Let me first say this isn’t to demean slavery in any way, it was the darkest time in America and one that should be apologized for. This is just my opinion and if it offends anyone I am sorry.
Return of Slavery?
Beginning in the 1980’s after the corporate president took office we have seen the destruction of middle class and a vast expansion of the poor. Reagan came into office and immediately rammed through any legislation that Wall Street and big business demanded he pass even at the expense of the majority of Americans. All the work done in the previous 50 years to help raise people out of poverty and create a fair playing field were systematically dismantled creating a new slave class.
For 50 years, and with the help of unions, Americans had begun to build a good life for themselves. A family could have one parent work and one stay home to raise the children and live in comfort and for the first time be able to own their homes, cars and even take vacations. This was the American dream and a majority of families were living it.
Starting in the 1980’s that dream slowly started to become a nightmare as legislation after legislation was passed first weakening unions than strengthening corporate power. It was no longer possible for 1 parent to work and support a family and in some cases both parents had to work just to live the same life they were accustomed to. Health care was no longer a right that everyone had access to and was slowly becoming a privilege that most couldn’t afford. This was the first shots that began a decades long genocide of the middle class.
For years the republican party fought to give tax breaks to the rich and powerful putting more money in their pocket while cutting aide to the poor, elderly and disabled and fighting with every breath to keep the minimum wage low and prevent people from making a good living anymore. The nuclear family exploded and we saw a huge increase in single parents struggling to get by and record homelessness, the republican solution to this problem was to act like they didn’t exist.
You have to look no further than Mississippi to see what happens when republicans are allowed to put all their programs into place and run things like they want. The citizens are kept poor, uneducated and have little access to healthcare, add this with loose gun laws and you see the state also ranking near the top every year in gun violence. This is the final step that was stared by President Reagan and later continued and still be fought for today.
While it’s not slavery in the horrible sense that we have know it in the past it is what I call corporate slavery. With all the cuts in food stamps and insurance for the poor Americans have no choice but to take jobs they hate or are overqualified for but need it to put food on the table and have health care for their family. Many no longer have the luxury to find jobs they want or like because if they leave the ones they have they will lose their homes or worse.
Republicans have made most Americans slaves to the corporations that fund their elections and thanks to the supreme court it will only get worse. Corporations can now spend billions to get the people they want elected and keep us slaves to the corporate machine. If we stand up to the rich and powerful who have enslaved us we immediately hear “Class Warfare” and are put down as being jealous of the rich.
How do they get away with this? They keep us divided on issues like abortion, gun control and make people who work think those who are too sick or disabled and receive welfare do so because they are lazy. Republicans have been promoting a middle class civil war for years and until we wake up and unite we will keep fighting amongst ourselves when we should fight against the people keeping us down. The sad thing is that the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have things in common but due to the corporate media you will never hear that on TV, the media is owned by the same ones who want to keep us indentured servants who are just glad to be getting the little we are getting. Until America wakes up an unites we will always be in debt and under the control of a small group - We are not the United States of America right now we are the United States of Corporations and have become a plutocracy were the will of the few is cherished over the will of the people.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
How Benghazi exposes republican hypocrisy
The fake Benghazi outrage fueled by Fox “News” is just another in a long line of republicans proving their hypocrisy. There are many, many examples of them doing something just as bad if not worse but being ok with it and only offended when it’s the Democrats. Offenses that get ignored by the republicans and their base are grounds for impeachment or termination if done by someone else. Below is just a few examples
BENGHAZI
While it’s a tragedy that 4 Americans died in Libya it’s not the first time an embassy was attacked under a president and not even close to the first time American lives were lost. We have spent 3 months and lord knows how much money to investigate and play politics with this faux scandal and the GOP propaganda network has covered it 24/7 since that night.
From 2001-2008 under Republican President Bush we had many attacks including
2002 = Consulate in Karachi with 10 dead
2004 = US Embassy in Uzbekistan with 2 dead
2004 = US Consulate in Saudi Arabia with 8 dead
2006 = US Embassy in Syria with 1 dead
2007 = US Embassy in Athens
2008 = US Embassy in Serbia
2008 = US Embassy in Yemen with 10 dead
That’s 7 attacks (and not all of them) and Republicans didn’t launch one investigation into those attacks or the lives lost. This list is just the last republican president and doesn’t include the attack in Lebanon under Ronald Reagan that got 241 American killed.
They are demanding everyone testify before congress which would be fine except that after the attacks in NY on 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq based on faulty intelligence that lead to the loss of over 8,000 American lives and wounded another 50,000 not only did the republicans not want to investigate but President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have still not testified on what they knew and when they knew it. If anyone even thought about asking tough questions following Sept. 11th they were labeled “unpatriotic” for questioning the President.
So the same people screaming right now to know the truth are the same ones who turned their backs on the American people to protect themselves and their party after 2001.
SEX SCANDALS
In the 90’s republicans spent tens of millions of dollars investigating Bill Clinton after it came to light that he may have had sex outside marriage. The man spearheading the attack on President Clinton was himself a serial adulterer who not only cheated on one wife but multiple wives. After spending between 30 and 50 million dollars nothing came of it and President Clinton was more popular than ever but it did distract the country and allow our enemies to plot an attack on us (which would happen a few years later).
Democrat Anthony Weiner tweeted a picture of himself in his underwear and was forced out of congress, we had republicans all over the news demanding he step down and screaming it was a disgrace. He later did the right thing and stepped down putting the country and his party ahead of his own aspirations.
Why does this make them hypocrites? Republican congressman David Vitter not only had sex outside marriage but he used prostitutes and according to some reports was making plans with them while he was on the floor of congress when he was getting paid by taxpayers to represent them.
Was David Vitter forced out of office? No he left on his own, not because of what he did but because he was elected Senator, that’s right he is now one of the 100 senators that represents America. So if you are a democrat and have sex outside marriage or tweet a photo you must leave office or get impeached, if you are a republican and pay for sex with a prostitute cheating on your wife and family you get promoted.
These are just a few of the examples and there are hundreds more including Republican Darrell Issa spending taxpayer time and money investigating gun running by President Obama while it’s a program he supported and voted to fund under the Bush administration than lied to the American public and said he had no idea a program like this existed.
The lesson is that there is no low the republicans will sink to, they will lie - cheat - steal their way to power at the expense of anyone. They have a news media that will not cover these scandals or point out the hypocrisy and if they should happen to tell the truth then they are labeled “liberal media” and often ignored. The hypocrisy on the right runs rampant and until it’s exposed they will keep getting away with their lies and fake scandals.
BENGHAZI
While it’s a tragedy that 4 Americans died in Libya it’s not the first time an embassy was attacked under a president and not even close to the first time American lives were lost. We have spent 3 months and lord knows how much money to investigate and play politics with this faux scandal and the GOP propaganda network has covered it 24/7 since that night.
From 2001-2008 under Republican President Bush we had many attacks including
2002 = Consulate in Karachi with 10 dead
2004 = US Embassy in Uzbekistan with 2 dead
2004 = US Consulate in Saudi Arabia with 8 dead
2006 = US Embassy in Syria with 1 dead
2007 = US Embassy in Athens
2008 = US Embassy in Serbia
2008 = US Embassy in Yemen with 10 dead
That’s 7 attacks (and not all of them) and Republicans didn’t launch one investigation into those attacks or the lives lost. This list is just the last republican president and doesn’t include the attack in Lebanon under Ronald Reagan that got 241 American killed.
They are demanding everyone testify before congress which would be fine except that after the attacks in NY on 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq based on faulty intelligence that lead to the loss of over 8,000 American lives and wounded another 50,000 not only did the republicans not want to investigate but President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have still not testified on what they knew and when they knew it. If anyone even thought about asking tough questions following Sept. 11th they were labeled “unpatriotic” for questioning the President.
So the same people screaming right now to know the truth are the same ones who turned their backs on the American people to protect themselves and their party after 2001.
SEX SCANDALS
In the 90’s republicans spent tens of millions of dollars investigating Bill Clinton after it came to light that he may have had sex outside marriage. The man spearheading the attack on President Clinton was himself a serial adulterer who not only cheated on one wife but multiple wives. After spending between 30 and 50 million dollars nothing came of it and President Clinton was more popular than ever but it did distract the country and allow our enemies to plot an attack on us (which would happen a few years later).
Democrat Anthony Weiner tweeted a picture of himself in his underwear and was forced out of congress, we had republicans all over the news demanding he step down and screaming it was a disgrace. He later did the right thing and stepped down putting the country and his party ahead of his own aspirations.
Why does this make them hypocrites? Republican congressman David Vitter not only had sex outside marriage but he used prostitutes and according to some reports was making plans with them while he was on the floor of congress when he was getting paid by taxpayers to represent them.
Was David Vitter forced out of office? No he left on his own, not because of what he did but because he was elected Senator, that’s right he is now one of the 100 senators that represents America. So if you are a democrat and have sex outside marriage or tweet a photo you must leave office or get impeached, if you are a republican and pay for sex with a prostitute cheating on your wife and family you get promoted.
These are just a few of the examples and there are hundreds more including Republican Darrell Issa spending taxpayer time and money investigating gun running by President Obama while it’s a program he supported and voted to fund under the Bush administration than lied to the American public and said he had no idea a program like this existed.
The lesson is that there is no low the republicans will sink to, they will lie - cheat - steal their way to power at the expense of anyone. They have a news media that will not cover these scandals or point out the hypocrisy and if they should happen to tell the truth then they are labeled “liberal media” and often ignored. The hypocrisy on the right runs rampant and until it’s exposed they will keep getting away with their lies and fake scandals.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Time for Right to Union Work Laws
Hearing another state pass “right to work” laws which allows people to decide if they want to be in their companies union or not sounds like a good idea until you look further into it. Even if someone decides not to pay their union dues and join a union they are still represented by that union, it’s welfare in the simplest form. I have suggestion for the democratic party and President Barack Obama - pass right to union laws.
Right now a company must vote on forming or joining a union and a majority must vote in favor, then if they do for a union the employees who do not want to join still get all the benefits of said union with none of the sacrifice. Democrats should push to change the laws and allow anyone with a job to join an existing union, even if the place they work is non union. Allow the employees of Walmart to join the service union or any other union if they so choose even if all the workers don’t want to be in a union and only a couple.
Take away the rights of non union members to be represented by the union they refuse to pay, why should they get all the benefits, vacation and pay that the union sacrificed for? Right now it’s a big handout to people who want a free ride and we know republicans hate free riders so they should support this. Let non union employees negotiate their own pay, vacations and healthcare. Take away their protections from wrongful termination and let them know they no longer have the backing of the unions to keep their jobs safe.
This country was build on the backs of labor unions who negotiated fair pay, 40 hour work weeks, weekends off, holiday pay, insurance, pension and more. Without the unions we could still be working 60 hour weeks for less than minimum wage with no weekends or holidays off, all things we take for granted today. This country has come a long way from the sit down strike that resulted in the national guard being called in, at the time they were sent in to protect the union workers from the union breaking thugs, today politicians ARE the union breaking thugs and it’s the union workers who would have the guard turned on them.
Our fathers and grandfathers didn’t risk their jobs and their lives forming unions and helping us live better lives to have us throw them all away and turn back the clock to the 1920’s were business could do as it please with employees. It’s no coincidence that as unions have died so has the middle class and the income inequality has grown. We started becoming a plutocracy in the 1980’s when wall street helped get Ronald Reagan elected to do their bidding and he immediately set out to destroy the middle class and nuclear family.
It’s time to bring back the middle class and that starts with good paying union jobs, yes we should have a “right to work” but we need “right to work for fair pay and benefits”. It’s time to end the days of needing 3 jobs to put food on the table and getting sick means having to file bankruptcy or lose your homes. Time to get back to being able to have a parent at home to take care and raise the children instead of both having to work and the child being left raising himself. Time to become America again and fight back against the plutocracy we are becoming, it’s we the people not we the corporations and the first step to getting back to that is strong unions and even stronger politicians who will stand up to special interest and put America ahead of themselves.
Right now a company must vote on forming or joining a union and a majority must vote in favor, then if they do for a union the employees who do not want to join still get all the benefits of said union with none of the sacrifice. Democrats should push to change the laws and allow anyone with a job to join an existing union, even if the place they work is non union. Allow the employees of Walmart to join the service union or any other union if they so choose even if all the workers don’t want to be in a union and only a couple.
Take away the rights of non union members to be represented by the union they refuse to pay, why should they get all the benefits, vacation and pay that the union sacrificed for? Right now it’s a big handout to people who want a free ride and we know republicans hate free riders so they should support this. Let non union employees negotiate their own pay, vacations and healthcare. Take away their protections from wrongful termination and let them know they no longer have the backing of the unions to keep their jobs safe.
This country was build on the backs of labor unions who negotiated fair pay, 40 hour work weeks, weekends off, holiday pay, insurance, pension and more. Without the unions we could still be working 60 hour weeks for less than minimum wage with no weekends or holidays off, all things we take for granted today. This country has come a long way from the sit down strike that resulted in the national guard being called in, at the time they were sent in to protect the union workers from the union breaking thugs, today politicians ARE the union breaking thugs and it’s the union workers who would have the guard turned on them.
Our fathers and grandfathers didn’t risk their jobs and their lives forming unions and helping us live better lives to have us throw them all away and turn back the clock to the 1920’s were business could do as it please with employees. It’s no coincidence that as unions have died so has the middle class and the income inequality has grown. We started becoming a plutocracy in the 1980’s when wall street helped get Ronald Reagan elected to do their bidding and he immediately set out to destroy the middle class and nuclear family.
It’s time to bring back the middle class and that starts with good paying union jobs, yes we should have a “right to work” but we need “right to work for fair pay and benefits”. It’s time to end the days of needing 3 jobs to put food on the table and getting sick means having to file bankruptcy or lose your homes. Time to get back to being able to have a parent at home to take care and raise the children instead of both having to work and the child being left raising himself. Time to become America again and fight back against the plutocracy we are becoming, it’s we the people not we the corporations and the first step to getting back to that is strong unions and even stronger politicians who will stand up to special interest and put America ahead of themselves.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Republican Exploitation of American lives
Something has been bothering me since September 11th 2001 and I can not hold it in anymore. When tragedy hits for 200 years America has come together and helped those in need, not because we had to or because there was anything in it for us but because it was the right thing to do. 9/11 changed a lot of things but for it’s the day decency died in American politics.
On Sept 11th America came together, we didn’t question why it happened or if it could have been prevented, we laced up our boots and went to work. First responders from all over the country diverged on New York City to help search for survivors than to clean up the rubble and search for victims. Brave men and women joined the military to avenge the day and many gave up everything to defend the country they love and hunt down the man who scarred America.
This spirit lasted about 2 years until the next election, then republicans decided they could use this event to win elections and set out to do so by running campaigns of fear exploiting the deaths of that tragic day. We started hearing things like “democrats can’t keep you safe” or “vote democrat and die”. It worked as republicans took control of the congress, senate and kept the white house.
In April 2004 a brave man who gave up millions in NFL money to fight for his country was killed in Afghanistan. On April 29th the top commander in Afghanistan contacted Central Command and advised them that Mr. Tillman was likely killed by friendly fire and suggested “The president be contacted in order to preclude any unknowing statements which may later embarrass the country” . May 3rd the Bush Administration had a nationally televised memorial for Mr. Tillman and the story was still he was killed by Enemy fire despite knowing better. May 29th it was finally announced that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire the official story has never been released and the family is still waiting for answers but the White house had no problem using the death of Mr. Tillman to promote their political agenda.
During the re-election of President Bush it was common for him to use the fear card, every time Mr. Bush fell behind John Kerry in the polls he announced that the terror alert would be raised but never gave any specifics, then right before the election Bin Laden was conveniently heard from and commercials were run showing wolves with the message being you are not safe and will die under democrats.
By 2008 America had enough with the fear card, it was used to pass through a “patriot act” that stripped away rights under the ruse of “security” and we were in a civil war in Iraq even though they had nothing to do with the Sept. attacks even though thanks to shady comments and faulty intel many of Americans believe they did. Republicans were swept out of office and the days of exploiting American deaths for political gains appeared to be over.
