They Don't Care Republicans Cruz forward with medical plan to kill millions of Americans Update: Republican Senate fails

If you were Wealthy, You'd be Healthy

Since you're Poor, there's the Funeral Door

The Banana Republican Party latest plan to kill thousands and bankrupt millions of Americans is moving forward in fits and starts.  As the Party of Treason and Subversion of the United States the Respublikanskaya Partiya hates the American People and wishes to curtail the gains Americans made in the 20th century.

The Repeal and Replacement of Obamacare with They Don't Care is a case in point.  Republicans rallied against the ACA for 7 years!  They gnashed their teeth, they tore their hair, they beat their breasts, if only that Dastardly Obama would get out of the way they, the Republicans, would pass a Healthcare Insurance Law which would stand for all time.

Now, since the 2016 elections, the Republicans hold the entire Federal Government.  Yet, all they've mananged to propose are plans so cobbled together, so inane, and so monstorously evil even their duped and battered right-wing drones don't support it and the Insurance Industry has declared the latest version which includes the Ted Cruz Amendment "unworkable".  Ah, but there is one group which supports it, the Republicans Masters' the 1%.

Trump's campaign gave conservatives everything they wanted. Outright bigotry, violent racist language, implied calls for violence and explicit consent to harm the American People.

But Trump's election gave Republicans a chance to get everything they and the 1% have wanted; an End to American Dream and the elimination of the Social Safety Net.  Republicans serve the Plutocracy and the Plutocracy has no use for the American Dream. Republicans view American's value only in terms of the amount of work each American can do and the amount of excess labor value the Vulture Capitalist class can extract from each them.

The Progressive gains of the 20th century marked an actual rise for Americans which the Founding of the Nation and the Glided Age of the 19th century kept confined to the owners of the Nation.  And those Owners, the 1%, hate those progressive gains.  Because when the working class is no longer held in the shackles of corporate bondage and wage slavery they go on and create a pluralistic society with broad based protections for workers, the elderly, the afllicted with a chance for future generations to rise above the preceeding.

The Republicans HATE that.  The Republicans want a return to the days when a railway worker losing an arm on the job was kicked off at the next stop and left to fend for himself.  The Republicans want a return to the days when elderly coal miners were glad not to have been killed in an unsafe mine explosion or cave-in so they can instead whither away of black lung disease and die in a pauper's hovel.  The Republicans want a return to the days when medical care, education, pensions, and the prosepct of living and enjoying your golden years was reserved for the Rich.

The Republicans Don't Care and that is the Healthcare law they are passing.

Update:
The Republican Don't Care bill has apparently failed.  While it's fortunate the Republicans are as flaccid and incompetent as they are anti-American but, until the Republicans are removed from Congress they won't stop in their efforts to kill the poor and impoverish the working class.

Governor Candidate Bruce Rauner has a message for Illinois, I Plan to Crush Workers and give Taxpayer welfare to Corporations

Bruce Rauner has reported incomes of $27 million in 2010, $28 million in 2011 and $53 million in 2012 has concluded that the minimum wage in Illinois is too high.

"Capitalism is the greatest poverty-fighting machine in the history of mankind, and I’m proud of the role I’ve played in it," Bruce Rauner.  

Rauner "worked" for 30 years at GTCR which has "managed money" for decades for the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) and the Illinois State Board of Investment, the largest and third-largest state pension funds, respectively, in Illinois.

Of course, like all modern "wealth managment" millionaires, Rauner made his money by accounting gimmicks and legerdemain. He's charged extorbinant consultation fees and clipped money from Pensioners, while mismanaging public pension funds.

Just like Mitt Romney and other so-called Capitalists, Rauner made his money the old-fashioned way... He Stole It. Now that he's skimmed off millions he's quick to lambast Illinois' underfunded pension liability.

"When those excess benefits are being paid out to government employees, taxpayers lose." Bruce Rauner

Yeah, lazy Teachers! Working for 30 years and then expecting a pension, whereas Rauner's Role as a Rentier, extracting $100 million from the Pensions over the last 3 years alone, is beautiful capitalism at work of which he's "proud".

GTCR has raised the largest percentage portion of its money from public pension funds. Pensions supplied half to two-thirds of the firms funds according to Rauner's own estimate. His former partners decline to comment, citing a state prohibition on asset managers who receive public money from trying to influence elections.

A month ago, Bruce Rauner pledged at a Downstate candidates’ forum that if elected governor he would reduce the state’s minimum wage by $1 to make it equal to the federal rate in an effort to make Illinois more economically competitive.

