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Monthly Archives: September 2011

Latest 2012 Presidential Polls (18 Sep 11 Edition)

Moving into the middle of the first “official” month of the 2012 Republican Tea Party (GOTP) race for the White House a poll by CBS News/NY Times shows that Reverend Ricky Perry’s initial bump in the poles may be starting to erode.

CBS News/NY Times conducted a poll from 10 to 15 Sep 11 on who would be the (GOTP) nominee if it all ended today; here’s what it found:

Perry 23, Mittens Romney 16, Michele “Krazy” Bachmann 7, Newt Gingrich 7, Ron Paul 5, Herman “Pizza Man” Cain 5, Ricky Santorum 1 and Jon Huntsman 1 and Sarah “Ice Queen” Palin 0

Reverend Ricky’s lead over Mittens appears to be taking some serious hits following last week’s debate, Krazy is barely holding on in third place tied with the Newt of all people, while Paul is a distant fourth spot, with the Pizza Man and Santorum and Huntsman continue to trail dismally behind; the Ice Queen wasn’t even in the poll …

There’s been no new polling in either Iowa or New Hampshire but according to the last polls numbers available:

In Iowa – according to Rasmussen Reports (always dubious poll results) – Perry holds first place with 29; Bachmann moves to 18, Mitt 17; Paul 14; Cain 4, Santorum 4, Huntsman 3 and Gingrich 2…

In New Hampshire – Magellan Strategies (R): Mitt 36; Rev Ricky 18; Paul 14; Krazy 10; Cain 3, Huntsman 3 and Gingrich 2…

According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, if the general election were held today:

President Obama 46/Perry 39

Doesn’t portent anything good when someone like Perry can’t win in a Rasmussen poll, those numbers could be off by an additional five points …

In a Reuters/Ipsos poll:

President Obama 50/Perry 42

President Obama 49/Romney 43

President Obama 49/Paul 42

President Obama 54/Bachmann 36

President Obama 51/Huntsman 37

According to these latest poll (the third in two weeks) everyone else is passé:

President Obama /Cain

President Obama / Palin

President Obama /Gingrich

President Obama /Santorum

So, if the GOTP nomination circus – and the general election – had both ended this week, Reverend Ricky would be the GOTP candidate, and he would have lost by as much as seven (7) points to President Obama.

 
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Posted by on September 18, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Privatizing Social Security – Another Good Reason not to Vote Republican in 2012

According to the Associated Press (AP) most of the current crop of Republican Tea Party (GOTP) hopefuls running for president are embracing plans to partially privatize Social Security, reviving the very contentious issue that thankfully fizzled under former President George W. Bush. If there was no other reason to oppose the election of any of the crazy eights, this would be enough – however, there’s a lack of other reasons as well; but his will do for now.

President Obama’s would-be rivals are fanatical on letting younger workers divert part of their payroll taxes into some type of personal account to be invested separately from Social Security. Key phrase “being invested” which brings us the GOTP candidate’s true motivation; lining the pockets of Wall Street contributors – who always want more, and who are willing to pay for it.

Michele “Krazy” Bachmann and Ron Paul say younger workers should be allowed to invest in alternative plans, while the Reverend Ricky Perry says that whole groups, such as state and local government workers, should be allowed opt out of Social Security altogether.

The AP is reporting that Mittens Romney says the stock market collapse in 2008 shouldn’t scare workers away from investing in private accounts, but acknowledges it’s an issue.

“Given the volatility of investment values that we have just experienced, I would prefer that individual accounts were added to Social Security, not diverted from it, and that they were voluntary,” he wrote in his book, “No Apology.”

Thankfully Progressives and Moderates alike don’t share this “privatize everything” version of the Brave New World under GOTP leadership. They say it would drain resources from the more than 50 million people who now receive benefits, and of course raising the privatization issue could likely give Democrats a potent political weapon.

“We’ll fight that fight anytime,” said Congressman Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Social Security. “Bad policy is usually terrible politics, and that’s terrible politics.”

