GOP Makes America Cruel Again
By Thom Hartmann A...
Donald Trump has officially unveiled his first budget plan.
He's calling it the "America First" budget - but a better name for would probably be "Oligarchs First" - because they're the only people who get anything out of it.
The rest of America gets hit hard - and I mean really hard.
At the same time as it ramps up defense spending by a whopping $54 billion and calls for over $2 billion to build a border wall - Trump's budget also calls for brutal cuts to every other part of the government.
Especially ones that help the poor.
This isn't about money - it's about ideology - and a sick and brutal one at that.
Comments
#2
Make the rich richer, and the poor...dead.
#3
Republicans call themselves Christians?
#4
Repubs want a return to feudalism.
Company president is the king.
Management are the knights.
Workers are the peons.
ct
#5
Everyone says "Get out the vote." as though voting one way or another really matters. With the current 'hacking' technology as it is, THEY can and do make the (Diebold )voting machines say anything they want. That said, the only way I can see us poor folk making a difference without violence is to write all congressmen repeatedly to express our outrage. However, a problem with that approach is our lack of drive or our zeal to stand up. It looks like THEIR long term plan to dumb us down with the floride we've been ingesting and all these other chemicals THEY have been spraying for many years that we've been inhaling has worked, just as it did for Hitler.
#6
You spelled it wrong. Ever since Regan, it's been spelled "pee-ons".
#7
Heritage Foundation Blueprint for America - presented by D.J.Trump
#8
I agree with Thom. It shouldn't be about big or small government, it should be about effective government. Government should be for all the people, not just the rich. Why do we need increased defense spending? Trump's budget is a disgrace.
#9
I wonder if possibly, just POSSIBLY, his adoring followers will look at this and realize he DOES NOT have their best interests at heart and that they've been conned. Somehow, I doubt it. I see many of them being interviewed and they nearly go into a swoon when they speak of him and what a great president he is going to be -- and they wouldn't change their vote to save their soul.
And that soul just might be in jeopardy when they learn that many people close to them -- seniors who depend on Meals on Wheels for survival and children whose free lunch at school might be the only meal they have each day -- are going to be devastated by his ruthless budget cuts. But I'm sure their "big, beautiful wall" will be reward enough for them . . . and, of course, their wealthy friends will get their taxes cut.
#10
AND: He didn't wear GREEN today.... Us Irish immigrants are next!
#11
This means government contracts for Bechtel, Raytheon, Krupp Steel, and General Dynamics aka The Carlyle Group. There will be no competitive bidding because no one else has an insurance fund like Aetna behind them to post the bond which will be required. Trump will stamp around and pretend like he's making contractors do things for less. But I say the guys who stand to profit the most are the ones who put him in place. The inside track has always been maintained by shills for corrupt government insiders who, as Stephen Bechtel so blatantly commanded, are not answerable to the American people. Government contractors aren't accountabe to anyone. So why is this any different than what has gone before? Shouldn't we expect "The Wall" to become another Credit Mobilier? Won't we be too busy with war to audit the books?
#12
"May the Devil cut the toes off our foes, that we may know them by their limping."
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
(My Great Grandfather escaped the famine and finally made it to America as a refugee on a "coffin ship." That was before Daddy Drumpf immigrated -- after he got kicked out of Germany for not paying taxes.)
#13
Some time ago I saw a report of the the Inspector General evaluating th DOD buddget and he reported that there is at least 40% of it being wasted. 10% of that waste would pay for all 19 of the suggested changes Trump is wanting to remove from the 2018 budget! Jus5t closing or sellingof 50% of the bases we are maintaining ouitside the U.S. would take care of most of our 19 items he want to delete. Ans probably make us all safer!
#14
While she lives in NYC, Melania Trump's security costs the taxpayer around 300 million per year, and her old fart husband has the gall to cut Meals on Wheels!
This country is has turned into an absolute embarrassment. Comey still has his job and Putin remains an extremely dangerous expansionist dictator.
#15
Fifty-four billion dollars for a military that does not need it and he is taking this money from essential agencies. It appears that Trump is building a military for a war. Who is he going to attack? An attack on North Korea means the death of tens of thousands of South Koreans.
#16
For some time now Europeans have thought Americans might be nuts
It is now confirmed
Sadly!
#17
Stop theft and deception by banksters
Create a "green back" dollar note as currency and watch what happens
Criminalise, banish and ostracise fractional reserve banking because that money of the depositor is loaned over and over and over without consent
Those historical figures that fought banksters with testicular fortitude were assassinated
Why do things not change???
#18
A fascinating fleshing out of the Lee Atwater speech:
http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/03/lee-atwater-lyndon-johnson-sam-ra...
#19
Apparently their old symbolic patriarch Reagan was spot on when he said that "government is the problem." We are like a car (current president) stuck in the snow slamming the gears back and forth (every 4 years) between forward (Democrats) and reverse (Republicans). Priorities always flip ,never leaving anything meaningful behind to build on.
#20
Olddskold. You might be right the Irish have been known to blown up incident people as well. Only banning brown people who blow others up is racist. As far as I know the Irish have only blown up incident people in the U.K. So I am pretty sure you will be just fine.
#21
Kend, that comment is incredibly offensive, bigoted, and ignorant!
I suggest you study Ireland's long, sad history, especially some of the many books by Tim Pat Coogan, one of the most prolific and objective scholars of Ireland's modern historical period and her monumental struggle for independence against terrible odds and widespread oppression. I guarantee that your eyes will be opened wide!
While no one, of course, defends any act of terrorism, the real story runs much deeper than the shallow, one-sided accounts that the uninformed use to tarnish a whole ethnic group of people. Protestant paramilitary units in Northern Ireland under the auspices of the British government -- indeed, even British regular troops ostensibly deployed to keep the peace -- committed many more acts of terrorism and horrible atrocities against defenseless, downtrodden civilians than the military arm of the IRA, which finally rose up in response and, unfortunately, retaliated in kind, for which their rank and file soldiers paid a very high price, way out of proportion to their British and Protestant counterparts.
Please educate yourself before you spout off.
#22
Whenever it seems that our system of government is beyond repair -- now more than ever -- a modicum of inspiration, at least, can be had by remembering the words of the remarkable individuals who have stood out as true champions of the people, words that really mean something, that point the way to a better world.
The late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota was such a person, one of our nation's greatest progressives. He died as he lived: Rather than attend a high-profile political rally and fundraiser that was sure to enhance his career, a selfless conscience dictated that it was more important to take time out of an insanely busy schedule, during an incredibly high-stakes political situation, to attend the funeral of a common man, a steelworker who was the father of a dear friend. His plane crashed en route, killing all aboard, including his wife and daughter, his driver and friend, and two close advisors.
Fortunately, this scholar and statesman who spoke from the heart left us with a large body of wisdom that our present representatives would do well to heed, especially in this age of a wayward public and personal morality that is consuming politicians more beholden to big money interests than to the people who elected them.
Although there are many pearls from which to choose, the following quote, simple yet deeply insightful, seems to encapsulate perhaps the best response to Trump and the Republicans' latest self-serving, stingy budget proposals that seek to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted (apologies to Finley Peter Dunne):
"We all do better when we all do better." -- Paul Wellstone
#23
I marvel at the hypocrisy of selectively condemning or endorsing religious violence. In Mr. Ed's case a very timely one.
A quote worth noting,
“It’s only when you see a mosquito landing on your testicles that you realize that there is
always a way to solve problems without using violence. "
#24
Note to middle class: Rest assured that the cruelty never stopped. The Clinton administration ended actual welfare aid and took the first steps to similarly "reform" Social Security, targeting the disabled. Years later, Obama was able to get benefits were restored to the disabled, but the cuts soon enough resumed. In 2015 alone, Congress (Dems included) voted to virtually end food stamps to the elderly poor and the disabled (cut from roughly $115 per month, down to $10). Twenty years of public/media disinterest in US poverty ensures that things will only worsen.
