I am always amazed at conservatives who talk about the constitution and the declaration of independence.
They talk about the fact that if the forefathers would have wanted health care to be a right and not a luxury, like they believe it is, they would have said: life, liberty, healthcare and the pursuit of happiness.
But I don’t see anywhere in the declaration of independence that corporations should be deciding elections, and that they should have a voice.
With the new legislation passed in states such as Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan we are simply going back to times of slavery, with corporations deciding what we should eat, where we should work, was in environmentally safe, and next thing will be if we have the right to assemble.
Conservatives believe that we are better off if the board of a company decides if we should receive healthcare.
They will also decide if we should vote, if our vote counts, because they don’t want anybody rocking the system, and challenge their authority. They already have the right to destroy communities, by sending jobs overseas, as long as the boards of those companies can pay themselves bonuses by impoverishing cities, to pollute the environment, to lower the standard of living for the middle class and the poor in this country.
And all this is so that the top 10% of the top 1% maintain everything they have, and accrue more, if possible.
The theory that if we cut taxes for them they will share a little bit of their wealth with us by investing and creating jobs, has been totally debunked. The proof is that tax cut create nothing, except transferring wealth from the middle class and the poor to the wealthy, or in other words, from the have-nots to the haves. During the first eight years of this millennium we ended up losing jobs in this country, salaries going down, and Wall Street provoking one of the biggest collapses in history, if the not the greatest, again making the rest of us pay for all their eccentricities.
Only in America. When I talk to friends that I have around the world they cannot believe this. And still conservatives want to make us believe that the wealthy are paying too much. If that would be the case they would have moved somewhere else.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
What the election of 2010 has given us
The United States of America is starting to live a very “interesting” period. I wrote recently how the middle class is under attack and it is facing the possible destruction by the top 1% of Americans who earn more than the bottom 50%.
Several governors that ran the last election did it as fiscal conservatives taking advantage of a mid-term period with high unemployment, and with unhappiness towards democrats, as if they had created the Wall Street collapse of 2008.
Their campaigns were all about the budgets and how to balance them, of course without specifics, helped by a very low turnout.
Now that they are in office they are coming out of the closet. It is no longer about the budgets and the deficits, and more about giveaways to the people who paid for those campaigns.
In states such as Wisconsin where they have majorities in both chambers, but not enough votes to shove down the throat of its citizens without some kind of compromise they will have to negotiate, or face the unhappiness of its citizens, with some members of the senate possibly being recalled.
Governor Walker of Wisconsin said that the only way of balancing the budget was stripping the right of collective bargaining of state employees. That includes firefighters, police, teachers and other workers.
What he didn’t tell the public is that he created the deficit by giving away $160 million to corporations the moment he walked into the governor’s office.
In other states such as in Ohio where governor John Kasich has done away with collective bargaining for state employees. He is also cutting education and middle class programs to give tax giveaways to the wealthy.
In Florida Governor Rick Scott is cutting funds for public education by 1.75 billion dollars, not to balance the balance his budget but to give 1.60 billion to corporations.
But we have to put the Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, as the person who hit it out of the ball park.
His argument is that because the state is facing a deficit he will not only cut funds for education and other programs that help the poor and middle class, he is cutting assistance to communities all across the state, but this is the best, he will also decide what towns, who are in the red will survive. What I mean by survive is he will put a member, chosen by him, to replace the mayor, school board, will merge school boards, etc. This is truly amazing. Republican always talk about everything being local, but this sounds more like a tyranny than a democracy. This is more of a similarity with either Hitler or King Henry VIII.
I wonder if this is what the citizens of Michigan bargained for at the last election.
One common theme in all these governors, and I cannot forget my governor, Mr. Christie, is the increase of subsidized private education at the expense of public education.
I always say that education is an investment in our future. Republicans agree with that as long as it is in their own kids, and of those who help finance their campaigns, not the rest of the population. An educated population is harder to mislead, so the less educated the better.
Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff of Obama, and present mayor of Chicago said in 2009 that you should not allow a crisis go to waste. He was criticized by all the right wing pundits. What a bunch of hypocrites. They are the masters of that. We don’t have to go too far back, after 2001 the previous administration used all kinds of lies and excuses to invade a country that had not been involved in the attack of September 11th. Republicans use fear mongering at every single opportunity, scaring senior with the health care reform, saying that Obama raised people’s taxes, that Obama wants to take the 2nd their guns away, and so on and so forth.
Hopefully at the next election the people of Ohio will wake up and see how their interests and those of the corporations are completely opposed.
Unfortunately by then the damage will have been done, like it was for the first 8 years of the previous decade with the Bush Administration, involving the whole country in wars we did not need, with nothing but lies, and paid pundits to scare this country’s population.
Several governors that ran the last election did it as fiscal conservatives taking advantage of a mid-term period with high unemployment, and with unhappiness towards democrats, as if they had created the Wall Street collapse of 2008.
Their campaigns were all about the budgets and how to balance them, of course without specifics, helped by a very low turnout.
Now that they are in office they are coming out of the closet. It is no longer about the budgets and the deficits, and more about giveaways to the people who paid for those campaigns.
In states such as Wisconsin where they have majorities in both chambers, but not enough votes to shove down the throat of its citizens without some kind of compromise they will have to negotiate, or face the unhappiness of its citizens, with some members of the senate possibly being recalled.
Governor Walker of Wisconsin said that the only way of balancing the budget was stripping the right of collective bargaining of state employees. That includes firefighters, police, teachers and other workers.
What he didn’t tell the public is that he created the deficit by giving away $160 million to corporations the moment he walked into the governor’s office.
In other states such as in Ohio where governor John Kasich has done away with collective bargaining for state employees. He is also cutting education and middle class programs to give tax giveaways to the wealthy.
In Florida Governor Rick Scott is cutting funds for public education by 1.75 billion dollars, not to balance the balance his budget but to give 1.60 billion to corporations.
But we have to put the Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, as the person who hit it out of the ball park.
His argument is that because the state is facing a deficit he will not only cut funds for education and other programs that help the poor and middle class, he is cutting assistance to communities all across the state, but this is the best, he will also decide what towns, who are in the red will survive. What I mean by survive is he will put a member, chosen by him, to replace the mayor, school board, will merge school boards, etc. This is truly amazing. Republican always talk about everything being local, but this sounds more like a tyranny than a democracy. This is more of a similarity with either Hitler or King Henry VIII.
I wonder if this is what the citizens of Michigan bargained for at the last election.
One common theme in all these governors, and I cannot forget my governor, Mr. Christie, is the increase of subsidized private education at the expense of public education.
I always say that education is an investment in our future. Republicans agree with that as long as it is in their own kids, and of those who help finance their campaigns, not the rest of the population. An educated population is harder to mislead, so the less educated the better.
Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff of Obama, and present mayor of Chicago said in 2009 that you should not allow a crisis go to waste. He was criticized by all the right wing pundits. What a bunch of hypocrites. They are the masters of that. We don’t have to go too far back, after 2001 the previous administration used all kinds of lies and excuses to invade a country that had not been involved in the attack of September 11th. Republicans use fear mongering at every single opportunity, scaring senior with the health care reform, saying that Obama raised people’s taxes, that Obama wants to take the 2nd their guns away, and so on and so forth.
Hopefully at the next election the people of Ohio will wake up and see how their interests and those of the corporations are completely opposed.
Unfortunately by then the damage will have been done, like it was for the first 8 years of the previous decade with the Bush Administration, involving the whole country in wars we did not need, with nothing but lies, and paid pundits to scare this country’s population.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The real battle of the Middle Class
Many years ago, one of my first jobs was in Human Resources as a temp at General Motors in Argentina.
This was in 1975 during the last Presidency of the Perons. I remember vividly that my boss would send me to get the workers that had either been late without a notice, sick with no justification or had been reprimanded by their foremen.
