Republican Party Extremism
(Agenda to Deceive the American Public)
24 Ways Republicans Lie
by Roger Hoppe
40 percent of the people are strongly Republican and 40 percent are strongly Democrat. Only dishonor or some other major event will move them to the other side. That means that every election is determined by the 20 percent of the voting public who dont have strong views. The battle over the middle ground is nasty. Republicans have found that lying works well.
In political campaigns, the two parties fight for time on the six o'clock news. Whoever gets their sound bites heard wins. You can't rebut a day later. That's too late to fix all the damage.
The point is to make the people believe what you say and disbelieve what your opponent says. Here are the many ways this is done:
1) The end justifies the means: Republicans have no moral qualms about this. Their philosophy is that the end (Republican rule) justifies the means (lying to the electorate). Democrats, on the other hand, make their bread and butter off of their honesty and character, which makes them particularly vulnerable to character assassination.
2) Unfacts: Some statements sound like facts when they're really just opinions or at best half-facts. I call them unfacts. An unfact is a statement that sounds like a fact but isn't a fact. Most people can't recognize an unfact when they hear it. A few examples would be: "There is a growing threat of terrorism", "SUVs are safer than lighter vehicles", "family values are on the decline". If challenged on these points, you can easily defend them, because they're not real facts. Simply back up the unfact with another unfact! This can go on ad infinitum. Republicans never use a fact when an unfact will do the job just as well.
3) "Everything he just said is either untrue or incorrect": In a debate, it's best to start off by claiming that nothing the opponent says is correct. If you condemn everything in blanket statements, then even if some things are successfully refuted, some of the mud still sticks. Also, question the motives of the opponent. If the crowd loses faith in the opponent, he can say anything and they won't believe him.
4) Disarm your debating opponent: Many people are not capable of determining the truth of even a simple remark such as "the capital of Texas is Houston". This makes it easier to lie, because only a few people catch you in it even if you're bold about it. In a debate, a well-placed lie or unfact can disarm the opponent or color the way the audience interprets the remainder of the debate. If a statement can't be refuted immediately or is allowed to pass without comment, everything said afterwards will be interpreted differently. Even if the statement is refuted at a later time or in a different place, you've won this debate today.
5) Misguided Science: The Republicans create their agenda first, and then find a scientist to support it. Even if a thousand scientists agree that a particular set of scientific evidence is valid, there is always one scientist who says that it might be false. Republicans have found that they can effectively combat valid scientific claims by finding the one scientist who is willing to refute the claims of the thousand. On the 6 o'clock news, his opinion is given as much weight as the one supported by the scientific community. This is false science, because it isn't derived from the scientific community as a whole or from scientific research. Nevertheless, Republicans have begun saying, "It's not sound science" or "science doesn't support that" or "we can do this scientifically and protect the environment", etc. They've found that they can use Science as a rationale for supporting the conservative agenda simply because they know no matter what viewpoint they have, they can find a scientist willing to back any claim they care to make. Thus they promulgate lies - total fabrications - with the apparent backing of ostensibly reputable people.
6) Speaking to a crowd: If you want to be heard, first be understood; then be believed; always elicit an emotional reaction. Republicans know how to speak to crowds. They speak differently than Democrats. They speak to the less intelligent members of their audience, not the more intelligent listeners. They speak to the emotions of the audience, and thus have less need to prove facts. They speak fewer facts and more unfacts, thus have an easier time backing up what they say. They make their opinions sound like facts: e.g. "the police are overworked", "teachers are overpaid", or "Democrats rarely tell the truth".
7) Sleight of mouth: Republicans say they're doing one thing when they're really doing another thing. The classic example is the Clear Skies Initiative, which guts the Clean Air Act. The "Healthy Forests Initiative" hands stewardship of the forests over to the logging industry and allows renewed cutting of Old Growth. Saying he's helping the Environment, Bush destroys it. He said he wouldn't allow drilling in the National Parks and then allowed drilling in the Padre Island National Seashore.
8) Denigrate, exaggerate and ridicule: Exaggerate any crack in the Democratic defenses. A good example is Gore�s "invention" of the internet. Take what they say and exaggerate it to the point where it seems immoral or unpalatable. Make him deny it. The Republicans would love to have the air waves full of Democrats saying "I am not a crook".
9) Find the weak spot: Republicans are constantly perusing all public comments by democrats to find just one sentence that they can pull out of context and quote to make the democrat sound duplicitous.
10) Make him explain it: The American media crowd being what they are, they can be manipulated. With one well-placed sentence, a politician can cause his opponent to be hounded many times over by reporters asking him to explain it. Or worse, the opponent will feel it necessary to explain it over and over. It's not so much about "make him deny it", Richard Nixon�s favorite trick, but simply making the opponent spend all of his time explaining why the lies are not true instead of explaining his positions. The lies do double duty � first, they make the Democrats look bad, and second they make the Democrats waste all their time explaining how the Republican claims are false.
11) Make him deny it: Like a good game of chess, the aim of political debate is to quickly put the opponent on the defensive, and keep him there so that all of his energy is spent defending himself and refuting your statements, instead of making his points. When Republicans clearly state their policies, people vote for the Democrats instead. The Democrats must show the Republicans for what they are. A good example is "compassionate Conservatism" � an oxymoron. Republicans, when faced with a damning accusation or a withering piece of logic, will not debate it. Instead, they'll sling mud. Their goal, in any forum of debate, is not to let the listeners know the truth, but to destroy the opposition by any means possible. The truth takes a backseat to that because once the opposition is destroyed there's no need to explain the facts.
12) "Repeat after me!": Radio talk show hosts can say anything they want. In fact, that's their job. What they say can be a bald faced lie, it doesn't matter. The listeners believe and repeat everything they hear. When a radio talk show host makes statements of extreme opinion (unfacts), those unfacts are repeated as fact the next day in millions of conversations. Those unfacts are thrown up as facts millions of times thereafter during political discussions. In this way, the conservatives can spread all sorts of misinformation and yet disavow it if necessary. Since the unfacts are mean-spirited, misleading and one-sided, the radio talk show host wins merely by saying them once.
13) Create an Urban Legend, meme, catchphrase, or slogan: In much the same way as they repeat the radio talk show unfacts, the fans of the Conservative Right willingly promote new urban legends, memes, catchphrases and slogans. They're fans, so they accept without question the statements of the extremists whom they idolize.
14) Everyone knows ads lie: Advertising is the American way. You expect advertisers to lie. Often, when Republicans make their spiel, they're being like other advertisers trying to sell their products. People don't mind this because they experience it hundreds of times a day in other advertising.
15) Say it again!: In its effect on the listener, repetition is almost like proof of a statement's validity. It helps if many people repeat the statement, but even if only one person (or a commercial) repeats something over and over, people believe it more each time they hear it. This is especially true if they don't hear a rebuttal.
16) It's not just black and white: Imagine pouring water into two glasses: one you fill to the brim and the other you fill about a quarter full. Now imagine that those glasses of water are appropriations for protecting the environment or for destroying the environment. Republicans claim to be doing something for the environment because they fund environmental bills. In fact they're doing a lot less than the Democrats would on those things and a lot more on projects that are anti-environmental. This makes it difficult for the Democrats to say the Republicans don't care about the environment, etc. because the issue isn't a clear cut yes vs. no but rather is one of degrees. The Republicans support the environmental bill. They just don�t want to spend as much money as do the Democrats.
17) Sum of the Lies: Republicans promote many versions of disinformation on a topic, coming from many different sources. News network pundits, conservative celebrities and conservative radio talk show hosts add their versions of a story to the voices of legislators. By throwing out several versions of the story, they confuse the public about what is really the truth. The democrats give only one version � the true version. Of the many versions, only one is true. The law of averages says that the true version will be believed less often than the sum of the lies.
18) Dress up like a sheep: In Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf dressed up like grandma to fool Little Red. Several times I've heard listeners call a radio talk show and say they were Democrats who voted for Gore, but in their opinion (insert a Republican viewpoint here). As a listener, you want to believe the person is who speaking truly, but you have no way of knowing based solely on the caller's comments. Often, if the talk show host follows up on the issue, the caller will reveal a deep conservative bias. But most often, the caller just makes his point and hangs up, leaving the audience thinking that liberals might possibly grant his warped viewpoint some credibility. This technique is especially insidious.
19) Bulldogs: Rarely does a member of Congress make a bald accusation of a public official, for the simple reason that their daily business is scratching each other's back and making compromises. The fewer enemies one makes the more one can get accomplished. But the Republicans have learned the value of bulldogs, people like Rush Limbaugh and George Will who will make those bold statements.
20) Gerrymandering: After the 2000 census, Republican-controlled state legislatures gerrymandered districts so that they'd be more Republican. In states controlled by Democrats, Republican judges overturned fair redistricting and told the legislators to redo the work so that Republicans had more representation.
21) Reverse bribery (buying votes): Since the Republicans won control of the federal House in 1994, legislative districts that voted Republican have received on average $600,000,000 more apiece than those that voted for the opposition.
22) Character Assassination #1: If you can paint your opponent as a liar, then he will never be believed again. The Republicans jumped on Al Gore early in the campaign, impugning his integrity in several ways. They said he said he "invented the internet". Gore should have defended himself. As a senator, he was there at the inception of the Internet, and did his part as a senator (not as a scientist) to give it the early impetus that it needed to get started. In addition, he saw its promise long before others did, and called it the "Information Superhighway". He never said "I invented the Internet". Instead of explaining his comments, he let people continue to think he'd made exaggerated claims. Journalists joined in on this feeding frenzy, which made it even worse.
