“This is an alert” and then the sound of an unsettling horn

There was anger and desperation in the voice…trying to convey a sense of urgency; it was shrill and alarmist…he referred to our President as Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, stressing the Hussein part. Among the things that they say are: the deficit, how un-Constitutional our President is, and how it is imperative that we all stand against him and vote Republican. All of which I heard were not only misrepresentations but downright lies.

I just ask myself these questions: Do any of these college students realize that they are taking away their Pell Grants? Do any of these collegiate types deal with the hardships their parents are facing to send them to school? Chances are the breadwinner in the family has either lost the job or have had to take a cut in pay…and tuition at colleges has risen to ridiculous heights. I just don’t know where the disconnect comes but I can only tell you that these are pathetic, misguided bastards/bitches who should not even be in college if they participate in an organization like the College Republicans; they lack the intellect to be getting a higher education.

They give you a number to call if you want to be removed from their call list. But after you call you have to endure a sales pitch about their organization; how they have over 200,000 members and how they organize, train (indoctrinate) and mobilize the Republican students. How admirable.

Another way of looking at the drastic cuts Republicans are forcing on everyone

This is very obvious and nobody ever talks about it…when Republican-Teahadists insist in making such draconian cuts what they are really doing is raising the taxes of the working class. How is that possible, you might say?

It is logical to figure out that if social programs are cut at the Federal level then the states and municipalities are compelled to pick up the tab or not offer them…in order to do that, states and cities that are already hard pressed for revenues will have to increase property taxes, licenses, city services, etc. That is indisputable and it is in reality AN INCREASE IN TAXES for regular Americans while the super wealthy and the corporations pay very little.

Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves is perhaps the greatest Republican canard. It's popular because at the root of the message is an easy sell; you can get something for nothing. Compounding the degree of obfuscation is that RWNM pundits continually rewrite the history, usually "forgetting" key facts

Bob Secter of the Tribune explains what is happening in Illinois and across the country:

What the feds gave in tax cuts, Illinois may take away

1-year cut in Social Security taxes in danger of being overshadowed

“A big income tax hike proposal getting serious consideration in Springfield would cost individual taxpayers hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, but in the near term the financial blow could be softened for many workers by the federal tax deal reached last month.

Democrats who control state government are mulling a proposal to attack a record $15 billion deficit with a temporary 75 percent hike in the personal income tax rate, bumping it from 3 percent to 5.25 percent for individuals through 2014, then rolling it back to a permanent though still higher level of 4 percent or less. Corporate and cigarette taxes would also rise.”

The pesky question remains: do we want to continue to give tax breaks for the wealthy and the corporations at the expense of an already beleaguered middle class and working poor?

The Bush Tax Increase

“STATE TAX INCREASES, BROUGHT ON BY BUSH BUDGET: The latest Bush tax bill/budget proposes a 3% decrease to federal grants to states, a $16 billion decrease in state tax revenues - all while proposing between $23-$82 billion in unfunded mandates. Because of this "millions of American individuals and businesses face tax hikes this year... wiping out the savings that some taxpayers would otherwise see on their federal 1040." Since President Bush took office, states have raised taxes by a total of $14.5 billion, after 7 consecutive years of cutting taxes. The total 2003 net tax increase was $6.9 billion for the 42 reporting states – following a 2002 net tax increase of $9.1 billion. Seventeen states raised taxes by more than 1% with four states raising taxes by at least 5%. USA Today reports "squeezed by tight budgets, Republicans in at least a dozen state legislatures across the country are feuding over the party's bedrock principles of holding down spending and not raising taxes." Similarly, the Wall Street Journal noted, Republicans in states all over the country "are undercutting the election-year message: They are for raising taxes...Worried about declines in schools and basic services, many Republican leaders in the states say they have little choice."

“The argument that tax cuts create or increase revenue is an old myth that simply refuses to go away. The logic behind this argument is that cutting taxes will stimulate spending (since investors now are now encouraged through reduced tax rates) that will result in GDP growth. This growth in GDP will result in increased tax revenues so significant they will more than offset the drop in tax revenues. The inverse logic is that increased taxes lower tax revenue by discouraging investment, which in turn lowers tax revenues so drastically; they offset the added increase coming from the tax rate increase. One of the reasons Republicans or other self-ascribed fiscal conservatives are able to get away with this is, is the superficially plausible argument that the Reagan and/or Bush tax cuts grew the economy and created revenue. To understand the fallacy of these arguments, it is necessary to understand economic growth during business cycles and over a long period of time, and it’s relationship with tax revenues.”