I made lots of enemies. I was very naive, not that that has changed much. I also became friends with the heads of the union, or at least the representatives at the factory, as I would many times go and talk to them about different workers that were having problems.
I was very opinionated regarding how I felt about unions and workers. I am still very opinionated but my views have changed. I assume they changed because I am getting older, but I think the reason they have changed the most is because I have seen in my 25 years in the U.S. how corporations, and particularly the top 1% of the population (in wealth) have demonized and have tried to bust unions.
Many people say that unions have been a major factor to the creation of the largest middle class in history by negotiating decent salaries for its workers and by benefiting indirectly to the people who were not unionized.
Two friends of mine were openly discussing their views on why they held different political views. They were doing it in a civil, cordial and primarily affectionate way, putting their differences aside and letting their friendship play the key thing that united them. I was able to appreciate both their positions, and going back in time, relate to where both of them came from. To a big section of Argentina Peron was a demon, and his legacy in all its derivatives has been nothing to brag about. To the rest Peron and his “disciples” have been a God sent. A good friend of mine once said “that a terrorist to some people could be a freedom fighter to others”. It comes down to what crystal you are viewing it with. 1973 to 1976 were difficult years in Argentina, just like the period that came after, between 1976 and 1983.
But this blog is not about Argentina, back then or today, it’s about where the middle in the United States is heading to.
We have had 30 years of stagnant wages for the middle class, with part of it shifting into the poverty level, while the top 2% have seen their incomes skyrocket. This country has been exporting jobs to China, India, Mexico and many other nations. That has put a tremendous amount of pressure on salaries. We have seen the devastation of pensions, savings, 401k, housing values and, that has just made matters worse.
In the election of 2008 we saw a mix of campaign financing between the wealthy and the unions taking opposite sides. After the Citizens United poor decision from this Supreme Court we saw a bullying of the wealthy in the last election with people like the Koch brothers buying elections across the country, with wealthy organizations being the top 7 donors out of 10 in the last election.
Now, as if the being the top 7 was not enough, the top 1% have decided that they want to wipe out completely their competition, the unions, who came in 8th, 9th and 10th and donors in the last election, and the way to do that is busting state unions across the country. This has nothing to do with state budgets, and more to do with pay back for those wealthy donors. We are seeing it in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. In Ohio we have a governor who has already said, and proved with the choices he’s made in his cabinet, that he does not have any respect in minorities. He will pass legislation that will destroy the rights of state employees (teachers, firefighters, police officers), by taking away their right to collective bargaining. This is not just salaries that they want to cap. As I said earlier, it is the way of weakening the opposition by cutting the last bastion that the Democratic Party has behind it.
If they are successful it will be the almost certain elimination of the middle class in this country as we know it, the lowering of the standard of living, the elimination of legislation and regulations that have kept this country’s water and air safe. We will have a two class system, like other impoverished nations have, with the top 1 or 2% keeping everything at the expense of the rest of us, and shoving down the throat of the country their values, their views and their ideology. As it is today the top 2% earn more than the bottom 50%.
This was in 1975 during the last Presidency of the Perons. I remember vividly that my boss would send me to get the workers that had either been late without a notice, sick with no justification or had been reprimanded by their foremen.
I made lots of enemies. I was very naive, not that that has changed much. I also became friends with the heads of the union, or at least the representatives at the factory, as I would many times go and talk to them about different workers that were having problems.
I was very opinionated regarding how I felt about unions and workers. I am still very opinionated but my views have changed. I assume they changed because I am getting older, but I think the reason they have changed the most is because I have seen in my 25 years in the U.S. how corporations, and particularly the top 1% of the population (in wealth) have demonized and have tried to bust unions.
Many people say that unions have been a major factor to the creation of the largest middle class in history by negotiating decent salaries for its workers and by benefiting indirectly to the people who were not unionized.
