Author: Trish

Astounding Majority Says Not to Cut Medicare Benefits

Trish

It’s hard to get three out of four people to agree on anything but that’s how many Americans say they do not want Congress to jack up copays on Medicare benefits in order to pay down the deficit.

A new bipartisan Public Policy Polling (D)/Fabrizio Ward (R) survey finds registered voters overwhelming oppose increased fees on seniors’ Medicare services, indicating that burdening beneficiaries with additional out-of-pocket expenses is not the preferred approach among Americans for reducing federal spending in Washington. The survey results further indicate that charging seniors additional copayments for accessing Medicare services is among the least favored options for cutting Medicare costs.

Among registered voters, 75 percent of respondents disapprove of making seniors pay higher fees for their Medicare services as a means to reduce federal spending.

Are the Republicans listening to this thundering majority? Or do they still love the idea, espoused most famously by failed vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, to give us a coupon toward the purchase of whatever insurance we can find when we reach that age and letting us figure out how to cover everything else? Members of the GOP have proven so far to be very slow learners.

Justice Scalia Said WHAT?

Trish
Justice Antonin Scalia

Count Justice Antonin Scalia among those who consider homosexuality to be a lifestyle choice, like whether to drive an SUV or a hybrid; whether to vote Democratic or Republican; whether to have lunch at Taco Bell or McDonald’s.

But for those of us who know we couldn’t just wake up one day and “choose” to be attracted to one gender or the other (i.e., anyone who’s honest with him or herself and who is not bisexual) think Scalia’s recent comments, even though he’s trying to sell a book, are outrageous.

Scalia: If we legalize homosexuality, we’ll have to legalize masturbation and sex between consenting, unmarried adults too

“Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools, or as boarders in their home,” Scalia wrote. “They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.”

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Reid Report: Why Republicans Can’t Make a Deal

Trish
No date for the prom? Sheldon Adelson compensates.

Required reading from Joy Reid, folks:

…Congressional Republicans, and their ostensible leader, John Boehner, can’t make the deal they know they have to in order to avert across-the-board tax increases.

Why can’t they? It’s not because they care about deficits. More than 40 years of GOP history, from Reagan’s deficit-exploding tax cuts to George W. Bush’s, on top of massive defense spending, wars paid for off the books, the budget-shredding “war on terror” and Medicare Part D — which was also not paid for — proves that Dick Cheney wasn’t kidding back in the day when he said that “deficits don’t matter.” Specifically, they don’t matter to Republicans. What matters to Republicans is rich people.

Joy Reid: For Republicans, it’s not about deficits, it’s about rich donors

Reid adds that while Democrats keep expanding their base with lots of small donors who give lots of small gifts, Republicans keep concentrating very large gifts from fewer donors. And many of those donors are not…well, people you’d want to hang out with.

Big GOP donors are very, very conservative. In fact, some of them are kooky, conspiracy minded, and radical.

Donald Trump, Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers, the list of freaky, axe-to-grind for being unpopular in junior high donors goes on. Any way you slice it, Republicans have made a deal with the devil. Read the whole column.

(Knee) Jerks: Republicans Want the Head of Reince Priebus

Trish

Far be it from us to defend Republican Party Chair Reince Priebus. But the way some of his fellow travelers on the road to obstruction are talking about him after the GOP’s sound defeat in 2012, we have to speak up. Listen to what they’re saying.

A postelection civil war is brewing among Republicans, with some conservative activists angry over the party’s poor performance this cycle gunning for party Chairman Reince Priebus and planning demonstrations at the Republican National Committee’s annual winter meeting in Charlotte, N.C…

What’s wrong with the GOP is clearly not all the fault of Reince Priebus but he might be taking the fall

“Republicans want a change. They have had it with Priebus,” said Mike Karem, a Kentucky GOP strategist who has been involved in Republican presidential campaigns since Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election victory. “We lost the presidency; we lost House seats, Senate seats; we picked up only one governor; and we had 3 million fewer Republicans turn out for Romney and other Republican candidates than turned out in 2008.”

“If [Mr. Priebus] worked for you, would you keep him based on his record?” Mr. Karem added. “The answer is, ‘Hell, no!’”

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Dim Bulbs Light the Way in Secession Movement

Trish

I’m not deriding these people because it’s so easy to point out their cluelessness

Great leaders are skilled in strategy and compromise that achieves underlying goals, according to “Lincoln” screenwriter Tony Kushner. Which explains why there will never be any great tea party politicians, whose only strategy is to storm off in a huff if they don’t get their way.

But the secession petition Florida rightwingers recently sent to the White House points up another problem for the tea party: many of these folks are not bright.

Was there really no one on the petition writing squad who made an A in English?

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The Problem is Bigger Than Black Friday Protests, Even if You Don’t Shop at Walmart or Eat Twinkies

Trish

Numbers sometimes paint a more vivid picture than words. For instance, these numbers:

Largest private sector employer in 1950: General Motors
Largest private sector employer in 2012: Walmart

Average worker wage by largest private sector employer in 1950: $50 per hour
Average worker wage by largest private sector employer in 2012: $8.81 per hour

Percentage of the labor force that belonged to a union in 1950: 34
Percentage of the labor force that belonged to a union in 2012: 7

Those figures come from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, and the $50 per hour includes benefits and is adjusted for 2012 dollars. Reich adds that one-third of Walmart workers are allowed only 28 hours per week, so they are not eligible for benefits. They are also barred from unionizing.

Which brings us to Twinkies.

Michael Saylor: ‘Mobile technology is a stunning gift to economies in places like India and Africa’

When the company told its employees recently that they would have to surrender their benefits or the company would liquidate, management tried to blame the situation on the union. But there have been six management teams over only eight years, a dizzying revolving door in the executive suite, with one Bain Capital-esque restructurer after another asking for more concessions from workers while sending the resulting profits to investors. As union president Frank Hurt told it:

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The Truth About the Deficit: It’s Shrinking Faster Than Anytime Since the End of WWII

Trish

The problem isn’t the deficit, which has fallen faster over the past three years than it has since the end of World War II, but employment, says economic analyst Jed Graham. So let’s not go down the path of Europe and apply unneeded austerity measures that plunge us back into recession.

Believe it or not, the federal deficit has fallen faster over the past three years than it has in any such stretch since demobilization from World War II.

In fact, outside of that post-WWII era, the only time the deficit has fallen faster was when the economy relapsed in 1937, turning the Great Depression into a decade-long affair.

…From fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, the deficit shrank 3.1 percentage points, from 10.1% to 7.0% of GDP.

[…]