#25
Deepspace I was just trying to show how ridiculous the comment was about banning the Irish. The Irish are no threat to the US so no problem with them getting into the US. On the other hand there are many countries that have many people who are a threat to US citizens and they should be banned from entering for security reasons. Yes I know it's not fair to the majority of them that are good but. If I gave you a bowl of jelly beans and told you a few where poison would you eat any of them? Of course not. Why take the chance. Safety of Americans is the Presidents number one priority. Finally a leader that puts his nation first. What a refreshing change. security before political gain.
#26
Too bad that the Meals on Wheels recipients are not part of that. By far more Americans will die due to lack of healthcare than by the hand of Muslim terrorists. So say again that the safety of Americans is the Presidents number one priority.
#27
Long before the 2016 Electoral Carnival and the Great Carnie Match between Dweedle Dumb and Dweedle Dumber (choose which is which) we knew all of that "wig glue" had pickled his blessed and privileged 1% greed infected brain. I hope we can all agree that the Corporate DLC New Democrats are directly and solely responsible for the installation of one DJT as Commodore-In-Chief of the Wall Street Owned American Empire. The country I grew up in during the 1950s and 60s no longer exist. No not the time thing but our Constitution has been shredded and the buying and dismantling of our American Government is proceeding full speed ahead all thanks to that Reagan Wannabe William Jefferson Clinton and his DLC Mega Bucks Backers. Donald J Trump is the symptom of the corrupt politics that now controls this nation. Any rational observer of American Politics has to come to the indisputable conclusion that we are no longer a nation that operates on The Rule Of Law and its Constitutional Basis. We now live under the Constitution Of The United Corporations Of America which is none other than the Patriot Act and SCOTUS decision affirming it as such. Anyone who does not think that DJT was inevitable needs to remove the Media Scales from their eyes. If one thinks that The Clintons would have been any better they must disabuse themselves of the belief that the New Democrat Party is not just as corrupt as the other wing of our Wall Street Owned One Party System (WOOPS)! In short America deserves politicians like DJT and the Clintons. We just have to tell ourselves that the Orangutang is just a transient manifestation in our collective nightmare. Put aside all of the false hype of The Russians Are Coming and at his core DJT is just a stereotypical poster boy for the Republican Wing of WOOPS and their blind allegiance to a twisted ghost of Ronald Reagan conjured through their Weird Washington Ouija Board. See the Nazis And Mysticism For The Empire. I am just going to set back and watch the new season of The American Empire Is Imploding. I am a native Texan and I have lived under the already tried and failed Libertarian Model Of Government for a couple of decades now. Almost everything being broadcast in the reality TV program "Mr. Orangutang Goes To Washington, the Continuing Ronald Reagan Redux Of Dialing Dollars For The .005%, we have seen on a smaller scale. Our latest Clown-In-Chief is only a reality TV star and a Billionaire Wanna Be who is in the Oval Office to enrich himself and his 1% buddies. Hopefully since our problems started under another TV star it will fall apart and end under the current TV star!
My hope is that DJT will be a such a disaster that the American People will wake up to what is really happening to us and send both wings and The One Party System to the dustbins of history. Yes I know people will suffer and I will be one of them. I am 68 and a totally and permanently disabled veteran who is fighting tooth and nail to get medical care. The Medicare system is so corrupt that insurance companies can openly deny one coverage, refuse to provide coverage for months and place one in programs that one did not sign up for but are the most profitable form of coverage for the Medicare advantage insurance company. The VA has become so anti-veteran that their highest level of care is now "Benign Neglect". The One Party system is so addicted to the Wall Street Opiate Of Money (the most destructive drug problem in America) that like every junkie I have encountered they constantly scheme, steal and manipulate to get their next fix. See 99% Of Elected Washington Politicians.
Our goal should be to find a real revolutionary leader to back in 2020 who is not a Washington Politician - no matter the good intentions of an elected official once there it appears that a fatal political virus infects everyone and they become just a token of opposition without a cure for what they have become. Let us remember that DJT is just a temporary bout of stomach flu and diarrhea and we will recover if we quit eating at the fast food places of Main Stream Media and bring about a real Political Revolution!
DJT no different than the other political buffoons we have had in the Oval Office since Richard Nixon forward! So relax and throw burning bags of bully poo into his gilded primate cage as he plays the political game of Musical Chairs at 1600 Pilfer And Pillage Avenue.
