Let the Market Decide; The Government Shouldn't Pick Winners and Losers!

"The Government is not a good Venture Capitalist"

Jon Stewart compares the Administration's business record to Bain's. And calls out the hypocrisy of this stupid, stupid conservative talking point. (second video)

!!!!

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from October 2012: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-october-25-2012/picking-winners---losers
Bain record: 22% failure; Government: 8%

"It is not the ROLE OF GOVERNMENT to pick winners and losers". Jon takes it down.

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from: American Pickers - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 10/25/12 - Video Clip | Comedy Central - http://bit.ly/TozDRJ

Just to finish off the great first segment of this 10/25 episode... here's what Jon says next about "Rape babies are god's gift" ... and punctures the cynical reasons why Republicans have tried to distance themselves from him.

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From: Republican Candidate Said What About Rape Now? - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 10/25/12 - Video Clip | Comedy Central - http://bit.ly/ToA3r2

Medicare: It's Socialized Medicine and It Works.

The reason Medicare costs are growing is because it covers ONLY the *most expensive*, sickest population: elderly people.  There are no healthier (less costly) enrollees (younger people) to spread out the costs.

Also... Like medicine ACROSS THE BOARD, for everyone, costs have been rising for decades, and they seriously need to be put in check.

But the problem isn't that we're spending too much on Medicare: the problem is that US medical care costs too much. (Other countries get much more out of every medical-dollar--they spend less and  have better health outcomes!).

"Obamacare" made a noble first pass at fixing the obvious problems that slow this too-fast growth of Medicare (which every conservative complains about) over the next decade:

• eliminate overpayments to private insurers, 
• reform provider payments to encourage greater efficiency, 
• tie reimbursements to improvements in economic productivity, 
• and reduce fraud and abuse.
• (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)

These changes are where the "$700billion" comes from.

Very, very cynically, Romney/Ryan are savaging Obama for "robbing Medicare of $700billlion"---but THEIR Medicare plan preserves those very "cuts"/savings!! AND then uses them to pay for their massive tax cuts!

• The Ryan-backed GOP budget maintains these cuts, but rather than using them to improve the Medicare program, it applies the savings to pay for massive tax cuts. As the budget chairman himself admitted during an April 5, 2011 speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), “We retain the Medicare savings” — and that’s not all. The Republican blueprint transforms the existing Medicare benefit guarantee into a premium support program that would provide seniors with depreciating vouchers to buy insurance from private plans. (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)
• (Ezra Klein, in the 5th paragraph, gives plan details/citations in the legislation)

This kind of massive whopper of a lie is par for the course with the conservative chatterers and the Romney (Now Romney/Ryan) campaign. But it's a biggie, because Medicare is a major issue for the electorate.  And it turns out that a massive majority of Americans do not like the Ryan and Romney plans to voucherize Medicare. 

And: on top of the savings ("cuts" as Romney/Ryan call it) from Obamacare (which Romney/Ryan keep)--Romney's plan would institute another $2 BILLION IN CUTS (Klein, last paragraph). ??!! They can't have it both ways--complaining about the "cuts"/savings then keeping them AND ADDING TO THEM. 

The truth hurts Romney/Ryan. Which is why they are lying, distorting, obfuscating and muddying to keep the less-informed voter confused.  

They cannot be allowed to get away with it.

Ryanomics = Romneyomics

5 Things Paul Ryan Actually Believes:

1. Really believes in ending Medicare as we know it
2. Really believes in ending Medicaid as we know it
3. Really pushed for privatizing Social Security
4. Really would decimate government funding to the point of failure to perform routine operations
5. Really wants to enact the biggest transfer of wealth in modern US history--from the middle-class and poor to the rich

Read more about these 5 items at the link

David Axis-of-Evil Frum (W's speechwriter) maps Ryan's Plan out for us:

