Wisconsin Republicans "Theatre of the Absurd"

While the Republicans take advantage of angry an voter stirred up with lies and health care fictions, just so they could get elected, the sad truth is people will die. For a party bent on dismantling government, they sure want to collect a taxpayer check and benefits:

Wispolitics: According to a new Families USA report co-released by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, 2,400 additional Wisconsin residents will die between now and 2019 if comprehensive health care reform is not enacted … 3500 Wisconsin residents have died since 1995 for lack of health coverage. Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin (said), “It is shocking and sad that so many Wisconsin residents have already died needlessly for the profits of the health insurance industry.

I don't even know how to take the next story, except to say I hope they were kidding. While the Republican Party of Wisconsin has decided to tell the rest of the country, including every major corporation, that we're god awful for business, they're frothing at the mouth rabid over a $10 brown bag fundraiser for Democrats. My advice, try decaf:

RPW: "The Republican Party of Wisconsin is calling out the Democrat Party of Wisconsin for the exorbitant cost of $10 for their brown bag fundraiser this weekend in Madison. “After they destroyed the economic climate in this state and drove taxes through the roof, who has $10 to spend on the Democrats? They’ve already taken enough from Wisconsin residents,” said Mark Jefferson, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

If this were the case, and not just a load of hot air, no one would have the money to spend on Republican Scott Walker either. So after the Republican Party left the Democrats with a $1.2 trillion national debt, busting state budgets, it's only fitting to blame the Democrats?:

Jefferson said the energy is clearly with the GOP now that the Democrats have abused their power by burying the next generation under a mountain of debt.

From the absurd to the crazy. Remember when Barack Obama received criticism by the Republicans for being a "celebrity?" The Democratic Party of Wisconsin Remembers. I love their press release:

Reality star bedazzles Milwaukee GOP, criminal fundraiser. Hearts Throb in Brewtown for “Real World” “Lumberjack.” He caught the eye of GOP Gov. Scott McCallum, who appointed him, and half-term governor Sarah Palin, who endorsed him, and now tee-vee reality star Sean Duffy is turning heads miles away in Milwaukee's Republican Party … state Republican kaisers already have anointed the celebrity television "lumberjack," who played that character on MTV's "The Real World Boston," as (their) candidate.

But it gets better. While Obey is pushing for campaign finance reform to get special interests money out of elections (which seems impossible now with the recent Supreme Court decision), Duffy thinks doing away with the influence of big money is really in effect, sticking it to taxpayers. Instead Duffy would like a "gentlemen's agreement," so he can use special interest money later, for future campaigns.

Duffy said "In true Obey fashion, his response to the problem of special interest influence on campaigns is to stick the taxpayers with the tab," said District Attorney Duffy. "I strongly disagree with Chairman Obey's call for government funded elections. With record debt and deficit spending in Washington, the last thing taxpayers should be funding is welfare for politicians. However, I believe there are common sense proposals that we can come to an agreement on to ensure a fair election without waiting for Congress to act."

As a final insult to our intelligence,

"Duffy is calling on Obey - if he's serious about real reform "to agree to $2 million dollar voluntary spending limit … and ensure that each candidate spends more time with voters, rather than raising money.."

I'm pointing this out for one reason. As absurd as this stuff is, IT WORKS.

NCLB, Vouchers and Charters Part of the Problem, says Renown Former Supporter and now Public School Advocate Dr. Diane Ravitch.

The tide may be turning on the whole crazy idea of building parallel school systems, voucher, charter and public, that produce pretty much the same results (though public schools on average outperform voucher and charters nationwide). It even appears the public school systems are part of the free market system of choice. Check it out.

NY Times: Diane Ravitch, the education historian who built her intellectual reputation battling progressive educators and served in the first Bush administration’s Education Department, (has made an) about-face on almost every stand she once took on American schooling.

Once outspoken about the power of standardized testing, charter schools and free markets to improve schools, Dr. Ravitch is now caustically critical … discovering that these strategies, which she now calls faddish trends, were undermining public education.

She once supported (No Child Left Behind) it, but now says its requirements for testing in math and reading have squeezed vital subjects like history and art out of classrooms.

