Governor Daniels in his January 24, 2012 rebuttal to the State of the Union Address said - we must unite to save the safety net (implying that the net is Medicare and Social Security) but they need some repairs. Remember back to the budget crisis talks and the Republicans wanting to cut Social Security (SS) and Medicare and when it didn’t fly they came up with raising the age of SS to 68 Medicare to 70; this is what we have to look forward to if a Republican is elected. Daniels also said - Decades ago we could afford to send millionaires pension checks and pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us - now we can’t so the dollars we have should be devoted to those that need them the most. Hello, remember on September 8 in the President’s Jobs Act speech when he talked about a Deficit Reduction Plan calling for cuts, mostly directed at higher income seniors; he said either reduced benefits or more costs to them. I swear the Republicans are trying to take credit for everything the President is doing or trying to do and blaming him for things they did (example: the energy light bulb).
On February 1 after Romney took the Florida primary he said in an interview in response to a recent poll that he wasn’t concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there and if it needs repair I’ll fix it, you can focus on the rich, I’m not focusing on the rich; I’m focusing on middle income Americans. Rush Limbaugh’s response was “he makes himself a target with this stuff. He comes across as a prototypical rich Republican. And it’s going to make it harder, and harder, and harder, and harder to go after Obama”. On February 2, I heard on the View that the Tax Policy Center said that Romney’s plan would increases taxes on the low income families and cut taxes on the middle class and the rich; households making $20,000 or less a year would see their taxes increase more than 60%. I also heard that food stamps and welfare is what he considered the safety net. Sherri said if food stamps and welfare is a safety net for the poor somebody is disillusioned and he is out of touch. I want to remind people that the maximum you can get on SS is $28,000 and according to AARP, 1 in 11 people over the age of 50 are at risk of hunger (up 79% since 2001); so the poor are not just those younger people on welfare.
Daniels said we need a simpler tax system of fewer loopholes and lower rates, a pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that could otherwise be used to hire somebody. I already addressed the hiring situation so let’s go back to that pipeline the Republicans want. On January 27 the president supported opening up 38 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. We don’t need a stinking pipeline through the middle of our country that puts our people at risk. How many times do we need exploding or leaky pipes, how many cases does Erin Brockovich need to investigate before we realize that some business practices or transporting of fuels or chemicals hurt our people? Erin’s most recent case, reported on January 27, has to do with soil from a 2 ton (35,000 gallons) cyanide spill from a train in 1970 that was used 3 miles away in Le Roy, NY (according to Dr. Drew Pinsky the federal review and safety agencies said the soil at the spill site is contaminated). There’s a mystery surrounding the sudden odd ticks, verbal outbursts, and fainting spells of 15 teens in the same Le Roy high school; the National Institute of Health doesn’t think they’re faking and they want to evaluate all of them. The NY Health Department found no evidence of environmental or infection to cause the illness and doctors say that a conversion disorder (stress) is causing the teen’s Tourette’s symptoms (some of the kids are taking 11 drugs so this has been going on for a while). Dr. Pinsky says he’s spent years studying medical causes related to psychiatric disorders such as ‘conversion’ and there may be some of that but the question is whether or not the contamination has spread. He said that Erin believes the area has not been cleaned up and she’s getting 500 emails an hour from older people who used to live in the area or went to the school having the same symptoms along with areas of cancer. He says even if it’s not from that spill, something has really been unlocked here. On February 4 we hear that doctors are awaiting test results to show if Pediatric Acute Neuropsychiatric Syndrome is the cause; the disease is in found in children after a bout with Strep Throat but a 36 year old nurse has now come forward with the same symptoms. On February 5 we’re told an independent group will be double checking the state’s findings and we’ll have the results in weeks. On February 7 we hear more kids came forward and doctors think that watching YouTube or Facebook videos is causing the increase.
Daniels said - The late Steve Jobs created more of them (jobs) than all of the stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew. On January 26, 2012 the Special Inspector General said taxpayers are still owed $132.9 billion from the bailout in 2008. I thought this was bad until I looked up the bailout. It totaled $1615 billion this means that 8.23% is still owed and almost 92% has been paid back in 3 years. I think this is darn good.
Daniels also said we’ll follow the con job that says we can just plow ahead and someone else will pick up the tab. He must know that it’s not what we the people want – we want companies to hire and the rich to pay their fair share and both of these together will greatly reduce or perhaps eliminate the burden. After the Florida primary Romney got a surge in Wall Street donations as Obama’s donations declined. Doesn’t this show a con job being touted by Romney and the Republican agenda for a simpler tax system of fewer loopholes?
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