Be INFORMED

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Obama Turns Republican?

  Well yes, if you look at the “ compromise “ that he and the American Taliban have been working on in order to get a budget. What a freakin joke! Once again, the rich/wealthy get to keep their tax cuts and the middle class and the poor get to bend over and take it up the ass. There is really no need to vote for a Republican since we pretty much already have one in the White House. At the rate that Obama and the Democrats keep doing these ludicrous compromises with the American Taliban, sitting out the election will be what I do. I’ll just have to work on the state level elections. In Florida, that is a lot of work.

We Cannot Afford this Kind of Compromise

   By Ellinorianne  on Sat Jul 02, 2011          Original Article

Not caving?  This is not the kind of compromise our Country can afford!  I don't care anyway you slice this, it's still a stale loaf of bread and it still shows that Democrats have folded like a bunch of cheap party chairs.

Deficit battle shaping up as GOP victory

It's not the headline that bothers me, the narrative that the mainstream media is what they want it to be, but the reality is, this compromise will hurt all the wrong people.  It's just that simple.

But even if Obama were to gain all the tax-law changes he wants, new revenue would make up only about 15 cents of each dollar in deficit reduction in the package.

I don't care if Republicans go against their no new taxes pledge or how it gets spun as a victory for the Administration or Democrats.  It's still a huge loss for all those people who are hanging on by a thread.

But substantively, budget experts note, the plan would still be dominated by cuts to government programs, many of them longtime Democratic priorities, such as Medicaid and federal employee pensions.

And yes, I get that we started out this way, it's a "balanced" approach.  Sure, we may call this a victory, but I can't.

"This is not just a numbers debate," Obama said Thursday in Philadelphia. "This is a values debate."

Yes it is, and as I stated in a diary earlier, my values are going down the drain when it comes to leaving the 25% of children who are living in poverty to go to bed hungry.

How is this acceptable? 

The White House is seeking about $300 billion in new revenue over the decade, less than half the amount it sought when Obama first outlined his goals last spring, based on the proposals in negotiations.

Obama once targeted the wealthiest Americans, the top 2% who earn beyond $200,000 a year, proposing to cap their income tax deductions.

But weeks of closed-door talks have diminished that goal. Now, even a deduction cap on those Americans earning beyond $500,000 a year — just 1.3 million Americans, fewer than 1% of all taxpayers — has been dashed. The latest offer on the table would be a more limited cap, to generate an additional $130 billion.

With just a few weeks remaining to reach an agreement, Democrats now are fighting mainly for the most populist tax reforms: ending tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, eliminating a tax break for hedge fund managers, closing an ethanol loophole and changing the way businesses write off inventory, according to those familiar with the talks.

I think we all deserve better, I want better!  And unfortunately, during a recession such as this, the last thing we should be cutting is anything that is helping people in need.  This is what we will face no matter how it turns out.

Regardless of any tax concessions President Obama achieves, the end result would favor Republican goals of cutting spending and government services.

This is what the mainstream media will push.  We need to push back, we need to push for LESS cuts.

It is not enough to merely support The President!

We must support the values we say we so deeply hold close out us.  That we do not let our children go to bed hungry, that we don't let our middle class drown in mortgage and student loan debt (damn the national debt, it should be our last concern right now, if the middle class grows, that debt will shrink!).

The Republicans fear the Tea Party?

It's time the Democrats listened to us!  It's time we did what was important to more people than Corporate Jet Owners and Hedge Fund Managers.

Read More...

Saturday, July 02, 2011

Senator Schumer:Democrats Jobs Plan

  Sen. Schumer gave a lecture on the economy and jobs at the Economic  Policy Institute on Thursday, which contained a draft of a  jobs plan including a Highway Bill, and a few other goodies. He also had a few choice words about the Republicans and their tax cut vision for creating new jobs.

   You can watch Schumer’s speech here.

     Prepared Remarks

The evidence is clear: the Republican approach of 'cut, cut, cut' over the last six months has undermined our economic recovery.

Toward the end of last year, the recovery was gaining momentum – GDP grew 2.6% in the third quarter and 3.1% in the fourth quarter. But in the first half of 2011, as the federal government increasingly withdrew support from the economy and Republicans continually blocked us from doing anything to create jobs, growth has fallen to less than 2%.

(snip)

The Republicans can say all they want that we can cut our way to prosperity, but is at odds with all the empirical evidence we have. We know from history, as well as from what we are seeing in other parts of the world right now, that cuts on the scale they have proposed in the middle of a recession will lead to lower economic growth and less job creation, not more.

We have now been playing entirely on the Republicans‘ field for six months and the recovery has only slowed. We have seen enough to know that their approach is not working.

  Then, he went where President Obama should have gone.

And we need to start asking ourselves an uncomfortable question – are Republicans slowing down the recovery on purpose for political gain in 2012? It's one thing for them to block programs they have always opposed. But when they start to contradict themselves by opposing programs they have supported—such as pro-business tax cuts—we are left to wonder.

    I’m just sayin..