"Compassionate Conservatives" = Hypocrites

Pastor Rick Warren this past week opened up a can of good ole' Southern Whoop Ass on himself by Tweeting a very inaccurate, and incredibly insensitive, tweet regarding taxes, who pays them and who he thinks should pay more. His tweet goes like this, "Half of America pays NO taxes. Zero. So they're happy for taxes to be raised on the other half that DOES pay taxes."

He said this in the overall context of the budget debate and as his contribution to the misconception that 'the poor' don't pay income taxes. As you can imagine, he paid a political price for this comment, and retracted it later - it no longer appears on his Twitter account. II will say one thing about him in particular and then move on to the broader debate, Rick Warren joins his philosophical counterpart Rick Perry in being one of the more heinous type of hypocrite. Both benefit by being supported by the very people they vilify in their comments. Many of "Pastor" Warrens flock are people of little means. Similarly, the base of Rick Perry's Texas support is made up of folks like conservative West Texas hardscrabble farmers. Perry is the worse of the two as he touts his minimum-wage job creation record while saying those same folks stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart at 8 dollars an hour with no benefits should turn out their empty pockets and give more to the government till. AGAIN a note of hypocrisy here, Perry wants people to pay more in taxes to a government he wants to succeed from, to a government whose 13th Amendment (enabling the Federal Income Tax) he wants to abolish and to fund a government that he says is too large and wasteful and needs less money.

Phew!

Quickly, let's correct the record on the whole 'poor people don't pay any taxes' statement. The working poor, many of whom have to work more than one job to make ends meet, pay taxes on a larger portion of their income than any other sector of our society - why? Because they do pay portions of their income into government programs that amount to taxes while paying the direct, regressive taxes based on spending we all pay. So their paychecks have all of the standard deductions we have, the only 'rebate' many of them get is the Tax Refund at the end of the year.

I know some of you will say, "Well, they get child credits and education credits and home-heating credits, etc. etc." Let's save that for another argument. What really hurts the working poor relative to the Middle- and Upper-classes is that the remaining tax structure, the 'regressive' taxes, hurts them more. Sales taxes, sin taxes (and don't go saying that, "If they're so poor they can do without beer and smokes.") gas taxes, property taxes (if they even own a home - if they don't, they pay it by proxy to the landlords they rent from), use taxes and pass-through taxes (like on your phone and cable bills). These dollars add up. Without the working poor contributing to these things then the costs for everyone else would skyrocket. So, they DO pay taxes, and more of their income by percentage than most Americans.

On to the general point of the so-called "Compassionate Conservative" moniker being so very inaccurate these days. Its not just "Pastor" Warren, Gov. Perry, and Rush Limbaugh (click link below for a scathing Lawrence O'Donnell rant on this very topic) saying these things, its the cause celeb of the entire GOP at the moment. News story after Faux News blog calls for the working poor to give more back, unapologetically. They are currently fighting an extension of the Payroll Tax holiday, which expires at the end of this month. This is hypocrisy of Epic proportions. Why? Because the payroll tax primarily hits the working poor and middle class the most. Again, why? Because most of their income is derived directly from salary or hourly wages. They don't benefit from investment income the way the upper-classes do. If you don't extend the payroll tax holiday, which is only a short-term option for stimulus and alleviating some of the pain of the recession, then you are essentially raising the taxes of the working poor and middle-class by approximately $1,000 for someone earning $50,000 per year.

Stay with me now. We're almost there. This is a significant tax increase for someone in that tax bracket. The GOP folks are saying that they Payroll Tax holiday should be allowed to expire because it was just a temporary thing and was never meant to be long-term. The made the EXACT OPPOSITE argument for the Bush Tax cuts to be extended just a few months ago. Why hypocrisy? Because they will wantonly argue one position when it benefits them and their 'sponsors' when it comes to the Bush Tax cuts while, with a straight face, arguing the exact opposite just a few months later. They even had the gall to say that they couldn't in good conscious support the extension of the payroll tax holiday because it would add approximately 112 billion dollars to the deficit. The extension of the Bush Tax cuts is estimated to add trillions. Yes, that's right...trillions with a "T". Yet GOP member after GOP member actually have said they can't support the payroll tax holiday extension because it will add to the deficit. One said that, when asked to compare the two positions, it was a reasonable argument because tax breaks to 'job creators' (their latest euphemism for the wealthy) made sense because it stimulated job growth.

As my teen aged daughter says so eloquently, "Whatever."

So the next time you meet a GOP candidate that will espouse their Christian values and their Evangelical, by-the-Bible, mores, ask them, "Who Would Jesus Tax?" Then be prepared to laugh, laugh, laugh.

