Ed Schultz talked to Tax.com's David Cay Johnston and The United Steelworkers Leo Gerard about just how devastating Paul Ryan and the Republicans new budget proposal would be to the disabled, the elderly and children. Remember when everyone on the right and much of our beltway media was criticizing Alan Grayson for saying the Republicans' health care plan was not to get sick, and if you do get sick, "die quickly?" I think Paul Ryan just proved him right this week.
As David Cay Johnston pointed out during this segment, that's exactly what Ryan's budget proposals will do; assure that more people die because they can't afford to get the treatment they need as his vouchers become increasingly worthless as the cost of care continues to go up and gets pushed back onto the consumer.
And as Leo Gerard made clear, Ryan's claims that giving huge tax cuts to the rich will create jobs is a farce. As he noted, if that were true, we'd have been at full employment while Bush was in office.
Johnston also expressed his frustration with a lack of a plan to get our budget under control that doesn't balance it on the backs of the working class from the Democrats and I couldn't agree with him more. Since any talk of raising taxes seems to be taboo among our political class, I don't know what it's going to take to finally see that happen.
As long as you can stay in the womb.
Stopping "Privatizing Ryan's" plan only needs some messaging. Here's my attempt, see what you
think:
Democrats - We gave you "The New Deal" and "The Great Society!"
Republicans want to give you "A Raw Deal" and "A Poor Society!"
Here's the bumper sticker:
Your choice: New "D"eal, or "R"aw Deal?"
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
"Let's cut taxes to stimulate the economy and create job growth. Don't worry how we're going to afford it. We'll just cut out all the waste in government. And if that doesn't work, the prosperity will cover everything."
30 years and counting. Any chance I'll hear admission that it didn't work before I die?
... the waste in government."
"...and gut Social Security and Medicaire and Medicaid and any other social program. We don't care if your prosperous after we have transferred all the money to the wealthy, you are no longer needed and you can all just die for all we care."
There, fixed it for you.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
The stuff in quotes in my post was the rhetoric I'm hearing, not my views.
But yes, that's what it really translates to.
SATSQ: NO!
that the right wing wants us to stockpile against the threat of dark-skinned people and using them on those in the Armani suits.
Tax the rich and cut the military budget BEFORE even thinking of hitting the poor, disabled or the middle class.
The numbers are really obvious and very simple - take the deficit and add back in the cost of these stupid military actions and suddenly we are nearly even - heck we could even be ahead.
So in the larger scheme of things, every dollar cut from the budget is paying for never-ending war.
It is a matter of priorities.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
It wasn't always that way, but think about it. You've paid for roads and teachers and whatnot 10-fold. Stop buying weapons for the people who want you dead.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
Ed Shultz:
Well, Ed, perhaps this will help put your wonder to rest.
Reportedly, after blaming the "poor and lazy" for the current economic crisis, the Crier of the House said the following to Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone:
I'm not sure how far Boehn-Head think $24 goes these days. I suppose we should wait until Taibbi actually publishes the quote in Rolling Stone, but it wouldn't surprise me one iota if these are his verbatim words.
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
...he means those "people" who are the richest and those "persons" who are corporations. I think we've all noticed that, by now, what use to be "We the People" is now "We, the Throw-Away Chattels".
I don't know what it is going to take to get the majority of thre American People to acknowledge that the GOP, along with many allies and enablers in the Democratic Party, have declared all-out economic war against the People. I would hope that when the People finally figure it out, these fat cats won't last very long
the ryan debacle would devastate the entire economy
here
MJ Rosenberg after Bill Moyers comment on the political swagger of AIPAC.
Moyers:
snip
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
If it's any consolation, our bold leader on the Senate Finance Committee had this to say:
Maybe Single Payer should have been on the table, huh Max?
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
If he had any sense of integrity or honor, he'd be ashamed to ever show his corrupt face in public again.
Standard issue, talk tough when the other half of the duopoly is promising to reinstate feudalism.
Wait a few months and then propose the same thing yourself.
Then babble about bipartisanship.
When both parties agree we should tremble.
