Obama Promises to Veto Class Warfare

 Politics
Jun 042013
 

As most of you know, we are suffering under a Republican sequester now because Republicans refused to stop terrorizing America with a government shutdown, unless Obama agreed to massive cuts to discretionally spending (spending for the general welfare of 99%), before any negotiations took place.  Instead Obama demanded that half those cuts come from defense spending.  What Republicans had proposed was a sequester.  Obama just called it that.  Then Republicans refused to negotiate at all, causing the sequester to take effect.  Frankly, Obama gave them too good a deal, albeit under extreme duress.  Now Republicans are using the budget to welch on that deal.

4VetoThe White House stepped in Monday with a veto threat against a House GOP plan to advance a round of 2014 spending bills that would ease sequester-imposed cuts on the Pentagon while forcing even deeper cuts on non-defense programs.

Those cuts would come in areas like education, energy and water development and foreign aid.

In a statement, the White House budget office said the cuts called for in the GOP plan would force thousands of poor children off of Head Start, harm special education, cut federal law enforcement and dent medical research grants to thousands of scientists. It called on the Democratic Senate and GOP House to reach a broader agreement on the budget before advancing spending bills…

…The statement promised a veto of every spending bill until Washington reaches a bargain on "an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and national security for our economy to compete in the future."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <ABC>

Republicans will lead with increases to defense spending and an increase in 3.5% increase in spending for veterans.  They are anticipating the veto so they can claim that Obama blocked spending on veterans.  Obama would agree to the increase for vets in a hot minute, if this were a stand-alone measure, but it is not.  It is just one piece of the budget.The standard practice is for parties to agree on the overall framework of the budget before hammering out the details, but Republicans refuse to negotiate on framework.  Therefore Obama is correct to veto all individual measures until such a framework is in place.  Of course this shows, once again, that Republicans’ word is without value.  Now, when the screaming starts about Obama refusing to fund veterans, you’ll know why that is a lie.

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GOP Claims Poverty

 Politics
Apr 082013
 

As absurd as this may sound, an anchor from the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, had the audacity to claim that the reason Republicans are intransigent about their economic stance is that America does not have the money to do otherwise.  Horse feathers!

FoxSheepOn "This Week," Greta Van Susteren failed miserably in her attempt to explain Republicans’ ideological refusal to raise taxes…

…Let’s start with her claim that "people" don’t want to "take the safety net away" with the fact that Republicans have signed on to a budget which slashes the safety net to give tax cuts to rich people, authored by an Ayn Rand disciple who once complained that the nation’s "takers" outnumbered our "makers" and famously derided Social Security as a "hammock."

Oh, and by the way, the new chairman of the Heritage Foundation just went on Van Susteren’s network and basically called 70 million Americans welfare queens.

So to argue Republicans don’t want to get rid of the safety net is to literally argue that up is down…

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the video:

Of course, it’s standard for Republicans to say that they are not doing what they are doing, while projecting what they are doing onto Democrats.

As far as their poverty is concerned, I can not only say that Americans do have the money, but also, tell you where it is.  Vulture capitalists have rat-holed enough money in offshore tax havens to pay off the entire national debt several times over.

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Open Thread–4/5/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 052013
 

This will sound stupid, but I’ll admit it anyway.  Yesterday I was so excited about the prospect of returning to blogging, that my mind kept racing, as I thought about things I want to say.  I was so hyped over the prospect, that I could not sleep at all, so I need to delay my return for one more day.  Embarrassed smile   I’ll stay current with recent comments.  Keep keeping your fingers crossed please.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:47 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn’t Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody

 

I agree, but with the caveat that I believe Obama and most Democrats are setting the price for chained CPI higher than what Republicans will accept (revenue increase from the 1%) to demonstrate that Republicans consider bipartisanship as all for them and none for us. Nevertheless, please keep making that call, and sign this petition.

From NPR: Oregon state lawmakers have scheduled a marathon public hearing Friday on four gun control bills. The proposals include a ban on guns in schools and criminal background checks for private gun sales.

