Thanks to HUD's Ben Carson, here's the 16 Most Terrifying GOP Words!

I just want to update an old Ronald Reagan joke about the 9 most terrifying words. Here's my version of the 16 most terrifying GOP words: "I'm from the government and I'm here to make things "simpler, less invasive and more transparent." That's a quote from Ben Carson.

You gotta know you're about to get screwed royally. But it's simpler.

The most unqualified HUD Secretary in U.S. history, Ben Carson, is about to make Scrooge's "are there no workhouses" a U.S. reality:

Carson wants Americans living on housing assistance to put more of their income toward rent and he wants to give public housing authorities the ability to impose work requirements on tenants.

Instead of asking 30 percent of a person's adjusted gross income, Carson wants the poor to pay 35 of their GROSS income, in other words, no deductibles for child care or high medical expenses. It's simpler.

What does this mean for seniors 65 and older, and the disabled? Nothing for 6 years, after that, every generation of seniors, the disabled and hard-hit families will get nailed. Thank you Baby Boomers:

HUD officials said the proposal would not impact rents paid by those currently receiving federal subsidies who are 65 and older and those with disabilities, for the first six years. Officials say more than half of the families HUD serves are elderly and disabled.

Why this matters:

"The bill would actually increase rents for households that have high medical or child care expenses by eliminating income deductions for those costs. So the greatest burden of the rent increases would be felt by seniors, people with disabilities and families with young kids."

Republicans like Paul Ryan have proposed a similar scheme with Medicare, passing the pain off onto generations that haven't really thought much about their future benefits. But it is simpler, transparent and less invasive.

New Republican low: Kill the innocent families of terrorists!

The party of sociopaths? That would explain how Republicans could so easily ignore the horror of the Newtown massacre, and every other mass shooting since. Their callous indifference should have been a major tip-off.

The GOP presidential debate solidified that point in the most brutal way when the blood thirsty crowd supported of the idea expressed in the headline story pictured to the right by Sam Stein.

Make no mistake, this really is the path Republicans want to take us down, as a nation.

Donald Trump: “We have to be much tougher, we have to be much stronger than we've been. We have people that know what is going on … I would be very, very firm with families. And frankly, that will make people think, because they may not care much about their lives. But they do care, believe it or not, about their families' lives.”

Dr. Ben Carson: “You have to be able to look at the big picture and understand that it's actually merciful if you go ahead and finish the job rather than death by a thousand pricks.”

When co-moderator Hugh Hewitt, no shrinking violet when it comes to conservatism, asked Carson if he was “OK with the deaths of thousands of innocents children and civilians,” the crowd mercilessly booed.

How long will it be before Republicans rationalize going after other perceived enemies, like the Democrats? Isn't it time they took their country back? Like Jeb said:

"The idea that that is a solution to this, is just...is just crazy!"

Here's a string of tweets during the debate:

Carson's take on Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers has roots in Comedic History....

I suppose there is a chance in some dystopic future Bill O'Reily's books on history will be the only source we have left to cling to, and be taken as fact.

But seriously, it's Ben Carson's historically inaccurate comments that I found funny, and reminiscent of a Bob & Ray bit from the mid-60's.

In an interview with C-SPAN, Carson was asked about his book, "A More Perfect Union." Here's our sleepy eyed, near comatose candidate Carson:

Carson Inaccurately Credits Thomas Jefferson with Writing Constitution: But in reality, the founding father was the lead author of the Declaration of Independence. Carson erroneously said the founding fathers had "no elected office experience."

"I’m impressed by a lot of them, but particularly impressed with Thomas Jefferson, who seemed to have very deep insight into the way that people would react. And he tried to craft our Constitution in a way that it would control people’s natural tendencies and control the natural growth of the government.”

Carson's response reminded me of this great bit from Bob & Ray, about another historical author:

Ben Carson will change the way we see the country...literally.

I don't know what conservative voters are thinking, if they're thinking, when they blather on about Ben Carson. 

Case in point, this amazing campaign moment (yes, another one): 

Happy Geography Awareness Week! Ben Carson's presidential campaign inadvertently underscored this point Tuesday night, when it took to social media to share a map of the United States in which five New England states were placed in the wrong location. 

As you can see, in Carson's map the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine are moved northeast by about 150 miles or so. Vermont and New York now have hundreds of miles of new beachfront property. Massachusetts shares a border with Canada. Maine straddles what is now the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

Also, if you look closely at the mid-Atlantic area, you'll see that Virginia's portion of the Delmarva Peninsula is colored red to match Maryland, rather than gray with the rest of Virginia.

Trump, Carson, Fiorina, and Christie would describe the Civil Rights movement today as “disgusting…infantile behavior…we’re being a little too tolerant…much further toward anarchy…political correctness!”

The idea is stunning. Did we just see the GOP presidential candidates inject themselves into a local campus’ problem with racism?

Yes, in the most bizarre way too. Here’s what happened:

The two frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination criticized protests at the University of Missouri Thursday, arguing that the university administrators who resigned in the wake of racially-charged incidents may have set a harmful precedent by acquiescing to students' demands.

"I think it's disgusting," Donald Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network. "I think the two people that resigned are weak, ineffective people. I think that when they resigned, they set something in motion that's gonna be a disaster for the next long period of time."

Republican candidate Ben Carson also said Thursday that students at the school were giving in to "infantile behavior. We're being a little bit too tolerant, I guess you might say, accepting infantile behavior. I don't care which side it comes from. To say that I have the right to violate your civil rights because you're offending me is un-American," he said on FOX News' The Kelly File. "The officials at these places must recognize that and have the moral courage to stand up it. Because if they don't, it will grow, it will exacerbate the situation and we will move much further toward anarchy than anybody can imagine, and much more quickly," he added.

Fellow Republican Carly Fiorina echoed concerns about "political correctness" on college campuses, telling reporters Thursday evening that the phenomenon is "choking candid conversations in this nation. One of the things you see going on, on so many college campuses now is kids are taught, you know, if anything offends their sensibilities that they should stand up and say, 'oh don't talk to me that about that.'" she said.

Speaking in Iowa, New Jersey Republican Chris Christie blamed the unrest on an atmosphere of "lawlessness" fostered by the president. "When people think justice is not applied evenly and fairly, they take matters into their own hands," he said during an appearance in Iowa.Democratic presidential candidates have been generally supportive of the protesters, emphasizing the students' fight to address the racially-charged incidents that originally prompted the tensions in Missouri and at other institutions nationwide.

Bernie Sanders said in a tweet that "it's time to address structural racism on college campuses."

Media Matters put it this way:

Only on Fox News are armed militia members protesting federal law "patriotic," while university students and faculty speaking out against racism are labeled as anarchists.

But that's not all, as you'll see in this story from Rachel Maddow about a Trump crowd reaction to another protester:

Johari Osayi Idusuyi, who received internet acclaim when she was seen on camera reading Claudia Rankine's “Citizen: An American Lyric,” a book of poetry about race, at a Donald Trump rally, talks with Rachel Maddow about what happened in the seats...

GOP War on Workers, Trump: "Wages too high!!!" Rubio: "You're going to make people more expensive than machines!!!"

The GOP opened their debate in Milwaukee with the most revealing and truthful answers yet about their disdain for the middle class and the value they put on labor.

The Nation's John Nichols laid it out clearly today. Here's the video:

Moderator Neil Cavuto: "As we gather tonight—just outside, and across the country—picketers are gathering as well. They’re demanding an immediate hike in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. As the leading presidential candidate on this stage and one whose tax plan exempts couples making up to $50,000 a year from paying any federal income taxes at all, are you sympathetic to the protesters’ cause, since a $15 wage works out to about $31,000 a year?”

Trump responded: “I can’t be, Neil. [Taxes] too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave [the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage] the way it is."

Carson also made up another mind bending theory:

"It's particularly a problem in the black community. Only 19.8 percent of black teenagers have a job, or are looking for one. You know that's because of those high wages. If you lower those wages that comes down."

So if we just had low wage jobs in the inner city, black teenagers would have jobs? Better paying jobs will only make things worse?

The Ugly Truth Is Out: Wow, wages are too high in the U.S. for this country to compete globally. This could be a news flash for tea party voters...or they just didn't notice. I think the latter. 

Nichols also pointed out another calmly delivered pathological lie from Ben Carson:

Dr. Ben Carson trotted out the favorite fantasy that raising wages leads to unemployment. “Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases,” Carson claimed.

But...

“That isn’t true,” responded Politico’s fact-check site. “Multiple studies have observed instances in which the minimum wage rose and unemployment did not rise.”

Welders...again? Marco Rubio sang the same sweet Scott Walker song about the dream job of welding. Supposedly the nations turning out too many philosophers, more than corporate American needs right now. It's welding, welding, welding!!! Rubio and Walker's preoccupation with welders got the Yglesias treatment:

Interesting note about a welders income and that of a philosophers, from WaPo:

PayScale, a firm that analyzes compensation, put the median mid-career income for philosophy majors at $81,200 in 2008, with welders making $26,002 to $63,698. And Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce said in a 2014 analysis that median incomes were $68,000 for people with an advanced degree in philosophy or religious studies

Minimum Wages are a Disaster in the 21st Century? Yes, that's what Marco Rubio said when he was asked:

Rubio: “If I thought that raising the minimum wage was the best way to help people increase their pay, I would be all for it, but it isn’t. In the 21st century, it’s a disaster. If you raise the minimum wage, you’re going to make people more expensive than a machine. That means all the automation that is replacing jobs and people right now will be accelerated.”

