At Least We Still Can Go Broke: Alan Grayson

posted previous to the vote to cut $38 BILLION dollars from the US budget - services we NEED.  Here are some enumerated.  We cannot wait until 2012 to do something .. that's why we have US Uncut.org.  The arguments need reframing, but here are some "dots" to use.

byAlan Grayson

Alan Grayson

Unless you’ve been living in a cave recently – Osama, you can stop reading here – you know that the Republicans have blocked the passage of the appropriations bills that apply to all federal spending between April 8 and September 30, so we are facing a government shutdown.

And as the White House has patiently pointed out, that means no more government-backed mortgages, which now account for 95% of the housing market.

No more government student loans. No more government small-business loans.

No pay for the troops, who are now embroiled in three wars.  They still have to fight.  They just won’t be paid for it.  Despite the Thirteenth Amendment.

No tax refunds, just one week before taxes are due.

No federal grants for roads, schools, or pretty much anything else.

No new medical research at the National Institutes of Health.

And hundreds of thousands of federal employees added to the unemployment rolls.

But there is one thing that you can still do, if the government shuts down.

You can go broke.

I’m a licensed attorney, and yesterday I received this cheerful reminder from a bankruptcy court to which I’m admitted:

“The Court will continue to operate, business as usual, on Monday, April 11, 2011.”

The staff, the bankruptcy court explained, will be paid out of “fee revenue and other sources.”  Anyone who wants to petition for bankruptcy will be welcome to do so.

So there it is.  When the Republicans shut down the government, health and safety, housing and even transportation are all at risk.  But the one thing that you can be sure you can still do is . . . go broke.

For the bankruptcy courts, it’s “business as usual.”  And the bankruptcy business is booming.

But leaving that one exception to the government shutdown aside, it’s now official.  The Party of No is now the Party of No Government.  The Party of Anarchy.  The Party of Chaos.

And remember this:  The White House and the Democratic Leadership have agreed (rightly or wrongly) to what the Republicans originally demanded for the 2011 budget -- $30 billion in social spending cuts.  Yet now the Republicans are demanding twice as much:  $60 billion in 2011 social spending cuts.

But just three months ago, the Republicans insisted on $70 billion in 2011 in tax cuts for the rich.  I’m pretty sure that $70 billion is more than $60 billion, any way you look at it.  So except for those tax cuts for the rich, we wouldn’t be having this argument.

Please make a note on your calendar.  November 6, 2012.  Election Day.  That’s when it will be our turn to punish them, the way that they’ve tried to punish all of us.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

Franken introduces "Pay for War" Resolution: Daily Kos

To set the stage, remember this, the killer graphic from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on the budget and deficits.

The Bush tax cuts, which should have expired in January and which the GOP budget would make permanent, and the Bush wars. That's what is driving the deficit that the GOP says it cares about (though we know better). The very fact that jobs, the Bush tax cuts, and the wars aren't the focus of the deficit discussion suggests that for most politicians and pundits, Dem and GOP alike, this is just politics. But not all.

For example, Sen. Al Franken, who introduced the Pay for War Resolution in the Senate yesterday.

The Pay for War Resolution gives Congress the option to finance war through budget cuts, creating new revenue or a combination of both budgetary means. Franken said the bill is meant to avoid a repeat of the $1.25 trillion that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have added to the national debt.

“We have to ensure that Iraq and Afghanistan remain anomalies in American history,” Franken said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “And that’s what my resolution seeks to do. It will ensure that future wars don’t make our deficit and debt problem worse. It will ensure that Congress and American citizens must face the financial sacrifice of going to war. And it will force us to decide whether a war is worth that sacrifice.”

“In the last ten years our wars have been paid for by borrowing,” Franken said. “The Iraq War was accompanied by a massive tax cut. That failed fiscal experiment created the impression that war requires no financial sacrifice. We know that is just not true. The question is who will bear the financial sacrifice, the generation that has decided to go to war or its children and grandchildren?”

In a press release Franken noted broad support for the idea from across an ideological spectrum, but with the most salient comment from Dean Baker, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research: “If we think that a situation requires the men and women in our military to risk their own lives, then the rest of us should at least be willing to pay for the cost of this adventure with our tax dollars.”

