Cartoon for February 3, 2010
Everyone knew Ted Kennedy was going to die for years. The special election in Massachusetts didn't come as a surprise. Yet, when Obama finally had 60 votes lined up to pass healthcare reform, he didn't insist on keeping Congress through Christmas (and New Year's and MLK if need be).
Either this is the most amazing example of political incompetence or a vigorous defense of Americans' sacred right to take time off from work.
Either this is the most amazing example of political incompetence or a vigorous defense of Americans' sacred right to take time off from work.
posted by Ted Rall at
12:01 AM
28 Comments:
It's too late to undo the 2008 Presidential election. The script hasn't changed one fucking bit, has it? A citizen/voter would expect the President and Vice-President to locate their spines and tell Congress to stick around until they've done their job. But, noooooooo! Not Congress! Too difficult! Not fair. And to think, all the Repubicans had to do was come back after Holiday and continue voting straight NO.
Hmmmm.
I'm glad the "reform" bill is dead. (If it really IS dead.)
A lot of my liberal friends supported it, but I am like, Jesus, have read the shit they're trying to pull on us?!
It was a fucking hand-out to the insurance companies, and would have been bad for our country, which is in dire need of socialized, single-payer health insurance.
It's simple. Just extend medicare to everyone and watch the private insurance companies die.
If you're worried about paying for it (even though it'll save us 1/3 right from the start), stop fighting stupid wars, and cut the military budget.
It's simple.
It's funny how Congress get all these days off and there are no guarantees of paid time off for the rest of us. Funny indeed.
Obama and the Senate Democrats governed so much like Republicans that they convinced many Democratic voters in Massachusetts that it wasn't worth showing up to vote.
I recall a former occupant of the White House also was quite enamoured with taking vacations...
Just extend medicare to everyone and watch the private insurance companies die.
What an arrogant a$$. Try reading the Constitution dimwit.
The 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the combined unfunded liability of these two programs has reached nearly $107 trillion in today's dollars! That is about seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times the size of the outstanding national debt.
Yeah good idea Grouchy.
Obama and the Senate Democrats governed so much like Republicans that they convinced many Democratic voters in Massachusetts that it wasn't worth showing up to vote.
No, democrats got the ass handed to them because they've become cocky and arrogant.
Kennedy died in the Summer, he wasn't alive on Christmas. Is this error intentional or by mistake?
What about Kennedy himself? He knew he was on borrowed time and did NOTHING to promote a likely Democratic successor. Fuck Kennedy. That's right I said it. Fuck Kennedy.
They've got America under their thumb. Same as always - you break the back of the common man - keep him struggling to just get by, and you slip stuff by him while he is focused on his own immediate problems. America continues to become more and more - a nation of apathetic knee-jerkers that can't cooperate or focus together enough to make their legislators and leaders do anything. Get off the tracks or get runover! We need to Stop The Wars, Stop Killing Ourselves and Innocent people, and stop making more and more enemies. Imagine the trillions spent to become more energy self-sufficient and help the economy. Instead, we continue to pour this money into loser wars. Doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results, is insanity. Obama needs to forget about a second term, and just shut down the wars and help America while he has the opportunity. An aircraft-carrier named after Dubya? He should have been keel-hauled! Didn't anyone get a clue when he pulled a dead armadillo out of his jacket on-camera and started eating it? :^)
To Anonymous of 2/3/10 5:08 PM
The Social Socurity Fund is solvent until the year 2042.
With some tax increases or rolling back W Bush obscene tax cuts for the super-wealthy, the program will be solvent very well into the foreseeable future.
With stagnant and declining wages, and consequently declining savings for retirements, many people will be almost entirely dependent on Social Security for their retirement.
Social Security and Medicare are one of the best run and efficient program that deliver valuable services to the people.
Your take on this is funny, comedic... but... (as I posted over on Taibbi's blog awhile back) the real reason the Democrats didn't plan a safer, better-organized transition for Ted Kennedy's senate seat is because Washington Democrats' entire raison-d'etre is to secure and guarantee their own insider's club privileges and protect their own political seats. So the idea of replacing the bedridden Senator Kennedy with somebody who would actually, y'know, attend Senate meetings and vote for the things Ted Kennedy watned to vote for... it was anathema to them. Unthinkable.
Why, if we could just willy-nilly replace luminaries such as Ted Kennedy for the simple fault that they are physically incapable of voting... **GASP** why then the proles might get the idea that **ANYBODY** could be replaced, any one of **US**, just because we fail to pass legislation, sell our vote for money, or some triviality like that!! It'd be chaos! The **WRONG** people could end up holding office!! It'd be some form of **ugh** democracy, instead of the orderly, predictable Republic that we have all come to know and love.
...and I'm not saying the Republicans are any better on this issue, by the way. Like Greenwald once put it in one of his more lucid moments: the class war in this country has become less a matter of right/left, rich/poor, conservative/liberal -- than it has become a matter of "The powerful in Washington" (including corporate lobbyists and media) versus "everybody else". People like Ashcroft and Bernanke get confirmed to their posts by wide bipartisan margins because the notion of Washington camaraderie and entitlement trumps all perceptions of agenda, ideology, or particularly, effectiveness. Ergo, the "uproar" when somebody like Scott Brown "blindsides" the establishment. It's shocking, shocking!! Give Brown about three years and he'll be right in there with the old-boys' club, however, and the idea of the Massachusetts seat going back to a Dem will again be "shocking".
No actually this is the first year in 25 years Social Security spends more than it takes in.
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/mound-city-money/us-economy/2010/02/social-security-moves-from-surplus-to-deficit-this-year/
commer, do you understand what an unfunded liability is? Do you understand $107 trillion?
Anon 8:48
What the fuck are you talking about?
No, fuck you!
Yes commoner3, the whole "crises" talk about SS is hooey. It is perpetuated by disingenuous hacks in the employ of Wall Street interests. (Wall St. wants to "privatize" these funds, but I'm guessing that the events of the last year has set back their plans.)
With some minor adjustments, both SS and medicare could be made solvent through the 21st century.
We're currently spending much more than the rest of the world on health care. If the anonymous troll was really worried about fiscal responsibly, he'd be looking at how cheaply Europe and Canada provide near universal coverage with their socialized insurance programs and trying to decide which exiting model would work best in the USA.
I agree with agree with grouchy 100%.
Anonymous of 11:38, 11:39 are either completely misinformed or Wall St. implants.
I stand with what I said that the SS trust fund is solvent until the year 2042 without doing anything at all, then with some minor tax increases it could be solvent into the foreseeable future.
The vultures of Wall St. are circling above ready to swoop down on the trust fund and are spreading all the false rumours , "studies" and "projections" with help from their allies in Congress, government and the News Media.
Grouchy you are in denial. Explain to me where we are going to get $100 trillion
To Anonymous of 2/7/10 8:53 AM
How to explain to you something that ONLY a figment of your examination?!. From where did you get that rediculous figure of $100 trillion.
Why don't you cut to the chase and stop beating around the bushes.
So, you want to privatise Social Security and hand its Trust Fund to Wall St., and after wall St. thieves completely plunder the Fund, then the government will step in and bail the Fund out???!!.
VERY CLEVER.!!!
Here you commoner3:
"The 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the combined unfunded liability of these two programs has reached nearly $107 trillion in today's dollars! That is about seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times the size of the outstanding national debt."
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba662
Apology accepted.
So, you want to privatise Social Security
No, I'd like to give everyone the option to opt out. Right now, unlike your precious federal level politicians, the rest of us are forced into this ponzi scheme. You do understand that there is no "account" somewhere with your savings in it? All your FICA payments are going into the general fund and paying out current recipients.
To Anonymous of 2/7/10 8:00 AM
You just get a figure from a web site and you think this is the truth and nothing but the truth??!!
You make me laugh.
That "National Center for Policy Analysis" is nothing but a front group. Who are the people behind that Center and what is their agenda. I bet they are fronting for Wall St.
Wake up from that trance and don't be so naive and gullible.
You are the one who should apologize for your ignorance and naivete.
commoner3,
National Center for Policy Analysis is summarizing the report put out by the SS and MC Trusties.
Who are the people behind that Center and what is their agenda. I bet they are fronting for Wall St. Well if you don't know who they are why don't you dig a little digging and stop being a lazy lib.
To Anonymous of 2/9/10 4:47 PM
Most of Social Security and Medicare Trustees are Wall St./Health care providers' lackeys.
You say there is a deficit of $107 trillion. Either you or they are crazy.
You say there is a deficit of $107 trillion.
I think this figure is a "projected deficit." I'm not sure the anonymous poster understands what he's talking about.
The situation is sort of like this: You're on a steam ship heading towards an iceberg which is hundreds of miles always. If you do nothing, you'll eventually hit it. But, if you make a very slight adjustment to your course, you'll totally miss the distant danger.
It is an unfunded liability of $107 trillion. I never said it was a deficit.
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