23) Character Assassination #2: The best way to negate your opponent is to make people believe that he is of bad moral character, is stupid and misinformed, or has questionable motives.
In politics, lying is legal. It's been established in court that you can lie about your opponent and he can't sue you for it. If you can get people to stop listening to your opponent, then it won't matter what he says. That's why half of all statements by Republican candidates are slanderous statements against the opponent. Casting aspersions on the opponent's moral character is one way to make people ignore the opponent.
24) Character Assassination #3: Play tag team politics. Republicans always pick on a single key Democrat � right now it's Tom Daschle, the senate Majority Leader. Later it will be the front-runner in the 2004 race � maybe John Kerry. They'd have a field day with Al Gore, of course...
Reporters, news networks such as Fox, conservative think tanks, columnists, radio talk show hosts, administration officials, as well as politicians bombard the public with lies about the one chosen target, on many issues, in many ways, in a constant barrage. In this way, the combined weight of all their lies is to destroy the target's reputation.
Roger Hoppe
A man who does not know the truth is just an idiot but a man who knows the truth and calls it a lie is a crook! --Bertolt Brecht
How the Economy Really Got Here
It was the policies of "hands off and look the other way" and deregulation which led to the economic crisis. It was also the fraud and greed allowed to take place especially on Wall Street & the lost of jobs related to these abuses (the economic bubble). Because regulations were dismantled or regulations were not enforced an atmosphere which created economic bubbles (artificially high values) formed which would collapse once the market corrected to the real values for products such as housing. The people and holders of the notes will find that a house which sold for half a million is only worth a quarter of a million after the buble burst. Banks stop loaning money; equity is loss almost overnight and housing production grinds to a halt leading to layoffs and economic distress. There is a lot of fraud that takes place on many levels during the balloon but few are held responsible and the culture which caused the crisis continues and will repeat it again because it was all very profitable to them although everyone else suffers. President Obama made his case to the American people in one of his addresses, explaining why we're so much in the reIn the year 2000, the government had a budget surplus. But instead of using it to pay off our debt, the money was spent on trillions of dollars in new tax cuts, while two wars and an expensive prescription drug program were simply added to our nation's credit card. As a result, the deficit was on track to top $1 trillion the year I took office. To make matters worse, the recession meant that there was less money coming in, and it required us to spend even more - on tax cuts for middle-class families; on unemployment insurance; on aid to states so we could prevent more teachers and firefighters and police officers from being laid off. These emergency steps also added to the deficit. The economic problems of today started 20-30 years ago and will take some time and sacrifice to remedy but unity we will fix things eventially.
The Belief Of the Privileged
The rich are like everyone else in that some feel fortunate and others feel that they are special and entitled to all the privilege they receive because they have wealth. It doesn't matter whether they earned it themselves or inherited it. Years of being treated special and isolated in privilege has led them to believe that they are truly entitled to special privileges and that the world revolves around their will. Because they have more influence they can do whatever they wish and they are not bond by morals, country ,laws or conscience. A special note: many of the rich don't mind paying their fair share and are kind and honest individuals it's the corporations, their financial planners and the banks that lead them to abandon their country.
The Religious Right Connection: An Unholy Alliance
the republicans have often associated themselves with wholesome, good, American values and morals but in truth this is public relations and is used to hide their real agenda. The true controllers of the Republican Party, the wealthy corporations couldn't care less about moral issues if they can't use them to make a buck off of. This has happened many times in our history most notably during the moral majority movement of the 1980's and 90's when churches backed politicians only to be abandoned after they were elected into office. These same churches seem to have no problem overlooking the repugnant acts of their legislators or the great divide between their legislators' agendas and policies and that of their religious beliefs most notably the priorities of the bible and its emphasis on fairness and taking care of the less fortunate. Some issues do carry strong religious components such as abortion and contraception but one has to wonder why politicians who value life so much would vote to take away funding for programs for education, food stamps, healthcare , etc from children they can se everyday on any corner. In fact their actions demonstrate an antipathy for these children and the poor. It appears that most of these politicians are pro-life in name only and have no problem getting their mistress an appointment with the abortion doctor whether it is legal or not, their wealth ensures that they have the means to get one no matter what the laws say.-remember laws don't apply to the wealthy. We need to once again be able to trust our clergy, the media, our politicians and differing groups in our society and everyone has to respect each other and do their fair share. Don't just say you love America, the bible, etc show it and certainly dont just use specific notions, verses,etc that only make your points while disregarding the other messages-that's misleading and deception but as things stand today we cant even trust our religious leaders.
Manipulating the Economy
Any system that is man made is venerable to manipulation by man. As mankind tries to patch their holes others are created. There will always be those who will circumvent the protective measures for their own benefit. Those who respect the system have to guard it by promoting openness, consciously evaluating the information we receive and by regulation. The wealthy manipulate the system because they have undue influence and many opportunities to manipulate it. Today energy prices have skyrocketed yet when it serves the rich agenda prices drop sharply; one example of this was a week before the Obama/Mccain and the Bush/Kerry elections when gas prices at the pump dropped for no apparent reason. Speculators are adding a significant cost to fuel prices; unfortunately, the speculators are the rich like the Koch brothers who manipulate even that to achieve their goals.
War, What is it Good For? The Rich & Powerful
the wealthy are known for profiting during war. It is the wealthy who owns the companies that make all of the things we need for war whether it be planes, tanks, guns, uniforms, tent, logistics and services you name it and the military needs it. So when conflicts break out there is a surge in production of goods and services. Now this is fine if the conflict is necessary but what if it is not and those in power pursue their own interest which benefits themselves and their associates? When contracts are given away without bidding and politicians have interest in these companies (ex. Halliburton) people may possibly be dying for issues of money and influence rather than the interest of the nation. Today with the wide use of contractors (often mercenaries) the lines between the reasons for a war can be confusing President Eisenhower a republican and general warned of the influence of the military Industrial complex
Did the GOP just ask the President for his "papers"
Reminiscent of slaves and freed slaves requiring documents to travel about during the time of slavery, the GOP and Fox News propagated a movement now known as the "birthers movement" to delegitimize the presidency of Barrack Obama even though he had been thoroughly vetted before serving as a US senator. By utilizing the prejudices and biases of a republican base they thought they could get citizens to not vote for him on the suspicion that he was not born in the US even though his mother was clearly a US citizen. He did present a legal document of birth but that was not enough even though President Reagan utilized a similar document as his birth certificate. Although there was an extensive evidence of his life republicans and Fox News repeatedly stated there was not. He eventually presented his original birth certificate where many republicans accused him of playing with Americans because he did not present it earlier.
Republicans Hostility Towards Different Views and Their Tactics
I think most would argue that liberals tend to be more tolerate of people who are different them themselves or have different opinions after all that's what makes them liberal. The tolerance of differing opinions among the right especially the tea party members are fanatical. Because I don't share your views on one single issue is no reason to consider me your sworn enemy. Also requiring members to adhere to strict codes that view an issue from one view point limits the option of finding the best answers and stop creativity as the few dictate the position and process for the masses. When parties employ intimidation and harassment to ensure all members tow the party line the people and the country suffers, Representative are voted into office to represent the people and the country not just the beliefs of their party and special interest.
Fox News and their Agenda to Lie and Decieve
Fox News was purchased during the 1980's by Rupert Murdock a Australian Billionaire know for lowering the standards of broadcast and print companies he acquires. He is said to have become an American citizen to take advantage of the US very liberal policies for owning broadcast station. It is said he became a citizen because only citizens can own broadcast stations. It is also said that he used his influence to accelerate the citizenship process. After acquiring Fox News he set out to fill a void in conservative politics and to push beliefs he holds. He determined that there is money in polarization and the more polarized the country the more money he can make, therefore playing on peoples fears and prejudices can be lucrative. Skewing, spinning, distorting, lying and utilizing unscrupulous means justifies the methods. There are many example of this most notably the 1992 court case filed by two Fox News reporters who claimed they were made to lie.
On February 14, 2003 the Florida United States Second District Court of Appeals
The lawyer for Fox News said to the judge in the case:
Judge: So, does Fox News lie in its coverage of the news?
Fox News Lawyer: Well, of course, your honor, have you watched our network!? But seriously, it's not as if there's anything legally wrong with that!
Fox News won the case on this fact. It may not be illegal to lie to viewers but it should be!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel_controversies
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/10/17/the-o-garbage-factor.html
Changing Laws and Manipulating Courts.
When your message stinks you have to be very creative to remain viable. The Republican Party wants money and power so it has to get support from the very radical, the very powerful and the wealthy. Each of these groups uses the other to get what they want, they do not necessarily care either way for the views of the other but needs the other to "legitimize " it movement. The real strings are pulled by the rich corporate interest that often manipulate or coerce the others into following their agenda despite it going against their own interest. In fact the ideologues often have a "my way or the highway scorched earth belief". for example if desegregation cant be stopped then the hell with public education ( it doesn't matter that their kids are in public schools their motivation is fueled by their hatred and prejudices). When you are rich you don't necessarily need brains you can by them as in think tanks. These are organizations of like mind intellectuals who research issues for outcomes that jive with their beliefs. These organizations often find creative ways to push their agenda such as manipulating the legal system by getting laws changed that will advance their initiatives. They have figured out that if you can make something that was illegal legal you can greatly advance your cause with out much outcry from the public and regulatory bodies. Blocking judges and padding courts will go along away towards having your way on a given issue.
