Top 10 Worst Things about the Republicans' Immoral Budget

via MoveOn.Org

The Republican budget would:

1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.

2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.

3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers--which will deprive more than three million low-income people of health care over the next few months.

4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.

5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.

6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.

7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.

8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would "send shockwaves" through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, and cause job losses.

9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women's health care.

10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.

Sources

Does Congressman Renacci Believe Child-Labor Laws are Unconstitutional?

We ask this question, not to sensationalize, but to see whether the freshman congressman from Ohio's 16th district agrees with the position that newly-elected Republican senator from Utah Mike Lee has taken. That position is that child-labor laws are unconstitutional. This same line of thinking also believes that programs like Social Security, student loans, the minimum wage and civil rights are also unconstitutional. A passage from a letter President Eisenhower (a Republican) wrote his brother in 1954 shows us how far gone the modern Republican party has become:

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid. (Link)

Game, Set & Match To Republican & Teabaggers' No. 1 Talking Point

President Obama is a socialist who is bad for employment, bad for business, bad for growth and bad for America, right? That's what Republicans and their brethren the Teabaggers would have you believe. Heck, even our new congressional representative Jim Renacci (R), continually went to the "uncertainty" in the economy talking point that amazingly was uttered by every Republican in the country last year. I wonder what their response would be to this graph?

Read more of what should be a devastating and total rebuke of the Republican Party, but then again this information isn't secret, yet people voted for Republicans anyway.

GOP Job-Killing Agenda

From the Senate Democrats:

House Minority Whip Admits Economy is More Important Than Deficit

As we speak, Teabaggers are jumping ship from the Republican party after learning that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has admitted that cutting taxes will "dig the hole deeper" when it comes to the deficit, but ultimately what is more important than the deficit is getting the economy going again.

In response to a question asking whether Republican tax cuts would hurt the deficit, Cantor said this:

What I said in the beginning is, um, if you have less revenues coming into the federal government, and more expenditures, what does that add up to? Certainly you're gonna dig the hole deeper. But you also have to understand, if the priority is to get people back to work, is to start growing this economy again, uh, then you don't wanna make it more expensive for job creators. Link

Here is the video:

Director of President Reagan's Office of Management & Budget Says GOP Caused Economic Apocalypse

For Republicans and many Teabaggers (see photo to the left), President Ronald Reagan is a hero and icon. But the truth is that Reagan oversaw a 189% increase in the national debt during his eight years in office. His economic philosophy of giving tax cuts to the most wealthy has led to the average American, which Teabaggers are supposed to epitomize, to pay the debt.

Well, some people are starting to realize what Reaganomics in general and what passes for current Republican economic policy specifically has and will do to this country. Joining this group is David Stockman, who was Reagan's director of the Office of Management and Budget. He published an op-ed in the New York Times on July 31. He outlines four deformations of the economic apocalypse, but this passage is the one that needs to be heard the loudest:

This debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts.

In 1981, traditional Republicans supported tax cuts, matched by spending cuts, to offset the way inflation was pushing many taxpayers into higher brackets and to spur investment. The Reagan administration’s hastily prepared fiscal blueprint, however, was no match for the primordial forces — the welfare state and the warfare state — that drive the federal spending machine.

Soon, the neocons were pushing the military budget skyward. And the Republicans on Capitol Hill who were supposed to cut spending exempted from the knife most of the domestic budget — entitlements, farm subsidies, education, water projects. But in the end it was a new cadre of ideological tax-cutters who killed the Republicans’ fiscal religion. Link

Rob Portman in His Own Words

Here is just a sampling of the strange things Republican senatorial candidate Rob Portman has said. (courtesy of the DSCC)

On Ohio's economy...

“The economy here has been relatively strong since the Bush tax cuts.”

[Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/28/08]

On Privatizing Social Security...

“[It] can be a perfectly guaranteed and safe system.”

[Fox News, 6/18/01]

On the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis...

"I have a hard time imagining that that would have a real world impact on our economy."

[Portman Press Briefing, 7/11/07]

On When He Supported "Cap-and-Trade"...

"Private sector incentives, such as permitting companies to trade discharge outputs, can both reduce pollution and costs."

[Roll Call, 7/6/10]

The Party of Fiscal Responsibility - Democrats

Written by Jed Lewison from the Daily Kos.

In the 2001 fiscal year (which began in October, 2000 and is the last one for which Clinton was responsible), revenue was $1.99 trillion and expenditures were $1.86 trillion. (Figures are in 2005 dollars.)