• He's wrong to believe that today's economic problems are caused by fears of tomorrow's debts. Ryan's plan implies a promise that we can create jobs in 2013 by restraining Medicare costs after 2023. That's ideology talking, not economics.
• He's wrong to say that the US faces an imminent debt crisis. Today's big deficits are the consequence, not the cause, of the weak economy.
• He's wrong to treat the Medicare cost problem in isolation from other aspects of the healthcare cost problem. You can't force healthcare costs down generally by dealing with Medicare alone. And if you do deal with Medicare alone, you risk stranding seniors with inadequate resources as healthcare inflation continues to rage.
• He's wrong to bet the house on premium support without any certainty that it will work. We 
• should test whether this idea will deliver as promised. (Calling Jim Manzi, author of the new book about the need for public-policy testing, Uncontrolled!)
• Above all: Paul Ryan is wrong, wrong, wrong to imagine that a society can deal with rising social-insurance costs while entirely exempting Republican-voting age cohorts and without asking for anything from its richest people—in fact while simultaneously delivering those people a huge tax cut.
• Read more: David Frum - What's Right and Wrong in the Ryan Plan - The Daily Beast (8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/Sa3DfV

Top 10 Ways Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class

1. It caters to the 1 percent. 
2. It ends Medicare as we know it. 
3. It eliminates the health care safety net. 
4. It increases unemployment. 
5. It threatens our economic competitiveness. 
6. It showers money on Big Oil. 
7. It devastates Social Security. 
8. It shortchanges K–12 education. 
9. It shortchanges higher education. 
10. It ignores the wishes of the American people.

Read more at: Center for American Progress: Top 10 Ways the Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class - (3/21/2012)



12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan
(8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/R06n4x

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. 
2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires. 
3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. 
4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.”
5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years. 
6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil. 
8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .
9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.”
10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.” 
11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget. 
12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.

Economic Amnesia (More Trickle Down)

The conventional wisdom is that the fate of the presidential elections will rely a lot on how the economy is doing in the fall. For this reason, many have said--even top Republican advisors, out loud!--that Republicans are purposefully hampering the economy in order to kneecap the president and his chances for re-election in 2012.
Meanwhile, recessions have cycles, and while we're not out of it by any stretch, there are signs of improvement. Even Republican governors are contradicting Romney's narrative of economic doom and gloom.

There is no question that our economy is sputtering along and people are hurting. Pres. Obama and his leadership/policies SHOULD be up for debate and review. And so should Romney's alternatives.

While Romney criticizes the weakness of our recovery and Obama's "failures" to bring us out of it faster/stronger, listen for whatever it is he is saying a "President Romney" would have done differently.

What, exactly, substantially, are his policies? And... Would they work?

• We know that he wouldn't have bailed out Detroit and the auto manufacturers ("Let Detroit go bankrupt").
• We know he wants to cut spending and criticizes the Obama stimulus package of 2009.
• We know he wants significant tax cuts, as well as extension of the Bush tax cuts, which go primarily to the wealthiest. 
• We know that he has accused (falsely) Obama of massively expanding government regulations, and said he'd cut the red tape that's supposedly choking economic growth.
• (Update: Tax Policy Center put together Romney's tax plans based on his statements (given that he hasn't released any specifics) and ran analysis of the numbers. Read the breakdown here: "Why Romney's Tax Plan Is Mathematically Impossible" [Aug 6, 2012, "Next New Deal]) 

So... in response to economic failures of  key industries, he would have done nothing. His response to recession would be cutting taxes for the wealthy and slashing regulations.

Who does this sound like?

There is no meaningful difference between the trickle-down economics of George W. Bush, rejected by the country in 2008, and the plans supported by Mr. Romney and his Republican allies in Congress. All the elements are there, from the slavish devotion to tax cuts for the rich, to a contempt for government regulation, to savage cutbacks in programs for those at the bottom. (The Political Contrast - NYTimes.com (6/14/2012))

And we have a record of how things worked out under these policies:

