Corporatist Dems: Let Us Gut Medicare and Social Security, or We'll Sabotage Health-Care Bill
By Susie Madrak Monday Nov 16, 2009 5:00pm
As Wanda Sykes might say, "I am so damned sick of these @#!*# Democratic snakes on this @#!*# plane!" Yes, once again, ConservaDems are holding a gun to the head of progress. This time, they want to blackmail Congress into overriding the Constitutionally-mandated power of the House over the nation's purse strings - and hand it over to them:
Seven members of the Senate Budget Committee threatened during a Tuesday hearing to withhold their support for critical legislation to raise the debt ceiling if the bill calling for the creation of a bipartisan fiscal reform commission were not attached. Six others had previously made such threats, bringing the total to 13 senators drawing a hard line on the committee legislation.
“You rarely do have the leverage to make a fundamental change,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who said he hasn’t ruled out offering the independent commission legislation as an amendment to the healthcare reform bill.
What is it about Kent Conrad that makes me want to slap him? Is it that perpetually robotic grin? Is it the fact that he's so reliably a corporate tool? Or maybe it's that somehow, I just know that Celine Dion is on his iPod.
The panel, which has been championed by Conrad and ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H), would be tasked with stemming the unsustainable rise in debt.
Among its chief responsibilities would be closing the gap between tax revenue coming in and the larger cost of paying for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. The Government Accountability Office recently reported the gap is on pace to reach an “unsustainable” $63 trillion in 2083.
The panel would also have the power to craft legislation that would change the tax code and set limits on government spending.
The legislation would then be subject to an up-or-down vote; it could not be amended.
Chris Bowers calls it a "national suicide pact":
Let's review the threat that these five Democrats are making:
* They will allow the United States to default on its debt, which will vastly increase the overall amount we have to pay on our debt
UNLESS
* Speaker Nancy Pelosi turns over Congressional power on Social Security and Medicare to an unelected commission that will almost certainly propose deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare entitlements. Keep in mind that if deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare pass under a Democratic trifecta, the party would be doomed at the ballot box for years to come.
This is completely insane, and there is no choice but to call this bluff.
Let's see these five Democratic Senators explain to the entire nation why they allowed the country to default on its debt. No matter how safe their seats appear to be, no Senator is going to win reelection after making the entire country default on its debt. Their rationale does not matter. Being blamed for making the country default on its debt - especially after all five of these Democrats voted in favor of the Wall Street bailout and are demanding that Social Security and Medicare be cut - will be the effective end of their political careers.
Go for it, guys. Form your national suicide pact. Tell the country that you are demanding deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare, or else you will personally cause the United States debt to double. Let's see how well that message plays on the air.
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When you've got an intransigent opposition marching in lockstep against your proposals, a very small group of selfish quasi-turncoats can hold your entire agenda hostage to their demands. That's what's going on here. Not enough party discipline in the Democratic Party. The DNC needs to make it clear that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated and will be met with sanctions. The DNC should be prepared to sacrifice a couple of seats if that's what it takes to bring these shameless blackmailers in line.
now we know why BUsh got away with the criminality for hie entire term ... it was because the the Democrats who basically went along with everything .... everyday it seems we have a new revelation at who in the Democratic party is stalling the legislation we need to ensure that "we the people" have the protections and rights we have fought for from the beginning. The actions of our government have become treasonous. As if the people are nothing at all .... in the end if this keeps up there will be only one solution .. the people .. when it gets bad enough will fight back in the streets. Right now we are still laboring under the delusion that our credit scores and ability to buy new televisions are important. We have already been dying and being murdered in huge numbers ... the corporate media is nothing more than the shinny box of color being used to distract. "War of the Worlds". Was an experiment in propaganda.
Both of you are right on with your assessments. But...what to do?
Hitting the streets worked for us to stop the war in Vietnam. It won't happen again. We were united then. Today, we're ideologically divided. It would be next to impossible to unite the populace to a common cause.
What to do...?
What is with these guys!? Seriously, how in the name of god did these bozos get elected? If these guys want to act as Republicans then they should join the Republican party. Pelosi should call their bluff!
vote the bums out
They clearly do not have the voters in mind.
Once their deeds are accomplished they'll gladly leave office to collect the millions their corporate masters have promised them.