Levin is more than likely right, there is a large voting block of seniors in this country and their rolls fill with more and more voters with every presidential election; the GOTP likes to reason that business can handle everything this country needs, from its prison system to its retirement payouts; how long before some would be GOTP candidate suggests police forces and the military should be privately run as well? Wouldn’t that be great, officers and soldiers swearing an oath to some investment house instead of the Constitution?

 
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Posted by on September 17, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Cheering anyone’s death isn’t Chrisitan – or American

In a world where Republican Tea Party (GOTP) audiences cheer loudly for capital punishment and for hypothetical patients being allowed to die because they don’t have health insurance, one has to suppose this same generation would have cheered the deaths of three Roman criminals convicted and sentenced to die on Golgotha.

One can almost hear Governor Pontius Pilate giving his justification for so many executions – including that of a Rabbi from Galilee – during his tenure as Roman Governor of Judea.

“In the province of Judea, if you come into our province and you kill one of our children, you kill a Roman soldier, you’re involved in another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the province of Judea, and that is, you will be executed.”

When asked about the cheering at the mere mention of the many executions he has overseen, Pilate probably would’ve replied.

“I think Romans understand justice.”

Well, 235 people have been executed in Texas under Rick Perry, and those were his words during the recent GOTP debate at the Reagan Library (of course province of Judea was used in place of Texas, Roman soldier for police officer and Pilate for Perry), the same debate where the crowd cheered its loudest of the night when the total number of executions was mentioned.

While I support capital punishment, especially for those convicted of murder, I don’t think it’s appropriate to cheer someone’s death/execution.

But such is life in the conservative America of today. These good old American Christians – if that’s what they are – shouldn’t be cheering anyone’s death. We may celebrate heroes who give their lives in the defense – or in the saving – of others; but we don’t cheer.

Those on the right who think it’s appropriate to cheer at the mention of 234 people executed; or who cheer at the imaginary or hypothetical death of someone with no health insurance, aren’t Christians; they’re barbaric animals. They’re not Americans; they’re some kind of historical throwback; a group belonging in the crowds of the gladiatorial games of Pilate’s time. They’re of course the natural evolution of people who’ve been daily fed on a non-stop diet of hate and fear by the uber-conservatives in this country (FOX PAC, Bush/Cheney, Limbaugh, Hannity et al).

What’s particularly revealing is not one of the fine and noble candidates on the debate stage said the cheering was wrong; not one of them exhibited the same courage John McCain showed during the 2008 campaign when he corrected people in a crowd shouting lies about his opponent; in not doing so, they proved – once again – that they’re not – in the least respect – presidential.

 
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Posted by on September 16, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Pat Robertson’s a putz

One of God’s self proclaimed spokesman, Pat Robertson, is declaring it’s OK with the Lord if spouses divorce their partner with Alzheimer’s, and the whole “for richer – for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part” is more of a guideline than a vow.

During a recent “700 Club” program on Christian Broadcast Network Pat was responding to a caller who said a “friend” had begun dating other women while his wife lies seriously ill with Alzheimer’s, and justifies it by saying that “his wife, as he knows her, is gone.”

Robertson agreed with the man saying, “What he says basically is correct. I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her.”

His co-host pressed Robertson about whether that violates the marriage vows. Robertson responded that Alzheimer’s “is a kind of death” and added, “I certainly wouldn’t put a guilt trip on you” for choosing divorce in such a scenario.

This is another symptom of today’s uber-conservative Christianity; what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine and I’m going to do unto others while I can. There isn’t a lot of Christ’s teachings any longer in some so-called Christian’s minds and churches. Robertson is a putz, and his wife should divorce him now while she has a chance and marry a good man she knows she can depend on if her health ever fails her.

 
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Posted by on September 16, 2011 in Lunatics

 

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Ice Queen denies racy bio?