______________

Take a moment and click on this link. It leads to a Lawrence O'Donnell commentary on Rush Limbaugh pontificating on the "Libs" exploiting Jesus for their own Socialist agenda. Rush is a douche bag of the highest order, but rarely does he sink as low as he does here. Its worth the time it takes to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv-xMIwm01s

Rick Perry - Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Hello all, over the next little bit I'm going to spend some time deconstructing Rick Perry. Why? Because, well, basically he is an awful person in my humble opinion whose crackpot ideas would have us living in a more Oligarchic state than we do now that would be led by Christian fundamentalists according to their strict lifestyle guidelines. Is that reason enough? If not, there are more. We'll dig them up along the way.

However, for today's blog we will focus on his "Texas Miracle" jobs record. He's touting himself as a major job creator and Texas as the paragon of economic growth over his decade-long tenure. Let's take a look at what kind of jobs he has created and how his state's working class folk are living these days. I think you will be pleasantly horrified at the spin his team is putting things.

Here is a point-by-point analysis of his jobs record:

• Texas tied with Mississippi in 2010 for the highest percentage of Minimum Wage jobs in the nation. (San Fransisco Chronicle, 8/22/11)
  
• Texas has the highest number of uninsured people in the nation at 25% - much of this is accounted for by the working poor - employed in the types of jobs he created in his 'Texas Miracle'. (Washington Post, 11/23/2010)
• Despite Perry publicly decrying Federal Stimulus Dollars he had no trouble accepting billions that helped to create 300,000 jobs in the public sector that he is counting in his tally. (Boston Globe, 8/20/11)
• From December 2007 to June of this year, Texas shed .6% of their private sector jobs while adding 6.4% of public sector jobs - even though Perry continues to say that government doesn't create jobs. (Portland Press Herald, 8/21/11)
• One of the reasons that they have added (or kept) jobs in the petrochemical industry is that his administration has nearly completely dismantled environmental regulations in Texas - which causes them to lead the nation in toxic waste emissions and chemical spills. (Washington Post Politics, 8/18/11)
• Partially as a result of the quality of jobs created in Texas, they have the fourth highest poverty rating of all states (Washington Post, 8/19/11)

I could go on, but I think I will hold off some of the points for future blogs. There are lots of juicy bits left to go over.

For those of you who might be entranced by his Texas swagger and plain-spoken delivery keep in mind he's just another politician. He's taking credit for a great deal of activity in terms of job creation and growth that he had no direct connection to during his tenure. He does deserve some credit, but not all, and certainly his claims deserve deeper scrutiny. Like all politicos, take him with a grain of salt, or in Perry's case, an entire block. Peace.

Doubting Benjamin

Ok, its been a while, but with all the crazy sh*t going on in the world its time to vent. I'll start posting more often with some insight and scathing commentary on the nuthouse the US has become of late.

Let's start with the book that is the Number One Best Seller on the NYT NON-FICTION list - "Heaven is Real". This is a "True Story" by the ghost writer of Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue" about a young boy who has a 'near-death' experience and supposedly goes to Heaven for a quick cup of coffee. While there, he meets the sister he "...never knew existed" (his mom miscarried prior to the boy being born, his grandfather as a young man (but the boy never met his grandfather, you say?) and gets to sit on Jesus' lap, kind of like Santa Claus.

Well, ok. That might be a nice, feel-good story for my Christian friends to provide some uplifting thoughts and hope in these troubled times. BUT this book is a Best Seller on the NON-FICTION list! Have I said that in all-caps enough? I really don't think I can possibly say it in all caps enough times to be quite honest.

Let's be real, people. Look at the facts of the matter. This kid's dad is an Evangelical preacher. This isn't like seeing the image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast, this kid supposedly know things - cue eerie music here - he shouldn't possibly know. As one blogger reviewed the book, "Every one of Colton’s experiences, or very nearly every one, follows a pattern. He tells his father some little detail. His father experiences a gasp or feels his heart skip a beat. “I could hardly breathe. My mind was reeling. My head was spinning.” A Scripture verse comes to dad’s mind that validates the experience. Colton gets bored and runs off. Repeat."

Wow. Riveting stuff.

If this helps you get through the rough times and gives you some solace after the passing of a loved one, more power to you. But to sit back and think that this is anything but a book that should be in the Fantasy and Science Fiction section of Barnes & Noble is sheer...well, fantasy.

I'll just take one sentence from the book as an example, where the boy describes Jesus' eyes as "...were just sort of a sea-blue and seemed to sparkle." Yeah, right. Last time I checked it would be neigh impossible for a Semetic person in that part of the world during that period of time to have anything but darker eyes. Period. But we've always known that the pictures of the white, blue-eyed and long brown-haired Jesus were just plain silly all along.