Phony Websites, Virus Attacks, Hackers, Fake Reference Sources
Well before the Rupert Murdock hacking scandal I warned the public of the use of unscrupulous tactics by the GOP, their supporters and business interest. The personal attacks is enough but they seem to be so filled with anger and hatred that they will not stop at anything to push their beliefs and defeat this president and the Democratic Party. They utilize lies, false rumors, fake web sites, phony reference sources; they even pose as Democrats acting as double agents (posing as minorities, soldiers & old ladies with fake social network accounts). This is why everyone should not blindly accept information from anyone and should investigate issues for themselves. This renders them useless and what they are, sad. Many tea partiers hate government and were disappointed the economy was not wrecked and savor another opportunity to destroy the economy. In addition I believe the right has some kind of conspiracy to monitor and silence liberals utilizing their vast corporate influences to harass and stifle the liberal movement. Dont put anything pass them and watch for voting fraud, not from average people especially the poor but inside jobs dealing with officials who are in charge of the polling booths where computers and voting machine manipulation can take place (ie. Wiconsin's Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus suspicions of tampering with the election results). Don't allow them to take away your rights of free speech and expression, they will if they can- do be determined, wise and alert.
Great but Untrue Republican Soundbites
The government doesn't create jobs business makes jobs
The US government is the number #1 employer in the US, add state and local governments and you have one gigantic employer. These jobs were not created just so people can have work, there was a need for the work to be done. This is true of private corporations also. First there is a need for the work to be done then workers are hired to produce the product or service. So in reality jobs are created by a demand for a product or service-we create jobs by needing the product or service, then companies try to fill our demand. Don't let the GOP convince you that you owe the rich so much, its not true. They need the consumer not vise versa. There are times when government has created jobs to tie people over until the job situation improves, sometimes it is necessary to keep the economy afloat. Remember the best stimulation of the economy comes from people spending money and money circulating benefits everyone in the economy.
The federal government can't do anything right
The government is ran by people and all people are imperfect. Some things the government run are quite successful, while others are not. State and local governments are the same. Just because they are smaller makes them no less venerable to waste, fraud and abuse. In fact, in many cases they are more. How many families run a small town and abuse their standing in the community? Often their abuses go on for generations. Remember Democrats didn't make all the laws themselves and there were many times when the Republicans controled government and things got worse.
Big government is watseful and corrupt
We don't have a tax problem, we have a spending problem- We have a both problem! Taxes have repeatedly been cut for the past 20 years under a belief that cutting taxes benefits all areas of an economic system which is not true. Sometimes it's beneficial sometimes it's not. It depends on the circumstances taking place at the time. Also the system has to take account for manipulation of the system by the rich who have figured out how to manipulate the economics of the system in their favor. So wealth may not "trickle down" because corporations have figured a way around paying taxes, and investing in the US worker. The greatest growth in our economy occurred during periods when taxes were on the higher side. Taxes are today at the 1950 rate, a time when we were alot smaller and didn't have as many programs to help the public, so too little money is coming in. Also the country needs everyone working to get out of this economic crisis, in fact if we had everyone working the economy would be out off this crisis and then we could tackle the other problems. Reagan raised taxes 7 times and raised the debt ceiling 18 times (Bush 7 times). So this is the absolute worse time to layoff people because it is people spending money that makes the economy strong. Laying people off sabotages economic growth a fact the Republican Party knows but must desire to defeat the president and reap the rewards from their rich benefactors. They would sell the country out and bring economic pain on us all just for wealth and power. What a shame. More jobs were created under 3 years of President Obama than all 8 years of President Bush put together.
Cutting taxes creates jobs
Cutting taxes can create jobs if the dynamics are right most often they are not due to different variables and flagrant manipulation by corporations. The situation we are in today does not give us the most bang for the cut. In fact, we have lowered the amount of money coming in by so much that we are accelerating our economic woes. We are bringing in the same as we did in 1950 but yet we are larger, have more people, require more programs, etc. The tax cut argument is a lie the republicans use to serve the interest of their wealthy supporters who head the corporations who want to take and take but don't want to give their fair share. You can give them all the tax breaks you want but if they can go oversees and get a better deal they will. They have no such loyalty to our country only to profits. If they truly cared about the budget and deficit they would give up the "welfare for the rich" subsidies they receive and don't need. They are getting record profits, the economy is our problem at this point. Reagan raised taxes 11 times in 8 years lowering them towards the end of his term after the econonmy was strong enough to support it.
US taxes are too high
Taxes are at the rate they were in 1950 and yet we have a much larger US with many more citizens. Under the Clinton administration when taxes were on the higher side the economy grew 4 times higher than all 4 past Republican presidents put together. So it is obvious all factors have to be examined when working to improve an economy. Think about it for a minute, to make an embroidered cap cost 93 cents in China but sells for 25.00 in the US. Taxes can be reduced to zero here and it will still be cost effective to make it in China. Taxes are at the rate they were in 1950 and yet we have a much larger US with many more citizens. Under the Clinton administration when taxes were on the higher side the economy grew 4 times higher than all 4 past Republican presidents put together. so it is obvious all factors have to be examined when working to improve an economy. Think about it for a minute, to make an embroidered cap cost 93 cents in China but sells for 25.00 in the US. Taxes can be reduced to zero here and it will still be cost effective to make it in China. So lowering the taxes too low only benefits certain companies in the short run but hurt everything else in the end. Standards and Poors, the bond rating agency has recommended that the US raise revenues to maintain its AAA bond rating. So lowering the taxes too low only benefits certain companies in the short run but hurts everything else in the end.
The president is hurting the image of America
George W Bush was the most hated president abroad than any president I've studied. Due to his policies which many saw as arrogant, bullying , disrespectful to other religions and culture, his breaking of agreements on human rights, holding people indefinitely without charges, trials, torture and lack of representation, etc the United States was quite hated all over the world. We were even condemned by friendly nations. The longer his presidency lasted the more terrorist groups were able to recruit new recruits. The US wasn't even feared by many in that many were more than willing to give their lives against us. This has changed greatly since president Obama has been in office and even during the Muslim spring anti American rhetoric was most noticeably minimum.
When the rich are doing well the economy is doing well
This is a way of saying you do well when we do well. Unfortunately when you do well I don't necessarily have to reap those benefits. In real life the rich can manipulate the system and hoard the wealth for themselves. They will even take from the middle class and poor just because they can. It's called greed and they have no problem putting a poor family out in the cold while they wipe their asses with hundred dollar bills.
The Democrats caused jobs to go oversees
The free trade agreements of recent were developed by the Republicans. NAFTA was developed by the George H Bush administration receiving it's final signature during the Clinton administration. Democrats are bought too.
The Democrats are weak on security
I don't see much difference as far as security goes does the killing of Osama Bin laden count?
The Democrats created the economic crisis
It was the policies of "hands off and look the other way" and deregulation which led to the economic crisis. It was also the fraud and greed taking place in Wall Street. All of this led to an atmosphere of doing what ever you wish because the regulations were dismantled or regulations were not enforced. this atmosphere created bubbles ( artificially high values) which would collapse once the market corrected to the real values for such products such as housing). The people and holders of the notes will find that house which sold for half a million is only worth a quarter of a million. Banks stop loaning money; equity is loss almost overnight and housing production grinds to a halt leading to layoffs and economic distress. There is a lot of fraud that takes place on many levels during the balloon but few are held responsible and the culture which caused the crisis continues and will repeat it again because it was all very profitable to them although everyone else suffers.
Obama created the bailout
The bailout was initially created by the Bush administration to avoid an catastrophic collapse of the economic system possibly a second great depression.
Obama spending
Although it is true that President Obama has increased spending, this is due to the money he had to spend to keep the economy from plunging into a second great depression (the spending was necessary to correct for the spending and decisions of the Bush Administration). The bailouts which did help keep the economy from getting worse and allowed state and local governments to retain and hire workers did increase cost but was neccesary to bring us out of the recession. Money spent to bailout banks and other industries was necesary to avoid an economic calamity. Due to deregulation and the choice by the Bush administration to not enforce regulations business was allowed to do whatever it liked. It didnt matter if it was against the law and bad for the US economy. The true question to be asked is why did President Bush and the Republicans spend so much money if they believed in fiscal responsibility? Why didnt they push this agenda when they were in power. Why didnt they balance the budget? The answer is they never do. In reality, they care only about the corporate interest that back them. The real controllers of the party do not really care about deficits, jobs, etc as long as they, the rich are doing fine. Please review the voting records of those Republicans who are against spending and you will find they voted for the very spending they are voting against during the Obama administration.
Obama created the stimulas
The bailout and stimulus was initially created by the Bush administration to avoid an catastrophic collapse of the economic system, possibly a second Great Depression. Most economists agree that stimulus programs were very important during the first great depression and are necessary. President Obama's stimulus was trimmed so much by the Republicans that it didn't have the push needed over 40 % of it was tax cuts. The recession the US went through was also an international recession and countries all over the world developed stimulus programs ours did help but it would have helped more had it been larger. China's stimulus program was far more effective but it was ten times larger than ours.
