Nero fiddles while Rome burns

There are reports that a draft of the House's Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill contains deep cuts to heating assistance for the poor, requires the repeal of a major provision of the health care law that will help provide assistance for disabled people, halts implementation of the entire law until the Supreme Court determines the constitutionality of its individual insurance mandate, and slashes funding for Planned Parenthood and public broadcasting.

Needless to say, the Democrats in both the House and the Senate say the bill is DOA.  Of course, it needs only a majority vote to pass in the House where the GOP holds a majority.  On the other hand, in the Senate the Democrats hold a majority.  And as you know, a bill must pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by the President to become a law.  This draft bill will never become law, but if it does pass out of the House and doesn't pass the Senate, the federal Labor/Health and Human Services department will not have any funding leading to a partial government shutdown. 

I'm thinking back to last November when the GOP was swept into power in the House on the promise to create jobs.  Tell me how this action creates even 1 job.  Tell me how the time they are spending on this draft bill, that will never become law, moves the country forward in any way, or does anyting at all to create the envronment where jobs will be created.  The GOP is good at trying to force the government to shut down, at job creation, not so much.

To those of you who vote, realize that if you chose to put the GOP in control of other parts of the government, as they have demonstrated since last November, the GOP will waste their time on social issues that punnish middle class and poor, sick citizens rather than focus on public polciy to move our country forward for the good of the whole society.  Look no further than the last 12 months and see what has happened in the House and in numerous State legislatures to see where the GOP wants to take our coutry. 

A step ahead of Grover

With my post from last night, I'm a step ahead of Grover Norquist.

Is it too late to retitle that previous post to read Warren, Doug, Joe, and Grover?

Warren, Doug, and Joe

You may have heard that President Obama has proposed the Buffet Rule.  This would be anew tax law that would require millionaires and billionaires to pay an effective tax rate at least equal to middle income wage earners.  It is called Buffet Rule because billionaire investor Warren Buffet noted that he pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary.  He believes tax rates on the richest people in the US should be higher.  I also believe they should be higher.  Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is at a 50 year low while at the same time the country is fighting two unfunded wars and suffering massive layoffs of workers because of the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

Yesterday at an event with President Obama, A former Google executive, Doug Edwards, asked President Obama to raise his taxes.  This was his way of saying taxes on the richest in our society should be raised.  In response to Warren Buffet and now Doug Edwards, I have heard numerous people, including Joe Scarborough today on Morning Joe, suggest these two should just write a check out to the IRS and mail it in.  Obviously Joe and like minded people are missing the point, but I’ll play along for fun.  Let’s go!

Two unfunded wars in the Middle East and you believe it’s in our national interest to be there, how about you write out a check to the Department of Defense.  They could use a little to offset the $10 billion being spent a month.  And you know, since you are so supportive of the conflicts, put your money where you mouth is.  While your at it sign up for military service yourself, or at least ask that the draft be reinstituted. 

Feel like the oil companies should keep their subsidies because bolstering US oil production is so important, well you should just send Exxon a check to show your commitment.

If your number one national concern is the deficit, then skip your tax refund.  When you fill out your tax return for 2011, just use zero exemptions and take no deductions.  Flat out skip the 1040 Schedule A and the effort to itemize your deductions.  Just put zeros in all the deduction boxes.  This is the most patriotic way to show how serious you are on a personal level about deficit reduction.

None of this really makes sense does it?  One nation under God, indivisible….  We are one nation, and we rise and fall together.   We have to get some macro things right in our country over both the short-term and long-term.  The country does need to be on more solid financial footing for the good of our whole society.  We can not get there simply through spending cuts alone.  Remember, tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is at a 50 year low.  We are not just experiencing a spending thing; we are also experiencing a revenue thing.  This is what both Warren Buffet and Doug Edwards understand, but can’t solve alone by sending their checks to the IRS.

Death Panels, Social Security, Rick Perry, and the GOP

In my country…

    …I watched the Republican Presidential candidate debate on Wednesday night.  The most excitement of the 2 hours came when Rick Perry doubled down on his recent comments about the Social Security system in the US.  In days prior to the debate Perry referred to Social Security as a Ponzi scheme.  During the debate, he could have tempered his remarks about the US retirement system that has been in place since 1935, or choose to ratchet up his rhetoric instead.  In referring to Social Security Perry said “ It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there. Anybody that's for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right.”

    Perry’s comments have to be called out as the lie they are.  Perry is lying about Social Security.  He is fabricating things that hold no basis in fact.  He is deliberately misleading and confusing you.  The reason I, and everybody else who knows the truth, must smash this down and expose it as a lie, is because if he, the GOP,  and Fox News is permitted to get this going in their echo chamber, a section of the public will start to believe it’s actually true.  Just look at the “death panels” that were said to be part of the Affordable Care Act that was signed in into law in 2010.  There are no death panels, but in absence of aggressive pushback against a lie, if it is allowed to be repeated enough, people start to believe it’s true.

     Social Security as a Ponzi scheme?  Certainly not!  Put most simply, here’s why.  If you do better with a picture than with a written article, then check out this Venn diagram to see what characteristics Social Security and a Ponzi scheme do, and do not, share. 

Click on the image to enlarge.