"I made a mistake. I was flippant and I was quick. I should have said, 'Tie the Illinois minimum wage to the national wage and, in that context, with other changes in being pro-business, I support raising the national minimum wage.' I’m OK with that," said the Republican from Winnetka.

Key words to remember are to make Illinois "Pro-Business", that means crushing labor. Modern day Capitalists view labor as an unnecessary expense. One of the long sought after goals of the 1%, in pursuit of a Wage Slave State, has been the total defeat of Labor. 

Here in Illinois we've seen many times business try and strong-arm the Governor and Legislature (Sears Inc., CME Group and Office Max) in Pay-to-Play and the Race-to-the-Bottom schemes.

In fact, Illinois Residents overwhelmingly want Fair Tax Legislation passed in which Corporations and Millionaires, like Rauner, pay their fair share of taxes instead of receiving Illinois taxpayer welfare so we can be privileged by their scores of minimum wage jobs. A Better Illinois points out that over 75% of Illinois residents want a Fair Progressive Tax.

Billionaires and Corporate Thieves are so opposed to shouldering their burden of the Taxes that spearheaded by the Koch Brothers, conservative think tanks are planning a non stop propaganda blitz to poison this effort.

Bruce Rauner has unequivocally stated he intends to use the Awesome Power of Government to crush labor, reduce wages, impoverish workers, eliminate Unions, and place further unfair burdens on the over-taxed working class and shrinking middle class. Like all Republicans, a Rauner Governorship would be an implacable foe of the Working Class and would he align himself with the Koch Brothers.

America's Right-Wing Coup: McJobs for All, Food for None, Tax Cuts for the Rich and Austerity forever

A Coup consists of the infiltration of a small but critical segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder. - Edward Luttwak, Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook

Republicans and their duped Conservative drones are pushing this Nation into a Land which resembles the Feudal Domains of Dark Ages Europe. 400 Americans own more wealth than the over 150,000,000 other Americans.

The Rich did not see the Progressive Victories of last 100 years as permanent and immutable. The Ultra-Reactionary Neo-Liberal Class Warfare the Rich have been waging upon Americans for the last 35 years has been incredibly successful. The 1% have returned America to levels of Income Inequality not seen since the Glided Age of Robber Barons and the Slave Plantations of The Founding Fathers.

A new Massive redistribution of wealth up to the Rentier Class began on November 1st, with the first of $50 Billion in cuts to Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).

"It took us years to get here but we are here," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Republican Frank Lucas.

It did indeed. Republicans have been demonizing and ostracizing the Poor for decades. The Founding Fathers knew that a Nation built upon the disparity of wealth the Republican Party and the Pro-Business Democrats have created was untenable. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, 4th President of the United States, warned future Americans about Class Warfare, 

"The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property..." And,

"We are free today substantially but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few."

Now, Herman Cain succinctly declared the Republicans' simpler understanding of the economy,

"If you're poor... Blame yourself!" 

The cuts to SNAP aren't happening in a vacuum or as part of hypothetical economic model. They are being done while each and every Government program which aids the poor and working class is likewise under assault funded by a few hundred Americans and their Corporate Zombies. Meanwhile, 300 or so Republican apparatchiks have seized vital organs of Government and are using that power to overthrow the Democratic Republic.

And it's succeeding...

Daily, Americans are bombarded by the Right-Wing propaganda machine, AHIP saboteurs, and Republican plotters attempting to undermine the ACA (Obamacare) with their simplistic narrative, 'Obama lied!' so that they true goal of eliminating the Social Safety Net.

Unlike most, Coup attempts the Plutocracy already controls most of the Government, it's just every now and then, those dastardly poor and working class people don't readily vote themselves into Corporate Bondage and Wage Slavery. 

Thus, Obamacare has become the Hill on which the Plutocracy is willing to sacrifice their Republican attack dogs upon because the Rich absolutely loathe the idea of working class people having a bit of breathing room and not living in fear of being bankrupted by a health care crisis.

"One of the problems so far is that many more people are signing up for Medicaid than are signing up to the private insurance plans in the market place" - Chris Wallace, Faux News 

Faux News contributor, Dr. Marc Siegel said in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show that “there is too much health insurance, it covers too much. Too many people have it."

And Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell complained the Poor people in Kentucky whom he's personally tried to keep down and indigent are getting the benefits of Obamacare, 

"Well, 85 percent of the people who've signed up in Kentucky have signed up for Medicaid. That's free health care. The rollout is quite mixed -- quite mixed -- and largely people signing up for Medicaid. Free health care."

