Which is exactly where they want us to be, isn't it?
I can barely keep up with the holiday/family stuff, let alone politics. What I can say is that I cannot say anything definitively until January. Everything that is going on now is a lot of posturing and placement. When it all goes good or bad, each side will take the credit or blame the other, but nothing has really been accomplished in the last week...
What I have noticed over the weekend is that this Lame Duck/Limp Dick 'Tax Deal" that Obama has signed into law has morphed from a cave-in of his principles to a 'victory'. Really f*cking amazing...Are we as Americans and constituents and voters really so vapid and thick? Are our attention spans so short as to be placated by the spin, the HARD spin, that the White House and the Media put on issues like this???
For my part, I would have been content to see an impasse. Let the unemployment benefits expire as well as the tax cuts, then start with an iron Republican fist at the turn of the year. However, they are all, on both sides, politicians to the core, and each one has to secure his-her job, regardless of party or personal ideals or the promises made to get votes. An iron fist in a kid glove, perhaps...
The stock market has apparently responded positively to the posturing, and this will give the Republicans a bit of ammunition next month to start pushing for permanency of the tax cuts...Because make no mistake, the extension of the BUSH TAX CUTS fuels the economy, not the unfunded year-long extension of welfare for the unemployed.
Merry Christmas everyone, Happy New Year, and here's to looking forward to an interesting and definitive next two years!!!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Helsinki Syndrom?
Is that what it's called? When hostages begin to identify with and care about their captors...Seeing as how we middle class workers and the genuinely unemployed are political "hostages" according to our illustrious leader. The leader that has led the way for the captors up to this point. Now, he can put himself in yet another Messiah-like capacity of Liberator of we hostages.
Republicans are holding fast to the promises that they were elected on 5 weeks ago without a whole lot of budge. They gave in on the continuation of the Unemployment benefits with no plan to fund them, which will simply tack the cost onto the current deficit. And please do remember that the Republicans still DO NOT HOLD THE HOUSE MAJORITY YET! We are dealing with the exact same Present, House, and Senate that we have been saddled with for the last 2 years. So do not sit here and think for a second that this is the new Republican Majority throwing its weight around.
As per usual, you have a faction of life-long rank and file Dems that absolutely refuse to have the tax cuts continue for "The Millionaires and Billionaires", to use the new wealth envy crowd's catch phrase. They seem to be willing to let the cuts expire on everyone with a job, give up a 2% reduction in payroll taxes, and let the once all-important extension of unfunded Unemployment expire at the same time the tax cuts do...All because they cannot stand the fact that they cannot tax The Millionaires and Billionaires (which would actually be any family making over $250,000), at a higher rate than they themselves are taxed or we the political hostage middle classes are! They preach FAIR, FAIR, FAIR! But can you tell me what exactly is fair about paying a higher PERCENTAGE because you EARN more?! If we all pay 15%, The Millionaires and Billionaires are still going to foot the bill for the VAST majority of the tax revenue required by the Imperial Federal Government to fund their outrageous spending....
Actually have to take a breath and take my kid to school. More to come!
Republicans are holding fast to the promises that they were elected on 5 weeks ago without a whole lot of budge. They gave in on the continuation of the Unemployment benefits with no plan to fund them, which will simply tack the cost onto the current deficit. And please do remember that the Republicans still DO NOT HOLD THE HOUSE MAJORITY YET! We are dealing with the exact same Present, House, and Senate that we have been saddled with for the last 2 years. So do not sit here and think for a second that this is the new Republican Majority throwing its weight around.
As per usual, you have a faction of life-long rank and file Dems that absolutely refuse to have the tax cuts continue for "The Millionaires and Billionaires", to use the new wealth envy crowd's catch phrase. They seem to be willing to let the cuts expire on everyone with a job, give up a 2% reduction in payroll taxes, and let the once all-important extension of unfunded Unemployment expire at the same time the tax cuts do...All because they cannot stand the fact that they cannot tax The Millionaires and Billionaires (which would actually be any family making over $250,000), at a higher rate than they themselves are taxed or we the political hostage middle classes are! They preach FAIR, FAIR, FAIR! But can you tell me what exactly is fair about paying a higher PERCENTAGE because you EARN more?! If we all pay 15%, The Millionaires and Billionaires are still going to foot the bill for the VAST majority of the tax revenue required by the Imperial Federal Government to fund their outrageous spending....