In the 2009 fiscal year (which began in October 2008 and is the last one for which Bush was responsible, sans about $200 billion from the stimulus), revenue was $2.1 trillion and expenditures were $3.5 trillion. (The recession caused revenue to plummet from $2.5 trillion in the 2008 fiscal year during which spending was $2.98 trillion.)

So even if you discount the spending side by the amount of the stimulus (which Bush wouldn't have supported) that means under Bush, revenue increased 5% while spending increased more than 75% and we went from 4 straight years of surplus to a deficit of more than $1 trillion.

How does Bush's fiscal performance compare to Clinton's? Well, the 1993 fiscal year (the last budget of the first Bush administration) had revenues of $1.15 trillion and spending of $1.41 trillion. So under Clinton, revenues increased 73% and spending increased by 32% and the budget went from deficit to surplus.

And somehow Republicans want to argue they know how to handle fiscal policy?

Earth to Republicans & Teabaggers

Every time I hear Republicans and the Teabaggers rail about government spending and the deficit, with the implicit or not so implicit implication that Democrats caused this problem, I keep expecting to hear the words "just kidding." But these people are serious. In the case of the Teabaggers, they just don't seem to know any better. For Republicans, they are just lying.

To make the culprits of the rising debt easily identifiable, here are some handy graphics that illustrate exactly who has been the problem. Hint, it isn't Democrats.


Courtesy of PresidentialDebt.org

Source


Source

Armed with this information, I'm assuming that the Tea Party on July 10 in downtown Wooster was a demonstration against Republicans, who are by far the main culprits in our nation's rising debt. But before answering this question, maybe the Wooster 912 Project can address this — how can a group that rails against all things government hold a PUBLIC rally at a TAXPAYER FUNDED town square? Are we the only ones that see the hypocrisy here?

This would be a good time to bring out one of my all-time favorite photos showing the utter hypocrisy that is the Tea Party movement.

Why Do Republicans Hate Americans?

Ed Schultz from MSNBC has a great take on the Republicans, and their seeming disdain for every American outside of those from big corporations. If you needed any more proof, their blockage of unemployment benefits, including to those for veterans, should be all you need:

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

Republicans on "Your Side" -- If you are Big Oil, Insurance or Wall Street

Taxes Lowest in 60 years, Thanks to Democrats and Obama

To follow up on the previous post on this topic, it is pretty clear that Republicans and Teabaggers have no credibility anymore. For Republicans, this was pretty obvious after the eight years in which President Bush, along with a Republican majority in Congress for most of the time, drove our country into a ditch. Realizing they can't run on their own record, Republicans are now left to lie about what Democrats do.

For the Teabaggers, those who follow politics closely know they are a farce, but for many they are still an unknown entity. Well, if the Teabaggers are sincere when they say they aren't affiliated with a major political party, they ought to be getting behind Democrats and Obama? Why? Because thanks to them, taxes are the lowest they have been in 60 years.

Today, thousands of Tea Partiers will descend on Washington to declare they've been "Taxed Enough Already." Yesterday's poll found that 64 percent of Tea Party supporters think the administration has raised taxes -- a finding that might leave Democrats banging their heads against their desks.

"The American people need to be reminded that 98 percent of Americans got a tax cut last year," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

Reid was referring to the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the stimulus -- essentially, the only Obama policy to really impact people's 2009 tax returns. In fact, tax refunds reached an all-time high this year in part because of the stimulus, the president said in his weekly address on Saturday. Meanwhile, taxes are at their lowest levels in 60 years, according to William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center and director of the Retirement Security Project at the Brookings Institution.

"The relation between what is said in the tax debate and what is true about tax policy is often quite tenuous," Gale told Hotsheet. "The rise of the Tea Party at at time when taxes are literally at their lowest in decades is really hard to understand." Link

With respect to Republicans, you can almost understand why they need to lie and say that Democrats are raising your taxes. This has been their best issue for decades. Without, what do they have?

But for Teabaggers, what is their excuse for ignoring the truth? Shouldn't they support the fact that Obama has lowered the deficit? Just like previous Democrats have? Shouldn't they support the Democratic Party since they create more private sector jobs than Republicans? Makes you wonder why they despise President Obama and Democrats. One reason is that the Teabaggers are mostly just angry Republicans. They are sore losers from the 2008 election, and for whatever reason, they refuse to acknowledge that President Obama is superior to any politician in America.

Republicans, Teabaggers Praise Obama & Democrats on Taxes

This headline is obviously a joke, but it shouldn't be. Since Republicans, and especially Teabaggers, rail on and on about high taxes and how Obama and Democrats are raising taxes, they would be happy with this report, right?