The most serious policy-maker in Washington D.C. today is former comedian. Go figure.

Link:  Many good comments !  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/07/964474/-Franken-introduces-Pay-for-War-resolution

WA state sleepover to protest budget cuts

{postscript:  there was a video posted of the State hauling out the protestors one by one, as only one reporter remained on the site.  It didn't stream well for me, so I have not tried to embed it here.  We'll watch and see what happens next, as this is a foretaste of things to come and shows how different states are going to have very different actions and results ... Virginia )

The labor movement is alive and growing in Washington State, as thousands slept over for a third night to protest proposed budget cuts:

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Thousands of union members from all over Washington poured into the state Capitol Friday, calling on lawmakers to "put people first" by ending corporate tax breaks and painful cuts to public programs.
The protest was by far the largest of four days of boisterous demonstrations in Olympia over spending cuts legislators are considering in order to help close a looming $5 billion budget deficit for the next two-year cycle.

Buses began arriving at the Capitol hours before the noon rally, carrying musicians, iron workers, firefighters and others concerned about the scarcity of jobs, the rising cost of college and the security of their pensions. The Washington State Patrol estimated 7,000 people gathered outside the main legislative building, while labor group leaders put the figure closer to 12,000.
Protesters said they hoped the demonstration would serve as a powerful reminder to lawmakers of who their decisions are affecting as they work to craft the state's next two-year budget. The House plans to vote Friday or Saturday on a budget plan that includes $4.4 billion in cuts, while the Senate will introduce its own proposal next week.

"We need to remind them that we need changes right now, not later," said Tim Haslett, an electrical worker and father of five from Seattle who has been unemployed for most of the past two years. "I'm trying to do everything I can to pay for my youngest daughter to go to college next year, but I don't know how I'm going to be able to do that if there are no jobs."

"We do not have a budget deficit," Jeff Johnson,

president of the Washington State Labor Council,

one of the rally's main organizers, told the crowd.

"We have a social services deficit, we have

a jobs deficit, we have a revenue deficit,

and we have a deficit of leadership." 

Paul Ryan’s budget in summary

By Ezra Klein

(J. Scott Applewhite - Associated Press)

It occurs to me that I haven’t yet posted a simple summary of what House Budget Commitee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget does. So before I comment on it further, let’s do that.

To begin with, you can download his budget here (PDF). But the best way to understand it is probably to break it down by categories. One thing that surprised me when reading through the budget was just how much Ryan was actually proposing to do here. For instance: There’s no obvious reason that repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation law should be in the budget, yet there it is. Anyway, onto the summary:

1) Discretionary spending

a) Non-defense discretionary: Brings spending back to pre-2008 levels and freezes it there for five years.

b) Defense-related discretionary: Echoes Obama’s budget request in accepting the $78 billion in “savings” that Defense Secretary Robert Gates identified and going no further. I put “savings” in quotation marks because it’s really a reduction in the growth rate that Gates previously requested.

2) Financial system

a) Financial regulation: Repeals Dodd-Frank.

b) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: “This budget . . . proposes eventual elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, winding down their government guarantee and ending taxpayer subsidies. It supports increasing the guarantee fees Fannie and Freddie charge lenders in order to bring private capital back, shrinking their retained portfolios, and enacting various measures that would bring transparency and accountability to the GSEs.”

3) Safety net

a) Medicaid: Converts federal share of Medicaid spending into a block grant that’s indexed for inflation and population growth. To offer some context, health-care costs often increase at twice the rate of inflation or more.

b) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Better known as food stamps, SNAP gets the Medicaid treatment: block grants indexed for inflation and population growth.

c) Pell Grants: Cut back to 2008 levels, wiping out recent increases.

d) Health-care reform: Repeals the Affordable Care Act.

4) Retirement security

a) Medicare: Privatizes Medicare. Future beneficiaries will choose from a menu of private options. They won’t have the choice of the standard Medicare plan. Wealthier beneficiaries will get a small voucher and poorer beneficiaries will get a larger voucher. Vouchers grow at GDP+1%, whether or not Medicare does the same.

b) Social Security: Calls for a bipartisan process to develop reforms.

