Political Ruminations

Are You a Maker or a Taker?

A Romney administration would be likely to categorize Americans into two groups—the “makers” and the “takers” (based on writings by Ayn Rand, Ryan’s muse). Indeed, Mitt Romney has already done so in his own mind, and verbalized his disdain for the “takers” in his 47% comments made to his fellow plutocrats in Florida. This flowchart by Mother Jones will help you determine into which category you would fall Lots of luck!.

Morning Quote: Nancy Pelosi

In a Maddow Show segment on Wednesday night, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke out about the threat Republicans pose to the Medicare program and to seniors:

“We cannot lose the debate about Medicare because if we do--forget Democrats, forget Republicans--Medicare is gone. We'll be back to a time before Lyndon Johnson. We will be putting seniors at the mercy of insurance companies by giving them a voucher but not a guarantee.

And the severing of that guarantee, the architect of that, is Paul Ryan.”

Paul Krugman Debunks Romney-Ryan Lies on Medicare and Vouchercare (Video & Transcript)

At the GOP’s convention last week, Paul Ryan told even more lies regarding his plans for Medicare; this one the most blatant and most likely to delude those who aren’t paying attention:

“ Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare. ”

Watch as Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman and Rachel Maddow debunk the universe of Medicare lies from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in five short minutes:

UPDATE: The transcript from the video clip follows:

Romney-Ryan Changes to Medicare Will Impact People Between Ages 55-65

Surrogates for Mitt Romney have admitted that he will have to cut Medicare benefits for people between the ages of 55-65 (despite his pledge not to do so) if he goes through with his plans to change Medicare. By Brian Beutler @ TPM, emphasis mine:

“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to neutralize Democratic attacks on their plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program for future seniors by replaying the GOP’s 2010 campaign against Democratic members of Congress: by attacking President Obama for Medicare cuts he signed into law.

As has been noted repeatedly, that strategy requires Romney and Ryan to disavow Medicare reforms the GOP recently endorsed overwhelmingly as a part of the party’s budget, which Ryan authored.

But the ticket also contends that a key difference between Obama and Romney is that Romney won’t change Medicare at all for existing beneficiaries — only future ones. Recent statements from his advisers and surrogates, suggest the claim is false.

As outlined in a memo the campaign released Saturday, Romney plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, and thus to spend over $700 billion more on the program in the coming decade than the government would spend if the health care law stands.

That commitment would leave Medicare poised for insolvency in 2016, years before he proposes to phase in the voucher system. Which means Romney would have two options: find new Medicare cuts or taxes to extend the life of the program, or preside over its demise.

On Fox News Sunday, Romney adviser Ed Gillespie tried to address the conundrum. “There are other reforms as well. As you know Governor Romney supports increasing over time bringing the Medicare eligibility age in line with the Social Security retirement age.”

But raising the Medicare eligibility age is a benefit cut, and implementing

Mitt Romney Embraces Paul Ryan's Radical Plan to Voucherize Medicare

Watch:

So, you heard Mitt Romney say: “for people 55 years of age and older, there’s no change.” You won’t like the translation.

Under the Romney-Ryan plan for Medicare, if you are younger than age 55, let’s say 54, and Romney-Ryan are elected to office, you will see a Medicare that is completely different from the one that your parents and grandparents enjoyed. It will be a voucherized plan, entailing fewer benefits and much higher costs to the beneficiaries.

Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman on Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan, emphasis mine:

In the first decade, the big things are (i) conversion of Medicaid into a block grant program, with much lower funding than projected under current law and (ii) sharp cuts in top tax rates and corporate taxes.

Is this a deficit-reduction program? Not on the face of it: it’s basically a tradeoff of reduced aid to the poor for reduced taxes on the rich, with the net effect of the specific proposals being to increase, not reduce, the deficit.

Quote of the Week

In an op-ed for Rolling Stone, Tom Morello, popular guitarist for the band ‘Rage Against the Machine’, blasts Romney’s vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan (Rage being one of Ryan’s favorite bands) as an “extreme fringe right wing nut job” among other things, emphasis mine:

“Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions.

You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that "Those people are undeserving. They're . . . lesser." Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff. This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.”

New Obama Ad and Paul Ryan Should Absolutely Be Viewed as a Threat

A new Obama Campaign ad touches on some of the least savory aspects of the Paul Ryan Plan. Watch:

On Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as a running mate, I agree completely with what Bob Cesca said:

If Sarah Palin represents the most irresponsible decision John McCain and the Republican Party had ever made, the selection of Paul Ryan seems like a no-brainer smart choice for Mitt Romney.

