President Obama Takes It to Ryan and the GOP

The President gave a speech today and he took it to Rep. Paul ' I WANNA KILL MEDICARE AND MEDICAID' Ryan and the GOP. He hung Ryan and his plan around their neck like a noose.





Part of the President's Speech:

It’s a vision that says America can’t afford to keep the promise we’ve made to care for our seniors. It says that ten years from now, if you’re a 65 year old who’s eligible for Medicare, you should have to pay nearly $6,400 more than you would today. It says instead of guaranteed health care, you will get a voucher. And if that voucher isn’t worth enough to buy insurance, tough luck – you’re on your own. Put simply, it ends Medicare as we know it.
This is a vision that says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit. And who are those 50 million Americans? Many are someone’s grandparents who wouldn’t be able afford nursing home care without Medicaid. Many are poor children. Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down’s syndrome. Some are kids with disabilities so severe that they require 24-hour care. These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves.

Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though America can’t afford to invest in education or clean energy; even though we can’t afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy. Think about it. In the last decade, the average income of the bottom 90% of all working Americans actually declined. The top 1% saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. And that’s who needs to pay less taxes? They want to give people like me a two hundred thousand dollar tax cut that’s paid for by asking thirty three seniors to each pay six thousand dollars more in health costs? That’s not right, and it’s not going to happen as long as I’m President.

The fact is, their vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America.

..................

The difference with the House Republican plan could not be clearer: their plan lowers the government’s health care bills by asking seniors and poor families to pay them instead. Our approach lowers the government’s health care bills by reducing the cost of health care itself. ... Let me be absolutely clear: I will preserve these health care programs as a promise we make to each other in this society. I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.
That includes, by the way, our commitment to Social Security.

The Democrats need to take the points made by POTUS and run with them. Come on Congresswoman Wasserman-Shultz!!


Full text of the President's Speech is HERE

Why does the GOP hate veterans?

Because they aren't rich corporations?

Homeless veterans could lose 10,000 housing vouchers

By Rob Hotakainen | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrats raised loud objections Thursday to a plan by Republicans in the House of Representatives that they said would eliminate 10,000 housing vouchers for homeless veterans this year, an effort to save $75 million from the 2011 federal budget.

"I believe it's immoral," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, urging House Republicans to abandon the plan.

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the proposal "astounding" and said no federal budget should shortchange the most vulnerable Americans. She wants to eliminate homelessness among U.S. veterans.

"We owe it to our veterans to provide them with the resources and support they need to put a roof over their heads," Murray said. "And this is just one more example of the Republicans' reckless budget that puts politics and ideology over families, communities and even those who have served and sacrificed for our nation."

Republicans defended the plan by noting that thousands of vouchers have gone unclaimed this year.

"The fact of the matter is there will not be a veteran, a homeless vet, that will not get a voucher," Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, said during a debate on the House floor. "The fact of the matter is there are 30,000 vouchers available today. Only 19,000 of those have been used. There are 11,000 vouchers waiting."

But Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, cited a recent federal report that said that more than 76,000 veterans were homeless on any given night in the United States and that veterans were 50 percent more likely to be homeless.

"Yet the majority's bill turns its back on our homeless vets, leaving them literally out in the cold," Dicks said.

One of the consistent stories that always gets my goat, because of it's sheer lunacy, is that the GOP is allowed to wrap itself in the flag, like they are such patriots. Like they care about the U.S. Military. They don't give a rat's ass about the US Military.

DEFENSE CONTRACTORS AND THEIR WEAPONS SYSTEMS?

Yes, they'll fight to the death to give another no-bid contract to a Defense Contractor.

But, the average serviceman and woman and anything that would help them, or their families?

No.

Look at their RECORDS.
Look at their VOTES.

Time and time again, if something comes up that will help the average serviceman or woman, they always have an excuse as to WHY they just couldn't find it in themselves to vote for the funding to help the regular soldier.

They encouraged the ' privatization' of services that went to the the little guy, which resulted in the horridness that was Walter Reed, as well as defective food and water served to our troops via Haliburton. But, since it was a 'private' company, it had to be better than the service they received from 'government' employees.

When this President expanded the parameters for PTSD and the treatment levels for it, who was out there complaining about a) how much money it would cost, and b) that there would be too many cases (due to fraud)? Certainly wasn't any Democratic Politicians.

What was included in crazy ass Michelle Bachmann's budget proposals ? CUTS TO VETERANS BENEFITS, until she was bitchslapped by veterans groups, then it was ' my bad...I didn't really mean it'.

As for our homeless veterans, is anyone REALLY surprised that they'd try to cut this program? Why should you be...it just follows in the pattern of how they are.

TOTAL FRAUDS.