Thursday, May 19, 2011

GOP: Speak The Truth, Get Snuffed

Newt and I are considered political opposites, but I couldn’t agree more with what he said Sunday about the plan to end Medicare. He acknowledged that it is right wing social engineering. It was refreshing to hear such candor from a top Republican. Gingrich was saying what everyone knows to be true: The plan is extreme.... He is the Republican canary in the coal mine. When that canary speaks truth, he is snuffed out. What Newt seems to realize is that it would be impossible to win the White House if they embrace the Ryan plan. If Republicans make endorsing the Ryan plan the standard in the Republican primary, it will make the nominee unelectable. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Debt Ceiling As Historical Relic

Before 1917, Congress needed to approve each and every debt issuance. But when World War I hit, the legislature decided to make the process easier, setting an overall debt limit and letting Treasury issue as many bonds as it needed to stay within it. A century ago, the ceiling made more sense. The government was smaller, with discretionary spending a bigger portion of the federal budget. Having the additional check helped to keep appropriations under control. But now, the debt ceiling does little to encourage smarter budgeting. Most of the country’s debt stems from spiraling mandatory spending on programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security anyway.” - Anne Lowrey

Annie Lowrey calls it “the budgetary equivalent of the appendix”

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Who Increased The Debt

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Tea Birthers should take note.

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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Republicans Hate Medicare

"Republicans … hate Medicare because it represents everything they are philosophically opposed to: a government-run program that works and is popular across the political board. It’s tough to shout about the dangers of universal health care when the two greatest protectors (if not creators) of the elderly middle class are those pillars of 20th-century progressive change, Social Security and Medicare."
Tim Egan

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Once again, a Democrat is paying for Republican lies

Monday, May 16, 2011

Get To Know Mitch Daniels

Mitch Daniels: Architect Of The Bush-Era Debt Crisis<br><br>    In other words, the “fiscal conservative” Daniels oversaw the federal  budget as it was making its precipitous dive from a $236 billion  surplus – then on a trajectory to eliminate the entire federal debt in a  decade – to a $400 billion deficit by the time he left in June 2003.  Plus, because of proposals developed on Daniels’s watch – such as tax  cuts favoring the rich and unpaid-for projects, including the invasion  of Iraq and a new prescription drug plan – the fiscal situation of the  federal government continued to sink over the ensuing years, plunging to  a trillion-dollar-plus annual deficit by the time Bush left office in  2009.    This is the next Republican savior-in-waiting?

Mitch Daniels: Architect Of The Bush-Era Debt Crisis

In other words, the “fiscal conservative” Daniels oversaw the federal budget as it was making its precipitous dive from a $236 billion surplus – then on a trajectory to eliminate the entire federal debt in a decade – to a $400 billion deficit by the time he left in June 2003.

Plus, because of proposals developed on Daniels’s watch – such as tax cuts favoring the rich and unpaid-for projects, including the invasion of Iraq and a new prescription drug plan – the fiscal situation of the federal government continued to sink over the ensuing years, plunging to a trillion-dollar-plus annual deficit by the time Bush left office in 2009.

This is the next Republican savior-in-waiting?

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Vermont Going Universal

On May 26, Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont is expected to sign legislation that will create universal coverage in the state—eventually. Vermont will use subsidies from the Affordable Care Act to help create a Canada-style system. And its system, or so the theory goes, will become so popular and cheap that the rest of America will want to copy it.

(Source: Slate)

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http://twitter.com/LOLGOP

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Libertarianism is every spoiled college kid's dream.

Libertarianism is every spoiled college kid’s dream. Fortunately like most college kids’ dreams, it will never come true.

fuckyeah-nerdery:

Libertarianism is the biggest load of bullshit, rivaled only by Ayn Rand and her Objectivist “philosophy”. I like the civil aspect of it - the idea that each person can do what they want as long as it doesn’t violate the rights and privacy of others - it’s the other parts of libertarianism that I don’t care for. Libertarians don’t believe in any kind of regulation of the private sector, they envision a world where corporations can do whatever they want without fear of the government stepping in, as long as it doesn’t violate anyone’s rights. Because as we all know, corporations love nothing more than to respect and uphold the rights of people.

Then there’s their view on national government, which is basically “FUCK DA GUVMENT!” They believe the government’s only function should be national defense and protecting people’s rights, so in their vision, the government would only be comprised of a Department of Defense, a Department of State, a watered down Congress and a weak presidency. Maybe, there might be a Department of Justice, but who knows. Even then, the federal government would have little-to-no actual power or influence, which means people would be at the mercy of their state governments and corporations.

Libertarians like Ron Paul think this is all hunky dory, but let me paint you a picture of what a libertarian America would look like: State governments would be owned by corporations and the rich, like what happened in Wisconsin, but taken to the extreme. The South would be nothing but a series of Christian theocracies where if you’re black, gay or anything else disagreeable, you’ll be imprisoned, run out of the state or just straight up lynched on the spot. If you’re a worker, then you’re so totally fucked, it’s not even funny. No minimum wage, no union, no kind of aid from the state or federal governments. If you’re not rich, you are basically fucked in a libertarian society.

Of course, you could move to one of the better states (if there are any), but traveling would be long and difficult, because without federal money, all the highways, interstates and transportation infrastructure in general is just gone. State governments can’t afford to maintain all this stuff on their own. Hell, it was the federal government that fronted the money to build all that in the first place! Oh sure, there’ll be nice, well maintained roads, but those will only be for the rich who can afford it. You won’t be able to, because the meager salary you’ll be making (remember, no minimum wage in a libertarian society!) will go towards trying to pay your rent or food.

Actually, scratch the rent part, you’ll never be able to afford it. Don’t worry, you won’t be living on the street alone, you’ll have plenty of company, what with all the low-income families! No government assistance means no low-income housing for the poor. State governments would immediately sell all that property to corporations who, in turn, would evict the tenants, bulldoze the houses and build a mall or a gated community or something.

Speaking of selling government-owned property, say goodbye to national parks and state parks as well. What? Those places are full of trees and other resources and denying free enterprise to strip mine those parks for all their lumber, oil and precious metals is so very anti-libertarian!

Welcome to the Libertarian States of America.

(Source: corruptpolitics)

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