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.

I love Digby!

In my country...

...Where is her thinking wrong?  This is a beautiful post that lays out exactly what is wrong with the thinking of the political right.   The good old days can be talked about as being so perfect, but only while wearing rose colored glasses.  Fully 1/3 of seniors lived in poverty before Medicare - this has gone down the memory hole with some many other things.  Is this what we as a country want to go back to?

Medicare is needed and must be kept as an important program in our country.  Does it have financial issues? Yes, it does.  The answer to these issues do not lay in how to reduce the coverage of the Medicare program, but rather in the health care delivery system it seeks to insure against.  We first need a single payer system like Canada, and then move to total national health care like the UK.  This will be the only way to adequately attempt to control the cost of healthcare.

A Pulitzer Prize winning writer agrees with me!

In my country...

Check out Eugene Robinson's column today in the Washington Post.  He pretty much agrees with my take yesterday that the GOP's brinkmanship with the debt ceiling and threatening to cause default is the cause of the market free fall.

Sometimes I get it right!

Thanks GOP and Tea Party

As a direct result of the actions of the GOP and Tea Party in the recent debt ceiling fight, the DOW has lost over 10% of its value over the last two days.

Thanks Tea Party!

A mosaic of opinions

In my country...

This is a cool feature in the NYT that was open for a few days (it’s now closed to comments).   You can see where most of the nearly 17,000 opinions landed – a balanced approach of reducing spending and raising more tax revenue.  If you follow the link, you can hover over 1 of the squares to see the specific comments a person left.

Here are a sample of the comments from each of the 4 corners starting in the top left then moving clockwise.



The responsibility of a President

In my country...
    This evening the House passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling voting 218 to 210.  No Democratic Representatives voted "yes".  22 Republicans voted "no".  One of the "no" votes was Michelle Bachmann.  As you may be aware, Michelle Bachmann is a GOP candidate for President.  She said she voted "no" because she is not in favor of any attempt to raise in the debt ceiling.  When the House and the Senate finally do get a bill passed, it will not have a "yes" vote from Michelle Bachmann.  She wants the US to default rather then meet it current debt obligation.
   Now, just think if she were to be the President.  A bill becomes a law only by passing both houses of Congress and being signed by the President.  I suppose that as President she would veto a debt ceiling bill if it were put on her desk.  Being just one voice in 435 as she is in the House is one thing, but as President, being able to turn back legislation through the veto, she would have great power - even if it were used foolishly to drive the US economy into the ditch.

Isn't that scary!

Dogboy and Mr. Dan

A Dogboy and Mr. Dan video to please!

Holy crap! Has it really come to this?

As our country struggles to fully come out of the biggest recession since the Great Depression, companies and the stock market are doing pretty well, but for middle class Americans, the deep loss in jobs has not recovered yet.  When I read this article in the NYT today, I just had to shake me head.  Why would anyone think this was a smart move for a business, or our country?  Why would any sane person accept this kind of treatment of our fellow citizens?

Wish I could write like this

In my country...
   Hullabaloo is a blog written by Heather Parton under the pseudonym Digby.  Her ability to understand what's going on and post her thoughts so clearly as to why it is right or wrong, is what I aspire to in my writing.  Very rarely do I read something she has written and don't agree with it 100%.  A recent blog post about the current "negotiations" over the debt limit was so spot on that I post the link here.  It is really hard for me to understand why all middle-class, middle income Americans don't see the current events like this and feel the same way too.

The weakest Speaker Ever?

In my country...

     Now we know just how weak a Speaker of the House John Boehner is as he walks away from negotiating table with President Obama and pushes the work to the Senate.  It is obvious that Speaker Boehner is unable to lead the GOP House Cacus.  You know the old saying, "lead, follow, or get out of the way".  Speaker Boehner was unable to lead, and so by pushing work on a debt ceiling extension (which must, and will, happen) to the Senate, he has chosen to just get out of the way.

Mid Summer thoughts...

In my life…
            I just returned from a short family vacation to Woodson Bend Resort on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky.  While it was only 4 days away, it was time enough to swim, read a book, watch some movies, play some board games, and play 36 holes of golf.  There were some things that stand out for me on this trip.  The first is that there was nothing that HAD to be done.  I watched my daughters enjoy time with each other.  This was good because Ellie will be leaving for college at Ohio Wesleyan in less than a month.  Rebecca got to drive a golf cart which is always fun to do, especially if you don’t drive a car.  Jackie got some quiet time to read, relax, and swim.  Oh, and she still managed to get in an hour long workout each day.    I got to visit the Elvis Rock on hole #15, more about that later.
 