#28
I understand where you are coming from with your point of view. May I suggest a little research into the "terrorist problem" America is suffering from. Since 911 the total number of Americans who have been killed by both foreign and domestic terrorist is slightly less than 4,700 and that includes the 3,000, more or less, who died on 911. America does not have a fatal terorist problem only a media hyped one. Americans have a much greater chance of dying from a hospital acquired infection and/or medical mistakes. Since 911 approximately 1,600,000 Americans have died from the care or lack of care received in a hospital. Perhaps we should unwind the current Maniquin of Fear and replace it with a doctor with a surgical mask. A much more lethal figure than any terrorist Americans might encounter. Of course The Mainstream Media as the propaganda arm of the Wall Street Owned Federal Government want us TO BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID! If you think you are safe consider this fact: Accidents in the home are almost as lethal as hospital stays. Plus simply running errands in your car or going to work kills approximately 10 times as many Americans each year than those killed by terrorist since 911. Be alert my friend but please don't be afraid. Tyranny can only thrive and prey upon a fearful people.
#29
For the record, I do NOT endorse violence of any kind, nor have I ever!
Dianereynolds (#23) mischaracterized my reply to Kend (#21) by directly accusing me of "... selectively ... endorsing religious violence."
One can only assume that she deliberately lied, since I clearly stated that "...no one, of course, defends any act of violence..." It was equally clear that I think it was "unfortunate" when the IRA rose up in response and retaliated in kind to British and protestant violence.
History is history. The telling of it should be as accurate as possible. Though we disagree on just about everything, I like Kend's posts because they seem sincere; nevertheless, he should still be admonished after publishing such a one-sided slant on the very complicated Irish struggle for independence from England's brutal, centuries-long occupation, where both sides suffered greatly and the country was ultimately split in two.
I appreciate Kend's further clarification and apologize for my original, harsh-sounding retort; still, the overall points remain. (BTW, jellybeans are not people. That was a widely panned analogy made famous by, I believe, Trump's son-in-law.)
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair (among so many others) deserve a lot of credit for finally acknowledging the difficult history and brokering a lasting peace. In Northern Ireland today, although feelings still run deep and unease unfortunately exists, civil rights and political representation for Catholic and Irish minorities are largely accepted as the norm, while the people, especially the young, are slowly coming together as a cohesive society. Religion obviously played a large role in the UNFORTUNATE violence, but it was primarily a civil-rights struggle.
In fact, the U.S. today could learn a few things from the Irish about how people of different faiths (e.g., radical Christians and Muslims) can bury the hatchet and come together as one people. Trump and his trolls who repeatedly lie and misconstrue other's words are doing everyone a great disservice.
While it's certainly okay to have different political viewpoints and engage in heated discussions (that's democracy in action), it is NOT okay to deliberately lie. Please stop!
#30
Legend and General Detergent: excellent points all, especially about hyping up the fear of death at the hands of terrorists while ignoring the many more deaths from the lack of adequate medical care. Well said!
#31
Legend
"Too bad that the Meals on Wheels recipients are not part of that. By far more Americans will die due to lack of healthcare than by the hand of Muslim terrorists. So say again that the safety of Americans is the Presidents number one priority."
Calm down buttercup.
Aren't you the one telling everyone to leave the country for medical care? No worries about US doctors or hospitals killing us so lets move on to other threats.
The meals on wheels program gets only 3% of it's total funding from government grants. I will let you research the accuracy of that assumptive statement from me.
BTW. Love your post Kend. The country has been divided by the democrat party who segments any group they can find in a futile plea for votes that once garnered are forgotten by supporting a candidate like Hillary Clinton who got soundly thrashed by the worst example the republicans could put up.
#32
"...lie-la-lie, lie-la-lie, la-la-lie, lie-la-lie, lie lie lie, la-la-la-lie..."
"...only 3% ...assumptive statement..." Although that is statistically correct, an implication of insignificance doesn't reflect the real-life significance of this particular part of the budget cut to those in dire need: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/16/politics/meals-on-wheels-trump-budget-blueprint/
No one is saying that "...US doctors or hospitals [are] killing us..." It's unaffordable insurance for healthcare that is killing us.