Again, I'm not debunking or being the cynic just to be mean. It just seems that in times of general turmoil and uncertainty we as a people tend to lean on the ephemeral a little more than others. Its just human nature. Perhaps, however, we should consider something a little more substantive than this little missive. Maybe like a collection of Peanuts cartoons.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Respect. I have to say how interesting I find it that Faux News and their minions have slammed Obama every time he has correctly and politely shown deference to his diplomatic equals during State events. He bows slightly to the PM of Japan and they cry out that Obama has forfeited the future of America and shamed our people. Obama fails to wear a tie in the Oval office and he’s suddenly disrespecting the building and everyone who held the office before him.

Yet, in this weekend’s interview of President Obama performed by O’Reilly was the most disrespectful and heinously juvenile excuse for journalism I’ve seen since that jackass was on Inside Edition. Has anyone on Faux News said a word about O’Reilly interrupting the President Forty-Three…FORTY-THREE times in less than fifteen minutes? Not bloody likely. Not a word.

For all of their crowing about tradition, conservatism and maintaining the dignity of the office, Faux News allowed one of their ‘journalists’ to create one of the most unprofessional displays of self-aggrandizement I’ve ever seen. They reveled in it. In fact, they lovingly played the remainder of the interview, along with another 30+ interruptions, during O’Reilly’s show the following night.

Pathetic.

You can't have it both ways, Faux News. You can't in one breath talk about how Obama is embarrassing the nation because he's not worthy of being President while you attempt to trap and shame him in an interview. If Chris Matthews had done that same session with GWB2 you would have freaked out in a million different ways and filled up hours of cable DAT tape. Hypocrites.

Aside from stating the obvious yet again, Faux News is not news and have no professional 'journalists' that I know of or have seen. Sorry Roger Ailes, no Pulitzer for you. Ever.

If They Only Had a Brain...

Obamacare. Love it, hate it, be indifferent to it - we've heard plenty about it. Yet most of what you've heard is just plain wrong. Either misrepresented or misunderstood (or both), the majority of the "American People" don't have, as Paul Harvey used to call it, 'the rest of the story.'

For all of the blustering on the Right and the defensiveness on the Left, what we know is that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a compilation of healthcare reforms centered around concepts of accessibility and affordability. That it has had a relatively small impact to date, aside from providing fodder for debate, is interesting in its own right. Most aspects of the legislation will not take effect for some time. For those of you who have children with pre-existing conditions and have changed jobs or have a particularly draconian private policy, you already have benefits and protections. Few can honestly argue that this is a bad thing. Furthermore, if you have a child enrolled in college or post-graduate studies, you can now carry them on your policy up to age 26, again a good thing. Some of the more odious provisions such as the 1099 mandate and prohibiting the purchase of Over-the-Counter medications with an FSA without a doctor's prescription may fall in the near future. Yet the core of the law remains, and what everyone can agree upon, but won't, is that the law itself is everything Republicans have wanted in healthcare for years but they are afraid to admit it. The Democrats sold their soul to get what they did, and should hide their faces for having done so. That's why, and I'll take odds on this, when its all said and done Obamacare will be the law in the land this year and in years to come.

What most of us don't realize is that this 'Franken-legislation' is actually a mish-mash of positions proffered year after year by both the Right and the Left. Most importantly, the foundation of the law is that it uses private insurance to accomplish public policy, just like GWB2 did in by instituting the Medicare prescription drug benefit in his second term. Many seniors saw this to be a blessing, and it was. But the way it was done blew a trillion dollar hole in the Federal deficit. Why? Because the program prohibits the Federal government from negotiating with pharma companies on price. Medicare, by far the largest 'purchaser' of pharmaceuticals in the nation, cannot by law negotiate the prices they pay for medications. Insane. A huge give away to Big Pharma and one of the biggest lobbying wins in Washington in the last 25 years.

Why is this bad policy? Because every time we have placed any program into the hands of the private sector, we increase costs without necessarily adding quality. To that point I bring you privatization of Medicaid on the state level - a fundamental and costly disaster in Ohio and other states - and the incredible tally we pay every year for the aforementioned Prescription Drug benefit.

