Paul Ryan, Enemy of the Middle Class?

[Assuredcw]

But the deficit doesnt exist in a vaccuum. It is the result of government spending money on programs but not collecting enough in taxes to pay for them

SS may be OK for now, but Medicare/Medicaid are not properly funded by any stretch of the imagination. If you want to save them, it is the payroll tax on everyone that needs to be adjusted. Tripled probably. The current level of 1.45% has been on place since the 80's. Medical insurance costs have gone up dramatically since then but medicar/medicaid payroll deductions havent budged....

Here's an opinion piece on what can be done for Medicare. We need to try common-sense cost containment before we cut benefits.

Remove Medicare's straitjacket - Los Angeles Times

Also, I am just now realizing that you have lumped Medicare and Medicaid together, and they are two different things. Medicare is medical insurance for older, retired people and we PAY for it through those payroll deductions you mentioned. Medicare is being addressed in the link I am including in this post. Medicaid is medical insurance for poor people, and that comes out of the General Fund as an expense against tax revenues. They are two different things. But arguably, you could do for Medicaid the same things being suggested to contain Medicare costs. The providers want as much reimbursement as they can get. But that is just greed, and is not necessary at all.

 

[GarfieldJL]

Exxon Mobil profit just short of record - Feb. 1, 2013

Again you and others are not looking at the whole story (which is unsurprising)...

Fact of the matter is Obama is still practicing the illegal drilling moratorium in the gulf (he's acting in defiance of a court order) and thus the money that would usually go to drilling exploration and drilling in the gulf can't be spent.

Those "record profits" are due to the fact they can't spend the money to do oil exploration and drilling...

 

[[serious]]

Again you and others are not looking at the whole story (which is unsurprising)...

Fact of the matter is Obama is still practicing the illegal drilling moratorium in the gulf (he's acting in defiance of a court order) and thus the money that would usually go to drilling exploration and drilling in the gulf can't be spent.

Those "record profits" are due to the fact they can't spend the money to do oil exploration and drilling...

Are you talking about the 6 month moratorium that expired back in 2010?

 

[GarfieldJL]

Are you talking about the 6 month moratorium that expired back in 2010?

If it expired back in 2010, why all the delays...

More than 130 offshore drilling projects have been delayed by almost a year and half, since the moratorium, compared with 46 projects being delayed pre-moratorium.
Gulf Oil Drilling Moratorium, 'Permitorium' to Cost Nation $24B, Industry Says

 

[[serious]]

If it expired back in 2010, why all the delays...

More than 130 offshore drilling projects have been delayed by almost a year and half, since the moratorium, compared with 46 projects being delayed pre-moratorium.
Gulf Oil Drilling Moratorium, 'Permitorium' to Cost Nation $24B, Industry Says

I can't help but notice the article carefully avoids saying that the moratorium is still in place. Do you have a source for that or are you suggesting that a more stringent permitting process is somehow a moratorium even though permits are being issued?

 

[GarfieldJL]

I can't help but notice the article carefully avoids saying that the moratorium is still in place. Do you have a source for that or are you suggesting that a more stringent permitting process is somehow a moratorium even though permits are being issued?

Are we talking officially or unofficially?

Supposedly the moratorium has long sinced ended, the reality is that things are being dragged out to the point you can argue the moratorium is still in place.

 

[[serious]]

Are we talking officially or unofficially?

Supposedly the moratorium has long sinced ended, the reality is that things are being dragged out to the point you can argue the moratorium is still in place.

Your original post seemed to indicate you thought that an actual moratorium was still in place and cited a court case to that effect indicating you were talking about the actual moratorium which was so challenged. Now you are saying that it isn't an actual moratorium, but permits take a while so it's kinda moratoriumish.

This strikes me as you realizing you were mistaken, but backpedaling and trying to pretend you meant something else. Now, based on the article you cited which seems designed to misinform, I don't blame you for the original error. But don't try and defend the misinformation after it's been uncovered. If you have an issue with the permitting process, discuss the permitting process.

 

[GarfieldJL]

Your original post seemed to indicate you thought that an actual moratorium was still in place and cited a court case to that effect indicating you were talking about the actual moratorium which was so challenged. Now you are saying that it isn't an actual moratorium, but permits take a while so it's kinda moratoriumish.

This strikes me as you realizing you were mistaken, but backpedaling and trying to pretend you meant something else. Now, based on the article you cited which seems designed to misinform, I don't blame you for the original error. But don't try and defend the misinformation after it's been uncovered. If you have an issue with the permitting process, discuss the permitting process.

Seems to me that you have no clue what you are talking about...

For starters you said the Oil Moratorium ended back in 2010...

Feb 2, 2011

A federal judge in Louisiana held the Interior Department in contempt late Wednesday, citing the agency for “dismissive conduct” by blocking offshore oil drilling during last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Judge Martin Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana last summer blocked the Obama administration’s first attempt to place a moratorium on offshore drilling, only to have Interior come back with a second ban.


Read more: Judge holds Interior Department in contempt - Dan Berman - POLITICO.com

If the moratorium ended in 2010, why would a Federal Judge find the Obama Administration's Interior Department in Contempt of Court...

Feb 22, 2011

The Obama Administration hasn’t had their boot on the neck of just BP but also the entire Gulf economy. Federal Judge Martin Feldman is now doing the same to the Obama Administration.

A few weeks after Feldman held the Interior Department in contempt of court for ignoring his ruling to put an end to the job-killing drilling moratorium, he ordered the Interior Department to get moving on new permits one way or the other. Judge Feldman gave the Administration 30 days to act on five permits, emphasizing that the Administration has been sitting on these permits for four to nine months when Interior routinely processed the permits in two weeks’ time. Feldman wrote: “[T]he government is under a duty to act by either granting or denying a permit application within a reasonable time. Not acting at all is not a lawful option.”

Part of the problem is merely confusion. CNN Money reports that with respect to some permits, “the government said four of the five applications are not technically before it. They were sent back to the applicant to correct problems, according to the court ruling. The applicant said it was never alerted about problems with its requests.” But in any case, the economic effects are real.
Judge to Obama Administration: Get Moving on Drilling Permits | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation


August 18, 2011

In the lawsuit, filed last week in Louisiana, Exxon said the decision arbitrarily deprived it of rights and denied the company its ability to produce from the field. