The Ryan Budget

Paul Ryan has proposed his budget where he helps the poor and the middle class by cutting off programs that they need to get ahead and gives more breaks to the wealthy. His budget cuts things like student loans and social security income (if a parent dies). He says that this encourages laziness so his budget encourages incentive through deprivation. I guess that he would know because what he doesn't tell people is that his father died when he was young and the family had to live through the shame and laziness promoting policy of receiving SSI and then grant money for college. So, Paul Ryan knows first hand how these Government programs crush the spirit of Americans. Granted he was able to survive because he's Paul Ryan the GOP savior but he knows that others are not likely to be so fortunate.

Another example of a survivor is the President. Unlike Paul Ryan, President Obama believes that everyone should have the same opportunity that he was given, a chance a college degree, a chance for a better paying job, a chance to get out of the poor neighborhoods, and finally a chance to be President of the United States. Which vision do we want, the one where the safety net is gone or one where the government is actively promoting the general welfare of the people. Do we want a country where only a few people are doing alright or do we want that number to be the majority? Paul Ryan's budget is bad for America, I only wish that we had a time machine so that we could have the young Paul Ryan live under the older Paul Ryan vision for America.

Republican Endgame

You have to wonder what the Republican endgame is. We are in the middle of special jobs sessions at both the State and Federal level and as far as I can tel they have done nothing to create jobs but they have done much to increase unemployment and further a social agenda. In Wisconsin there is a proposal that would criminalize stem cell research, there goes hundreds of jobs at UW Madison alone. In Wisconsin they passed a bill that would allow students test performance to be used to determine whether public school teachers are fired. This after much research indicates that many times it is not the teacher but the child. Private school teachers are exempt, although in the areas of the state with private school choice they are receiving taxpayer money. In Wisconsin the number one job creator is the UW system. What has the legislature done for them. They increased the budget cuts to $310 million dollars with another possible $50 million if we don't create more jobs, ironic. Instead of trying to help the UW help the state we had a hearing on what criteria is used to admit students. We should have had a hearing on what we can do to help students stay in school. At the federal level they decided to break-up the President's job package, so last night they voted on spending $45 million dollars to help states meet salary obligations for teachers, police, and firefighters. Every Republican voted no. I suppose that the argument is that they should take less money. The reality is that they have taken less and there have been layoffs. Is the goal to take the country back to the late 18th century when you contracted with a private company for fire protection? Remember the Chicago fire, that was the end of that practice. And what about police? I can agree that less police is a good thing but when there is real crime you want some police. Are we going to try a 18th century solution and privatize the force. Pay them like security guards and hope that with enough open and concealed weapons around you don't have to worry about crime. I really don't see how any of this is going to advance the needs of the nation not to mention promoting the general welfare.

City of Madison Budget

I think that with the budget plan that Mayor Soglin released was the sharp stick in the eye for Republicans. He said that he would save money by cutting snow plowing and salting. The Republicans who cut aid to the cities complained about the state of Madison roads a couple of winters ago. They felt that the State should take over plowing for the city of Madison. The Mayor may have just figured out how to cut the budget significantly by having the State take over plowing.

Reagan Was Right?

That is what the bumper sticker on the Suburban in front of me said, Reagan was Right. About what? Raising the debt limit multiple times? Getting into an arms race with the Soviet Union helping to cause them to collapse and leaving us with $2 trillion in debt? Getting involved in a war in the Middle East where we trained and supported a certain Osama Bin Laden? Helping to destabilize Pakistan? Pursuing a war on drugs that has led to the destabilization of Columbia, Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico? Funding the overthrow of the government of Nicaragua? Deregulating the banks which led to the banking collapse of 2008? Deregulating the airlines which was supposed to bring increased competition and lower airfares? Last time I checked there were less airlines. Deregulating the telecommunication industry? Again less competition and more costly. No Reagan's legacy is one of instituting what should be apparent to everyone as failed economic policies. Of instituting a foreign policy predicated on war and aiding people who you wouldn't want to meet on the street let alone put in charge of a country. He will also be remembered for pursuing an insane war on drugs that has cost more lives than the drugs themselves. He will also be remembered for spending into oblivion much of it off budget (debt),

Town Hall Meetings

I just heard Nicole Sandler (noted liberal talk show host) discussing her arrest at Alex West's town hall meeting. The prevailing comments as well as main stream media articles (NBC ch 6) paint Nicole in the wrong. Why was it ok for the opponents of health care to disrupt the town hall meetings of Democrats but when people are being civil but ask questions about the Republican budget they are asked to leave and possibly be arrested. Where is the liberal media on this? Where are the Democrats making the same kinds of statements that the Republicans were making 2 years ago? The Republicans had to know that people would be upset about the budget. What is disappointing is that the Republicans are running away from trying to defend this budget and the MSM is not holding them to account.

Our Own Paul Ryan

It is good to see one of our own garnering all of the media attention. The problem is that his plan for the future would be disastrous for the country. Okay, it cuts $4 trillion in spending, it reduces revenue collections (tax cuts) by almost an equal amount. He leaves defense alone at $724 billion. This is more money than any other country spends and it certainly more than the guys that we are fighting spend. What it does cut is everything else including the taxes of the wealthiest Americans. The thinking has got to be that we have had these tax cuts for 10 years and they have not created jobs in fact the opposite happened with the recession in 2008, the bank collapse, and the housing market collapse so we need to give them even more of a break. Wait hasn't the amount of money available to the top 2% of Americans increased exponentially but yet they won't hire people. Interesting, a thinking person would say that the tax cuts didn't work, but not Paul Ryan he says we need more. We also need less help for people who have not shared in the concentration of wealth. It is really too bad that Milton Friedman didn't live to see his policies enacted in the US. You would have thought that we would have learned something from South America.

Fox News

I was traveling today (actually skiing) and had an opportunity to watch Fox's coverage of the protest in Madison and they were talking to Sen Hopper and he repeated the big lie to a national audience.  That is that the Senate was prepared to debate the bill but the Democrats left.  This is not true.  The Democrats left to stop the vote on the bill, there was no debate, there wasn't going to be any debate, just a vote that was going to be 19-14.  Now that is the truth.

Talking to the Press

Yesterday Ron Johnson made the most unbelievable statement when talking about stem cell research.  It wasn't that he was opposed to federal funding (he's a Republican), it wasn't his belief in adult stem cell research (he's a Republican), it was his statement that government shouldn't fund it because a large percentage of the people are morally opposed to it.  Really, this sounds like the argument that was made by people opposed to the Vietnam war.  Currently there are large percentages of people opposed to the Afghanistan war, is he for getting us out now?  Currently there are large percentages of people opposed to any presence in Iraq, are we leaving?  Currently we have a large percentage of people opposed to escalating the war in Pakistan, does he favor ending that one?  In these tough budget times there are many people who think that defense should be put on a diet, is Ron Johnson going to join with Democrats and demand that the budget be cut as little as 1%?  My guess is no but he will probably agree to increase funding for the above and cut funding for NOAA, CDC, NSF, NASA, EPA,... where a smaller percentage of the population is in opposition to what they do.