The coming social disaster as best I can figure

[SamIam]

House Speaker John Boehner’s budget proposal will change the face of the American social and political landscape - increasing poverty, putting hundreds of thousands of low income Americans out on the streets, denying medical assistance to the low income disabled and elderly, and eviscerating the SNAP or “food stamps” program. Boehner would have American Society regress to the era of the 30's as described by John Steinbeck in his great and tragic novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Boehner’s plan can properly be called “class warfare,” and a significant consequence of this class warfare can't help but translate to racial warfare, as well.

As we all know by now, Boehner’s manifesto rejects all tax increases. A House GOP aide talking about the Republican members of the deficit reduction committee (“the gang of six”) said bluntly: “We appoint members to the committee, and we’re not appointing any Republicans who will vote for tax hikes.”

Instead, a $1.8 trillion reduction will come from “entitlement reforms and savings.”

This savings will be acquired over the next ten years by one of three possible methods – all equally draconian:

•Behind Door Number One: Cut Social Security and Medicare benefits heavily for current retirees - a form of political suicide that even extremists like Boehner will not actually contemplate.

•Door Number Two: Repeal the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions while retaining its strictures that cut Medicare payments and raise tax revenues. However, Republicans will seek to repeal many of those measures as well. (Yes, I am also confused by this last).

•Door Number Three: Completely obliterate the social safety net for low-income children, parents, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.

Absent any compromise on tax increases, there are simply no other ways to obtain $1.8 trillion in entitlement cuts within the next decade.

In addition (yes, it gets worse), House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s own plan would slash Medicaid and health reform by $2.2 trillion. Ryan would also cut $127 billion from SNAP and reduce Pell Grants and other student financial assistance by $126 billion. Looking for an education to get you a better job or pull you solidly into the middle class? Keep looking. And remember what happened to Oliver Twist when he asked for more soup.

Previously, core assistance programs for the poor were exempted from across the board cuts by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law, enacted in 1985. Now, the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” bill will remove these exemptions. With an election coming up, which door are the Republicans likely to choose? Don’t all answer at once. The entitlement cuts will most heavily target the programs created for people of lesser means and, yes Virginia, less political power.

Meanwhile, the many lucrative tax breaks that benefit the wealthy and the powerful corporations have been pledged protection by Boehner who certainly shows great sympathy for the robber baron class if no one else.

Extra credit question: Who said, "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community $60,000 during his lifetime. Fellow Countryman, that is your money, too."

a) Charles Darwin
b) Sarah Palin
c) Office of Social Policy’s “A New People”
(hint: “C” was translated from the German)

All of the above is written in my own words. My major source for the information came from the non partisan outfit, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: http://www.cbpp.org/files/7-25-11bud-stmt.pdf.

Piss poor attitude copped from Bill the Cat

PS This is NOT a diatribe directed at any member of the Cellar (unless John Boehner became a member when I wasn’t looking), but if thinking so helps you get through another night scrounging through the dumpsters, feel free.

[Pico and ME]

I am simply amazed that this cold-hearted and altogether totally greedy mindset has taken hold.

It is really scary.

I just hope that once the masses have been totally downtrodden on, they will finally raise the fuck up and destroy all that the rich find valuable.

[classicman]

Robert Greenspan is less than neutral. jus sayin'.

I don't know what the answers are though, so to comment further would be less than productive.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by classicman

Robert Greenspan is less than neutral. jus sayin'.

I don't know what the answers are though, so to comment further would be less than productive.

*cough* That would be Robert GreenSTEIN *cough*

[classicman]

lol - thanks. I lost my original reply and retyped incorrectly. Freudian slip perhaps? Doh!

[Trilby]

Well, at least the uber rich will still have their yachts and diamond mines and foreign made cars. That will help me sleep at night - knowing they are safe.



What is so amazing to me is that unless you are one of the uber-rich, you, too, could find yourself in need pretty damn quick. One illness like cancer or schizophrenia would wipe out most Americans (even with the recommended 6 months worth of salary savings) in pretty short order.