Dr. Ravitch’s new posture has angered critics. “She has done more than any one I can think of in America to drive home the message of accountability and charters and testing,” said Arthur E. Levine, a former president of Teachers College. “Now for her to suddenly conclude that she’s been all wrong is extraordinary — and not very helpful.”

She rose to prominence in the 1970s with books defending the civic value of public schools from attacks by left-wing detractors, who were calling them capitalist tools to indoctrinate working-class children.

She had endorsed mayoral control of New York City schools … but by 2004 she had emerged as a fierce critic. In 2005, she said, a study she undertook of Pakistan’s weak and inequitable education system, dominated by private and religious institutions, convinced her that protecting the United States’ public schools was important to democracy.

She remembers … at a Washington conference she heard a dozen experts conclude that the No Child law was not raising student achievement. Charter schools, she concluded, were proving to be no better on average than regular schools, but in many cities were bleeding resources from the public system. Testing had become not just a way to measure student learning, but an end in itself. “Accountability, as written into federal law, was not raising standards but dumbing down the schools,” she writes. “The effort to upend American public education and replace it with something that was market-based began to feel too radical for me.”

She told school superintendents at a convention … that the United States’ educational policies were ill-conceived, compared with those in nations with the best-performing schools. “Nations like Finland and Japan seek out the best college graduates for teaching positions, prepare them well, pay them well and treat them with respect,” she said. “They make sure that all their students study the arts, history, literature, geography, civics, foreign languages, the sciences and other subjects. They do this because this is the way to ensure good education. We’re on the wrong track.”

In response, I found this odd conservative perspective in support of Dr. Ravitch, based on the idea that public schools are already part of our system of free market choices.

Austin Bramwell, American Conservative: Diane Ravitch’s about face on school “accountability” (and vouchers) — which favors charter schools, vouchers and standardized testing, as well as demotion of teachers and administrators who fail to achieve set criteria — is interesting, in the way that ideological conversions often are. With due respect to Dr. Ravitch … “school accountability” is a misnomer. Public schools are now and always have been accountable. The so-called “accountability” movement only wants to make them less so.

As every schoolchild likes to say, America is a free country. That is, parents have the right to settle in whatever school district they choose. Predictably, therefore, those families willing to pay the most … gravitate to the best schools, the “price” of which is reflected in the cost of real estate and local property taxes … So long as Americans enjoy freedom of movement, supply and demand will always tend to produce a huge gap between successful and failing schools.

The “accountability” movement, in short, wants to equalize the quality of educational products, no matter the price paid for them. Whatever the merits of this policy, it surely does not show much faith in the free market.

…there is a hidden mechanism that makes the American School System work, and which modern planners ignore — namely, freedom of movement, which creates a well-functioning market for public education. Dr. Ravitch … seems to believe that everyone is entitled to a good education no matter how little she is willing to pay for it.

Star Trek and Twilight Zone Tree Ornaments

From the "forgotten files" comes this Christmas guilty pleasure; A talking Star Trek ornament that is over-the-top creepy, and Twilight Zone Theme TV set that just sits there.

Cheney's "Keep America Safe" plays on Terrorist Fears Encouraging More Home Grown Terrorist Government Attackers

Guilt by association! (Cue up the scary music)"Daughter of Dick Cheney" terrorizes the nation with revelations of a fearful federal justice department and the Al Qaeda cell of attorneys waiting for the right moment to"...I don't know what. Rachel Maddow takes the Cheney paranoia and extrapolates...




So how do Republicans defend this blatant scare tactic, outlined in the NRC's recent PowerPoint Presentation to its members, without admitting they were attempting to create more IRS and Pentagon attackers by ramping up government mistrust. Chris Matthews questions Republican strategist Todd Harris, who simply ignores the fearful music and scary shadows, offering a call for full disclosure from the administration. That's all. No ones buying it, including Steve McMahon who calls it what it is, guilt by association.