According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, the vast majority of Americans do not perceive that they have received a tax cut from President Obama. Asked if the President “has already raised taxes this past year,” 53 percent of those polled said that the President has “kept taxes the same,” and 24 percent think that the President has “raised taxes.” A mere 12 percent believe that the President has cut their taxes.

This is an astonishing level of misunderstanding. The truth is that the major tax cuts enacted in the 2009 economic stimulus bill actually reduced federal income taxes for tax year 2009 for 98 percent of all working families and individuals. These tax cuts saved working families and individuals an average of $1,158 on the tax returns they will file by April 15. (The median tax cut was approximately $600.) Link

The Associated Press has more on this as well.

So this begs the question. If objections to Democrats in general and Obama in particular from the Teabaggers isn't about policy (and it isn't), what is the objection? I have a few guesses, but draw your own conclusions.

Republicans - Lies Have Real-Life Consequences

I know for a lot of Republicans and most of the corporate media (and some Democrats too), politics is seen as a game. Actual consequences are secondary to simply trying to win the the day, week or month political spin cycle, ultimately leading towards the next election. But policies do matter (why enter government if you are not interested in policy) and have tangible outcomes to people. It's one thing if a given policy results in an undesired outcome for some Americans, but when a bold-face lie intended to scare people jeopardizes someone's health, a definite line has been crossed.

But that is exactly what happened with the Death Panel lie, made famous by half-term governor Sarah Palin:

Amy Townsend, 38, of Hurst was preparing last week for yet another round of treatments in her battle against breast cancer.

In addition to steeling herself for possible side effects, she and husband Jesse, 43, were preparing for the possibility that they might have to pay hundreds of dollars, up front, before radiation treatment can begin.

With both Amy and Jesse unemployed, the family buys health insurance through COBRA with a $5,500 yearly maximum for out-of-pocket expenses -- a threshold the family has not yet met. COBRA coverage generally lasts up to 18 months.

"We've got to come up with some money for next week," she said.

Though she still faces medical bills, Amy said she was against the health care act, fearing so-called death panels and government inefficiency. [emphasis added] Link

Read more

GOP Lawmakers Fan the Flames of Hate

A classic trick of Republicans is to say or do something wrong, pretend it didn't happen, act offended that they are being accused, then hope that no one bothers to look at the facts. Well, thanks to advance of the Web, and in this particular case, video, we can more easily expose the fraudulent activities of the GOP.

In this case, Republican lawmakers, led by House minority whip Eric Cantor, act as if they played no role in inciting violence and hate against Democratic lawmakers leading up to the vote on health care. But the following clearly shows Cantor and his political friends are lying:

Open Letter to Conservatives: Return to Reality, Please

In one of the most detailed smack downs of conservatives that you will ever read, a blogger named Russell King absolutely takes apart pretty much every single Republican talking point you have heard over the last year — and does so with references for each. His critique is broken down into four parts: hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred. While the article obviously exposes the modern Republican party for the farce that it has become, King is simultaneously asking conservatives to rejoin America, since a democracy can't function when a significant portion of its population has gone off the deep end.

You're going to have to come up with a platform that isn't built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fascism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Read more

Democrats Health Care Dirty Tricks

Link

Todd & Sarah Palin's Snowmobile Sponsored by Socialist Dictator

This is kind of funny. The snowmobile that Todd Palin competes with, and the one that Sarah Palin features in a commercial about the Iditarod, is sponsored by Mystik Lubricants, which is owned by Citgo, the company of the socialist dictator from Venezuela Hugo Chavez.

Palin & Family Used Canadian "Socialized" Medicine

Granted, Sarah Palin was just a child when her family would, in her words, "zoom over the border, get health care from Canada." But considering her blistering attacks of the health care bills in Congress as a government takeover (which it isn't close to being), this is pretty funny. And the thing is, she doesn't distance herself from her family doing this. She jokes about it:

"My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not -- this was in the '60s -- we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada." Link

GOP Rep Runs Taxpayer-Funded Campaign-Style Ads On 'Out Of Control Spending'

While this Republican member of the House is from Illinois, the story is simply to good to pass up. It summarizes the breathtaking hypocrisy that is the modern Republican party.

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) is running campaign-style Web ads for a "tele-town hall" on "out of control spending" that are financed by taxpayer dollars -- and the ads were OKed as permissible under House rules.

In short, he's using tax funds to complain about over-spending of tax funds.

Read more