Who could have guessed that sending far-right Republican ideologues to Congress would backfire for the people who need government programs like Medicare:
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) came face to face with this growing movement at a town hall in Vancouver, Washington last night. Dozens of protesters encamped outside the meeting, waving signs like “Save Medicare: Tax the Rich.” When she tried to defend her vote on the GOP budget that would effectively privatize Medicare, “a chorus of boos and catcalls and shouts of ‘liar’ erupted in the auditorium.” The congresswoman was repeatedly called out by what the local press called a “rough crowd.”
It amazes me that there are people out there who voted for Herrera Beutler, but are now surprised that she’s voting to take away Medicare. What the hell did you expect? What part of Republican governance for the past 30 years hasn’t been clear? Modern Republicans don’t think government should provide safety nets to you any more. That means no Medicare, no Social Security. It means if you didn’t make enough money over your life – or if you’re one of those unlucky souls who gets a long-term illness that costs lots of money to treat – you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself why you didn’t have a good enough stock portfolio.
I think we should end the secret ballot and require voters to disclose who they voted for; and then, if you vote Democrat you get Social Security and Medicare, and if you vote Republican you don’t. I was going to add that we should also have a two-tier tax system, one for Democrats and one for Republicans, but we already have that. The problem is that people who don’t pay taxes get the same government benefits as people who do.
Buyers Remorse = OBAMA!
@2 Maybe for you.
@2 (continued) Obama caught Osama bin Laden and Bush didn’t, neener neener!!
@2
For a moderate Republican, Obama seems to be doing pretty fucking good.
I thought that Obama showed a lot of class for allowing that idiot Bush to take some credit for the kill. But Bush really didn’t have a damned thing to do with it. He disbanded the unit looking for bin Laden in 2005.
And Dick Cheney yapping about how suucesful the waterboarding was Khalif Mohammedan. It only took seven years for that treasure trove of intelligence to come to fruition.
All a bluecollar Democrat can say about Republican sheneanigans is: ‘Respite! Respite and Nepenthe!’
Why do I say that? In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, “I don’t know….”
Socialism only works until you run out of other people’s money…Margaret Thatcher.
Hows that 14.3 Debt Ceiling holding out? You know, the one that Obama said he would not vote to raise..Hopey Changie
I’m sure your kids, grandkids, and great grandkids, will enjoy being left 10 trillion in new debt by the end of his 4 years
“Dozens of Protesters”??
Who the f*** cares you idiots.
Tax the Rich??
Good luck with that.
You idiots had your chance to do that when you had total control of the House, Senate and White House…but did diddly squat.
Screw you idiots.
Tell me how you would tax the rich and cover 1700 Billion per year extra you idiots are spending out of them. Please show me the math!
rodent said:
“…if you vote Democrat you get Social Security and Medicare, and if you vote Republican you don’t.”
Does that include those who vote for other parties rather than the Dems or Reps in the Reps category? How about we get our money back with the proper credit for growth and interest, just as if we had the chance to grow that money ourselves? It always seems that those who advocate excluding non-progressive from SS and Medicare never get around to talking about refunding the money that those people have contributed to the system.
Let’s face it – Social Security and Medicare are wealth re-distribution mechanisms. The best thing that could happen to each program would be for everyone to die before becoming eligible for them.
Here’s an idea – why are Social Security funds “invested” in US government bonds? Why not German bonds or Swiss bonds? If Swiss and German bonds pay higher interest, why not go for the max rate versus enabling the US government to “borrow” SS funds and spend us into oblivion?
Social Security was supposed to be self-sustaining – it ain’t! Medicare was doomed from the start when that idiot, LBJ, allowed docs to charge whatever they wanted. Boy, did the medical folks take advantage of that loophole! Now Medicare is a runaway program with no fiscal controls in sight. It’s gonna fail long before Social Security does.
