Liar,Liar Pants on Fire.

 

 Most Americans  know that Congress is doing nothing to make the economy better. This is why, despite Democrats having a slim majority, people state in poll after poll that they dislike Republicans, and blame them more than Democrats for what's going on in Washington. Like Biden said, a majority used to be 51, now it's 60, and Republicans make a point of filibustering everything, solely for the purpose of creating chaos and obstruction.

All Republicans are doing is proving beyond a doubt that they do not have the best interests of our nation at heart, that they are happy to do actual harm to our nation and our citizens in order to simply impede the progress the voters voted for. They have nothing to offer except the same bad old ideas that got us into the mess we're currently struggling to get out of, a struggle which they do their best to make even worse in hopes that it will cause harm to the Dems. The Republican party in its current incarnation (and they haven't always been like this!) has been taken over by an extremist, anti-American faction who are willfully setting themselves up as enemies of the state and everybody in it. I hope voters are motivated to do something to end their strangle-hold on our nation in November. I don’t believe they will though.

Here is an example of the bills that have been filibustered by the Republicans.

 46 Senate Republicans voted against President Obama’s American Jobs Act. With 60 votes needed to end the Republican filibuster against the act that would create as many as 2 million new jobs and keep 280,000 teachers from being laid off. This bill is unlikely to see any other action.

The 99 percent of our country who want jobs now should take note of how each and every senator voted  on the American Jobs Act but they won’t.. And we should ask each one who voted no—what is your plan? How would you put our country back to work and give hope to our nation’s families? Because the truth is the Republicans who unanimously blocked this courageous bill have no plan and seek to profit politically from the country’s pain.

Along with the 2 million jobs, the American Jobs Act would:

 •Prevent 5 million workers from losing their unemployment benefits;

•Make immediate investments in rebuilding and upgrading America’s highways, transit, rail, airports, bridges, ports, schools and communications and energy infrastructure;

•Make sure the wealthy contribute their fair share to fixing our economy; the American Jobs Act is paid for by a 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires

The Republicans than have the balls to blame the President because of his lack of ideas to get the economy on the right track.

Before Rep. Paul Ryan left the stage Wednesday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, journalists took to Twitter for some real-time fact-checking.

Soon after, several media outlets, including The Huffington Post, called attention to misleading statements from Ryan's speech. The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn asked if it was the most dishonest convention speech" ever. New York's Dan Amira described it shortly before midnight as "appallingly disingenuous and shamelessly hypocritical," with his colleague Jonathan Chait -- who claims to have "the equivalent of a master’s degree in Ryan lie-ology" -- later calling out the Republican candidate for "brazen dishonesty."

At around 12:15 a.m., the Associated Press hit the wire with a piece detailing "factual shortcuts" on issues like Medicare, economic stimulus, and the closing of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville. The majority of the speech was full of lies but no one seems to care.

With the "Win At Any Cost" philosophy that the Romney ticket is subscribing to, it doesn't matter if the statements are true, as long as there are enough people out there who will believe them - at least enough to tip the scales in their favor.  The fact that the media and voting public aren't completely outraged by the hubris of the bald-faced falsehoods that are being fed to them is a sad commentary on how far we have fallen.

Here is a partial list of lies told last night.

Accused President Obama’s health care law of funneling money away from Medicare “at the expense of the elderly.” In fact, Medicare’s chief actuary says the law “substantially improves” the system’s finances, and Ryan himself has embraced the same savings.

Accused Obama of doing “exactly nothing” about recommendations of a bipartisan deficit commission — which Ryan himself helped scuttle.

 Claimed the American people were “cut out” of stimulus spending. Actually, more than a quarter of all stimulus dollars went for tax relief for workers.

 Faulted Obama for failing to deliver a 2008 campaign promise to keep a Wisconsin plant open. It closed less than a month before Obama took office.

Blamed Obama for the loss of a AAA credit rating for the U.S. Actually, Standard & Poor’s blamed the downgrade on the uncompromising stands of both Republicans and Democrats.

I guess that money ,obstruction,voter suppression,and lies are the keys to power in the future. I still blame the corporate media and the inability of Americans to read and research policies and facts. I have no faith in the public and predict a victory for ignorance and liars

Why vote against your interests ?

In my posts I have been arguing with retired military men about their feelings toward Democrat. These men seem to feel that the Government spends too much money on the poor and helpless.  I thought a few facts are needed on this issue.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is not a partisan group, but and advocacy organization working for Veterans issues on behalf of vets from the recent wars. And the facts speak for themselves - Democrats, especially the more progressive, care for the troops after coming home much more than their Republican counterparts. 

Republicans support sending the troops to war, they support undermining them with thousands of civilian contractors often acting independently, and they support wasteful Pentagon spending. What they don't support are the men and women coming home. They are only pro-troop when it suits them, and helps an agenda.

Of the 94 members of Congress who got an A or A+ from IAVA for standing with this generation of American veterans, 91 are Democrats, only 3 are Republicans. On the other side, of the 154 who got a D or an F, only 12 are Democrats, 142 are Republicans.

Yet Military men support Republicans at a much higher percent than Democrats.  Look it up for yourself. Republicans vote against most bills designed to help Veterans once their duty is completed.

The election of 2012.

I get so sick when I hear people talk about how wise our founding fathers were and what a wonderful Constitution they wrote. Here are a few facts. The Founding fathers did not want a real democracy but wrote a constitution that protected the rights of wealthy land owners but did little for the rights of women, Blacks, and working people. In fact they went out of their way to make sure the right to vote was limited to as few Americans as possible.

The Electorate only had the power to elect members of the house for two year terms. Senators were appointed by the states.  The President was not elected, and is not today, by popular vote but the Electoral College. The Judicial branch of the Federal Government is also appointed. In effect we have very little control of our leaders. The 17th. Amendment did change the constitution to allow the majority to directly elect their Senators.

We had the first slave delivered to Virginia in 1605 and the Constitution allowed it to continue until the Civil war. President Andrew Johnson bent to pressure from Southern Democrats to withdraw Federal troops after the Civil War and this act put an end to reconstruction and again put the Black man under the thumb of White land owners.  Their rights were still denied for another 100 yrs.

The Federal Government allowed Jim Crow Laws to keep people in a kind of bondage, legally, even though the 13^th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. Amendment 14, passed in 1868 was to guarantee Civil Rights to all Americans. Again it was ignored in the South.  Blacks were given the right to vote in the 15^th. Amendment in 1970 but poll taxes and other tricks still denied them their rights.  Finally in 1920 Amendment 19 allowed women the right to vote.

Amendment 24 eliminated poll taxes in 1962.  The Civil rights act passed to finally give Black people their rights. This Law had to be enforced though by federal troops .

As you can see the Constitution, as it was written, needed to be changed many times before it protected the rights of all Americans.  Today we see a push by the Republican Party to put barriers and obstacles in the way of minority voting using the pretext of voting fraud. As Americans we must remember our strength lies in our diversity and differences not in how many millionaires we have.

I have had very little to say about this Presidential race because important issues are not being addressed and the news media is covering slop and horseshit.  I actually have no comments on this silliness and just wish the imbecilic comments I read from other people can’t be serious. Can they?

The Towers at Salem Hospital

I went for a checkup this week and the Doctor seemed concerned and wanted to observe me in a hospital setting for a few days. I refused because I have high deductibles in my health coverage and an 80-20 plan. I also pay out of pocket for my wife’s care and premiums all from a small pension. Needless to say I have burnt through a lot of savings.  I refused and the Dr. convinced me to travel STAT to the local hospital for a CAT scan and blood work. I agreed to go because I just became eligible for Medicare part A and outpatient costs have a lower out of pocket expense.  There were not a lot of patients there and I observed a lot of x-ray tecnicians lying around because of lack of work.

There seems to be a trend that a lot of people, with insurance, are not using the system as much as they did because of reduced coverage and higher costs.  I know it is true in my case my wife and I have to pay almost $11,000 out of pocket before our INS starts to kick in.  The passage of the ACA has helped a little because a lot of tests are now covered at 100%.

I wrote a post last week that if Romney wins in November big changes are coming to our safety net. If Obama wins the obstruction in Congress will continue for another four years and then the Republicans will surly take over and things will finally go their way in their quest to create a two class society.

I noticed that our little hospital in Salem was undergoing a huge construction project. After asking around I found out that they were in the process of building a large tower of private rooms to accommodate wealthy people who could afford the difference between what Medicare would pay in the future and what their bill would be. The hospital seems to know that in the near future the bulk of their business will come from people that have money and the hospital wants to be ready to service them.

This ,my friends, is what a voucher system to Medicare will do to coverage. A $7,000 coupon will help the rich pay their INS premiums while a $7,000 voucher will not do a thing for the poor and middle class. They will not be able to pay the difference between $7,000 and a 12-15 thousand policy. The result would be a lack of medical services to the lower economic class.

Health care in the future is being crafted to take care of the upper class. There will be better care, better rooms and a lot more donated organs from the middle class and poor who will be excluded from quality care and therefor die early. What a bunch of sucker we are. The facts are staring us in the face and still hordes of us will vote to cut our own throat. It's not like Mr. Ryan and Romney are keeping their plans hidden. They are telling us what they plan to do and yet their support among working people stays strong. I just shake my head everyday.