Attack on Pentagon, NOT Terrorism AGAIN

We just won't admit there is a growing number of home grown terrorism, whether small groups or crazy loners, because doing so would call into question some in the anti-government tea party movement advocating revolt and secession. From flying a plane into an IRS building to attacking the Pentagon, here we go again:

(AP) - A California man killed in a shootout with Pentagon police drove cross-country and arrived outside the military headquarters armed with two semiautomatic weapons, authorities said Friday. The shooter apparently left behind angry, anti-government Internet postings airing suspicions about the 9/11 attacks. Investigators have found no immediate connection to terrorism. One blog linked to Bedell's page on the social networking site LinkedIn contained a two-part treatise on big government, including its vulnerability to being controlled by a criminal organization.

MSNBC's Contessa Brewer talks to terrorism analyst Roger Cressey, who firmly believes the attacker, as defined by law, is a home grown anti-government terrorist. But armed, anti-government protests would be politically incorrect to watch, because even the crazy ones are true patriots;





Here's the podcast thought to be attacker John Patrick Bedell.

Don't Ask Don't Tell McCain He Flip Flopped.

You have to appreciate the amount of homework Rachel Maddow puts into each broadcast. In this look at Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Rachel once again helps us understand why we can't believe anything coming from the Republican Party.

The harm they inflict on patriotic Americans serving their country is unpalatable.

While we "Race to the Top" in K-12, Were Tearing Apart Our College Systems and Pricing out Students.

Ronald Reagan did away with free college tuition for in California's in state students, and now look where we are. Students have had enough and hit the streets protesting, while state legislatures seem to think America's competitiveness in the world will be unaffected by pricing kids out of an education. I know in Wisconsin Republicans have been trying to cut funding dramatically for years, even suggesting breaking up the university system and selling them all off except for Madison.


This is a look at disaster capitalism and the end of order and freedom.

Hurt Locker Lawsuit an Exercise in Ridiculous.

Look, I checked out Megyn Kelly's new show, after seeing Jon Stewart rip it a new one the other night. What I found was some interesting trashy fun stuff, a specialty of Fox News. First a little background on the story here, "The Hurt Locker" lawsuit.

LA Times is reporting that the producers of "The Hurt Locker" are being dragged to court by Sgt Jeffrey Sarver who claims that characters in the movie are not fictional, but based on him and his three-man team of bomb squad technicians.

I had to post this because it was really bizarre, ridiculous and funny. Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh is one clever guy.

RNC Trashes Supporters, Admits Campaign of Fear and Elitism.

This is the second post on this topic. Exposed as the campaigners of fear and elitist authority, the Republican National Committee can't put this revealing genie back into the bottle, and Democrats now have something that can viscerally energize voters.

In the clip below right features Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Richard Wolffe and Howard Dean with some interesting observations.

Intact America Demands 14 Years in Prison to Parents who Allow Circumcision

I'm not kidding. The groups name is "Intact America," and they want the penis to be intact, with the foreskin.

They have a cause:

Fox News: Massachusetts lawmakers are being asked to outlaw infant male circumcision. Supporters of the proposed ban describe the procedure as "unnecessary, painful and risky."

Georganne Chapin, executive director of the group Intact America, an organization formed to change how Americans think about neonatal male circumcision, said the procedure is also unethical because the infant cannot give his consent.

Besides asking "big government" to get between you and your doctor, there are other big problems:

Religious groups oppose the bill, which has no religious exemption. Studies have linked circumcision to a reduction in the transmission of AIDS in Africa, but backers of the bill say that's not a good enough reason to block a ban.

AIDS, no big deal. Oh, and "No Massachusetts lawmakers have signed on to support the measure."

Below right, Fox's Megyn Kelly interviews Chapin, and gets some surprizing crazy answers.



Note: Check out the "long shot" of Megyn's fully exposed legs. What a desk!

'Extra Small' Condoms for 12-Year-Old Boys Go on Sale

A leading condom manufacturer in Switzerland has created extra-small condoms for boys as young as 12 years old … The condom, called the Hotshot, was produced after family planning groups and the Swiss AIDS Federation campaigned to have the condoms made following several studies that showed adolescent boys were not using proper protection when engaging in intercourse. "The result that shocked us concerned young boys who display apparently risky behavior,” Nancy Bodmer, who headed the research, told the newspaper. “They have more of a tendency not to protect themselves.”