5GunsOpponents are lining up against the measures, but some gun control advocates say the proposals don’t go far enough…

…One February rally drew more than a thousand people — . Afterward, Negru toured the Capitol building with a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder and a handgun at his side…

…It’s perfectly legal to openly carry a gun in the state Capitol in Oregon if you have a concealed handgun license. But while no incidents were reported, the sight of people walking the marble hallways with semi-automatic weapons rattled some lawmakers.

That led to a proposed ban on openly carrying weapons in the state Capitol. The other measures would ban guns from school grounds; require more training for people who want a concealed carry permit; and require criminal background checks for private gun sales…

Even here in Oregon, we have TEAbuggery and InsaniTEA. Ginny Burdick, my state Senator, also wants a ban on assault weapons and high capacity clips.

From NY Times: When the Great Depression struck, many influential people argued that the government shouldn’t even try to limit the damage. According to Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon, his Treasury secretary, urged him to “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers. … It will purge the rottenness out of the system.” Don’t try to hasten recovery, warned the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter, because “artificial stimulus leaves part of the work of depressions undone.”

Like many economists, I used to quote these past luminaries with a certain smugness. After all, modern macroeconomics had shown how wrong they were, and we wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the 1930s, would we?

How naïve we were. It turns out that the urge to purge — the urge to see depression as a necessary and somehow even desirable punishment for past sins, while inveighing against any attempt to mitigate suffering — is as strong as ever. Indeed, Mellonism is everywhere these days. Turn on CNBC or read an op-ed page, and the odds are that you won’t see someone arguing that the federal government and the Federal Reserve are doing too little to fight mass unemployment. Instead, you’re much more likely to encounter an alleged expert ranting about the evils of budget deficits and money creation, and denouncing Keynesian economics as the root of all evil…

Click through for another fine Krugman editorial. Just like a Republican waging class warfare (Hoover) got us into the Great Depression, a Republican waging class warfare (Bush) got us into the Republican Recession. Getting us out of the Great Depression required a Democrat with a stimulus plan (FDR). To get out of the Republican Recession, we need a Democrat with a stimulus plan.

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Open Thread–3/20/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 212013
 

The good news is that Spring has sproinged.  The bad news is that I haven’t and am still down.  I’ll keep you posted.  Happy Lady Day to our Wiccan friends.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:48 (average 6:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Guardian: At the conservative gathering CPAC last week the enormity of this media world was remarkable. The hall was packed with talk radio shows, conservative publishers and authors signing their latest books, many of which were bestsellers. This is a world where it is seriously believed that the United Nations is trying to take over the US, and Obama is a Kenyan socialist, an Islamist, a Marxist or the biological son of communist-sympathiser Frank Marshall Davis. This is a world where Obama wants to take away all guns, where he has dictatorial powers worthy of an emperor and where the US media is a liberal conspiracy pushing abortions and being gay. This is the world where Glenn Beck, former Fox TV host turned popular publisher of The Blaze website, is hugely powerful and shock jock Rush Limbaugh is king.

Nothing of its kind exists to the same degree on the left, despite the recent best propagandistic efforts of MSNBC. Limbaugh is a man who can bring GOP politicians down if he wants. If they stray from orthodoxy, he can bring them back into line with some vitriol on his show. The words of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, or even New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, do not carry anything near the same weight with Democrats.

On the left, we have our extreme wing-nuts too, but we marginalize and ignore them. On the right, Republicans celebrate and elect them.

From Salon: CNN congressional corespondent [sic] Dana Bash tried to ask Bachmann Tuesday about her the inconsistencies in her speech. It didn’t go too well, as she explained to Anderson Cooper last night. Bash, who has gotten pretty good at chasing Bachmann in heels, tried to speak with the Tea Party Caucus chairwoman in the basement of the Capitol, but the congresswoman took off running. Bash kept pace, valiantly trying to keep up her questions as they careered through the narrow corridors, but Bachmann refused to play ball.