Did he just object to people having more value than a machine? Folks, we have reached that turning point. Can “Terminator: Revenge of Rubio” be next?

Perhaps the Republicans need to brush up on their party's origins:

In a forum that Lincoln would not have recognized as a debate, they rejected the mantle of the radical founders of a party formed to fight the reactionaries who Lincoln warned would “place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of government.” 

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital,” Abraham Lincoln told the Congress in 1861. “Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

GOP Performing Arts Debate Tour!! What's next, Dance Numbers?

Republican candidates running for president should be embarrassed...but they're not. They not only want dictatorial control over their public image and message, devoid of tough questions on policy effecting all of us, but they also want us to go along with it. A line out of "1984" says it all:

The Party "seeks power entirely for its own sake. It is not interested in the good of others; it is interested solely in power."[4]

It should be noted the Democrats aren't trying to manipulate the networks format, not because the media is supposedly liberal, but because it's dangerous to our system of government, silly and self-serving.

Not even the lunatic rantings of RNC Chair Reince Priebus was extreme enough for these bullies from striking out on their own:

AP: Republican presidential candidates have agreed on a series of demands to give them greater control of debates … Representatives from more than a dozen campaigns emerged from a closed-door meeting…

1. (They) agreed to several changes largely bypassing the RNC in coordinating with network hosts.

2. Mandatory opening and closing statements.

3. An equal number of questions for the candidates.

4. And pre-approval of on-screen graphics.

According to the seemingly sedated and sleepy eye'd candidate Ben Carson, controlling images, messaging and questions will finally give American voters a more "mature" form of democracy and debate, whatever the hell that means:

"We need to mature in the way that we do these debates if they're going to be useful to the American people," Carson told ABC's "This Week."

The changes were agreed to by a cordial group of right wing authoritarians, the nicest kind?

"The amazing part for me was how friendly the meeting was," Bennett said, noting the gathering was held in a room marked "family meeting." ''Everybody was cordial. We all agreed we need to have these meetings more regularly." 

Just more liberal whining on my part, or...:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie distanced himself from the new demands. "Do not count me in the group that's doing this moaning and complaining about this … The presidency is almost never scripted, so we shouldn't have these debates scripted, either." 

Trump, Carson do away with Medicare!!! Opt for High Deductible Health Savings Accounts.

Republicans don't know anything about health care, and that ignorance is going to kill a lot of people.

The cavalier attitude we're seeing from Republicans who have off handedly said they'll get rid of Medicare is shocking stuff.

Imagine seniors trying to navigate the private health care system, getting surprise medical bills in the mail, or are expected to read the small print of exclusions. I'm wondering if Republican politicians have ever seen or talked to seniors in independent or assisted living facilities. Many don't quite have the mental agility they once had.

My own mother, 95 and a former real estate company owner, is no longer able to understand or take the time to go through the maze of choices. She wasn't even able to do it 10 years ago, and made some uncharacteristically bad choices, but I never knew. This is the world Republicans want seniors to wonder in helplessly.

And so it is with Donald Trump and Ben Carson. Neither of them understand deductibles or health savings accounts. Basically, here's the scoop:

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) were created in 2003 so that individuals covered by high-deductible health plans could receive tax-preferred treatment of money saved for medical expenses.

The only real benefit is that the accounts money is tax deductible, but it will never cover the full cost of high deductibles insurance policies. Even worse, it was made to work in concert with HIGH DEDUCTIBLE plans, the very problem Republicans say they hate. So high deductible policies aren't going away.

Which means, they're not just talking out of their ass, they're going to pass something that will cost you a whole lot of money.

It's astonishing that Carson, a doctor, doesn't know this.

Here's Donald Trumps clueless answer on ABC's This Sunday:

Sen. Kapenga agrees with Ben Carson, throws out Religious Freedom for Muslims.

Sometimes politicians mean just what they say. End of story. This is one of those times. Seriously, see for yourself:

Real Constitution-like, ya think? Here's what Ben Carson said:

NBC's Chuck Todd: "Do you believe that Islam is consistent with the Constitution?"

Carson: "No, I do not,. I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that."

Yes, say hello to our new state senator:

Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) posted a link to a Yahoo! News article Monday entitled "Ben Carson won't back down from comments about Muslims" - adding his own comment - "I agree with him." The article was about Dr. Carson defending his belief that a Muslim should not be elected President.

27 News asked Sen. Kapenga's staff if he would explain his position on the matter. The tweet was taken down shortly after our call and his staff never responded to our request. On Tuesday, we again asked a staffer for Sen. Kapenga if he would do an interview on the matter. His office responded with a one-line email: "Senator Kapenga is unable to do an interview and will not be commenting further on the issue." 

Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) told 27 News: "I don't know of anyone else in the State Senate who believes that, but we're cast in that same light and it's really frustrating."

Here's Greg Neumann's report: