"Joseph Lazzaro" - Is Social Security Safe with the Tea Party in Power?

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/04/12/social-security-tea-party-gop-republican-benefit-cuts/

By Joseph Lazzaro Posted 7:00AM 04/12/11

The recently averted shutdown of the U.S. government that seemed almost inevitable last week as Republicans and Democrats battled over the federal budget would have been a serious blow to the country and its economy. But the pain we just avoided is nothing compared to the havoc the nation will face if the Tea Party-led Republicans move forward with their plans to dismantle Social Security.

Haven't heard the Tea Partiers talk about ending your Social Security payment yet? Just wait.

Trust me: Whether you're receiving Social Security now or you expect to in the years ahead, your retirement benefits are not safe if the Republican Party remains in power. Here's why:

The ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party is dominating its agenda now. That's the main reason House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was afraid to compromise with President Obama and Senate Democrats, and accept a smaller, more straightforward budget cut to end the stalemate. Nor is there much in the current political climate to suggest that the Tea Party's ability to instill fear in other Republicans and propel its agenda will diminish any time soon.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has already introduced a sham of a budget for 2012. The vague "budget proposal" is a thinly disguised anti-tax Tea Party manifesto that essentially dismantles Medicare, the nation's health insurance program for senior citizens. Under Ryan's plan, Medicare would be replaced by a voucher system that would, in theory, allow senior citizens to purchase private health insurance. Among the many problematic aspects to Ryan's concoction, the worst is that the vouchers would cover only about one-third the cost of a private insurance plan that provided coverage comparable to Medicare.

If Ryan's proposal becomes law, seniors can kiss Medicare goodbye. And for most of them, that will probably mean kissing any kind of robust health care plan in their retirement years goodbye as well, unless they have the large amount of spare cash available to buy a better policy than will be available for those holding Ryan's inadequate vouchers.

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“Robert Scheer” - The Tea Party and Goldman Sachs: A Love Story

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/06-9

Published on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 by TruthDig.com

by Robert Scheer

Face it. We live in two nations, sharply divided by an enormous economic chasm between the super-rich and everyone else. This should be an obvious fact of life for most Americans. Just read the story in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal headlined “Profits Thrive in Weak Recovery.” Or the recent New York Times story pointing out “that the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million,” a 23 percent gain over the year before.

In the midst of a jobless recovery, those same corporations are sitting on more than $2 trillion in reserves, refusing to invest in this country, as increasing percentages of their profits are garnered in tax-sheltered operations abroad. And the bankers who caused the economic meltdown have turned against President Barack Obama, who saved them; instead they favor a tea-party-dominated Republican Party that seeks to limit any restraint on corporate greed while destroying the ability of state and federal governments to bring some measure of relief to ordinary folk.

The whole point of the tea party is to focus concern over our stagnant economy on something called “big government” while ignoring the big corporations that have bought the government as an accessory to their marketing strategies. Big government is big precisely because it now exists primarily to make the world safe for multinational capitalism, whether through a bloated defense budget, trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or monetary policies that serve the interests of the largest companies.

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"Laura Flanders" - New Wave of Protests Fighting Banksters

It was tax day in 2009 that saw the first Tea Party protests, and the FOX-led media firestorm that's followed has made it seem as though the Tea Party's the only game in town if you want to complain about bailouts.

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Les Leopold: Main Street Goes to War Against Itself as Job Crisis Persists

The February unemployment rate is 8.9 percent. The broader Bureau of Labor Statistics U6 jobless rate is 15.9 percent. The report shows a net increase of 192,000 jobs. However, we need 127,000 new jobs every month to keep up with population growth. At this rate it will take 11.2 years to get back to full employment.

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Johann Hari: How to Build a Progressive Tea Party

Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 was followed by a Tea Party of a very different kind. Enraged citizens gather in every city, week after week—to demand the government finally regulate the behavior of corporations and the superrich, and force them to start paying taxes. The protesters shut down the shops and offices of the companies that have most aggressively ripped off the country. The swelling movement is made up of everyone from teenagers to pensioners. They surround branches of the banks that caused this crash and force them to close, with banners saying, You Caused This Crisis. Now YOU Pay.

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The New GOP Congress: Class Combat With a Side of Culture War

It might be the greatest bait and switch ever pulled on the American voter. For two successive election cycles we’ve been promised jobs, a recovering economy, attention to the Constitution. After the last one, triumphant Republican after triumphant Republican declared November’s to be an election decided on jobs.