Does no one at all here watch the news, and the projections of all these programs going broke, of all the commissions which make recommendations so that they don’t. And the democrats just ignore the peril and keep on spending like debt doesn’t matter at all.
Your Ponzi Scheme would put jailed offenders to shame.
All the gold in Fort Knox if sold today, would hardly cover 1/5th of the deficit for one year that this government is running up.
Idiocracy is the movie of choice by democrats
@13
hey man, its no big deal! YLBleeder says the govt can just sell off its assets in property and monuments to cover the debt – no need to worry at all! Everything will be just fine!
its all handled! YLB said so!
The best thing that could happen to each program would be for everyone to die before becoming eligible for them.
So would I pay a 15% payroll tax throughout my working life to fund….what? More fucking wars? More subsidies to Wall Street?
Medicare pays for the birthing costs of 40% of new borns right now, dumb shit.
Reading your shit posts is like viewing political snuff porn.
@13….so tell us about the brilliant REPUBLICAN Congressman who advocates selling off Utah to pay down the US debt. What a maroon.
Why is it democrats are for higher taxes but
they don’t send in extra money? Every liberal
I know are the cheapest people and are constantly on the scam no matter the issue! What a fucking joke.
Dumbfuck trolls. Grow a brain, you fucking idiots.
I thought the teabaggers told their Congress critters to keep their grubby socialist hands off their medicare and social security.
Oh I see they’re still doing that!
Boy! We got the trolls going with this one.
Two things fix the whole problem.
Tax corporate earnings.
Tax high incomes.
(well three…)
Get the fuck out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Simple, not easy…but simple.
ps…tax ld, bartertown, puddy, and theassholewhothinkshe’sfunnyoff THREE TIMES their effective marginal rate.
@20
why should I pay even more to support lazy wannabe musicians like you or your lazy buddy YLB?
Why dont you guys step up to the plate and pay more?
Everyone who’s really looked at the deficit problem has concluded that at least 80 or 90 percent of it comes from continuing the Bush policies.
So ok discontinue the Obama stimulus tax cut if they aren’t already and take away the recent payroll tax cut that was a compromise with the Republicans on extending the tax cuts for the rich.
That’s the middle/working class pound of flesh that stupid fucking idiots like tehchickenshit want.
Make sure corporations pay SOMETHING. Eliminate all boneheaded tax breaks like the stupid subsidies the oil companies get.
Raise taxes on the rich to the level they were under Clinton when no rich people got any richer according to stupid fucking idiots like tehchickenshit.
Raise capital gains and dividend taxes to the level of income taxes. Sorry it’s all income. If anything those taxes should be HIGHER – someone else sweated for that value – not the holder of some paper chit.
Estate taxes should be restored to their old level – 55 percent something like that. Sorry it functions as a backstop to the income tax – if some old codger avoided the tax man all his life here’s where the government gets the money for the latest military toys so tehchickenshits can stroke themselves.
End the stupid Bush wars. We don’t want fucking Talibans running things so leave some forces for training and special ops to keep the peace. Maybe we’ll get some of the Turkmenistan natural gas out of the deal like we’re getting Iraqi oil right now. Small recompense for all the trouble.
Cut any other stupid Pentagon spending like extra engines for the advanced tactical fighter. Why will we need more fucking aircraft carrier battle groups? China? They got their hands full trying to keep 1.5 billion Chinese on the farm once they’ve seen the big city.
Promote economic growth – clean energy, fix crumbling infrastructure, education, R&D. For the stupid tehchickenshits of the world, these are investments that pay off well down the road.
Forgot about the health care system – it’s got to change. The baby boomers are retiring and we can’t afford insurance company overhead and making billionaires out of their executives.
Single payer is the best system. But we’re Americans and believe in competition so a public option will keep the greedy bastards on their toes. UPS, Fedex, DHL, etc exist just fine next the U.S. Post office.
Health care delivery costs have to come down. Doctors, medical groups, clinics and hospitals have to get their act together and cut costs. The inefficiency of the health care system in this country is a crime and people go bankrupt over it every freaking day.
Like a typical right winger you can’t read when you’re not lying about what the people you hate say.
@20…
…this dumbass flatters himself that an increase in the tax rate caused by rolling back the Bush tax cuts is going to affect him.
My first assklown inspired grin moment of the day…
By extension this jerk pretends that the evasion of fair taxes by corporations doesn’t affect him personally.
Is he being disingenuous…or just a moron?
25 – just a moron.
Seriously…
…what’s wrong with these assholes?
(ld, bartertown, puddy, and theassholewhothinkshe’sfunny-off et al…)
Don’t you see how the infrastructure is failing? Small business are going under for lack of discretionary income on the part of the general public…due to the lack of LIVING WAGE JOBS???
You truly are that stupid?…and greedy?
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA)should simply follow the lead of Republican leading light, the disgraced former Speaker of the House:
No truer words have ever been spoken by the man.
Wow…..I hope you guys are watching or listening to the news…the mayor mcginn fiasco is blowing up big time today. Among other things, the newly hired bike nut…oops, I mean transportation expert(insert more laughter here) wasn’t quite honest on his resume….but that’s just the begining.
How you guys like the mayor now? Got buyers remorse yet? Mcmumbles will go down s the worst mayor in seattles history…and you schlocks voted for him…hahaahhahhhhhhah
Damn I’m loving it…….
The times is also all over it….hahahahhhahhaahah…but where is the sthwanger? Could they be avoiding the story?
LD continues to spout problems caused by Bush, but blames it on Obama. He apparantly doesn’t understand, or care, to look at the details.
Or he’s just a Republican troll paid an hourly wage to post nonsense daily talking points provided to him via Fox News.
Stick a fork in him, he’s done.
We all know by now that Gingrich criticized Ryan’s budget plan, specifically his voucher system for Social Security, as being “radical” on Sunday. He spent the next two days apologizing to Ryan and most other Republicans.
But today he was on Fox News, stridently arguing that no one should quote his comments from Sunday’s interview because they were ”
To make matters worse for him, today it was revealed that he and his third wife have a revolving charge account at Tiffany’s which listed a liability in the “$250,000 to $500,000” range, which his wife described as her husband’s obligations. I’d presume that he incurred these obligations while wooing his current wife, but after the Guvernator’s revelations, I’m not prepared to bet on that.
Among Newt’s many ideological and moral problems, his current campaign suffers primarily because (a) he tends to run his mouth without his internal campaign filter firmly in place; and (b) he can’t decide if he’s running for the primaries or the general election.
All candidates need to court the extremes in their party to get past the primaries, then reverse course so as to appear more reasonable (centrist) in order to win the general election. This isn’t an unusual challenge in any election cycle, for both parties, it’s been going on for an awfully long time. What is different this time around is that the gap between the Republican wackos on the extreme right, and the “center”, is so far apart.
And Newt made the rookie mistake of trying to do both (appealing to the wackos and appearing “centrist”) at the same time. It didn’t work.
So stick a fork in him, he’s done. Democrats have a wide array of writings, interviews, videos, etc. which can show him trying to sit on every side of an issue, sometimes within a few days of each other (like his comments on Libya). He’s not electible in the general election. He is already out of the race as surely as those who have officially dropped out (Trump, Huckabee, Barbour, etc.).
Time to concentrate on Romney, who is hopping to use his money-raising skills to slide through the early state primaries and caucuses while all the media attention is on the crazies. In comparison with them, Romney appears halfway reasonable. We have to focus on showing that Romney is really just another George W. Bush, who appears to be a “compassionate conservative” during the campaign, but will do just as much damage as Bush if elected.
@12: Wow. You believe stuff being blasted all over the liberal lamestream media?
I’d like to see Social Security be a voluntary program with those who opt-out understanding that retirmement planning is entirely up to them: the government is not going to pay anything at their retirements.
