This (standard practice by bankers scrambling to maintain their unsustainable lifestyles built upon ) brings up the question of what can we do to put a stop to behavior that in years past was that of Mafia-backed loan sharks. Here's a suggestion: Any bank that refuses to close an account should pay an EXTORTION penalty of $1 billion/day to both the state & federal banking authorities. The fine should be per day, for every day that the bank continues to have a policy that a debtor cus...

...built Social Security into the most fiscally sound federal program of all history....indeed, the ONLY federal program that has been not only totally self-funding but which has built a $2.3 trillion surplus sufficient make Social Security solvent until 2037 with no reduction in benefits. To extend Social Security solvency to 75 years and beyond, relatively minor changes are required. This could be as simple as lifting the cap on FICA taxes (currently at $106,000). But the financial se...

Referring to those of us doing our civic duty protesting the illegal war in the roads and ditches outside Crawford, Texas in August, 2005 (where Cindy Sheehan was attempting to speak with President Bush), Rush Limbaugh had this to say: "How many of you could take a week or two off or whatever and hang around a ditch? I mean, where do these people work? First question I always ask: What do they do for a living? Where do they get their money? Donations, folks, donations. They're glad handle...

As Barney Frank told NPR before Inskeep abruptly cut him off, Social Security is self-funding (and fully funded through 2037). The problem is that hypocritical warmongers (who falsely claim to be "fiscal conservatives") refuse to either: - - - (1) Pay income taxes to finance the simultaneous war, OR - - - (2) End the wars, and reduce "defense" spending, that is, force warmakers to live within the confines of general fund revenues, which are primarily income tax Instead, the right wing...

...the Social Security Trust Fund to finance General Fund deficits caused by simultaneous wars and unsustainable, historically low income tax rates for the uberlords. Your is a betrayal of every American who has put in a lifetime of sweat and blood faithfully paying Social Security and Medicare taxes. Not only that, it will give the GOP a "two-fer": - - - (1) the destruction of the social compact programs Republicans hate - - - (2) by DEMOCRATS, who the GOP will (successfully) blame ...

The Republicans will appoint 6 pit bulls. We cannot afford to appoint a SINGLE DINO to the bicameral "Super Committee". The Republicans thrive on conning Democrats into betraying working Americans interests, precisely because in this manner Republicans avoid the political blowback. The only way to save Social Security and Medicare, and the American middle class, is to defend them vigorously and force the Republicans to do their own dirty work. As most Americans, including many ...

....politics at its worst. Deficits in the General Fund (which are the result of decades of "deficits don't matter" supply sided voodoo economics, and massive unfunded military spending combined with historically low income tax rates on the very wealthy) are now artificially linked to the most fiscally responsible federal program of all time - - - Social Security, which has a $2.2 trillion surplus guaranteed by Treasury Bonds that the plutocrats do not wish to pay back. They want to CONTIN...

.....a gang of anyone, and presented to Congress at the 11th hour. Artificially linking the debt ceiling (which is caused by GENERAL fund deficits, primarily military expenses combined with historically low income tax rates on the top 1-2%) to Social Security, is a scam designed to force Congress to continue the raiding of SS (to make up for GENERAL fund deficits, instead of balancing those deficits either with General Fund expense cutting or by increased General Fund revenues - that is, in...

Any concessions the Republicans make on taxes will SET NO PRECEDENTS, and will last only as long as a Democrat is in the White House (if that long). In no way will any tax raises be permanent. To the contrary, any cuts to Social Security and Medicare, whether as a direct part of the "deal", or politically distanced by means of a "binding commission", will be precedent-shattering betrayal of the social compact which was gained only with decades of sweat and blood, losses that will be regained...