• Killer Facts on Failure of Bush Economic Policies | Americans for Responsible Taxes - http://goo.gl/3mm6F
• The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush | Politics | Vanity Fair (2007) http://goo.gl/A8gT
• Bush Tax Cuts Have Provided Extremely Large Benefits to Wealthiest Americans Over Last Nine Years — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (7/2012) http://goo.gl/xYxrc
• Presidential Job Records - NYTimes.com - Krugman (May 2012) http://goo.gl/Np9v6
• Mitt Romney and Taxing the Rich -   Lowered taxes on the rich have not correlated with faster GDP growth  - http://goo.gl/UJTR8
• Idea of the Day: Great Recession Could Have Been Prevented by Bush Administration - http://goo.gl/czDgD
• Krugman - Why doesn't Bush get economic credit? - NYTimes.com - 1/28/2008 - http://goo.gl/BU4zv
• Mitt Romney Promises to Create Eleventeen Million Jobs - NYTimes.com (5/12/2012) http://goo.gl/CVmxc -- 
• Romney said that we should be creating 500,000 jobs a month — which almost never happens — and that we should have 4 percent unemployment, which is way below almost anyone’s estimate of the lowest rate we can have without accelerating inflation.
  But he understands the economy, right?
• Since Romney is proposing a complete return to Bush economic policies, it might be interesting to note the average rate of job creation during Bush’s first 7 years in the White House — that is, his record even if you ignore the catastrophe at the end. And that average monthly rate, from the BLS, was … drum roll … 66,000.
• Economists: Romney’s ideas wouldn’t fix short-term crisis, and could make things worse - The Plum Line - The Washington Post (6/7/2012) http://goo.gl/gNKXT

Let's not forget.

_____
Trickle Down, Supply Side

• Tax Cuts For The Rich Do Not Spur Economic Growth: Study | TPMDC (9/17/2012) http://bit.ly/UcApTd

More on economic revisionism:

• Must read: Bruce Bartlett (REAGAN's guy), The Clinton Tax Challenge for Republicans (8/2012)
• Economists to Romney campaign: That’s not what our research says (8/8/2012) http://wapo.st/MjCHN3
• The Whole Story: Chairman Conrad's Response to Republican 'No Budget' Claims:  Senate Budget Committee (4/30/2012) http://goo.gl/svlZ0 

More on economy:

• Those Idiots In Washington Don't Know Jack About The Economy (7/27/2012) Business Insider - http://goo.gl/QwgCC
• Includes 10 economic untruths debunked
• The most important issue in this year's election is the economy. But as a survey of economists by the Chicago Booth School makes clear, the last people you should be listening to about how to fix the economy are the people in Washington. Why? Because they don't know jack about the economy. (Or, more likely, they know something about the economy but they care a lot more about getting elected than fixing the economy, so they'll say whatever they think will get them elected.)
• Ed.: Paul Ryan’s Cramped Vision - NYTimes.com (8/11/2012)  http://nyti.ms/Nhkelx
• A candidate of no details — I’ll cut the budget but no need to explain just how — has named a vice-presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, whose vision is filled with endless columns of minus signs. Voters will now be able to see with painful clarity just what the Republican Party has in store for them.
• Alternet: 8/2012: Obama v. Romney: Two Radically Different Visions Of America's Future   http://bit.ly/PAgGFc:
• We've got a stark choice: do we improve the systems that have made us rich and powerful in the past? Or do we tear them down in the name of "freedom," and hope for the best?
• 8/2012: RT @ThePlumLineGS: In an election all about economy, you'd think there'd be more scrutiny on which candidate's plan would fix it http://wapo.st/OHpEov
• Analyzing Mitt Romney's Plan To Fix The Economy... - Business Insider (July 11, 2012) http://goo.gl/dkImW
• Romney Campaign Said to Ask Rep. Gov Scott to Downplay Job Gains http://t.co/IY648OS5
• Katrina vanden Heuvel: Romney’s incredible extremes - The Washington Post (8/2012)  http://goo.gl/VYlX1 -- "Mitt Romney’s tax and spending plans are so irresponsible, so cruel, so extreme that they are literally incredible. Voters may find it hard to believe anyone would support such things, so they are likely to discount even factual descriptions as partisan distortion."
• Romney's tax plan crunches middle class - Tampa Bay Times 8/6/2012 http://bit.ly/PFAJSS
• Scot Lehigh - Romney's Fanciful Tax Plan- Opinion - The Boston Globe (8/8/2012) http://b.globe.com/PFAW8x
• Wonkbog: The Romney campaign says stimulus doesn’t work. Here are the studies they left out. (8/8/2012) http://wapo.st/O5YqWZ

Blame Bush.

