Day: October 13, 2011

Smirking Chimp

Not a post about the website…however, it is a really good read……

As everyone who reads my stuff knows how much I like politics and the antics that go with it…..but I have always dislikes and mistrusted any politician that smirks when asked questions….that goes for every politician regardless of party or affiliation…..but recently I have seen more smirks per issue than in the past…..and the smirk-iest of the bunch is the GOP’s majority leader in the House, Eric Cantor……

Wne he sprints to the microphones after any announcement from the Obama administration to get in the first shots of the battle to come….he seems to always smirk when talking about important issues….like unemployment or the recession or……after reading a piece om political wire I now have a good grasp of the situation…..

Jason Zengerle profiles House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) noting that no one “has done more to disrupt Obama’s first term — and threaten his chance at a second — than Cantor. The two men have clashed from the start.”

He’s consolidated his own power by courting the Republican House freshman who gave his party the majority in last year’s elections. “Some veteran GOP lawmakers find Cantor’s coddling of the freshmen irritating… But Cantor has realized that, in Washington these days, being liked is not a substantial advantage. Much better to be deemed so unreasonable that your opponents ultimately feel no choice but to bend to your will.”

Also interesting: “And yet for all the loyalty many GOP congressmen feel toward Cantor, he is surprisingly unloved. Even his admirers say he lacks the social ease and natural confidence of most politicians… Cantor rarely socializes with his colleagues, and since he doesn’t golf or fish or have any hobbies, when he does find himself in social situations, he usually talks about work.”

I think we could call it….ARROGANCE.  To me, his smirking illustrates that he does not take the plight of the American people as something serious and that his own personal ambitions trump anything useful for society…..

Herm’s Social Security Plan

We hear daily about the Cain tax plan of 999….everybody is all a twitter (the feeling not the social media) about his plan….but I want to talk about what he has in store for Social Security……but first……Cain’s economic adviser is NOT an economist…..the “999″ plan was dealt its biggest blow when one of Cain’s own economic advisers said it wasn’t a tax plan he would back. While Gary Robbins, who scored the plan for Cain’s campaign and is a paid consultant, praised the plan, he made it clear that it wouldn’t be the plan he picked.  That pretty much tells you just how effective it would be…..

But let us move on…..Herman Cain likes to call his proposal for Social Security as the “Chilean Model”……okay but what is the “Chilean Model”?  In short, the Chilean Model — if actually enacted and administered as it is in Chile — would be a far, far cry from the abolition of the welfare state. Instead, it would represent government partnering with private business in order to administer the social welfare guarantees that conservatives are often so quick to denounce.

Under the Chilean system, workers must contribute 10% of their income, up to a certain limit — similar to Social Security taxes in this country — to a private pension fund administrator.

Workers then choose which funds to invest in, according to the different classifications of risk levels. But even then, there is no true free-market risk of total failure and being left out in the cold — at least, not for the pensioners.  In fact, the government has maintained a social guarantee of minimum pensions for retirees. Thus, in case of serious under-performance or losses by a fund — or outright bankruptcy of a failing AFP — the government will essentially perform a bailout of retirees, by paying for the difference up to the minimum benefit. Indeed, the reforms that have taken place in the system have been done to address the wide-ranging low payments from the system, with expanded efforts to cover poorer workers and to increase the minimum benefits that the government will provide.

In other words….it is a snow job that still requires governmental involvement…if in fact he is proposing using the Chilean Model…..so just like his fallacy of the 999 Plan so goes his Social Security plan….maybe he should spend more time on the mechanics of his plan and less time doing interviews that he pisses up every time he opens his mouth…..just a thought!