What's in the heart of the GOP?

  The GOP is a very serious political party that is all about budget discipline, they tell you.  The current fight in the Congress is a war over spending because our country is broke, they lead you to believe.  Any you might believe the GOP if your attention span is no longer then your finger nail.

   If you’re actually paying attention you know the GOP is not serious about this.  The GOP that is controlled by moneyed interests like the Koch brothers and the Chamber of Commerce is out to destroy the social safety net that was built as our nation prospered through the industrial revolution.  You see, the GOP does not subscribe to the notion that it takes a village.  They align to the every man for himself motto.  This is, after all, the way a business is run, and the GOP wants the government run like a business.  This motto holds in their minds whether that man is 21 or 81, employed or unemployed, healthy or sick.   Their fight against the true middle class can be seen in their move to privatize social security that they have been against since its inception, and took new life under President Bush.  It continues today when the GOP talks about the need for entitlement reform and groups Social Security into it.  It is seen in their efforts in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and New Jersey to destroy worker’s unions.   Their bidding for the corporations and the wealthy elite was thrown into wide open view in their proposed 2012 budget that eliminates Medicare to retired senior citizens.  

  The biggest clue to what the GOP is all about is in broad daylight today as the budget talks are at the end-game.  There are agreements between the political parties about the dollar level of the budget, but no agreement seems likely.  This is because the GOP, the very serious political party that is all about budget discipline is actually all about social issues.  An agreement on a budget to keep soldiers paid, social security checks going out in the mail, and endless numbers of needed services functioning, is being held up because the GOP is now demanding that the EPA not enforce clean air laws, and women not have access to reproductive health care.  The true colors of the very serious people of GOP shinning through!

Two eye-opening charts!

Two charts that tell a lot.

Monthly job losses under President Bush and President Obama.

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Note that the reversal of the number of monthly job losses once President Obama took office.



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 The affect of the recession on loss and recovery of jobs has been like none previous. This chart shows the % of job losses relative to peak employment, and the number of months after peak employment.

  

Click to image enlarge

Note the position of job coming out of this recession compared to 1948 - The Great Depression.  This is why a federal stimulus was needed.  To have done nothing would have been shirking responsibility.

Extreme?

Is it an extreme position that equates the American Cancer Society to Nazis?

The Sunday Carnage

BobbleSpeak Translations for Sunday's Meet the Press and This Week.

GOP healthcare death panel

When Sarah Palin and leading Republicans like Senator Chuck Grassley pointed to a section in the Affordable Care Act and falsely claimed it authorized death panels that would “pull the plug on Grandma”, the mainstream press reported on it repeatedly.  Now that the GOP is actually pushing a plan that truly cuts the level and amount of care senior citizens get, how will the press report it? 

  We have a problem in this country about the cost of healthcare.  A part of the solution is to institute a single-payer system.  Call you elected leaders and tell them to push for it.

Religious Intolerance

   So the crack pot minister Terry Jones has finally followed through on his threat to burn a Quran, the Muslim holy book.  As the minister of the Dove World Outreach Center, a small fundamentalist Christian church in Florida, he professes to be a man of God.  I can’t speak for his god, but I have to believe that my God would not be pleased by Jones’ actions.

   Religion is a very personal thing that relies totally on faith.  As such, I can’t understand how anyone can be 100% sure they are right in their faith, and if you don’t share it, then you are 100% wrong in yours.  I believe God made man more humble than this. 

   Just as Americans dislike and can’t understand many Middle East governments and cultures that are controlled so much by religion, I have the same feeling here about my government and culture.  In several state legislatures there are moves to outlaw Sharia law, but at the same time pass laws that have to do with a particular religious belief.  While opposing the idea of government being controlled by the Muslim religion, many people would support our government being controlled by the Christian religion. 

 
   Religions are made by man, not by God, and faith is but one man’s beliefs.  When governments are controlled by religious beliefs, intolerance is sure to become the law of the land.  This is not good in any country of the world including the USA

When is a mandate a mandate?

  Mike Pence, GOP Congressman of Indiana’s 6^th district, feels his party has a mandate on federal budget cuts. Recently he said the following.   “I think if liberals in the Senate are unwilling to embrace even this modest step toward fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C., then I say shut it down. You know, look, I think the American people sent this historic new majority to Congress to see the change in this direction."

  So the mandate of the people to get healthcare reform taken care of, a mandate shown through giving control of the Congress, the Senate (including a super majority of 60), and White House to the Democrats is not viewed by the GOP as a mandate.  However, in Mike Pence’s mind, putting the GOP in control of just one House of Congress in the last election is a mandate on budget cuts.  Not only does he believe this is a mandate, but he believes that his party that is in control of just the House gets to call the shots with no need to negotiate. 

  The Democrats put in total control on a platform to reform healthcare is not a mandate.  The GOP put into control of just the House of Representatives is a mandate.   Mike Pence logic.