In my country…

            The next several days are going to show me  a lot about President Obama and the Democratic Leadership in Congress.  The fact that they have even allowed to GOP to play the “Debt Ceiling Card” this far is depressing.  All you need to consider is that the debt ceiling was raised 17 times under President Reagan – yes, that right, 17 times!  Under President George W. Bush the debt ceiling was raised 7 times.  Do you remember this kind of fight? No, because there wasn’t one.  Do we need to look at and negotiate over the nation’s finances, yes, but should it be done at the brink of default, no.  The most astonishing item to me over the last few days has been the House GOP’s idea of “cut, cap, and balance”.  Now consider if the GOP really believed in this.  Think back to the 2001 and 2004 Bush tax cuts.  They could not have occurred, if the cuts in revenue (tax receipts) needed to be paired with spending cuts to ensure a balanced budget.  Think about President Bush’s ability to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Both of these operations cost hundreds of billions of dollars.  What would have had to occur to avoid the cap on spending and also balance the budget?  The answer is that either many other programs would have had to be cut, or taxes raised.  A law to cap and balance is a bad idea.
            If any agreement in the current debt ceiling fight does not contain new tax revenue now, then the Democrats and Obama will have lost.  Our country will have lost.  And my faith that at least one of the two major political parties have the middle class’s back will be lost.  Let’s see what happens.

Negotiating against oneself

It’s hard to negotiate any agreement when you are only negotiating against yourself.  In the fight to raise the debt ceiling, something that was done 7 times under the previous President with no real fighting, the GOP will not compromise one single little bit.  The Democratic leader s in Congress and President Obama should offer nothing more than a deal that raises the debt ceiling to the level needed to fund the current already agreed expenditures through the end of 2012.  When the GOP refuses to agree to an amount needed to pay the bills already incurred, they will be seen as the cause of any problems that result when required payments are not made.   It’s as if the GOP has eaten the restaurant meal, but when the bill comes they baulk at the cost.
 

The Democrats should keep this same attitude about ending the current tax cuts that went into effect in 2000 and 2001 and were extended (stupidly in my opinion) at the end of 2010.  They should not agree to any plan that extends them again for Americans making over $250K a year.  With taxes as a percent of GDP at their lowest point in 60 years, move revenue is needed, not less.  This will set them up well for the next election in 2012 because the American people will see the GOP for what they really are – a political party that can not lead our country as a whole because they are cornered by a political base that prevents them from compromising on anything – even for the good of the country as a whole.

Square this!

How do you square these two NewYork Time Online addition front page stories?

Let talk about a "grand bargain" to cut benefits and the social safety net in the wake of the worst economic down turn since the Gret Depression.

AND

Cutting benefits will hurt the economy, not help it.

Exactly what I would have said.....

From DailyKos

The only crisis here is the one the Republicans are making

There is no fiscal crisis. Everyone should be clear on that.
The United States is not bankrupt. Social Security is not about to founder. Wall Street is not on a precipice, the IMF is not standing by demanding massive shifts in our government, and U.S. bonds are not trading 1:1 with Charmin. There is nothing wrong.
Nothing except that the Republican Party is prepared to slice the nation's throat to get its way.
Real crises do exist. There are moments in a nation's history where the government must take abrupt action, either military or fiscal, to prevent disaster. In the collapse of 2008, some might disagree with the exact nature of the action the Bush administration took in bailing out banks that had recklessly overextended themselves, but there's little doubt that there was a real problem and without action there was a chance that it could grow from disaster to catastrophe.
That's not the case this time. Not only does solving the issue at hand not require the launching of a single ship, it doesn't require the expenditure of a single dime. Raising the debt limit does not commit the United States to any debt it has not already incurred. Refusing to raise that limit is no more an act of fiscal prudence than refusing to pay the restaurant for a meal already eaten.
Not only is the money already spent, the Republicans are the ones who spent it. It's not Social Security that drove up the debt over the last decade. Social Security is responsible for 0% of the deficit. Make that 0.00%, to be exact. The deficit that the Republicans are railing against is driven by the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by the cost of the recently extended Bush tax cuts. You know what'll happen if we cut Social Security? We'll get less Social Security, not less deficit.
It's funny that politicians on both sides of the aisle keep demanding that "everything be on the table," when what they really mean is that "everything not responsible for the problem be on the table." Not that it matters. The truth is that Republicans aren't interested in solving the problem. They're making the problem. They invented it from thin, hot air and they're entirely invested in seeing that the problem gets worse.
Don't think the Republicans would put the nation at risk on purpose? Consider this: the only thing they won't even think about, the only option so odious they'll walk out of the room rather than talk about it, is precisely the only thing that would actually help. If we allow the Bush tax cuts to expire as scheduled—all of the cuts—the deficit will dry up and the nation will return to sound fiscal standing in short order. If we don't allow those unsustainable rates to expire ... then we will. If we go down after making cuts in Social Security and health care, then we'll we'll only succeed in making a lot of people miserable to no purpose. Only returning taxes to viable levels will help.
If Republicans were actually concerned about the fiscal health of the nation, they would sign onto raising the debt ceiling without hesitation or condition. Because there's nothing wrong, and because raising the limit would cost nothing. Instead they've created a completely artificial problem as nothing more than an excuse to extend the damage they've already caused. It's really a wonderful little game they've created: drive the nation so far into debt that there's no choice but to raise the limit, then use raising the limit as an excuse to create more debt. No wonder they call it red ink.
The only crisis we're facing is that one of our nation's political parties has decided to hold its breath until the nation turns red. And the media, the public, and the opposing party are treating this massive tantrum with far more respect than it deserves.