Pretty much.

Go right ahead. Using figures by Reaganomics architect Bruce Bartlett, Andrew Sullivan writes:

When you check reality, rather than the alternate universe constantly created by Fox News and an amnesiac press, you find that Bush had a chance to pay off all our national debt before we hit the financial crisis - giving the US enormous flexibility in intervening to ameliorate the recession. Instead, we had to find money for a stimulus in a cupboard stripped bare - its contents largely given away, by an act of choice. 

I'm tired of being told we cannot blame Bush for our current predicament. 

We can and should blame him for most of it - and remind people that Romney's policies -- more tax cuts, more defense spending-- are identical. 

With one difference: Bush pledged never "to balance the budget on the backs of the poor." Mitt Romney has no qualms about doing that very thing. And he will, if he is given the chance.

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Reaganite Bruce Bartlett (also referenced above) lays it out in black and white: 

Republicans would have us believe that somehow we could have avoided the recession and balanced the budget since 2009 if only they had been in charge. This would be a neat trick considering that the recession began in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.They would also have us believe that all of the increase in debt resulted solely from higher spending, nothing from lower revenues caused by tax cuts.  

And they continually imply that one of the least popular spending increases of recent years, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), was an Obama administration program, when in fact it was a Bush administration initiative proposed by the Treasury Department that was signed into law by Mr. Bush on Oct. 3, 2008. 

Lastly, Republicans continue to insist that tax cuts are highly stimulative, often saying that they add nothing to the debt, when this is obviously ridiculous. 

Conversely, they are adamant that tax increases must not be part of any deficit-reduction package because they never reduce deficits and instead are spent. This is also ridiculous, as the experience of the Clinton administration clearly shows. The new C.B.O. data confirm these facts.

PS:
"According to a new Gallup survey, over two-thirds of the country say Bush deserves either "a great deal" or "a moderate amount" of blame for the economy, compared to just over half who say the same about Obama" (MMFA, Poll Shows Americans Still "Blaming Bush" For Economy | Media Matters for America - http://goo.gl/1p8c4 June 14, 2012 )

So much red tape!

Super Tuesday Needham Results

In case you want to geek out on elections stuff, the view from my little corner of the world. Precinct H and G, specifically. For context, according to Needham Times, Needham has 6,641 registered Democrats, 2,511 registered Republicans and 10,244 unenrolled voters--for a total (by my math) of 19,396 registered Needham voters. 


Update 3: Compare yesterday's MA results with 2008 Presidential Primary results.:

• 2008: Romney got 255,982 in MA. (1,745 in Needham)
• 2012: Romney: 265,097 in MA. (1,831 in Needham)
• In 4 years, Romney saw an increase of 9,115 votes (86 in Needham)--a mere 4% (5% in Needham).

And it appears this voter enthusiasm problem for the Republicans is playing out nationally: Republican turnout woes intensify (DKos, 3/7/2012)

Update 2: Full Needham Results at the Needham Town Clerk website. Direct link here. Will excerpt any interesting information as the whim/notice grabs me.  The Needham Patch has excellent rundown of the main races and Needham breakdown.

(MORE AFTER THE FLIP)

$R-Money

All of Mitt's flips and flops in one video, so, all your candidate research, in a nutshell.

Pathetic: Mitt Romney Asks Pres. Obama to Stop Talking About His Taxes, Business Record - (Aug 2012) http://bit.ly/PL8mCQ

On 2008: "Why pick Palin, not Romney, as a running mate? “Oh come on, because we thought Sarah Palin was the better candidate,” John McCain told reporters Tuesday. “Why did we not take Pawlenty, why did we not take any of the other 10 other people. Why didn’t I? Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others.” (Sarah Palin was the better choice, says McCain - ComPost - The Washington Post - (7/17/12) http://goo.gl/41zYO )

Colbert takes down Mitt Romney and Bain... brilliantly as always: "

Mitt Romney knows how to treat America's sick economy with his business experience.