A standard condom has a diameter of 2 inches; the Hotshot's is 1.7 inches.

The Republican Party of 2010: A Government Ruled by Fear. That's What You Call Freedom?

Dictators and authoritarian leaders throughout history have used "fear" to rally the public around a common enemy, promote a feeling of nationalism, and manipulate information into propagandist manifestos. But instead of paging through a history book, one only has to watch the latest PowerPoint Presentation by the National Republican Committee. From The Washington Post/Politico:

President Obama as the Joker and cast House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as Cruella De Vil and Scooby-Doo, respectively -- dubbed "The Evil Empire" on page 31 of the presentation -- outlined how donors will be encouraged to give to Republicans to "Save the country from trending toward Socialism!"

Under "motivation to give," the document lists "fear" and "extreme negative feelings toward existing administration" as reasons donors might contribute to the GOP.
"If you had any doubt, any doubt whatsoever, that the Republican Party has been taken over by the fear-mongering lunatic fringe, those doubts were erased today," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse.

He added, "Republicans across the country have cheered on crowds where these very images appeared, they've encouraged and perpetuated scandalous lies about the President and his plans. And, from calling for secession to condoning violence against government officials, they have sunk to new and unbelievable lows."

Fox News' Megyn Kelly interviews RNC chair Michael Steele who doesn't want the controversy over this campaign of fear and belittling of the low information "visceral donors" to turn into a reform debate. Did he just say that? Yes, and more below. Feeling a little manipulated yet, conservative and tea party members?

Feeling a little manipulated yet, conservative and tea party members?

Funny or Die Advice for Obama on Financial Reform

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

Republican Blue Print for Saving Money: Lower Wages, Higher Health Care costs and Cutting Retirement Savings.

As the title suggests, Republicans don't seem to have a problem selling the idea to Americans that we should all make less money and pay more for health insurance. Oh, and saving money for retirement, good-bye pension plans. This is the basic, easy to understand thrust of gubernatorial candidate and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. Journal Sentinal:

Walker hopes to leverage fear over furloughs and more layoffs into union agreements on concessions … Walker characterized those givebacks - a pay freeze, higher employee health insurance costs and a 20% cut in pension credit - as reasonable.

Typical Republican ploy, using "fear" to advance their nasty agenda. Maybe Walker should think about this: Pay freezes don't keep up with a families ever increasing bills. Pay freezes coupled with increased insurance costs means smaller paychecks and tighter budgets at home. That in turn inhibits consumer spending. How hard is that to figure out?

For years conservatives have been tearing down the concept, "A hungry man is not a free man," by suggesting the "hungry man" as lazy and unmotivated. If free market conservatives can convince enough people the hungry man wants to take their hard earned money away and freeload, then Americans will always be dependent on the Republican free market economic model. Because a "hungry man" needs a job, we will willingly gravel at the feet of our corporate saviors.

How else can you explain taxpayer money subsidies to attract business owners?

Republicans have complained about the enemies of business; tough environmental laws, business taxes and wage floors. Imagine what would happen if these enemies were defeated, and what it'll mean to your quality of life.

A Ugly Truth... and Congressman Paul Ryan.

Community for Changes KELLY GALLAHER wrote this wonderful summation on Rep. Paul Ryan's dystopian vision of a Republican America in the Journal Times.

The past few weeks have been very exciting for Congressman Paul Ryan. The attention continued with the unveiling of his budget plan called "A Roadmap for America's Future 2.0." Ryan's budget was initially regarded as a serious effort to propose a counterpoint to the administration's 2010 budget. That is, until people read it.

Congressman Ryan's limelight became a glaring spotlight when closer examination revealed the Roadmap for America's Future sought to radically dismantle Medicare by replacing the current system with vouchers and replace a traditional safety net with a sweeping effort to privatize Social Security for Americans younger than 55. His plan would undermine the security of these programs for millions of Americans and subject them to the volatility of Wall Street and unabated greed of corporate health care. Nobel Prize economist Paul Krugman called it a "breathtaking act of staggering hypocrisy." GOP members staking their future campaigns on protecting Medicare and Social Security scattered.