Unlike, Senator McConnell, who "works hard" for his Government provided health care.

Like, the "Banana Republics" fostered by The United Fruit Company or the Anglo-Persian Oil (now known as BP) dealings in Persia, Corporate Monstrosities use money and influence to purchase a Government which conforms to the whims and desires of a small cadre of Wealthy Elites and enforce a Corporate Hegemony which oversees the ruthless implementation of Austerity politics; the raiding of municipal pensions, elimination of food programs for poor children, the destruction of health care for wounded veterans and the blatant theft of the last bits of wealth held by the elderly.

"We live in a society where politics is controlled by money; wealthy individuals and big businesses," Jeffrey Hollender — the founder of the natural products company Seventh Generation.

The 1% of the 1% truly have a vision of a smaller US Government, one small enough to fit in their pocket.

Surprise. The IRS "Scandal" is George W. Bush's and the Republicans Fault

First off, if your Organization Name incorporates Taxed Enough Already, you are one step behind the Sovereign Citizen Movements which declare themselves immune to local, state and federal laws. It shouldn't come as a surprise when the IRS investigates you.

It's possible and, most likely, probable that the Tea Party Organized Groups who applied for all these 501(c)(4) statuses are nothing more than thinly veiled Tax Shelters and Political Action Committees designed to improperly funnel and shelter monies. A 501(c)(4) has to be set up as Social Welfare Organization and can not engage in Partisan Politics.

But, here's the kick to the teeth of the Right-Wing cry babies, the Commissioner of the IRS while these investigations were conducted, Douglas Shulman, was appointed by George W. Bush and served until November 9, 2012. Prior to that Shulman worked with Grover Norquist as the Chief of Staff for the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service. President Obama does not have a nominee at the IRS because the Senate Republicans policy of filibustering all nominees put forth by Obama for  any position.

Now, of course, there is a huge component of IOKIYAR for the IRS under George W. Bush to investigate Liberal Churches, the NAACP and the ALCU. Because... Duh! They're "Liberal". However, that's when Republicans were declaring if you have nothing to hide you shouldn't mind and if you do complain it's because you've obviously broken the law.

But, more importantly what this IRS snafu shows is Tax Reform is a key part of the Economic Reform we need today.

Now, I'm not supporting Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's version of Tax Reform, i.e. eliminating Taxes on the 1% and Corporate Behemoths and raising taxes on the Middle Class and "The Lucky Duckies", or as Mitt Romney stated during the 2012 Presidential Election, "I'm not concerned about the very poor."

No, I mean real Tax Reform which gets the Ultra-Rich and Corporations to pay their fair share of the Country's Tax Burden. It's been very clear that beginning in 1981 with Reagan's shifting of the tax burden onto the backs of the Middle Class the Rich have been inventing more ways and crafting more loop holes with which to steal Trillions of Dollars which belongs to the American People.

Once Piss Down Your Back Reaganomics became the Governing principle in Washington we suddenly grew a 15 Trillion Dollar Debt. And it simply is because the Rich Plutocrats and Corporations are not shouldering their share of the burden. 

The entire Debt is the result of the greedy rich scheming to transfer the burden of Government onto the backs of the Middle Class in the hopes it would grind them into penury whilst at the same time making their Government puppets eliminate the meager assistance provided to actual Americans.

In April, a hacked cache of millions of documents revealed the amount of Theft committed by Tax Frauds. 

The anonymity of the offshore world makes it difficult to track the flow of money. A study by James S. Henry, former chief economist at McKinsey & Company, estimates that wealthy individuals have $21 trillion to $32 trillion in private financial wealth tucked away in offshore havens — roughly equivalent to the size of the U.S. and Japanese economies combined. 

The report said the money being sheltered included proceeds of Ponzi schemes as well as money drained from national coffers, adding that studies estimate that cross-border flows of global proceeds of financial crimes total between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion a year.

So, remember when right-wingers and Republicans talk of shared sacrifices they mean for you to sacrifice your pension and your health care insurance,

"They can tell their unions that they have to accept cuts now or face a much more dire fate in bankruptcy court.” - Grover Norquist

"Now, pain will be inflicted when we change that. People are going to do with less. People who are used to having entitlement at a certain level will not have them at that level anymore. That's the story." NJ Governor Chris Christie. 

Shared Sacrifice means the realization of the Republican Goal of Neo-Feudalism, Wage Slavery and cutthroat Capitalism for the Poor and Socialism for the Rich and their undying Corporate monsters. 

