Hawkins County Democratic Party Featured Content

I VOTED REPUBLICAN (Not Really)

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:11:00 PST

I Voted Republican - Say it Loud, Say it Proud! . Tuesday, 09 November 2010 15:44 . You gotta love this tee shirt....it says it all! It should be worn by every single person who voted against his or her own interests in this midterm election. What is it about self-destruction that GOP supporters don't understand? Never mind, just keep the federal government out of their Medicare, their veteran's benefits, their Social Security, their Department of Education, their EPA, - stop them from regulating toxins in their food, their air, and their water, and, of course....keep the giverment from stopping the financial institutions from robbing them blind again. The inmates have taken over much of the asylum, and it's only a matter of time until they run the whole damn place.

Republicans Want To Hand Social Security Over To Wall Street

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 10:10:00 PST

Privatizing Social Security was a bad idea in 2005 when it was proposed by President Bush and rejected by the American people. It's still a bad idea, despite recent Republican attempts to revive it.

Three new analyses out this week make clear that GOP proposals would cut benefits for middle-income Americans, jeopardize the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund and weaken the program's ability to keep millions of Americans out of poverty.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the Chief Actuary of Social Security, and the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), which I chair, have each weighed in on the Social Security proposal introduced by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan. While Republicans have sought to recast their proposals as modest changes to the current system, they are anything but that.

The new CBPP report finds that Rep. Ryan's proposal would reduce benefits for the top 70 percent of earners by linking Social Security benefits to change in prices, rather than changes in wages, as is now the case. Additionally, increasing Social Security's full retirement age, as called for in Ryan's plan, would reduce benefits for everyone regardless of when they retire.

According to the Chief Actuary of Social Security, the "progressive price indexing" proposal would reduce benefits by 17 percent compared to current law for a new retiree in 2050 with medium earnings ($43,000 today). The cuts get deeper over time and are steeper for higher income workers. By 2080, benefits converge at a much lower level, with little difference in benefits for high earners and medium earners. At that point, Social Security would bear little resemblance to today's program, where benefits are based on a worker's lifetime earnings.

The JEC report, prepared by the committee's Majority Staff, looks at privatization, where future retirees are able to divert a portion of their payroll taxes to private investment accounts. Privatization would allow all retirement savings accumulated by retirees to be subject to fluctuations in the performance of asset markets, including the stock market, where significant swings in returns and account accumulations are possible from year to year and even month to month.

A worker with a private account could purchase an annuity with a fixed monthly payment at the end of his or her working life. However, the size of that monthly payment depends on the timing of retirement relative to the performance of the different asset markets that the retiree had invested in. For example, a retiree who invested solely in the stock market over a 40-year work history and was expecting an annuity of $867 per month in 2006 would have received only $399 per month if he had retired in 2008.

Republicans claim that the Social Security Trust Fund would ensure that individuals who invest in private accounts will get back as much as they put in, plus indexing for inflation, even if the stock market craters. But such a guarantee - where private account holders win when the stock market is up, and don't lose when the stock market falls - must have another source of funds during bear markets. Without additional funds to pay for this one-sided bet, the solvency of the General Fund will be at risk.

While Social Security benefits are modest, they have a major impact. Without Social Security, nearly half (46 percent) of senior citizens would live in poverty, but with Social Security the poverty rate for elderly Americans falls to 10 percent. Indeed, Social Security accounts for more than 76 percent of income for middle-class seniors.

The Republicans ignore these facts and plan to radically change a program that provides economic security and peace of mind to millions of Americans. Their proposals are either a misguided belief in the stock market's ability to miraculously "save" Social Security or a cynical attempt to gut a successful program that has kept generations of Americans economically secure.

The more we learn about privatization and progressive price indexing, the worse -- and riskier -- the ideas look.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney represents parts of Queens and Manhattan in the House of Representatives, where she chairs the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.
originally posted at Huffington Post

Republicans' "Pledge to America" falls short on some of its facts.

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 09:09:00 PST

FactChecking ‘The Pledge’

Republicans' "Pledge to America" falls short on some of its facts.

September 24, 2010

Summary

The Republican “Pledge to America,” released Sept. 23, contains some dubious factual claims:

It declares that “the only parts of the economy expanding are government and our national debt.” Not true. So far this year government employment has declined slightly, while private sector employment has increased by 763,000 jobs.

It says that “jobless claims continue to soar,” when in fact they are down eight percent from their worst levels.

It repeats a bogus assertion that the Internal Revenue Service may need to expand by 16,500 positions, an inflated estimate based on false assumptions and guesswork.

It claims the stimulus bill is costing $1 trillion, considerably more than the $814 billion, 10-year price tag currently estimated by nonpartisan congressional budget experts.

It says Obama’s tax proposals would raise taxes on “roughly half the small business income in America,” an exaggeration. Much of the income the GOP is counting actually comes from big businesses making over $50 million a year.

For details on these and other examples please read on to the Analysis section.

Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site:

Children can no longer be denied

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 05:09:00 PST

SICK CHILDREN NOW PROTECTED

On September 23, 2010

One of the first major benefits of health reform goes into effect on Thursday. Insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage for children with pre-existing conditions. This news is music to the ears of many loving parents who have struggled to piece together the care their children need. Out of 1.5 million children in Tennessee, over 115,000 have been diagnosed with conditions that could potentially lead to the denial of coverage prior to September 23, 2010. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act now provides those children with security and their families with piece of mind.

This protection resonates with one courageous mother from Chattanooga. Over a year ago she faced losing coverage for the formula necessary for her 2 year-old. Her daughter was born with Down syndrome and an incomplete esophagus. She has to be fed through a feeding tube. The formula was over $1000 per month. The health insurance premium had gone up, but that part of her coverage had been carved out. The mother and her husband struggled with the insurance company and struggled financially to pay for their child's care. Thankfully, they were able to piece together the costs so her daughter continued to receive the formula necessary to sustain her.

Now such practices by the insurance industry are no longer allowable. To stay abreast of health reform implementation in the state of Tennessee, visit our Health Reform Hub at www.thcc2.org.

Christina Kretchik

ckretchik@thcc2.org

GOP ignored America because they listened to AIG, Exxon, Pfizer, Chamber

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:09:00 PST

GOP ignored America because they listened to AIG, Exxon, Pfizer, Chamber

by Joan McCarter on Daily KOS

Thu Sep 23, 2010 at 11:21:55 AM PDT

So the "Pledge for America" was written with no actual input from America, all the people who went to the Republicans' Web site that was ostensibly created for America to write the new GOP agenda. Now we know why America didn't write the agenda. The Republicans turned the pledge over to corporate America to write.

The Republican Party's 21-page blueprint, "Pledge to America," was put together with oversight by a House staffer who, up till April 2010, served as a lobbyist for some of the nation's most powerful oil, pharmaceutical, and insurance companies.

In a draft version of The Pledge that was being passed around to reporters before the official release, the document properties list "Wild, Brian" as the "Author." A GOP source said that Wild -- who is on House Minority Leader John Boehner's payroll -- did help author the governing platform....

Until early this year, Wild was a fairly active lobbyist on behalf of the firm the Nickles Group, the lobbying shop set up by the former Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Don Nickles. During his five years at the firm, Wild, among others, was paid $740,000 in lobbying contracts from AIG, the former insurance company at the heart of the financial collapse; $800,000 from energy giant Andarko Petroleum; more than $1.1 million from Comcast, more than $1.3 million from Exxon Mobil; and $625,000 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.

Wild has been through the revolving door before. At one point, Wild worked for Pat Toomey in the House, for VP Dick Cheney, and for former Sen. Hank Brown. But in the middle of all that, he also took time out to lobby for the Chamber of Commerce, apparently seamlessly moving from the Hill, to K Street, to the White House, and back to K Street and then back to the House.

And in true irony, Wild is currently the executive director of America Speaking Out--the organization created to allow America to write the Republican agenda. What more evidence do you need to know that the only America that exists for Republicans is corporate America?