So, Sarah Palin’s husband – Todd – is calling a book about his family “disgusting lies, innuendo and smears” according to the Associated Press (AP). But wait, isn’t that the usual fare coming out of the Palin camp, especially whenever the ex-governor is talking about the President?

A racy new biography about the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) darling – “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin”, by Joe McGinniss – includes allegations of infidelity and drug use. All this while the Ice Queen is still mum about a possible 2012 run for the GOTP presidential nomination

“This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us to satisfy his creepy obsession with my wife,” Todd Palin wrote of McGinniss. “His book is full of disgusting lies, innuendo and smears. Even The New York Times called this book `dated, petty,’ and that it `chases caustic, unsubstantiated gossip.'”

OK, wait a minute; I think Todd is confused, “dated, petty, caustic and unsubstantiated gossip” are all words usually reserved to describe the hatchet job Sarah habitually tries to perform.  I guess it really sucks to be the skeet instead of the shot huh?

“We’re sure to have a doozey to look forward to with this treasure he’s penning,” Sarah Palin wrote last year. “Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden and the family’s swimming hole?”

While McGinniss doesn’t appear to mention “Piper’s bedroom”, Palin’s “little garden” or the “swimming hole”, he does repeat allegations first published in The National Enquirer that Sarah Palin carried on an affair with Brad Hanson, Todd Palin’s former business partner. Wasn’t it the Enquirer that first broke word of John Edward’s affair?

In a statement released through Palin’s minions, Hanson is once again denying the allegations, although according to the Enquirer story at least one witness has sworn an affidavit about the situation.

“This is the same old story that went around in 2008. It is a complete and outright lie,” Hanson said. “Todd and Sarah Palin have been good friends for many years, and in fact we still own property together. We sold a former joint business venture for business reasons, nothing more. These attacks are shameful and those making them seem to be out only to destroy good people and make money doing so.”

Well the chickens have finally come home to roost; one problem facing Palin is when you live by the sword – spreading lies and innuendos – eventually you get hit by the same sword. She makes stuff up all the time, and now everyone should rush to her defense because her camp is denying so-called lies someone else is spreading about her?

A second problem facing the Ice Queen is an awful lot of self righteous uber-conservative Christian “family values” types have turned out to have none; Newt Gingrich and John Ensign to name a few. My father used to say if you take what the used car salesman claims to be a car’s greatest strength; it usually turns out to be its greatest liability. Odds are there’re some pretty dank, dusty and fetid skeletons in Palin’s closet, and isn’t it just too bad someone is giving her a taste of her own medicine.

Time for the political reality check; when you play with the pigs – including the ones with lip stick – you’re going to get covered in some pretty foul smelling stuff, and it doesn’t matter if what the writer has alleged is true or not, Sarah Palin is a phony, and since she spews vindictive poison on an almost daily basis, a hit in return is not only expected but deserved. She wants to play in the big leagues, she better be prepared for the hits; put on the pads or get off the field.

 
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Posted by on September 15, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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One Flew Over Something

 
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Posted by on September 14, 2011 in Humor

 

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So Vaccines Cause Mental Retardation?

So, at a time when Michele “Krazy” Bachmann could have scored real measurable points against the Reverend Ricky Perry in their Republican Tea Party (GOTP) duel for the evangelical anointing, Krazy takes a perfectly good foil to stick Perry with – the forced vaccination of teen age girls in Texas – and bends it into a pretzel by claiming the vaccine can cause mental retardation?

Are you kidding me?

On a subject that is one of the soft underbellies of Reverend Ricky’s campaign, Bachmann – as a woman, and mother – could have skewered him with it, but instead she goes right off through the looking glass into Krazyland.

Reverend Ricky – who swears to oppose “big” government interfering with little folk’s lives – signed an executive order in Texas requiring young girls to get a Gardasil vaccine to combat sexually transmitted disease that could lead to cervical cancer.

“I’m a mom of three children,” Krazy mewed. “And to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong. That should never be done.”

