SamIam • Aug 28, 2011 9:17 pm
House Speaker John Boehner’s budget proposal will change the face of the American social and political landscape - increasing poverty, putting hundreds of thousands of low income Americans out on the streets, denying medical assistance to the low income disabled and elderly, and eviscerating the SNAP or “food stamps” program. Boehner would have American Society regress to the era of the 30's as described by John Steinbeck in his great and tragic novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.”
Boehner’s plan can properly be called “class warfare,” and a significant consequence of this class warfare can't help but translate to racial warfare, as well.
As we all know by now, Boehner’s manifesto rejects all tax increases. A House GOP aide talking about the Republican members of the deficit reduction committee (“the gang of six”) said bluntly: “We appoint members to the committee, and we’re not appointing any Republicans who will vote for tax hikes.”
Instead, a $1.8 trillion reduction will come from “entitlement reforms and savings.”
This savings will be acquired over the next ten years by one of three possible methods – all equally draconian:
•Behind Door Number One: Cut Social Security and Medicare benefits heavily for current retirees - a form of political suicide that even extremists like Boehner will not actually contemplate.
•Door Number Two: Repeal the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions while retaining its strictures that cut Medicare payments and raise tax revenues. However, Republicans will seek to repeal many of those measures as well. (Yes, I am also confused by this last).
•Door Number Three: Completely obliterate the social safety net for low-income children, parents, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.
Absent any compromise on tax increases, there are simply no other ways to obtain $1.8 trillion in entitlement cuts within the next decade.
In addition (yes, it gets worse), House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s own plan would slash Medicaid and health reform by $2.2 trillion. Ryan would also cut $127 billion from SNAP and reduce Pell Grants and other student financial assistance by $126 billion. Looking for an education to get you a better job or pull you solidly into the middle class? Keep looking. And remember what happened to Oliver Twist when he asked for more soup.
Previously, core assistance programs for the poor were exempted from across the board cuts by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law, enacted in 1985. Now, the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” bill will remove these exemptions. With an election coming up, which door are the Republicans likely to choose? Don’t all answer at once. The entitlement cuts will most heavily target the programs created for people of lesser means and, yes Virginia, less political power.
Meanwhile, the many lucrative tax breaks that benefit the wealthy and the powerful corporations have been pledged protection by Boehner who certainly shows great sympathy for the robber baron class if no one else.
Extra credit question: Who said, "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community $60,000 during his lifetime. Fellow Countryman, that is your money, too."
a) Charles Darwin
b) Sarah Palin
c) Office of Social Policy’s “A New People”
(hint: “C” was translated from the German)
All of the above is written in my own words. My major source for the information came from the non partisan outfit, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: http://www.cbpp.org/files/7-25-11bud-stmt.pdf.
Piss poor attitude copped from Bill the Cat
PS This is NOT a diatribe directed at any member of the Cellar (unless John Boehner became a member when I wasn’t looking), but if thinking so helps you get through another night scrounging through the dumpsters, feel free.
Boehner’s plan can properly be called “class warfare,” and a significant consequence of this class warfare can't help but translate to racial warfare, as well.
As we all know by now, Boehner’s manifesto rejects all tax increases. A House GOP aide talking about the Republican members of the deficit reduction committee (“the gang of six”) said bluntly: “We appoint members to the committee, and we’re not appointing any Republicans who will vote for tax hikes.”
Instead, a $1.8 trillion reduction will come from “entitlement reforms and savings.”
This savings will be acquired over the next ten years by one of three possible methods – all equally draconian:
•Behind Door Number One: Cut Social Security and Medicare benefits heavily for current retirees - a form of political suicide that even extremists like Boehner will not actually contemplate.
•Door Number Two: Repeal the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions while retaining its strictures that cut Medicare payments and raise tax revenues. However, Republicans will seek to repeal many of those measures as well. (Yes, I am also confused by this last).
•Door Number Three: Completely obliterate the social safety net for low-income children, parents, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.
Absent any compromise on tax increases, there are simply no other ways to obtain $1.8 trillion in entitlement cuts within the next decade.
In addition (yes, it gets worse), House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s own plan would slash Medicaid and health reform by $2.2 trillion. Ryan would also cut $127 billion from SNAP and reduce Pell Grants and other student financial assistance by $126 billion. Looking for an education to get you a better job or pull you solidly into the middle class? Keep looking. And remember what happened to Oliver Twist when he asked for more soup.
Previously, core assistance programs for the poor were exempted from across the board cuts by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law, enacted in 1985. Now, the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” bill will remove these exemptions. With an election coming up, which door are the Republicans likely to choose? Don’t all answer at once. The entitlement cuts will most heavily target the programs created for people of lesser means and, yes Virginia, less political power.
Meanwhile, the many lucrative tax breaks that benefit the wealthy and the powerful corporations have been pledged protection by Boehner who certainly shows great sympathy for the robber baron class if no one else.
Extra credit question: Who said, "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community $60,000 during his lifetime. Fellow Countryman, that is your money, too."
a) Charles Darwin
b) Sarah Palin
c) Office of Social Policy’s “A New People”
(hint: “C” was translated from the German)
All of the above is written in my own words. My major source for the information came from the non partisan outfit, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: http://www.cbpp.org/files/7-25-11bud-stmt.pdf.
Piss poor attitude copped from Bill the Cat
PS This is NOT a diatribe directed at any member of the Cellar (unless John Boehner became a member when I wasn’t looking), but if thinking so helps you get through another night scrounging through the dumpsters, feel free.
