Day: May 10, 2011

2011 Anal-Ocity #18

Osama bin Laden is STILL DEAD!  Feels GOOD to say that!

This is an old draft I had but the events that unfolded in the last week or so delayed its publication….sorry……

I can only say what a good year for idiot statements and a good year for the Anal-Ocities….you know those lame ass sayings that politicians and others make and then immediately start back peddling……

Today’s anal-ocity comes from the mouth of a Oklahoma state representative, Sally Kern (R)……

“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”

Kern added that women earn less than men because “they tend to spend more time at home with their families.”

So blacks earn less because they do not work hard enough and women earn less because they spend more time at home…..this seems to be a reoccurring tactic….to boil something down to its lowest denominator….and I would like to hear her excuse for so many whites that are now living in poverty…..

Is it just me or does the more these people talk the more they show just how racist they really are?  And have you heard this sort of thing coming out of the right wing nuts before?

UpDate:  This sad excuse for a representative has been reprimanded by the Oklahoma state legislature!  But the statement is out there and the feelings have been voiced…..

And There Is A Balanced Budget

I guess today is Budget Day…where I piss on all things budgetary…oh well….someone has to do it!

The political ballet has been going on now for about 5 months, since the last election and the swearing in of the new Congress….that ballet has been the back and forth of the debate on a balanced budget……2 steps forward…one step back, then one step forward and then 3 steps back…..back and forth…..one side gets points the other side gets hammered and then it is vice versa……what then is the answer?

Good question, class!  The Repubs have come up with a budget that most of the middle class thinks sucks…..and that is the privatization of SS and Medicare….oh, my bad….they are calling it the personalization of SS and Medicare…..it is all in the presentation, huh?  Anyway looks as if they will back off of their proposal for a voucher system for Medicare….if they do how will that play against the balanced budget thingy?

TPM is reporting……

It turns out that if you strike the Medicare plan from the GOP budget — authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — it doesn’t achieve fiscal balance anymore.

“It certainly blows a major hole in his plan,” said Paul Van de Water, a health care and budget expert at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a phone interview.

If you take Ryan at his word, and assume that the tax-side of his plan is revenue neutral — a big “if” — his plan balances the budget over decades entirely on the spending side of the government’s ledger. Van de Water explains that if you take the Medicare privatization plan out of the equation, the budget sinks — dragged down by higher spending, and then higher interest payments as a result of larger-than-projected deficits.

Well that just SUCKS!  Without the voucher thing…Ryan’s budget proposal floats like a lead toilet…what to do….what to do?  My guess is to start tap dancing like a drunken sailor to try and find a compromise or the Repubs Golden Plan is dead in the flipping water…..Once again….what to do?  What to do?

Are You Poor And Need Help?

From the VOMITORIUM

Yes the GOP is standing by Ryan’s budget….but not too close….they all see the handwriting on the wall…..mess with Medicare and lose your re-election bid….and we know that it is all about being re-elected and nothing about what is best for the people of this country….anyway…..Medicare will most likely be safe from the massive overhaul and eventual privatization that the Repubs had wanted…and that will be great news……but…..there is always a but…..what about Medicaid?  You know that program in the states that assists the poor in receiving medical care?  Will it be safe from the hatchet job that the Repubs were planning for Medicare?

It seems that Ryan’s budget will still have this program in the cross hairs and if he and his cronies are successful what will it mean to the poor in the states?

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities delves into the details of Ryan’s plan to slash Medicaid by more than a third over the next decade, and in half over the next two decades:

          • Seniors:   An overwhelming majority of Medicare beneficiaries who live in nursing homes rely on Medicaid for their nursing home coverage.  Because the Ryan plan would require such deep cuts in federal Medicaid funding, it would inevitably result in less coverage for nursing home residents and shift more of the cost of nursing home care to elderly beneficiaries and their families.  A sharp reduction in the quality of nursing home care would be virtually inevitable, due to the large reduction that would occur in the resources made available to pay for such care.
          • People with disabilities:   These individuals constitute 15 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries but account for 42 percent of all Medicaid expenditures, mostly because of their extensive health and long-term care needs.  Capping federal Medicaid funding would place significant financial pressure on states to scale back eligibility and coverage for this high-cost population, many of whom would be unable to obtain coverage elsewhere because of their medical conditions.
          • Children:  Currently, state Medicaid programs must provide children with health care services and treatments they need for their healthy development through the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) aspect of Medicaid, which provides regular preventive care for children and all follow-up diagnostic and treatment services that children are found to need.  A block grant would likely permit states to drop EPSDT coverage, meaning that children, particularly those with special health care needs, would not be able to access some care that medical professionals find they need (because Medicaid would no longer cover certain health services and treatments for children, and their parents wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for that care on their own).

See…..they may be pushing back from the horrible idea of the voucher system for Medicare…they are still trying to kill the medical coverage for the poor….for they know that if it boils down to the states solely…the program will disappear….governors have been trying to kill it for decades and now they are within sight of success….