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Obama's Scary Budget: Why the Neediest People Should Be the Most Afraid

President Obama will unveil his budget for 2012 on February 14. The administration has so far been guarded about detailing how deeply the budget ax will slice. What is certain, however, is that the cuts will be painful, and that the neediest Americans will feel the worst of that pain. More than 44 million Americans are living in poverty—a fact that Obama barely referenced in his State of the Union speech. Yet a huge chunk of federal spending goes directly and indirectly for programs and services that provide for the needs of the poor.

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Sorry Tea Partiers -- The GOP Only Cares About Their Corporate Paymasters and Wealthy Elites Like the Kochs

By Jim Hightower

Early this month, when John Boehner was sworn in as the new speaker of the House of Representatives, he tipped his hat to the teabag activists across the country who had fueled the Republican takeover of the chamber last fall. He almost choked up as he promised to "give the government back to the American people."

Boehner was not choking back tears, however, he literally was choking on the flagrant hypocrisy of his words. You see, the people he's giving the government back to are not tea partiers, but the rapacious corporate lobbyists who ran the Congress during the years when former Majority Leader Tom DeLay ran the show. Apparently, the name "Boehner" is derived from an ancient Teutonic word meaning: business as usual.

Throughout his two decades in Congress, the new speaker has been a reliable ally of corporate interests. In recent years, he has formed unusually tight legislative, political and even social ties with a group of lobbyists for such giants as Citigroup, Coors, Goldman Sachs, Google and R.J. Reynolds.

Of course, most congressional leaders work with lobbyists, so that's not odd, but to have them also be his closest friends and social chums -- well, you just want to say, "For heaven's sake, Johnnie, get a life!"

These influence peddlers are now the speaker's inner circle, guiding his legislative decisions. Even before last November's election, Boehner had a private meeting with a flock of top corporate lobbyists to help shape "a new GOP agenda." Forget the tea party. No tea party operative is a Boehner insider. It's the corporate agenda that Republican leaders will be pushing, and to make sure that it stays on track, Boehner has hired a top corporate lobbyist to be his policy director.

So, while tea party regulars are giddy with the thought that their movement took over the U. S. House, they were actually a Trojan horse. They delivered the votes to make Boehner speaker, which allowed the corporate powers to move inside, quietly take over and return Congress to business as usual.

On opening day of the 112th Congress, beaming members of the new Republican majority entered the House chamber, accompanied by their proud families. But the moment did not belong to members alone.

Also entering the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremonies was David Koch, the multibillionaire industrialist and laissez-faire extremist who bankrolled much of the tea party/GOP victory last fall. What symbolism! The members were taking office, but Koch and his corporate agenda were taking power.

Indeed, many lobbyists for Wall Street banks and big corporations have been hired as top legislative aides for Republican members. As Rep. John Campbell put it, "You want someone with experience." Yeah, experience in corporatizing our government.

In fact, some of the most powerful lawmakers in the House are simply handing their power to corporate interests. For example, Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the new chairman of the Wall Street oversight committee, declared that his role is to "serve the banks."

The chief comforter of corporate crybabies, however, is Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chair of the wide-ranging government reform committee. He sent letters to 150 corporate interests, asking them to tell him if Obama and his Democratic meanies have imposed any consumer, worker or environmental protections that should be undone. That's like asking a barber if you need a haircut!

The letters unleashed an outpouring of corporate whining -- big banks, for example, wailed that their ability to gouge customers with rip-off debit-card fees had been curtailed. There, there, Issa said soothingly, I'm here now. I'll make it all better for you.

Under the guise of giving government back to the people, the House majority is giving it to the corporate powers who finance their campaigns. This is not just business as usual, it's business way more than usual.



Is This the End of Sarah Palin As We Know Her?

Has Sarah Palin gone too far this time? Or is she immune, able to cross any line no matter how sacred? With every headline-making gaffe or nasty comment Sarah Palin has made over the past few years, pundits and citizens alike have pondered this question, and the answer, until now, is that like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going.

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Gary Younge: The "Tea Party" Does Not Exist

Lectures about fiscal responsibility from the occupants of a plush suite on the 20th floor of one of the fanciest hotels in Las Vegas stick in the craw like a slice of cantaloupe swallowed sideways. Appropriately, the Tea Party Express's open bar, trays of fruit and skyline view at the Aria hotel on election night smacked more of a corporate event than a political, let alone a populist, one.

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