You know with all the Republican railing against the stimulus bill one thing that the CBO is confirming is that without it things would be much worse. Of course, it is easy for Republicans to criticize it they caused all the problems that created a need for it. After they conveniently bailed out the bankers, they had hoped to leave the American people high and dry. However now the CBO is reporting that the stimulus both created jobs and lowered the unemployment rate.
One of the most fierce debates going right now in the political arena is whether to extend the Bush Tax Cuts. While most folks favor extending the cuts for those making under 250k, a fight has been brewing over whether to extend them for the very wealthy, adding $830 billion to our deficit over the next ten years. Now, despite the fact that Republicans are trying to paint themselves as "fiscally conservative" by opposing anything that helps working America because it "adds to the deficit" of course the one thing they are always ready to add to the deficit for is money for the rich. Unfortunately, many Democrats are buying into it as well. However, if they cared about the will of the American people they would scrap them.
Republicans across the country are bearing down, hoping that voting against any Democratic proposal will get them back in power this fall to complete their destruction of our country next year. They are running on a platform of hatred for the federal government and while they preach "jobs" they care nothing about saving or creating them if Democrats get credit. They hope to break any power of the federal government and leave all the responsibility on cash-strapped states. Yes, even when the benefits of federal funding come home to their states they still vote no.
We are getting quite used to Sarah Palin opening her mouth and idiotic nonsense spewing forth. However, in the case of the expiring Bush tax cuts she has passed beyond idiocy and become a complete liar. You see, Democrats are in favor of retaining all the tax cuts for everyone except high-end earners. You know, the Republican base that has plenty of money to support folks like Palin and the propaganda they spread to convince you to let the wealthy have more of your money.
August will mark 75 years since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Social Security legislation into law. Today, this has been the most successful safety net for American retirees, insuring that millions of the elderly and disabled do not live in poverty. However, now with the deficit caused by Republican policies of spend and spend and put two wars and numerous tax cuts on your credit card, Social Security is coming under attack. Of course they cannot blame their own policies of Corporate Welfare and huge tax cuts for the rich so instead of upsetting the Chamber of Commerce they will try to steal your retirement to make up the difference.
Poor Rand Paul. He thought he would use the fundraising base of his father and cruise to tea-party victory. What he did not depend on however was his extremist views on just about everything being completely exposed by those who are voting. Now, in a state rich with farming some of those statements are coming back to haunt him as rural Kentucky sees that he scorns them as much as everyone else. Of course, in typical McConnell Republican fashion the Mad Doctor is just flip-flopping and floundering.
Two things that have taken a lot of heat lately is the Economic Stimulus and the Social Security insurance for America. In front of the federal budget deficit commission he argued that deficit spending is the best way to reduce and stabilize the national debt by stabilizing the economy and creating jobs. Meanwhile, others are defending Social Security against those who would continue to eliminate or privatize it.
Despite a new Administration our country still remains deeply divided on the war in the middle-east. While most Republicans have not problem with war without end many Democrats are tiring of the money wasted and lives lost. Instead of cutting off funding altogether they are coming up with a way of making the cost of the war less painful. Now, they are adding money to avoid teacher layoffs when school starts.
As expected the Republicans in the Senate said no to those whose livelihoods they gutted when they controlled Washington. Forget the fact that men like Mitch McConnell and yes, Ben Nelson who is a Republican and should get out of our party soaked up huge salaries while soaking the middle-class with policies that decimated them while enriching Corporate fatcats and the Chinese Communists. Of course the whole Republican Party, Mitch McConnell and Ben Nelson want you to forget. What they do not want is to bear any of the responsibility of their actions both in the past and now as working Americans who paid the price from Republicans and Corporate Democrats and the robber-barons in Corporate America getting fat, crashing the economy, and getting bailed out.
You know with all the bluster coming from the Mad Doctor Rand Paul about debt and deficit one thing remains true. Paul's ideas are starve the beast lunacy that would almost completely strip our country of any kind of social programs whatsoever. Luckily Kentucky has a sane candidate running for Senate. A candidate that has already saved this state's taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by fighting against the right people, not the most helpless among us. Come to find out too that not only is he the only candidate in this race actually has saved the taxpayers of this state money but he has several ideas to save our country billions without raising taxes.