How does this relate to Obamacare? By adding 35+ million people to the books of private insurers we have created an enormous boon to those companies. When the Dems dropped 'public option' to get what they wanted, they forfeited the high ground - without a 'public option', private insurers have no incentive to offer a superior product with true consumer protections. Before you go all "free market" on me, please note that insurance companies do not create plans to necessarily be competitive with one another and have been repeatedly found to have been in collusion with one another. I know this is getting complicated but be patient with me here - there is a point to be made. Let's add up what we have so far. We are adding 35+ million to the roles of private insurers. We are requiring that people obtain this coverage. We are not allowing the government to participate in the competitive side of this equation, offering an affordable alternative. We are going to rely on a for-profit entity like Aetna or Cigna to determine what coverage we get, when they will pay for what, how our doctors can treat us and what we will pay. People, this is the Republican dream come true vis-a-vis one of their largest contributors, the insurance industry.

Are you getting this? Obamacare is exactly what the GOP has pushed for in separate arguments over the years. The lawsuits trying to strike down the law based on the Constitutionality of the "Individual Mandate" are all Strawman Arguments intended to misdirect attention from the fact that there is a tremendous amount of money to be made here, but the GOP and Tea Party lot need to look like they are for free markets and less government while they are pocketing tens of millions in campaign contributions. The Dems? They are just as complicit in that they ditched the 'Public Option' knowing what the ramifications were in terms of cost. For you see, they too get money from the insurance lobby, just not nearly as much. The White House has their share of blame because they spent so much political capital on healthcare too early and too loudly so they had to sell out on the real fixes in order to pass the law and not get embarrassed a'la Bill Clinton.

Who else does that leave? Why, us, of course. The American People. We will end up with a lesser option provided by for-profit insurance companies with few checks and balances that will cost us all more as we collectively absorb the increased cost of the new millions on the books - many of them who have chronic illnesses left untreated for years, ironically because they couldn't afford treatment. Lovely.

A caveat, before we close. I work in healthcare and have for years now. Nearly universally, doctors and hospitals will agree that Medicare has evolved into the easiest payer to deal with. They pay their bills on time, rarely argue with the physician about care, and do not arbitrarily deny care. Meanwhile, every day countless hours and millions are wasted by physicians and hospitals trying to get private insurance companies to pay their bills, honor their contractual commitments and allow for our doctors to care for their patients as they see fit without interference. Our spineless politicians of all stripes, by not allowing the public option, are now going to force us all into the deep end of the pool with the private insurers as lifeguards. I hope we all know how to swim.

Where There's Smoke...

Ok, it comes as no surprise that once they wrested power from the palsied hands of the Democrats, the Republicans would attack one of their favorite targets, the EPA. But in such predictable fashion? Really? How sad.

This week we've seen House Republicans introduce legislation that would, amongst other things, prohibit the EPA from regulating 'greenhouse gases'. At all. Like, nada. Well, since the Clean Air Act and other mechanisms that work to allow us to see the far horizon or actually, you know, breathe I can understand why they are anathema to any right-minded Republican. I would imagine that the dollars poured into their campaigns by the likes of Exxon/Mobile and the Koch bothers have nothing at all to do with the introduction of this particular bill.

All joking aside, to put this kind of blanket deregulation forward so soon after the catastrophic impact of the Gulf Oil spill takes some real brass ones. How are they related, you ask? Its simple. The premise being put forward by the Republicans is that industry (no matter which type) is capable of self-monitoring and all can be trusted to be good stewards of our environment. As the hamstrung yet still illuminating inquiries into the Gulf Oil spill have proven, none of the entities involved in that fiasco did the right thing despite all of the regulations we currently have in place, let alone in this proposed future state of "scout's honor". Time and again, polluting industries have failed to maintain even the minimal standards that were present under, for example, the vacuous and ineffective EPA under the Bush administration. Now that we are actually seeing the EPA do good work, the proposal is to clear-cut them to the nub. Nice.

I can see where this might clash with the far-Right's commonly-held belief in the "word of god" aspect of the bible that kind of tells us to take care of this planet of ours, but that's another post entirely.

Its one thing to be a puppet for Big Oil and the coal lobby. But to go to the baseline of no regulation and to prohibit the EPA from regulating any greenhouse gas emission, air quality provision or clean water effort is the precursor for our country to become a bleak industrial wasteland. I would ask if these men and women have children for whom they might be concerned about in terms of the legacy they leave behind - this world we are the custodians for relative to all humankind. That would be quite naive of me however, since I can tell by legislation such as this that they obviously don't give a damn about any of it.

Once again, if you aren't sitting on the board of Citgo, own 10,000 shares of a mining company or your family founded American Electric Power you can't rightfully think that this is a good idea. If you are a Republican because you like their views on tax policy, the deficit or even school prayer, you don't have to go lockstep with them on this. Its short-sighted and sells our future for a few campaign dollars. I have two kids that I would like to grow up in a world that doesn't look like the photo above. How about you?

Wake up America!