[TheMercenary]

Robert Greenstein is founder and executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a Washington, DC think tank that focuses on federal and state fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals. According to his CBPP bio, Greenstein is "an expert on the federal budget and in particular, the impact of tax and budget proposals on low-income people".
Greenstein was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1996, and the 14th Annual Heinz Award in Public Policy in 2008.[1] In 1994, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform.[2] Prior to founding the Center, Greenstein was Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service at the United States Department of Agriculture under President Jimmy Carter.[3]

According to New York Times reporter Matt Bai, CBPP is funded by the Democracy Alliance.

The Democracy Alliance is a partnership of business and philanthropic leaders who commit to making make human and financial donations to organizations the Alliance has endorsed.

It was formed with major backing from George Soros

All from Wiki.

Democracy Alliance: Billionaires for Big Government
What’s Next for George Soros’s Democracy Alliance?

http://www.capitalresearch.org/news/news.html?id=551

The Democracy Alliance Does America The Soros-Founded Plutocrats

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/50576483...ded-Plutocrats

Quoting Greenstein is akin to quoting Glenn Beck as if it has validity to a political statement.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

All from Wiki.

Democracy Alliance: Billionaires for Big Government
What’s Next for George Soros’s Democracy Alliance?

http://www.capitalresearch.org/news/news.html?id=551

The Democracy Alliance Does America The Soros-Founded Plutocrats

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/50576483...ded-Plutocrats

Quoting Greenstein is akin to quoting Glenn Beck as if it has validity to a political statement.

I had some trouble with your links, but here's what I discovered about your Capital Research outfit. In its own words:

Since the launch of the Great Society programs by President Johnson and Congress in the 1960s, many thousands of nonprofit advocacy groups have emerged, often promoting more government welfare programs in areas once considered the domain of families, charities, neighborhood associations, and other voluntary organizations. The growth of government has increasingly supplanted the voluntary action and community-based problem solving that the great observer of early American society, Alexis de Tocqueville, recognized as a defining feature of our country.

Capital Research Center analyzes organizations that promote the growth of government and identifies viable private alternatives to government regulatory and entitlement programs. Our research forms the basis for a variety of publications.

It looks to me as if quoting Capital Research is akin to quoting Sarah Palin as if she had the validity of a brain.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by SamIam

It looks to me as if quoting Capital Research is akin to quoting Sarah Palin as if she had the validity of a brain.

Not nearly as bad as Greenstein and Beck... Palin is a figment of the left-wing nut media's imagination, she is no threat to anyone but her own future.

[Spexxvet]

While I dislike Boehner, the reports on the debt ceiling negotiations seemed to indicate that he was more willing to compromise than his tea party base. The problem ultimately lies with those who voted the tea partiers into office, IMHO.

Originally Posted by SamIam

Meanwhile, the many lucrative tax breaks that benefit the wealthy and the powerful corporations have been pledged protection by Boehner who certainly shows great sympathy for the robber baron class if no one else.

You mean the corporations that pay little or no taxes, run by old white men who pay a lower tax rate than most middle class taxpayers? Where's the indignation? I bet those corporations have microwave ovens, refrigerators, and cell phones! Oh the hypocrisy.

[TheMercenary]

"General Electric is planning to move its 115-year-old X-ray division from
Waukesha , Wis. , to Beijing . In addition to moving the headquarters, the
company will invest $2 billion in China
and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers. This is
the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year, but
paid no taxes-the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the United States .
So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff
Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar). Immelt is supposed
to help create jobs.
I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed
to be creating those jobs.
If this doesn't show you the total lack of leadership of this President, I
don't know what does."

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

You mean the corporations that pay little or no taxes, run by old white men who pay a lower tax rate than most middle class taxpayers? Where's the indignation? I bet those corporations have microwave ovens, refrigerators, and cell phones! Oh the hypocrisy.

Don't forget the air conditioning. The bastards have air conditioning!

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Brianna

Well, at least the uber rich will still have their yachts and diamond mines and foreign made cars. That will help me sleep at night - knowing they are safe.

And bejewelled

Tiffany & Company’s net income rose 30 percent in the second quarter, propelled by strong growth across all regions as high-income shoppers continued to be drawn to its jewelry and other goods.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Don't forget the air conditioning. The bastards have air conditioning!

Dan Rather once wrote in his book that the South only gained power as a voting block because it allowed more people to live in the heat. There may be something to it.

[Spexxvet]

Interesting

http://acivilamericandebate.wordpres...me-inequality/