The Real Entitlement Programs

I have spent the last week becoming disheartened by all the political discourse spewn out by the Republican candidates.  Most, if not all, is unclear, misleading or outright lies. Let me review and comment on a few.

First of all the wealthy Americans get a lot more free money from entitlement programs than the poor or middleclass.  I know that many, in the Media don’t report on this fact and many people don't know that in America we have far more entitlement programs for the rich than for the poor. In fact the rich do very well in America and they repay the country by paying very low or no taxes.  There are far too many entitlements to list so I will list a few that should be changed immediately.

Capital Gains Tax: The Capital gains tax benefits the rich far more than the middle class and poor. When one group gets ALL or most of the benefits from a program that is an entitlement. It also robs the US treasury of needed money to run the government. Rich people who own tens of millions in stock and other assets like real estate can sell these assets and they pay 15% on their gain. Keep in mind that over 75% of all wealthy Americans got their money the old fashioned way they INHERITED IT. So capital gains rewards the rich and lazy who didn't work for their money.

The rich have this tax capped at $106K. So for Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and all those making over $106K are allowed to avoid this tax. Brian Williams makes $10 million in salary and he pays the tax on just 1% of his wages. The CEO making $50 million per year pays Social Security tax on just one day's wages. The Wal - Mart mother pays on all her wages. Sounds fair to you ? So the top 1% who own 50% of all financial assets and make 25% of all income pays the tax on about 1. % of their wages while the middle class and the poor pay the tax on 100%, all their wages.

US government programs designed to help the poor are used by the rich too and they get more benefits. A recent study showed Medicare provided over $100 billion in payments to people who are rich. These people had heart operations and other operations and the taxpayers paid the bill. Why? Everyone pays the same Medicare premiums - rich and poor. There are virtually hundreds of tax laws that help the rich. We need to get rid of these. Our current government system is of by and for the rich - not the people. Those of you who claim to be Christians need to start following the instruction of JC."

A glance at some of the recipients of farm subsidies in shows that many of those receiving these subsidies clearly do not need them. 12 Fortune 500 companies received farm subsidies .Subsidies to the four largest of these recipients -- Westvaco, Chevron, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance, and Caterpillar -- shattered their previous record highs. This is a joke and must be addressed in a later post because of the depth and complexity of this free program.

As always our Republican leaders want to make cuts in programs that help the poor while lowering taxes on the rich and leaving their free entitlement programs alone. It is almost too much for a same person to stomach. Why do we, as voters, allow this? We allow this because the Tea Party leadership has convinced a large group of people that they are looking out for their needs while President Obama is not.

I can show an example of how destructive the Tea Party has become. In the debate and negotiations over the health care bill, the ACA, the discussion started with a framework designed by the Republicans in the 80’s. In an effort to get a bill passed Democrats bowed to pressure from the opposition and added and or stripped sections that would make the bill more Republican friendly. In essence it was a bill crafted and approved by Republicans. The Democrats gave in on almost all of their ideas to strengthen this bill. They negotiated with the Republicans to get some kind of protection for sick Americans. In fact the President took a lot of heat from his own base for giving too much away.

In steps the Tea party and in an effort to destroy the President, pressured Republican leaders to vote against their own bill just to try and stop the President’s agenda.

Next the lies started and it would take many pages to describe all of them in a small post. I fear that if Mitt is elected there will be too much power in the hands of the Tea Party and our country will go downhill fast. If Obama is elected there will be another four years of obstruction and America will continue to decline.
I just wish people would wake up and take their country back from the wealthy or soon we will all be in the same position as our predecessors of the 20’s and 30’s.  In bread lines.

Here We Go Again !

Here we go again.  Mitt Romney has selected Paul Ryan as his running mate and this has ignited the discussion on the future of Medicare. The Republicans will tell you that it is unfixable and will ruin this country. I say Bull Shit.

Medicare started in the early 60’s when it became apparent that retirees could not afford adequate medical care. Those were days when an office visit cost $5.00 and a day in the Hospital cost $125.00.

The law called for a payroll deduction of 1.45% with an equal employee match. The working people would fund the medical costs of those retired.  Since the law passed the cost of medical care has risen through the roof  when compared with stagnant wages. The fact is that medical cost have risen at an alarming rate while wages have flat lined.

No one ever talks of ideas to cap the rising cost of services delivered to the public. That is the answer. Do tests and medicine need to cost so much?  The Presidents Affordable Care Act makes an attempt to stem the higher costs by cutting between 500-750 billion from Medicare over 10 years. It is not the answer but an attempt to try to improve the program. The Republicans have tried to spin this telling older people that President Obama wants to cut their services under Medicare.