7 times is all she wrote

Imagine if the monkey business being led by the GOP (including the Tea Party branch of it) had to occur 7 times.  Why the lucky number 7, well thats how many times the debt ceiling was raised during the presidential term of George W. Bush - nearly once every year he was in office.  Now, consider all of the energy and time the White House and Congress are being forced to spend on this one topic, rather than focusing on things to move our country forward.  Imagine if the Democrats had caused this 7 times in Bush's 8 year.  If only the GOP had held themselves to this same standard.

Where are the actions to create the jobs Americans need, and the GOP promised in November, 2010.  I think shielding the income of hedge fund managers is much higher on the GOP's priority list than jobs for middle class Americans, or affordable health care for seniors and the poor, or clean energy legislation, or any of a hundred things that could once again allow America to do exceptional things.  The GOP is found of saying the Democrats are pushing class warfare, but when chaeffeurs and personal trainers pay higher taxe rates than Wall Street tycoons, I believe the GOP needs to get real - and you need to quit being fooled.

Wake up America.  Remember this in 2012.

Cutting our way to what?

In the current fight over raising the debt ceiling, the Democrats seem to be willing to accept cuts to spending but want additional tax revenue as part of a deal,  The GOP steadfastly says “no”.  If there is a true concern about the federal deficit, then I can’t understand how the GOP can be taken seriously when they won’t consider the need for additional tax revenue.  If a household can’t pay their bills, they cut expenses, but also pick up additional hours of work, or a part-time job to bring in more money.  With taxes as a percentage of GDP at a 50 year low, the federal government also needs more revenue.  The ability to fight 2 wars and provide a huge prescription drug benefit for seniors doesn’t come for free.  The GOP never made a move to pay for the guns or the butter that occurred under their watch.

Now all the GOP wants are cuts, cuts, cuts.  At the same time, the US is lagging in education, health care, and investment in our infrastructure.  We are told we can’t pay for teachers and so fire them so that our schools, which are already behind compared to other countries on the move, fall even further behind.  Our bridges, roads, and sewers are falling into even greater disrepair.  Our ability to move masses of people around in, and between our cities, is confined to cars, buses, and planes.  The belief that high-speed and light rail is a needed foundation for the growth of our country is unimaginable.  The willingness to think big and broad is absent.  The GOP’s need to drives taxes to levels even beyond a 50 year low has them saying we can’t, we shouldn’t, we won’t.  American exceptionalism that was a hallmark of the 60 years from 1940 to 2000 occurred mostly while the Democrats controlled most of the government.  God only knows the desperate shape our country would be in if the principles that drive the GOP today, were the ones that controlled the US between 1940 and 2000. 

The easiest and quickest way to a balanced budget is for a stalemate to occur in the budget wars.  If that were to come about, tax rates would revert back to where they were in 2000 and within 10 years the annual budget deficit would be eliminated.  The GOP is found of saying our country should be run like a business, but at present it doesn’t want to pay the bills they had a huge responsibility in accumulating.   Good businesses need sufficient income and good cash flow to pay its bills and invest in the operations.   A mantra of cut, cut, cut leads to neither.