5) Taxes

a) Tax reform: “Reform the tax code by consolidating the current six brackets and cutting the top individual rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.”

b) Tax revenue: Prevents the Bush tax cuts from expiring in 2013. So the revenue-neutral tax reform locks in today’s rates, which is to say it makes the Bush cuts permanent.

c) Corporate taxes: Lowers corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. “This budget would offset lower rates with a broader base, scaling back or eliminating entirely the deductions.”

6) Energy

Endorses “The American Energy Initiative”: I don’t know much about this bill, but you can find the GOP’s official case for it here.

By Ezra Klein  |  03:28 PM ET, 04/05/2011

Medicare Beneficiary Savings and the Affordable Care Act | HealthCare.gov

Medicare Beneficiary Savings and the Affordable Care Act | HealthCare.gov

CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/cbo-gop-budget-would-increase-debt-then-stick-it-to-medicare-patients.php

Let's see what the republicans are up to to keep those corporate tax rates and those for the uber wealthy low, low, low, shall we?


This is a very good summary of what is actually going on.  If you read the TPM article AND the comments you will get a fairly accurate picture.


Here's the first few paragraphs, while the rest is on the link above.  Take in those comments, please.


Brian Beutler | April 5, 2011, 5:45PM

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's initial analysis of the House GOP budget released today by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is filled with nuggets of bad news for Republicans.

In addition to acknowledging that seniors, disabled and elderly people would be hit with much higher out-of-pocket health care costs, the CBO finds that by the end of the 10-year budget window, public debt will actually be higher than it would be if the GOP just did nothing.

Under the so-called "extended baseline scenario" -- a.k.a. projections based on current law -- debt held by the public will grow to 67 percent of GDP by 2022. Under the GOP plan, public debt would reach 70 percent of GDP in the same window.

TPM SLIDESHOW: Shut It Down: The Federal Government Shutdown of 1995

In other words, the spending cuts Republicans would realize in the first 10 years would be outpaced by deficit increasing tax-cuts, which Ryan also proposes. After that, debt projections under the plan improve decade-by-decade relative to current law. That's because 2022 would mark the beginning of the Medicare privatization plan. That's when, CBO finds, "most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system."

If the current Medicare system were allowed to continue, CBO found that an average 65-year-old beneficiary's costs would be only 25 percent of what it'd be in the individual private insurance market. Under the GOP plan, those costs would jump to 68 percent.

In plain English, "the gradually increasing number of Medicare beneficiaries participating in the new premium support program [the GOP's Medicare privatization plan] would bear a much larger share of their health care costs than they would under the current program."

Note, that the CBO hasn't reviewed legislative language, so these numbers will likely be revised when an official cost-estimate is completed.  ....

~ 15th April @ Noon, MN State Capitol Demand the rich are taxed fairly ~

TAX the RICH ! PROTEST

Friday April 15, 2011 

12 noon-1pm 

MN State Capitol

At tax time, join others at the State Capitol to tell politicians:

TAX the RICH! Make the RICH PAY!

 

STOP All Attacks on Working and Poor Minnesotans!

·        Stop the elimination of General Assistance to poor and disabled people

·        Stop the elimination of the Medical Assistance Program for poor children and their caregivers.

·        Stop the gutting of affordable health care

·        Stop the layoffs. Stop attacks on labor unions and all workers

·        Stop the attacks on immigrants

·        Stop all cuts to welfare (SSI penalty, emergency assistance cuts, etc)

·        Stop cuts to programs for people with disabilities

·        Stop cuts to education

Organized by Welfare Rights Committee

MN Coalition for a People's Bailout

Over the past years of budget deficits, the wealthiest Minnesotans have not paid even one dime out of their gold-lined pockets. Meanwhile working and poor Minnesotans have been forced to pay with our lives, our health, our schools, our jobs, and our blood.

The Republicans are taking their message of hate and loathing of working and poor people to new lows! They are trying to gut the last few benefits that exist for those of us who do not belong to the wealthy class. They are forcing workers, poor people and people with illness or disability to pay for the entire deficit.

The Republicans refuse to raise taxes on those with the ability to pay, and in fact would decrease the rich's taxes if they could! If the wealthiest in Minnesota paid their share of taxes, and paid back all the wealth they gained through tax breaks and loopholes over the past decade, there would be no deficit in Minnesota -- now or for the foreseeable future. 

