This country is fully of wusses: From CNN:

A new national poll suggests that a bare majority of Americans support President Barack Obama’s health care plan.

But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday morning indicates that most people are worried that their health care costs would go up if the administration’s proposals are passed and only one in five think that their families would be better off under the Obama plan.

Fifty-four percent say their medical insurance costs will increase if the Obama plan becomes law, with 17 percent feeling their costs will decrease. Around one in four say their costs will remain the same. And only one in five say their family will be better off if the president’s plan becomes law, with 35 percent feeling they would be worse off, and 44 percent saying they would be about the same.

It all comes down to taxes and fear, doesn’t it? Imagine if we lived in a country where EVERYONE realized that countries do not run on fumes and the majority’s gut reaction wasn’t based on being an absolute shivering little coward.

When you’re talking about healthcare reform, there is, of course, a million ways to skin a cat. The republicans - over two decades - have had ONE idea - let the insurance companies and the drug companies do their thing. Unfortunately - for anyone but the stupidest in our nation - this is the same as being lazy and not doing anything. Furthermore, it doesn’t work. We’ve had this approach for as long as we can remember and people are suffering because of it.

Clinton tried his best to make the change but got bogged down in a healthcare plan that the republicans could attack easily. Then he backed away from it and that was that.

While I don’t bow down to fear or the creeping psychology of it (I was in Manhattan during 9/11 and saw things no one should have to see), I do worry that this might be the last good chance in my relative youth for universal healthcare to break through. It goes without saying that it’s a necessity. Every advanced country has some form of it. Hell, we do too! (Medicare/Medicaid).

The ONLY thing that stands in the way are the fears of a large minority, the willingness of the republicans to take advantage of that fear and this fantasy some people have that this country that taxes are unnecessary. Hey PEOPLE! Don’t want anymore taxes? Watch your infrastructure crumble. See your parents and grandparents die because there’s no social security check in the mail. Watch millions of children and poor adults homeless on the street, dieing of things no one has died from in 200 years because hospitals won’t take them, and watch the republican’s largest supporters laugh at you as they clink their wine glasses together and pat each other on the back at how great the free market has worked for them.

Taxes won’t hurt you. Fear of the unknown will. Get a backbone and support Obama’s plan and think about what you’d be offered if McCain was president.

Current News, Politics cnn poll, healthcare reform, Obama, republicans

From CNN:

“The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over,” Steele will say in a speech to the RNC’s 2009 State Chairmen’s Meeting, according to excerpts obtained by CNN. “It is done. We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the review mirror. From this point forward, we will focus all of our energies on winning the future.”

Really? So, the lies, manipulations and failures of the past eight years are beneath you to respond to? The neglect and bumbling evident through Hurricane Katrina doesn’t warrant an acknowledgement to some who died, those who suffered at the sports arena or rebuilding, let alone an apology? Destroying the economy, American’s futures and the elderly’s retirement through aggressive trickle down economics and a failure of any kind of gatekeeping is…what…not worthy of your attention?

And how about the thousands of lives lost, from 9/11 through a mishandled Afghanistan and a corrupt Iraq war? The widows, fatherless and motherless children do not deserve even one iota of your attention as you look to future ELECTIONS? Is this REALLY your response? And you expect to set the time when you can change the conversation? No. You won’t stop apologizing until WE decide.

And WHEN we decide is when your party makes some changes within. When there’s a party platorm that caters to more than rich, white men and corporations. A party that feels squandering a generations wealth is a tragedy worth amends. When being a republican means more than simply living in a bubble, knowing little about the outside world and having a huge set of balls about telling US how the world should work.

Maybe it’s time for you and your fellow republican politicians and industry leaders to reflect on what it really means to be an American and then tell us what you’ve come up with? My suspicion is being an American to you means telling your fellow citizens to go fuck themselves if they don’t have the proper connections to succeed in every aspect of society from birth to death. It means patting yourselves on the back for finding loopholes for your company that includes overseas laborers and Bermuda bank accounts that the rest of the citizenry suffers for. It’s telling us it’s all about survival of the fittest when all the chips are stacked on your side behind an electric chain link fence built by your lobbyists.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being too optimistic in expecting change from a party that believes winning is everything and “doing” is a hassle. Maybe I expect people who have fleeced the greater masses for so many years to grow some kind of conscience, or at the very least follow the religious values they’re so intent to force on us (maybe they should actually READ the bible rather than use it when it’s politically expedient).

Maybe believing the party of nasty, arrogant pricks like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Tom Delay, Newt Gingrich and others are more than the shallow, mean, indifferent, unapologetic bastards they present themselves to be.

Well, in any case, the apologies you’ve offered have been unheard or non-existent - and since actions speak louder than words, you better start acting like a party that gives a shit, because right now none of us give a shit about you.

Current News, Politics apologies, Michael Steele, republicans, RNC State Chairman Meeting

Courtesy Welkerswikinomics.com

The Huffington Post reported today on a ten percent increase in the Congressional operations budget. This in and of itself might not be news if not for the fact that it’s the Republicans who were the wasteful spenders here. Big surprise. They’ve decided that, despite a draw down of their numbers in congress, they deserved to retain the same staff levels they had before they were made a minority party.

Funny how the Republicans keep talking talking talking fiscal responsibility of the years but have ABSOLUTELY NO RECORD of it that we can see. For example, just because you claim to be a brilliant person doesn’t automatically mean you are.

Well, lets hear from the voices in the House (from HP):

A Democratic leadership aide, however, said the fact that “Republicans aren’t getting a dime more” misses the point, noting that while they aren’t getting extra, they aren’t getting less, either, even though they have far fewer members.