Two friends of mine were openly discussing their views on why they held different political views. They were doing it in a civil, cordial and primarily affectionate way, putting their differences aside and letting their friendship play the key thing that united them. I was able to appreciate both their positions, and going back in time, relate to where both of them came from. To a big section of Argentina Peron was a demon, and his legacy in all its derivatives has been nothing to brag about. To the rest Peron and his “disciples” have been a God sent. A good friend of mine once said “that a terrorist to some people could be a freedom fighter to others”. It comes down to what crystal you are viewing it with. 1973 to 1976 were difficult years in Argentina, just like the period that came after, between 1976 and 1983.
But this blog is not about Argentina, back then or today, it’s about where the middle in the United States is heading to.
We have had 30 years of stagnant wages for the middle class, with part of it shifting into the poverty level, while the top 2% have seen their incomes skyrocket. This country has been exporting jobs to China, India, Mexico and many other nations. That has put a tremendous amount of pressure on salaries. We have seen the devastation of pensions, savings, 401k, housing values and, that has just made matters worse.
In the election of 2008 we saw a mix of campaign financing between the wealthy and the unions taking opposite sides. After the Citizens United poor decision from this Supreme Court we saw a bullying of the wealthy in the last election with people like the Koch brothers buying elections across the country, with wealthy organizations being the top 7 donors out of 10 in the last election.
Now, as if the being the top 7 was not enough, the top 1% have decided that they want to wipe out completely their competition, the unions, who came in 8th, 9th and 10th and donors in the last election, and the way to do that is busting state unions across the country. This has nothing to do with state budgets, and more to do with pay back for those wealthy donors. We are seeing it in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. In Ohio we have a governor who has already said, and proved with the choices he’s made in his cabinet, that he does not have any respect in minorities. He will pass legislation that will destroy the rights of state employees (teachers, firefighters, police officers), by taking away their right to collective bargaining. This is not just salaries that they want to cap. As I said earlier, it is the way of weakening the opposition by cutting the last bastion that the Democratic Party has behind it.
If they are successful it will be the almost certain elimination of the middle class in this country as we know it, the lowering of the standard of living, the elimination of legislation and regulations that have kept this country’s water and air safe. We will have a two class system, like other impoverished nations have, with the top 1 or 2% keeping everything at the expense of the rest of us, and shoving down the throat of the country their values, their views and their ideology. As it is today the top 2% earn more than the bottom 50%.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
State of the Union 2011
As we listen to the State of the Union from President Obama, and the two rebuttals from two republicans (first time in history that the opposition presents two different speeches), we can see the differences between a conciliatory president with new proposals and the position of the republican party to offer the old and ineffective theory that tax cuts and less government, even at the expense of our kids education and losing our competitiveness to the Chinese, Indians, Koreans, Japanese and Europeans, where education is viewed as not only an investment but also a tool to win.
This country was not built on tax cuts, it was built on investment. The GI today would be viewed as an expense, but it created the biggest middle class the world had ever seen. The race to the moon would be considered an expense by the republicans today but, in the words of President Kennedy “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth”. We should do exactly the same with fossil fuels. It is the time to do away with oil.
But in order to do that we need to invest. And the government and the private sector need to have a partnership in order to do that.
One way is to eliminate the tax cuts for the oil companies. They make huge profits and can survive on their own without our help.
We do not have good access to the INTERNET in comparison to Asian and European nations. Sure, we have access in metropolitan areas, even though that comes at a lower speed and a higher cost than the rest of the industrialized nations, but in rural areas people still have problems with connectivity and access.
As a parent sending my daughter to college I can see the high cost of education. This makes it more difficult to win as a nation compared to other countries where education is free.
A friend of mine says that he wants things to go back to the way they used to be. So do I.
Back then the United States was the number one creditor of the world; today it is the number debtor of the world. Back then the wealthy used to pay 90% of their income in taxes. Isn't it surprising that this country started its decline in 1981 with Ronald Reagan. Republicans talk about redistribution of wealth when the wealthy are being taxed, but during the Reagan administration we saw the biggest redistribution this country had ever seen, cutting taxes from 70 % to 38%, and tripling the national debt in 8 years. These are the same republicans who talk about Obama’s unemployment rate and deficits and were not only silent but also doubled the national debt during the Bush administration, leaving us with an economy at the edge of the abyss. During the Clinton administration 22 million new jobs were created, during the Bush administration we had a loss of 5 million factory jobs.