Actually have to take a breath and take my kid to school. More to come!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
It's been a loooooong day.
Watching one C-SPAN channel or another all day has brought me to the limits of my sanity and physical well being. Watching Barbara Boxer nearly work herself into tears over the poor, abused, misled hourly workers of the evil McDonald's Corporation and its MiniMed health insurance options...I am about to vomit!
Maybe I am old, but I don't ever remember thinking that my high school education and part time hourly employment should offer me the option of 'golden hoop' health care. At some point you could buy a limited benefit policy at a rate you could not really afford to have taken out of your check every two weeks, but I never did this. And we all knew it was crap insurance. In order to get better options for insurance, you had to work full time, get into management, and so on. You invest your effort into the company and they increase what they are willing to give you as benefits. Logic, right?
When did things suddenly change? why on god's green earth would any company provide 75-80% subsidy on a part-time worker's premiums for a comprehensive policy? Particularly with the age group of most of the workers and the ridiculous turnover rate in food service, retail, and other low education industries? Even if McD's were to subsidize 80% of a full benefit comprehensive policy, that hourly part time worker still probably could not afford the damned premium! But, that's the evil corporation's fault too, isn't it? A person that saw fit to do nothing more with themselves than get enough education to work in food service for a living is definitely worth the same as my husband who busted his ass getting an Engineering degree so that he could make more than the goddamned food service worker!? I don't think so.
I delivered pizza for the best part of my working life and only within the last 7 years started making any progress towards better. What did it take? School. Not a lot for what I do, but school nonetheless. I make double on the hour than what I would if I'd not pursued further education. I still work part time, but do have the availability of full time and benefits if I choose. They won't be great, but that is part of the price that one pays for making bad decisions, procrastinating, and relying too heavily on others for the first part of my adult life. One bad decision has led to another and another, and they compound. It takes twice as much work to get out of the hole. Ultimately, the responsibility for my status in life is my own.
I will certainly admit that sometimes things just go wrong. Providers die, people get sick or injured through no fault of their own...There has to be some sort of remedy against happenstance. I would want help if I needed it to stay alive or feed my children. I don't want people to starve or die because they decided to be a housewife and the provider gets cancer. What I can't abide is this notion that people who are un- or undereducated and can't DO anything other than sling fries because they decided to have two babies and drop out of high school are somehow entitled to the same pay and benefits as another person who graduated, worked her way through college, and eventually got to a position that offered pay and benefits reserved for those who have earned them.
There are differences in people and there are differences in those persons' worth in a corporate and economic sense. Plain, simple, painful fact. I am economically not as viable as my husband. Fact. I am more economically viable than a highschool graduate. Fact. A person with a 10th grade education, two kids by two different men by the age of 17, a history of drug use, including during pregnancy, legal problems, and no work history??? You guessed it...Worthless! And whose problem is this? Not yours. Not mine. The responsibility lies at the feet of the parents and the girl herself. But Barb Boxer is going to wail up because this useless girl can't get access to the same pay and health care that my husband can!
Maybe I am old, but I don't ever remember thinking that my high school education and part time hourly employment should offer me the option of 'golden hoop' health care. At some point you could buy a limited benefit policy at a rate you could not really afford to have taken out of your check every two weeks, but I never did this. And we all knew it was crap insurance. In order to get better options for insurance, you had to work full time, get into management, and so on. You invest your effort into the company and they increase what they are willing to give you as benefits. Logic, right?
When did things suddenly change? why on god's green earth would any company provide 75-80% subsidy on a part-time worker's premiums for a comprehensive policy? Particularly with the age group of most of the workers and the ridiculous turnover rate in food service, retail, and other low education industries? Even if McD's were to subsidize 80% of a full benefit comprehensive policy, that hourly part time worker still probably could not afford the damned premium! But, that's the evil corporation's fault too, isn't it? A person that saw fit to do nothing more with themselves than get enough education to work in food service for a living is definitely worth the same as my husband who busted his ass getting an Engineering degree so that he could make more than the goddamned food service worker!? I don't think so.