The Rich Never Had It So Good

Yet they still complain. And about whom do they complain? The Poor who have nothing.

"[W]e're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people." Paul Ryan.  

"It just keeps getting worse. I am scheduling a vote for next week on the full repeal of #Obamacare." Eric Cantor 

The Republican Party, lapdogs of the Rich are eager to oppress the Poor at every opportunity. The Republicans and their Rich Masters absolutely loathe healthcare for the poor, sick and old. Republican Healthcare is predicated on the Rich sucking every single dollar from you and letting you die quickly after they've drained you of all your money.

But, the Plutocracy won't stop at merely stealing your life savings at the end of your life; they want you to be a pauper before that.

David Simon was on Real Time with Bill Maher last year and stated,

"What we need is a political culture where somebody plants a fuckin’ olive tree, which doesn’t even give you an olive for seven years. That’s how you fix an economy…When that olive tree becomes an orchard."

What Simon doesn't understand is the Republicans in 1980 did plant Olive Trees, except it was a privatized, deregulated, deferred income, out-scoured grove designed to provide Billions of Olives to the very, very rich while they told Us a few olives would trickle down. But, in fact, all we got were the pits.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 15,000 this month an all time high, while at the same time half the jobs in the country pay less than $35,000.

Everything the Republicans do is predicated on expanding Income Inequality. Since, the Republican Recession, the economy's recovery has meant a recovery for the Very Rich.

From 1966 to 2011, the bottom 90 percent of Americans’ average income, as reported on tax returns, went up by $59 showing complete stagnation. If that $59 increase for the majority of Americans equals one inch, then on the same scale, the incomes of those in the top 10 percent went up by 168 feet. The top one percent, 888 feet. The Plutocrats income, the top one percent of the top one percent, rose by almost five miles relative to that one inch.

The Bush Presidency and Tax Cuts were nothing more than the destruction of the Middle Class and an acceleration of the Wealth Transfer Upwards.

According to research published by Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley:

From 2009 to 2011, average real income per family grew modestly by 1.7% but the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.2% while bottom 99% incomes shrunk by 0.4%. Hence, the top 1% captured 121% of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery. From 2009 to 2010, top 1% grew fast and then stagnated from 2010 to 2011. Bottom 99% stagnated both from 2009 to 2010 and from 2010 to 2011. In 2012, top 1% income will likely surge, due to booming stock-prices, as well as re-timing of income to avoid the higher 2013 top tax rates. Bottom 99% will likely grow much more modestly than top 1% incomes from 2011 to 2012.

This is precisely the desired effect of the Republican Crafted and Conservative Inspired Recession. The Rich are prepared to lose money in the short-term knowing that their wholly owned and operated Republican Party will attempt to jam through Austerity Legislation to dismantle the Social Safety Net and designed to permanently solidify the Rigidly enforced Class System we have in this Country.

Every fiscal crisis is an opportunity for the Republican Party and their Right-Wing Stooges to advance the Plutocracy's schemes of deregulation of financial markets, selling off public lands for private exploitation, diminishing the power of Unions and Collective Bargaining and providing Hundreds of Billions in tax payer dollars extorted from the middle and working class as welfare to the Very Rich.

The Party of Lincoln no more Republicans call for Secession

700,000 Americans have signed on-line "Secession" petitions. Numerous right-wing blogs are projecting their dark murder fantasies in comment pages everywhere.

They've been so snugly ensconced in their Alternate Conservative Reality that when it is crushed by the American People the reaction is fury and violence.

The night of Barack Obama's decisive victory students from the University of Mississippi took to the streets blocking streets, throwing rocks, hitting cars, shouting racist slurs and burning Obama campaign signs until the police broke up the riot.

Over at Vox Popoli the sad loss of unearned White Entitlement struck Vox particularly hard, 

But it appears the symbolism of white Americans being deprived of their choice of president by an alliance of aliens... 
This is just what immigrants do if they are allowed to invade in sufficient numbers. 

Unearned White Entitlement and Privilege are a deep foundational aspect of conservative thinking. 

But, before any conservative drone attempts to claim that a bigoted Right-Wing blogger doesn't represent Manistream Conservative thought Presidential and Vice Presidential losers Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan took to the "Liberal" Media to complain that "gifts" to the "Urban voters" caused them to lose.

Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster alleged voter fraud,

"In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day."

Blacks! Voting! Fraud!!! The dreaded other is stealing the country out from under the Real Americans! You have no choice but to rise up and...

