Republican Party, Teabag Party and the Libertarian Party absolutely SUCK!

[Exterminator]

Initiate the purge.

[Palehorse]

The 113th Congress has stuck it to the poor at pretty much every opportunity. In fact, if you take all their past and future plans into account, it looks like they have accomplished that rare feat: To close in on enacting an overarching, radical agenda without control of the Senate or the presidency. How did they do it? Probably by escaping scrutiny through a piecemeal approach to legislation, a president who is willing to meet them halfway, and one diabolic word: Sequester.

Let's drill down into each piece:

1. Kick 'em to the curb
Congress will basically start kicking poor people out of their homes early next year. The idea is, if you can't pay for your home without government assistance, you don't deserve to live in one. In this spirit, budget cuts due to sequestration will take rental assistance vouchers away from 140,000 low-income families by the beginning of next year, making housing more expensive as agencies raise costs to offset the budget cuts. All in all, about three million disabled seniors and families will be affected. The savings? $2 billion, which is pretty much what the government shutdown cost in back-pay to federal workers.

If you're lucky enough to keep your home, don't expect to heat it. Sequester cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) meant that 300,000 low-income families in 2013 were denied government support for energy costs.

2. Take the food out of their mouths. Literally.
The recent reduction in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits has affected more than 47 million Americans and is the largest wholesale cut in the program since Congress passed the first Food Stamps Act in 1964.

The cuts to Food Stamps were implemented on November 1. Yet, Congress won't let the program rest there — House Republicans are pushing to take $39 billion from SNAP over the next decade. If their plan succeeds, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 3.8 million low-income individuals would lose their benefits in 2014 with 2.8 million more getting kicked off the program each year. SNAP is one of the three most effective anti-poverty programs the government has, keeping four million people out of poverty last year alone. So the initial and further cuts make a lot of sense — if you despise the poor.

And don't worry, other cuts to food programs ensure both the oldest and youngest amongst us won't be spared. Cuts to Meals on Wheels will cost poor seniors four to 18 million meals next year. Meanwhile, the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC), which provides health care referrals and nutrition to poor pregnant and postpartum women and children up to age five, has grappled with $500 million in cuts this year and faces even deeper ones next. Fair's fair, though.

3. Dim their kids' future
There's nothing that will make our economic future brighter than under-educating our children, right? That's why, again as a result of sequestration, Head Start literally had to kick preschoolers out of their classrooms this March and removed 57,000 children from the program this September (70,000 kids total are will be affected). If this weren't enough, more than half of public schools have fired personnel due to the ominous cuts — and Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said sequestration "has been one of the good things that has happened." Given that 40 percent of children who don't receive early childhood education are more likely to become a parent as a teenager, 25 percent are more likely to drop out of school, and 70 percent are more likely to be arrested for a violent crime, this is definitely the definition of a "good thing."

4. Erase the roadmap for employment
The United States has one of the stingiest unemployment programs in the developed world and it is getting even stingier. People who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more — 40 percent of the unemployed — have already begun and will continue to lose a large portion of their benefits between January and March. Eight percent of this year's sequestration cuts are coming from unemployment insurance. The logic here is that the program discourages people from looking for work, so why fund something that just makes the unemployed lazier? The evidence, however, proves that government assistance fuels the job searches of these 4.4 million Americans. Yet by the end of December, about 1.3 million will lose their extended jobless benefits if Congress doesn't renew the program. And cuts to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF, or welfare) means there will be even less of safety net to fall back on.

5. Make 'em work till they drop
President Obama put Social Security cuts in his budget for fiscal year 2014, and Republicans are thrilled. Switching to a new formula called Chained CPI would lead to benefit cuts of $230 billion dollars in the next ten years. Apparently, it's Social Security that's driving up the debt, as Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said. The irony here, according to The New York Times' Paul Krugman, is that while debt can indirectly make us poor if deficits drive up interest rates and discourage productive investment (they haven't), investment is low because the economy is so weak, partly from cutbacks in public spending and investment — the cuts, such as this one, that supposedly protect Americans from a future of excessive debt. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa) have been fighting an uphill battle to boost Social Security benefits. But carry on, Congress. What you're doing really makes sense here.