2. Can we trust that the appointments to the commission will be those that have the most appropriate priorities? 3. Can we trust that the deliberations of the "binding commission" will be transparent? 4. Is this democracy? :kick:

(Image) Rachel Maddow's of the insane rantings of Perry's partners is a must see: (Link) (And, believe it or not, this is not from the Onion): - - - Oprah = harbinger of the Antichrist - - - Statue of Liberty = a demonic idol - - - Healthcare reform = a plan to kill off 6.5 billion people - - - Cause of the Japanese stock market crash = sexual intercourse between the Japanese emperor and the sun goddess demon The cultists that Rick Perry is partnering with, whom he ha...

"...Both Democrats and Republicans have been keen to see its recommendations adopted, because they provide a potentially uncontroversial way to achieve deficit reduction. Raising taxes is unpopular, and little discretionary government spending is left to be cut. Restating the CPI as a measure of cost-of-living inflation offers an easy way to lower Social Security payments through reduced COLAs and raise tax revenues through reduced exemptions. The hope is that the CPI can be presented as an...

"It's déjà vu all over again." - - Yogi Berra It would appear that, without sunshine, we may be on the verge of a "compromise" involving a slashing of Social Security benefits via the Republicans' favorite time honored technique: a fraudulent That is what is in the debt ceiling deal currently being negotiated by President Obama and the Congressional Republican leadership. That such accounting chicanery will result in far greater slashing of Social Security benefits over a period as...

When the most extreme proponent of dismantling Social Security and Medicare is held up as a model of "sensible moderation", what more do we need to see that the time honored GOP strategy of consistently dragging the "Overton Window" of public discourse to the right with unrelenting extremism is working? This is the same Alan Simpson that, among other things, believes that the Simpson-Bowles formula for (re-)-rigging the CPI/COLA's (which have in the 1990's. and which have already reduced C...

Here's the full sentence: "...And I've already shown that I'm willing to make some decisions that are very tough and will, you know, give my base of voters further reason to give me a hard time." And the full transcript: (Link) Our President says he is... "willing to take on . . . sacred cows and do tough things in order to achieve the goal of real deficit reduction, then I think it would be hard for the Republicans to stand there and say that, "The tax break for corporate jets ...

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It's not just the hypnotic expressions and swaying bodies of those appearing in the of Rick Perry's "non-denominal, apolitical Christian prayer meeting" ( ). It's not just that both (pictured directly below the photo of "Response Initiator/Governor Rick Perry" on the "Leadership" page of "The Response USA" are both associated with "Kansas City Prophet" Mike Bickle's "International House of Prayer", a movement has been described as more of a cult than a church by more than a few loved ones...

(but that is not stopping them from trying again.) No one, but no one, truly believes the official "no inflation" statistics (resulting in no COLA for SS for at least 2 years). In fact, a few years after the Boskin Commission to understate inflation, Greg Mankiw, chairman of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2001-2003, seeing no reason at the time to continue the charade, publicly admitted the truth everyone already knew: “The debate about the CPI was really a political ...

A simple, 25 word proposal to: (1.) ensure Social Security solvency beyond 75 years, and, (2.) simultaneously (if only partially) remediate our regressive tax system that favors the wealthy with LOWER total federal marginal tax rates than middle income Americans earning under $106,800: "Be it hereby enacted that FICA taxes apply to all regular income. The exemption of regular income over $106,800 to FICA tax is hereby removed." 1........The of the Social Security Trustees re...

(updated and annotated) The enemies of Social Security have both a PROBLEM and a PLAN : The Problem: - - - For years Republicans have financed multiple wars & corporate welfare while simultaneously slashing taxes on the uber-wealthy. - - - They have accomplished this by running federal deficits financed by bonds, $2.2 trillion of which is from the Social Security Trust Fund. - - - While the $2.2 trillion surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund is sufficient to pay benefits in fu...

...Trust Fund. The reality is that Treasury Bonds held by ANY bondholder, whether that bondholder is a mutual fund, an American bank, a private pension fund, the Federal Reserve, a foreign government, or an individual American citizen.....are ALL backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Yet the GOP is advocating what is effectively a , whose claims, based upon funds the Trust Fund LOANED to the general fund (allowing the income tax rates to the wealthy to be CUT in the fac...