They don't care if they're kicked out of office. They've already earned their free lifetime medical care and pensions.
I have to stop there; to go further I might be banned.
I can't start the string of explitives - it just won't stop.
with the joke on us which is the Dem party. Might as well laugh at the divine comedy our country has become.
They live in La La Land. They have the socioeconomic privilege of going into hysterics over our national debt at a time when "good debt" is preferable to letting people fall through the cracks.
If you all will indulge me, and I will keep it short, but I'll share my crappy day I had today. First I found out I have lost my Medicaid. The suspicious thing is that I was cut altogether around the time that Gov. Ahnold's refusal to allow Medi-cal to pay for psychiatric services was supposed to go into effect.
I think for the time being I will be *ok*, barring that I don't have some unforeseen medical issues, and that I don't lose my disability or my Medicare. Medicaid was covering my access to a doctor for my psychiatric disability, and Medicare was covering the medications. I still have some money saved up, so I figure I can pay the psychiatrist visits out of pocket. There are now only about 6 of them per year.
And in case of health issues that require my general practioner, well, I'm going to have to save money, and work hard at my part time job, designing jewelry and handbags, and maybe have to concentrate on more upscale bags and jewelry, etc. The bad part is, I also found out today our rented storage locker that is temporarily holding my stuff while we move, was broken into last week, and the most expensive thing in it to date was my sewing machine. If anything was stolen, it was the sewing machine, that I'm going to have to rely on for extra money to see a physician.
I'll have probably to suck it up, replace the sewing machine, and figure out how to pay medical bills.
Grrrrr.....
How I hate these Congress Critters...
Edit - I was saving that money to continue my college education with. Don't know how that's going to work now...
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I am so sorry to hear of your multiple misfortunes. :(
has screwed over so that Orange County can have their tax breaks.
I figure I'll survive, but grrrr...this makes me so angry!
These "let them eat s**t" democreeps and psychotic republican's enrage me. These bastards have millions upon millions, and all they do is think of ways to screw people who are barely making it out of a couple of bucks. They are the most dispicable pieces of shit to ever slither across the landscape of america.
I hope Conrad loses. Can't they find a primary challenger for this dickhead?
would be nice if he were thrown out of the Senate and never again be so much as electable to be the local dog-catcher....
And depending on how well my finances look after a while of this crap, I would be willing to send any little amount I could to the campaign of an excellent primary challenger. Because this guy is a soulless scumbag.
So we all know...Huffington Post has FOUR front page stories of Sarah Palin plus and advertisement for her next appearance on TV (I will not link to it) C&L had one plus an advertisement. Quit with the Palin!!!! I can't lover enough.
HFS....
How about a little more Prejean?
Then we can start all over again with single payer. Or add to the bill that anyone in the House or Senate can be recalled by their constituents whenever there is the slightest hint that they are working for anyone other than the citizens of their own states. Then add another amendment that makes corporations businesses, and takes away their "personhood." Then another that makes the only legal form of campaign contributions those from private individual citizens, and outlaws PACS. And yet another making lobbying illegal. And finally, one that brings all troops home from all over the world. None of these will be amendable. Right back at you, Kent. You corporate whore. You and that other jackass you rode in one.
CongressCritters' healthcare plan!
Could be just what is needed.
novelty nose/glasses?
*
Don't get me wrong having the numbers is great, but if many of those numbers are wantabe GOP then don't be suprised when they stab the democrats in the back.
The only reason many of these Dinos are democrats are because they couldn't make the GOP team period.
Sarah Palin! "She's back, and still dumber than a bag of rocks."
Speaking of collossal stupidity; what kind of a moron - and so-called democrat, would undue social security and medicare? WTF?
And about the rightwing advertisements: Hands of my Health Care? Patients First? Americans for Prosperity? Nice ad. Could these corporate fascist liars get anymore Orwellean.
Isn't that like saying "if you are dying because you can't afford health care, beware that health care will kill you?" Makes about as much sense.
It is painful to see what obvious evil lying pricks these bastards are, and yet know that they can easily fool large sections of America.