To his credit – as much as I hate to say it – Perry has conceded he mishandled the issue, but while appearing on FOX PAC Krazy attempted to launch a blitzkrieg against him and came up looking dimmer than usual. “I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate,” she said.

“She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine that injection and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter.”

Back in the real world, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that out of 35 million doses of Gardasil distributed in the US only about 0.05 per cent have led to any side effects. No instance of mental retardation was reported.

As a conservative, you know your political world has taken a wrong turn when Rush Limbaugh, says you’ve screwed up, “Michele Bachmann, she might have blown it today. Well, not blown it but she might have jumped the shark today – if she’d have just left it alone on this vaccination thing from last night.”

Someone needs to tell El Rushbo that Krazy jumped the shark a long time ago, and she did it in a train with square wheels going round the bend. Bachmann just can’t keep from saying obtuse things; somewhere someone is writing “Politics for Dummies” and her picture is on the front cover.

 
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Posted by on September 14, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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GOP upset win in NY portends challenge for Obama?

The Associated Press (AP) is claiming the loss of NY Congressional District 9 is due to “voter frustration over the sour economy and President Barack Obama’s policies”; or maybe it’s because former Congressman Anthony Weiner took pictures of his unit and sent the images to woman and twittered it?

I think there’s a need in punditry today to attach national reasons for elections in Congressional districts, especially in these special elections. I think they need to remember the political maxim of former House Speaker Tip O’Neill that, “all politics are local”.

To claim this election “portends challenge for Obama” is trying to stir the political pot in order to make the 2012 elections more exciting, and it’s not very accurate.

Another claim is that the predominantly Jewish district chose a Roman Catholic Republican over an Orthodox Jewish Democrat to send the President a message on Israel; OK, I guess that makes sense if you forget the fact most Jewish neighborhoods aren’t very politically friendly to the Catholic Church, or to the idea a Roman Catholic will better serve the needs of Israel than a Jew will, ever since the whole Vatican turning a blind eye to the Holocaust thing. Please, you’re really going to run with that idea? Once again, maybe the District was reacting to Weiner, and had nothing to do with anything else?

However, when your GOTP opponent runs ads claiming you support Osama Bin Laden because you support the construction of a “Ground Zero Mosque” in a race for a New York City District maybe that bit of demagoguery had something to do with it; but, of course, that’s politics in America, but sooner or later American voters will begin to refuse the fear and gloom and doom politics of the right.

But please, let’s stop trying to tie every election a Democrat loses to the President, and start looking for the “local” reasons.

By-the-by, one of the fun facts is the NY 9th has been eliminated due to redistricting, which means this is a very short lived victory for the GOTP.

 
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Posted by on September 14, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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What the debates show us the GOTP stands for?

Watching two so-called Republican Tea Party (GOTP) debates, I finally started to figure out a lot of what these dim witted presidential wannabe candidates – and the not so bright masses following them – stand for:

They stand for ENDING SOCIAL SECURITY as we know it – The Reverend Ricky Perry has said, “[I]t is a monstrous lie. It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today; you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there. Anybody that’s for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it’s not right.

“You cannot keep the status quo in place and not call it anything other than a Ponzi scheme. It is. … [T]hat’s provocative language — maybe it’s time to have some provocative language in this country.”

Michele “Krazy” Bachmann weighed in, “… this isn’t going to work anymore. We have to be an ownership society, where individual responsibility, personal responsibility once again becomes the animating American principle. And we can’t be ashamed of that.”

They stand for ENDING HEALTHCARE to MILLIONS of AMERICANS – Jon Huntsman said, “We cannot go forward with Obamacare.”

Krazy said, “Repeal Obamacare.”

“… We have to have someone who is absolutely committed to the repeal of Obamacare and I am. I won’t rest until it’s repealed.”

“And this is why I’m running for the presidency of the United States, because 2012 is it. This is the election that’s going to decide if we have socialized medicine in this country or not. This is it.

