin's entire premiss for his "act" focused around entropy...Though he was a genous at comedy, what he was puting in our face regarding our greedy ways and all the nonsense we do to gain more was very true and sad.
#21
MMmmNachos and HalFonts ~ Your theories and concerns are well spoken. I would like to chime in. Unfortunately, I have an errand to run right now. Check back here later tonight for my opinion.
#22
Reply to # 13
HalFonts: I guess 2950-10K could equal -7050. But actually it's just a track time I was proud of hitting while still a teen. I was 19, it was a good field, a 10Km track race, I finished 6th. in 29:50. So 29:50 10K in my world equals 4:48 per mile. 10km works out to 6.25 miles or 25 laps. That was back in 78. I can still break 6:00 for the mile but it's getting harder every year!
While on the subject of numbers, I often wonder about the significance of "Palindromedary." To me it recalls a palindromic sum like 4114. Come on Palindromedary, give us a hint!
#23
2950-10K~ Palindromedary is a mythological animal, a camel, with a head on both ends. It is troubled by the arrows of indecision.
MMmmNachos ~ I believe as far as the economy is concerned that the Law of Entropy will prevail. How so? I don't know.
HalFonts ~ Your points are well taken. You fail to recommend a solution for the 20/1 pay ratio problem. This is my solution. A cultural upgrade. China's big advantage over the US is culture. Culture is the total life ways of a people. China's culture has developed over thousands of years. A two hundred year old infant culture will never be able to compete. We must upgrade our culture.
Since the Chinese are invading our borders, buying our real estate, and eventually setting up businesses here to be operated by their own people we may be missing a golden opportunity. If we were to "rip-off" the Chinese culture the same way the Corporations are "ripping-off" our combined wealth we stand to be the winners.
An advanced culture such as the Chinese posses is priceless. Their diet alone would resolve many of our woes. Not only is it very healthy and capable of drastically reducing our unnecessary medical expenses; but, it is also very cheap. The average Chinese family feeds itself for a few Dollars a week. The Chinese religion combines business and exercise in its practice. It combines body and spirit improvement and expresses itself in business. If we were to embrace this culture we could make our own society far more efficient, healthy, prosperous, and competitive on the world scene.
Just a suggestion! Peace!
#24
It sounds like your are in agreement with Alan Greenspan's statement that Clinton was the best republican president that Alan knew.
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Right on Thom.. And why is it Ryan's budget? Shouldn't it be our budget, these fuks need a course on getting something accomplished.