Listen for the talking points this week. They keep saying that "The majority of American people, blah, blah, blah." It's Rovian. repeat a lie in public five times, and it becomes truth. Then they fix elections and it looks like they were telling the truth.
be true. These estimates that are based on financial models with estimates for different growth rates. Slight changes in the growth rates results in totally different estimates including estimates were both medicare and social security are solvent. The major reason that some want to change social security and medicare now is so that the poor and middle class will continue bearing the major cost of funding the federal government. The federal government is mostly funded by surplus social security and medicare payments and not income taxes. In the upcoming years as the baby boomers retire this balance will need to change and income tax rates will need to go up. This is a preemptive strike to prevent the rich from paying their fair share.
Who am I trying to kid. This is what almost all of the politicians want, Dem and GOP. They want to privatize both of them, and Wall Street and the insurance companies score. These whores are not even trying to hide their sleaziness any longer. It's just so "in-your-face" now.
You need to take your Snark pills more often! I was still laughing at the Wanda reference and you hit me with a Celene Dion hipcheck??
Best in a while, and since you're usually DAMN GOOD, that's sayin' something. Thank you. And, f*@% Kent Conrad...
and the flood of calls and emails to Speaker Nancy? We can't expect Pelosi to take on everything without the progressive at her back.
Senate sabotage is the only thing protecting us from this horrendously bad legislation.
The public option is not existent, there is no meaningful cap on premiums, there are no effective enforcement mechanisms, next generation biogenic drugs can never be made generic, states ability to adopt single-payer is fatally crippled, etc., etc., etc.
Supporting the idea of reform is very different from supporting really bad legislation.
The House has rubber stamped it and Obama will sign whatever ends up on his desk as long as "REFORM" is written on the cover. The Senate is the last chance to derail this gigantic turd.
We are still in a deflationary spiral. People are losing their jobs and those with jobs are saving (ie spending less), because they're worried about the future. So demand for goods is decreasing. Corporations are the same. IF they are investing it is in gambling, I'm sorry investing in the financial markets, or many times investing overseas. Going back to people like Adam Smith, profits were justified on the grounds that if a business person saves they productively invest that savings. They build a factory and create jobs. Are corporations doing that, are they going to do that? So, domestically, if you cut back government spending overall demand goes down further. How in the hell does this make any logical sense? Wages have stagnated or declined for the majority of the country, thanks in large part to the failed ideology of these goons and those on the right who dominate both parties and the media. There is only one solution left, guess what it is: Tax cuts. If people get a tax cut they'll have more disposable income, so these crooks will say.
If these people knew a lick about economics or had a passing interest in reality (the DC bubble is in another universe) they'd notice that wealth concentration is the worse in the developed world and has been growing for decades. So any tax cuts for the wealthy, besides being morally objectionable, will exacerbate this problem. People are also in debt, so even if they got a tax cut they'd probably just pay off their debt or increase their savings, which means that the tax cuts would not have much of a good effect and would continue the horrible effects that these policies have had in this and every other country who've implemented these policies. They’ll also cause the government to go further into debt, which will basically be a self fulfilling prophecy.
These people need to be scared by the public, and I don’t mean the right wing nut jobs who don’t have a logical outlook on the world. Class conscious working people who can propose real alternatives to this broken beyond repair system. They need to worry about their jobs and the system they leach off of. They need to know that their punishment for ripping off their country when in office is not to go the private market and be rewarded for their immoral behavior. It has to be obviously far worse. Where the hell is the traditional left? The organizing, educating, agitating, factory seizures, etc? They’re n small groups preaching to the choir or being ignored by those to their right. Liberals are busy writing e mails and right wingers are screaming at invisible demons. What a horrible mess of a country.
Amen!
Taxing the rich and confiscating all the wealth they stole from everybody else, could easily put this country back on track again!
but no way to do that realistically within the electoral system in the US. Voting for the "right" person, the savior, is not going to happen, especially in the absence of mass social movements. It just isn't. There are too many parts of the system that need fundamental change and they’re all connected. It either has to be torn down and something better put in its place or we just accept our positions, out lack of power, our lack of direct say in government and our lives being run by corporations, corporate politicians and working people who can’t think their way out of a paper bag. The only group that can reverse this is the left, not liberals, the left, and they're absent from the scene and silent. Those, like Robin Hahenl, Herman Daly, Chomsky, are basically ignored by the media here. Oh well, another day in America.
I want to see these creeps primaried in their home states. There need to be a price to be payed for screwing over the American people for money or power. I am sick of this crap, and it needs to change!