“Why? I just have to say this. It’s because President Obama embedded $105,464,000,000 in Obamacare in post-dated checks to implement this bill. We are never going to get rid of it unless we have a president committed to getting rid of it. And if you believe that states can have it and that it’s constitutional, you’re not committed. If you’ve implemented this in your state, you’re not committed. I’m committed to repealing Obamacare.”

Herman “Pizza Man” Cain, “Repeal Obamacare in its entirety.”

Mittens Romney said, “And with regards to Massachusetts care, I’m not running for governor. I’m running for president. And if I’m president, on day one I’ll direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to grant a waiver from Obamacare to all 50 states.

“It’s a problem that’s bad law, it’s not constitutional. I’ll get rid of it.”

They stand for MAKING THE RICH RICHER (at everyone else’s expense) – Ricky Santorum said, “My plan takes the corporate tax, which is 35 percent, cuts it to zero, and says, if you manufacture in America, you aren’t going to pay any taxes.”

Jon Huntsman said, “On the corporate side, I think we recognize the reality that a whole lot of companies can afford to have lobbyists and lawyers on Capitol Hill working their magic. Let’s recognize the reality that they’re all paying 35 percent. We need to lower that to 25 percent. So let’s phase out the corporate subsidies and clean out the cobwebs and leave it more competitive for the 21st century.”

On the idea of a fair tax, basically a national sales tax, Mittens said, “Yeah. Yeah. The — the idea of a national sales tax or a consumption tax has a lot to go for it. One, it would make us more competitive globally, as we send products around the world, because under the provisions of the World Trade Organization, you can reimburse that to an exporter. We can’t reimburse our taxes right now. It also would level the playing field in the country, making sure everybody is paying some part of their fair share.

“And so my plan is to take the middle class individuals and dramatically reduce their taxes by the following measure. And that is for middle income Americans, no tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. Let people save their money as the way they think is best for them, for their kids, for their future, for their retirement. We’re taxing too much, we’re spending too much and middle income Americans need a break and I’ll give it to them.”

There’s just one big problem with Mitten’s idea, a flat national sales tax is lopsided sharply against the middle class and especially the poor. Everyone doesn’t pay their fair share, the rich don’t even come close. It’s a greedy tax being pushed by a greedy group of politicians. Oh, and by-the-by how many middle class Americans pay a lot of tax on interest, dividends and capital gains? That’s all designed to help the wealthiest among us not the middle class.

They (Tea Party Members) stand for DEATH – during the debate last week the loudest cheers of the night came as the moderator brought up the total number of people (234 was the number given) executed under Reverend Ricky Perry’s regime in Texas. And last night people began cheering when Wolf Blitzer asked, “What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn’t have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?”

“Yeah!” several members of the crowd yelled out.

If nothing else demonstrates the reality of the Tea Party being the great unwashed mass, nothing will. They are a blood thirsty group who want people who – in their view – are not productive to die or to be killed. Hey if that fella got cancer, or slipped into a coma and had no health insurance, well, he had better die and decrease the surplus population.

They are for CUTTING EDUCATION and CUTTING PROTECTIONS – Congressman Ron Paul said to loud applause, “What we need to do is cut the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, and all these departments, and get rid of them.”

They stand for RACISM – during the CNN/Tea Party debate last night, Ricky Santorum said, “Well, I mean, what Governor Perry’s done is he provided in-state tuition for — for illegal immigrants. Maybe that was an attempt to attract the illegal vote — I mean the Latino voters.”

Yeah because basically they’re one and the same? Are you kidding me?

Ricky continued, “But you track Latino voters by talking about the importance of immigration in this country. You talk about the importance of — as — as Newt has talked about for many years, having English as the — as the official language of this country.”

He’s basically talking about the little brown people out there, you know, the ones who didn’t come through Ellis Island, the kind who lived in the southwest before we conquered it. The one’s who the GOTP wants to sweep up in a net and deport, or just lock away in prisons; after all they are here illegally.