The press is deferential to Ryan because he comports himself as a very serious budget wonk (we all know he’s an Ayn Rand crackpot who’s all too willing to genuflect to Glenn Beck et al); he’s another “central casting” Republican presidential stereotype who will ultimately run circles around Romney on the campaign trail unlike, say, Chris Christie who probably wouldn’t have survived the rigors of a national campaign; and he hails from a swing state.

Credit where credit is due, Romney could’ve picked a fire-eater like Santorum, Gingrich or Christie and he went with someone who is absolutely the opposite of Sarah Palin. Paul Ryan is wrong on everything, but he’s not a moron.

All that said, Ryan’s influence on a would-be Romney White House would be utterly disastrous for the economy and the instantaneous austerity measures, along with the dismantling of the Obama agenda, would spell doom for millions of working and middle class Americans. On the other side of a four-to-eight year Romney term will be a privatized Medicare, massive deficits from radical tax cuts for the rich, and an economic depression without any real ability for the government to inject emergency cash into the economy.

But if Romney really wants to win this thing, he made the right choice. For him and the Republicans. The rest of us will be screwed a thousand different ways.

Going forward, we absolutely must tie the Ryan Plan and the Ryan Budget around the neck of both Plutocrats if we are to win

Adding….Charles Pierce has dubbed Ryan the “zombie-eyed granny-starver”, and we must make people think of this term every single time they see, hear or think about Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney!

Morning Quote: Barack Obama on Medicare

In his remarks at a 2012 kick-off rally in Columbus, Ohio last Saturday, President Obama made a promise to seniors regarding Medicare:

“ As long as I’m President of the United States, I will never allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher that would end the program as we know it. We will not go back to the days when our citizens spent their golden years at the mercy of private insurance companies.

We will reform Medicare -- not by shifting the cost of care to seniors, but by reducing the spending that isn’t making people healthier.

That’s what’s at stake in this election. ”

Not to be too cynical or anything, but I strongly believe that if a Republican wins the presidency this time, it will be unlike all other times in American history. It will be very, very bad for the future of this country and the people.

Political Cartoon of the Year: Entitlements 101

Adding.........last time I checked,  the employee contribution to “entitlement” programs came out of our paychecks, so I guess that means that even if you earn it, you are not "entitled" to it.

Cartoon via Bob Cesca

Morning Quote: Sen. Tom Coburn

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)  is on a roll of politically incorrect/offensive this week. Think Progress reports on three instances.

Sen. Coburn (R-OK) implied that President Obama benefitted from affirmative action programs:

Fresh off his outlandish suggestion that Medicare and Medicaid violate the Constitution, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) offered an equally outlandish theory about how President Obama’s race influences his priorities:

Responding to a man in Langley who asked if Obama “wants to destroy America,” Coburn said the president is “very bright” and loves his country but has a political philosophy that is “goofy and wrong.”

Obama’s “intent is not to destroy, his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him,” he said.

“As an African-American male,” Coburn said, Obama received “tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs.”

In the past, Coburn has touted a strong personal friendship with Obama.

Next up, Sen. Coburn (R-OK) agrees with Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) on the claim that it’s unconstitutional for the government to provide for the elderly:

At a town hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) appeared to embrace Perry’s claim that providing for America’s seniors is unconstitutional:

QUESTION: With more and more cuts in Medicare and Medicaid on the horizon, I’m really worried about protecting our frail elderly in the Medicare and Medicaid facilities. So I would like to know how Congress proposes to balance the budget and still make sure our frail elderly in these facilities are protected and have trained care staff.

COBURN: “That’s a great question. The first question I have for you is if you look in the Constitution, where is it the federal government’s role to do that? That’s number one. Number two is the way I was brought up that’s a family responsibility, not a government responsibility.”

Sen. Coburn (R-OK) tops the week off with an implied threat towards his Senate colleagues:

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) intimated that he’d like to threaten physical violence against his Senate colleagues, saying, “It’s just a good thing I can’t pack a gun on the Senate floor.” During a tour of Northeast Oklahoma, Coburn also called his fellow senators “career elitists” and “cowards.” After the Tucson shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) that claimed the lives of six people, there were renewed calls for elected officials to tamp down allusions to violence and be more cautious and respectful when talking about their colleagues, but Sen. Coburn apparently has no such concern. His cavalier remarks come only days after Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) used menacing language about the Federal Reserve Chairman.

H/T Bob Cesca