Early in 2011 President Obama came to the podium to announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and after almost 10 years many American could sleep better at night. Republican response was almost immediate as they said “don’t make the death political” then started to give Bush credit for intel that he got over 8 years prior though torture. If it was mentioned Bin Laden is dead Fox and republicans would scream we are playing politics with his death.
Sept 11th 2012 a horrible event happened in Libya which lead to the death of 4 Americans and the republican candidate couldn’t even wait 24 hours to come out and play politics with those deaths. Every day since that republicans have been exploiting those deaths to try and destroy Obama. Fox has had “several private sources” give them information that has since been proven a lie but instead of saying so they have doubled down on faulty intel and lies just to destroy Obama. Republicans immediately fell back into exploiting the deaths of Americans for political gains.
Days before the election and a hurricane hit the north east United States killing 90 people and leaving millions w/out power. The president stopped campaigning to return to Washington and be there for the Governors when they needed help both democrat and republican while Mitt Romney held a rally were he bought thousands in food to look like his supporters were donating. Days after and just 4 days before the election and now Fox (the propaganda wing of the republican party) is exploiting the suffering again to slander the president. In one day they have claimed he shouldn’t be campaigning and instead should just be in NY/NJ running things, they have called it worse than Katrina which I guess is true to them since they obviously believe the lives of 90 lost New Yorkers is more valuable than the loss of 1,800 poor people in New Orleans. They are now comparing it to 9/11 and when a benefit was planned they told their viewers not to watch or donate because it was just an “Obama Concert” even though it was to raise money for the hungry and cold people suffering from the affects of Sandy.
For most of my life I have been proud to be an American but in the last 12 years it has become more and more troublesome and there have been points where I have been ashamed of my country and we are living in one right now. The loss of one life is tragic and no life should be traded for political gains especially by people who consider themselves “Christians”. Today republicans would brag about and exploit the death of that liberal hippie Jesus if it means they could gain power and wealth.
On Sept 11th America came together, we didn’t question why it happened or if it could have been prevented, we laced up our boots and went to work. First responders from all over the country diverged on New York City to help search for survivors than to clean up the rubble and search for victims. Brave men and women joined the military to avenge the day and many gave up everything to defend the country they love and hunt down the man who scarred America.
This spirit lasted about 2 years until the next election, then republicans decided they could use this event to win elections and set out to do so by running campaigns of fear exploiting the deaths of that tragic day. We started hearing things like “democrats can’t keep you safe” or “vote democrat and die”. It worked as republicans took control of the congress, senate and kept the white house.
In April 2004 a brave man who gave up millions in NFL money to fight for his country was killed in Afghanistan. On April 29th the top commander in Afghanistan contacted Central Command and advised them that Mr. Tillman was likely killed by friendly fire and suggested “The president be contacted in order to preclude any unknowing statements which may later embarrass the country” . May 3rd the Bush Administration had a nationally televised memorial for Mr. Tillman and the story was still he was killed by Enemy fire despite knowing better. May 29th it was finally announced that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire the official story has never been released and the family is still waiting for answers but the White house had no problem using the death of Mr. Tillman to promote their political agenda.
During the re-election of President Bush it was common for him to use the fear card, every time Mr. Bush fell behind John Kerry in the polls he announced that the terror alert would be raised but never gave any specifics, then right before the election Bin Laden was conveniently heard from and commercials were run showing wolves with the message being you are not safe and will die under democrats.
By 2008 America had enough with the fear card, it was used to pass through a “patriot act” that stripped away rights under the ruse of “security” and we were in a civil war in Iraq even though they had nothing to do with the Sept. attacks even though thanks to shady comments and faulty intel many of Americans believe they did. Republicans were swept out of office and the days of exploiting American deaths for political gains appeared to be over.
Early in 2011 President Obama came to the podium to announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and after almost 10 years many American could sleep better at night. Republican response was almost immediate as they said “don’t make the death political” then started to give Bush credit for intel that he got over 8 years prior though torture. If it was mentioned Bin Laden is dead Fox and republicans would scream we are playing politics with his death.
Sept 11th 2012 a horrible event happened in Libya which lead to the death of 4 Americans and the republican candidate couldn’t even wait 24 hours to come out and play politics with those deaths. Every day since that republicans have been exploiting those deaths to try and destroy Obama. Fox has had “several private sources” give them information that has since been proven a lie but instead of saying so they have doubled down on faulty intel and lies just to destroy Obama. Republicans immediately fell back into exploiting the deaths of Americans for political gains.
Days before the election and a hurricane hit the north east United States killing 90 people and leaving millions w/out power. The president stopped campaigning to return to Washington and be there for the Governors when they needed help both democrat and republican while Mitt Romney held a rally were he bought thousands in food to look like his supporters were donating. Days after and just 4 days before the election and now Fox (the propaganda wing of the republican party) is exploiting the suffering again to slander the president. In one day they have claimed he shouldn’t be campaigning and instead should just be in NY/NJ running things, they have called it worse than Katrina which I guess is true to them since they obviously believe the lives of 90 lost New Yorkers is more valuable than the loss of 1,800 poor people in New Orleans. They are now comparing it to 9/11 and when a benefit was planned they told their viewers not to watch or donate because it was just an “Obama Concert” even though it was to raise money for the hungry and cold people suffering from the affects of Sandy.
For most of my life I have been proud to be an American but in the last 12 years it has become more and more troublesome and there have been points where I have been ashamed of my country and we are living in one right now. The loss of one life is tragic and no life should be traded for political gains especially by people who consider themselves “Christians”. Today republicans would brag about and exploit the death of that liberal hippie Jesus if it means they could gain power and wealth.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
THANK YOU FOR CALLING ME A "RETARD"
This was originally going to be a tweet but couldn’t not be said in 140 letters or even 300, Ann Coulter has brought the word “retard” into the spotlight and like a lot of people who have different opinions than someone I have been called this. I have a fairly high IQ and graduated near top of class even taking advanced courses and for most of my life I will admit I have seen the word “retard” as a negative and taken it as an insult.
Thanks to the wonderful letter by John Franklin Stephens (a special Olympian who called out Mrs. Coulter) I now see it in a different light and to those that call me retarded I say thank you. As the wise Mr. Stephens points out most people in his situation were bullied as a child and treated poorly but have overcome that to rise above. Mr. Stephens points out that most people you would call “retarded” are part of the 47% who need government assistance that you hate so much but even though they usually have terrible health care, live in bad neighborhoods and have very little if any incomes they see life as a gift.
Every special needs person I have met are always happy, no matter how much they are crapped on in life or looked down on they take it with a smile and are just happy to be alive. Most of us take this for granted and we bitch and complain about the little things instead of just taking life in stride and being happy to be alive.
I think Mr. Stephens sums it up best and will just paste in that part of his letter that after thinking about it I agree with 100%
“Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.”
And that’s how I will look at it the next time a conservative calls me a retard, I won’t be offended but will say thank you and wear it with a badge of honor. I can only hope to live my life the way many of these brave young men and women do and look at life as a gift and not a punishment. Thank you Mr. Stephens it was an honor to read you letter and if even ½ the people in Washington who we elect to represent us were as honorable and honest as you this country would be a much, much better place.
Thanks to the wonderful letter by John Franklin Stephens (a special Olympian who called out Mrs. Coulter) I now see it in a different light and to those that call me retarded I say thank you. As the wise Mr. Stephens points out most people in his situation were bullied as a child and treated poorly but have overcome that to rise above. Mr. Stephens points out that most people you would call “retarded” are part of the 47% who need government assistance that you hate so much but even though they usually have terrible health care, live in bad neighborhoods and have very little if any incomes they see life as a gift.
Every special needs person I have met are always happy, no matter how much they are crapped on in life or looked down on they take it with a smile and are just happy to be alive. Most of us take this for granted and we bitch and complain about the little things instead of just taking life in stride and being happy to be alive.
I think Mr. Stephens sums it up best and will just paste in that part of his letter that after thinking about it I agree with 100%
“Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.”
And that’s how I will look at it the next time a conservative calls me a retard, I won’t be offended but will say thank you and wear it with a badge of honor. I can only hope to live my life the way many of these brave young men and women do and look at life as a gift and not a punishment. Thank you Mr. Stephens it was an honor to read you letter and if even ½ the people in Washington who we elect to represent us were as honorable and honest as you this country would be a much, much better place.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Want Less Debt and Smaller Government vote Democrat
My whole life I’ve heard republicans claim the wanted smaller government and more freedoms while claiming democrats were for big government and less freedoms. Lets take a look at the facts and see if their speech equals how they really govern.
DEBT
Ronald Reagan
When he took office the debt was 997 billion dollars and the deficit was 80 billion dollars the year before he took office.
When he left office the debt was 2.8 Trillion and the deficit the year he left office was 250 billion dollars in one year.
So under Reagan the debt increased 1.8 Trillion and he if continued Carter policies it would have been 640 billion so Reagan increased the debt by 1.2 trillion with his own policies
Bush Sr.
Took office debt was 2.8 Trillion and Deficit was 250 billion
Left office debt was 4 Trillion and deficit was 400 Billion (final year)
Continuing Reagan Polices would have added 1 trillion to debt so in 4 years 200 billion is due to Bush policies
Bill Clinton
Took office 4 trillion debt and 400 billion deficit
Left office 5.8 Trillion debt and 100 billion deficit (final year)
Continuing Bush Sr. Policies would have added 3.2 Trillion so in 8 years Clinton actually CUT spending 1.4 trillion
George Bush Jr.
Took office 5.8 Trillion debt 100 billion deficit
Left Office 11 Trillion Debt 1 trillion deficit (final year)
Continuing Clinton policies would have added 800 Billion so in 8 years 4.4 Trillion in debt is due to Bush Policies
Barack Obama
Took office 11 Trillion Debt 1 trillion deficit
After years (projected) 16.4 Trillion 1.6 Trillion deficit
Continuing Bush Polices would have added 4 Trillion in Debt so in 4 years 1.4 Trillion is due to Obama Policies
As you can see despite all the talk deficits have increased slower under Obama than under Bush and the only president to actually cut spending in last 30 years was a Democrat in Bill Clinton.
Size of Government (including federal and public sector workers)
Under both Reagan and Bush over 1 million government jobs were created while under Obama we have lost over 700,000 public sector employees including
Teachers - Cut 5.6%
Police - Cut 8.4%
Emergency responders - Cut 43.5%
Air Traffic Controllers - Cut 28.5%
Only public sector to grow under Obama is Fire Fighters who increased 18.9%
If the public sector was allowed to expand at the same rate as every previous president we would be at less than 7% unemployment and have almost 2,000,000 more good paying jobs. This private sector recovery has been faster than under both Reagan and Bush but is kept down because of the massive layoff in public sector workers for the first time in any recession recovery.
So I you want smaller government and less increase in deficit spending vote Democrat.
DEBT
Ronald Reagan
When he took office the debt was 997 billion dollars and the deficit was 80 billion dollars the year before he took office.
When he left office the debt was 2.8 Trillion and the deficit the year he left office was 250 billion dollars in one year.
So under Reagan the debt increased 1.8 Trillion and he if continued Carter policies it would have been 640 billion so Reagan increased the debt by 1.2 trillion with his own policies
Bush Sr.
Took office debt was 2.8 Trillion and Deficit was 250 billion
Left office debt was 4 Trillion and deficit was 400 Billion (final year)
Continuing Reagan Polices would have added 1 trillion to debt so in 4 years 200 billion is due to Bush policies
Bill Clinton
Took office 4 trillion debt and 400 billion deficit
Left office 5.8 Trillion debt and 100 billion deficit (final year)
Continuing Bush Sr. Policies would have added 3.2 Trillion so in 8 years Clinton actually CUT spending 1.4 trillion
George Bush Jr.
Took office 5.8 Trillion debt 100 billion deficit
Left Office 11 Trillion Debt 1 trillion deficit (final year)
Continuing Clinton policies would have added 800 Billion so in 8 years 4.4 Trillion in debt is due to Bush Policies
Barack Obama
Took office 11 Trillion Debt 1 trillion deficit
After years (projected) 16.4 Trillion 1.6 Trillion deficit
Continuing Bush Polices would have added 4 Trillion in Debt so in 4 years 1.4 Trillion is due to Obama Policies
As you can see despite all the talk deficits have increased slower under Obama than under Bush and the only president to actually cut spending in last 30 years was a Democrat in Bill Clinton.
Size of Government (including federal and public sector workers)
Under both Reagan and Bush over 1 million government jobs were created while under Obama we have lost over 700,000 public sector employees including
Teachers - Cut 5.6%
Police - Cut 8.4%
Emergency responders - Cut 43.5%
Air Traffic Controllers - Cut 28.5%
Only public sector to grow under Obama is Fire Fighters who increased 18.9%
If the public sector was allowed to expand at the same rate as every previous president we would be at less than 7% unemployment and have almost 2,000,000 more good paying jobs. This private sector recovery has been faster than under both Reagan and Bush but is kept down because of the massive layoff in public sector workers for the first time in any recession recovery.
So I you want smaller government and less increase in deficit spending vote Democrat.
Monday, September 10, 2012
QUEST TO VOTE IN PENNSYLVANIA
After voting in every election for the past 50 years with the exception of when he was in Korea fight for the United States military my father now has to prove who he is before he can vote. A lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum see no problem with voter ID laws and assume that getting one is simple so I thought it would be fun to chronicle our quest to get him a photo ID to vote in Pennsylvania..
Background - He is currently in his mid 70’s and has never had the urge to drive or need a drivers license. My parents bought and moved into their first home in 2002 and in the process lost some information like their social security cards, birth certificates etc. It was simple for my mother to get new ones as she had a drivers license but my father having been retired with no use for a photo ID didn’t replace the lost items. Around 2005 he went into hospital for “routine” surgery and ended up disabled and in a wheel chair, after this my mother got power of attorney and had all the bills just put in her name.
Now - law is passed in Pennsylvania you need a current photo ID to vote so we go on the quest to get the required documents for his so he can vote.
Social Security card - You need a birth certificate and proof of identity that includes a drivers license, passport, even a health care card but NOT Medicare. So we need a photo ID to get a social security card but need a social security card to get a photo ID. While it doesn’t effect him you are only allowed 10 replacement cards in your lifetime so people who have reached that limit will not be able to get another one. They accepted certified medical records from the past 2 years for one of these after several failed attempts we finally got a new Social Security card.
Birth Certificate - This was a tough one as the court house were the records where stored was destroyed in a flood. We have someone we know trying to help us get a new one of these and the Department of Ageing is helping on this also.
Photo ID - since we don’t have a birth certificate we are unable to get one at this time. When/If we get the above we are left with one last problem and that is proof of residence since the bills are all in my mothers name my father has nothing that shows his name and current address he can use. I am working with someone on this who is trying to get me temporary power of attorney so I can have him put on our bank account and on the mortgage so he will have 2 pieces of appropriate mail with his name and current address on them.
I have less then 60 days to get this all done and as a last resort have a final option - I can get him a passport but it will cost 135.00 to get one before the election. I have found a photo ID for him that expired over 15 years ago and since the lady working at the post office knows him and his current address they can use the info they have to get him a passport.
The final hurdle if I get all that done is getting him all the way to the DMV to get his photo ID. I don’t drive (never have) and it’s almost ½ hour away and we are not counting on my mother ever being able to drive again when she gets out of the hospital.
It’s a shame when someone has served their country in what I consider War Time (but the VA doesn’t - they call Korea a police action) , worked and paid taxes for over 40 years and now they have to jump through hoops just to do something that they have fought and in some people cases died for. Voting should be a right especially to the great men and women who built this country. I only hope your state doesn’t pass these laws and suppress the vote of anyone you love and care about, there is no worse feeling then giving your life to the country only to have them tell you - you’re opinion doesn’t count.
Background - He is currently in his mid 70’s and has never had the urge to drive or need a drivers license. My parents bought and moved into their first home in 2002 and in the process lost some information like their social security cards, birth certificates etc. It was simple for my mother to get new ones as she had a drivers license but my father having been retired with no use for a photo ID didn’t replace the lost items. Around 2005 he went into hospital for “routine” surgery and ended up disabled and in a wheel chair, after this my mother got power of attorney and had all the bills just put in her name.