("The Business End", June 9, 2011)

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HIS PLANS/POLICIES

• He's full of lies and vagueness: 
• Romney himself said in March, his budget plan “can’t be scored” and is missing key details about which deductions it would eliminate. Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan failed to answer the same question a day earlier, telling Fox News’ Brit Hume, “I don’t know exactly what the balance is. I don’t want to get wonky on you, but we haven’t run the numbers on that specific plan.” In sum, Romney’s plan is “mathematically impossible.”
• The Romney budget requires even harsher cuts in entitlement programs than Ryan’s radical House-endorsed plan. Ten-year cuts in spending would range from one-third deeper than those in the Ryan budget to almost twice as deep as the Ryan cuts, with potentially disastrous consequences for low-income and middle class Americans — including taking food stamps away from as many as 13 million people.
• (from ThinkProgress 8/15/2012: Romney Adviser 'Embarrassed' He Doesn't Know When Romney Would Balance Budget, But Shouldn't Be | ThinkProgress - http://bit.ly/RXaz4o )
• Analysis: Romney tax plan strongly favors the rich - Political Hotsheet - CBS News (3/12/2012)- http://goo.gl/bWkgd
• Greg Sargent, Washington Post: "Yup: Mitt Romney's own plan would cut billions from cops, firefighters & teachers, a new analysis finds" ( 6/13/2012) http://wapo.st/LTUSV2
• What’s getting lost in the back and forth here is that Romney’s actual economic plan would, in fact, cut billions of dollars in federal money that goes to cops, firefighters, and teachers — perhaps more than $10 billion a year, in fact.

MITT'S "JOBS"/ECONOMY RECORD

• Biz whiz? Small government? Romney took a record level of taxpayer money to run the 2002 Winter Olympic Games — Keeping GOP Honest (2/2012)
• Mitt Romney - Op-Ed Contributor - Let Detroit Go Bankrupt - NYTimes.com (2008)
• Romney’s Firm Instructs American Airlines to Sack 13,000Workers | Addicting Info (2/5/2012) 
• On Wednesday, February 1st, American Airlines announced that it will take the advice of Mitt Romney’s firm, Bain Capital, and lay off 13,000 workers -15 percent of its workforce- replacing their pension plans with 401(k) plans and ending company-paid retiree healthcare.
• Think Progress, MA Economy Was ‘Below Avg, Often Near Bottom’ During Romney’s Time As Gov. (2/2012)

• As Massachusetts governor, Romney’s record on jobs was unremarkable (2/2012) The Washington Post 
• Political Animal - Romney: U.S. economy ‘getting better’ under Obama (1/23/2012) --good read, short
• Romney Dissed Neighborhood Where He Is Now Highlighting Business Record - BuzzFeed (7/19/2012) http://goo.gl/Lge4K

 {More on Mitt, after the flip!}

Conservatives 2012

A place to stash my favorite stories from the so far highly entertaining 2012 Republican pres. nomination party of excesses and lies.

Seriously the Wall St. Journal is even seeing it.  And the rank/file is feeling it: "The Maddow Blog - An increasingly unappealing field (1/31/2012) : Rank and file Repubs increasingly less satisfied with their pres. choices."


TOP
ROMNEY - SANTORUM - RON PAUL - GINGRICH - (BACHMANN) (PERRY)

Massachusetts and Health Care Reform (and don't forget Vermont)

In a development that ought to make conservatives everywhere tingle with thrill, states like Massachusetts and Vermont are innovating health care solutions. (MA's individual insurance mandate, signed by Republican Gov Romney and based on conservative Heritage foundation's ideas,  is of course the precursor to the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate).

This blog entry is to track coverage and information about Mass health care reforms.  Ongoing.