In just a few short decades, we've gone from LBJ's Great Society, where many of these ideas originated, to this Congress' attacks on the poor. According to the Census Bureau, safety net programs keep tens of millions of Americans out of poverty each year. But that's just not the federal government's priority anymore. This Congress' message: It's every man for himself.

http://news.yahoo.com/stick-poor-congressional-strategy-080500785.html

Yup! I've been saying the very same things since 2009. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what they are doing, and yet, those that are or will be impacted the most by these draconian and insidious policies act as if they are a godsend. One really has to wonder who they think all of this is going to bury! (Figuratively as well as literally!)

[Palehorse]

http://www.weather.com/travel/modern-ruins-abandoned-detroit-photos-20130715

Take a long hard look at these pictures, because this is where the rest of this country is going unless we kick these traitorous congressional representatives that have aligned themselves with political zealots like the Tea Party, out on their damned asses!

And please read the captions. Some of this has happened in just under 4 years!

[me]

http://www.weather.com/travel/modern-ruins-abandoned-detroit-photos-20130715

Take a long hard look at these pictures, because this is where the rest of this country is going unless we kick these traitorous congressional representatives that have aligned themselves with political zealots like the Tea Party, out on their damned asses!

And please read the captions. Some of this has happened in just under 4 years!

Hasn't Detroit been mostly democrat ran for years?  Just seems like most, if not all, of the states and cities that are in trouble are, and have been,  democrat controlled for a number of years.

[Palehorse]

Hasn't Detroit been mostly democrat ran for years?  Just seems like most, if not all, of the states and cities that are in trouble are, and have been,  democrat controlled for a number of years.

Horse shit. You cannot prove any of that . . . and won't. 

[me]

Horse shit. You cannot prove any of that . . . and won't. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Detroit

[Palehorse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Detroit

Nice try; but you are going to hurt yourself if you keep stretching like that.

[me]

Nice try; but you are going to hurt yourself if you keep stretching like that.

Hey, it is what it is and Detroit has been under Democrat leadership for a looooong time.  It's right there in black and white so how can you deny it?

[Henry Hawk]

Ten of the worst cities in America, who are on the verge of bankruptcy have been under democrat controll for several years.  Here they are:

Compton California:
Compton had six Democratic mayors in the last sixty years.  The last Republian was in 1963.

Chicago, Ill:
Obama's stomping grounds last saw a republican mayor in 1933.  Moody's downgraded Chicago's credit rating by three notches last year for running a $19 BILLION in unfunded pension debt.

Cincinnati, OH:
Democrat controlled since 1984. Currently has a $862 million unfunded liability in the system.

Minneapolis, MN:
Democratic Farmer Labor running it for the last 40 years has a $700 million liabilities of unfunded pensions.


Las Veagas, NV:
Democrats have been running the show since 1975. On the cusps of filing.


Omaha, Nebraska
For the last 12 years Omaha has been ran by Democrat Mayors and a $1.4Billion in pension liabilites with 43% of the funds to pay for it.


Portland, Or:
No Republican Mayor since 1981.  They have $353 million of unfunded pension debt.

Harrisburg, PA
Democrats have been in charge since 1982 with $345 million of debt.

Oakland, CA:
It was 1977 since a republican has been in charge...and they are now sinking quickly.

Providence, RI:
1984 was the last republican controll they had....teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Sources: http://www.ijreview.com/2012/07/10301-do-democrats-destroy-cities/



Now, lets look a the five top ran states: (Which have been controlled by REPULICANS)


1. North Dakota

Governor: Jack Dalrymple, Republican

State Senate: Republican control

State House of Representatives: Republican control

> Debt per capita: $3,282 (22nd lowest)
> Budget deficit: None
> Unemployment: 3.5% (the lowest)
> Median household income: $51,704 (20th highest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 12.2% (13th lowest)

