Nothing Back for Our Tax Dollars?? Au Contraire!

I know it should be obvious, but so many people STILL don’t understand the benefits we derive from paying our fair share of taxes.  A senior sent a letter to the Daily Times, where he complained about the “tax and spend Democrats” and finally declaring, “we have not gotten much return from our spending.”  I beg to differ; and although we know all the programs that the government runs, we sometimes forget, ourselves.  Here is just a tiny sampling, in my response to this gentleman’s letter:

To the 70-year old Grapevine writer, who says, “we have not gotten much return from our spending”, I must ask: Do you receive Medicare, Social Security, or Medicaid benefits? Has our military kept us safe from foreign attack? How about the men and women at the FBI & CIA: have they stopped terrorists from blowing up another skyscraper? At your advanced age, I guess you don’t think about what it costs to send a child to college, and how important financial aid is these days. Have you thought, lately, about the water you drink and the air you breathe, and how both have gotten better over the past 40 years, thanks to the EPA? Or, how factory workers have fared since OSHA was created? Have you visited any of our national parks and enjoyed the beauty of America?

Hopefully, you are a healthy 70-year-old, but if you happen to take any prescription drugs, you should be grateful to the FDA for keeping an eye on their creation, testing and manufacturing. If you were a farmer, you should be thankful for the federal assistance programs for agriculture. At 70 years, you probably still drive, right? Are you thankful that the roads and bridges you drive on aren’t collapsing (yet) under the weight of your SUV? We are still No. 1 in auto-making, thanks to our government.

Ida May Fuller, the first Social Security recipient (Photo credit: Wikipedia) 

It’s great that you don’t have to worry much about the world around you anymore…you’ve gotten to a place where you are content; however, you’ve also gotten to a place where you refuse to see the connection between government, taxes and the many services provided by both. WE demanded these services; we pay for these services and WE are the beneficiaries of these services. If you were to wake up tomorrow morning without them, I dare say, that you would be one of those in line, demanding to know, “Why haven’t I received my government services today?”

Ayn Rand = Paul Ryan = “I Got Mine, Screw You!”

The TRUTH about Paul “Ayn Rand” Ryan. Don’t keep this secret…share it with everyone you know.  Unfortunately, there is something here for everyone to hate!

Ryan: “I can’t believe there are people who are really buying my crap!”

1. His economic plan would cost America 1 million jobs in the first year. Ryan’s proposed budget would cripple the economy. He’d slash spending deeply, which would not only slow job growth, but shock the economy and cost 1 million of us our jobs in 2013 alone and kill more than 4 million jobs by the end of 2014.

2. He’d kill Medicare. He’d replace Medicare with vouchers for retirees to purchase insurance, eliminating the guarantee of health care for seniors and putting them at the mercy of the private insurance industry. That could amount to a cost increase of more than $5,900 by 2050, leaving many seniors broke or without the health care they need. He’d also raise the age of eligibility to 67.

3. He’d pickpocket the middle class to line the pockets of the rich. His tax plan is Robin Hood in reverse. He wants to cut taxes by $4.6 trillion over the next decade, but only for corporations and the rich, like giving families earning more than $1 million a year a $300,000 tax cut. And to pay for them, he’d raise taxes on middle- and lower-income households and butcher social service programs that help middle- and working-class Americans.

4. He’s an anti-choice extremist. Ryan co-sponsored an extremist anti-choice bill, nicknamed the ‘Let Women Die Act,’ that would have allowed hospitals to deny women emergency abortion care even if their lives were at risk. And he co-sponsored another bill that would criminalize some forms of birth control, all abortions, and in vitro fertilization.

5. He’d dismantle Social Security. Ironically, Ryan used the Social Security Survivors benefit to help pay for college, but he wants to take that possibility away from future generations. He agrees with Rick Perry’s view that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” and he supported George W. Bush’s disastrous proposal to privatize Social Security.

6. He’d eliminate Pell grants for more than 1 million low-income students. His budget plan cuts the Pell Grant program by $200 billion, which could mean a loss of educational funding for 1 million low-income students.

7. He’d give $40 billion in subsidies to Big Oil. His budget includes oil tax breaks worth $40 billion, while cutting “billions of dollars from investments to develop alternative fuels and clean energy technologies that would serve as substitutes for oil.”

8. He’s another Koch-head politician. Not surprisingly, the billionaire oil-baron Koch brothers are some of Ryan’s biggest political contributors. And their company, Koch industries, is Ryan’s biggest energy-related donor. The company’s PAC and affiliated individuals have given him $65,500 in donations.

9. He opposes gay rights. Ryan has an abysmal voting record on gay rights. He’s voted to ban adoption by gay couples, against same-sex marriage, and against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.” He also voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Obama signed into law in 2009.

