No Social Security Checks?! When Pigs Fly

So now we're being told that Social Security checks for August may not go out, if Congress doesn't put a deficit deal in place. It goes without saying that watching helplessly while Congress and the White House play chicken with my life is not sitting very well with me.

Rather than negotiate in good faith, the GOP lead by Miz Mitch McConnell from Kentucky wants to give the President more power than allocated by the United States Constitution to solve the problem. Only trouble is, it is a catch 22 for the White House..accept the power described by McConnell in his grand idea and the GOP/teabaggers will immediately fall back on all their third world banana republic scenarios, claiming Obama is attempting to establish himself as America's first dictator.

It's a trap whose only purpose as McConnell has repeatedly stated, is to bring down Barack Obama, limiting him to one term in office. He needs help cleaning up the GOP mess left over from the past decade, but he's not gonna get it from Congress, apparently.

According to all sides and sources, we need to increase the debt limit or face dire consequences financially, including a return, if you will, to recession or even depression. Some sources are even predicting the end of the world as we know it, if steps aren't taken soon.  Okay, so what's the holdup?

Well the GOP wants to cut entitlements. Read that Medicaid, Medicare, and gut social security.  They see no need to fix the infrastructure or create more jobs or recreate the manufacturing base that built this country in the first place.

They see no need to make health care even more affordable, after all, they already have it. Their salaries are protected under emergency funding, meaning they will get paid even if the country defaults on everything else.

 They see no need to cut defense spending, just in case we have to go to war again and despite the fact that we will never fight war like this again. The neocons still cling to the visions of batallions of men marching toward one another on an open field, while war has evolved to the push button phase from the safety of our own borders. And they have no clue or idea what to do with the vets who are returning home from the illegal actions that have been raging for the past several years.  We treat our vets worse than we treat poor people in this country, and that's pretty bad.

They also see no need to raise taxes on the wealthy, figuring, I would guess, that the middle class can  absorb about $500 in cuts per person better than the wealthy can come up with $5 per person to help out. They see no need to increase the revenue base at all.

American jobs are still being shipped overseas.... most workers haven't seen a pay increase bigger than 2% for the past several years, while corporate honchos are averaging 28% increases before the yearly bonus.

Unemployment is at 9.2% if you happen to be white. If you're black...it's right around 16%..Not much has changed since the days of Ronald Reagan.

So inquiring minds want to know...

1...Why is the GOP afraid of the Tea Party...so much so that it is allowing the inmates to run the asylum since most of these insane solutions for cutting the deficit come from the teabagger caucus?  Are there no moderate republicans willing to stand up and lead rather than to follow the crazies over the cliff dragging America into oblivion?

2...Why does the White House see the need to always capitulate to the right, when it wasn't the right that elected the president in the first place? When does "Change" become a big idea rather than a whispered wish?  There once was a dream that was change. What happened?

This White House is like a ballplayer who comes to the plate in the bottom of the ninth...two outs...bases loaded...team down by three runs...winning run at the plate..time to go big or go home...what do you do...lay down a bunt...or swing for the fence...This White House tends to bunt more often than not...

3...When does Congress stand up for the middle class and do the job it is supposed to do, which is to protect us from the whims of both the right and left crazies, the bloodsuckers of the corporate world and the wolves of Big Pharma who see people as nothing more than human lab rats with pockets full of money?

4...When are the American people going to stand up and vote in their own best interests rather than sit back and allow the power elite to drive the frenzied mob into a stampede that overwhelms the voting booth, snatching power from the people?

Me?  Voting at every opportunity for my own best interests, but still making plans to expatriat, having lost faith in the courage of the American people...

Why You Should Vote Democratic on November 2nd

AARP, the advocacy group that represents most senior citizens in America, predicts that upwards of 80% of America's 40 million senior citizens plan to vote on November 2^nd. 63% turned out in 2008. Now, on the surface that looks like a good thing for the GOP, since old people are usually more conservative.

But hold your horses...the GOP and its tea party mini-mes say across the board, that they are going to privatize or change social security, health care and medicare...that's right after they extend the Bush tax cuts and increase the deficit by 3 trillion dollars.

But most seniors are happy with health care, and social security. Not even teabaggers want anyone to touch their social security and medicare.

The only place where seniors are against health care and okay with changing social security in fact, are Ohio and Florida....go figure...

Ohio Congressman John Boehner, in between losing his tan, measuring the drapes for his new office and promising powerful committee chairs to his teabagging buddies has promised to shut down the government ala 1994, if he gets the power..this in addition to privatizing social security and revising health care for seniors.

We all know how well that worked for Newt Gingrich and his Contract on America Congressmen who authored the last government shutdown as a way to embarrass President Clinton.

Boehner and Eric Cantor and  Ms. Mitch McConnell want to try the same thing with Obama.


The Campaign for America has identified some of the biggest lies hanging out there that have people confused about Obama's record. You can find the entire story here.

1. Obama drastically increased the deficit. Fact: Bush's last deficit was 1.4-trillion dollars. Obama's first deficit was 1.2 trillion...Obama's plan DECREASED the deficit
2. Obama raised taxes and screwed the economy. Fact: Obama cut taxes for 95% of America. Some 40% of the stimulus money was wasted on tax cuts that created more debt.
   
3. Obama bailed out the banks. Fact: The Bank bailout was requested by President Bush and implemented by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. The bailout package was approved BEFORE Obama was even elected president.
   
4. The Stimulus did not work. Fact: The Congressional Budget Office says, not only did it work, it wasn't big enough and should have been more. Emplyment went up by 3.3 million jobs as a direct result of the stimulus.
   
5. Businesses will create jobs if they get tax cuts. Fact: This is trickle down economics. Businesses hire when they have a demand for product and supplies. If given tax cuts, businesses sit on the money as long as possible, saving it rather than putting it back into the economy or hiring new workers.
   
6. Health Care Reform cost a trillion dollars. Fact: The new health care package cuts the deficit by $138 billion.
   
7. Social Security is going broke. Fact: Social Security is still running a surplus and is good for at least another 25 years. It cannot legally borrow and therefore cannot contribute to the deficit. The big problem is that people are simply living longer with fewer babies dying at birth or shortly thereafter.
8. Government spending takes money away from the economy. Fact: Government money is used to build and repair infrastructure like roads, airports, ports, courts and schools. Very little of the government budget goes to welfare, foreign aid and other social programs. The biggest drain on the national budget is defense and military spending.
   

Bottom line...if the GOP gets in and starts to put back into place the old policies...America will go broke....period.
If the GOP gets back in and pulls back on stimulus money....America will go into a depression, the likes of which has never been seen before.
If the GOP gets back into power and repeals health care...the deficit will triple and probably quadruple...but by then...most of us won't be around to see it..


The choice is yours...Go forward to recovery or go back to the dark ages. For some of us...the good ole days that the teabaggers talk about never existed in the first place.
Vote November 2^nd