Then came the Wall Street Journal that singled out Ryan this past week for his hypocrisy in slamming the stimulus plan … Ryan called the stimulus a "wasteful spending spree" while requesting these same funds in October ... How does a program like the stimulus that "misses the mark on all counts" and "hasn't created the jobs" also manage to "propose to develop an industry- driven training and placement agenda that intends to place 1,000 workers in green jobs" as he stated in his stimulus request? Easy, it's called dishonesty. In December, Ryan called for the repeal of the Recovery Act even though his own hometown of Janesville had received more than $4 million of stimulus money for jobs and new programs.

Erroneously characterized as a "deficit hawk," … Ryan voted for record spending, unfunded tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the bank bailouts and trillion-dollar wars which created our deficit nightmare. Also called a policy "wonk," Ryan championed unsustainable expansions of Medicare Advantage, resulting in billions of overpayments while he seeks to create a policy to dismantle Medicare and Social Security for Americans long after he's gone from office.

He has mystified conservatives as well. In response to his votes in favor of the auto bailout and the AIG confiscatory bonus tax, even conservative pundit Michelle Malkin was moved to scold him to "practice what you preach when it matters. Not after the fact."

When questioned about his vote on the auto bailout just last week to Daily Beast writer Benjamin Sarlin, Ryan confessed he was moved to vote for it not to keep autoworkers employed, but because he believed "that a second Depression would threaten capitalism - and rescue Obama's presidency."

Congressman Ryan has been practicing the most cynical kind of political hypocrisy and hoping we would not notice … his constituents must hold him accountable.
However, it has also given us the opportunity to look deeper into what the future would look like if many in the GOP had their way. Ryan perhaps said it best in a recent interview with the New York Times, "I'm worried that if we get the majority back by default, we'll screw up again." On that, we can both agree.

The Postal Service, at a Supermarket Near You?

I've always believed the postal rates for stamps were ungodly low.

Think about it; you can send a small piece of paper across the country for just 44 cents? It's crazy. It should be a lot more. Rates should also go up to make up or lost business to the email. The postal service is leaning more toward a specialty service, like Fed Ex or UPS. The

The Washington Post: The U.S. Postal Service estimates $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years if lawmakers, postal regulators and unions don't give the mail agency more flexibility in setting delivery schedules, price increases and labor costs … Customers will continue to migrate to the Internet … Postmaster General John E. Potter reported the Postal Service experienced a 13 percent drop in mail volume last fiscal year, more than double any previous decline … The changes could mean an end to Saturday mail deliveries, longer delivery times for letters and packages, increases in postage-stamp prices that exceed the rate of inflation, and -- possibly --
future layoffs … the Postal Service is considering … moving some products and services to nearby supermarkets, office supply stores and pharmacies.

The postmaster general … armed with $4.8 million worth of outside studies that conclude that, without drastic changes, the mail agency will face even more staggering losses.

Three studies (concluded) The agency's business model is so poor,
consultants concluded, that privatizing it is untenable.

Did you get that? The postal service is such a poor business model, that privatizing it is untenable. Another words, Fed Ex and UPS were smart to just focus on delivering PACKAGES, not little paper envelopes.

But the second big point is the postal service has been trying to balance their books, to be profitable, to show government can work, but have been stopped by…some Republicans. Remember this?:

Milwaukee Journal: As the U.S. Postal Service searches for $2 billion in spending cuts, residents in several Wisconsin communities are objecting to changes at their post offices. Consolidation of mail carriers in Oconomowoc, West Bend, Oak Creek and elsewhere has stirred complaints that mail is being delivered late and that residents feel neglected.

Some have found a sympathetic ear in an influential place: their (Republican) congressman. U.S. Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan both have intervened successfully on behalf of constituents who were unhappy with planned belt-tightening measures at their post office. In both cases, the Postal Service shelved its plans and re-examined its cost-cutting strategies.

Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Menomonee Falls, said that while he does not have an alternative plan for trimming costs, he found the cuts being imposed in southeastern Wisconsin to be too disruptive to customers.

So the Republicans refuse to make the changes they complain make the Postal Service an inefficient government run entity. That's just odd behavior, isn't it?

ACORN Innocent! Who can take the Right Wing Seriously Anymore?

Just thought I would post this story from Brad Blog on the "supposed" criminal activity of ACORN. Looks like the right wing media might have to cough up one big mea culpa:

ACORN cleared in Brooklyn: 'No criminality'

Kings County, New York District Attorney Joe Hynes put out a statement just now: On Sept. 15, 2009, my office began an investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees. The three had been secretly videotaped by two people posing as a pimp and prostitute, who came to ACORN’S Brooklyn office, seeking advice about how to purchase a house with money generated by their ‘business.’ The ‘couple’ later made the recording public. That investigation is now concluded and no criminality has been found. This comes as local ACORNs around the country - including here in New York - have been shuttered and relaunched. The operation in the city is now known as New York Communities for Change.

The New York Daily News adds:

They were hailed as heroes by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and their footage led several government agencies to temporarily cut funding for ACORN as the prosecutors opened an investigation.

"On Sept. 15, 2009, my office began an investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a one-paragraph statement issued Monday afternoon. That investigation is now concluded and no criminality has been found."

Farmers and the Conservative Rural Voters Got What they Wished for, Business Friendly Regulations. Who's sorry now?

Fact: Rural area's are generally conservative. These are self made individuals, like small family owned farms, who just want to make a living without all those suffocating regulations. It's a real world stereotype on full display during the election season, when billboard sized campaign signs dot the rural farm fields.

So why are farmers so angry now in Wisconsin? Their business friendly conservative values have come back to bite them, big time. In the investigative Wisconsin State Journal series on "Who's watching the Farm?," the lobby group Dairy Business Association has been successful at speeding up the permitting process, by their "unprecedented influence over the permitting and regulation of the giant farms — in some cases, crafting the law itself."

Forget about pesky environmental and aesthetic concerns, Republican politicians have been pushing for years to "streamline" the permitting process, to become more business friendly. Now conservative rural voters are angry with those free market regulations, complaining that the rules "largely block challenges by local communities to factory farms." Big surprise!

Under the headline "Losing Local Control," the investigative report draws this conclusion, that "The problem is that the state regulations are weak…" How weak?

The law also doesn't regulate construction of the farms in areas where groundwater is especially susceptible to pollution because the underlying rock is highly fractured. Nor does it address lights - which at most factory farms remain on all night - noise, truck traffic or potential decreases in neighboring property values. And it does not set any limits on a farm's use of high-capacity wells, which pump millions of gallons of water a day and can affect nearby private wells.

The result, when town officials sought to challenge the factory farm site:

"If you choose to pursue local requirements beyond the scope of the state siting law, the town will expose itself to unnecessary legal challenges from applicants and other interested parties that the town may not be able to defend," the letter (from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said).

The result:

1. No permit requests have been turned down by the DNR, nor have any permits been pulled when farms violate the terms of the permits. (In Illinois), a quarter of all permit requests have been turned down.

2. No ground water monitoring.

3. Many of the farms are inspected once every five years … DNR inspection staff has not grown along with the number of big farms.

I could go on about this revealing report, and about how it doesn't pinpoint who the politicians were that stripped local communities of their ability to save their quality of life, but instead, I thought this ironic observation pretty much said it best:

Matt Urch, who owns a small grass-fed livestock operation in Vernon County and has been involved in efforts to prevent construction of a nearby factory farm on the outskirts of Viroqua. "I am outraged that the state of Wisconsin deemed it necessary to pass a law designed to protect the economic interests of factory farms by stripping away the ability of local citizens to pass common-sense measures to protect the health and safety of both people and the environment," said Urch.

Ezra Klein Clears Up Ryan's Muddied health Care Water

Ezra Klein: Ryan's critique scores some clean points and also deploys a couple of dirty tricks, but it doesn't damage the bill's claim to reduce deficits and doesn't even engage whether the bill controls costs.