Sean Hannity the Voice of Conservatism airs the bigoted voice of Texas Secessionist Daniel Miller on his Faux News program to complain that the "Union has fundamentally changed" and for people like Miller and Hannity doesn't represent the principles "envisioned" by the Founders. Which must mean the racist pro-slavery ideas and absorbtion of Texas' Debt by the United States.

But, not to be overshadowed by their Republican Guard Dogs and Faux News sycophants the Rich Successionists began throwing petulant tantrums over President Obama's re-election.

"If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare," John Metz told The Huffington Post. "Although it may sound terrible that I'm doing this, it's the only alternative. I've got to pass the cost on to the consumer."

John Metz is the franchisor of Hurricane Grill and Wings, which has 48 locations, five of which are corporate owned, and president and owner of RREMC Restaurants, which runs approximately 40 Denny's and several Dairy Queen locations. He planned to use the 5 percent surcharge tactic in all his restaurants starting in January 2014, when Obamacare is fully implemented.

There it is. The Rich can never have enough. The Rich are never satiated. The Rich will never pay their fair share. Instead the want the burden borne by the backs of the Middle Class. This is what Republicans mean when they always talk of "broadening the base". They mean to pass on all the costs of government onto the Middle Class until their backs are broken and Corporate Serfdom and Wage Slavery rule the land.

Papa John's CEO John Schnatter is in a massive snit about how much he is put upon by having to help provide healthcare coverage via Obamacare for his employees. He doesn't support his employees getting better quality healthcare coverage because it's bad for his profit margins. So, he's decided to add 14 cents to the price of his pizzas in order to pass the cost onto consumers. I throughly applaud this decision.

Price yourself out of the market and then pack it in and set off to your Randian Paradise. Have fun tending and harvesting the wheat for your crust, raising and slaughtering pigs for the pepperoni and growing the tomatoes for your sauce so you can make your soggy cardboard pizza in the wilderness. I'm not sure how you'll get the High Fructose Corn Syrup to make your sauce palatable though...

Go Galt already! You provide nothing spectacular to the American Experience. I guarantee some enterprising young American, such as Wisconsin based Ian's Pizza will fill the market with a better quality product 

Just go. Get out of my country. It's not yours any more. The Era of unearned privilege is over.

No Austerity. No Compromise with the Vultures. No bargaining with the Plutocracy. Barack Obama has the Mandate. It's time The Rich pay their Fair Share.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.  - James Madison

Now, that Real America has rejected the preposterous slanders and smears of the rabid conservatives comes the serious task of reorganizing the Nation.

Overusing the bromide of being doomed to repeat history it seems We do have a difficult time learning from that which has passed before.

The Empire of Byzantium struggled with many of the same issues We, the People face today. Religion. Nobility. Taxes. Military interventions. Dynastic struggles. Culture Changes. Legal Codes.

As the centuries passed, new generations inherited problems and structures created by previous ones. They did their best to build upon the past work, reconcile new ideas with the old or create entirely new ones, but often their efforts became a jumble, a convoluted and a confusing mixture. Hence the term byzantine.

This was well understood by the Founding Fathers who sought to blend their new ideas with the ideas of the Ancient Greeks, Renaissance Italians, and the Thinkers of the Enlightenment in the creation of the New Nation.

One of the great myths of America is that we don't have Class Struggle and Class Warfare. Class division was written about and feared by James Madison, Father of the Constitution,

"The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property..."

During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Class Warfare was a major preoccupation of Madison and the other Founders. Some of the Founders, notably Alexander Hamilton, greatly feared that Class War was already upon them (he was thinking of Shay's Rebellion) and the common man would establish a Democratic Tyranny voting themselves the property of the Rich, but it didn't happen then and it isn't happening now.

James Madison believed his "extended republic" model aided by supplemental checks built into the Constitution would stave off Class Warfare, but that within 2 or 3 generations the struggles of rich and poor would result in conflict.

In 1829-1830 Madison became convinced the country was headed for Class warfare by 1930. He reasoned the massive populace crowded together would,

"necessarily be reduced by competition for employment to wages which afford them the bare necessaries of life. The proportion being without property can not be expected to sympathize sufficiently with its [property] right to be safe depositories of power over them." 

So, either the demos would rise up in revolt "by a law of nature". Or the Rich would degenerate into Oligarchy and destroy the Republic because,

"A republic cannot stand upon bayonets. We are free today substantially but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few."

But, this is not the Great Man of History longing. A Great President lets other people rise and the greatest Americans often come from the Middle Class.