I leave you with the logical inquiry: If tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporations work so well, then why did we lose over 5,000,000 jobs during the Bush years and since they are still in effect…shouldn’t we be swimming in jobs and prosperity?

SOURCE: CBPP, 10/17/03, 6/3/03 & 2/3/04; Christian Sci. Monitor, 2/2/04; NCSL, 2003; USA Today, 2/9/04; WSJ, 2/20/04

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-01-09/news/ct-met-income-tax-impact-0109-20110109_1_federal-tax-tax-cuts-income-tax

http://www.obamaftw.com/blog/taxes/tax-decreases-do-not-increase-revenue

This class warfare that the left has unleashed on the wealthy and the corporations deserves our disapproval…here are the reasons why:

The wealthy keeps the economy going, creating jobs and investing their profits.

The wealthy are very patriotic and have great affinity with the idea of DEMOCRACY

The wealthy are generous to a fault, often making contributions to charitable organizations.

The wealthy have expenses also. Take for example Beluga caviar; the going price these days is $170.00 for one ounce…the kind that is eatable. The cost of Dom Perignon champagne varies but it is around $130.00 per bottle.

The wealthy need very much to get away from being cooped up in their Fifth Avenue penthouse and they rely on having a get-away home in the Hamptons…and also they would have a lousy social life if they don’t make it there for the summer.

The poor and the middle class need to tighten their belts, they need to become more industrious, more productive and realize once and for all that this Socialism give-aways by our government is no longer affordable. We can’t keep funding Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Public Education, Regulatory Agencies like the EPA because the rich need those tax cuts, they have to grow and prosper because they are entitled, they deserve their rewards because they work very hard. The middle class and the poor have to take responsibility and share in paying our financial burdens.

Now, all of that above, doesn’t it sound like the broken record the Republican-Teahadists have been repeating forever?

The first about the class wars is not unfounded, but if you really think about that, it was the wealthy who began it by decimating the middle class.

The wealthy keeps the economy going? I am not so sure about that…most of them live abroad most of the time and most of them create jobs…ABROAD!

As for the cost of caviar and champagne…they have a point there. How dare us mere mortals question their conspicuous consumption of those items…why they can’t eat deviled eggs and certainly not bad wine…life is too short to drink bad wine.

As far as their second home in the Hamptons…the poor dears, they have to carry on a social life and New York really sucks in the summer.

Surely, there has to be some waste

Speaking for myself, I can see clearly why some costs are unnecessary and just tagged on to profit from Medicare.

Let’s begin with my primary physician, he wants me in there at least twice a year even if there is nothing wrong with me; his take is billed directly to the insurance company and yes, I don’t pay anything out of pocket for it…not directly.

Then we have the specialists who need a referral and they too get a cut of Medicare…oftentimes requesting unnecessary tests that have a deductible co-payment that I have to pay for out of pocket…and some of these, even with my limited knowledge of medicine…I know are unnecessary.

You also have to face the fact that if you suffer some serious ailment the medicines are so expensive one would think that ground gold goes into their manufacture. Some of these medications are mandatory if one wishes to stay alive.

There are hospitals…those money-hungry institutions that exist for profit. They charge you for a room on a daily basis that far exceeds a five star hotel in cost. Yet, the rooms are dank and devoid of the luxuries one finds at these hotels. Additionally, the food you are given is not fit for human or animal consumption.

Lastly you have the insurance companies…those good for nothing businesses that exist for the sole reason of making a profit. These insurance companies do not perform any useful function, they are actually deniers of claims and de-facto DEATH PANELS….in other words…they are true parasites of society...they are motivated by

Our country lags behind other industrialized nations in the healthcare provided and the costs are oftentimes twice as much. Yet, you hear assholes like Hucklebee go on television with this ad urging the viewers to call so that OBAMACARE can be repealed because if you don’t, then irreparable damage will be done to our economy and our healthcare system. Really? The only damage I can see if we had what we all want: UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE is the health insurance companies out of the equation.

What we need in America is UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE, yes, FUCKING SOCIALIST, NOT FOR PROFIT, GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE.

And it is not about the debt ceiling or even about the budget or deficits…it is about forcing upon our country a very misguided agenda.

The thorough destruction of all our safety nets, the elimination of regulations that were already watered down to begin with and the climate of placing the interests of the wealthy and the corporations instead of WE, THE PEOPLE is what is taking place.

From Social Security to Medicare and Medicaid, from eliminating agencies that protect the consumers and offer safety requirements like the EPA to EDUCATION; the Republicans are on a pillage and plunder trek leaving no middle class person untouched, raping the dignity of those who are already poor and offering nothing in return…only more of the same…which is to say: MORE MONEY FOR THE WEALTHY AND THE CORPORATIONS; it is a veritable WELFARE STATE for those on the top of the food chain.

Yes, the government is too big and can’t do anything right, the government is the problem…it is the problem for the rich, it is the thorn on the side of corporations because they have to abide by the laws and pay their fair share of taxes, or, put another way: government is a problem when it is in the hands of Republicans.

Our government is as big as it needs to be for a nation that is the number one world power and it is not a question of having a spending problem; although we could cut spending on stupid wars and defending countries that need no defense while we borrow the money to do this from these very countries…how ironic is that?

But what we actually have is a REVENUE problem…tax cuts and loopholes, subsidies to corporations that are making oodles of money…that is what we have, that is what is causing the deficits.

What Republican-Teahadists are doing is immoral, un-American and radical.

We should have more voices in our Legislative Branch like Bernie Sanders…unfortunately, all the Republicans are bought and sold by special interests, the rich and the corporations and even a few Democrats…but they don’t have the guts to draw a line in the sand…this game of chicken the Republicans are playing is dangerous and extremely noxious to our economy and that of the world.

Among the Democrats who are not willing to draw a line in the sand is our President…unfortunately, because he is such a nice fellow, so terribly prone to compromise and try to be bipartisan…he has gone out of his way to accommodate the Republicans…These same Republicans who are extremists, radicals and out of touch with the American people. Time and time again they keep blackmailing our President and he is not reacting, he is not angry…at least doesn’t show it and worse yet…he gives concessions even before he sits down to negotiate…his negotiating skills are questionable to me at this point.

A Debt-Ceiling Deal: $1 In Tax Hikes For Wealthy For Every $1 In Cuts

On June 28, 2011 Robert Borosage wrote this for OURFUTURE.ORG. Please read and if you deem it worth, take action.

“On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders committed common sense on the floor of the U.S. Senate. It's amazing that he wasn't cited for an ethics violation.

Sanders called on the president to leave the Beltway, go across the country and talk sense to the American people about the cruel obscenities of the Republican position on lifting the debt ceiling. Threatening to blow up the economy by forcing the U.S. to default on its debts if they don't get their way, Republicans are demanding over $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years with no, nada, zero contribution from increased taxes on the wealthy, Wall Street, or the big corporations.

TAKE ACTION

Sen. Bernie Sanders has drawn a firm line in the sand for the President and the congressional leaders negotiating a deficit reduction package to go with an increase in the debt limit. It's simple: Shared Sacrifice. For every dollar you cut in investments for the public, a dollar must be raised from ending tax breaks for the wealthy. Tell Congress: No Deal on Cuts Without Taxing the Rich.

Sanders lays out today's reality: corporations and the wealthy are making out like bandits, the middle class is getting crushed and poverty is spreading. Yet Republicans are insisting that the corporations and wealthy be exempt from any sacrifice, and instead all deficit reductions come from slashing programs for the elderly, the sick, the poor, and the young. To date, their leadership won't even agree to mandate cuts in the Defense Department despite the fact that its budget has more than doubled since President Bush came into office—not counting the money spent on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

This is, as Sanders says, unconscionable. He calls instead for the common sense standard of shared sacrifice:

Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.

Every Democrat in the Congress should join Sanders in this common sense proposition. And every concerned citizen should respond to Sanders' plea. Go to Ourfuture.org/SharedSacrifice and demand that your member of Congress reject any debt limit deal without a dollar raised in taxes on the wealthy for every dollar cut. (Also, go to Senders' web site and send the president a letter urging him not to surrender to the Republican bullying.)

In fact, a one-to-one ratio of spending cuts to top end tax hikes is already a compromise. As a percentage of the economy, revenues are at the lowest levels since the 1950s while tax avoidance by corporations and the rich is at perverse levels. The wealthiest 400 Americans have as much wealth as 150 million Americans. And they pay a lower effective tax rate than the chauffeurs who drive them to work or the teachers who instruct their kids or the cops who patrol their streets. Given that the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan account for nearly half of the deficits projected for the next 10 years, with the costs of the economic collapse caused by Wall Street's excesses accounting for most of the rest, a sensible policy would have top-end tax hikes and taxes on Wall Street gaming bear the bulk of deficit reduction.

Moreover, the rich and the big corporations have recovered nicely from the Great Recession, but they aren't generating jobs in the U.S.. They are sitting on trillions in cash; or worse, investing abroad and eliminating jobs here at home. Businesses aren't short of cash; they are short of customers. Cutting government spending and laying off contractors and federal employees will cost far more jobs than giving the money to the wealthy or corporations will create.

Of course, as House Majority Leader Eric "if you don't do it my way, I won't play anymore" Cantor demonstrated by walking out of the deficit negotiations, shared sacrifice is anathema to Republicans. Whether from the corruption of campaign donations or the callousness of ideology, they march in virtual lockstep in defending tax breaks for the rich and corporations and demanding spending cuts from the vulnerable.

But the debt limit must be raised. It is unimaginable that even the Tea Party-cowed House Republicans would be so irresponsible as to force the U.S. into default if they don't get their way.

So I suggest Democrats make a generous offer. Accept the deficit numbers projected by the budget passed with the unanimous support of House Republicans and supported by all but a handful of Senate Republicans. Since the two sides can't agree on what mix of taxes and spending should be involved in reaching those deficit figures, leave that for appropriators and the political process. Let the American people decide if they want to elect more legislators committed to gutting Medicare or more committed to taxing millionaires.

We can't let the deficit spin out of control, so Democrats should compromise completely and embrace the Republican deficit limits for the next 10 years. They voted for adding about $8 trillion to the nation's debt in the 10 years from 2012 to 2022. Democrats should be magnanimous and concede. Accept what Republicans voted for and lift the debt ceiling by that amount, with strict enforcement procedures. (The dirty little secret here, of course, is that the House plan, according to CBO estimates, actually adds to projected deficits in the first 10 years. Its drastic cuts in Medicaid and domestic spending are countered virtually dollar for dollar by more tax breaks for the wealthy and the corporations. A more generous estimate by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities suggests the House plan would cut less than $400 billion over 10 years from projected deficits.)

In return for this total embrace of the Republican deficit goals, Democrats should ask for one small reciprocal concession: that over the next year, a major effort be made—through extending the payroll tax cuts, aid to forestall the layoffs of teachers and police, a jobs corps for returning veterans, investment in rebuilding our decrepit infrastructure and in new energy—to put people back to work, while keeping to the deficit goals for the decade.

That's the deal. Democrats concede the deficit constraints that Republicans supported unanimously for 10 years, and raise the debt ceiling only by that amount. Republicans concede to a package of spending and tax cuts over the next year to put Americans back to work and get the economy going. And we let the voters decide who they trust with deciding how to meet those limits over the next years.

Rep. Paul Ryan, the media darling who was author of the House budget plan, once appeared to support this course. He called his plan "not a budget, but a cause." When asked if he thought his proposals might be enacted before the election, he replied: "At the end of the day we might just have to have a debate or a decision in this country about two futures. In a later speech, he argued: "If we don't get agreements in the intervening time because of politics or whatever, at least in 2012 they'll have a real choice."

But to get there, Democrats have to rouse themselves from their lethargy, and stand up as Sanders did to make it clear, publicly and loudly, that they are not prepared to go along with a debt-ceiling deal that is all spending cuts, or three-to-one spending cuts. That would rob voters of the "real choice" they deserve. It would allow Republicans to claim bipartisan support for cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education and everything from food stamps to college Pell grants, while sustaining tax breaks for the wealthiest and tax havens and subsidies for the corporations.

So join Sanders' cause. Go to OurFuture.org/SharedSacrifice and tell your member of Congress to insist on shared sacrifice. One dollar of tax breaks for the wealthy for one dollar of spending cuts. Even-steven. Real shared sacrifice. Let's get a truly fair deal.”

SOURCE: http://www.ourfuture.org/

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

GOP mirrors Marie Antoinette’s statement

And all the while they want to have their cake and eat it too.

I have often said it here in this blog that the best economic system is that of FREE ENTERPRISE. But I have always qualified that by saying that it needs regulations or it won’t work because greed takes over and greed has no conscience.

In America we have been toying around with the idea of a participatory democracy that seemed to be the perfect companion to FREE ENTERPRISE. Somewhere along the way, the special interests decided that all these regulations were not good ideas after all and in the process began to dismantle one by one all the regulations that were the glue which held our economic system together.

But in the process, our fragile experiment in democracy was discarded and usurped; to these greedy bastards whether the general public votes or not is not important; whether WE THE PEOPLE as prescribed by our Founding Fathers amount to a hill of beans. It is all done in the name of profit and the almighty dollar takes precedent to all concepts of democracy, freedom and human rights…not to speak of depriving 98% of us of our dignity and a livelihood.

These sons of bitches would sell their own mothers to the highest bidder making them the pimps and whores of ambition, greed and morality.

To this purpose, the very wealthy special interests that hold these “conservative” views have devised a fake grass roots movement called “Tea Party” and it has long left their fold to take a life of its own. However, these often ignorant, uneducated and misguided souls know little about history, geography, politics and economics. So this faction has gained power and are poised to take over the Republican Party which was inspired by a misguided philosophy and which followed an askew ideology to begin with.

JEFF SCHWEITZER explains it better than I can:
“Why the Tea Party Is Wrong huffingtonpost.com — History has proven beyond doubt that capitalism works. When reasonably regulated to moderate excess no other system of economic organization can better create wealth, promote stability and improve lives. Capitalism is successful because it appeals to rather than fights our basic human instinct for self-survival. But like any complex system of human organization, capitalism has inherent flaws. Unregulated capitalism devolves into an oligarchy. Without regulation capitalism behaves like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in which cycles of instability add to each other cumulatively until the system collapses. The most recent example is the disintegration of the banking and housing industries following a decade of careless deregulation of Wall Street. The bottom line is that capitalism works, but needs to be modified from its purest form to be most effective.”

DEBORAH SMALL also offers this:
“They Don't Really Care About Us… jackandjillpolitics.com — The Republicans didn't care about the American people when they dissipated the Clinton surplus giving tax breaks and other goodies to their corporate sponsors. They didn't care about the American people when they enacted new anti-consumer bankruptcy laws on the eve of the largest real estate melt down in the nation's history. They didn't care when they sent our young, poor, volunteer military to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan without body armor and other essential protective gear. They didn't care when they appointed inept political cronies to head important agencies like FEMA, rendering them incapable of responding to real emergencies. Which is to say, long before Barack Obama's election the Republicans repeatedly demonstrated their insensitivity to the needs of ordinary working people. This new crop of Republicans are just more extreme and outspoken in their callousness – they've discarded the artifice of portraying themselves as ‘compassionate conservatives'.”

SOURCE: OUR FUTURE.ORG

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://whatwouldmarieantoinettedo.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/marie_antoinette_by_joseph_ducreux-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://whatwouldmarieantoinettedo.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/advises-the-queen-charm-first-always/&usg=__GNYgplCmYWDitbje0ccXSn02auU=&h=400&w=292&sz=18&hl=en&start=71&sig2=zUz-dDkLeuJy__dF9fPCLg&zoom=1&tbnid=fQ3730PJZ3qjYM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=90&ei=XVgZTpLbGuLa0QH_pdmWBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dphotos%2Bof%2Bmarie%2Bantoinette%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1006%26bih%3D597%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=708&vpy=227&dur=2746&hovh=263&hovw=192&tx=153&ty=160&page=6&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:71