Ryan says that "the true 10-year cost of this bill in 10 years" is $2.3 trillion. On this, Ryan is right, but misleading. Point for Ryan.

Ryan gets the $2.3 trillion by looking at what health-care reform will spend in 2019 and extrapolating that number out across the next 10 years ... The problem is that Ryan uses the classic “This Is A Big Number" technique to imply that the bill is financially irresponsible, when putting the number in context would show just the opposite.

According to the CBO, the bill cuts the deficit far faster in the second decade than in the first. That's because the revenues and savings grow much faster than the spending. The bill might cost $2.3 trillion, but it either raises or saves $2.95 trillion, for a net deficit impact of negative $650 billion. So although Ryan uses the price tag to imply that the bill's spending is somehow worse in the second decade than in the first decade, he omits the information that's actually relevant for his presentation on cost control and deficit reduction.

I imagine the congressman would respond ... saying that he doesn't buy the CBO's estimates ... or what's called "double-counting." If a new policy saves Social Security $50, and the government then doesn't have to borrow $50, that improves the deficit outlook by $50. But let's say that the government then takes that $50 from the trust fund and sends it over to an education program ... this is the same as a parent giving his son $50. The parent may be $50 poorer, but the family's finances are unchanged. That trust fund, however, has to eventually be paid back ... Otherwise, you're double-counting the cash, because you're assuming that it lowered potential borrowing for Social Security (count one) and for the education program (count two). According to Ryan, there's about $124 billion in double-counted money in the bill ... that's a fair critique. What isn't fair is to suggest that this is about the health-care bill. This is how the government does its accounting. Wherever you fall on double-counting, $124 billion isn't much money in the scheme of this thing.

Ryan gets his big money a few paragraphs later, when he makes a much more dishonest argument: He attaches the cost of fixing the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate to the health-care reform bill. In 1997, Republicans passed the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate into law. The provision created a simple equation meant to hold down Medicare costs and cut doctor payments when they rose. But the provision was passed when Medicare's costs were uncommonly low. Suddenly, SGR was forcing huge cuts rather than the modest adjustments that had been intended. So legislators began voting to delay implementation ... The first delay was passed in 2003, under Republicans. Then again in 2005, 2006, under Republicans. Then in 2007 and 2008, under Democrats ... this is a policy in a Republican bill that Republicans delayed three times and Democrats delayed twice. The SGR problem predates health-care reform and exists irrespective of health-care reform's fate. Attempts to lash the two together are nonsensical.

Ryan says that the chief actuary of Medicare says the administration is bending the cost curve up. That's not quite what he showed. Rather, health-care reform initially increases spending to cover the uninsured. That raises the level of spending, but not the curve. The curve actually flattens. If you extend the trend out to the second decade -- which is what Ryan does in other parts of his presentation, including for the $2.3 trillion figure the curve goes down. Concluding that "a decade after the reforms kick in, we'd be providing health care to at least 30 million more people and spending no more than we would if we did nothing," which is to say, the curve-bending elements of the plan would've saved enough money to cancel out the new coverage expenses.

To sum up, then, Ryan makes some good points about the true cost of the bill and realities of the federal budget. But he purposefully omits any mention of the bill's expected savings, disingenuously attaches the price tag of a broken Republican policy onto the health-care reform bill, and selectively stops extrapolating trends when they don't fit his points.

But don't listen to me. Robert Reischauer is the head of the Urban Institute. He's also one of the CBO's most revered former directors, in no small part because his relentlessly honest cost estimates helped doom Bill Clinton's bill in 1994. I reached him earlier today and asked whether he thought this bill made fiscal sense. "Were I in Congress and asked to vote on this," he replied, "I'd vote in favor." The bill isn't perfect, he continued, "but it at least has the prospect for creating a platform over which more significant and far-reaching cost containment can be enacted." The same cannot be said for the status quo.

Want Small Government? Sen. Jim Bunning Brings it to You!