We on are the road to Plutocratic heaven.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
It's the same old tripe. Talk tough, do the kabuki, and then give the plutocracy what it wants anyway.
But of course, if we don't support the Democrats unconditionally, it'll be our fault in the eyes of our progressive brethren when the disaster comes more quickly under Republican rule.
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
ryan's budget lunacy is a direct product of both sides of the aisle agreement that what is wrong with the economy is the govt deficit and debt--despite the fact that the neither caused the great recession and crafting policies to address this issue will only hamper/torpedo economic recovery
once again both parties accept, and parrot, the right's framing of economic issues--which has a pretty piss poor track record
According to this article from the NY Times, even Obama has said that the current Medicaid/Medicare system is unsustainable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/health/poli...
I've seen an idea similar to block grants work here in Ohio. At Children's Hospital, the state got them to enter what's called the Medicaid CAP program. Basically, the state gives Children's Hospital a block grant every year for them. The state says that they'll still cover any costs if they go over the grant, but whatever money they DON'T spend from the grant, the hospital gets to keep to do whatever it wants with it.
That has actually worked. The hospital spends less than the cap and they get to keep the rest. The best part is that patient care is better than it has ever been, and Children's is still one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation. What they did was they just started spending their money more wisely. So the CAP program actually made the hospital function better at a lower cost and even improved patient care.
My question to all of you is if you don't think the block grant idea will work for Medicaid, then what are the alternative ideas for fixing Medicaid to get it to sustainable levels?
"The greatest threat to freedom of thought is intellectual cowardice." -George Orwell, 1946
http://christianfearinggodman.blogspot.com
Single payer.
Single payer France style where it actually works, or Britain and Japan style where it's completely broken?
"The greatest threat to freedom of thought is intellectual cowardice." -George Orwell, 1946
http://christianfearinggodman.blogspot.com
I don't know how you can say that a system which produces the world's lowest infant mortality rate and longest life expectancy, as is the case with Japan, is completely broken.
As for Britain, the National Health is a full socialized system, not just single payer.
Britain has loads of neo-liberal folly they learned from the US, their oil production is post peak and their entire economy is struggling. But their health care results are still better on whole than the US. For lower per capita.
World Healthcare Rankings here.
You are right to suggest that France does it right, they are number one. Japan is number 10 and the UK is number eighteen. But we are number thirty seven.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I was thinking in terms of things like specialty care, emergency and ambulatory services. I remember reading an article about a year ago or so where a Japanese emergency patient died because they couldn't find a hospital that had the space to take the patient.
France does it right because their government actually regulates the healthcare industry. That's what we need to do here if we ever want to cut costs.
"The greatest threat to freedom of thought is intellectual cowardice." -George Orwell, 1946
http://christianfearinggodman.blogspot.com
the ryan debacle would devastate the entire economy
That's what I'm counting on.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
The problem isn't the de-industrialization of the country, the problem is the de-valuing of workers. Whether working on a factory line, in a call center, or at Arby's, if you get paid like you are a respectable human, they are all roughly equal. The problem isn't, "they took our jobs!" to quote South Park, the problem is that the corporate leaders and investor class have run wild across our economy and so strongly skewed the flows of earnings from the work done at street level away from the workers and towards the upper managers and investors that honest jobs no longer pay honest wages.
I call this segment..."Three canaries whistling in a coal mine."
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
are pretty unlikely to see Social Security or Medicare if these bastards get their way. Meanwhile, mega-wealthy corporations like GE and Verizon aren't paying taxes in the US. Why should we have to pay taxes if the corporations can get away with not paying?
let your Reps and Senators know, that to be voted in again, they have to finally impose taxes on the rich, and corporations.
Could it be that it is the same or similar to the Rethugs, because the Dems and POTUS are owned by the same rich elites?
To be fair, the government is going to subsidize the cost of the ice floe on which all the old people will be placed.
I thought when Obama was elected we wouldn't have to ever deal with this shit again...
But the Republicans are STILL in control.
I guess it's good I have a plan B.
If I get too old, sick to work, I'm taking early retirement via my 357 magnum. I have NO attachments.
So I don't give a damn.
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