James Madison knew this. He and the other Founders also warned of Foreign Entanglements, Standing Armies, and Unchecked Corporate Power.

Do Conservatives not re-read their own mythology? The Myth of Ronald Reagan wasn't that he got the Soviets to pass a universal healthcare coverage for their citizens. It was that Reagan goaded the Red Menace into an Arms Race which bankrupted them. What did Bin Laden accomplish with the 9/11 attacks? He got us to waste $10 Trillion in overseas folly of Empire-building in the Middle East. And not to mention the thousands of american families shattered by the physical and mental scars of war.

What happened, since the End of World War II, was the establishment of the Permanent War Status by the United States have drained the lifeblood and treasury of the Country.

Who has benefited from the Overseas American Empire and the Massive DoD Budget? Undying Corporations and an increasingly isolated Cadre of Elites who see no Country and no reason to spend to aid the poor, or support the infrastructure of this Nation.

President Harry Truman famously stated,

"Poor Ike! He'll sit there and say 'Do this! Do that!' And nothing will happen. It's not like the army. He'll find it very frustrating."

President Eisenhower presided over 8 years of American Prosperity. Ike had an America that was untouched by World War 2 and thus had it's infrastructure intact with which to dominate the world market. But, President Eisenhower had a tax rate of 52% on Corporations and a Top Tax rate of 91%!

"[W]e cannot afford to reduce taxes, reduce income, until we have in sight a program of expenditures that shows that the factors of income and of outgo will be balanced. Now that is just to my mind sheer necessity.” 02/17/1953

However, Ike had the benefit of a populace which was not going through a radical upheaval. Ike had a populace which was for all intents homogeneous religiously. He also had a Class of Wealthy Americans which still believed in the idea of Noblese Oblige. 

And what did Eisenhower warn of at the end of his Presidency? The Military-Industrial-Complex. 

Unlike in Ike's day it's not the same, today. The Rich see no reason to aid the poor or even to invest in the United States.

Mitt Romney's former energy policy advisor Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources. gave a speech on 09/13/12 to Congress demanding National Parks be opened to Oil Exploitation and that his Federal Corporate Welfare which he's received since 1967 continue. Hamm also pouted that, "Continental’s effective tax rate is 38%!" Except it isn't. Over the past 5 years Hamm's Corporation Contenintal Inc paid 2.2% in Income Taxes when adjusted for all the tax breaks, corporate kickbacks and federal assistance he's received.

On the books his Oil Company probably has a stated tax rate of 38%. But, Hamm paid next to nothing when all the byzantine tax laws are applied. The Tax Code has been made circuitous specifically because it aids the Plutocracy.

A business owner in Las Vegas on Wednesday November 7th, told a CBS radio station that he had fired 22 of his 114 "mostly Hispanic" employees because President Barack Obama had won re-election. David noted that he had "mostly Hispanic" employees and some had come to work wearing Obama shirts on election day.

The Republican Party's favorite Michele Bachmann believes in a platform of No Taxes on Corporations. That would be Zero. 

Corporate Profits have gone up quarter after quarter since the beginning of 2009. Verizon, for instance, reported a pre-tax income of $24.2 Billion in 2009-2010 and received, through U.S. federal income tax loopholes, a $1.3 Billion dollar refund.

The Richest 1% of this Nation control 50% of all financial investments. The top 10% have almost 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Less than 10% of the country own the United States of America. 

But it's important to note that for the Rich, most of that income does not come from "working": in 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries.

What the Plutocracy wants is a closure of the Middle Class because the Middle Class is too unpredictable. It's much better to have a pliant working class who are satisfied with crumbs from the government and whatever wages/benefits the Moneyed Overlords are willing to bequeath upon them.

The Middle Class too often flexes it's political power and votes themselves things like Supplemental Social Security Income and Medicaid for the poor. The Middle Class votes against Child labor and for safer working conditions and regulations on the dumping of coal slag or mercury waste from Oil refineries into rivers and lakes. The Middle Class fights and strikes for pensions and dental care for their family.

Much easier for the Rich to move to a Third World Hellhole and have a Totalitarian Government enforce Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage.

Today, the reason "47%" do not pay Federal Income Taxes are because of the slap-dash additions and shaky edifices built into the Tax Code. The EITC, marriage deduction, child deductions, home ownership deductions were Republican backed ideas to encourage people to adopt mores, behaviors and family structures which Republicans favored. The biggest Moochers are the Ultra-Rich.