This will never work under or current climate because Social Security desperately needs the taxes on middle and upper income workers to sustain payments to poorer folks in retirement. Unfortunately, Social Security as a way to keep elderly retirees out of poverty has been a miserable failure. The amounts people get from Social Security depend on how much they contribure through FICA taxes. The money taxed from poorer workers isn’t enough to sustain them, so upper and middle income workers fill the void a little. In other words, Social Security is somewhat of a wealth re-distribution plan. IMO, it fails both as an insurance program and an investment program because it cannot provide enough of a return to fund poverty avoidance for elderly folks. What these people get from Social Security is simply not enough to live on.
What needs to be done is to raise the age of retirement to 70, for starters, with no early retirements available. Then, gradually increase the retirement age to 80 or 85. That would do a lot to sustain the system. As it is now, the only way the Social Security system can survive is if people die before becoming eligible for benefits. A harsh cure, to be sure. That’s why it’s even more important than ever to assume responsibility for your own retirement. If you aren’t doing a Roth IRA, get started on one. It doesn’t have to be in pork bellies or options, but do something – either with CDs or mutual funds. If the government raises the age (and I believe they will) you will need something to carry you through the years when you cannot work any longer (due to the economy, age discrimination or whatever) but haven’t reached the new, older Social Security retirement age. Also, if you have any employer-sponsored plan at work, be sure to participate. This Social Security hubbub is getting serious, and major unfavorable changes are on the way.
@34…
…why not revive debtor’s prisons while you’re busy restoring the 18th century.
What an asshole.
@34 “Unfortunately, Social Security as a way to keep elderly retirees out of poverty has been a miserable failure.”
I hate to interrupt your Randroid fantasies with a dose of reality, but poverty for the elderly has dropped drastically since the creation of Social Security. Hmm, your comment is the miserable failure.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www.....stpov3.xls
Are you a willful liar for your Randian ideology or are you just ignorant?
@36…
…just another greedy asshole, Steve. Nothing special.
@34
Social Security IS a voluntary program, you may opt out at any time. Only catch, once you opt out, you can’t opt back in.
Satisfied?
@12
I stopped watching the news when I realized it was all a bunch of liberal lies. I even got a “I don’t believe the liberal media” bumper sticker for my car.
@29
Not that McGinn doesn’t have his problems but, the “Seattle Media”– The Times and the TV stations and radio are, for the most part, run of, for, and by conservative suburbanites. Manufacturing problems in a mayors office that aggressively promotes urbanism* plays to their audience. And that what the media, by and large, does today; it plays to it’s audience. It doesn’t promote the truth.
*And isn’t that what an urban mayor should be doing?
@34….bring numbers to back up your stark raving lunatic assertions or shut the fuck up. Social Security is not going broke. It is just fine.
And raise the retirement age to the eighties?….you’re an ignorant lunatic.
@41
The guy’s arguing that Social Security, a program you can opt out of, should be turned into a program that you can opt out of. That pretty much takes the cake for stupid. I mean, sure you have to claim you’re a religious nut to do it, but that doesn’t seem like it would be that much of a stretch for most of the people that are yowling about it.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4361.pdf
Yeah, so how come most of the Obummer’s Porkulus Money went to DUMMOCRAPTIC pals ya stupid idiot rujaxmoronicdipshithead?
…
Ahhh yes Cass Sunstein’s most useful HA Homer Simpson idiot rhp6033 forgets all the comedy of 2009.
We were told $787 Billion for shovel ready jobs – EPIC FAYLE
We were told $410 Billion to keep unemployment down below 8% – EPIC FAYLE
We were told the FY 2010 Budget was needed to get people working – EPIC FAYLE
Then Obummer’s academic economic team (except Tax Cheat Geithner) skipped town becuz their “theories”
The DUMMOCRAPTS knew they were in trouble so FY 2011 never happened
See ya Homer!