And of course, not to be out done, “Krazy” chimed in, “And I think that the American way is not to give taxpayer subsidized benefits to people who have broken our laws or who are here in the United States illegally. That is not the American way. Because the immigration system in the United States worked very, very well up until the mid-1960s when liberal members of Congress changed the immigration laws.

“What works is to have people come into the United States with a little bit of money in their pocket legally with sponsors so that if anything happens to them, they don’t fall back on the taxpayers to take care of them. And then they also have to agree to learn the speak the English language, learn American history and our constitution. That’s the American way.”

Yep, the good old white uber-conservative American way. Perhaps Bachmann should learn American history before she expects immigrants to do so; where’s Lexington and Concord Congresswoman?

As Ron Paul tried to explain (correctly) why the United States was attacked on 9-11 he said, “This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this, and they’re attacking us because we’re free and prosperous, that is just not true.

“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit — they have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked America because you had bases on our holy land in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians fair treatment, and you have been bombing …”

The Tea Party crowd showed its collective ignorance when it started booing …and that’s the crux of the issue right now, the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan has become the Republican Tea Party of today, and in a political world where perception is reality, the reality is the GOTP is full of hate, anger and malice. They don’t care about anyone but wealthy white Christian America. The perception is the Tea Party wants to take America back to a time when whites ruled and no one else did; they want the poor to serve them, and the sick and the elderly to hurry up and die already. They are not the party of Ronald Reagan.

 
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Posted by on September 13, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Bachmann called Social Security ‘a tremendous fraud’?

Well what do you know? Republican Tea Party (GOTP) used-to-be darling Michele “Krazy” Bachmann, said just last year that younger workers should be “weaned off” Social Security, and that it’s “a tremendous fraud” and anyone who ran a business modeled after the program would be “thrown in jail.”

“It’s a tremendous fraud,” Krazy told Fox Business host David Asman after he called the program “one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the American public.”

“No company could get away with this, they’d be thrown in jail if they ever tried to do what the federal government did with people’s Social Security money,” Krazy claimed. “What we need to do very quickly is take the money that is coming in for Social Security, and truly lock it up so that we aren’t putting it out the door anymore.”

Wow, you mean like you voted to do during the Bush/Cheney years Congresswoman? Like the many times you voted to help spend billions in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where’d you think the money was coming from, besides out of thin air?

“Michele was referring to the fraud being the federal government who has stolen money out of the social security trust fund. People have the illusion that their money is safe in a vault somewhere, but the money is being spent on big government programs,” Stewart told The Ticket in an e-mail. “Michele will protect Social Security because the government should keep its promise to those who have paid into the system.”

Well, maybe Mr. Stewart, but Bachmann has called Social Security a “criminal fraud”, and has proposed changing the eligibility age for Social Security, reducing or eliminating the program for high-income people, and privatizing the program for younger workers by giving them individual accounts similar to a 401k.

Bachmann likes to say that Social Security should not be changed for those who have paid into the system their entire lives, and that older workers and retirees should remain within the current system. For everyone else, she thinks they should be “weaned off” the program’s current structure and said, “we just have to be straight with people.”

“[W]hat you have to do is keep faith with the people that are already in the system, that don’t have any other options, we have to keep faith with them,” Krazy has whined. “But basically what we have to do is wean everybody else off. And wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet, we can’t do it. So we just have to be straight with people.”

Here’s an idea, how about Michele and company (GOTP House) increase the tax on every single penny everyone makes, making your rich buddies pay for Social Security on all their income instead of the first $140,000 or so. That would probably make up any difference we the people are lacking, and keep the program solvent until the population swings again to more people paying in than taking out.

Bachmann is done; you can stick her with a fork. All the “krazy” talk had caught up to her, as well as Ricky Perry entering the race, and voters are beginning to see that she just isn’t presidential, much less congressional material.

Turn out the lights the party’s over they say that all good things must end …

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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