The choice is clear:  

TAX the RICH, or make the rest of us pay. 

WE say it is time to TAX the RICH! Join us on April 15th

Welfare Rights Committee and MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout, PO Box 7266, Mpls, MN 55407  
612-822-8020  WelfareRightsMN@yahoo.com  and http://welfarerightsmn.wordpress.com

Minnesotans declare 'We Are One'

BY BARB KUCERA, WORKDAY MINNESOTA

April 05, 2011

Chanting "We Are One," thousands gathered at the Cathedral of St. Paul Monday evening, then marched to the state Capitol to show their support for worker rights and a strong middle class. 

The event was one of hundreds nationwide organized by the national AFL-CIO, affiliated unions and community organizations. They honored the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated April 4, 1968, while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn.

Thousands marched to the state Capitol in St. Paul Monday, declaring "We Are One."

Rank-and-file union members, clergy and veteran civil rights leader Matt Little were among those who spoke at the rally in front of the state Capitol. They decried the attack on workers' standard of living that is occurring in several states, including efforts in Minnesota to undermine collective bargaining rights for public employees.

"In Wisconsin, it was open warfare on unions supported by conservative billionaires like the Koch brothers," said Sandy Dunn, a member of MAPE, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. "Here in Minnesota, we are facing more of a guerrilla war, where the GOP leadership does not openly claim to destroy unions, but then makes sure that there are close to 50 bills currently in play at the Legislature that will strip all our rights away and put state services at risk."

Civil rights leader Matt Little

Little, who marched with Dr. King, said the current struggle against corporate power is in the tradition of the civil rights movement. The Rev. Grant Stevensen said working people are being forced "to fight the battles of the 19th and 20th century" instead of being able to address the challenges of the 21st.

Speaking to the crowd before the march, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman praised them for standing up for their rights.

"We've got to always remember - it was labor that made this country strong," he said. "It was labor that made Minnesota great."

Led by police and fire fighter union members, a color guard and a bagpiper, participants than marched down John Ireland Boulevard, filling the street for blocks between the cathedral and Capitol.

Earlier in the day, members of Working America, the AFL-CIO's community affiliate, gathered signatures in downtown Minneapolis on petitions supporting good jobs and workplace rights.

"Seeing the creeping corporate influence on our politics, I know unions are going to be one of our last defenses to keep our democracy viable," said Working America member Joe Anderson of Minneapolis.

Working America members Solveig Nilsen and Joe Anderson collect signatures supporting worker rights in downtown Minneapolis. 

Photos by Michael Moore and Workday Minnesota

Copyright: 

 © 2011 Workday Minnesota

Barb Kucera

I edit the Workday Minnesota news site, www.workdayminnesota.org

The Twin Cities Daily Planet is an edited news source produced by professional journalists working in collaboration with citizen journalists from the local community. We publish original reported news articles, articles republished from media partners, and some content (Free Speech Zone articles, reader-submitted blog entries, comments) that is moderated but not edited. Click here for a complete description of our editorial policies. Support people-powered non-profit journalism! Volunteer, contribute news, or become a member to keep the Daily Planet in orbit.

~ The Incredible Impact Of Republican Cuts On The US Deficit ~

READ MORE at link below:  Too tired to put it in bit.ly ..

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ryan-deficit-cut-2011-4?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Clusterstock+Chart+Of+The+Day&utm_campaign=Clusterstock_COTD_040611

PLEASED with Draconian Cuts, MN Billionaires Thank Legislators!

http://youtu.be/65ubRX1hMVU





The MN Legislature has made lower taxes for the wealthy a top priority. While the Billionaires' effective rate of 7.7% is much lower than the middle class rate of 10.3%, the Legislature would rather balance the budget on the backs of the poor, elderly, disabled and middle class. While Minnesota is facing a $5 billion deficit, legislators are slashing funds for education, mass transit, healthcare, parks, and road repair. They have not approved any bill that would raise taxes on the wealthiest citizens of the state.

~ Billionaires Thank Legislators ~

Keeping the Billionaire’s effective tax rate at 8.8% on all of us and all our dears friends with incomes over $481,439 is a higher priority than frivolous programs such as education, healthcare, mass transit, parks, roads as well as those other silly worries such as libraries and  rehab/mental health services.    Isn’t this obvious?

