Tag: Congressional Debate

Gonna Be A Long August

We will have have long August….the Congress and its minions will be on a 5 week break…….they will be back home to stir up the base or they will be on a “fact finding” mission with family in tow paid for by us mere mortals…..but all the bravado spouted about shuttling the government down is gonna bite them, the Repubs, in the butt…..

The GOP has gonna have its problems with the extremes versus the adults (there are not many of these)…….

If the first few town halls of the August Congressional recess are any indication, Republicans are “[struggling] to contain the monster they created.”

The monster in question is the unhinged, fact-free Tea Party juggernaut and its irrational and unceasing opposition to Obamacare. The GOP civil war over defunding Obamacare is breaking out into the open at town hall meetings across the country.

ThinkProgress’ Aviva Shen has the details:

After 40 failed votes to repeal Obamacare, several Republicans are threatening anew to block government funding unless the health reform law gets defunded. This threat is nothing new; Republicans have repeatedly demanded that every appropriations bill include a provision to repeal Obamacare since the law was passed. Tea Party lawmakers in 2011 emphasized how dire the situation was, calling for a “blood oath” to “choke Obamacare.”

Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL)
When confronted by one angry constituent, Schock dismissed his pro-shutdown colleagues for “beating their chests” on cable news without thinking about the real-life consequences. “How many weeks would you go without paying Social Security, and how many weeks would you go without paying the troops?” he asked. “And having a young lady walk into my office, whose husband is over in Afghanistan, who can’t pay her mortgage because I’m shutting the government down because I don’t like the health care law? […] I’m just suggesting that when you get into a fight, politically, you gotta make sure you’re willing to kill the hostage you got. And I am not convinced yet that that’s a hostage we should take headed into this fight.” Watch it HERE.

Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC)
Pittenger flatly answered “no” when a constituent asked him if he would join the effort to defund Obamacare. Pittenger argued that the vote would be pointless because the Democrat-controlled Senate would never pass the bill. His constituents yelled back that they wanted to “make a stand to get conservatives back on board.” He later released a statement explaining that he would take “responsible steps to defund or replace Obamacare.” Watch it HERE.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
At a town hall on Monday, Fortenberry warned of “very significant consequences” should Republicans go forward with their plan, and said “There has to be a better way.” In response, one audience member declared, “We elected Republicans to fight for more conservative policies.”

Many other prominent Republicans have refused to support the shutdown plan. On Sunday, former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said “there are more effective ways” to get rid of Obamacare. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) scoffed, “It’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” while Sen. Tom Cole (R-OK) called it “a temper tantrum.” Republican governors have also warned that their state economies would suffer enormously if the party takes the government hostage.

BOTTOM LINE: As a new poll out today underscores, the GOP’s obsession with repealing — or even trying to shut down the government in order to defund — Obamacare is a political loser. This isn’t 2010 and the GOP’s repeated efforts to deny the security of quality, affordable health care to millions of Americans are dragging the party down.

My personal opinion is that the extremes will hold the rest of the party up and push to get their way….it will further damage Boehner………and chaos will return to Congress and there will be NO actions that fix any real life problems…….look for the mouth of Cruz or Paul or Lee………the shame is that the crazies out number the adults……and that is a formula for chaos……

It’s gonna be a long August and unproductive Fall……

Then Who Pays Taxes?

Daily Agitator

I recently wrote a post about companies that do not pay taxes at all or at a reduced rate….and post got me to thinking about just who pays the taxes that are the income of the country?

When we talk about taxes, the Right has this tag line that X% of Americans pay NO taxes at all…..for them sometimes this is a good thing and when needed it is a travesty that more people do not pay taxes….so far I have NOT seen this in any form but if we take their words for it…..then there is more……this from Paul Bechhuit of Buzz Flash.com……

— General Electric made $10.3 billion in 2009, but received a $1.1 billion tax rebate.

— Forbes said about Bank of America in 2010: “How did they not pay any taxes on $4.4 billion in income?”

— Oil giant Exxon made a $45 billion profit in 2009, but paid no taxes in the United States.

— Citigroup had 4 quarters of billion-dollar profits in 2010, but paid no taxes.

— Wells Fargo made $12 billion but purchased Wachovia Bank to claim a $19 billion tax credit.

— Hewlett Packard’s U.S. income tax rate was 4.3% in 2008 and 2.3% in 2009.