Now - law is passed in Pennsylvania you need a current photo ID to vote so we go on the quest to get the required documents for his so he can vote.
Social Security card - You need a birth certificate and proof of identity that includes a drivers license, passport, even a health care card but NOT Medicare. So we need a photo ID to get a social security card but need a social security card to get a photo ID. While it doesn’t effect him you are only allowed 10 replacement cards in your lifetime so people who have reached that limit will not be able to get another one. They accepted certified medical records from the past 2 years for one of these after several failed attempts we finally got a new Social Security card.
Birth Certificate - This was a tough one as the court house were the records where stored was destroyed in a flood. We have someone we know trying to help us get a new one of these and the Department of Ageing is helping on this also.
Photo ID - since we don’t have a birth certificate we are unable to get one at this time. When/If we get the above we are left with one last problem and that is proof of residence since the bills are all in my mothers name my father has nothing that shows his name and current address he can use. I am working with someone on this who is trying to get me temporary power of attorney so I can have him put on our bank account and on the mortgage so he will have 2 pieces of appropriate mail with his name and current address on them.
I have less then 60 days to get this all done and as a last resort have a final option - I can get him a passport but it will cost 135.00 to get one before the election. I have found a photo ID for him that expired over 15 years ago and since the lady working at the post office knows him and his current address they can use the info they have to get him a passport.
The final hurdle if I get all that done is getting him all the way to the DMV to get his photo ID. I don’t drive (never have) and it’s almost ½ hour away and we are not counting on my mother ever being able to drive again when she gets out of the hospital.
It’s a shame when someone has served their country in what I consider War Time (but the VA doesn’t - they call Korea a police action) , worked and paid taxes for over 40 years and now they have to jump through hoops just to do something that they have fought and in some people cases died for. Voting should be a right especially to the great men and women who built this country. I only hope your state doesn’t pass these laws and suppress the vote of anyone you love and care about, there is no worse feeling then giving your life to the country only to have them tell you - you’re opinion doesn’t count.
Monday, September 3, 2012
The Real Mitt Romney
After seeing the success of the right wing propaganda movie “Obama 2016” which is based on very little facts but instead a look at what he might do according to the uber conservative director I thought I would look at who the real Mitt Romney is, not based on imagination but based on his real history.
1. MILITARY SERVICE
Lets start with his military service or lack there of, he was called to service four times during the Vietnam war but chose not to go fight for his country by either claiming school studies or ministry service in France. When asked about it in 2007 he wished he had served saying
“I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”
While it sounds good it is a far cry from what he stated in 1994 when his response was to the Boston Herald with
“It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft,” Romney told the newspaper.
This last statement is a flat out lie as the man got not one but four deferments to avoid service. He follows in a long history of Republicans running for office who support war while avoiding service themselves. Unlike most others though he protested in favor of the war he would not fight in. This man wants to be in charge of the largest military in the world and make it even bigger, even beating the war drums with Iran.
2. BUSINESS
His business career can be summed up as profit at all costs. While he claims to have left Bain Capital in 1999 he filed as the sole owner until 2002 with the SEC and had a large salary of over 100,000 a year until then so we will go with the SEC facts not Romney’s word.
While at Bain Mr. Romney bought Damon , while being at top executive and financial officer the company was making profits, in 1993 the company was bought by Corning and they immediately spotted a fraud. Turns out that while under the rule of Romney Damon was running a Medicare fraud and charging for tests they did not run. Mitt Romney originally claimed he was a proactive board member who helped uncover the fraud and took corrective actions to stop it. Court records released by the Globe show a different story and reveal that the fraud occurred right up to the time Bain sold the company to Corning and prosecutors gave sole credit to Corning for cleaning up the Fraud. Romney later admitted that the board did not report to federal investigators the findings from the alleged internal inquiry (which sounds like he’s admitting knowing about it but not reporting it). The company was fined over 100 million dollars.
While Mitt originally was pro choice he changed his stance while Governor of Mass to be pro life, this wouldn’t be a big story because people change their minds all the time but a story in Mother Jones makes this a big story. Now this depends on if you believe the words out of Mr. Romney’s mouth or the truth, In 1999 Bain Capital invested in a company called Stericycle which made money in medical waste disposal. Again not a big story except the company collected from family planning clinics which included aborted fetuses, so the pro life Romney is against abortion but all for making money off of it?
In the 2000’s Bain invested in many companies that outsourced jobs to China and India, Mitt claimed he left in 1999 and had nothing to do with that (even though his government filings say different) but even if you believe that story the facts again get in the way. While on the campaign trail he attacked China for stealing American jobs but on April 17,1998 a Bain affiliate filed a report with the SEC that it had acquired part of Hong Kong based Gobal Tech Appliances which makes household appliances in China. Mitt Romney was identified as the person in control of the investment and “sole shareholder”. According to Mother Jones the firm publicly acknowledged that it’s strategy was to profit from US companies outsourcing production abroad. So his denial of being involved in outsourcing is again a flat out lie.
Won’t even get into the FDIC 10 million in debt forgiveness that kept Bain from going bankrupt but what is obvious is every chance Mitt Romney had to make the choice between his morals and profit he always chose profit.
3. OLYMPICS
We often hear “Mitt Romney saved the Olympics”, first off you have to accept that the Olympics where in great danger at the time and needed saving. One of the first things Mr. Romney did was to register as a lobbyist and head to Washington for a bailout. As a registered lobbyist he brought in 1.3 billion dollars to help get the games back on track, it is still a record for government spending on the Olympics more then doubling the 600 million on the 96 Atlanta Olympics.
John McCain called complained at the time calling the federal spending “incredible pork-barrel project” a “rip-off to taxpayers” and even called for a federal investigation. The Salt Lake City Council insisted the federal funds went to legitimate purposes but also added the Olympics where an excuse to get a lot of things done for the city including new roads and bridges.
Sports Illustrated documented “shady” spending including a bridges to nowhere, a millionaire receiving cast to build a road and a billionaire ski resort owner got federal assistance to buy public land. He ended his lobbying career only after a second bribery-style Olympic scandal surfaced showing politicians where offered free tickets to events.
So did Romney “save” the Olympics? I would say no, the taxpayers saved the Olympics and we will never know how much Mr. Romney paid himself as a lobbyist since several of the financial documents have been destroyed.
4. SECRETS
The final thing is the fact that Mr. Romney will reveal nothing to the public, from his tax records which may hide a felony to his time as Governor when as they were leaving they took the hard drives with them hiding all the work that was done. Recently we found out that a lot of the financial and other records from the 2002 Olympics that Mr. Romney “saved” have been destroyed. While every candidate before him has released the names of their big money donors Willard Mitt Romney still refuses to tell us who is bundling money for him, is he doing this so he can give them all favors and jobs if he is elected and people won’t know it’s payback for bribes? What is this man hiding? He is the most secretive candidate in history and makes Richard Nixon seem open and honest.
1. MILITARY SERVICE
Lets start with his military service or lack there of, he was called to service four times during the Vietnam war but chose not to go fight for his country by either claiming school studies or ministry service in France. When asked about it in 2007 he wished he had served saying
“I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”
While it sounds good it is a far cry from what he stated in 1994 when his response was to the Boston Herald with
“It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft,” Romney told the newspaper.
This last statement is a flat out lie as the man got not one but four deferments to avoid service. He follows in a long history of Republicans running for office who support war while avoiding service themselves. Unlike most others though he protested in favor of the war he would not fight in. This man wants to be in charge of the largest military in the world and make it even bigger, even beating the war drums with Iran.
2. BUSINESS
His business career can be summed up as profit at all costs. While he claims to have left Bain Capital in 1999 he filed as the sole owner until 2002 with the SEC and had a large salary of over 100,000 a year until then so we will go with the SEC facts not Romney’s word.
While at Bain Mr. Romney bought Damon , while being at top executive and financial officer the company was making profits, in 1993 the company was bought by Corning and they immediately spotted a fraud. Turns out that while under the rule of Romney Damon was running a Medicare fraud and charging for tests they did not run. Mitt Romney originally claimed he was a proactive board member who helped uncover the fraud and took corrective actions to stop it. Court records released by the Globe show a different story and reveal that the fraud occurred right up to the time Bain sold the company to Corning and prosecutors gave sole credit to Corning for cleaning up the Fraud. Romney later admitted that the board did not report to federal investigators the findings from the alleged internal inquiry (which sounds like he’s admitting knowing about it but not reporting it). The company was fined over 100 million dollars.
While Mitt originally was pro choice he changed his stance while Governor of Mass to be pro life, this wouldn’t be a big story because people change their minds all the time but a story in Mother Jones makes this a big story. Now this depends on if you believe the words out of Mr. Romney’s mouth or the truth, In 1999 Bain Capital invested in a company called Stericycle which made money in medical waste disposal. Again not a big story except the company collected from family planning clinics which included aborted fetuses, so the pro life Romney is against abortion but all for making money off of it?
In the 2000’s Bain invested in many companies that outsourced jobs to China and India, Mitt claimed he left in 1999 and had nothing to do with that (even though his government filings say different) but even if you believe that story the facts again get in the way. While on the campaign trail he attacked China for stealing American jobs but on April 17,1998 a Bain affiliate filed a report with the SEC that it had acquired part of Hong Kong based Gobal Tech Appliances which makes household appliances in China. Mitt Romney was identified as the person in control of the investment and “sole shareholder”. According to Mother Jones the firm publicly acknowledged that it’s strategy was to profit from US companies outsourcing production abroad. So his denial of being involved in outsourcing is again a flat out lie.
Won’t even get into the FDIC 10 million in debt forgiveness that kept Bain from going bankrupt but what is obvious is every chance Mitt Romney had to make the choice between his morals and profit he always chose profit.
3. OLYMPICS
We often hear “Mitt Romney saved the Olympics”, first off you have to accept that the Olympics where in great danger at the time and needed saving. One of the first things Mr. Romney did was to register as a lobbyist and head to Washington for a bailout. As a registered lobbyist he brought in 1.3 billion dollars to help get the games back on track, it is still a record for government spending on the Olympics more then doubling the 600 million on the 96 Atlanta Olympics.
John McCain called complained at the time calling the federal spending “incredible pork-barrel project” a “rip-off to taxpayers” and even called for a federal investigation. The Salt Lake City Council insisted the federal funds went to legitimate purposes but also added the Olympics where an excuse to get a lot of things done for the city including new roads and bridges.
Sports Illustrated documented “shady” spending including a bridges to nowhere, a millionaire receiving cast to build a road and a billionaire ski resort owner got federal assistance to buy public land. He ended his lobbying career only after a second bribery-style Olympic scandal surfaced showing politicians where offered free tickets to events.
So did Romney “save” the Olympics? I would say no, the taxpayers saved the Olympics and we will never know how much Mr. Romney paid himself as a lobbyist since several of the financial documents have been destroyed.
4. SECRETS
The final thing is the fact that Mr. Romney will reveal nothing to the public, from his tax records which may hide a felony to his time as Governor when as they were leaving they took the hard drives with them hiding all the work that was done. Recently we found out that a lot of the financial and other records from the 2002 Olympics that Mr. Romney “saved” have been destroyed. While every candidate before him has released the names of their big money donors Willard Mitt Romney still refuses to tell us who is bundling money for him, is he doing this so he can give them all favors and jobs if he is elected and people won’t know it’s payback for bribes? What is this man hiding? He is the most secretive candidate in history and makes Richard Nixon seem open and honest.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Cult of Celebrity
Watching the “news” do sports and on the bottom of the screen it scrolls that 3 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan. This is a great example of the cult of celebrity in America when a baseball game or a hockey strike is more news then young men and women losing their lives to protect our country.
Right now we have one political party blaming the financial problems of America on unions and their “over the top pension” . These same politicians who cry that we can not afford to pay retirement for teachers, police and firefighters are the first in line to hand out money to millionaires and billionaires for things like new sports arenas. I read that since 2000 there have been 28 new major sports stadiums built in this country with a total cost of over 9 billion dollars, as much as 5 billion of that was public dollars raised through taxes and fees. Take a minute to read that - we can not afford to keep schools staffed and are laying off first responders to save money and we have given billions of dollars to rich people for their shiny new stadium that a lot of hard working folks can not even afford to use. The best example of this is in Minnesota, when they broke ground on a new stadium paid for with millions in taxpayer dollars a bridge collapsed killing people because they didn’t have the money to make the necessary repairs to keep it safe.
With the NHL threatening to lose another season because they are fighting on how to split up 3 billion dollars and in Pittsburgh we have Mike Wallace sitting out because he things only getting paid 2 million dollars is an insult. I often hear “players careers are short and they could get injured anytime”, I have an argument for that - you are playing a game, those 3 guys who died in Afghanistan would have risk their lives for 70 years to make the money you think you are to good for. A rookie or average player makes as much sitting on the bench of most major sports teams as it would take a soldier, teacher, or first responder at least 5 years to make.
Next time you watch a war movie remember that guy on screen is making 100 to 1,000 times as much as a real soldier and he doesn’t even do his own stunts. These people aren’t bad, they get what someone will pay them but for gods sake please stop using the short career or might get injured excuse for why you are holding out for more money, it all comes down to greed.
I’m not saying celebrities or sports stars are bad, they provide a service and keep people entertained even during hard times. I’m just saying maybe instead of having role models with the title CEO, All Star, Super Bowl Champion or MVP maybe it’s time for role models with the title Private 1st class, Deputy or Fire Chief.
Right now we have one political party blaming the financial problems of America on unions and their “over the top pension” . These same politicians who cry that we can not afford to pay retirement for teachers, police and firefighters are the first in line to hand out money to millionaires and billionaires for things like new sports arenas. I read that since 2000 there have been 28 new major sports stadiums built in this country with a total cost of over 9 billion dollars, as much as 5 billion of that was public dollars raised through taxes and fees. Take a minute to read that - we can not afford to keep schools staffed and are laying off first responders to save money and we have given billions of dollars to rich people for their shiny new stadium that a lot of hard working folks can not even afford to use. The best example of this is in Minnesota, when they broke ground on a new stadium paid for with millions in taxpayer dollars a bridge collapsed killing people because they didn’t have the money to make the necessary repairs to keep it safe.
With the NHL threatening to lose another season because they are fighting on how to split up 3 billion dollars and in Pittsburgh we have Mike Wallace sitting out because he things only getting paid 2 million dollars is an insult. I often hear “players careers are short and they could get injured anytime”, I have an argument for that - you are playing a game, those 3 guys who died in Afghanistan would have risk their lives for 70 years to make the money you think you are to good for. A rookie or average player makes as much sitting on the bench of most major sports teams as it would take a soldier, teacher, or first responder at least 5 years to make.
Next time you watch a war movie remember that guy on screen is making 100 to 1,000 times as much as a real soldier and he doesn’t even do his own stunts. These people aren’t bad, they get what someone will pay them but for gods sake please stop using the short career or might get injured excuse for why you are holding out for more money, it all comes down to greed.
I’m not saying celebrities or sports stars are bad, they provide a service and keep people entertained even during hard times. I’m just saying maybe instead of having role models with the title CEO, All Star, Super Bowl Champion or MVP maybe it’s time for role models with the title Private 1st class, Deputy or Fire Chief.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Welcome to Republican America
It’s not hard to figure out what America will look like if Mitt Romney becomes the next president of the United States and republicans keep control of the house and win the senate. With Paul Ryan as the Vice President the picture has become even more clearer. Here is what we can look forward to
Their plan for lowering healthcare costs are to go back to the “free” market and then make Medicare a voucher program giving seniors the money to buy their own private insurance. They are complaining about the price of Medicare right now but it is rising at a lower rate then private health insurance, adding millions of sick and elderly will need to be paid for somehow and that will be by the price of insurance going up at even faster paces. They plan to do away with Obamacare so now insurance companies will be able to drop people who get sick or have pre-existing conditions, that means they will not have to take sick seniors and it will leave us with two choices, we can either put them on a government program or let them die. If we put them on a government program it will be worse then Medicare because the health seniors will be on private insurance and only the sickest will be left on the Government dime. This plan will cost private insurance to skyrocket, increase the Debt and bankrupt seniors.
They want to take away birth control from health insurance policies, make abortion illegal and finally cut funding for food stamps and Medicaid. So if you young daughter is at a party and gets drunk, like say Bristol Palin, she will be forced to have the child. When the child is born she will be forced to either put it up for adoption or dropping out of school to get a job to support the child. Any job they can get will not pay very well and will not allow them to feed or cloth the child. This will lead to many more sick and starving children and we already have one of the worst infant mortality rates in the world. Not to mention who will pay for all the doctors visits and the hospital stay to give birth to your child?
My favorite is Sean Hannity crying that liberals say “conservatives want dirty water and dirty air”, they say it because it’s true Mr. Hannity In the first year that republicans took control of the house they voted 191 times to lower environmental standards They voted 27 times to overrule the EPA and say that global warming is not harmful human health or the environment. Republicans voted 77 times to gut the clean air act including to stop the EPA from regulating mercury as dangerous. Think clean water is important, they voted 28 times to gut the clean water act including blocking the EPA from regulating toxins companies could dump into the water. The final straw was when they voted to decide on a “cost benefits analysis” if allowing a company to pollute was worth the know health risks of people so a company can make profits.
They want to lower taxes and “expand the base” which is republican for charge poor people more taxes. They like to tell a lie that most Americans don’t pay taxes but they do pay their fair share in Payroll Tax, Gas Tax, Sales Tax, State Taxes, Property Taxes, School Taxes etc. The plan to lower the rates also includes getting rid of some “loopholes” but they voted against getting rid of the ones for oil companies and big business so that only leaves the ones for middle class like tax credit, marriage credit, mortgage deduction. While they won’t raise the rates of poor or middle class people they will raise the taxes and have to in order to pay for the rate cuts of the upper 10% and keep giving handouts to their friends at Exxon or Goldman Sachs.
This is just a sample of what they will do to America, look at Mississippi and imagine 49 more of them. We will drop even further in poverty, starvation, healthcare but will still have the strongest military in the world. Just don’t ask the rich to pay for the military or god forbid serve the country they got rich off of.
Their plan for lowering healthcare costs are to go back to the “free” market and then make Medicare a voucher program giving seniors the money to buy their own private insurance. They are complaining about the price of Medicare right now but it is rising at a lower rate then private health insurance, adding millions of sick and elderly will need to be paid for somehow and that will be by the price of insurance going up at even faster paces. They plan to do away with Obamacare so now insurance companies will be able to drop people who get sick or have pre-existing conditions, that means they will not have to take sick seniors and it will leave us with two choices, we can either put them on a government program or let them die. If we put them on a government program it will be worse then Medicare because the health seniors will be on private insurance and only the sickest will be left on the Government dime. This plan will cost private insurance to skyrocket, increase the Debt and bankrupt seniors.
They want to take away birth control from health insurance policies, make abortion illegal and finally cut funding for food stamps and Medicaid. So if you young daughter is at a party and gets drunk, like say Bristol Palin, she will be forced to have the child. When the child is born she will be forced to either put it up for adoption or dropping out of school to get a job to support the child. Any job they can get will not pay very well and will not allow them to feed or cloth the child. This will lead to many more sick and starving children and we already have one of the worst infant mortality rates in the world. Not to mention who will pay for all the doctors visits and the hospital stay to give birth to your child?
My favorite is Sean Hannity crying that liberals say “conservatives want dirty water and dirty air”, they say it because it’s true Mr. Hannity In the first year that republicans took control of the house they voted 191 times to lower environmental standards They voted 27 times to overrule the EPA and say that global warming is not harmful human health or the environment. Republicans voted 77 times to gut the clean air act including to stop the EPA from regulating mercury as dangerous. Think clean water is important, they voted 28 times to gut the clean water act including blocking the EPA from regulating toxins companies could dump into the water. The final straw was when they voted to decide on a “cost benefits analysis” if allowing a company to pollute was worth the know health risks of people so a company can make profits.
They want to lower taxes and “expand the base” which is republican for charge poor people more taxes. They like to tell a lie that most Americans don’t pay taxes but they do pay their fair share in Payroll Tax, Gas Tax, Sales Tax, State Taxes, Property Taxes, School Taxes etc. The plan to lower the rates also includes getting rid of some “loopholes” but they voted against getting rid of the ones for oil companies and big business so that only leaves the ones for middle class like tax credit, marriage credit, mortgage deduction. While they won’t raise the rates of poor or middle class people they will raise the taxes and have to in order to pay for the rate cuts of the upper 10% and keep giving handouts to their friends at Exxon or Goldman Sachs.
This is just a sample of what they will do to America, look at Mississippi and imagine 49 more of them. We will drop even further in poverty, starvation, healthcare but will still have the strongest military in the world. Just don’t ask the rich to pay for the military or god forbid serve the country they got rich off of.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
What "Tradition" of Marriage are they talking about?
Republicans like to say they are defending marriage when they oppose giving gay and lesbians the same civil rights as everyone else. Looking at a history of marriage which “traditional” marriage are they defending?
The Hebrews believed in Polygamy and according to the bible King Solomon had hundreds of wives and hundreds of concubines. Polygamy was practiced in Africa, China, America and is still practiced in some Muslim cultures.
The First Marriages where over 4,000 years ago and where a way for the rich to keep their power or grow their empire. They would marry off daughters to forge alliances, acquire land. Even with the poor class women where not allowed to marry for love but where traded as property.
The church was not involved in marriage until they made et one of the seven sacraments and that wasn’t until 1215. It wasn’t until the 16th century that weddings involved a priest and witnesses. Even at this point marriage had nothing to do with love but as an exchange of property and to protect the ruling class.
It wasn’t till about 300 years ago that people started marrying for love and with the rise of unions based on love and not property divorce became common. Still Wives where considered property and not as equals and only people of the same race could marry.
If they are defending the Bible versions of marriage then why haven’t Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh been stoned to death yet since both have been married multiple times? How many are willing to marry their brothers widow and raise his kids as their own?
Here is a fact you won’t hear from republicans, Gay Marriage dates back to before the 13th century when two men could go though the same bonding ceremony as a man and a women. It wasn’t until 1306 when these unions where considered “unchristian” that they stopped.
Marriage has changed hundreds of times over the last couple centuries but they are refusing to change it back to the 13th century version where 2 people in love could get married no matter the sex. Next time a republican tells you he’s defending the tradition of marriage by refusing to allow gays to get married ask him which tradition, then offer him two pieces of silver and a goat for his daughter.
The Hebrews believed in Polygamy and according to the bible King Solomon had hundreds of wives and hundreds of concubines. Polygamy was practiced in Africa, China, America and is still practiced in some Muslim cultures.
The First Marriages where over 4,000 years ago and where a way for the rich to keep their power or grow their empire. They would marry off daughters to forge alliances, acquire land. Even with the poor class women where not allowed to marry for love but where traded as property.
The church was not involved in marriage until they made et one of the seven sacraments and that wasn’t until 1215. It wasn’t until the 16th century that weddings involved a priest and witnesses. Even at this point marriage had nothing to do with love but as an exchange of property and to protect the ruling class.
It wasn’t till about 300 years ago that people started marrying for love and with the rise of unions based on love and not property divorce became common. Still Wives where considered property and not as equals and only people of the same race could marry.
If they are defending the Bible versions of marriage then why haven’t Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh been stoned to death yet since both have been married multiple times? How many are willing to marry their brothers widow and raise his kids as their own?
Here is a fact you won’t hear from republicans, Gay Marriage dates back to before the 13th century when two men could go though the same bonding ceremony as a man and a women. It wasn’t until 1306 when these unions where considered “unchristian” that they stopped.
Marriage has changed hundreds of times over the last couple centuries but they are refusing to change it back to the 13th century version where 2 people in love could get married no matter the sex. Next time a republican tells you he’s defending the tradition of marriage by refusing to allow gays to get married ask him which tradition, then offer him two pieces of silver and a goat for his daughter.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Mitt Romney the "Businessman" good for America?
Mitt Romney claims he is the best person to run America because he has run a business, lets take a look at how Mr. Romney runs business.
DAMON CLINIC LABORATORIES
In 1990 Bain bought a stake in this company and Mitt Romney took a seat on the board of directors, he is on the company’s “strategic Planning” committee. In 1992 Romney is told that the company may not be following government regulations and are using practices which may no be deemed appropriate. In 1993 Damon was sold to Corning with Romney voting to approve the takeover, Corning immediately closed the Massachusetts plant laying off the 115 workers.
Corning uncovers fraud and alerts authorities, The SEC filings made by Damon prior to the acquisition make no mention of any potential earnings write-downs or legal problems
Bain’s profits is over 7 million dollars. Damon is found to have committed over 40,000,000 dollars in Medicare Fraud between 1988 and 1993, Romney later claims to have uncovered the fraud and ask for an investigation but both Corning and the SEC dispute that.
STERICYCLE
Bain purchased a this company in 1999, it is believed they have made over 50,000,000.00 off this company and what is it they do? They are a medical waste company that includes incinerating fetuses after an abortion. That’s right Mr. Pro Life has made millions of dollars off of abortion which he claims to be against.
GRINDING SYSTEMS STEEL MILL
The company was bought by Mitt Romney and Bain in 1993, the company had been in business since 1888. The name was changed to GS Technologies but now for long as the company was closed and 750 people where locked out. Workers where denied severance pay and health care and their pensions where gutted. Bain made over 16,000,000.00 on the deal while the employees where out in the cold. The government had to step in and pony up 44,000,000.00 to bail out the pension fund.
BAIN
Mr. Romney’s own company was about to go under when a deal was struck with the FDIC to forgive 10 million dollars in debt. This wasn’t a loan but is sure sounds like a bailout to me, if the FDIC hadn’t forgiven the debt would Bain have went under?
This is just a few of the questionable deals made by Mitt Romney and his Bain Capital before he stepped down in 2002. This doesn’t even cover the jobs he invested in who shipped jobs overseas to save on Taxes and cheaper labor. Yes he has had a few successes but do they make up for his shady or even illegal business decisions or all the jobs he has costs Americans to benefit himself? Unless he releases his tax return and accounts for all his money being held offshore we may never know exactly how much Damage Mr. Romney has done to American business just to make a few dollars.
DAMON CLINIC LABORATORIES
In 1990 Bain bought a stake in this company and Mitt Romney took a seat on the board of directors, he is on the company’s “strategic Planning” committee. In 1992 Romney is told that the company may not be following government regulations and are using practices which may no be deemed appropriate. In 1993 Damon was sold to Corning with Romney voting to approve the takeover, Corning immediately closed the Massachusetts plant laying off the 115 workers.
Corning uncovers fraud and alerts authorities, The SEC filings made by Damon prior to the acquisition make no mention of any potential earnings write-downs or legal problems
Bain’s profits is over 7 million dollars. Damon is found to have committed over 40,000,000 dollars in Medicare Fraud between 1988 and 1993, Romney later claims to have uncovered the fraud and ask for an investigation but both Corning and the SEC dispute that.
STERICYCLE
Bain purchased a this company in 1999, it is believed they have made over 50,000,000.00 off this company and what is it they do? They are a medical waste company that includes incinerating fetuses after an abortion. That’s right Mr. Pro Life has made millions of dollars off of abortion which he claims to be against.
GRINDING SYSTEMS STEEL MILL
The company was bought by Mitt Romney and Bain in 1993, the company had been in business since 1888. The name was changed to GS Technologies but now for long as the company was closed and 750 people where locked out. Workers where denied severance pay and health care and their pensions where gutted. Bain made over 16,000,000.00 on the deal while the employees where out in the cold. The government had to step in and pony up 44,000,000.00 to bail out the pension fund.
BAIN
Mr. Romney’s own company was about to go under when a deal was struck with the FDIC to forgive 10 million dollars in debt. This wasn’t a loan but is sure sounds like a bailout to me, if the FDIC hadn’t forgiven the debt would Bain have went under?
This is just a few of the questionable deals made by Mitt Romney and his Bain Capital before he stepped down in 2002. This doesn’t even cover the jobs he invested in who shipped jobs overseas to save on Taxes and cheaper labor. Yes he has had a few successes but do they make up for his shady or even illegal business decisions or all the jobs he has costs Americans to benefit himself? Unless he releases his tax return and accounts for all his money being held offshore we may never know exactly how much Damage Mr. Romney has done to American business just to make a few dollars.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Time for Universal Healthcare?
The debate on the affordable care act has got people talking again, republicans and tea party members are calling it socialized medicine and a government take over which is furthest from the truth. It forces people to buy private sector free market health insurance and if they can not afford it then they are fined, or taxed, depending on who you ask. The states are supposed to set up exchanges for people to choose their health care from like our politicians do.
While it’s a good step it’s the wrong one, our market based insurance has made America one of the most expensive and least efficient systems in the world and we rank behind countries like Saudi Arabia, Japan, Singapore and only rank 2 spots ahead of Cuba. The big difference is that most of these countries either have universal health care or a single payer plan. Both plans have been proven to be cheaper and more effective than what we have in America.
With all the evidence pointing to “socialized medicine” being the cheapest and most effective way to deliver care why hasn’t America decided to try this approach? The answer to that is money and power, we have for profit insurance companies spending billions of dollars to mislead the publican and to buy the votes of politicians. I’m going to argue it’s time that America steps into the 21st century and competes with other countries again.
Here are some of the benefits to a single payer health care system
1. Costs - every country that has a single payer system spends a lot less then America does for it’s outdated system and covers a lot more people. We currently pay more for Medicare and Medicaid to cover a few people then other countries spend to cover everyone. Having a single payer or Medicare for all will lower the costs to both the individual and the government.
Right now a person who doesn’t have insurance waits till they are really sick and goes to the emergency room, they are diagnosed with late stage cancer and given a few months to live. They choose to go through surgery, chemo and anything else that may extend their lives by a few months or even a year. This costs millions of dollars and since the patient has no insurance the costs are passed onto others who do have the luxury of insurance (that’s why it costs 40.00 for a piece of toilet paper). If we had a universal system this same person would have been able to visit a hospital when they first felt ill, had the cancer caught early and not only saved millions of dollars but would still be alive to raise their children. Since they had insurance the costs would have been paid by them and not absorbed by everyone else.
Costs are immediately brought down and instead of spending a fortune on end of life care a person can be diagnosed and treated early saving both money and their lives.
2. Benefits to business - If you pass a Medicare for all it can be paid with a 5% tax that everyone has to pay, this takes the burden off of corporations which currently pay millions of dollars a month to provide insurance for their employees. Lets say that Company A
Pays 2,000.00 a month per employee for healthcare coverage
Has 1,000 employees
That’s 2,000,000 dollars a month they are spending on health care coverage.
Imagine if they didn’t have to pay that money and could give raises, buy new machinery or hire more employees. The switch to a Medicare for all would not only lower health care costs but would be a huge benefit to the American business and would even allow companies to move back to America to save money.
3. And the most important - Life
If everyone had health care they could seek a doctor when they first got ill or felt a lump, they could be diagnosed with Cancer or Diabetes before it became life threatening and instead of spending years in a hospital and millions of dollars they could just take pills or have a simple surgery. The could spend decades with their family and not have to worry about who will take care of their kids or parents when they die.
A lot of people say they want universal care because they believe healthcare is a right and everyone should be entitled to it. I agree but as I pointed out it should not only be a right it is more cost effective than for profit care and would immediately cut the costs of medical care. If you ignore all the stories and lies and look at the facts - facts are every country that has went to a single payer or universal healthcare plan has seen costs lowered and care improve.
While it’s a good step it’s the wrong one, our market based insurance has made America one of the most expensive and least efficient systems in the world and we rank behind countries like Saudi Arabia, Japan, Singapore and only rank 2 spots ahead of Cuba. The big difference is that most of these countries either have universal health care or a single payer plan. Both plans have been proven to be cheaper and more effective than what we have in America.
With all the evidence pointing to “socialized medicine” being the cheapest and most effective way to deliver care why hasn’t America decided to try this approach? The answer to that is money and power, we have for profit insurance companies spending billions of dollars to mislead the publican and to buy the votes of politicians. I’m going to argue it’s time that America steps into the 21st century and competes with other countries again.
