Published here for fair use and discussion purposes.
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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders recently asked if we’ll really seek to balance the budget by cutting disability benefits for veterans who have lost arms and legs defending us, while we continue to fund tax breaks for billionaires (They're seeking to balance the budget? When? How? That's certainly a surprising assertion. Anyway, the budget cliff was created over a year ago in exchange for raising the deficit cap. Remember that? So this "crisis" was created by government, and has been percolating for a long time and could have been addressed a long time ago.
Oh, and this little tidbit. On November 21, 2011, Obama said this: "My message to [Congress] is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off-ramps on this one."
Continuing in our analysis, do you notice how Mr. Lourie creates a false comparison? He wants to create the impression that Republicans favored cuts to veterans {and emotional ploy, by the way. The Left typically trots out sob stories like this to manipulate opinion} when in actual fact both Republicans and Democrats were scrambling to avoid the fiscal cliff. Indeed, the House passed the "cliff bill" on Tuesday with a vote of 257-167. Oops, Mr. Lourie!).
Pretty harsh? Beyond belief? Unfathomable, given the Congressional oath of office (That oath is: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God." So where in there is an obligation to fund programs at a specified level? Indeed, the very Constitution they swear to uphold and defend they regularly ignore, manipulate, or misstate.)
It’s exactly what Republican obstructionists in Congress are demanding in the fiscal crisis negotiations. (Obstructionists? The Republicans hold the majority in the House. Definitionally, they cannot be obstructionists.)
Speaker Boehner failed to mobilize extremist (Note the pejorative language, where principled dissent is represented as illegitimate.)
votes for compromise with President Obama (What? There is some sort of obligation to compromise with Obama? Did the Democrats compromise with Bush, or did the continually and relentlessly impugn his integrity and intelligence?).
Right wingers, showing continued hatred for the president (Yes, that's what it is... hatred. After all, who could disagree with the Light-Bringer? There can't be a simple disagreement over policy, no, it must be hatred. And Mr. Lourie is blessed with the ability to read minds. He knows peoples' motivations. Wow. What an amazing guy.)
and anger over his overwhelming re-election victory (Overwhelming? 51% is overwhelming? in what fairies and unicorns universe is that overwhelming?),
have simply decided to shaft the country (Yes, that's it. Never mind that there's a $17 trillion debt, and that the 2008 crash stole 40% of average Americans' net worth. And a true unemployment rate of 12%. No, none of that shafted the country. But attempting to hold off on deficit spending, well THAT is shafting the country.) .
They’re determined to steal benefits from veterans, children, the ill and the elderly (Cue the weeping mothers and the wheelchairs. *sob*),
in order to ensure the president’s failure (The president has already failed. He won the election but every one of his initiatives has failed to solve the financial situation. Trillions of dollars spent and nothing to show for it.).
No outrage, no harm, no draconian denial of benefits befitting a moral democracy (Moral democracy? Impossible! Democracies are majority rule. Morality has nothing to do with it. And we need to be reminded once again that we do not have a democracy.)
are too extreme in the corporate dictated, tea party demand to scuttle compromise (There's that word "compromise" again. Compromise is always the obligation of Republicans. There is never compromise going the other way.).
We Democrats are the party of compassion for those less fortunate (Ensuring that they remain in destitution generation after generation. Yeah, that's compassionate. Would it be inappropriate to ask Mr. Lourie how much he personally gives to the less fortunate? That's the real measure of compassion, not government extracting money out of our wallets.),
believing in a thriving middle class (And making sure no one moves up out of the middle class, because then they are rich and oh how we hate the rich!),
the right of hardworking Americans to bargain collectively (Which no one denies.), providing our young with an education preparing them for participation in the American Dream (An education becoming increasingly worthless as students are now graduating unable to read or write.), advocating for those without voice or power (like the unborn?).
Protection of long standing guarantees for life enhancing support in old age and access to quality health care top our list of priorities (Every dime of funding, of course, is extracted from the taxpayer. How compassionate they are with your and my money! How caring that they can spend trillions of dollars and never worry about parting with any of their own money! What a country this is, with government spending trillions of dollars on poverty programs, which has yielded a poverty rate exactly the same as it was decades ago! How wonderful that our great grand children's taxes have already been spent! And millions more people on food stamps! And seniors having to choose between food and medicine! And inner city poverty and crime is skyrocketing!
Yes, you Democrats have a lot to be proud of. You care so much, and give so much. You have sacrificed so much of others' wealth.Yes, you leftists have really done a bang up job.).
Raising the age of Social Security benefit eligibility, without demanding that all wage earners pay the same percentage of their income into the system betrays our compact with our government (Does the fact the government has already spent the SS Trust Fund represent a violation of this compact? A "pact" means "something agreed upon." What agreement is it that is "our compact with our government?" There is no such agreement. SS was a law passed by Congress. As we have discussed before, Fleming Vs Nestor established that there is no right to SS benefits, and reaffirmed that Congress can modify or discontinue the program at any time. There is no "compact!".
Americans work all their lives, expecting at age 65 the comfort and support earned by their labors — government’s solemn promise (Gawd, I can hardly stand it! The emotional manipulation is unbearable! Americans work all their lives, having significant sums of money extracted from their pay just to be frittered away by government on every conceivable idiotic scheme, yet Mr. Lourie writes with false earnestness about this high moral charge. What pompous nonsense!).
Recalcitrant Republicans, answering to wealthy donors rather than to working Americans, must not be allowed to deny this right (As we have noted, there is no "right" in play here.).
Millions of our fellow citizens are in dire need. We Democrats are committed to demanding that they are cared for (Get out your checkbook, sir. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Buy gas for poor peoples' cars. Go mow your neighbor's yard. Get off your ass and do something yourself instead of expecting other people to pay for your moral obligation.).
Dan Lourie Bozeman
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