The stimulas didnt work
It did work and saved and created jobs. It mostly saved workers from being laid off. It was just not large enough. The republicans lie and say no jobs were made or saved and yet if their states didn't get that money thousands more of their workers would have been laid off. 40% of the stimulus bill was tax cuts to ease the burden on citizens and to please the Republicans. Countries all over the world created stimulas bills to improve their economies, China's stimulus program was more effective than our but it was ten times larger.
Government programs for jobs creation do not benifit the economy
Programs saved and created some jobs but it was too small due to republican efforts to sabotage its effectiveness (success). The single best was to stimulate the economy is to get as many people working and money circulating through the masses.
The health care bill is not good
The main problem with health care is the rising cost of it by private industry. Drug companies, the health industry and insurance companies have figured out how to manipulate the system for every nickel (remember HMO's and managed care). The cost of health has risen so sharply that no agency soon will be able to affordably pay for it. The Republicans are crazy to want to privatize it because that's what the industry wants, full control over the health care industry so they can take the public for every cent it can. They will also provide minimal and substandard service especially to the poor and elderly and will create a paper based death panel exactly what the Republicans scare people about with Obamacare, which does work to limit the rising cost of healthcare & protects against death panels. President Obama has consistently push for cuts in the budget avoiding them where they would hurt the economic recovery and Obamacare should slow the rising cost of healthcare if allowed full implementation.
Collective bargaining has destroyed budgets
Collective bargaining is like any type of bargaining, the outcome depends on the bargainers. get rid of collective bargaining and the employers have most of the power which isn't necessarily bad if they are honest but often like the republican governors of today are owned by private corporate interest who want free access to that government money. They don't care about the people just getting easy government money. These governors pretend to believe in a sacred ideology but in reality its all about money and power. If they can destroy unions which have helped raise the living standards of the worker they can (1) stop them from giving money to the Democratic Party and (2) maximize profits for their corporate supporters.
Unions are bad
Unions are not bad although some in the past have had a lot of corruption. Unions have helped raise the living standards of Americans. Although their ranks have shrunken in the past decades they have been quite responsible in responding to the economic crisis and working with employers, the same cant be said for the republican governors and officials.
The Democrats will not work with the Republicans
The Democrats have compromised repeatedly with the Republicans. The Republican Party contains an extremist component that appear to put it personal agendas over the concerns of the country. It is well documented that their intent is to bring down the government at all cost to sieze controll over it.
The president was not born in the US
Another campaign of misinformation and lies utilized by the right when they can't use legitimate arguments. Rumors work well to excite their base which is often bigoted, ignorant, fearful and hate feared individuals. The president has been thoroughly investigated.
The president got into college through Affriimitive action and not by merit
He was a constitutional law lawyer and Harvard professor need I say more.
Medicare will go broke in a few years
The problems with medicare & medicaid aren't necessarily because of medicare & medicaid, it's because the cost of all health has exploded. Private interests have figured out how to maximize profits at the nnnn of the American public and quality of care. There are changes that can be done to Medicare to make it more cost effective such as allowing it to buy drugs in bulk at a discount. Drug companies have worked to keep drug prices high by basing its price on scarcity instead of production cost also they create drugs that aren't needed and market them as new breakthroughs often they discontinue good drugs to promote drugs that are only differ minimally. It is the sharp rise in healthcare cost that is the real problem otherwise companies will rake in big profits for little service. Social security is paid for from its own budget from a workers payroll and is fine until 2037 it only requires minor modifications.
Medicare and other entitlements programs are ruining the budget
The budget is made up of not only the entitlements but other cost. When a budget is examined all areas of the budget should be looked and changes made based on the importance and need of the program. There is waste in all areas and it is crazy to look only at entitlements and not such areas as the military budget which has lots of abuse and has a special relationship between politicians and the military Industrial complex. Corporation's make lots of money from war and the military.
Republicans are not ending medicare they are saving it.
REPUBLICANS HATE ALL PROGRAMS THAT HELP PEOPLE, MEDICAID , FOOD STAMPS, UTILITYASISTANCE, UNEMPLOYMENT, CHILDCARE ASISTANCE, HEADSTART, MINIMUM WAGE, ETC... THEY SERVE THE RICH CORPORATIONS AND DO NOT NEED SUCH PROGRAMS THEMSELVES. THEY JUST CANT RELATE AND WOULD DESTROY ALL OF THESE PROGRAMS!
Republicans dont want big government
Republicans have no problem with big government although they would tell you otherwise what they hate is government that serves the people. They don't mind big government that is controlled and for the sole benefit of the rich. This is why every chance they get they support big government initiatives that profit big business. They love privatization because it gives private interest the ability to regulate itself and make lots of money. Unfortunately, big business has no allegiance to any country at least not that in the US. They would destroy the country for immediate profits without a second thought.
Republicans want to protect your rights
Republicans are not really concerned about the rights of the average person just that of the rich and powerful. They will run all over your rights including go into your bedroom to promote their agenda. They push personal rights only to appeal to that base they have that are "so moral and American". In reality they despise that group but need them to hide their agenda behind.
The jobless are lazy
Stated by many republicans at one time or another. Speaker of the house bayner said that the jobless don't want to find work even though he has said repeatedly that there is a great shortage of jobs. The republicans keep pushing a notion (lie) that cutting taxes creates jobs. Well do eating apples make you a genius? The correlation is very weak but for the simple minded and those who want to believe it might make sense.
Ending subsidies would be a tax
Honestly, I think the true issue is the increase in revenues. The Republican Party want to starve the government so it can't afford programs it doesn't like. Saying government is too large they promote weakening it and shifting power to state governments. I don't have a problem with this but some things are better handled by the federal government. Thus belief that state and local governments are better is completely untrue. Many states are filled with corruption, fraud or bad decision making. The GOP loves welfare just not for the needy, they will fight to the end to give rich corporations subsidies (welfare for the rich) and tax loopholes. Who gives elected officials the right to bind themselves to special interest groups anyway, they are obligated to serve the people whether they voted for them or not.
Republicans are Tough on Spending
When President Clinton left office he left a huge 236 Billion dollar surplus when President Bush left office it was all gone and there was a 1.2 trillion dollar deficit which continued to grow due to the Bush tax cuts (424 billion and growing), Bush's medicare drug plan, defense spending (wars), stimulas, Tax rebates, subsidies and other decisions. Republicans dont mind spending they just want it for the rich only.
Democrats caused the downgrading of the US bond rating
The downgrading of the US bond rating is a clear message from abroad that the US notably its legislature have demonstrated that it has little consensus to (1) lower it's debt (2) most importantly make the correct measures by working together for long term solutions. Standard and Poors had given a recommendation as to what it thought would be necessary to keep the bond rating from being lowered. This recommendation suggested 4 trillion in cut (yes, the same amount the president presented to Speaker of the House Boehner of which he walked out of the talks) and the raising of revenues. Since the republicans would not agree on any raising of revenues there was no way to meet there suggestions. All the US could do is agree to some cuts and more further down the line and hope for the best. The S&P wanted a raising of revenue (taxes) because, although cuts are important it could not be done with cuts alone. The US for the pass 20 years had been cutting taxes while spending had increased; it is irresponsible not to increase revenues to cover expenditures after taxes had been cut so low. As stated in Standard and Poors reason for the downgrade In its statement, S&P said that it had changed its view "of the difficulties of bridging the gulf between the political parties" over a credible deficit reduction plan. S&P said it was now "pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics anytime soon." Basically, it doesn't think the Democrats and Republicans can fix the problem due to the politics of the Day (Tea Party). The Tea Party refusing to compromise and accept recommendations by S & P made it impossible to make necessary reforms. The S&P also stated that it believes the Bush Tax cuts will stay in place despite the Obama administration stating they will end. The debt ceiling debate was a self imposed crisis that took place with everyone in the world watching. Remember, The debt cieling is payment for what has been spent usually 1-3 administrations to that point not what an administration is planning to spend-it should not be linked to the economic debate in that manner.
F the Economy, the End Justifies the Means
The Republican Party would rather destroy the economy then to see Barack Obama elected again. It's not that he's done a lot against them it's what he stands for, the people. It is also a good opportunity to use people's fears against them. The Republicans want the rich and powerful to control the government. They aren't concerned about what the people want just how they can use government to make them money. Please examine the debt ceiling debate of 2011, the Republicans threatened to drive the government into default which would cause interest rates to sour for everyone and cost the US a lowering of the bond rating, this would drive the US towards another recession and possible an eventual depression. The cuts and shrinking government would lead to massive layoffs spiraling the economy into a state where it would take years to recover from. President Reagan holds the record for the highest level of debt ceiling raising, raising it once of the 18 times 199%. Many in the Tea Party would have let this country default on bills that were not only made during the Obama administration but W Bushes, Clinton and so forth. People with this scorch Earth policy are dangerous in that they put principles that may or may not be true before the welfare of the average man and average people is what government is really about. Many tea partiers hate government and were disappointed the economy was not wrecked and savor another opportunity to destroy the economy.
