Day: June 3, 2011

Wait! There Is A ‘People’s Budget’?

These days in Washington there is enough BS flowing in the streets to keep all us politicos writing for months……and then there is the budget debacle…..Repubs have one…Dems have one…..Pres has one…..everybody has a budget,,,,,but the one that is seldom mentioned is the one that has been offered up for consideration from the Congressional Progressive Caucus….it is called the People’s Budget…..

The CPC proposal:

• Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021
• Puts America back to work with a “Make it in America” jobs program
• Protects the social safety net
• Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly)

What the proposal accomplishes:

• Primary budget balance by 2014.
• Budget surplus by 2021.
• Reduces public debt as a share of GDP to 64.1% by 2021, down 16.5 percentage points from
a baseline fully adjusted for both the doc fix and the AMT patch.
• Reduces deficits by $5.6 trillion over 2012-21, relative to this adjusted baseline.
• Outlays equal to 22.2% of GDP and revenue equal 22.3% of GDP by 2021.

It is an interesting document and well worth some real attention….read it for yourself…..

Read the People’s Budget

Read The Technical Analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (External Link)

There seems to be a wealth of proposals out there to help out our budget deficit…..and personally, would like to see them all get the light of day and let the true people of the country see which one makes the most sense and which one would do the most good…..something I know will NOT happen but one can dream…..But wait!  Does it say a balanced budget in 3 years?  Yes it does!  If I am not mistaken that is way sooner than golden boy Ryan’s proposal…..if true why does it NOT get more air time?  My guess is that it does not play well with corporate American and since they own most of the media….it will be ignored!

We can change that….how?  Tell your reps in Congress that they need to consider the CPC budget and remind them that elections are quickly approaching…….WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

2011 Anal-Ocity #20

There are libertarians on the right and on the left and I thought the definition of libertarian was one of freedom….free press, free markets, free thought and free speech and some sort of personal responsibility….I am not saying that I agree with them on much but apparently I have missed something at the daily briefing……

It seems that Rand Paul would like to bring back the 1984 thing called “the Thought Police”….the book, not the year…..recently Paul had this to say…..

Paul went on Sean Hannity’s radio show on May 27 and said the government should “take into account whether or not” people have “been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders.”

He added, “If someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that’s really an offense that we should be going after.” In fact, he said, “They should be deported or put in prison.”

So if I go to one of these speeches out of curiosity, Paul would have me arrested or deported or worse….is that about it?

Finally the perfect running mate for Bachmann if she wins the GOP nomination….I mean after all she wants Dems investigated and  put on trial for being un-American…..so she and Paul have a lot in common…..it is a Dream Team!  (in case you missed it…..that was what is called SARCASM!)

We Are Broke!

Repubs have been using this tired diatribe for years….you know if you say something long enough people will start believing the words without checking the facts……and it is working.  For months now the GOP has been on a massive ad campaign to make the people, the voter, think that cuts in ALL services are needed or the country will go under and of course they use Greece, that scary scenario playing out in Europe…..and it is working…..all those talking points that are repeated 100 times a day…..are working.

But people are we truly going broke or is it all so much bovine fecal matter?  My vote, no surprise to anyone, is it is Bovine in nature…..the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has issued a new report……

That’s just not true, writes Economic Policy Institute (EPI) President Larry Mishel, in a new briefing paper, We’re Not Broke, Nor Will We Be.

Nevertheless, while these claims have little in the way of truth, politicians and pundits have successfully used them to promote budget cutbacks and the notion that employers cannot afford decent pay and benefits.

The paper shows the economy has seen steady growth in income and wealth over the past 30 years and will see similar growth in the next 30 years. The caveat is the middle class hasn’t seen much benefit from that growth. Since 1979, the top 10 percent of households have received almost two-third of all the income gains, with the top 1 percent claiming 38.7 percent.

Read the report in its entirety….there are questions answered and some new ones asked…..Before you jump on any bandwagon do a little research and see if you are being told the truth…….