Here are some of the benefits to a single payer health care system
1. Costs - every country that has a single payer system spends a lot less then America does for it’s outdated system and covers a lot more people. We currently pay more for Medicare and Medicaid to cover a few people then other countries spend to cover everyone. Having a single payer or Medicare for all will lower the costs to both the individual and the government.
Right now a person who doesn’t have insurance waits till they are really sick and goes to the emergency room, they are diagnosed with late stage cancer and given a few months to live. They choose to go through surgery, chemo and anything else that may extend their lives by a few months or even a year. This costs millions of dollars and since the patient has no insurance the costs are passed onto others who do have the luxury of insurance (that’s why it costs 40.00 for a piece of toilet paper). If we had a universal system this same person would have been able to visit a hospital when they first felt ill, had the cancer caught early and not only saved millions of dollars but would still be alive to raise their children. Since they had insurance the costs would have been paid by them and not absorbed by everyone else.
Costs are immediately brought down and instead of spending a fortune on end of life care a person can be diagnosed and treated early saving both money and their lives.
2. Benefits to business - If you pass a Medicare for all it can be paid with a 5% tax that everyone has to pay, this takes the burden off of corporations which currently pay millions of dollars a month to provide insurance for their employees. Lets say that Company A
Pays 2,000.00 a month per employee for healthcare coverage
Has 1,000 employees
That’s 2,000,000 dollars a month they are spending on health care coverage.
Imagine if they didn’t have to pay that money and could give raises, buy new machinery or hire more employees. The switch to a Medicare for all would not only lower health care costs but would be a huge benefit to the American business and would even allow companies to move back to America to save money.
3. And the most important - Life
If everyone had health care they could seek a doctor when they first got ill or felt a lump, they could be diagnosed with Cancer or Diabetes before it became life threatening and instead of spending years in a hospital and millions of dollars they could just take pills or have a simple surgery. The could spend decades with their family and not have to worry about who will take care of their kids or parents when they die.
A lot of people say they want universal care because they believe healthcare is a right and everyone should be entitled to it. I agree but as I pointed out it should not only be a right it is more cost effective than for profit care and would immediately cut the costs of medical care. If you ignore all the stories and lies and look at the facts - facts are every country that has went to a single payer or universal healthcare plan has seen costs lowered and care improve.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
How to talk to Conservatives IF you have to
After spending a night arguing with a couple die hard conservatives it has become obvious that there is really very little point to it and I would suggest avoiding it at all costs if you can. If you are drawn into an argument here is a couple things you can do to really get them going, which usually leads to them calling you names and if you’re on twitter they will block you and leave you alone.
Taxes - They like to say that half of Americans pay no taxes -
1st this is not true, while they may not pay federal taxes most Americans do pay sales tax, state tax, local tax, gas tax, property tax, income tax and the reason they don’t pay federal is because they don’t make enough money.
2nd explain that they pay no taxes because of republicans who first cut taxes then gave things like child tax credits. Also point out that in 2009 1,470 millionaires pay zero income taxes so part of that group that pays no taxes includes the job creators.
Capitalist Country
The new argument is that the Federalist papers say America is a capitalist country, they act like these papers are part of the constitution but deny all the Anti-Federalist papers that where written. The men who wrote these papers did so to try and get NY to ratify the constitution even though it wasn’t needed because it already had enough states to ratify it before NY. The men who wrote these papers where also against the Bill of Rights so I guess that needs to be done away with.
The constitution like the bible can be read and interpreted in many ways but conservatives will act like the writings of these 3 men are the only interpretation that should count. I can not help you if they pull this card because they are so far right wing nothing will get through to them so I wouldn’t even try. They rely on the Federalist papers because even they know the constitution does not make America a capitalist economy.
Government can not create jobs
This is the fun one, just point out to them that both Reagan and Bush had massive expansion of government that brought down the unemployment numbers. Point out that President Barack Obama has less government employees today then Reagan did when he left office. The only two presidents to cut government employment in the last 30 years are Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Government needs to get out of peoples lives
I just ask simple questions when they say that government has no use in peoples lives
1. Did you attend public schools?
2. Have you ever needed to call the police or firefighters?
3. Are you willing to pick up a gun and go to foreign countries like Iraq for free to defend America?
4. Do you enjoy using the internet?
If they answer even one of those questions with YES(or question 3 with No) then they have relied on the Government they hate so much.
Liberal Media
Ask for proof - they will either show you a Fox News story or one written by other right wing media, Yes Msnbc leans liberal but all news is corporate and they will not run any story that might effect their bottom line. Real media died when they realized they could make a profit off of it, it’s a corporate media yes.
Pro - Life
This is a HUGE lie - republicans are pro fetus and are far from pro life. They pass law after law to prevent an abortion even if it means the loss of the mothers life. These same people believe in the death penalty, support wars and vote against things like S-chip and health care or meal programs for children, the sick or the elderly.
Obamacare is a government takeover of healthcare
WRONG- it is a free market solution that was supported and a republican idea in the 90’s as an alternative to Hillary care . It forces millions of people to buy insurance from private companies and sets up health care exchanges, the same kind that politicians choose from. They will argue that universal healthcare leads to long lines and massive debt when the truth is that countries with universal care pay less then we do in America and have far better care.
Tax cuts - spending cuts boost the economy
Again there is no proof of this, the one time in my life that we have not run up debt and millions of jobs where created was after President Clinton raised taxes. If anyone tells you they hire people because they got a tax cut they are either lying or a horrible business man. I have managed a business and we hired when business picked up not because of any tax cuts or breaks we might receive.
Their favorite line is “you can not raise taxes on the job creators”, this is simple to argue against. They themselves say that most jobs are created in small businesses which are not usually owned by millionaires but by people who are taking out loans or spending their lives savings taking a risk. It is also a like that most jobs are created by small business, most jobs are created by NEW businesses. Again we only hired new employees on the rare occasion one would quit or we where busy and needed part time help, as an established business it’s rare that new people are added unless someone leaves.
Finally ask them to show you how taking a billion dollars out of the economy by cutting food stamps or public assistance will boost the economy?
Taxes - They like to say that half of Americans pay no taxes -
1st this is not true, while they may not pay federal taxes most Americans do pay sales tax, state tax, local tax, gas tax, property tax, income tax and the reason they don’t pay federal is because they don’t make enough money.
2nd explain that they pay no taxes because of republicans who first cut taxes then gave things like child tax credits. Also point out that in 2009 1,470 millionaires pay zero income taxes so part of that group that pays no taxes includes the job creators.
Capitalist Country
The new argument is that the Federalist papers say America is a capitalist country, they act like these papers are part of the constitution but deny all the Anti-Federalist papers that where written. The men who wrote these papers did so to try and get NY to ratify the constitution even though it wasn’t needed because it already had enough states to ratify it before NY. The men who wrote these papers where also against the Bill of Rights so I guess that needs to be done away with.
The constitution like the bible can be read and interpreted in many ways but conservatives will act like the writings of these 3 men are the only interpretation that should count. I can not help you if they pull this card because they are so far right wing nothing will get through to them so I wouldn’t even try. They rely on the Federalist papers because even they know the constitution does not make America a capitalist economy.
Government can not create jobs
This is the fun one, just point out to them that both Reagan and Bush had massive expansion of government that brought down the unemployment numbers. Point out that President Barack Obama has less government employees today then Reagan did when he left office. The only two presidents to cut government employment in the last 30 years are Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Government needs to get out of peoples lives
I just ask simple questions when they say that government has no use in peoples lives
1. Did you attend public schools?
2. Have you ever needed to call the police or firefighters?
3. Are you willing to pick up a gun and go to foreign countries like Iraq for free to defend America?
4. Do you enjoy using the internet?
If they answer even one of those questions with YES(or question 3 with No) then they have relied on the Government they hate so much.
Liberal Media
Ask for proof - they will either show you a Fox News story or one written by other right wing media, Yes Msnbc leans liberal but all news is corporate and they will not run any story that might effect their bottom line. Real media died when they realized they could make a profit off of it, it’s a corporate media yes.
Pro - Life
This is a HUGE lie - republicans are pro fetus and are far from pro life. They pass law after law to prevent an abortion even if it means the loss of the mothers life. These same people believe in the death penalty, support wars and vote against things like S-chip and health care or meal programs for children, the sick or the elderly.
Obamacare is a government takeover of healthcare
WRONG- it is a free market solution that was supported and a republican idea in the 90’s as an alternative to Hillary care . It forces millions of people to buy insurance from private companies and sets up health care exchanges, the same kind that politicians choose from. They will argue that universal healthcare leads to long lines and massive debt when the truth is that countries with universal care pay less then we do in America and have far better care.
Tax cuts - spending cuts boost the economy
Again there is no proof of this, the one time in my life that we have not run up debt and millions of jobs where created was after President Clinton raised taxes. If anyone tells you they hire people because they got a tax cut they are either lying or a horrible business man. I have managed a business and we hired when business picked up not because of any tax cuts or breaks we might receive.
Their favorite line is “you can not raise taxes on the job creators”, this is simple to argue against. They themselves say that most jobs are created in small businesses which are not usually owned by millionaires but by people who are taking out loans or spending their lives savings taking a risk. It is also a like that most jobs are created by small business, most jobs are created by NEW businesses. Again we only hired new employees on the rare occasion one would quit or we where busy and needed part time help, as an established business it’s rare that new people are added unless someone leaves.
Finally ask them to show you how taking a billion dollars out of the economy by cutting food stamps or public assistance will boost the economy?
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
How Reaganomics Effected Me
I was just entering grade school when Ronald Reagan was elected president, I was not political but can tell you from a personal standpoint the effect his presidency had on me.
I was kind of a loose cannon at around the time of 1st grade, think it would be called ADD or ADHD today and pills would have been prescribed but back then we just sucked it up and went on with life. After being held back in and forced to repeat first grade because of my attitude my parents set me down and told me to get my act together. At the time my father worked 40 hours a week and my mother stayed home to take care of us three kids. My mother took an interest in my school work and I was not allowed to go outside or play with friend until the work was done. I flew through first grade and from then on was always at the top of my class each year.
Around 5th grade we where no longer taking family vacations anymore and money was obviously tight, by 8th grade my mother had taken not one but two jobs to help pay the bills. I no longer had that parent at home to keep me in line and stopped caring about school and was more into having fun with my friend. I always found school easy and hated to do the work, without a parent looking over my shoulder I stopped doing the work and from 10th grade on never brought a book home from school.
I enjoyed going and playing baseball and football with my friends but hated organized school sports. I kept up a good act at school finishing near the top of my class while taking advanced courses in science and math and computer courses (I managed to graduate high school without 1 since art credit). I passed 2 years of French class and can not speak, write or read a word. After taking the SAT and getting around a 1200 (at the time I believe a 1500 was the most you could get and you couldn’t use a calculator like the spoiled kids today). After that my parents made me apply to college, even though I had no interest in going so I applied to Penn State and got accepted.
I didn’t last long at the whole college thing, it takes structure and an interest in school neither of which I really had. I’ve done all right for myself after leaving college but can not help but wonder what would have been if I had that structure my whole life as I had my first years in school.
When I hear people like Rick Santorum blaming the family dynamic for a lot of problem I agree 100% but sadly thanks to Reaganomics which the republicans still practice today those days of having a parent who can stay home and be a huge part of their kids lives is long over.
While I’m not a fan of Welfare and other government programs the democrats shove down our throat I’m even less a fan of what republicans have done to the country and even more afraid of what they are trying to do to it. It’s ok to point out that when the nuclear family was destroyed America started to go downhill fast in education and other issues but you must also look back what ended the family.
Republicans look at the 80’s and see a great time in America where the rich got richer and think highly of President Reagan. I look back as a time where my family got poorer and they took my parents away from me. If you look at most of today’s problems they can be traced back to that time from education going downhill, weak defense and terrorism, national debt and the destruction of the American family structure all can be traced back to the 1980’s.
I was kind of a loose cannon at around the time of 1st grade, think it would be called ADD or ADHD today and pills would have been prescribed but back then we just sucked it up and went on with life. After being held back in and forced to repeat first grade because of my attitude my parents set me down and told me to get my act together. At the time my father worked 40 hours a week and my mother stayed home to take care of us three kids. My mother took an interest in my school work and I was not allowed to go outside or play with friend until the work was done. I flew through first grade and from then on was always at the top of my class each year.
Around 5th grade we where no longer taking family vacations anymore and money was obviously tight, by 8th grade my mother had taken not one but two jobs to help pay the bills. I no longer had that parent at home to keep me in line and stopped caring about school and was more into having fun with my friend. I always found school easy and hated to do the work, without a parent looking over my shoulder I stopped doing the work and from 10th grade on never brought a book home from school.
I enjoyed going and playing baseball and football with my friends but hated organized school sports. I kept up a good act at school finishing near the top of my class while taking advanced courses in science and math and computer courses (I managed to graduate high school without 1 since art credit). I passed 2 years of French class and can not speak, write or read a word. After taking the SAT and getting around a 1200 (at the time I believe a 1500 was the most you could get and you couldn’t use a calculator like the spoiled kids today). After that my parents made me apply to college, even though I had no interest in going so I applied to Penn State and got accepted.
I didn’t last long at the whole college thing, it takes structure and an interest in school neither of which I really had. I’ve done all right for myself after leaving college but can not help but wonder what would have been if I had that structure my whole life as I had my first years in school.
When I hear people like Rick Santorum blaming the family dynamic for a lot of problem I agree 100% but sadly thanks to Reaganomics which the republicans still practice today those days of having a parent who can stay home and be a huge part of their kids lives is long over.
While I’m not a fan of Welfare and other government programs the democrats shove down our throat I’m even less a fan of what republicans have done to the country and even more afraid of what they are trying to do to it. It’s ok to point out that when the nuclear family was destroyed America started to go downhill fast in education and other issues but you must also look back what ended the family.
Republicans look at the 80’s and see a great time in America where the rich got richer and think highly of President Reagan. I look back as a time where my family got poorer and they took my parents away from me. If you look at most of today’s problems they can be traced back to that time from education going downhill, weak defense and terrorism, national debt and the destruction of the American family structure all can be traced back to the 1980’s.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Open Letter / Questions to the Tea Party
The Tea Party and it’s bastard cousin the Tea Party Express (which is the highly funded corporate version) have rallies and cry about the spending in America. Unlike a lot of people who mock and make fun of them I have attended two rallies and will ask here what I asked the people at the rallies - since they couldn’t/wouldn’t answer.
1. Where were you from 2001-2008 when a record surplus was turned into a record deficit? If you really cared about the debt there is absolutely no defense for defending the Bush Tax cuts which take trillions away from the Government to pay bills. What is more important that extra couple dollars in your bank account or your kids future? Why not protest the defense spending increase, Medicare Part D, Oil Company handouts, Wall Street bailouts?
2. Why can you support Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor? These 2 men along with many other republicans passed votes that added trillions to the debt including Tax Cuts, Medicare Part D, Auto Bailouts, Bank Bailouts, War Spending and both voted to increase the national debt multiple times without spending cuts. Neither man cared about spending when republicans where in power and they supported the massive expansion of the Government at the time.
3. How can you like Ronald Reagan while not liking Bill Clinton? When Clinton left office we where on a path to pay off the national debt in 20 years, he reformed welfare and for the first time in a long time the government was taking in more money then it was spending. Millions and millions of public sector jobs where created and everyone was doing better. Under Reagan he spent twice as much as all the presidents before him combined and had a massive expansion of government jobs and the military which helped make his unemployment numbers look better.
4. What spending will you cut? Everyone I talked to said they didn’t want their Medicare or Social Security cut, they didn’t want their taxes raised and they thought we should spend more on military defense. If all that is off limits and you cut everything else completely we would still be adding to the national debt.
It’s easy to blame President Obama on the spending but the facts prove that is a lie. Since he took office he has only increased the spending by 300 billion dollars a year over President Bush’s last budget. When Obama took office the country was spending 3.5 trillion dollars a year and this year we are spending 3.8 trillion. Yes I blame Obama for the 300 billion dollar increase but it is a small drop in the bucket and is a slower growth then most presidents. To blame President Obama for the whole debt spending each year you are either lying and know it or you are really uniformed and just believe what Fox News tells you.