Can someone check how Sen. Conrad has voted over the last several years to see how fiscally prudent he was during the years of Republican extravagance? And then publish it far and wide, particularly in his home state. Then ask him to STFU and read the constitution again (maybe for the first time).
Come on over and join our party boys , it's OK if you sabotage it and work for the other side , just so we have the "majority" ! Makes a lot of sense doesn't it ? Emmanuel's a reeeeeeeeeeeeeal genius .
Just exactly which ones of the plutocrats democratic/republican party and the plutocrats republican/democratic party are holding the stopper in?
I'm a vet so I know Senator Coburn (PRD) (Let the vets suffer for his ego) has got to go. People who drive to tend their son, daughers. wife, amd childrem, causing to need to the procedured at home. Get the full procedure tended to at home. Coburn has saw his ego offended so he put a hold on it. It won't have the crucial name of Senator Coburn blood treatemnt mobile. He doesn't give a right roll damn to release that funds that will by the objective purpose of the set up will let the patients be treaded at bed in home. The 60 drives to the blood mobile of 20 to 200 miles a week will stop. Stop for it, he will not pull the hold because they won't name the service for him. My family had an old tale from two men took off for Washington to contest they brought the ballot box that. His opponent just didn't make out.
The anti abortion group has to crucify Stupak (PDR) Listen crucifixion has to carried to the level of shunning as an an human is forced for societies. Not human go live with the ghouls and the bribers and the thieves.
I can't keep track over 700 elected crooks by my self, just tell me, who need the ground work to break the ice in 1010 when the real peoples parties will be entering candidated. May of those old women who are always planning to be elected prsident of flower club in 20 years. Those are real politician, a womam that can rise to the top to the women clubs, I will hold up against any fresh behind the ears precintman. Taking half is fair but if 80 precinits hit the papers in black and white papers as the new womens hopes for the childrer's futute Yeah, ou ladies in Geogia. Alabam. Mississippi, Strangely I think you will fly, because the good old boys alread did their trailing their rotten, no sugar, not pig roast campaign, ask the grand mother mother how they suckered the men into the decison.
I think I can push this. I know the gulf coast is pissed. Why not grind that case of the ass into a nice sharp jabber and moving the assholes along. Vote for miss lita the librarian, probably very skilled in the village and very helpful. Let's give it a try.?
The people should put these people out of office! Gut them at the next election!
...about 9 months ago, that we would not see any meaningful health care reform is looking better and better all the time. In fact, we may not see ANY reform, which I believe would be better. Maybe then we could unseat these Repugnicant lites from their positions and try putting some progressives in the senate.
It is an absolute joke to refer to these bastards as Dems, they are anything but Dems. Ironically though, the demise of the Republican party may well hasten the demise of our country as these idiots continue to destroy any hope of progress and if American voters don't wake up and start paying attention, you will see more and more of these Repugnicants putting a D after their name and getting elected as democrats. Once that happens, it's game, set, match.
Let them kill this dog of a 'health care' bill - and then strip them of their committee seats.
National deficit has two sides: revenue and expenditures. With our revenue rates at historic lowes, why are we looking at the expense side?
Dear (ConservaDem) {insert title, name and state here];
You are cordially invited to a Hawaiian-style luau in [state capital] on the 21st December 2009. The purpose is a combination of campaign fund-raising, rubbing elbows with local in-state chambers of commerce, and meeting with some prominent voter constituency, who are hungry for news from Washington. Come early, stay late. Admission is free, and there will be an open bar.
Thanks for your service.
RSVP
Dear [insert state here] Progressives;
You are cordially invited to a Hawaiian-style luau in [state capital] on the 21st December 2009. The purpose is to re-acquaint your [state] voter constituency with your Corporatist bought-and-paid-for Congress Critter, [insert title and name here], for an exchange of views. Come early, stay late. Admission will be two (2) bottles of barbeque sauce and one (1) bag of charcoal per adult. Bring your appetites, and your family (optional). Entertainment may include “Pin The Tail” and similar games.
Thanks for your support and your votes.
Torches, pitchforks, and firearms are all optional.
RSVP
Oh, come on! Doesn't just everybody like tender, falling-off-the-bones Carolina-style pulled (long-) pork barbeque?
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