The solution to our fiscal mess is bloody simple. And it doesn’t touch Social Security or Medicare. First roll back the Bush tax cuts and get rid of tax loopholes for people like Hedge Fund Managers. Next end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops home. Next go with a single payer healthcare plan, with Medicare-for-all being the simplest solution. Next put a tiny per transaction fee on all stock transactions. It won’t cost average people but a few pennies or dollars per year, but the assholes like Goldman Sachs who do millions of trades per day would be finally paying their fair share for almost destroying the worlds economies.
Finally, who is this idiot LD? You do know that the worst presidents in recent history for running up the debt have all been republicans? Reagan and GW Bush, the worst of the bunch. Talk about revisionist selective memory. My god you people are as dumb as a fence post, or you think everyone else is. I hate to being feeding the troll, but I suspect he is being bankrolled by the likes of the Koch brothers anyway.
You “opt” out of it the same exact way you opt out of paying taxes — you don’t earn one stinking penny of money. The best way to save a shitload on taxes is to not make one penny your whole life. My god this board has really degenerated with people pulling factoids out of the rear end, just like their hero Limbaugh.
@47 Or by claiming to be a Christian Science Practitioner.
We Should all claim to be Christian Science Practitioners!
47 – File form 4029.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p517/ar02.html
@50 that link didn’t work.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4029.pdf
Shorter puddybitch…
…I have nothing, no plan. I will however spend an inordinate amount of time trashing anything you come up with.
Any guesses as to how much fun this shithead is in team meetings?
Like “Baxter” @ 46 says, balancing the budget isn’t really that hard. The only problem you are dealing with is that you have two variables: revenues (mostly taxes) and expenditures.
But even with two variables, it can be handled. Imagine you are sitting in a car, and you want the interior of the car to be 72 degrees. You only have two controls, one for the air contitioner and one for the heater. You play with both controls until you reach your “sweet spot” of 72 degrees. Of course, in a car or a home this is done for you with a thermostate. Unfortunately, we don’t have an automatic mechanism in government which will do it for us.
Now, external factors can come into play. In the car, having it sit in the sun on a hot summer day will effect the mix. In goverment, having an international economic meltdown will both increase expenditures and reduce revenues.
But the problem with the Republican philosophy is that they are trying to approach this using only one control, while attempting to permanantly disable the other. For them, taxes aren’t simply a way to finance public services, it’s a moral evil to be destroyed.
But on a hot summer day, you can’t get the car to 72 degrees when you only have the heater to work with. Even after you turn it all the way to off, it isn’t going to have any effect. Likewise, trying to balance a budget by ONLY looking at the expense side is going to do more damage than good.
As for our national government, we saw where the balance worked as the government reached a balanced budget in 2000 and was looking at surpluses thereafter – enough to pay off the principle of the debt by 2008. Think of it – our government could have been debt-free in 2008! But instead, Bush & Co. tax-cut policies pushed our debt into the trillions.
Conservatives are such dipshits. They troll around for irrelevant factoids, as if their factoids magically make the relevant facts disappear so that they don’t actually have to deal with them. They play “gotcha” or “distraction” or “pullanumberoutofmyass” in order to convince themselves they’re winning the argument. In the meantime, they completely ignore simple facts such as: the tax rates under Clinton were enough to pay the bills–with enough left over to pay down the debt. Then Bush The Dipshit rolled back taxes. AND he increased Medicare. AND he started two dipshit wars. Those are the three largest individual contributors to the projected long-term debt. The basic facts are really not that hard–and they’re they’re easily verified on objective websites. But the Dipshit Party pretends that we’re in trouble because we’re paying for gay mexicans to have abortions in resorts–or something just as idiotically untrue. Oh, and speaking of idiotically untrue, they also routinely claim that taxes are higher than ever. Such dipshits they are. Lying, stupid dipshits.