These people think that we have the same memory as they do, but when this country sees the proposals of people like Rep Ryan from Wisconsin, head of the Budget Committee in the House, of dismantling Social Security as we know, and putting our retirement in the hands of the same people that gave us the crash of 2008, Wall Street. During that crash people lost between 50 and 75% of their retirement money, and now we want to give them the most effective program that this country has ever come up with.
The next two years will give us some idea if the people of this great nation have learned anything.
This country was not built on tax cuts, it was built on investment. The GI today would be viewed as an expense, but it created the biggest middle class the world had ever seen. The race to the moon would be considered an expense by the republicans today but, in the words of President Kennedy “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth”. We should do exactly the same with fossil fuels. It is the time to do away with oil.
But in order to do that we need to invest. And the government and the private sector need to have a partnership in order to do that.
One way is to eliminate the tax cuts for the oil companies. They make huge profits and can survive on their own without our help.
We do not have good access to the INTERNET in comparison to Asian and European nations. Sure, we have access in metropolitan areas, even though that comes at a lower speed and a higher cost than the rest of the industrialized nations, but in rural areas people still have problems with connectivity and access.
As a parent sending my daughter to college I can see the high cost of education. This makes it more difficult to win as a nation compared to other countries where education is free.
A friend of mine says that he wants things to go back to the way they used to be. So do I.
Back then the United States was the number one creditor of the world; today it is the number debtor of the world. Back then the wealthy used to pay 90% of their income in taxes. Isn't it surprising that this country started its decline in 1981 with Ronald Reagan. Republicans talk about redistribution of wealth when the wealthy are being taxed, but during the Reagan administration we saw the biggest redistribution this country had ever seen, cutting taxes from 70 % to 38%, and tripling the national debt in 8 years. These are the same republicans who talk about Obama’s unemployment rate and deficits and were not only silent but also doubled the national debt during the Bush administration, leaving us with an economy at the edge of the abyss. During the Clinton administration 22 million new jobs were created, during the Bush administration we had a loss of 5 million factory jobs.
These people think that we have the same memory as they do, but when this country sees the proposals of people like Rep Ryan from Wisconsin, head of the Budget Committee in the House, of dismantling Social Security as we know, and putting our retirement in the hands of the same people that gave us the crash of 2008, Wall Street. During that crash people lost between 50 and 75% of their retirement money, and now we want to give them the most effective program that this country has ever come up with.
The next two years will give us some idea if the people of this great nation have learned anything.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The priorities of the new House Majority
The Republican Party will be in charge in the House of Representatives as of 01/05/11.
They ran on the platform of Jobs and Debt Reduction.
What makes it interesting is that their first priorities are:
Repealing the health care bill that was passed by the previous congress, start investigations on this administration (by Rep. Issa from California), and vote against the raising of the debt ceiling.
None of the three are the things they campaigned on. Absolutely fascinating.
Let’s start with the first one: Repealing the health care bill. Republicans believe that we should go back to the system that we had before when we had people with pre-conditions being denied by insurance companies, people between 21 and 26 who work in jobs that do not provide insurance coverage will no longer have coverage, having over 50 million with no health coverage, having seniors pay more for medication. And let us not forget that with the health care bill passed in 2010 80% of insurance companies were to be used for coverage. Republicans want to allow insurance to use as much of their fees for profit and for lobbying.