The Disadvantaged, That's What They Get or Let's Blame The Victim
Often the right uses the statement that the poor are poor because they choose to be that way. This is very similar to the doctrine of the rich that they are rich because they are special or different. Membership does have its benefits and a person born into any means of wealth will most likely benefit from the money and other factors associated with having wealth. usually the more wealth you have the better the environment you grow up in , the better the education you receive, the more likely you associate in a culture of affluence, wealth and success. Humans are complex creatures and to understand the motivations and perceptions of another person often requires knowing a substantial amount of information on that person. All of us are responsible for our lot in life but the role life has on us can not be ignored for we have to ask ourselves -if life is so easy why then are there so many who suffer. The big picture is very complex. Why do some sell drugs while others don't? Why do some use drugs while others don't? Why do some have kids they can't care for? Why do some pursue higher education and others don't? Why do some choose to work and others don't? Why does some rise to an obstacle while others coward away? The answers are many but we all have to admit that the mere numbers of poor and disenfranchised people is indicative of factors and influences we may not readily be aware of. In fact, the system in which we utilize such may require a number of people be poor in order to keep the system working properly, this is most likely true of any man made system. Knowing this we provide a safety net for the poor as a of demonstrating our humanity, providing for the innocent and compensating for those who find them selves negated to those groups to differing degrees. In a life time most people at one time or another will find themselves below the poverty line, it maybe when they are very young or very old and there are those who will choose not to work or take advantage of help just as the rich take advantage of the system. We help people to eliminate suffering there will always be a few who will abuse our kindness. We will try to weed them out as thoroughly as possible. Speaker of the house Boehner says the unemployed doesn't want to work. He said this during the worst economic crisis since the great depression and at a time of record job loss due to policies of the rich and trade agreements most of which they developed NAFTA (sent jobs oversees so they could exploit weak laws).
Your Politicians are Bought and Paid for, the Reciept is their Contribution Disclosure Form.
The politicians are owned by the corporations that support their bids for office. When limits are present corporations find it easier to circumvent these laws by having the contribution distributed through employees and associates. When the law was changed allowing them to not have to disclose to who the funds came from this started a feeding frenzy because companies didn't have to disclose their beliefs and agenda. You see many companies are owned by people who have views that are not necessarily shared by the masses. Some are extremists and bigoted. Others just want to have their way with the American public "raping" us of all the wealth and prosperity for themselves. For example a company that makes toilet tissue may not want the consumer to know that they support eliminating the minimal wage or school segregation. The association to their product might impact the sales of the product so getting rid of disclosure laws provides the perfect environment for them to manipulate the political system in their favor. Once their politician is in office they get them to deregulate their industry or pass laws favorable to profits, this usually pays for the money they donated many times.
The GOP, the Party of Morals & integrity?
They talk a good talk but just can't get the walk right. Examine any issue and you will see their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is rampant in our civilization but the GOP seem to have no shame. Its not that the Democrats aren't hypocrites at times its that the democrats don't profess such morals so when they do despicable acts we are not surprised. The use of morality is a cover for most just so they can trick you into accepting their message and supporting them. They may say they are against abortion but if you could see their life in a crystal ball you would undoubtedly find they have utilized such services for their mistresses many times, whether it was legal or not-Remember, the laws are made for you not them...Republicans have voted to raise taxes and take funds for programs they supposedly dont like their motivation is purely for self indulgence.
Flipping the Script
Now that people have seen the true intentions of the Republican party (they have no problem letting you see their intentions because they believe you so stupid and fickle that they can come back later and trick you into supporting them.). The Republicans want to open the American market up to full and complete mmmmm of the rich and powerful. This means no laws or regulations to hinder them squeezing every cent out of us, no minimum wage-you should work for whatever they offer, no protection for the environment-they can pollute the water and poison the land, no worker's comp- they can replace you. The crazy thing about it is that if they were allowed to do what they want it would destroy the economic system of the US. Wealth being isolated among the few, Wall Street manipulating the financial system and the population in such dire straits would ultimately leads to the whole system being reformed with more protections and regulations. It would also lead to the end of the Republican party-It's sort of saving them from themselves. The corporations' only care about profits so they would watch the country be plundered as long as they were making money.
What about the jobs!
The stimulas bill had an extensive infrastructure program that would put people to work repairing roads, bridges, parks etc but was stalled by the republicans through a campaign of massive resistance. The final stimulus bill was 40 % tax cuts and far too small to create a dent in the hemorrhage of jobs. The president tried to put through a great jobs package like that during the great depression but the republican stopped him at every turn saying it would cost too much. Knowing that people working keeps money circulating which strengthens the economy the republicans seem to want the economy to worsen. The corporations have record profits so are not concerned with their plan. Not only would they not allow him to develop a strong bill they refuse to do so themselves stating that cutting taxes will create job. Taxes have been being cut for over 20 years and yet no jobs are being created because of it. Cutting taxes is a giveaway of wealth to the rich corporations who use its windfall to set up shop outside of the US. Thus, we pay the companies to lay us off. They say give the rich corporations more and but that won't make them hire because they have figured out how to manipulate the system and their interest lie in the big money they can make in China and India. They have lots of consumers and they can take advantage of them and their weak or nonexistent laws. The Republican Party cares only about the corporate interest that owns them, they care little for the average hard working man.
We know and Speak for Americans
Republicans may know what Americans truly want but they don't care. They only care about the rich corporate interest that they represent. When they say "America wants" they really are saying our benefactors want. There has never been a hesitation to lie and distort what the public wants by this party. Many Republicans dont like their fellow Republicans they just tolerate them until they dont need them anymore so you know they dont care for anyone else who isnt a Republican. At least Democrats try to represent everyone and not just those who vote for them. Thank you for reading and may you have peace, love ,prosperity and happiness no matter what party you are afiliated with or your beliefs are-God Bless America.
PS: I'm still an Independent
Knowing that their viewers are not stupid enough to support the party whose sole reason for being is to make it easier for Corporate America to turn the majority of the Americans into indentured servants, Fox News labeled Jim McDermott, sponsor of a bill that would extend unemployment benefits, as Republican rather than the Democrat that he is. The best way to combat these tactics is for individuals to check and verify information with reputable sources, someone who wants to mislead you will never give you enough information to enable you to research an issue accurately.
January 10, 2003
Democratic Underground
By Jackson Thoreau
I'm a blond-haired, blue-eyed, middle-class, middle-aged white guy who has lived most of my life in Dallas, Tx., probably the country's bastion of old-school racism.
I haven't been the victim of racism myself – I don't subscribe to the reverse racism theory leveled by many closet Republican racists like William Bennett, who recently in the National Review equated universities with affirmative action policies that attempt to level the playing field with the same type of racism exhibited by the Ku Klux Klan, which has engaged in terrorism and murder for decades. Because of my whitebread appearance, many white Republicans have felt comfortable enough around me during various times in my adult life to let their guard down and express their true feelings on matters of race.
Big mistake. This column is part of my payback for having to endure all those sickening comments. It's part of my payback for Republicans refusing to heed my responses that I don't appreciate their racist comments and them acting like there's something wrong with me because I don't play along.
I know from experience that Trent Lott is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to racism in the Republican Party.
I can't count the number of times some Anglo conservative has used the N-word in reference to African-Americans in front of me, even towards those they root for, such as Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith. I can't count the number of racial "jokes" or references some white City Council member, police officer, businessman, or other establishment figure - whom I know is a Republican - has told to my face. A popular "joke" during this time of year by such racist Republicans is, "What are you doing for Martin Luther ‘Coon' Day?" Or they will snicker, "Have you learned anything during ‘Black Ass' History Month?"
I've sat at high school football games in Republican-dominated towns as Anglo adults in the stands taunted the lone black player on the opposing team using that N-word. I've attended all-white meetings – as a reporter, not participant - in which elitist Republicans have discussed getting around the Voting Rights Act by lobbying for requirements that voters have to own property. I didn't need someone to spell out what they were talking about – they wanted some way to keep blacks from voting.
In the 1920s, Dallas had more Ku Klux Klan members per capita than any other large U.S. city. The city had an actual "segregation of the races" clause written in to its charter as late as 1968. Peter Gent, a former Cowboy player and author of classics like North Dallas Forty, says he was shocked to arrive from the Midwest in the mid-1960s to witness such blatant Jim Crow segregation. For example, the team's black players had to drive an extra hour from their segregated South Dallas neighborhoods to reach practice in North Dallas. Through lawsuits, protests, and other measures, the blatant racist policies are gone, but they have been replaced with subtle, back-door racism executed from still all-white country clubs and subdivisions in the suburbs.
Sure, the white racists around here used to be mostly Democrats, who hated Lincoln-style Republicans who forced Reconstruction on them after the Civil War. But most of those have left the Democratic Party for the friendlier-for-them confines of the Republican Party, where they don't have to rub elbows with African-Americans at the multi-cultural Democratic functions that contrast with Republican events like black and white keys on a piano.
Many of the high-profile African-American Republicans are of mixed race, anyways – Colin Powell, for example, is part black, white, and Indian. In fact, Powell could be more white than black, with English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry mixed in with African and Indian. There's nothing wrong with that, of course – many Americans have some mixed blood. But let's be honest – the average white Republican would rather have a light-skinned mulatto move in next door than a dark-skinned African-American.
Name a white public figure who espouses racist views, and the vast majority of the time he or she is affiliated with the Republican Party [yes, there is racism exhibited by some African-American public figures, but that's the subject for another column]. David Duke, the former Klansman and Louisiana state representative, chaired the Republican Parish Executive Committee of the largest Republican parish in Louisiana as late as 2000, when he skipped the country and eventually was convicted of fraud and tax evasion. Many Republicans are associated with the openly-racist Council for Conservative Citizens, including outgoing Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, who has spoken before the segregationist group, and Republican National Committee leader Buddy Witherspoon, who has resisted calls that he resign his CCC membership.