Yes the spending is out of control and needs to be reigned in but you can gut all spending but if you refuse to raise taxes or stop expanding the military we will continue to run debt. If Mitt Romney win in 2012 he will still have to pay for all the government programs and his budget while gutting social safety nets will still run trillion dollar debt for years.
If you think republicans are better at running things just look at the state level where 9 out of the 10 poorest states are heavily republican states who have been using austerity measures like they want to at the federal level. At the same rate 9 of the 10 lowest scoring school systems are also in republican run states again showing what they plan would do to the nation. The debt when Reagan took office was 700 billion, since Reaganomics republicans have had the white house for 20 of the 30 years and the debt is now at 15 trillion. Facts are a funny thing and that’s why they are often ignored by both parties.
1. Where were you from 2001-2008 when a record surplus was turned into a record deficit? If you really cared about the debt there is absolutely no defense for defending the Bush Tax cuts which take trillions away from the Government to pay bills. What is more important that extra couple dollars in your bank account or your kids future? Why not protest the defense spending increase, Medicare Part D, Oil Company handouts, Wall Street bailouts?
2. Why can you support Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor? These 2 men along with many other republicans passed votes that added trillions to the debt including Tax Cuts, Medicare Part D, Auto Bailouts, Bank Bailouts, War Spending and both voted to increase the national debt multiple times without spending cuts. Neither man cared about spending when republicans where in power and they supported the massive expansion of the Government at the time.
3. How can you like Ronald Reagan while not liking Bill Clinton? When Clinton left office we where on a path to pay off the national debt in 20 years, he reformed welfare and for the first time in a long time the government was taking in more money then it was spending. Millions and millions of public sector jobs where created and everyone was doing better. Under Reagan he spent twice as much as all the presidents before him combined and had a massive expansion of government jobs and the military which helped make his unemployment numbers look better.
4. What spending will you cut? Everyone I talked to said they didn’t want their Medicare or Social Security cut, they didn’t want their taxes raised and they thought we should spend more on military defense. If all that is off limits and you cut everything else completely we would still be adding to the national debt.
It’s easy to blame President Obama on the spending but the facts prove that is a lie. Since he took office he has only increased the spending by 300 billion dollars a year over President Bush’s last budget. When Obama took office the country was spending 3.5 trillion dollars a year and this year we are spending 3.8 trillion. Yes I blame Obama for the 300 billion dollar increase but it is a small drop in the bucket and is a slower growth then most presidents. To blame President Obama for the whole debt spending each year you are either lying and know it or you are really uniformed and just believe what Fox News tells you.
Yes the spending is out of control and needs to be reigned in but you can gut all spending but if you refuse to raise taxes or stop expanding the military we will continue to run debt. If Mitt Romney win in 2012 he will still have to pay for all the government programs and his budget while gutting social safety nets will still run trillion dollar debt for years.
If you think republicans are better at running things just look at the state level where 9 out of the 10 poorest states are heavily republican states who have been using austerity measures like they want to at the federal level. At the same rate 9 of the 10 lowest scoring school systems are also in republican run states again showing what they plan would do to the nation. The debt when Reagan took office was 700 billion, since Reaganomics republicans have had the white house for 20 of the 30 years and the debt is now at 15 trillion. Facts are a funny thing and that’s why they are often ignored by both parties.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The Brilliance Behind the Republican Party
Since Ronald Reagan the face of the republican party has always been that of down to home bumbling idiots or know nothings. Since Reagan we have had George Bush, Sarah Palin, Allen West and other republicans put in the spotlight reinforcing this stereotype. While the public face of the republican party has been that of know nothings it has all been a ruse to hide their true intentions and disastrous policies.
Ronald Reagan was the original guinea pig, his foreign policy was the worst of any president in the last 30 years, mainly because the puppets pulling his strings where the men and women of wall street. They used the threat of the cold war and protecting America from a fake threat to build up the military to record levels, while Americans where distracted with the threat of the Soviets and our need for a strong defense it was behind the scenes that the party was working to dismantle regulations, give huge handouts to the wealthiest companies and decimate the middle class. It was these policies that went unnoticed even as taxes where being raised on middle class families and the American dream was under attack.
While Reagan was the test run it was under President George W. Bush in 2001 that the foundation was laid to decimate the middle class and safety nets at the expense of the rich and powerful puppeteers. After September 11th 2001 it was all out war with only one side fighting it was over before it started. The middle class had been defeated and the ruling class had become permanent, the whole time they acted and still do like any American can make it and become one of the rich ruling class even though few if any ever will. Unlike the previous puppet president this time both the military industrial complex and the wall street corporate crowd started pulling the strings and running the country.
After September 11th 2001 the military was used to invade Afghanistan, there is reason for and against this war and it was the start of people getting rich off the lives of young men and women sent in to die for this country. When not enough money could be made out of Afghanistan the decision was made to invade Iraq, this stretched our military thin and would require the use of private armies like Halliburton or KBR. Now instead of paying soldiers to do simple tasks we where paying private contractors 10 to 100 times as much to do the jobs that our military used to do. People have always gotten rich off of war but until this time it had never been so obvious.
With most Americans panicked after the attacks it was the perfect time to finish off regulations, Wall Street was allowed to run wild, corporations wrote their own environmental laws and the government was used to squash any real competition. The Casino industry saw online gambling and online poker as a threat to their profits so the republican party made it illegal to fund any online poker sites, did they pass this bill so Americans would know and could voice their opinions? NO they attached it to a military spending bill so that if anyone voted against it they could claim “you don’t support our troops” and with Americans terrified no one wanted that label.
Then came the two most insidious bills ever passed, while both seemed good at the time and where promoted as helping the working man the idea behind them was not that simple. First the republican party passed regulations on the post office that they had to fund the pensions for the next 75 years, they had to fund it for employees who where not even born yet and while they touted this a great legislation the post office is the only company in America who has these regulations. Did they do this to help the postal workers or seniors who retired? Again no they did it to dismantle the post office. The post office had been making a profit and was fully self sufficient, this regulation decimated the profits and put them in debt. Now that they are in debt the republicans are crying the post office is an example of why the Government can not run a business and trying to gut it by closing doors and dropping weekend delivery, laying off thousand of workers and cutting the benefits of others.
While what they did to the post office was bad what they did to seniors was pure evil, they allowed the drug companies to write a prescription plan for Medicare that would allow seniors to get medicine. The only catch was that Medicare could not negotiate prices with the drug companies or buy in bulk like they do in other countries to save money, and they left a huge hole that cost seniors thousands each year. This was done to “help” seniors but like everything they did the last 10 years it was not paid for and added a 7 trillion dollar strain on the program and the national debt. If you don’t agree with Medicare it was a brilliant plan, strain it to the point it breaks then say the government can not run healthcare. This is allowing the republican party to try and destroy the program for seniors and gives them an argument against universal healthcare. They knew when they passed it that it would put a strain on and break the back of the Medicare program and that’s what it did, now they can blame it on everyone else and hope no one looks behind the curtain to see who is pulling the strings.
Since Democrats took over Washington the puppeteers have moved to the state level and are using Governors like Scott Walker as their puppets to pass their radical agendas, if Mitt Romney takes the white house in 2012 we can expect them to move back up to the national level and we will see more of the same from the right wing puppet president including Tax Cuts, deregulation, wars and the end of Social Security and Medicare and if people start to question what is going on we will have a national security issue to distract us from the truth or will invade Iran or another country.
The most ingenious thing the people in power did was run up huge debt so when they lost control they could rally their base that we “can not afford it”. Because of the debt spending that needs to be paid for Iraq, Afghanistan wars, tax cuts, Medicare Part D and other programs passed under Republican they say we no longer have the money and have to gut welfare programs to help the poorest citizens. These plans where true evil genius and they way the executed was to perfection. They distracted America with bumbling idiots while the real power worked behind the scenes and until people wake up and look behind the curtain these people will continue to pull the strings and destroy America as we know it..
Ronald Reagan was the original guinea pig, his foreign policy was the worst of any president in the last 30 years, mainly because the puppets pulling his strings where the men and women of wall street. They used the threat of the cold war and protecting America from a fake threat to build up the military to record levels, while Americans where distracted with the threat of the Soviets and our need for a strong defense it was behind the scenes that the party was working to dismantle regulations, give huge handouts to the wealthiest companies and decimate the middle class. It was these policies that went unnoticed even as taxes where being raised on middle class families and the American dream was under attack.
While Reagan was the test run it was under President George W. Bush in 2001 that the foundation was laid to decimate the middle class and safety nets at the expense of the rich and powerful puppeteers. After September 11th 2001 it was all out war with only one side fighting it was over before it started. The middle class had been defeated and the ruling class had become permanent, the whole time they acted and still do like any American can make it and become one of the rich ruling class even though few if any ever will. Unlike the previous puppet president this time both the military industrial complex and the wall street corporate crowd started pulling the strings and running the country.
After September 11th 2001 the military was used to invade Afghanistan, there is reason for and against this war and it was the start of people getting rich off the lives of young men and women sent in to die for this country. When not enough money could be made out of Afghanistan the decision was made to invade Iraq, this stretched our military thin and would require the use of private armies like Halliburton or KBR. Now instead of paying soldiers to do simple tasks we where paying private contractors 10 to 100 times as much to do the jobs that our military used to do. People have always gotten rich off of war but until this time it had never been so obvious.
With most Americans panicked after the attacks it was the perfect time to finish off regulations, Wall Street was allowed to run wild, corporations wrote their own environmental laws and the government was used to squash any real competition. The Casino industry saw online gambling and online poker as a threat to their profits so the republican party made it illegal to fund any online poker sites, did they pass this bill so Americans would know and could voice their opinions? NO they attached it to a military spending bill so that if anyone voted against it they could claim “you don’t support our troops” and with Americans terrified no one wanted that label.
Then came the two most insidious bills ever passed, while both seemed good at the time and where promoted as helping the working man the idea behind them was not that simple. First the republican party passed regulations on the post office that they had to fund the pensions for the next 75 years, they had to fund it for employees who where not even born yet and while they touted this a great legislation the post office is the only company in America who has these regulations. Did they do this to help the postal workers or seniors who retired? Again no they did it to dismantle the post office. The post office had been making a profit and was fully self sufficient, this regulation decimated the profits and put them in debt. Now that they are in debt the republicans are crying the post office is an example of why the Government can not run a business and trying to gut it by closing doors and dropping weekend delivery, laying off thousand of workers and cutting the benefits of others.
While what they did to the post office was bad what they did to seniors was pure evil, they allowed the drug companies to write a prescription plan for Medicare that would allow seniors to get medicine. The only catch was that Medicare could not negotiate prices with the drug companies or buy in bulk like they do in other countries to save money, and they left a huge hole that cost seniors thousands each year. This was done to “help” seniors but like everything they did the last 10 years it was not paid for and added a 7 trillion dollar strain on the program and the national debt. If you don’t agree with Medicare it was a brilliant plan, strain it to the point it breaks then say the government can not run healthcare. This is allowing the republican party to try and destroy the program for seniors and gives them an argument against universal healthcare. They knew when they passed it that it would put a strain on and break the back of the Medicare program and that’s what it did, now they can blame it on everyone else and hope no one looks behind the curtain to see who is pulling the strings.
Since Democrats took over Washington the puppeteers have moved to the state level and are using Governors like Scott Walker as their puppets to pass their radical agendas, if Mitt Romney takes the white house in 2012 we can expect them to move back up to the national level and we will see more of the same from the right wing puppet president including Tax Cuts, deregulation, wars and the end of Social Security and Medicare and if people start to question what is going on we will have a national security issue to distract us from the truth or will invade Iran or another country.
The most ingenious thing the people in power did was run up huge debt so when they lost control they could rally their base that we “can not afford it”. Because of the debt spending that needs to be paid for Iraq, Afghanistan wars, tax cuts, Medicare Part D and other programs passed under Republican they say we no longer have the money and have to gut welfare programs to help the poorest citizens. These plans where true evil genius and they way the executed was to perfection. They distracted America with bumbling idiots while the real power worked behind the scenes and until people wake up and look behind the curtain these people will continue to pull the strings and destroy America as we know it..
Monday, May 7, 2012
Simple Fixes for Social Security and Medicare
I keep hearing republicans crying that social security and Medicare must be fixed and the only solution is the public sector. Their plans will turn social security over to Wall Street and Medicare over to insurance companies. If the Market collapses like it did in 2008 Social Security will be wiped out and their plan for Medicare will bankrupt most seniors as it will add thousand to their health care costs out of pocket. What republicans refuse to mention is the strain on Medicare, like the strain on the post office is 100% their fault, they passed a drug program without paying for it adding billions of dollars to an already strained system. A cynical person would say they didn’t pass this program to help seniors but passed it as a handout to drug companies and knowing it would break Medicare and they could then cry bankrupt and do away with the program (just like they are doing right now).
The first and easiest solution is the FICA tax, right now people only pay taxes on the first 106,800 dollars they make so the max they will pay is 4,485 dollars in FICA Tax. If they make 110,000 dollars or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars they will pay the same 4,485 dollars in social security and Medicare tax.
Most working Americans currently pay 4.2% in FICA Tax which is still low and should be raised back up to at least 6%. While someone making 100K dollars pays the 4.2% of their income someone making 10 million dollars only pay .05% of their income in FICA tax far less then the average American pays. It’s time to lift the cap on this tax make everyone pay 4.2% on every dollar they earn. This would be a great first step and bring in more money to the government and extend the life of these two great programs.
Second step is to raise the retirement age of seniors, allow them to start receiving Medicare at 62 but raise the age where they can receive full Social Security slowly till the people who are currently in their 20’s or 30’s won’t be able to retire until they are 68. After raising the retirement age they can begin means testing for benefits. If you are working and making over 200K a year or if you have over 5 million dollars in assets you should not receive any retirement payments.
The simplest solution to Medicare we will not see in our lifetime and that is to switch over to a universal healthcare system. This would add millions of healthy people to the system and instead of just having the sick, disabled and elderly on the system. This will immediately drop the price of medical procedures, hospital trips and lower the cost of healthcare in America. The hospitals will no longer have to pass on the bills of uninsured people to the ones lucky enough to have insurance.
If everyone has the ability to see a doctor when they are feeling ill then things like Cancer or Diabetes can be caught early and managed or cured instead of people waiting till it’s to late and needing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical care that could have been prevented. Facts show that companies with universal healthcare have a more efficient system, better service and it takes less money then we are spending now just to cover a fraction of the population.
These solution are simple and easy but will never get done as long as we allow insurance companies to write health care laws and to bribe politicians for their votes or rich people who own a whole political party which writes the rules and allows them to get away with paying a smaller percentage of taxes then middle class Americans. So until there are term limits that will allow politicians do what’s right for American not what’s right for their reelection or public financed elections nothing will change.
The first and easiest solution is the FICA tax, right now people only pay taxes on the first 106,800 dollars they make so the max they will pay is 4,485 dollars in FICA Tax. If they make 110,000 dollars or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars they will pay the same 4,485 dollars in social security and Medicare tax.
Most working Americans currently pay 4.2% in FICA Tax which is still low and should be raised back up to at least 6%. While someone making 100K dollars pays the 4.2% of their income someone making 10 million dollars only pay .05% of their income in FICA tax far less then the average American pays. It’s time to lift the cap on this tax make everyone pay 4.2% on every dollar they earn. This would be a great first step and bring in more money to the government and extend the life of these two great programs.
Second step is to raise the retirement age of seniors, allow them to start receiving Medicare at 62 but raise the age where they can receive full Social Security slowly till the people who are currently in their 20’s or 30’s won’t be able to retire until they are 68. After raising the retirement age they can begin means testing for benefits. If you are working and making over 200K a year or if you have over 5 million dollars in assets you should not receive any retirement payments.
The simplest solution to Medicare we will not see in our lifetime and that is to switch over to a universal healthcare system. This would add millions of healthy people to the system and instead of just having the sick, disabled and elderly on the system. This will immediately drop the price of medical procedures, hospital trips and lower the cost of healthcare in America. The hospitals will no longer have to pass on the bills of uninsured people to the ones lucky enough to have insurance.