Let us now address Rep. Issa’s idea of investigations. He called Obama the most corrupt president in history on the Rush Limbaugh show, then to rephrase it by saying that the Obama’s administration was corrupt. He included the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) in his blame to the present administration although it was proposed and passed by the Bush administration in 2008. Republicans have done a remarkable job of taking NO BLAME for the mess that they left to Obama. When Obama came into office in January of 2008 the country was loosing of 700,000 jobs a month. We were heading into a depression. The banking system was in total collapse, the auto industry was in total collapse. But it is all Obama’s fault. Rep. Issa wants to investigate this administration rescue of the auto industry. He also wants to roll back regulations. The lack of them is what got us into the situation we were in the first two years of this administration. Republicans have always had a cozy relationship with big business, and the proof was the last election where the Chamber of Commerce funded republican candidates around the country. But Rep. Issa has elevated this coziness to the next level. He sent 1500 letters to businesses inquiring what regulations they would like repealed. Where I come from we call that absolute “prostitution”. What is then the function of government if we allow business to decide everything? We already have it through lobbyists but at least it is done with a little bit more of class.
And last but not least: the debt ceiling. The Tea Party members, both freshmen and others, are campaigning to not allow the increase in the debt ceiling. As one who believes that the government should not spend more than what it takes, not allowing the debt ceiling to be increase will only put our creditors on warning that we are not going to pay. This will provoke a catastrophe because if foreign nations do not buy our bonds, and finance our government, the dollar will collapse and interest rates will increase. As a liberal I would love for the Tea Party members in the republican party to vote down. They would show the whole country what a bad choice they made last November.
I left out the commitment of the republican party to cut 100 billion worth of spending. In reality the only way of doing that is by cutting the defense budget and increasing taxes on the top 2 % of income earners. But they would never do that.
We will see who they will blame in two years for their failures. It is very easy to be the minority than to share responsibility in governing.
They ran on the platform of Jobs and Debt Reduction.
What makes it interesting is that their first priorities are:
Repealing the health care bill that was passed by the previous congress, start investigations on this administration (by Rep. Issa from California), and vote against the raising of the debt ceiling.
None of the three are the things they campaigned on. Absolutely fascinating.
Let’s start with the first one: Repealing the health care bill. Republicans believe that we should go back to the system that we had before when we had people with pre-conditions being denied by insurance companies, people between 21 and 26 who work in jobs that do not provide insurance coverage will no longer have coverage, having over 50 million with no health coverage, having seniors pay more for medication. And let us not forget that with the health care bill passed in 2010 80% of insurance companies were to be used for coverage. Republicans want to allow insurance to use as much of their fees for profit and for lobbying.
Let us now address Rep. Issa’s idea of investigations. He called Obama the most corrupt president in history on the Rush Limbaugh show, then to rephrase it by saying that the Obama’s administration was corrupt. He included the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) in his blame to the present administration although it was proposed and passed by the Bush administration in 2008. Republicans have done a remarkable job of taking NO BLAME for the mess that they left to Obama. When Obama came into office in January of 2008 the country was loosing of 700,000 jobs a month. We were heading into a depression. The banking system was in total collapse, the auto industry was in total collapse. But it is all Obama’s fault. Rep. Issa wants to investigate this administration rescue of the auto industry. He also wants to roll back regulations. The lack of them is what got us into the situation we were in the first two years of this administration. Republicans have always had a cozy relationship with big business, and the proof was the last election where the Chamber of Commerce funded republican candidates around the country. But Rep. Issa has elevated this coziness to the next level. He sent 1500 letters to businesses inquiring what regulations they would like repealed. Where I come from we call that absolute “prostitution”. What is then the function of government if we allow business to decide everything? We already have it through lobbyists but at least it is done with a little bit more of class.
And last but not least: the debt ceiling. The Tea Party members, both freshmen and others, are campaigning to not allow the increase in the debt ceiling. As one who believes that the government should not spend more than what it takes, not allowing the debt ceiling to be increase will only put our creditors on warning that we are not going to pay. This will provoke a catastrophe because if foreign nations do not buy our bonds, and finance our government, the dollar will collapse and interest rates will increase. As a liberal I would love for the Tea Party members in the republican party to vote down. They would show the whole country what a bad choice they made last November.
I left out the commitment of the republican party to cut 100 billion worth of spending. In reality the only way of doing that is by cutting the defense budget and increasing taxes on the top 2 % of income earners. But they would never do that.