As the Internet site, evilGOPbastards.com, points out, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a Republican, launched his career as a GOP operative in 1964 by harassing black voters. Republican Attorney General John Ashcroft opposed racial integration and the appointment of African Americans to offices as Missouri governor and attorney general and has uttered pro-Confederate views.
The Republican Party in general launched a strategy during the late 1960s to capture the southern racist vote by opposing affirmative action, supporting the rights of states like South Carolina to fly the Confederate flag in front of public buildings, and similar positions. Dubya Bush himself spoke before the segregationist Bob Jones University in South Carolina, genuflected before the Confederate flag, and helped implement the racist Willie Horton ad during the 1988 presidential campaign of Bush Sr., who approved the racist ad after lobbying by his son. Both Bush's have appointed many racists - both subtle and overt - to high offices, who now work to further erode civil rights.
White House strategist Karl Rove also aided with the racist Horton ad and oversaw the racist 2000 South Carolina smear campaign against Sen. John McCain, which alluded to McCain's "black child," who actually is an adopted daughter from Bangladesh. While in Congress from 1979 until 1989, Dick Cheney opposed measures strengthening laws against housing discrimination and collecting hate-crime data. Cheney supported apartheid in the racist South African regime, even as it crumbled. Republican politicians in Georgia and South Carolina, such as Sonny Perdue, the new Republican governor of Georgia, were elected in 2002 on platforms that included "restoring pride" in the Confederate flag.
Who can forget the Florida 2000 recount battle, when white supremacists rallied for Republicans who embraced their support? What about Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's and former Bush-state-campaign-co-chair-Secretary-of-State-turned-Congresswoman Katherine Harris' openly racist system of purges before the 2000 election that took the names of mostly African-American voters off the rolls? What about the police roadblocks near black precincts on election days? And how about the Republican warnings in communities across the country about impending black voter fraud that usually occur a few days before an election, not to mention misleading fliers circulated by Republican operatives in African-American neighborhoods telling them of different days to vote or wrongly warning that their criminal backgrounds and parking tickets will be checked to try to intimidate them against voting?
Getting to Lott, Republicans still think highly enough of him to make Lott chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, despite his public banishment as Senate Majority Leader and a racist record that includes far more than a few errant comments. As our last elected president, Bill Clinton, recently said, "[Lott] just embarrassed [Republican leaders] by saying in Washington what they do on the back roads every day." And as Jack Hughes of evilGOPbastards.com writes, the majority of Republican senators who elected Lott as their leader "must either share his views [which were so often repeated that nobody could plead ignorance of Lott's sympathies], or were at the very least ‘comfortable' with a leader that held those beliefs."
Indeed, many senators, such as new Majority Leader Bill Frist and Don Nickles, the first Senate Republican to call for Lott's resignation as majority leader – not because he's a racist but because it was giving Republicans bad publicity - have a civil rights voting record nearly identical to Lott, according to the NAACP. One of the worst – perhaps even worse than Lott – is Jefferson Sessions of Alabama. Sessions has called a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" and a white civil rights attorney a "disgrace to his race." As a prosecutor, Sessions pursued civil rights workers on phony voter fraud charges. As Alabama attorney general, he again pursued allegations of voter fraud in African-American communities, looked the other way in Anglo communities, and refused to aggressively investigate burnings and bombings of black churches. He also said he thought KKK members were "OK" until he heard some might have smoked marijuana and charged the NAACP with being "un-American" and "Communist-inspired." Despite such a past, Bush and other Republicans have campaigned for Sessions.
The other Republican senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, callously equated Lott's verbal criticism in the media with an atrocious physical act of violence against African-Americans and others. "I think we should not lynch him," Shelby told CNN.
Frist, himself, has his own racial skeletons. He was a member of the all-white Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville, Tenn., before running for the Senate in 1994. Some believe the National Republican Senatorial Committee headed by Frist was behind the intimidation of minority voters in recent years.
Then there is Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia, who as governor of that state, issued a proclamation recognizing "Confederate History and Heritage Month." Allen, the new National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, also displays a Confederate flag in his living room, according to a recent New York Times column.
Moving over to the U.S. House, there is Cass Ballenger. The white Republican from North Carolina recently told the Charlotte Observer that he had "segregationist" feelings and called former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, an African-American Democrat from Georgia, a "bitch." In an ensuring radio interview, Ballenger, the Deputy Majority Whip and a member of the House Republican Steering Committee who has a black lawn jockey in his yard that an aide recently painted white, refused to apologize to McKinney, calling her divisive, pushy, and "less than patriotic."
"One must wonder whether [Ballenger] would have made the same statement about a white congressman he considered to be pushy or divisive," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization of Women. "I think not. His statements demonstrated beliefs about race and gender that do not belong in the U.S. Congress."
While some like Democrats.com and Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, called for Ballenger to resign, most ignored his racist comments, as they have other Republicans' racism. There are many other examples. In Texas, an aide to new Republican Sen. John Cornyn derisively dismissed the Democrats fielding a Hispanic, African-American, and Anglo in the top three state races in 2002 as a "racial quota." Meanwhile, the top three Republican candidates were – you guessed it – white. So were the Republicans fielding the usual white-only quota?
Rep. Tom Craddick, the new Texas House Republican leader, was one of a small group to vote against establishing a Martin Luther King Jr. state holiday in 1987. He repeated his opposition to the holiday in a 1991 vote that clarified the day. Unlike Lott, Craddick has yet to publicly apologize for those votes.
In Rochester, N.Y., Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle, a white Republican, recently derided Mayor William Johnson Jr., a black Democrat. "If there was a mayor that looked like me, it would be a whole different landscape," Doyle told a local reporter.
A recent article by USA Today cited several other examples of recent insensitive remarks made by Republican public officials and none by Democratic officials because reporters could not find any – believe me, they would have included some by Democrats if they found them. Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Fritz Hollings of South Carolina have made some racist remarks in the past, but not recently enough to run in that article.
Racism, especially subtle racism, does exist in many people across the board. It especially comes out during times of crisis. In the week following September 11, 2001, Arab-Americans – a group that includes my wife and two children - reported a significant upswing in hate crimes, including murders, against them. A Gallup poll conducted September 14-15 found respondents evenly divided over whether Arab-Americans should be required to carry special identity cards. Two late September polls found that most respondents favored police profiling of Arab-Americans. A December 2001 poll by the Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Illinois found that more than 25 percent of respondents said Arab-Americans should surrender more rights than others.
Profiling someone simply due to his or her race is racism, period. You can always justify your racism by saying you are concerned about your security. But who's to say the next terrorist won't be white like Timothy McVeigh who bombed the Oklahoma building in 1995? Who's to say the next terrorist won't be white like the Irish Republican Army? Who's to say the next terrorist won't be white like the KKK? Who's to say the next terrorist won't be white like most mass murderers are?
Should we implement special profiling against white people like me because of the McVeigh's and Duke's of the world? I don't recall similar polls favoring racial profiling of white Americans after the 1995 Oklahoma bombing. I don't recall polls favoring profiling of white Americans after white Texan George Hennard drove his truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and killed 23 people in a terrorism act.
Another 2001 Gallup Poll found that 60 percent of white respondents believed that black Americans were not treated the same as whites in this country. That rocketed to 91 percent among African-American respondents. Some 47 percent of black respondents said they experienced discrimination in stores, by the police, and in other situations in the previous month.
I've long wondered how many people there are who secretly harbor racist views they would denounce in public. I recently contacted the authors of 20 postings to white supremacist Web sites, asking if I could quote them using their real names. Only three replied back granting permission to use their names.
Jessica Coleman of Texas claimed her grandfather was "a powerful knight [of the KKK] in South Carolina," and she thought all blacks should be shipped "back to Africa and all of the wetbacks back to Mexico." Tom of New Jersey, who would not give his last name, wrote about a high school field trip to Philadelphia, which sickened him so much to see blacks that he "wanted to take out a machine gun and shoot everyone of them." Are these people really just aberrations to be ignored again until the next major race-related blow-up in our country? Or do they represent the suppressed voices inside the average white Republican – and, yes, some Democrats - who doesn't dare let such thoughts reach the surface?
That's why I call Republicans like Bush and Cheney and Bennett, who publicly embrace Martin Luther King Jr. as they call for a colorblind society, yet live in their mostly-white neighborhoods and practice racism when it suits their political agenda, closet racists. They like to point out that lynching black people is wrong as they oppose proposals that would do more to bring about real equality and execute racist campaigns – as Bush did against McCain in South Carolina in 2000 – to gain political victory.
Would such closet racists live next to African-American families? I have for more than six years, and the only problems we have had were with some white neighbors. Living in a multi-cultural neighborhood is part of my contribution to carry out what a lot of Republicans only give lip service to, and go beyond words to live out our desire for a truly colorblind society.
I respect my Republican parents and what they did for me, but I don't like their racist comments, such as they hope black people don't buy the homes up for sale on their blocks. I don't know what has made me so different from my parents on this matter. I've been this way since as a young child I was one of the few to befriend the only African-American student in our elementary school. A psychic once told me I was black in a past life. Maybe that's it. Maybe in a past life, I actually walked in the shoes of a slave and experienced the discrimination that I can't stand today. Maybe that's the only way a white American can really understand what a black American experiences – to walk in his or her shoes. Maybe that's the only way we can make some real progress on race relations.
