On February 12, 2012 George Stephanopoulos spoke with Rick Santorum who said he wasn’t disappointed with his Maine showing of third place. He did a lot of back stepping on his votes while in the Senate, his 2006 campaign issues and the comments he made in regard to women in a book he wrote; he said he’ll be releasing his tax returns this week. George Will who was on the show said that current polls show Romney losing by 4 points and Santorum tied with Obama. I’m not going to knock Santorum for his comments about the feminist movement; it gave women choices but I also feel it somewhat belittled the homemaker. On October 19, 2011 it was reported the use of antidepressants had gone up 400% in the last 15 years; per the Center for Disease Control women use antidepressant 2 ½ times more than men with nearly 25% of the women taking them being 40 – 59. Families may be better off if a parent stayed home and took care of the household so that there’d be more time for the children. Families with 2 working parents may be the result of the economy, the desire to get more things, or the fact that the parents just want to work. On December 13, 2011 per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of stay at home Dads had doubled over the last 10 years; it’s at 5 million and counting.
Stephanopoulos pointed out to the White House Chief of Staff, Jacob Lew, that the President pledged on February 23, 2009 to cut the deficit in half by his first term in office and the deficit will be over a trillion dollars for the 4th year in a row. Lew said because the economy was falling so fast that the President concentrated on forming a base (dealt with the housing crisis and jobs that hit the American people hard). Lew said the President’s budget includes $2.50 of spending cuts for every dollar of tax increase and we need an economy where everyone has a fair shot, where everyone does its fair share and everyone plays by the same rules. On February 13 the President released his 2013 budget plan that outlines his priorities (raising taxes on those making $200,000 or more, spending on education and energy to serve as an economic stimulus) and the spending of $3.8 trillion. ABC broke down the numbers - $3.8 trillion spent but only $2.9 trillion in revenues thus putting us $0.9 trillion further in the hole and we already have $15.3 trillion in debt. The Republicans called it a failure. I heard the President wants to cut the deficit by $4 trillion in 10 years by making spending cuts and raising taxes on the wealthy. ABC said there will be no budget passed by the House or Senate so the document was only to set the stage. The Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Republican Paul Ryan had told George the President’s proposals load massive tax increases on small businesses and hardworking families, they require bureaucratic rationing in government health care programs, and they hollow out our national security. I find it hard to believe that the plan loads massive tax increases on small businesses and hardworking families when he repeatedly pushes for increases on the rich and just recently I heard a Republican candidate say – aren’t you tired of hearing about Warren Buffet’s secretary. I think cuts are needed but they should aimed at government waste and bureaucratic spending (their gym, pensions, travel, etc.) before being aimed at middle or lower income Americans and revenue must be obtained the private sector must hire (in order to get people off welfare and food stamps and have them pay taxes) and the rich must pay more, perhaps they could raise tariffs on some countries.
George said that in the short term the extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits are needed and are still stalled; Boehner’s office said the President has not contacted them directly. Lew said there’s a Conference Committee (includes both parties) that Boehner asked for and the President agreed to form, they know what needs to be done and Boehner said it should be handled by the Committee, they’ve been working even on the weekend. Ryan said it should get done but what they’re trying to do is make cuts because the payroll tax cut loses money to the Social Security (SS) Trust Fund and accelerates the bankruptcy of the fund; he said it seems the parties (he corrected himself to say the President’s party leaders) are not engaging in these conversations and we (the Republicans) have offered scores of different offsets, we’ve taken provisions from the President’s own budget as ways of paying for this tax cut holiday and they insist on not agreeing so he doesn’t know what this is going to come down to. On February 15 without demanding budget the parties agreed to a deal to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment and not reduce Medicare payments to doctors.
George said the Democrats are saying that the Republicans’ plan to reform Medicare is a voucher system that will end Medicare as we know it and not the premium support as the Republicans claim. Ryan said Medicare is going bankrupt, the President’s health care law puts 15 unaccountable people in charge of cutting Medicare which will lead to denied care to seniors and his health care law take a half trillion dollars from Medicare to spend on Obama care; so if you look at what we’re proposing you’ll see there’s a bipartisan consensus in Congress on how to save and strengthen the Medicare program; we don’t change the benefit for anybody 55 and older. George said there were talks that people would have the option of picking premium support or Medicare and asked if it would be in the Republican budget - Ryan said the budget hasn’t been written, it comes out in spring and repeated himself with their goal and the failure of the President’s leaders to talk. All I can say is just remember back to the holdups of our current budget and which party fought to keep SS and Medicare for the average American.
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