The compilation below shows off Sen. Jim 'crazy' Bunning, and his Republican colleagues, who supported his efforts to filibuster extending unemployment for a month during the Great recession because...it's a lesson in fiscal discipline. Hey, now's as good a time as any, right?

Maybe the jobless can use their new found "freedom" and go to that big business down the street, the one that took taxpayer dollars as a gift from the state to set up shop there, and get a little help.

I ended the video clip with the Daily Show's take on "Bizarro Bunning."

What do Tea Party Protesters, conservatives and Republicans mean by "Freedom?"

I've always wondered what Republicans, tea party crazies and right wingers meant by "freedom." Does freedom mean giving everything away to business so they can keep us from falling through the cracks? Is freedom the ability to pay out of pocket whatever a deregulated market demands? Is freedom the feeling you get now not knowing if you'll have a job next week? Is freedom the feeling you get not having Social Security to depend on in old age, or big government Medicare coddling you as your health declines?

Freedom is not knowing what's going to happen next, but still knowing that you're armed and ready to defend yourself from some guy who cut you off at the stop light.

Freedom is finding an affordable private school that's not so great but at least doesn't have a waiting line. The following is another look at what it means to conservatives to be free:

Tina Dupuy: Everything American: freedom. You disagree with them, you disagree with freedom. They’re against things and those things naturally are against freedom, the thing they’re for. You know who’s against freedom? Anyone they put on a First Amendment protected picket sign.

What does “freedom” mean when Republicans say it? During the marathon C-SPAN filmed Health Care Summit at the Blair House, Rep. Paul Ryan (endorsed by Dick Armey’s business boon FreedomWorks) summed up the bait and switch behind the watchword best, “We don’t think the government should be in control of all of this. We want people to be in control.” Of course, the Grand Old Party’s founding father, Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg address described our Union as, “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” But now according to Rep. Paul Ryan it shouldn’t be in control, but the people should?

Really when freedom is invoked by the GOP it means liberty for corporations. Its big government getting out of the way so big business can step up.

The opposite of freedom is being gouged by your credit card, denied by your health insurance and pick pocketed by your bank. The opposite of freedom is being a Wal-Mart sharecropper and a Payday Loan serf. The opposite of freedom is being blackmailed by companies that are “too big to fail.”

Yes, America is the land of the free…and since the GOP had their way for eight years, it now comes with interest.

Ah, now that's what they mean by "the price of freedom."

Watch William Kristol Make an Ass of Himself...

I'm not sure how much Fox News is willing to take, but having one of your key pundits admit, without guilt, he had " a life" and didn't watch the health care summit with Obama and the Republicans should really be the last straw for the network. You're fired.

At a key time to talk about the give and take on national television, he didn't watch it. Amazing.

In the Land of the Free (to be racist), Rush Limbaugh is that and More.

In the good old days of radio, about 6 years ago and before, local and regional political talk show hosts were not allowed to promote racism on a stations public airwaves. They would be fired immediately.


When millions of dollars are dependent on a national talk host like Rush Limbaugh, who continually race baits his listeners, corporate radio stations simply defer to their bottom line. Rush denies he's said anything racist of course, which nowadays is enough to be considered part of an honest debate. Everything is relative now, and that's all it takes for group stations to keep the money machine oiled. But the example below no longer leaves any doubt, as Melissa Harris Lacewell points out and dissects the obvious. Keith Olbermann starts things off:



Click start to see video:

The Bloom Box, from Bloom Energy

Here comes the BloomBox. 60 Minutes did a great piece on this new energy source for home and the office. A small battery box that uses small amounts of fuel that outputs lots of energy.

I'm hesitent now about someday installing those wafer thin sheets of solar panels produced in California. Dylan Ratigan has the story here:

Sen. Lamar Alexander worries it's a "political kamakaze mission for the Democratic Party if they ram it through."

Is Sen. Lamar Alexander crazy? On ABC News, he described reconsiliation of the health care reform bill as "the end of the senate," it was a "political kamakaze mission for the Democratic Party if they jam this through," and the congress is incapable of doing something dramatic and sweeping as health care reform. Who took this cranky old senior off his meds?