“This would be funny if it wasn’t from someone associated with the the so-called party of fiscal responsibility,” wrote the aide. “This is the height of hypocrisy and utterly fails to acknowledge the fact that in the past, when the spread has been like it is now, the minority party gets far less money than what they eventually got. It was an unprecedented deal that is more outrageous when you realize that they will end up voting against the bill.”

I have a suggestion for them: Before you claim to be something - or criticize another person or party for being something else - show us some proof of your claim. That’s it. Can’t show the proof, guess what? You’re a liar and do not deserve another audience.

Politics congressional aids, congressional budgets, fiscal conservatives, republicans

From The Wall Street Journal:

“We have a tougher job than our friends across the aisle. They’ve been offering Americans a free lunch for the last 80 years, rather successfully,” he told reporters at a lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “Those of us that believe in a smaller, more accountable government, we have a tougher time making our principles relevant to the American people. But it’s our challenge, and we’ve got to do it.”

With Republicans out of power on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, Boehner summed up the question facing the GOP as: “How do we take our principles and develop policies that relate to a broader cross-section of America?”

The problem Mr. Boehner and the Republicans are having isn’t simply a case of branding. The country KNOWS your brand. We rejected it. Heck, according to Utah Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in this same article, even your own PARTY rejects it:

I don’t listen or read whatever it is they say because it is inconsequential–completely.

and, according to The New Republic, it’s a dance we’ve all seen before:

The Republican Party has been using a grab-bag of strategies to counter Obama’s policies over the past month. They rail against the stimulus package for its (supposed) pork. They hammer home their points with gimmicky videos and props. They speak in warrior rhetoric and revel in heroic, fighting-man stunts. But if there is one strand running through all these strategies, it is that they evoke a discomfiting feeling of deja vu. We’ve seen this stuff before: The GOP is currently reliving John McCain’s presidential campaign. The return to the strategies of their fallen candidate may be the saddest illustration of the current state of the party.

Republicans are a long way from mainstream. I hope they stay that way.

Politics republican blame, republican losers, republicans, Wall street journal

“The bill was written because Nancy Pelosi said she won,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a centrist on many issues who joined conservatives in knocking the legislation. “Well, I don’t know if President Obama would agree that it was her winning, or him, but I know that attitude is really not the way to solve America’s problems - something this big.”

Pelosi made clear her displeasure with conservative Democrats who broke ranks and tartly noted that Republican-inspired business tax cuts that she did not favor were included in the bill. She said it must and will pass by the mid-February deadline Democrats have set.

“I can’t even think in terms of it failing on the Senate side,” she said. “They have to pass their bill.”

While I don’t expect Obama to be involved in the selection of every detail of this stimulus bill, I guess I did expect a little more involvement than we got. Once again, we’re looking at a democratic party that JUST DOESN’T GET IT! They’ve had 6 years in the wilderness. You would think they would have smart proposals galore and would be chomping at the bit to do something right.

Instead, we get the same small group of people making the same stupid mistakes and proposing the same stupid proposals that keep them constantly on the wrong side of right.

The republican proposal for a $15,000 tax credit is a smart one (who knew they had it in them?), but the democrats have a chip on their shoulder after this election and believe that it is the will of the people to push through THEIR tired agenda when the economy is tettering and people’s livelihoods are at stake. The hubris is astounding.

As far as the republicans blaming Pelosi - well, the blame game is tired. We’ve had enough of that, and it makes all involved look like little children (as I’ve mentioned before, Boehner already is). But Pelosi is a cog in the wheel. This political hound of a woman cannot see through her small self-serving window to find the need to cooperate. It will not make her look weak. In fact, quite the opposite.

I do understand the want of putting the republicans in their place. They have been nasty and aggressive for many years without a kind word to say about their opposition. But it is not Pelosi’s place to say “I won.” She didn’t. What Obama stood for “won” - and that movement is diametrically opposed to her way of politicking.

When are these people going to start acting like adults and do our business? Can they really be that clueless?

Politics $15, 000 tax incentive, pelosi, republicans, stimulus

John McCain just informed President Obama that he will be voting against the new stimulus package presented to the Senate. According to McCain, “we would like too to see more incentives such as a $15,000 tax credit for home ownership. We would like to see elimination of these policy changes which have nothing to do with jobs, we want the stimulus package to focus on jobs.”

I can’t disagree with these suggestions wholeheartedly. I think there’s alot in this package which is very forward reaching, but a $15,000 tax credit is a welcome suggestion. Beyond that, however, the republicans are once again out-of-touch with reality.

Infrastructure spending is a stimulus. If the government decides to build a bridge, architects will be employed, builders will have jobs and every industry surrounding it, from trucking to companies that produce steel and concrete, etc. In fact, with the “Buy America” provision that’s integrated into this bill, it is guaranteed that the steel we use will not be imported.

We’ve tried tax cuts. We’ve tried infusing the banks with money. Both approaches were handled with the business acumen of a 2nd grader - lets hand out the cuts and the money and hope all turns out well. Can’t do that this time.

McCain is essentially being the human face of the republican brick wall he represented during the last stimulus, and without any fresh ideas - or any ideas for that matter - the republicans are just making matters worse. My suggestion is for them to come up with something, anything, other than the same old tired tax cuts. If this is all they have, they have no right in taking part in our government. They have become the lazy man’s representatives.

Politics fresh ideas, john mccain, republicans, roadblock, stumulus bill