Saturday, July 30, 2011

Non Political Comment from another Senior Citizen.

This comment is from someone else - unknown - it is completetly non-partisan. It reflects my sentiments exactly, and is written much better than I could put it. I hope you will read it.

This Senior Citizen Nailed it.

Alan Simpson , Senator from Wyoming, called Senior Citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. August, 2010.

This response is from a Senior Citizen in Montana. He is ticked off and tells it like it is! It is the way he sees it and I have to agree with him.

"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight.

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS. since I was 15 years old. I am now 63)

3. My Social Security paymnets, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Securiy into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.

4. Recently, just like Charlie Brown and Lucy, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commision is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why?
Because you incompetant bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more money to pay off YOUR debt.

To add insult to injury, you label us as "Greedy" for calling "Bullshit" on your incompetance. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayer?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and health care benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch.



A couple of notes regarding Congress. Men and women serving in the US Military for 20 years, risking life and limb to keep us safe, get 50% of their pay upon retirement. Politicians, nice and safe in Washington DC, protected by those men and women receive full pay - 100% - after just one term, for the rest of their lives! Does that make sense?

Staffers of Congress' family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans.

Who knew that members of Congress could retire with full pay, for the rest of their lives, after just one term? And that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws that they passed, while ordinary citizens have to live under those laws?

The latest flagrant exemption is that they exempted themselves from the Health Care Reform!

Why are these people above many of the Laws of the Land that we have to live under? I don't care if you, or they, are Republican, Democrat, Independent or whatever, how can we put up with an "elite" that have put themselves above the law?

You many have seen this proposal before, it looks like a good and sensible one to me: -

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United Sates Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or the Representatives that does not apply equally to the Citizens of the United States."

Thursday, July 28, 2011

EPA

We deserve clean air and water. The government should protect us against those who would pollute our environment. Pretty simple huh?

But, there are way too many members of Congress looking for Corporate bribes or contributions, who are doing everything they can to stop the EPA from enforcing what is the clear intent of the Clean Air and Clean Water laws. Congress and polluters are going to slash our Environmental safety net even more than they already have, which will jeopardize fish and wildlife habitats all across America.

One of the first attacks was the Supreme Court decision that allowed Corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to bribe politicians. A virtual deluge of Big Polluter money flooded in. Even moderate lawmakers in fear of these Corporations and arousing their wrath are voting to cripple environmental laws.

Special interests, mostly big polluters, spent $4 Billion on last falls Congressional elections.

Big Oil, Big Agriculture and other Big Polluters are spending Billions on misleading advertising. Telling us how clean and safe are Coal, Oil, Nuclear, Gas fracking etc, which we know is untrue but which the ignorant believe. After all they say - it MUST be true because it is on TV/Internet/Radio/newspaper etc.

Once upon a time all environmental funding was a miserable 2% of the federal budget, now it is 1/2 of 1%. That is for all the National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and all other environmental and resource programs combined. And the Republicans want to slash them even more. Congress just passed another bill to stop the EPA from enforcing rules that would protect our health and our climate. This will undoubtedly increase our health costs enormously. But of course more importantly to Congress it will cut costs to big Polluting Corporations, and even more importantly increase bribes to Congressmen from those Corporations. Big Polluters will now be able to flout legal restrictions on dumping contaminants into the air, rivers and onto the ground. The EPA will effectively be handcuffed.

Pollution from mercury and other poisonous emissions cause hundreds of thousands of serious illnesses annually, including asthma, which has become a virtual epidemic among our children. Some scientists say that every $1 spent on pollution control saves as much as $20 or $30 in health care costs.

Further uncontrolled pollution by unscrupulous Corporations will further ruin our air, increased carbon build up in the air will trap more heat, overheating the Earth even more than it already has. As the oceans warm up - they have already - we get more moisture in the atmosphere and therefore more intense storms. Noticed that? Massive Floods, Heatwaves, Rains and Snowstorms all over, not just in the US, but all over the world.

I despair for us all. Big Business, Big Polluters and The Rich have complete control of Congress and therefore of our Health, our Air, our Water, our Environment and of every aspect of our lives. We have no control at all left, somehow the Extremist Conservatives have taken control of our world, and they have no mercy for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the middle class or anyone who pays taxes - they don't, or if there are few rich that still make tiny tax`payments, that too will soon be stopped.

Enjoy anything that you have left while you can because it will soon be taken from you.

David. XXX

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Congress.

The blatant bribery of Congress should not be tolerated. Just because Congress calls it Lobbying doesn't change the fact that it is plainly and simply, bribery.

If you had the ability to affect decisions that would put millions or billions of dollars into the pockets of millionaires, billionaires and multi billion dollar companies and you took money from those people or companies and acted upon that power, you would, rightly, go to prison.

But Congress doesn't work that way, they routinely take millions of dollars in bribes every day, and it is perfectly legal, because they, Congress, says that it is OK, for THEM to do that - but not you or me! Congress calls it Lobbying. Any court in the land would call it bribery which is punishable by heavy fines and/or imprisonment. If you took a bribe or a kickback to award a job to a company, what you would be doing would be illegal, but not Congress.

The Health Industry pays Congress one million dollars a DAY in bribes, sorry in lobbying, would you not call that bribery? Most people and courts would if it were you or me doing it.

Now, that is just the Health Industry. (Note - a FOR PROFIT industry.) Not the Health SERVICE as in ANY other civilized country in the world. America is the only country in the world that has a FOR PROFIT Health Industry.

There are HUNDREDS of companies that routinely bribe Congress. They are falling over each other to give them money. Why? Isn't it obvious, they can make or break anyone, by giving them access to government billions, in work, or in subsidies. Companies like Exxon corporation that made $50 BILLION dollars in PROFITS last year and paid NO tax, not one cent in tax! And even more outrageous is the fact that they received SUBSIDIES! Subsidy may just be a word to you, but if you think about it a little you will realize that all of the money that the US Congress spends comes from us. That means that Congress, in return for bribes from Exxon, is giving Exxon, a company that made $50 BILLION in PROFITS and paid NO tax last year, SUBSIDIES from money that YOU paid in taxes!

Yep, Congress thinks that it is fine for big companies to pay no tax, in return for bribes of course, while you pay plenty in taxes. Oh, and in case you didn't catch it the first time, they then take those taxes that you worked hard for and then paid over to Congress, for them, in their wisdom, to give to big profitable corporations. Who in turn give it to their CEO's and other executive officers in salary and bonuses. So your tax can routinely go to pay a CEO's salary and bonuses in the $50 MILLION dollar area! And you can bet your bippy that those CEO's pay way less in taxes on their $50 million than you do on your $50,000. While the average American pays 30% of his income in taxes, the top 1% of Americans pay only 16% in taxes!

Just for good measure here's another annoying fact, the top 1% of Americans own 50% of its wealth. That leaves the other 99% of us to share the other 50%!

Again, just in case it has not occurred to you, most of the members of Congress are among that top 1%. So don't expect them to be doing anything about the situation that makes 99% of us share half of everything while 1% get the other half!

And we want to CUT taxes to the rich! Now, how do they get us to go along with that? Virtually all Republicans, which is about half of the country, and even some Democrats want us to cut taxes to the rich! The latest Republican plan is to cut Social Security by 10% and, are you ready for this, give it to the rich! Yes, they want to cut the top tax rate of 35% (Already the lowest top tax rate of any country in the world) to 29%. No mention of putting the money that would be taken from the poorest among us towards the National Debt, just giving it to the rich, who would suffer not at all.

So, imagine this scenario, you have a young man with Cerebral Palsy who cannot walk or talk, (No he is not lazy and won't work. His disability is no fault of his. His father probably left his mother, so she is taking care of him. As it is a full time job to dress him, feed him watch him etc she is unable to work. Again not because she is lazy, because she is unfortunate enough to be in that position. A nightmare for anyone. Think about it for a few minutes - it could happen to you.) Now, the Republican answer to our unfortunate position, almost entirely the fault incidentally of the Republicans, is to reduce his disability payment of $15,000 per YEAR by 10% ($1,500) and GIVE IT TO THE RICH!!! This is going to solve our problems - NOT! This young man did not cause our problems. But he is going to be punished, and money that is vital to him for any kind of help to his condition is going to be given to people that DID cause our problems - bankers, wall street types, millionaires etc. So some guy who "makes" a million dollars a year is going to be given the $1,500 that will be taken from our unfortunate young man and his mother.

When our Founding Fathers set up Congress I don't think they intended Congressmen to have a "Job for life." They should SERVE for one term and then go back to their regular life.

And how's this for an idea? When a Congressman goes into office he should have his/her Net Worth determined before entering office and then again when he/she leaves, and if it is more when they leave they should have to account for every penny.

There are plenty of honest citizens of character who would be happy to serve their country for one term without thought of massive "Reward". A modest salary and perhaps a small pension should suffice.

I'd be happy to discuss this with anyone who would like to call me and talk about it.

David.