2. Wyoming

Governor: Matt Mead, Republican

State Senate: Republican control

State House of Representatives: Republican control


> Debt per capita: $2,694 (18th lowest)
> Budget deficit: 10.3% (32nd largest)
> Unemployment: 6.0% (7th lowest)
> Median household income: $56,322 (13th highest)

3. Nebraska

Governor: Dave Heineman, Republican

State Legislature: Republican control



> Debt per capita: $1,279 (2nd lowest)
> Budget deficit: 9.7% (34th largest)
> Unemployment: 4.4% (2nd lowest)
> Median household income: $50,296 (22nd highest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 13.1% (tied-15th lowest)

4. Utah

Governor: Gary Herbert, Republican

State Senate: Republican control

State House of Representatives: Republican control

> Debt per capita: $2,356 (15th lowest)
> Budget deficit: 14.7% (25th largest)
> Unemployment: 6.7% (tied-11th lowest)
> Median household income: $55,869 (14th highest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 13.5% (tied-17th lowest

5. Iowa

Governor: Terry Branstad, Republican

State Senate: Republican control

State House of Representatives: Republican control


> Debt per capita: $1,690 (7th lowest)
> Budget deficit: 20.3% (18th largest)
> Unemployment: 5.9% (6th lowest)
> Median household income: $49,427 (24th highest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 12.8% (14th lowest)

Sources: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/11/27/republicans-lead-the-top-5-best-run-states-in-america-democrats-dominate-the-worst/

I have to agree with me.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out WHY Detroit is bankrupt.  Its politics have been as liberal as you can get...and the results are in.

[Exterminator]

We've been through this exercise before on this forum and your attempt to cherry pick your data or throw in a red herring by comparing cities to states doesn't fool anyone or change the outcome.

The reason Detroit is in trouble has little to do with politics but is a direct result of the automobile industry shipping jobs out of the country.

[Henry Hawk]

We've been through this exercise before on this forum and your attempt to cherry pick your data or throw in a red herring by comparing cities to states doesn't fool anyone or change the outcome.

The reason Detroit is in trouble has little to do with politics but is a direct result of the automobile industry shipping jobs out of the country.

I agree.......YES, it is easy to cherry pick any data to fit a given topic.   I wanted to illustrate that there IS some significance to my theory, though as far as fiscal conservatism over a spend, spend, spend iberalism ideology.

As far as Detroit, I will argue it is because of the liberal/democrat policies of strong unions that put them in that mess of the automobile industry fiasco.
They promised huge pensions that their ass could not cash.  It was poor polocies and liberal thinking that got them in this mess.

But, with all of that said...........It is just my opinion. Nothing more.  Not tryin to PISS anybody off.   I really, really don't care if anybody disagrees.  That is just the way I clearly see it.

[me]

We've been through this exercise before on this forum and your attempt to cherry pick your data or throw in a red herring by comparing cities to states doesn't fool anyone or change the outcome.

The reason Detroit is in trouble has little to do with politics but is a direct result of the automobile industry shipping jobs out of the country.

And you don't cherry pick your data?  The states that are going bankrupt are also mostly ran by democrats so what's yer point?

[Exterminator]

And you don't cherry pick your data?  The states that are going bankrupt are also mostly ran by democrats so what's yer point?

Really?  Indiana is selling our plane and making cuts across the board to make up for a budget shortfall that is the result of the state not having done enough to go after settlement money from the tobacco companies.  Simple inaction by republican lawmakers has cost the state $63 million.

Now if you'd be so kind as to list those states being run by dems that are going bankrupt, that'd be great.

[The Troll]

Really?  Indiana is selling our plane and making cuts across the board to make up for a budget shortfall that is the result of the state not having done enough to go after settlement money from the tobacco companies.  Simple inaction by republican lawmakers has cost the state $63 million.

Now if you'd be so kind as to list those states being run by dems that are going bankrupt, that'd be great.

  Yes, the f#%@%king Republicans are poor money managers, just like Skippy they don't know shit.    Now the moron Republican Govenor Mikey Pense wants to do away with business property tax.  What a moroon.   

                                                                         

[The Troll]

  Anyone want to bet that Bully Christy isn't lying.    What a fat ass Bufoon.