If everyone has the ability to see a doctor when they are feeling ill then things like Cancer or Diabetes can be caught early and managed or cured instead of people waiting till it’s to late and needing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical care that could have been prevented. Facts show that companies with universal healthcare have a more efficient system, better service and it takes less money then we are spending now just to cover a fraction of the population.
These solution are simple and easy but will never get done as long as we allow insurance companies to write health care laws and to bribe politicians for their votes or rich people who own a whole political party which writes the rules and allows them to get away with paying a smaller percentage of taxes then middle class Americans. So until there are term limits that will allow politicians do what’s right for American not what’s right for their reelection or public financed elections nothing will change.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Generation Scared - Rise of the Chicken Hawks
Every generation is defined by the world they live in and how the people respond to the situations they are put in. We have seen “The Greatest Generation” and “Generation Me” but I would like to propose a new name for the current generation - “Generation Scared”. No time in history has our leaders lead and reacted out of fear like they are doing today, especially since 9/11/2001.
Throughout history American leaders have taken a stand, from Kennedy staring down the Soviets and the threat of nuclear war to Reagan showing compete weakness in foreign policy when it came to Iraq and Lebanon. Until 10 years ago America only used it military as a last resort and only when provoked, it was never used as a first strike to prevent something that might have happened. After 9/11/01 things changed dramatically and we went from a country of strong leaders to a country lead by chicken hawks.
When we first invaded Iraq George Bush Sr. knew that if we took out Hussein it would lead to nothing but trouble and it would cost millions of dollars and thousands of lives after a civil war broke out. He was a credible leader because when the country called for him to serve he put on a uniform and fought, unlike the leaders of today who all used their power and money to avoid military service and where more concerned about getting rich off America then defending her.
Before he left office President Bill Clinton used missile strikes to try and kill Osama Bin Laden, as soon as he did the republican party attacked him for his action. The same party who a year later would blame him not going harder after Bin Laden. After the attacks on the world trade center allegedly by Osama Bin Laden the Taliban offered to turn him over for trial but was rebuked by George Bush Jr. who had his mind set on going to war. Like the other leaders in his party President Bush, Vice President Cheney and many others all avoided military service when they where called to serve, now they where acting like military heroes.
For the next 8 years they used the power of fear to strip away peoples civil rights, win an election by using the “terror alert” system in a corrupt way to scare up support and worst of all the invade another country without anyone questioning their motives. They invaded Iraq based on lies and mistruths that Iraq not only had nukes and would use them but they where involved in 9/11. Now the leaders who where to afraid to fight in the military where now all of a sudden war heroes who where on the front line of protecting America, in most circles these people are called chicken hawks.
We are hearing the same things today about Iran that we heard in 2002 about Iraq and the republicans are beating the drum of war again. This time we have a whole new class of chicken hawks leading the parade with Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich and like the last republican administration not only has any of these men served his country but no one in their immediate family has put their lives on the line. They want to use fear tactics and scare the American people into fighting their wars but don’t believe in the cause enough to risk their own lives or the lives of the people they love.
Worst of all for the first time in history war is an afterthought, it’s not bad enough that these chickens want to send other peoples children to fight and die their wars but they won’t even ask their rich and powerful friends to make any sacrifices. They want to keep cutting taxes for corporations and the richest Americans at the same time they want to build up the army and start more wars, the money has to come from somewhere and they want it to be paid by poor people, seniors and the disabled making sacrifices. They can get away with this by playing the fear card and scaring the American people who don’t know any better, if you want the fear card to stop working then either bring back the draft or pass a 20% war tax. The minute politicians or their rich friends have to choose between protecting their money or protecting America the fear card will stop working as they will choose to protect their money every time.
Throughout history American leaders have taken a stand, from Kennedy staring down the Soviets and the threat of nuclear war to Reagan showing compete weakness in foreign policy when it came to Iraq and Lebanon. Until 10 years ago America only used it military as a last resort and only when provoked, it was never used as a first strike to prevent something that might have happened. After 9/11/01 things changed dramatically and we went from a country of strong leaders to a country lead by chicken hawks.
When we first invaded Iraq George Bush Sr. knew that if we took out Hussein it would lead to nothing but trouble and it would cost millions of dollars and thousands of lives after a civil war broke out. He was a credible leader because when the country called for him to serve he put on a uniform and fought, unlike the leaders of today who all used their power and money to avoid military service and where more concerned about getting rich off America then defending her.
Before he left office President Bill Clinton used missile strikes to try and kill Osama Bin Laden, as soon as he did the republican party attacked him for his action. The same party who a year later would blame him not going harder after Bin Laden. After the attacks on the world trade center allegedly by Osama Bin Laden the Taliban offered to turn him over for trial but was rebuked by George Bush Jr. who had his mind set on going to war. Like the other leaders in his party President Bush, Vice President Cheney and many others all avoided military service when they where called to serve, now they where acting like military heroes.
For the next 8 years they used the power of fear to strip away peoples civil rights, win an election by using the “terror alert” system in a corrupt way to scare up support and worst of all the invade another country without anyone questioning their motives. They invaded Iraq based on lies and mistruths that Iraq not only had nukes and would use them but they where involved in 9/11. Now the leaders who where to afraid to fight in the military where now all of a sudden war heroes who where on the front line of protecting America, in most circles these people are called chicken hawks.
We are hearing the same things today about Iran that we heard in 2002 about Iraq and the republicans are beating the drum of war again. This time we have a whole new class of chicken hawks leading the parade with Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich and like the last republican administration not only has any of these men served his country but no one in their immediate family has put their lives on the line. They want to use fear tactics and scare the American people into fighting their wars but don’t believe in the cause enough to risk their own lives or the lives of the people they love.
Worst of all for the first time in history war is an afterthought, it’s not bad enough that these chickens want to send other peoples children to fight and die their wars but they won’t even ask their rich and powerful friends to make any sacrifices. They want to keep cutting taxes for corporations and the richest Americans at the same time they want to build up the army and start more wars, the money has to come from somewhere and they want it to be paid by poor people, seniors and the disabled making sacrifices. They can get away with this by playing the fear card and scaring the American people who don’t know any better, if you want the fear card to stop working then either bring back the draft or pass a 20% war tax. The minute politicians or their rich friends have to choose between protecting their money or protecting America the fear card will stop working as they will choose to protect their money every time.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The big conservative health care lie
I keep hearing republicans and conservatives say that no one in America is denied needed health care, that is a flat out lie and if we had a real media they could call them out on it. Yes it’s true that the emergency room can not turn you away and that they have to treat you but it’s also true that by the time you get to the emergency room it’s usually to late. If you don’t have insurance most people can not afford to go to the doctor when they first realize that something may be wrong and they only go to the emergency room after it’s to late. This way of doing things costs Americans billions extra each year and would easily be fixed if every American had the means to see a doctor when they first suspected something was wrong.
An example of how universal care would save money
Patient a doesn’t feel well but puts off going to the doctor because they have children to feed and a home to pay for. After a while they feel even worse and finally decide to go to the emergency room where they are diagnosed with cancer. Now they have to have the cancer removed and go through treatment to try and save their lives. This will result in a long hospital stay and if they waited to long and are terminal it could lead to an extended stay and months on life sustaining meds and machines. Since they don’t have insurance and the hospital will not absorb these costs they are passed on to people with insurance raising their costs.
IF this person had insurance they could have visited the doctor early and been diagnosed at an early stage and their care would have been a lot cheaper and more importantly their children would still have a parent. This quick care would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for this one patient alone and lowered costs to everyone else.
IF this person survives they will need to take meds the rest of their lives and will have to choose between having their drugs filled or putting food on the table. If they choose the latter they will go without meds and end up back in the hospital on the dime of people with insurance. They will also probably lose their home and their family will have to file for bankruptcy to get out of the debt of hospital bills they can not pay.
Yes the hospital has to treat you if you go in but that doesn’t help with preventive care or the meds you will need after you leave the hospital and you will probably just end up right back in there. Every uninsured person who seeks help at the hospital is more money added to your insurance policy. The facts prove that survival rates are higher in countries with universal healthcare, life expectancy is longer and they spend a lot less on healthcare (with many countries spending less then half of what we do in America).
All the facts prove that universal healthcare is cheaper and more effective so why don’t we have it here in the United States? That’s an easy answer - the insurance companies spend billions each year buying politicians, running misleading advertisement and flat out lying to the American people. With over 40,000 people dying each year because of either lack of insurance or health company decision how can we call ourselves a civilized society? Would we allow a terrorist organization to pull a 9/11 every month if they donated enough money to political campaigns because that’s what health insurance companies do.
I’m all for capitalism and the free market but not when it comes to human lives, there are some things more important then money. I’m not a religious person but the bible I read didn’t have a god who decided who lived and dies by how much money they had. If one person dies because they had to choose feeding their children over getting the help they needed we are no better then a 3rd world country and have no right calling ourselves a superpower or a shining light on a hill.
An example of how universal care would save money
Patient a doesn’t feel well but puts off going to the doctor because they have children to feed and a home to pay for. After a while they feel even worse and finally decide to go to the emergency room where they are diagnosed with cancer. Now they have to have the cancer removed and go through treatment to try and save their lives. This will result in a long hospital stay and if they waited to long and are terminal it could lead to an extended stay and months on life sustaining meds and machines. Since they don’t have insurance and the hospital will not absorb these costs they are passed on to people with insurance raising their costs.
IF this person had insurance they could have visited the doctor early and been diagnosed at an early stage and their care would have been a lot cheaper and more importantly their children would still have a parent. This quick care would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for this one patient alone and lowered costs to everyone else.
IF this person survives they will need to take meds the rest of their lives and will have to choose between having their drugs filled or putting food on the table. If they choose the latter they will go without meds and end up back in the hospital on the dime of people with insurance. They will also probably lose their home and their family will have to file for bankruptcy to get out of the debt of hospital bills they can not pay.
Yes the hospital has to treat you if you go in but that doesn’t help with preventive care or the meds you will need after you leave the hospital and you will probably just end up right back in there. Every uninsured person who seeks help at the hospital is more money added to your insurance policy. The facts prove that survival rates are higher in countries with universal healthcare, life expectancy is longer and they spend a lot less on healthcare (with many countries spending less then half of what we do in America).
All the facts prove that universal healthcare is cheaper and more effective so why don’t we have it here in the United States? That’s an easy answer - the insurance companies spend billions each year buying politicians, running misleading advertisement and flat out lying to the American people. With over 40,000 people dying each year because of either lack of insurance or health company decision how can we call ourselves a civilized society? Would we allow a terrorist organization to pull a 9/11 every month if they donated enough money to political campaigns because that’s what health insurance companies do.
I’m all for capitalism and the free market but not when it comes to human lives, there are some things more important then money. I’m not a religious person but the bible I read didn’t have a god who decided who lived and dies by how much money they had. If one person dies because they had to choose feeding their children over getting the help they needed we are no better then a 3rd world country and have no right calling ourselves a superpower or a shining light on a hill.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
My Pledge for Politicians to sign
After seeing some of the insane pledges politicians sign I have decided to create my own. Will any politician agree to it? I’m guess not because while they want everyone else to sacrifice they aren’t willing to.
If Elected to political office I will
1. Represent the people of my district not my party - I will vote the way the people who put me in office think I should and not how the party wants me to.
2. Understand that I am elected to represent the people of my district and not to lead them. I am there to serve at their will and to not tell them how they should think or believe and will not force my values or beliefs on them.
3. Will not ask anyone else to sacrifice any more then I expect of myself. I will not demand that any government worker take a pay or benefits cut without first taking one myself.
4. not except government insurance program for myself or my family till every person I represent in my district has health care coverage themselves.
5. Not give any government money to any company that has been convicted of a felony or been accused of fraud or abuse of taxpayer money. I also will not give any money to government contracts that pay their mercenaries more then an American Soldier makes.
6. Vote to send anyone I represents child to die in a war that I am not willing to sacrifice myself or my own children for. If the reason for war is so important then every American must have skin in the game.
7. Hold myself to higher standards and will freely give any information about my voting record, spending or who I have meetings with to the people of my district and will hide no information.
8. Not demand anything of the public that I won’t do myself, if it is the best interest to drug test people before giving them welfare I to shall be available for random drug tests before receiving my pay.
9. Not spread falsehoods about the other party just to make myself or my party look better. If I get caught lying I will publicly apologize
10. Hold myself to high standards and if I do anything to bring attention to myself , family or district will immediately resign.
If Elected to political office I will
1. Represent the people of my district not my party - I will vote the way the people who put me in office think I should and not how the party wants me to.
2. Understand that I am elected to represent the people of my district and not to lead them. I am there to serve at their will and to not tell them how they should think or believe and will not force my values or beliefs on them.
3. Will not ask anyone else to sacrifice any more then I expect of myself. I will not demand that any government worker take a pay or benefits cut without first taking one myself.
4. not except government insurance program for myself or my family till every person I represent in my district has health care coverage themselves.
5. Not give any government money to any company that has been convicted of a felony or been accused of fraud or abuse of taxpayer money. I also will not give any money to government contracts that pay their mercenaries more then an American Soldier makes.
6. Vote to send anyone I represents child to die in a war that I am not willing to sacrifice myself or my own children for. If the reason for war is so important then every American must have skin in the game.
7. Hold myself to higher standards and will freely give any information about my voting record, spending or who I have meetings with to the people of my district and will hide no information.
8. Not demand anything of the public that I won’t do myself, if it is the best interest to drug test people before giving them welfare I to shall be available for random drug tests before receiving my pay.
9. Not spread falsehoods about the other party just to make myself or my party look better. If I get caught lying I will publicly apologize
10. Hold myself to high standards and if I do anything to bring attention to myself , family or district will immediately resign.
My Pledge for Politicians to sign
After seeing some of the insane pledges politicians sign I have decided to create my own. Will any politician agree to it? I’m guess not because while they want everyone else to sacrifice they aren’t willing to.
If Elected to political office I will
1. Represent the people of my district not my party - I will vote the way the people who put me in office think I should and not how the party wants me to.
2. Understand that I am elected to represent the people of my district and not to lead them. I am there to serve at their will and to not tell them how they should think or believe and will not force my values or beliefs on them.
3. Will not ask anyone else to sacrifice any more then I expect of myself. I will not demand that any government worker take a pay or benefits cut without first taking one myself.
4. not except government insurance program for myself or my family till every person I represent in my district has health care coverage themselves.
5. Not give any government money to any company that has been convicted of a felony or been accused of fraud or abuse of taxpayer money. I also will not give any money to government contracts that pay their mercenaries more then an American Soldier makes.
6. Vote to send anyone I represents child to die in a war that I am not willing to sacrifice myself or my own children for. If the reason for war is so important then every American must have skin in the game.
7. Hold myself to higher standards and will freely give any information about my voting record, spending or who I have meetings with to the people of my district and will hide no information.
8. Not demand anything of the public that I won’t do myself, if it is the best interest to drug test people before giving them welfare I to shall be available for random drug tests before receiving my pay.
9. Not spread falsehoods about the other party just to make myself or my party look better. If I get caught lying I will publicly apologize
10. Hold myself to high standards and if I do anything to bring attention to myself , family or district will immediately resign.
If Elected to political office I will
1. Represent the people of my district not my party - I will vote the way the people who put me in office think I should and not how the party wants me to.
2. Understand that I am elected to represent the people of my district and not to lead them. I am there to serve at their will and to not tell them how they should think or believe and will not force my values or beliefs on them.
3. Will not ask anyone else to sacrifice any more then I expect of myself. I will not demand that any government worker take a pay or benefits cut without first taking one myself.
4. not except government insurance program for myself or my family till every person I represent in my district has health care coverage themselves.
5. Not give any government money to any company that has been convicted of a felony or been accused of fraud or abuse of taxpayer money. I also will not give any money to government contracts that pay their mercenaries more then an American Soldier makes.
6. Vote to send anyone I represents child to die in a war that I am not willing to sacrifice myself or my own children for. If the reason for war is so important then every American must have skin in the game.