The last time we had a restructuring of the Tax Codes, with the Bush Tax Cuts, Conservative shills for the 1% shamelessly lied about it's goals. The Heritage Foundation's 2001 report proclaimed if the Bush tax cut legislation were to pass, it would:

1) Effectively pay off the federal debt; 

2) Reduce the federal surplus by $1.4 trillion; 

3) Substantially increase family income; 

4) Save the entire Social Security surplus; 

5) Increase personal savings; 

6) Create more job opportunities.

None of this happened and we've been stuck in the Republican Recession ever since. But, what this did accomplish was a massive transfer of the Nation's Wealth into the hands of the Ultra-Rich.

What the Rich desire is the semblance of Democracy with the reality of Plutocracy. They privatize the profits and socialize the losses.

Most of the problems, President Obama is dealing with, he inherited. Some he's allowed to happen; for instance, the ratio of public-sector employees to the overall population is the lowest it’s been since 1968.

What Barack should do is tear down the rotten Tax Structure and Economy of Income Inequality built by right-wing lies:

1) Let the Bush Tax Cuts expire, completely.

2) Void the Sequestration.

3) Eliminate the Cap on Social Security taxes.

4) Raise the Tax Rate on Capital Gains and tax it as normal income.

5) Eliminate the deferred compensation rule.

6) Eliminate any and all Tax breaks and federal subsidies with Corporations which out-source jobs and off-shore manufacturing factories.

7) Bring back a Financial Transaction Tax to curb Wall Street volatility and curb rampant Hedge Fund speculation gambling.

8) Propose a Tax cut package for the first $250,000 of income (98% of America).

9) Create and augment spending and hiring for public-sector employees.

10) The follow-on Budget should include a 50% reduction in DoD spending. 

Then watch Republicans tear themselves apart as they reveal their entire Party is devoted to guarding the obscene theft and reverse-robin-hood robbery of Middle Class wealth by the Rich. House Speaker Bohener immediately genuflected to the Rich after President Obama's resounding win. Congressman Peter King of New York has declared he and the Republican House members have a "Mandate" to protect the Tax Breaks for the Rich.

There is a window here for Barack Obama to cement himself as True Class Warrior fighting for the 300 Million Americans who desire the American Dream but are being shackled with the chains of Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage to the Moocher Class of the Plutocracy. It is our Job as a Center Left People to pick him up and stand beside him and guide him to that Destiny.

*- I think Jerome Corsi did this same post, except his use of "man-date" meant Barack Obama was Gay Muslim *Married* to a Pakistani Man whom he later murdered.

"President" Romney will liquidate the Poor and Middle Class

Romney and Republicans use the Poor like a Club, swung about at Election time and put away in some small dark place after they are done with them.

In the intervening years Republicans make policy as if the poor don't exist because Republicans don't care about 99% of the American People.

To Rich "Job Creator" scum buckets like Romney the poor really don't exist. Oh sure, Mitt Romney made his campaign of walking around ticking off numbers,

43 months of 8+% Unemployment, 32 milion more Americans on food stamps, $16 Trillion Debt, Obama "gutted" the work requirement for welfare.

And so forth. These are damning statisics. Of course, what Republicans and conservatives always attempt to obscure is the established facts that these problems are a direct result of the policies of George W(orst President Ever) Bush and the deregulation schemes of the Republican Controlled Congress of 1994-2006.

But, when it comes to the Poor Republicans and Conservatives are two-faced. While Romney was campaigning on the figures of increased food stamp use and high unemployment his Campaign was claiming the Poor aren't really bad off in America because they have microwaves.

Famously, The Heritage Report about Poverty stated the Poor in the country aren't really that bad off because they have a "reasonably adequate supply of food". While Sean Hannity advised poor people to eat red beans and rice.

Conservatives have been skating a fine line claiming Americans are worse off but not so bad as to require a fundamental change to the massive Income Inequality in the country.

But, these figures and talk of food stamps aren't thrown out to appeal to Poor Voters they are used to frighten the Middle Class into voting for Romney and his Economic Plans.

Well, Romney's One Point Economic Plan is to liquidate the Middle Class and reintroduce Feudalism to America turning every non-millionaire into a Serf.

Romney would use the same model and techniques he employed at Bain Capital. Upon stealing into the White House Romney and his economic Vultures would swoop in and load trillions in new debt upon the Middle Class by increasing the DoD Budget. Romney's plan is also designed to lower taxes on Millionaires and Billionaires and transfer the Tax Burden onto everyone else by raising Taxes on the Middle Class.