 

If you thought that Batshit B would keep her trap shut, you thought wrong. She gave us another splendid example of projection.

From National Memo: A new poll from Gallup has some unsurprising results — Democrats and Independents support new government spending to create jobs — and one surprising result — so do Republicans.

Lyin’ Ryan claimed that his newest old budget will stimulate the economy, and he’s right.  It will stimulate the economy of the Cayman Islands.  It will stimulate the economy of Switzerland.  It will stimulate the economy of Red China.  But in the US, only the economy particular to the 1% will be stimulated.

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Open Thread–3/20/2014

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 202013
 

Last night I broke a fever for the second time.  I’m still down, but I did add an extra Short Take.  I’m not yet up to catching up on replies, and I hope to be back tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 5:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Bernie.org: Send a Message to President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner: No Budget Deal on the Backs of the Elderly, the Children, the Sick and the Poor.

Click through to sign this petition for Bernie Sanders.

From The New Yorker: In a sombre ceremony attended by former members of the Bush administration, the former Vice-President Dick Cheney marked the tenth anniversary of making up a reason to invade Iraq.

The ceremony, held on the grounds of the Halliburton Company headquarters, brought together the former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and other key members of the lying effort.

Calling the assembled officials “profiles in fabrication,” Mr. Cheney praised them for their decade of dedication to a totally fictitious rationale.

“Making up a reason to invade a country is the easy part,” Mr. Cheney told them. “Sticking to a pretend story for ten years—that is the stuff of valor.”

Mr. Cheney added that their “steadfast charade had raised the bar for all future administrations.”

While this, of course is satire, the underlying truth could be more relevant, nor could there be a more compelling reason to recognize that every Republican in office is one Republican too many.

From NY Times: Senate Democrats plan to introduce after the Easter recess a bill widely supported by both parties that would increase the penalties for people who buy guns for those barred from having them, known as straw purchasing. But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, told Ms. Feinstein on Monday that her assault weapons ban would not be included in the bill.

“I tried my best,” Ms. Feinstein said with obvious disappointment. “My best, I guess, wasn’t good enough.”

This month, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed four pieces of gun legislation: the straw purchasing measure; the assault weapons ban, which included limits on gun magazine sizes; a grant program for school security; and enhanced background checks for gun buyers.

The Nevada Leg Hound, Harry Reid, who MUST be replaced as Senate Majority Leader, really screwed the pooch on this one.  He claims that he had only 40 votes for passage, but I wonder.  It’s much easier to say no to the mothers of murdered children in the secrecy of the Senate cloak room than it is with a public vote.  But even if 40 is all there are, the Republican Party and the Democrats, who lack the spine to take on Wayne LaPierre and the gun industry, should be made to own their votes before the American people.  Instead, Harry Reid humped a few Republican legs, whined, rolled over and played dead.

From MSNBC: Rachel on Republican Revision

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

When we failed to charge these war criminals, I cringed, because I knew that Republicans would not be content with an accurate historical retelling. We must not allow these Republicans to rewrite the history of how they lied us into this tragic war. If we fail to remember the lesson of Iraq, as we failed to remember the lesson of Vietnam, the warmongers among us will lie us into another.

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Budget Deja Vu

 Politics
Mar 132013
 

In the run-up to the 2012 election Paul Ryan clearly said that the election would determine what type of budget policy America would have: the Ryan plan of welfare for the rich and austerity for the rest, or the Obama plan of balance between cutting spending and increasing revenue by cutting back on the special treatment that the 1% receive in the tax code.  America chose.  But now Republicans are acting as if they had won, and the new Ryan Budget is virtually identical to the old one.

