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?
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
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.
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