Anyways, I can't recall such comments about hoping African-Americans don't move on the block coming from Democrats I know in recent years. In the aftermath of the Lott debacle, Republicans, as usual, tried to turn the tables on Democrats and highlight the latter party's racist past, as seen in members like Sen. Byrd.
But that's like Bush and other Republicans saying Democrats took money from Enron when Republicans took three or four times as much. The sins are not of the same magnitude. When more than, say, 50 percent of current Republicans exhibit racist tendencies and less than, say, 20 percent of Democrats do, you can't paint a broad stroke and say both parties exhibit racism and just leave it at that. For every Sen. Byrd Republicans bring up, I can counter with five Sen. Lotts and Sen. Sessions and Sen. Frists and Rep. Ballengers and Dubya Bush's.
The subtle and overt racism of the Republican Party is a stench they have to live with, and no amount of history rewriting by Republican apologists can eradicate that smell. To eradicate it, they must admit that racism in their party goes far beyond Lott and make at least as much progress on advancing race relations as the Democratic Party has. Republicans have not done that, and I doubt they will while I'm still alive here.
As the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday approaches, these subtle racist Republicans will talk like they have supported King's vision of a colorblind society and African-American rights all along, when their records and actions speak otherwise. That's just more of the Republican con job. Don't buy that crap.
Elections are won not by how many people share the same views of the candidate but by how many who actuallt vote. If US elections were based on the number of people who share the views of a party or candidate democrats would win most of the time easily. Republicans count on democratic voters not showing up at the ballot to win. This is why a major goal of the Republicans is to keep democrats from going to the polls. They may past laws that make it difficult to register or cast a vote, they may take away rights or make special requirements, they may use misinformation to make the voter stay at home that day. Republicans have no shame and understand that limiting who can vote is greatly beneficial to them winning. Often it is those groups who have the least power to combat them such as the poor and minorities. Also demand proper supervision of polling centers especially of the polling officials.
Please Vote Before They Take Away Your Right to Vote
Remember Republicans:
When your in that voting booth you can vote for any candidate you want no matter what party you belong to; no one will know.
The Republican Party Defined
What about a Balanced Budget Amendment?
The balance budget amendment might be a good thing if we were not in the financial situation we are in. The financial state of the economy is such that the retraints and limits it would require would actually hurt the economy by forcing cuts and layoffs that could spiral the economy into a great deperession. When the econmy is uncertain you need to be "fast on your feet" to react to a sudden colapses or changes in the economy. The best time to have such an amendment is during good economic times which is what the republicans had when Bush came into office (remember the super growth and the surplus). The republicans only want a balance budget amendment when a democrat is in the white house never a republican when they can actually do it. It's public relations and politics. Remember Republicans always give their bills names that sound good but may in all acuality do the oposite, you have to examine their bills.
What is the Tea Party?
The Tea Party is made up of different factions of the US population ranging from extremist, segregationalist, white supremist, militia members to average God fearing, patriotic americans who simply believe that the government is too large, powerful and wasteful. The degree to which each group controls the party is debatable but their shared hatred of government is not. The Tea party movement was not a normal grassroots development but a thouroughly thought out concept by think tanks funded by wealthy and powerful benefactors such as the Koch brothers to fulfill their corporate interest and philosophical beliefs. Although each component is aware of the other they only tolerate each other to achieve their goals, at least in the short term. The extremist in the Tea party know better than to let their true agendas be known so they keep quiet or lie until they reach a certain point of power and influence then they will set out to fulfil their agenda that is not only detrimental to the groups they hate and the government but to the US as a whole. They will use any tactic availible and believe in a "If I cant have it my way than no one will get theirs" creed. In other words they would rather see the whole country go up in smoke if they cant have their vision of America. The Republican party has demonstrated that they will not be able to control them. They will bring successes here and there but their radical & reckless actions will likey lead to the end of the party in the long run.
The Republican's Do-Nothing Congress
The Republicans and their sub party the Tea Party have stuck to their number one goal to sabotage the Obama administration by oposing any initiatives he tries to inact. The number of bills passed by them is only 1/3 the average of other congresses. Not only have they blocked the legistlature from others they have not created many bills themselves making their only reason for existance the stonewalling of the Obama administration and the advicate of the rich & powerful no matter what the cost to the nation and the american public. Today there are many agencies that are operating at less than effective levels because post are vacant due to the Republicans not allowing them to be filled.
America, They Mean You No Good (not intended for the rich corporations and the ideologue extremist)
America you are being mislead, bamboozled, hoodwinked... They are tricking you into working against the interest of your family, friends, relatives and country. Sure they are with you now but once they manipulate you into putting them in office they will show you their true agenda....but then it's too late! They want you at the mercy of the rich and powerful. They want you so powerless that they can do anything to you they want and pay you whatever they like. They want the laws skewed to their benefit so everything works toward profits for corporations. The welfare of the middle class and poor are not their concern. Research your candidates and watch their record and actions. the Republicans want it their way or the country can go to heck, they really want the world market anyway. They use religion but leave out most of its principles, they talk of better days in the past but rewrite history, they say they are like you, one of you but don't know your struggles, your dreams, your needs... They will show you their true intentions when you can do nothing but shake and tremble in the shame, reflection, and terror at the realization that you have let them in your house to pillage it.
Standard & Poors US Ratings Downgrade, It Was the Tea Party Republicans Again…
The downgrading of the US bond rating is a clear message from abroad that the US notably its legislature have demonstrated that it has little consensus to (1) lower it's debt (2) most importantly make the correct measures by working together for long term solutions. Standard and Poors had given a recommendation as to what it thought would be necessary to keep the bond rating from being lowered. This recommendation suggested over 4 trillion in cuts (yes, the same amount the president presented in his "Grand Bargain" to Speaker of the House Boehner of which he walked out of the talks) and the raising of revenues. Since the Republicans would not agree on any raising of revenues there was no way to meet the suggestions of the S & P. All the US could do is agree to some cuts and more further down the line and hope for the best. The S&P wanted a raising of revenue (taxes) because, although cuts are important it could not be done with cuts alone. The US for the pass 20 years had been cutting taxes while spending had increased; it is irresponsible not to increase revenues to cover expenditures after taxes had been cut so low. As stated in Standard and Poors reason for the downgrade In its statement, S&P said that it had changed its view "of the difficulties of bridging the gulf between the political parties" over a credible deficit reduction plan. S&P said it was now "pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics anytime soon." Basically, it doesn't think the Democrats and Republicans can fix the problem due to the politics of the Day (Tea Party). The Tea Party refusing to compromise and accept recommendations by S & P made it impossible to make necessary reforms. The S&P also stated that it believes the Bush Tax cuts will stay in place despite the Obama administration stating they will be allowed to run out (Bush tax cuts ending would increase revenues & shrink the deficit). The debt ceiling debate was a self imposed crisis that took place with everyone in the world watching. It was an embarrassment and a clear example that the US congress is being controlled by ideologues and extremist. When you have presidential candidates (i.e. Bachmann) saying they would not raise the debt ceiling it demonstrates that simple reasoning has been loss and that extremist have taken control of the government. The republicans do not want the Bush tax cuts to end and have stated they will fight their removal. The other two rating agencies have maintained the US's bond rating. The policies of the Bush presidency are long reaching and will be felt for many presidencies to come. They stand as an example that policy does matter and that it does matter what candidates are in office.
Article on S&P Downgrade Below
Obama has spent the most, loss the most jobs, wrecked the economy more than any other President in history....
All are straight out lies, since it is now customary for Republicans to lie they never hasitate to mislead you. The truth is easy to uncover by doing research on your own. After all does any of that sound correct after the Bush administration also remember debt is created and continues to grow based on economic factors such as interest rates, the world market,etc. President Bush's debt has become Obama's debt because it continues to grow while he is in office. It is misleading to examine debt under Obama without understanding that most of it has come from (1) direct spending and interest from Bush spending (2) decisions of the Bush administration (3) attempted remedies for Bush administration economic policies.
50 % of America pays no taxes the rich are the ones who pay all the taxes that keep the country going
The truth is 20 % of the country does not pay income tax because they have no income or do not make enough to pay income tax but they pay plenty of other taxes such as payroll, gas, utility, food, etc-everyone in America pays some forms of taxes. Also due to their numbers and the rich's ability to utilize loopholes and subsidies the middle class pays most of the taxes for the country.
Republicans dont like taxes
Not true , they just dont like taxes for themselves. They love them for the middle class and poor . Reagan signed into law 11 tax increases targeted at people down the income ladder. They called them "revenue enhancers" Reagan raised social security taxes so high that by the end of 2008 the government had collected more than 2 trillion in surplus taxes. The pleadge not to raise taxes is really for the rich disguised to get everyday americans support. Its goal is to have the rich pay as little as possible and to starve the government of funds so they can dismantle the reglatory bodies and social programs. When they institute their government policies the middle class and poor will continue to carry the tax burden.
The wealthiest 1% pay 30-40% of the taxes that fund government
this is not true. Depending on the year the top 1% paid 38% of federal income taxes in 2008 but federal taxes are only one fifth of the taxes at all levelsof gevernment. Social securit, medicaire and unemployment insurance taxes (known as Payroll taxes) are paid mostly by the bottom 90 % of wage earners.