But, even the Romney and Ryan Higher Taxes on the Middle Class won't offset his new deficit spending. For that Romney and Ryan have declared their intent on slashing all budget items which aid the Middle Class and Poor by eliminating Medicaid, Federal Student Aid, Food stamps and taking Billions from Medicare and Social Security until they collapse.

Of course, Romney claims all he needs do is close tax loop-holes but, no Republicans will ever support him. Republicans fought viciously to keep Government Welfare for Corporate Jets, instead of closing a tax subsidy which lets the Rich have the Government cover their Leer Jet fuel and maintenance costs.

Republicans will never allow any tax increase on the Rich because they are the paid Guard Dogs for the Wealthy.

And what the Wealthy Masters of the Republican Party desire are people just at the edge of Poverty.

The 1% want to eliminate Food Stamps, Social Security, Medicaid, the Social Safety Net from the Federal Government because once people are pushed just to the edge of desperation they will accept whatever the "Job Creators" wish to bequeath upon them.

And with the Vulture Capitalism of Mitt Romney and the Republican Party the 1% will achieve their Dream of Liquidating the Middle Class and enshrining Neo-Feudalism in the United States.

Social Security a giant bundle of money the Republicans want to steal

As George W. Bush related, his greatest failure while in office was not stealing the Social Security Trust Fund for his Plutocratic Masters. If Bush had managed that Coup, Sean Hannity wouldn't have needed to get into a mulling, hissy fit of anger, on his radio show, at those "Lucky Duckies" proclaiming, 'Let Them Eat Rice and Beans!'

If Bush and the Republicans had managed to steal Social Security, the Poor people Sean Hannity so hates and despises would be dead and he could go back to claiming 9/11 happened while President Clinton was in office, TARP was signed by President Obama and Barack the Great didn't want to kill Osama Bin Laden.

The Republican Party has always hated SSI, because of what it represents; a chance for the oppressed to retire and live after they have finished decades of labor. Republicans would much rather you work yourself to death, thank you very much.

The release on April 23rd of the 2012 Annual Report by the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds (OASDI) made it clear Social Security isn't going to run out of money anytime soon. The assets in the Social Security Trust Fund total $2,700,000,000,000. ($2.7 Trillion dollars). In fact, Social Security is fully funded (i.e. 100% solvent) all the way through 2033.

And once we hit that year the Baby Boomer Bulge draining Social Security will have passed and the Nation will be dealing with the demographically much smaller Generation X.

But, damn Trillions of dollars just sitting there! That's a wet-dream for the thieving, perfidious and despicable Right-Wingers. The Rich! Want! That Fucking! Money! And Republicans would love to to swindle it from the Trust Fund and roll it into Wall Street from whence their Banking Buddies could apply some Synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligations and Naked Credit Default Swap and...



But, never forget that no matter what the Republican liars, Faux Drones, or conservative sycophants proclaim Social Security has been funded overwhelmingly by the Working and Middle Class. The Rich are not paying vast sums into Social Security because the OASDI payroll tax collection has been capped for decades and collects Zero dollars over the current top amount of $110,000.

As Kevin Drum noted in 2010,

In 1983, when we last reformed Social Security, we made an implicit deal between two groups of American taxpayers. Call them Groups A and B. For about 30 years, Group A would pay higher taxes than necessary, thus allowing Group B to reduce their tax rates. Then, for about 30 years after that, Group A would pay lower taxes than necessary and Group B would make up for this with higher tax rates.

This might have been a squirrelly deal to make. But it doesn't matter. It's the deal we made. And it's obviously unfair to change it halfway through.

So who is Group A? It's people who pay Social Security payroll taxes, which mostly means working and middle class taxpayers. And who is Group B? It's people who pay federal income taxes, which mostly means the well-off and the rich. For nearly 30 years, Group A has been overpaying payroll taxes, and that's allowed the government to lower income tax rates. The implicit promise of the 1983 deal is that sometime in the next few years, this is going to flip. Group A will begin underpaying payroll taxes, and the rich, who have reaped the benefits of their overpayment for 30 years, will make good on their half of the deal by paying higher income tax rates to make up the difference.

The physical embodiment of this deal is the Social Security trust fund. Group A overpaid and built up a pile of bonds in the trust fund. Those bonds are a promise by Group B to repay the money. That promise is going to start coming due in a few years, and it's hardly surprising that Group B isn't as excited about the deal now as it was in 1983. It's never as much fun paying off a loan as it is to spend the money in the first place.

But pay it off they must.