The hypocrisy of the Republican Party is astounding. When in control of our government they took a surplus and turned it into a huge deficit. They allowed the worst attack ever on American soil and stole generations of Constitutional protections while starting two expensive and ongoing wars to hide their own incompetence. Their policies of spend, and spend, and then give out a little Corporate welfare all while outsourcing middle-class jobs was a failure, all while crashing the American economy in the ditch.
Here in my home state of Kentucky I have long watched in amazement as the voters of this state continually vote against their own interests. With the coronation tommorrow of "tea-party" candidate Rand Paul in the Republican primary, it only cements this point. You see, Paul and his tea-party backers want to "starve the beast" and slash the federal budget down to nothing. They want to do this because the Republicans here have convinced them that the very rich should not have to pay their taxes. The only problem with this approach is that many Kentuckians, including the "tea-baggers" are reaping handsome rewards from federal grants for needed programs.
Ah, the Republicans. Behind the guise of Christianity, fiscal responsibility, small government, or whatever they are calling it this week they constantly are seeking to find ways to show their complete scorn and hatred for their country and the folks within it who are just hoping to make enough money to move their families into the middle-class. We all remember how Jim Bunning, the most maniacal looney toon junior Senator from Kentucky sought to deny benefits to the workers Republicans policies displace by crashing the economy. Now, it appears as if that move was not heartless enough and another Republican has decided to once again show the American worker just how much scorn and hatred Republicans have for them. Yes, Tom Coburn is seeking to "Out-Bunning" the master himself, Jim Bunning.
The Kentucky Senate race was getting quite boring. Leave it to eccentric, Looney Tune Jim Bunning to heat things up. One would like to think that the outgoing Senator who was shunned by the McConnell machine because he is a can or two short of a six pack decided to shake up this race but then you realize that well, Bunning is a can or two short of a six pack. However, his callous, uncaring and hypocritical "stand" earlier this week against the nation's unemployed has indeed ignited the Kentucky Senate race, which quite frankly was becoming a yawner.
Boy, the Senator for Communist China Mitch McConnell has some nerve. After spearheading the Republican "do-nothing good" Congress that rubber-stamped every failed policy of the worst President in American history he is seeking to lecture others on debt, taxes, healthcare and the economy. I mean these are the folks that brought us a trillion wasted dollars on failed wars and whose only solution to anything was to put it on the American credit card or borrow it from China. Now, McConnell seeks to bemoan the commission started by President Obama to reduce the Federal Deficit.
While the healthcare debate has devolved and sputtered, we still see the need for real reform almost daily. Whatever one might believe is the solution it is almost impossible for anyone to admit we have serious problem. While the real solution, single-payer has been off the table, healthcare costs continue to spriral through the kitchen ceiling. Reports today show just how bad the recession has made things.
I found an article today that sums the times up for Progressives quite nicely. It seems that the administration may be "weighing" a fee to recoup taxpayer dollars from the big banks. You know, those very same banks that took advantage of Bush Administration policies to crash the economy and recieve a huge taxpayer bailout after causing huge unemployment among the American people?? Those very banks that are back to business as usual raking in huge profits and paying fatcats excessive salaries. Why are we "weighing" anything??
The House of Representatives voted today to shift student loans to the government freeing up $80 million dollars for other investments. The Student Loan and Fiscal Responsibility Act now goes to the Senate where most believe it will be enacted and signed by President Obama. Proponents of the bill cited that it would assure that students could still get loans in a tough economy and that it would save money to be re-invested. Republicans touted that it was more big government that would take loans away from their buddies in the credit industry and that it would add to the deficit, ingnoring that it would actually save money.
Boy, to hear many Republicans tell it they have been the watchdogs of fiscal responsibility. They have recently begun squawking about deficits and spending. They try to say our country is spending too much and we cannot afford Universal Healthcare. Of course, they conviently leave out the facts about why our deficit is where it is right now.
(Thanks a million for the post - promoted by Hillbilly)
Thursday night I was channel surfing and came across the meeting of the Ways & Means Committee on C-Span 3. I was just going to watch long enough to see what subject it was when I heard them talking about the healthcare bill. I immediately sat down and started to watch more intently.
It didn't take long to realize that there were very different intentions at the meeting. The Democrats wanted to pass legislation that would work for the majority of Americans, even if it didn't quite work as well for the HMO, insurance companies.
Republicans hoped to amend the legislation so that insurance companies would make even more money and there would be less, or no healthcare reform.