False.  First of all, under the health care bill, Medicare spending continues to go up year after year. The health care bill tries to identify ways to save money, and so the $500 billion figure comes from the difference over 10 years between anticipated Medicare spending (what is known as “the baseline”) and the changes the law makes to reduce spending. The savings actually are wrung from health-care providers, not Medicare beneficiaries.

Lies and lies piled on top of lies. When I try to explain this to people they think I am lying to them. Some believe a false Email that tells them that the so called Obama care will cost them $160.00 a month more.

I really get tired of gullible stupid people who will not take the time to learn issues and facts but will watch TV and believe what they hear. Don’t watch TV, it will rot your brain.

If retirees lose Medicare they will suffer and die early. You can take that to the bank. Maaybe that is their plan all along . As yourself this question; Who do the wealthy spend time with and who would a wealthy president represent and protect?  You ?

Just a Community Organizer !

One of the things that make me really mad is the way Republicans like Sara Palin, Rudy Giuliani.  And now Mitt Romney made fun of President Obama for the decision he made to become a community organizer after he graduated with his undergraduate degree from Columbia.  After listening to this crap for over four years I thought I would set the record straight once and for all.

So here is what Giuliani, Romney and Palin didn’t know: Obama was working for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get the services they needed–job training, help with housing and so forth–from the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord’s work–the sort of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described as a “task from God.”) What a moron!

This is what Palin Romney and Giuliani were mocking. They were making fun of a young man’s decision “to serve a cause greater than himself”.  Obama served the poor for three years, and then went to law school. To describe this service–the first thing he did out of college, the sort of service every college-educated American should perform, in some form or other–as anything other than noble is cheap and tawdry and cynical in the extreme just like the attacks and moronic jokes made by Republicans .

Catholic Democrats, like me, are expressing surprise and shock that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech almost four years ago mocked her opponent’s work in the 1980s for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  She belittled Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer in Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago, work he undertook instead of pursuing a lucrative career on Wall Street.  In her acceptance speech, Ms. Palin said, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”  Community organizing is at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching to end poverty and promote social justice. This kind of service to your fellow man is the kind of compassion and service we should expect from our potential leaders. The Right has a problem with this kind of service because they do not believe in social justice but do embrace, to the death it seems, tax cuts for business and the wealthy. They show their true colors and what kind of people they really are. Selfish and self-absorbed with money and power. We must stand together and deny them the power they desire this fall

Issues that are a stupid waste of Time

Ann Coulter on Sunday argued that comments made by Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy "wasn't an anti-gay thing." "He said, look, all the founders of this company are married to our first wives," she said on a political roundtable during ABC's 'This Week'. "It's genuinely a pro-marriage position to oppose gay marriage. Really Ann?  You forgot to mention that Chic-Fil- A's owner supports Exodus International a group that supports the “Kill the gays" bill in Uganda while millions of Christians are in line supporting his business

 In an interview with "Fox & Friends," Priebus put all his cards on the table, continuing to hammer the Senate Majority Leader.

"There's no triple down in blackjack, but I'll triple down on my comments from yesterday," Priebus said. "It's just the truth. What else do you call somebody who goes onto the Senate floor and claims that someone hasn't paid taxes in ten years, a complete lie, and uses his official office to do it?" He’s a dirty Liar.

Fox News had one burning question to raise after Gabby Douglas' gold medal performance at the women's gymnastics individual all-around competition in London: how is the athlete showing her patriotism if her uniform lacks stars and stripes?

The Winston-Salem Journal reports North Carolina State Rep. Larry Pittman (R) sent an email to colleagues in which he accused the family planning provider of "getting wealthy on murder for hire."

"Out and out politicians are anathema to rock-n-roll, so I hesitate to attempt to connect the two," he replied. "But on important issues, I am saddened to admit that Obama represents everything bad about humanity and Romney pretty much all that is good. It is really that stark.  Nugent's disdain for Obama entered the public sphere in mid-April. At a National Rifle Association convention in St. Louis, he blasted the president's administration as "vile," "evil" and "America-hating." "If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year," Nugent added.

People try and tell me that there is no difference between parties. I disagree. These are just some of the crazy things coming out of the Republicans and Tea party’s mouths the last day or two. They also are proud that they have kept the economy in bad shape by not working with the President on any plan that would improve jobs. They are not secretive about wanting to raise taxes for the bottom 90% and continue to cut taxes for the top 10%.

What shocks me is the fact that morons are going to vote against their own interest and make things worse.  If Obama and the Democrats had a super majority in the senate and the House this country would turn around in two years. As it stands now all we stand for is ignorance.