Reagan's policies have made everyone richer including the middle classs and poor
This is completely false. Since Reagan only the wealthy have gained significant increases and the average income fell for most americans
No country is satisfied with its national healthcare program
Although oponents to healthcare give examples of countries that they say hate their programs why would you listen to them. Many foriegners are quite happy with their systems and are bewildered as to why we dont have such a system here in the US since we are such a wealthy and educated nation but dont listen to me call randomly to that country and ask.
Other countries have had no sucess with their economic stimulas programs
A countries economic proplems can be different and have a range of dynamics that other countries just dont have to deal with. Yet successful stimulus policies can share some similarities
Austerity (austerity is a policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided) policies have been sucessful in other countries
The jury is still out on that one, its success seems to be determined by the true causes for seeking austerity. It has clearly led to civil unrest and political upheaval in some cases. In the US case austerity is like finding a man starving who hasnt eaten in 8 days and telling him he looks a little over weight and putting him on a diet. Sure he maybe he could stand to lose a pound or two but putting him on a diet at that time might kill him.
Punctuation and spelling have not thoroughly been checked yet.
The Need for Love, Unity, Hope and Faith
The country as a whole needs love, hope, faith and unity to make it through these rough economic times. When we as Americans work together for the enrichment of all people despite fears, prejudices and ideologies we can easily weather this economic crisis as it is our uncertainty that fuels our demise. Honesty and acuracy has to become the norm again and we need to hold people responsible for their promotion of deception, lies and unfair tactics in politics (how can you come up with educated solutions if the information you have is not accurate?). We need to once again be able to trust the media, our politicians and differing groups in our society and everyone has to respect each other and do their fair share. Dont just say you love America, the bible, etc show it and certainly dont just use specific notions, verses, etc that only make your points while ignoring the true intent of a message or other messages just as important-that's misleading and deception.
Republicans say they got 98% of what they wanted in the debt ceiling negotiations so 98% of the blame for the US S&P bond rating downgrade should be their fault-Tea Party Celebrates Downgrade!
Republicans say they got 98% of what they wanted in the debt ceiling negotiations so 98% of the blame for the U.S S& P bond rating downgrade should be theirs fault. Even after the debt ceiling was lowered and S& P citing the actions of the tea party as a major basis for the downgrade the tea party members have held steadfast to their obstinate position even celebrating the downgrade. They seem very happy that it has occurred and I have no doubt that they would welcome other calamities upon the US in the hopes that they can seize control of congress and the white house. Directly following the downgrade Leader of the House Republicans Eric Cantor sent a memo to house republicans compelling them to resist any pleas of compromise and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had stated that the debt ceiling was a hostage worth taking and that the Republicans will and should use the tactic for now on. The well being of the country and it's citizens appear to be not important because honestly and shamefully the Tea Party wants the economy to tank, unemployment to rise and hard times for citizens so they can rise from the ashes to carry out their agenda. How do we get the Republicans to listen? By every person taking notice to what they are doing and writing, calling, protesting and spreading the word and voting the bums out. The Tea Party members being voted out completely will send the message that the form of government that doesn't respond to the wishes of the people or care for the well being of it's citizens but only for it's own agenda will not be permitted by this great nation. We are tired of being manipulated and lied to by the Republican Party & Fox News (and any other group that wants it their way or we can all go to hell)! We all should vote and get everyone we know to also.
Cute, short, balanced & easy to understand cartoon that explains the Health Care Reform Bill known as Obamacare.
Congressional Republicans Are Blocking Obama From Making Presidential Appointments Even During Recess
Marian Wang
Read more: http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/while-on-summer-recess-congress-blocks-recess-appointments#ixzz1UfGo9OQ0
As many have noted, members of Congress left behind some unfinished business when they headed home for their August recess.
But here’s something else you should know: Even though hoards of lawmakers have left D.C., neither chamber of Congress officially adjourned.
The reason? In an effort to block President Obama from making recess appointments—which the Constitution allows presidents to do—Congressional Republicans have kept Congress technically in session.
Who's Responsible for this Downgrade! Republicans Straight Out Lie in our Faces and then Blame Democrats: See Video Below
Have you lost your minds ! I guest I can understand you "beefing" with the Democrats but do you have to take us all down with you?
The US Healthcare Reform Bill
The greatest power one man can have over another is to get others to do their will with being forced or the use of threats. This is why religious leaders are so powerful and must be scrutinized. The rich and powerful corporations and insurance companies want to get to the government coffers but care little about the well-being of the citizens. they just want the profits. They spread rumors and lies to get you to work against your own interest and that of your families. They argue of the evils of government sponsored healthcare even though all other industrialized countries have it. They tell you the countries that do have it have ineffective and wasteful systems even though they know these countries do it for half the cost we do and it helps hold down the rising cost of healthcare. I for one can do with it or without it but believe that it is best for the country to have it and a country as rich and powerful as the US can most certainly run such a program. Since we have it why not try it out and see if it suceeds than waste all that effort and money to repeal it now, you can always do that later if it is not successful.
Top 10 facts to know about health care reform
By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 7:09 p.m.
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http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/mar/18/top-10-facts-know-about-health-care-reform/
PolitiFact has checked hundreds of claims about health care reform and read the plans under consideration by Congress. As the Democrats move toward a final vote, we've selected 10 facts about the actual health care legislation that every voter should know. Agree with the measure or not, here's what it intends to do and where the big unknowns are. We've linked to our previous reporting on each issue throughout the story; click through for even more sources.
1. The plan is not a government takeover of health care like in Canada or Britain. The government will not take over hospitals or other privately run health care businesses. Doctors will not become government employees, like in Britain. And the U.S. government intends to help people buy insurance from private insurance companies, not pay all the bills like the single-payer system in Canada. The key parts of the current U.S. system -- employer-provided insurance, Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor -- would stay in place. The government would create health insurance exchanges for people who have to buy insurance on their own, so they could more easily compare plans and prices.
2. Insurance companies will be regulated more heavily. They will be told the minimum services they must cover, including preventive care. They will have to pay out a certain percentage of premiums for patient care. By 2014, when the exchanges open, insurers won't be able to deny customers for pre-existing conditions.
3. Everyone will have to have health insurance or pay a fine, a requirement known as the individual mandate. The government intends to cap premiums for people who make below a certain income. For people who buy insurance on the exchanges, a family of four making $88,000 would have a cap of 9.5 percent of their income. Lower incomes would have lower caps. The fine for not having insurance would be a minimum of $695 per person per year, with exemptions for financial hardship and other special cases.
4. Employers will not be required to buy insurance for their employees, but large employers may be subject to fines if they don't provide insurance. But Congress wanted to encourage employers, especially large employers, to offer insurance. So they created a fine for employers with more than 50 workers: If those employees buy insurance on the exchanges and qualify for a low-income credit from the government, then the employer would have to pay a fine. Fines are calculated based on number of employees; for large firms, the fines could be significant.
5. The vast majority of people will not see significant declines in premiums. When President Obama talks about premiums going down, he usually means they won't go up as much as they would otherwise. For the four out of five people who get their insurance through their employer, the savings would land in the 0 to 3 percent range by 2016, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO. People who buy insurance on their own, but who don't qualify for government subsidies, could actually see their premiums rise by as much as 10 to 13 percent, but that's largely because they'll be getting beefed-up policies that would pay for more basic services, especially preventive care. Low-income people who qualify for new credits to buy insurance would see the biggest drops.
6. The plan might or might not bend the curve on health spending. Critics say there aren't enough provisions to reduce waste or fraud, but Democrats say they're not being given enough credit for new cost-saving pilot programs that could be rapidly expanded. The most recent estimate of the plan, released Thursday by the CBO, said that it would spend $940 billion over 10 years. But new taxes, penalties and cost savings would offset that spending, according to the CBO, so that overall the plan pays for itself, dropping the deficit by slightly $138 billion over 10 years. Obama has said the plan will save more than $1 trillion in the second 10 years, but that estimate, according to the CBO, is highly speculative.
7. The government-run Medicare program will keep paying medical bills for seniors, but it will begin implementing cost controls on health care providers, mostly through penalties and incentives. The legislation would reduce payments for hospital-acquired infections or preventable hospital admissions. For Medicare Advantage, the federal government intends to reduce extra payments, taking away subsidies to private insurance companies. Insurers will likely cut benefits in order to not lose profits. The bill does not address the "doctor's fix," an expected proposal that Congress usually passes to prevent doctors' Medicare payments from severe cuts.
8. Medicaid, a joint federal-state program for the poor, will cover all of the poor, instead of just a few groups the way it currently does. Right now, to qualify for Medicaid, a person has to be poor and also disabled, elderly, pregnant or a child. Under the new plan, all poor adults would qualify.
9. The government won't pay for elective abortions. But under the Senate plan, people will be able to buy insurance that covers abortion on the new health insurance exchanges, as long as the insurance company pays for the services with patient premiums, not taxpayer subsidies. Medicaid has an exemption for cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother.
10. No one is proposing new benefits for illegal immigrants. Some House members had hoped that illegal immigrants would be able to buy insurance with their own money through the new exchanges, but that now appears unlikely.
Recently Republican Congressman Allen West of Florida had tough words for the Congressional Black Caucus who were sponsoring job fairs around the country
Unfortunately for him it became known that he had sent his out of work brother to their fair and he had to eat those tough words (could'nt he get one of those rich republicans to hire him?)
Revelations from an Ex-GOP Insider-They want to destroy government so they can take it over to fulfill their personal agendas