Trump has continually divided the country by every ethnicity imaginable to score points with his racist base from the time he first announced his bid to run for office. Oh, but "The country has been divided by the democrat [sic] party..." Of COOOURSE!!
BTW, there is no such thing as the "democrat" party; it is the "Democratic" Party, one of the longest surviving political parties in history.
"...Hillary Clinton who got soundly thrashed by the worst example the republicans could put up."
The first part of that quote is factually false; Hillary is the one who soundly thrashed the Liar in Chief by three million voters -- millions more, if factoring all the Democrats illegally purged from the rolls by the Republican Interstate Crosscheck scam (which, had they been counted in the key states with razor thin margins, would have denied him the out-dated Electoral College by huge margins as well).
The second part is all too true; this low-intelligent, sexual pervert and abuser is very much "the worst example the republicans could put up." Yet, 62 million right-wing, bottom-feeding suckers believed his lies, and the totally corrupted Republicon Party backs him up! That says everything that anyone needs to know for the next election.
"...lie-la-lie, lie-lie-lie, la-la-la, lie-lie-lie, la-lie,lie,lie..."
Please stop!
#33
The problem in the US is that the corporations implanted in our mind through relentless brainwashing propaganda (ads and paid 'news' and 'experts') that an universal health care system is 'un-American' and 'socialism'.
Well, all this talk of freedom of choice is all about how the bottomless, greedy corporations can rip our all precious country off to their most convenient way and not choice for us.
The corps adapted their mindset to us by seeing us people as the biggest liability. How dare we're getting sick and cost the government so much in healthcare?
The idea behind most insurances is that many share a financial burden for saving SOME who pay into it for the case of an emergency. Inmost cases the insurances can make more money then which is needed for those who require aid from it.
But health insurance is unique as we ALL don't get younger and require health coverage at SOME point. That's why corporations hate health insurance until they can skim off our all tax money for dictating us prices from meds to equipment and making THEM the parasites of the US health care system and those who don't contribute to it by paying their share for the common good.
In Germany a health insurance is mandatory as a car insurance is in the US. But we have the pyramid up-side-down in the US as the filthy rich here don't want to pay their part to make America inspirational again by good example. We fought communism and socialism for decades and didn't realized how we embraced the asocial, inhumane side of unrestricted, total war from the corporations against our country in the name of bottomless, self-fueling addiction of greed above everything. Against its own population and even its precious environment and int he process on the rest of the world which suffers from the same issues.
We need to fix those issues together and not just put restrictions back in place but also revoking corporate personhood which was introduced 1890 and which contributed as one of the keystones to the huge mess greed moved the whole planet into the mess we are in today by turning the world into a corporacy instead of a democracy were it is all about 'We, the corporations' instead of 'We, the people' as our founding fathers wanted the people being free instead of some tycoons and/or corporations which run everything these days including our government through both, from corruption riddled, parties which represent the interests for the billionaires and corps and not us.
Universal healthcare must be a mandatory base for all. If you like better coverage as universal healthcare can't fix everything, you can choose a private insurance company. But health insurance is a MUST for EVERYbody as this lack of universal health insurance is the biggest disgrace of this country in every aspect as the lack of this basic human right for being treated as a human being and not left alone/behind is asocial, inhumane and simple despicable in every moral aspect our corporations lack 100% as unrestricted business does not have any moral, no compassion, no mercy. the only thing for them is the bottom line.
If we engage them they move like a drug cartel elsewhere as they have in opposite to a small business or middle class business no connection to the local people they do business with. The only way to get this inhumane practice under control is to take control away from them like it was before 1890 and the big capital started to turn the whole world into a chain of wars and getting filthy rich in the process and pushing the people aside and put the profit in the center.
I also posted this on facebook as well but thought I copy it here for a bit more exposure.
https://www.facebook.com/Coverage4All/posts/696125490548519?notif_t=like...
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we cannot defeat oligarchs without a unified opposition. that being the case, how do democrats (or a new leftwing party carrying bernie sander's banner) get the message out to the millions of disenfranchised americans that didn't vote last november, or that voted republican?