7. Hold myself to higher standards and will freely give any information about my voting record, spending or who I have meetings with to the people of my district and will hide no information.
8. Not demand anything of the public that I won’t do myself, if it is the best interest to drug test people before giving them welfare I to shall be available for random drug tests before receiving my pay.
9. Not spread falsehoods about the other party just to make myself or my party look better. If I get caught lying I will publicly apologize
10. Hold myself to high standards and if I do anything to bring attention to myself , family or district will immediately resign.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Time to disband the military?
This will probably cost me many, many twitter followers and get me some hate comments but I have never posted my thoughts or comments in hopes of making people happy. If I go from 2000 to 20 twitter followers and all I’m left with are porn bots and spam I will keep speaking my mind even thought it is rambling and all over the place I think my point comes across.
We spend almost a trillion dollars a year on military and I ask why, there are no real threats in the world to America that can be fought with a large military but as we have seen it can be used in evil ways. If any right win nuts read this they will say I’m calling our military evil and disrespecting our troops, but truth is I have the utmost respect for men and women in uniform it’s the assholes who give them orders that I have a problem with.
I keep hearing that the military keeps us safe and we can sleep better at night knowing they are out there, truth is I sleep just fine and still would if we didn’t have a trillion dollar military. At one time it was true that the military kept us safe and was used for good in the world especially during World War 1 and 2 but in the last 30 years they have done more harm then good.
The people in charge of the military have made bad decisions that have harmed America in more ways then any terrorist could going back to the Reagan years. After Hussein gassed and killed his own people the world wanted him out of power and that was the time that we could have got involved to help the people of Iraq and there are other parts of the world where genocide has taken place and we have just sit back and watched.
Ron Paul gets a lot of crap from the right wing for saying that Bin Laden and 9/11 was partially our fault but he is dead on. We have been butting into the middle east for many years and at one time, before we turned our back on him, Bin Laden was our ally. He and his group where armed and trained in the 80’s to defeat the soviets but after the war was over Reagan and the congress refused to help him and left him out to dry.
If Reagan had used the military to remove Hussein from power and continued to aid Osama Bin Laden we would not be in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. Today we see thousands of people including women and children get slaughtered in Syria and just sit by and watch while we spent millions in Libya to aid their people.
Instead of spending trillions on military to be at the beck and call of politicians, who most themselves never served or even have immediate family who will serve we should just have a military reserve. There is no serious threat of any country trying to invade America and if someone wants to strap on a bomb and blow up a building having a huge army won’t stop them.
We could protect the country for 1/10th of what we are spending now but until people realize that military spending is NOT defense spending things will never change. If we only had a reserve then they would only be part time soldiers until called upon and only to be called upon to defend America and not to be the world police. If an when we use them it should be for an important reason meaning that before congress votes or the president agrees to get the military involved they must be willing to either go themselves or send an immediate family member. If we still had the draft or instituted a 25% war tax then we would not be in Afghanistan or have never been in Iraq, if you ask every American to sacrifice then we will only get involved if it’s in our own best interest and not for oil or to solve an old family dispute.
So YES I respect the current men and women in uniform but I have no respect for the politicians who decide how to use them and are willing to throw thousands of lives away just to look tough. We beat the greatest army in the world with a bunch of farmers and businessmen and won the cold war without even firing a shot. Imagine the children we could feed or the poor people we could give healthcare to with the trillions we spend on the military.
Would I pick up a gun to defend this country if someone invaded? Hell Yes. Would I join the military and do the dirty work of these corrupt asshole politicians who use the army as a pissing contest to show how much of a tough guy they are? Hell No
We spend almost a trillion dollars a year on military and I ask why, there are no real threats in the world to America that can be fought with a large military but as we have seen it can be used in evil ways. If any right win nuts read this they will say I’m calling our military evil and disrespecting our troops, but truth is I have the utmost respect for men and women in uniform it’s the assholes who give them orders that I have a problem with.
I keep hearing that the military keeps us safe and we can sleep better at night knowing they are out there, truth is I sleep just fine and still would if we didn’t have a trillion dollar military. At one time it was true that the military kept us safe and was used for good in the world especially during World War 1 and 2 but in the last 30 years they have done more harm then good.
The people in charge of the military have made bad decisions that have harmed America in more ways then any terrorist could going back to the Reagan years. After Hussein gassed and killed his own people the world wanted him out of power and that was the time that we could have got involved to help the people of Iraq and there are other parts of the world where genocide has taken place and we have just sit back and watched.
Ron Paul gets a lot of crap from the right wing for saying that Bin Laden and 9/11 was partially our fault but he is dead on. We have been butting into the middle east for many years and at one time, before we turned our back on him, Bin Laden was our ally. He and his group where armed and trained in the 80’s to defeat the soviets but after the war was over Reagan and the congress refused to help him and left him out to dry.
If Reagan had used the military to remove Hussein from power and continued to aid Osama Bin Laden we would not be in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. Today we see thousands of people including women and children get slaughtered in Syria and just sit by and watch while we spent millions in Libya to aid their people.
Instead of spending trillions on military to be at the beck and call of politicians, who most themselves never served or even have immediate family who will serve we should just have a military reserve. There is no serious threat of any country trying to invade America and if someone wants to strap on a bomb and blow up a building having a huge army won’t stop them.
We could protect the country for 1/10th of what we are spending now but until people realize that military spending is NOT defense spending things will never change. If we only had a reserve then they would only be part time soldiers until called upon and only to be called upon to defend America and not to be the world police. If an when we use them it should be for an important reason meaning that before congress votes or the president agrees to get the military involved they must be willing to either go themselves or send an immediate family member. If we still had the draft or instituted a 25% war tax then we would not be in Afghanistan or have never been in Iraq, if you ask every American to sacrifice then we will only get involved if it’s in our own best interest and not for oil or to solve an old family dispute.
So YES I respect the current men and women in uniform but I have no respect for the politicians who decide how to use them and are willing to throw thousands of lives away just to look tough. We beat the greatest army in the world with a bunch of farmers and businessmen and won the cold war without even firing a shot. Imagine the children we could feed or the poor people we could give healthcare to with the trillions we spend on the military.
Would I pick up a gun to defend this country if someone invaded? Hell Yes. Would I join the military and do the dirty work of these corrupt asshole politicians who use the army as a pissing contest to show how much of a tough guy they are? Hell No
Friday, February 24, 2012
How Reaganomics changed America
It has been 30 years since the election of what could be the worst president in American history, we are finally starting to see the results of his policies and they are even worse then we could have imagined. In 1980 we went from electing a president to electing a puppet of corporations and Wall Street, one who was weak on foreign policy and weaker on domestic policy.
Before the Wall Street puppet came to town it was common to have one parent stay home with the children and you could live on a one income household. Reagan cut the taxes for the wealthiest Americans in half and began to run of the largest debt increase in history and doubled the debt ran up by ever president before him combined. The price of everything started to increase at record paces while wages stayed flat or decreased for the majority of American. The days of having one parent working and living a decent life where over and now you where lucky to get buy with both parents working leading to the latchkey generation.
No longer would there be family vacations or a parent to stay home and help their kids with homework or encourage them to go outside and play. The new American dream would now being happy to just have food on the table and the ability to take your kid to the doctor if something was wrong. The only thing that trickled down from Reaganomics was Poverty and hunger.
The children who where left home are now grown up and starting to become parents, to them it is common for both parents to work and no one to take care of the children. They grew up in a generation where they where left at home or if their parents both had good jobs they where raised by babysitters, it seems second nature to them to plop their child in front of a TV or video game.
When I was younger (grew up in the 80’s) it was common for neighborhood kids to get together outside and play but as I got older it was less and less common. Today you almost never see a group of kids outside playing hide and seek or war. Looking back I now know that I grew up poor but didn’t know it at the time because my parents would sacrifice things they needed for us children and we never saw them worry about how to pay the next bill or put food on the table.
Today because of deregulation started under Reagan and continued on through the last 30 years things have gotten even worse, the wealth gap is larger then any time in history and families are struggling to get by more now then any time in history. Parents can no longer afford to send their kids to college if they are lucky enough to graduate high school. The republicans like to blame all this on President Barack Obama even though they have run the country for 20 of the last 30 years and it is their “trickle down economics” that believe if you deregulate and allow Wall street to run free that they will get rich and share the wealth with everyone else.
At a time when their policies have lead to record poverty and over 40,000 people a year are dying because they can not afford health insurance the party of Reagan wants to take away those safety nets and gut programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps and other programs that help the most needy among us. Their policies have decimated the middle class and put people into poverty and now they want to just completely destroy that class also. Now they want poor people who can not even afford to feed their children or buy medicine they need to survive to pay more in taxes.
Reagans policies destroyed this country and the traditional family now the republican party want to put the final nail in the coffin. They give Ronald credit for bringing down the soviet union but the truth is he did more to destroy America then he ever did to defeat the soviets. It seems each generation has got more entitled and I’m afraid to see what the future looks like especially if the republicans get their wish gain power since their policies favor the rich and powerful over Women, Children, the environment and seniors. One day they will learn that when the rich has all the money they can make all the high tech things they want but if no one can afford to buy them it won’t matter and when people revolt and stop waiting in line for the new I-phone and have their kids go out and play instead of buying the newest video games then and only then will the rich take notice and start to fear the working class and realize that Reaganomics has ended..
Before the Wall Street puppet came to town it was common to have one parent stay home with the children and you could live on a one income household. Reagan cut the taxes for the wealthiest Americans in half and began to run of the largest debt increase in history and doubled the debt ran up by ever president before him combined. The price of everything started to increase at record paces while wages stayed flat or decreased for the majority of American. The days of having one parent working and living a decent life where over and now you where lucky to get buy with both parents working leading to the latchkey generation.
No longer would there be family vacations or a parent to stay home and help their kids with homework or encourage them to go outside and play. The new American dream would now being happy to just have food on the table and the ability to take your kid to the doctor if something was wrong. The only thing that trickled down from Reaganomics was Poverty and hunger.
The children who where left home are now grown up and starting to become parents, to them it is common for both parents to work and no one to take care of the children. They grew up in a generation where they where left at home or if their parents both had good jobs they where raised by babysitters, it seems second nature to them to plop their child in front of a TV or video game.
When I was younger (grew up in the 80’s) it was common for neighborhood kids to get together outside and play but as I got older it was less and less common. Today you almost never see a group of kids outside playing hide and seek or war. Looking back I now know that I grew up poor but didn’t know it at the time because my parents would sacrifice things they needed for us children and we never saw them worry about how to pay the next bill or put food on the table.
Today because of deregulation started under Reagan and continued on through the last 30 years things have gotten even worse, the wealth gap is larger then any time in history and families are struggling to get by more now then any time in history. Parents can no longer afford to send their kids to college if they are lucky enough to graduate high school. The republicans like to blame all this on President Barack Obama even though they have run the country for 20 of the last 30 years and it is their “trickle down economics” that believe if you deregulate and allow Wall street to run free that they will get rich and share the wealth with everyone else.
At a time when their policies have lead to record poverty and over 40,000 people a year are dying because they can not afford health insurance the party of Reagan wants to take away those safety nets and gut programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps and other programs that help the most needy among us. Their policies have decimated the middle class and put people into poverty and now they want to just completely destroy that class also. Now they want poor people who can not even afford to feed their children or buy medicine they need to survive to pay more in taxes.
Reagans policies destroyed this country and the traditional family now the republican party want to put the final nail in the coffin. They give Ronald credit for bringing down the soviet union but the truth is he did more to destroy America then he ever did to defeat the soviets. It seems each generation has got more entitled and I’m afraid to see what the future looks like especially if the republicans get their wish gain power since their policies favor the rich and powerful over Women, Children, the environment and seniors. One day they will learn that when the rich has all the money they can make all the high tech things they want but if no one can afford to buy them it won’t matter and when people revolt and stop waiting in line for the new I-phone and have their kids go out and play instead of buying the newest video games then and only then will the rich take notice and start to fear the working class and realize that Reaganomics has ended..
Monday, February 20, 2012
I'm the problem
One day in 2004 I was sitting around on my massage chair watching my 60 inch television and it hit me, I am what is wrong with America today. I don’t know exactly when but we have gone from a country of hard working men and women who where happy just getting by to a possession society where we had to have the newest and biggest toys.
My parents never cared what they had, all they cared about was that myself and my brothers had cloths on our backs and food on the table. Our big expense was a family vacation once a year to Sea World or another amusement park, we got things we wanted but on special days like our birthday or Christmas. Both my parents worked 40 hours a week and for a while my mother had a second job, our best memories aren’t when they bought us things but when we spent time together as a family.
Since that day in 04 I have scaled back my life, living within my means and not going out and buying things I really don’t need. Our phone was out for a few days and with my father being disabled and the closest payphone over a mile away I broke down and finally got a cell phone. When my giant television went I broke down and bought another one and yes it is a big screen but in my defense my “job” is staying awake and taking care of my father between 7pm and 8am so I watch a lot of shows. I am still using a VCR to record shows and haven’t invested in any other recording devises even though tapes are almost impossible to find anymore and when I went into a store looking for some the girl working thought I was crazy.
When you walk down the street and see a couple hundred people standing in a food line looking for what might be their first and only good meal in a couple days then you see a couple thousand people standing in line waiting to be the first person to put down 500.00 for an I-Phone it really makes you wonder about priorities. When you consider yourself poor because you don’t have the newest phone or the hottest video game maybe you should think about the people who are really hurting, the ones who have lost their home and are living in their car or on the street.
I’m not saying having a roof over your head or a refrigerator to keep your food cold makes you rich but maybe we should be a little more thankful for the things we do have and remember that there are people in this country who are not even blessed with these. America is the richest nation on earth and to have children going without food or healthcare is a disgrace and for people to fight for their “right” for lower taxes and trying to take away safety nets for the poorest and oldest among us is a disgrace. I’m not rich but would be more then happy to pay a few more dollars and give up the newest gadget if it means a child would get to live longer or a grandparent can get the medicine they need.
I don’t have a million dollars in the bank but I do have a roof over my head and my family to me that is worth more then any amount of money can buy. It took me over 25 years to realize that but I’ve never been happier then I am now, even without the hottest toys or newest car. As long as I have people who love and care about me I will always be rich.
My parents never cared what they had, all they cared about was that myself and my brothers had cloths on our backs and food on the table. Our big expense was a family vacation once a year to Sea World or another amusement park, we got things we wanted but on special days like our birthday or Christmas. Both my parents worked 40 hours a week and for a while my mother had a second job, our best memories aren’t when they bought us things but when we spent time together as a family.
Since that day in 04 I have scaled back my life, living within my means and not going out and buying things I really don’t need. Our phone was out for a few days and with my father being disabled and the closest payphone over a mile away I broke down and finally got a cell phone. When my giant television went I broke down and bought another one and yes it is a big screen but in my defense my “job” is staying awake and taking care of my father between 7pm and 8am so I watch a lot of shows. I am still using a VCR to record shows and haven’t invested in any other recording devises even though tapes are almost impossible to find anymore and when I went into a store looking for some the girl working thought I was crazy.
When you walk down the street and see a couple hundred people standing in a food line looking for what might be their first and only good meal in a couple days then you see a couple thousand people standing in line waiting to be the first person to put down 500.00 for an I-Phone it really makes you wonder about priorities. When you consider yourself poor because you don’t have the newest phone or the hottest video game maybe you should think about the people who are really hurting, the ones who have lost their home and are living in their car or on the street.
I’m not saying having a roof over your head or a refrigerator to keep your food cold makes you rich but maybe we should be a little more thankful for the things we do have and remember that there are people in this country who are not even blessed with these. America is the richest nation on earth and to have children going without food or healthcare is a disgrace and for people to fight for their “right” for lower taxes and trying to take away safety nets for the poorest and oldest among us is a disgrace. I’m not rich but would be more then happy to pay a few more dollars and give up the newest gadget if it means a child would get to live longer or a grandparent can get the medicine they need.
I don’t have a million dollars in the bank but I do have a roof over my head and my family to me that is worth more then any amount of money can buy. It took me over 25 years to realize that but I’ve never been happier then I am now, even without the hottest toys or newest car. As long as I have people who love and care about me I will always be rich.
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