— Verizon’s 10.5% tax rate, according to Forbes, is due to its partnership with Vodafone, the primary target in UK Uncut’s protests against tax evaders.

— Chevron’s tax rate was 1% in 2008.

— Boeing, which just won a $30 billion contract to build 179 airborne tankers, got $124 million back from the taxpayers in 2010.

— Over the past 5 years Amazon made $3.5 billion and paid taxes at the rate of 4.3%.

— Carnival Cruise Lines paid 1% in taxes on its $11.5 billion profit over the past 5 years.

— Koch Industries is not publicly traded, but their many tax-free benefits have been documented by the New York Observer and the Institute for Public Accuracy.

— In 2008 CorporateWatch said Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp paid “astoundingly low taxes” because of tax havens.

— Google “cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years by shifting its money around foreign countries.

— Merck, the second-largest drugmaker in the U.S., last year brought more than $9 billion from abroad without paying any U.S. tax.

— Pfizer, the largest drugmaker in the U.S., erased $10 billion in taxes with an “accounting treatment.”

If the people pay little or NO taxes and corporations do the same thing….just who is paying taxes?  It has got to be the small businesses……if it is then there needs to be a change in the tax codes….small business get a lower rate and corporations pay their share with NO deductions or help from the government……now you know why the country is in monetary trouble….NO one is paying their taxes!

What percentage do you pay?

We know that idea will not fly!  Corporations have friends in high places…like YOUR representative!

They Will Do Nothing!

As the media circus continues on the shootings in Tucson, there have been many calling for some sort of gun reform…..and of course there are many that will run out and buy guns because the government will outlaw them….well, if you believe that then you are truly a Mental Midget!

Just like the crisis in education…..this has been a concern for as long as I can remember….it gets lots of press and lots of air time….but just what has been done to improve the education in this country?  As usual, the Congress has done NOTHING!

What is that old saying?  Oh yeah….talk is cheap!

We have known for sometime that the environment is in deep trouble….at least for the last 35 years…..and what has been done?  Lots of talk, lots debate, lots of lies, lots of theater….but what, in reality has been done?  once again….NOTHING!

And now with the Tucson shootings, we will have the circus again, but this time it will be about guns…..all the old BS will come out again……the government is coming for your guns, that it is stomping on the 2nd amendment, that NRA will protect you from the government, that…..well you probably have heard all the crap before and will hear it again and again and……what can we say…..no one is serious about making sure that actions like this will never happen again…..all the debate will do is give lots of fodder for the political campaigns to come….

With all the talk and debate (if you can call it that) will go on and on and in the end the same thing will occur……They Will Do Nothing!  And doing nothing will almost guarantee that this situation will happen again and again……

Could Public Option Actually Save Money?

A Professor’s Classroom

I try to find info for the reader that is not commonly out there to help in the understanding of the issue of health care and the debate.

While doing some research I found an article in Reuters about this subject.

Opponents say a cheaper, government plan will make it impossible for private plans to compete and may drive some out of business. It could also encourage employers to drop coverage and make employees buy a government-backed plan, they say.

Overall, an exchange with a Medicare-like plan will save nearly $3 trillion through 2020, saving consumers up to $2,200 per household, Commonwealth found. About $2 trillion of that would come after about five to six years, it said.

In comparison, an exchange including a government plan with higher rates would save $1.97 trillion and a private plan-only exchange would save almost $1.2 trillion. Both options would save a household $1,600.

Still, an exchange won’t keep health costs from rising, the report added.

The increase in federal budget costs from 2010 to 2020 with the Medicare-like public plan would be $112 billion, it found. That is compared to $232 billion under the public plan with somewhat higher rates and $360 billion under a private plan-only exchange.

All three options would help insure nearly all Americans, it said, with the number of uninsured dropping to about 4 million people by 2012.

The group’s analysis assumed other changes would also be made to the U.S. healthcare market. These include payment reforms to the Medicare program, an expansion of existing government coverage and new regulations that would require insurers to cover a wider range of consumers.

These figures should appear in the debate somewhere.  Repubs will most likely avoid using or mentioning this report in any way for it would crap all over their “cost too much” argument.

But there is a desparate need for ALL the information to be given to the people….that is assuning the Congress is truly listening to the people they say are contacting them on the subject….personally, I think it is not all that true….the opinions are being bought.