10. He thinks an “I got mine, who cares if you’re okay” philosophy is admirable. For many years, Paul Ryan devoted himself to Ayn Rand’s philosophy of selfishness as a virtue. It has shaped his entire ethic about whom he serves in public office. He even went as far as making his interns read her work.

If there was ever any doubt that Mitt Romney’s got a disastrous plan for America—he made himself 100% clear when he picked right-wing extremist Paul Ryan as his running mate. Paul Ryan is bad for America, but we can’t beat him if Americans don’t know everything he stands for. 

Andy Harris: Part of the Problem

I wrote last week about the need to replace Andy Harris in Congress. Today, I’m going to share some of the reasons why he needs to be a one-term representative.

Harris - Ideologue and Executioner

You may not agree with me on every issue, but we must all agree that Congress has been a big problem the past two years, failing to solve any of the nation’s real issues, with JOBS being number one. I think it’s commendable that there are representatives that believe in principles; however, when principles dictate ‘no negotiation or compromise’, they become words only, without achievement or inspiration.  Our country can’t afford such ideological luxuries.

We hear Republicans, like Gingrich, moan about more people being on Food Stamps; it’s true, but the reason is not that President Obama wants more people to receive them, it’s because more people are unemployed, a direct result of the financial meltdown that exploded in 2007, during the Bush administration. Lack of regulations, a free rein by the government, and unethical conduct on Wall Street, caused the pain and suffering on Main Street. People are crying out for jobs, while our biggest, most profitable corporations sit on trillions in unused cash. The gridlock in Washington has caused a gridlock in growth and expansion of the economy.

Our Bay continues to die, thanks to Harris' anti-environmental protection ideology

My high school history teacher taught us, “If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem!”  Andy Harris has been dismally poor in helping to find solutions. Whenever there has been an opportunity to create jobs, without gimmicks, he was opposed. He is even carrying over his poor environmental record from the MD Senate, where he opposed preserving the Chesapeake Bay, open spaces, wildlife refuges, solar grants, renewable electricity standards, emissions standards for power plants and cars, improved fuel economy standards, and improved energy efficiency standards. In fact, Harris has a score of just 9% for his environmental record. Are you filtering your air and water? If Andy Harris is re-elected, you may want to start!

In his own defense, Harris will point to his introduction, last year, of legislation to study “algae bloom” in the Chesapeake Bay. Too little, too late…and totally useless. Scientists already know what causes algae bloom; what we need is immediate action to stop it, not further expensive government studies. Why is it that boondoggle studies and wastes of taxpayer funds are OK when they are offered by Republican right-wing ideologues, but are lambasted when proposed by Democrats?  Can we say “Hypocrisy?”

Harris’ record on Social Security and Medicare is just as abysmal as his environmental record. He has  voted to cut benefits and medical services to those that can

Goodbye to Long-Term Care - "Dr. Death"

least afford it: our elderly and disabled. He recently voted to end long-term care services to the chronically ill and disabled; talk about a “death panel” – this, from a man trained in medicine! Perhaps, it explains why he became an anesthesiologist and not a family physician: he loves knocking people out!

Harris has had many an opportunity to show leadership and concern for his constituency; he has repeatedly failed, miserably, and needs to return to the operating room. In the coming months, I will share more of Harris’ record with you, showing that he cares little for what the people of the Eastern Shore think, unless it coincides with his ideology. Big corporate sponsors pull Harris’ strings, but it is the people of the 1^st District who deserve to be the puppet-masters!

Rebuild The American Dream! LIVE!

WATCH LIVE: the Take Back the American Dream Conference has arrived

Click here for the LiveVideoStream:

http://www.rebuildthedream.com/

It’s finally here – join us at the Take Back the American Dream conference right here on RebuildtheDream.com. For those of you who couldn’t make it, Free Speech TV will be livestreaming the whole event on our site (Oct. 3-Oct.5).

We kick off at 9:15 – click here for a full conference agenda.

Denouncing 6 Big Republican Lies!

EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS VIDEO!  It explains, in plain language, why the lies being told by the right-wingnuts need to be rejected by all of us.  The GOP strategists continue to lie to their “limited information voters” who need nothing more than a half-truth, cliche or metaphor, sounding patriotic, to make a decision. These voters fail to ask questions or perform the research to uncover the truth that will show the simple-minded drivel being expressed by people like Perry, Bachmann, Paul and yes, even the most “normal-sounding” of all the wingnuts, Romney!  They are leading this country down the path of a theocratic oligarchy! As Reich says in this video: We cannot become so cynical that we give up, throw in the towel and allow the wingnuts to win. It will put us all back into the 18th century, where royalty, the church and the rich held power over the poor. By giving up, we give our children and grandchildren a future of submission and scraping to survive, while the rich control the world!