We will see who they will blame in two years for their failures. It is very easy to be the minority than to share responsibility in governing.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The hypocrisy of republicans
The hypocrisy of Republicans keeps surprising even those who, like myself, is almost no longer surprised.
Their new issue on the list for hypocrisy is the bill that pays for the health care for 9/11 volunteers.
9/11 was the biggest attack in American history, it happened under George W. Bush, a republican. They used it as a mantra, instead of being ashamed that they had were caught distracted, they wore it on their sleeves. Mayor Giuliani, in the words of the Vice president candidate Joe Biden, said “a noun, a verb, and 9/11.
But alas, all of the sudden all those volunteers who tried to either rescue victims or did the cleanup are not important, and unless the bill is paid for itself then they will filibuster it.
Taxes for the top percent of incomes do not need to pay for themselves, neither do the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This reminds me of what they do with their favorite expense in the budget, and the number one reason why we are in the hole that we are, the Department of Defense. And the point of it is that they do exactly the same with the injured in the wars that they not only encourage but shove down the rest of the country’s throat, once they come back screw them. Now it’s their own fault for volunteering, and getting injured. While they are in combat or being trained they are the pride of the country, but they become a drag on society if they come back alive and injured. They are better off dead, or it seems that way. Then they are buried with full honors in Arlington.
And the same thing will happen with the volunteers on 9/11. Now they are a “pain in the ass”, and let them fall through the way side.
What really amazes me the most in the silence on other networks about this issue.
The volunteers are not just New Yorkers, they are Americans.
Their new issue on the list for hypocrisy is the bill that pays for the health care for 9/11 volunteers.
9/11 was the biggest attack in American history, it happened under George W. Bush, a republican. They used it as a mantra, instead of being ashamed that they had were caught distracted, they wore it on their sleeves. Mayor Giuliani, in the words of the Vice president candidate Joe Biden, said “a noun, a verb, and 9/11.
But alas, all of the sudden all those volunteers who tried to either rescue victims or did the cleanup are not important, and unless the bill is paid for itself then they will filibuster it.
Taxes for the top percent of incomes do not need to pay for themselves, neither do the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This reminds me of what they do with their favorite expense in the budget, and the number one reason why we are in the hole that we are, the Department of Defense. And the point of it is that they do exactly the same with the injured in the wars that they not only encourage but shove down the rest of the country’s throat, once they come back screw them. Now it’s their own fault for volunteering, and getting injured. While they are in combat or being trained they are the pride of the country, but they become a drag on society if they come back alive and injured. They are better off dead, or it seems that way. Then they are buried with full honors in Arlington.
And the same thing will happen with the volunteers on 9/11. Now they are a “pain in the ass”, and let them fall through the way side.
What really amazes me the most in the silence on other networks about this issue.
The volunteers are not just New Yorkers, they are Americans.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Obama and tax cuts
Today President Obama has probably sealed his fate for 2012 by alienating his supporters in his own party, and leaving himself vulnerable to the wing of the party who want to have a primary instead of just making him the candidate for the Democratic Party. No incumbent who’s had a primary has been re-elected.
The President today caved in to republicans before they even took power.
If this is what we can expect for the next two years the republicans with only majority in only one chamber he will be an irrelevant president. Republicans will underfund, modify or even rollback the health care in which he invested almost half of his presidency, with tremendous use of political capital.
The next two years will demonstrate if this president will hold his own or capitulate in every piece of legislation that the opposition throws at him, and by then he will prove to the country if he should be re-elected.
The President today caved in to republicans before they even took power.
If this is what we can expect for the next two years the republicans with only majority in only one chamber he will be an irrelevant president. Republicans will underfund, modify or even rollback the health care in which he invested almost half of his presidency, with tremendous use of political capital.
The next two years will demonstrate if this president will hold his own or capitulate in every piece of legislation that the opposition throws at him, and by then he will prove to the country if he should be re-elected.
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