In Their Own Words: A few excerpts from the Right Wing 2001 Strategy Manifesto , codified by Eric Heubeck with input from Paul Weyrich, the dominionist founder of the (Coors & Scaife-financed) Free Congress Foundation. . . . While the document was scrubbed from the Free Congress Foundation website in 2006, it is preserved in all its candor by , , and This document provides rare & candid insight into the psychopathology of right wing institutions, which, in the words of their own guiding d...

"At no time has anybody ever called for violence...We've never subtly promoted it." - - Rush Limbaugh, ? ? ? ? Well. Rush, in August, 2005, the national mood was nearing a flashpoint. Americans were camping on donated land along Prairie Chapel Road near Crawford, Texas, in support Cindy Sheehan's request, and that of Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out, to talk to the president. Counter-protesters were present, as well: Some drove slowly by, scowli...

"Make them angry and stir up hostilities. The shriller you are, the easier it is to raise funds. That's the nature of the beast." - - Terry Dolan, co-founder and chairman of the "Perception is reality... "Just keep stirring the pot, you never know what will come up." - - Lee Atwater, Well, here's a sampling of the things that the "pot-stirring" has produced: (Image) "Got Ammo? Trucker Hat" $14.99 at "TheRightShirts.com" (Image) (Image) "Top 10 Good T...

(Silly you!) "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms," says man with assault rifle By STEVE BRYANT 9:15 PM CST, Mon, Aug 17, 2009 (Link)*450/AR15assaultrifle.jpg About a dozen people armed with guns attended an Obama speech in Phoenix today. The armed men, including one with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle slung over his shoulder (similar to the model pictured above), demonstrated with protesters outside a convention center where the president was giving a speech, according to ...

THE suspect being held over Saturday's shooting of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords may have links to anti-Semitic race hate group American Renaissance. January 10, 2011 12:41AM An internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo quoted by FOX News Channel revealed the gunman - named by the media as Jared Loughner, 22 - is "possibly linked" to American Renaissance. The group subscribes to an ideology that is "anti-government, anti-immigration, anti -ZOG (Zionist Occupational ...

Suppose, over the coarse of a few years, prices rise 100%. And suppose you start out buying rib-eyes at $5/lb, and they rise to $10/lb. As a means of coping with inflation, you quit buying rib-eyes and buy hot dogs, which have risen from $2/lb to $4/lb. In this scenario, you might be tempted to think that "inflation" has been 100%, since prices of all items rose 100%. But you would be wrong. Government statisticians, using "chained CPI", billed as a "more accurate" measure of inflati...

That's why Republican sharks have been pushing a "payroll tax holiday" for YEARS....as a that will lead to the destruction of Social Security as viable and public. That's why the most outspoken enemies of Social Security - - - Dick Armey's , the neoconservative , former Republican Senate Leader , and himself - - - have been unsuccessfully trying to peddle a "payroll tax holiday" or cut, for years. Republicans want American workers pawn their retirement for a shiny trinket. (Image) T...

A murderer's row of avowed enemies of Social Security - - - Dick Armey's , the neoconservative , former Republican Senate Leader , and himself - - - have been unsuccessfully trying to peddle a "payroll tax holiday" or cut, for years. When the funded wrote about Trent Lott's proposed payroll tax cut back in 2001, they even did so on a page dedicated to their "Project for Social Security Choice" privatization scheme. And commented that such a plan could "could show how the transition to in...

The basic problem is not even that the Regressives got too much in their billionaire bailout: The most important problem is that the most precedent-shattering aspect of the bill - - - - something that, incredibly, we are supposed to view as a "victory" for OUR SIDE - - - is a ! This bill is a short-sighted that is designed to set the stage for the and other programs. No amount of "concessions" at this point can camouflage the fact that this bill is fundamentally and fatally flawed....