What would you do?

 At last night’s GOP debate the participants and Republicans in general, want to make the case they if they were in charge (of the White House or the entire world), they would do things differently and the result would be a better economy.   Well, to them I say, “What would you do differently?”.

Tax Cuts! – Tax cuts are the answer to all that ails us as a nation. 

But wait, didn’t we go through 8 years leading up to 2009 and President Obama, in which the GOP ran the country and set its policies?  Didn’t these 8 years give us tax cuts that should have put our economy in an incredibly positive position?   As the economy was sliding into recession in 2008 that culminated in the financial meltdown, weren’t the tax cut policies the GOP wants to sell us already in place?   Didn’t seem to help, did it?  

Wasn’t about 25% of the $820 billion stimulus that President Obama signed into law made up of tax cuts?  Yes, it was!  Didn’t seem to help, did it?  In fact, check out a story in the Wall Street Journal that told us exactly why they wouldn’t work.

Eliminate Regulations! – Too many regulations are keeping the economy down.

Well, again I have to point to the 8 years with the GOP in control and siding with business over the public and consumers.  During this time many of the government agencies whose job it was to provide oversight to industry were staffed and led by industry insiders.  So, as 2008 wound down, the economy should have been at its peek ready to reach new highs, right?  Well, not exactly.  The economy was failing.

So 8 years of GOP rule that should have been the perfect setup for optimum taxes policy and regulations didn’t provide the foundation our economy needed to hum.  The GOP’s answer to this is to do more of the same.

What we have gotten in the first decade 2000 is a larger split between haves and have-nots.  We have a financial industry (that makes no hard goods) making record profits, but a larger economy with stubornly high unemployment.  We have companies with large sums of cash, but individuals struggling to make ends meet.  We have the GOP with an attitude that workers, laborers, and everyday people are the problem with their expectations of employment, health care, and fair treatment – just look at Wisconsin and Ohio.

Our government needs to employ policies that results in an increase in demand.  The resolution to our economic problems is in raising demand, not increasing supply.  This is not brought about by giving the $40K to $60K wage earner $800 to $1,000 more dollars in a year (tax cut), that won’t do anything good to our larger economy.  Rather, it will further reduce our countries ability to pay for the things that are needed.

OK, so what would you do different to really make a positive change in our economy?  Are tax cuts and regulation elimination your answer, or something else beyond the GOP's imagine?

The Unaffordable System

The country can no longer afford to pay for retired persons’ healthcare insurance. 

This is what we are being told.  The GOP’s budget that was passed in the House looks to change the system of Medicare.  It changes it in that it eliminates it.  Today, the government collects taxes (think of these as premiums) and then acts as the single insurance company to pay for all claims for services doctors and hospitals provide to retired persons.  There is an agreement between the government and the public about what services will be covered.  There is an agreement between the government and the providers about how much will be paid for each service.

The problem is that the cost of medical care is going up faster than the premiums that must pay for it.  

The GOP’s plan to solve this problem is to turn the insurance responsibility over to private companies, provide a subsidy to them for part of the premiums, and cap the level of the subsidy to rise only with the overall level of inflation.

Now, there are two big problems with this approach.  1) The inflation on medical care is rising far faster than the overall inflation rate.  2) Whereas today the government puts nearly ever premium dollar towards paying claims, private insurers will have far greater overhead – today this overhead averages about 30%.  This means that 30 cents of every 1 dollar will not pay for actual care, but instead pay for marketing, profit, and other non-care related items.

The GOP plan does nothing to control the cost of medical care for seniors.  It only controls the government’s cost by shifting the additional expenses to seniors who will pay it in ever rising premiums to private insurers.

The real solution to the high cost of medical care is to change the system by which medical care is delivered, not the system by which it is paid for.  Our country must change the way in which private enterprise operates in the delivery of medical services. 

You see, we get to decide the way the medical system is organized and operates in the US.  When the system does not operate in a way that servers the citizens of our country, it is our responsible and right to change it.  Nowhere is it required that we allow 30% of every dollar to go to profits, marketing, and other overhead in the private sector when it is not in the best interests of our entire population.  The answer to the affordability of medical care for seniors, and everyone else, is not to make each person pay more, it is to change the rules of the game, and the way the game is played to remove unneeded costs.

You see, the unaffordable system is not Medicare, it is the healthcare delivery system itself.  There is no place for profit in it and it should be removed.