13RyanBudgetSenate Democrats and House Republicans on Tuesday outlined vastly divergent approaches to shoring up the government’s finances, a reminder of how far apart they remain on fiscal policy even as both sides insist publicly that a bipartisan compromise is possible…

…The Republican plan sets out to balance the budget in a decade and would cut spending by $4.6 trillion through 2023, in large part by rolling back many of Mr. Obama’s signature legislative accomplishments. It would repeal the health care overhaul of 2009, eliminate the subsidized insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion that make up the core of the law, and turn Medicare into a system of private insurance plans financed by federal vouchers.

Republicans would also do away with Wall Street regulatory laws that Mr. Obama championed and cancel the financing his administration sought for a high-speed rail network.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, were pressing forward with a budget they planned to start moving through the committee process on Wednesday. Before they could proceed, they had to set aside differences among themselves over how much to change costly but cherished federal benefit programs. When Mr. Obama met with them on Tuesday, several voiced concerns about cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

The Democrats’ budget plan will not call for adjusting the way inflation is calculated as a way to lower the future cost of those benefits, though Mr. Obama has said such a change should be on the table in talks with Republicans…

…Their proposal calls for a new $100 billion economic stimulus initiative for job training and repair to roads and bridges, projects that Democrats say they would pay for by closing loopholes in the tax code that benefit large corporations and wealthy individuals. All told, Democrats believe they can save nearly $1 trillion through such tax changes.

They would save an additional $1 trillion by trimming spending, with a quarter of those cuts coming from the Pentagon…

Inserted from <NY Times>

Am I the only one getting a sense of déjà vu?

Both Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow had segments covering the impasse.

Lawrence interviewed Robert Reich and others.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The only way to balance the budget is the way Clinton did it, to grow the economy until revenue catches up. As an alternative Lyin’ Ryan offers massive magic asterisks, more welfare for the 1%, and tax increases for everyone else.

Rachel put it into perspective.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

No doubt, Republicans will slither back to their districts, screaming that Democrats are trying to raise YOUR taxes.  If YOU are a billionaire or a corporate criminal, they will be right.  Otherwise only the Republican plan raises taxes on the poor and middle classes, just like they were trying to do when you rejected their plan in November.  Lets hang this on every Republican candidate from dog catcher up.

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Open Thread–3/11/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 112013
 

After yesterday’s grocery delivery, I’m quite pooped, but still going.  I’m current with replies, and tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:14 (average 4:35).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Right now, a sustainable deficit would be around $460 billion. The actual deficit is bigger than that. But according to new estimates by the budget office, half of our current deficit reflects the effects of a still-depressed economy. The “cyclically adjusted” deficit — what the deficit would be if we were near full employment — is only about $423 billion, which puts it in the sustainable range; next year the budget office expects that number to fall to just $172 billion. And that’s why budget office projections show the nation’s debt position more or less stable over the next decade.

So we do not, repeat do not, face any kind of deficit crisis either now or for years to come.

There are, of course, longer-term fiscal issues: rising health costs and an aging population will put the budget under growing pressure over the course of the 2020s. But I have yet to see any coherent explanation of why these longer-run concerns should determine budget policy right now. And as I said, given the needs of the economy, the deficit is currently too small.

Put it this way: Smart fiscal policy involves having the government spend when the private sector won’t, supporting the economy when it is weak and reducing debt only when it is strong. Yet the cyclically adjusted deficit as a share of G.D.P. is currently about what it was in 2006, at the height of the housing boom — and it is headed down.

Click through for the rest of Krugman’s editorial on what Republicans don’t want you to know.

From The Guardian: New York City took a step closer to having its first female and openly gay mayor on Sunday with the formal announcement that strongly tipped Democrat Christine Quinn will run for the post.

The city council speaker and veteran of New York politics confirmed her intention via a tweet and released a video in which she vowed to fight for middle- and working-class New Yorkers.

An early favourite to get the Democratic nomination for the mayoralty, she is also expected to get the backing of Republican-turned-independent mayor Michael Bloomberg.

She sounds like she may be an improvement.

From UPI: U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan says his budget blueprint will promote repealing President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.

Oh my! What a surprise!

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