It is to feel tired thinking of such things, we’ll tell you that for free. 

The middle class really ought pay  their 12.5% rate because there are more people in the middle class!  We don’t feel it necessary to help them out; afterall who hires them?  We do.

The government must cut back.  And we, the clever ones that we are,, know the reasons why:

• We have too many highly paid teachers and social workers.  There is no reason for them to not have bigger classes and heavier case loads.   None at all.
• There are just too many libraries in Minnesota.  Let’s take a mass of them to the fiscal chopping block.
• We don’t need mass transit.  Walking is good.
• Health care is an individual responsibility and two-tiered healthcare cuts down on our waiting lines.  We must never be kept waiting, you know.
• There are just too many parks and bike trails and maintaining them is so tediously expensive.   So we know Mother Nature should take care of it.
• People should fix their own potholes – that’s not a government job.  We want our federal highways maintained so we can get to our cottage estates faster, that is all.

Again, we cannot thank Minnesota politicians enough for keeping our tax rate lower than the middle and lower classes! 

We certainly love the suggestion made in the tax committee that NO corporate taxes should be paid so that we can keep our organizations here in Minnesota.  Wasn’t that just nifty of them?

Lovely people, contact us at BillionairesForCuts@gmail.com.  Our favorite chant is:

CUT !!      CUT!!      CUT!!      CUT!!      CUT!!      CUT!!

We are Minnesota’s most enlightened group.  Afterall, we have all that lovely money, don’t we? We must have done something right.

Show some compassion and charity where it truly counts because with YOUR help we can keep the donations rolling into the legislators to continue pushing our agenda for the State of Minnesota. 

Thanking you in advance for your kind help,

We remain,

Your Fortunate Few

Wisconsin voters pass referenda in support of amending the U.S. Constitution

http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=232539


SCWMTA: Wisconsin voters pass referenda in support of amending the U.S. Constitution
4/6/2011 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: 
Kaja Rebane (608) 217-0031 
Mike Olneck (608) 219-3484 
scwmta@gmail.org 

Madison, WI (April 6, 2011) - On April 5, voters in South Central Wisconsin approved two historic referenda by overwhelming margins. These referenda asked whether voters support amending the U.S. Constitution to make clear that corporations are not people and money is not speech. The City of Madison referendum passed with 84% of the vote, and the similar Dane County referendum passed with 78%. 

These referenda are the first anywhere in the country to call for a constitutional amendment in response to the Supreme Court's Citizens United vs. FEC decision. Members of South Central Wisconsin Move to Amend (SCWMTA), the local group that pushed for the referenda, believe they will not be the last. "Amending the Constitution will not be easy, and to succeed people across the country will need to stand up and demand it," says Kaja Rebane, SCWMTA Co-Chair. "We hope our success will inspire others to organize their own efforts." 

The 2010 Citizens United case declared that limiting the amount corporations can spend to influence elections would violate the "free speech rights" of corporate "people" under the First Amendment. National polls have shown broad opposition to the Citizens United decision (85% of Democrats, 81% of Independents, 76% of Republicans), and widespread support for a constitutional amendment to undo it (87% of Democrats, 82% of Independents, 68% of Republicans). 

"This really is common sense. Even a small child can tell the difference between a corporation and a living, breathing human being. How can this be so hard for the Supreme Court to understand?" asks Madison resident Kevin Gundlach. 

The idea that money is protected "speech" is also a major issue. "Have you ever been at a meeting where one loudmouth talks over everyone else? Then you understand the problem," adds Kaja Rebane. "In a democracy, citizens need to be able to hear different viewpoints in order to make informed decisions. But when the loudest are permitted to yell as much as they want, the rest of our voices cannot be heard." 

These two referenda represent an important first step towards undoing the Citizens United decision and reclaiming American democracy, so that it once again serves "We the People" instead of "We the Corporations." 

SCWMTA (scwmta.org) is a local affiliate of Move to Amend (movetoamend.org). 

More information: 

* Referenda text: scwmta.org/resolutions.html 
* Poll on opposition to Citizens United: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/17/AR2010021701151.html 
* Poll on support for a constitutional amendment: freespeechforpeople.org/sites/default/files/me10129b_public.pdf