I delivered pizza for the best part of my working life and only within the last 7 years started making any progress towards better. What did it take? School. Not a lot for what I do, but school nonetheless. I make double on the hour than what I would if I'd not pursued further education. I still work part time, but do have the availability of full time and benefits if I choose. They won't be great, but that is part of the price that one pays for making bad decisions, procrastinating, and relying too heavily on others for the first part of my adult life. One bad decision has led to another and another, and they compound. It takes twice as much work to get out of the hole. Ultimately, the responsibility for my status in life is my own.
I will certainly admit that sometimes things just go wrong. Providers die, people get sick or injured through no fault of their own...There has to be some sort of remedy against happenstance. I would want help if I needed it to stay alive or feed my children. I don't want people to starve or die because they decided to be a housewife and the provider gets cancer. What I can't abide is this notion that people who are un- or undereducated and can't DO anything other than sling fries because they decided to have two babies and drop out of high school are somehow entitled to the same pay and benefits as another person who graduated, worked her way through college, and eventually got to a position that offered pay and benefits reserved for those who have earned them.
There are differences in people and there are differences in those persons' worth in a corporate and economic sense. Plain, simple, painful fact. I am economically not as viable as my husband. Fact. I am more economically viable than a highschool graduate. Fact. A person with a 10th grade education, two kids by two different men by the age of 17, a history of drug use, including during pregnancy, legal problems, and no work history??? You guessed it...Worthless! And whose problem is this? Not yours. Not mine. The responsibility lies at the feet of the parents and the girl herself. But Barb Boxer is going to wail up because this useless girl can't get access to the same pay and health care that my husband can!
It's too early in the morning for this!
Started out scanning through the Liberal networks, then Fox, and stopped on C-Span during the broadcast from the British Parliament. Always entertaining. Unfortunately, I was then subjected to the inane babble spewing forth from the mouth of a Rep. Marcy Kaptur-D from the Toledo/Sandusky area here in Ohio. Another long-sitting incumbent Democrat from one of the lovely urban areas of this state. (Dems held onto districts around Cleveland, too. Do I really need to explain the correlation?)
Short on time here at the moment, I will suffice to say that the rhetoric coming from this woman this morning is nothing short of chapter and verse from the Democrat Bible of Hyperbole, peppered liberally (no pun intended) with a blatant and willful misunderstanding of economic principles. Apparently, we are in a recession because there are no jobs. The way I remember it was that the economy started slowing due to the housing cluster f*ck, the financial sector cluster f*ck, the automotive industry cluster f*ck, and the government being hell bent on spending as much money as humanly possible to "bail out" these various cluster f*cks. Bush said, To hell with it, and signed the first round of Porkulus. Obama rode that wave, carrying with him all of his overt disdain for and will to crush the Capitalist private sector. He "bailed out" and Porkulated to the point that the gubment has it's greasy fingers in all of the bailed out industries and a much higher segment of the population dependent on gubment checks. And, Yes!, the over-extension of unemployment benefits is a gubment check program!
More to come...
Short on time here at the moment, I will suffice to say that the rhetoric coming from this woman this morning is nothing short of chapter and verse from the Democrat Bible of Hyperbole, peppered liberally (no pun intended) with a blatant and willful misunderstanding of economic principles. Apparently, we are in a recession because there are no jobs. The way I remember it was that the economy started slowing due to the housing cluster f*ck, the financial sector cluster f*ck, the automotive industry cluster f*ck, and the government being hell bent on spending as much money as humanly possible to "bail out" these various cluster f*cks. Bush said, To hell with it, and signed the first round of Porkulus. Obama rode that wave, carrying with him all of his overt disdain for and will to crush the Capitalist private sector. He "bailed out" and Porkulated to the point that the gubment has it's greasy fingers in all of the bailed out industries and a much higher segment of the population dependent on gubment checks. And, Yes!, the over-extension of unemployment benefits is a gubment check program!
More to come...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)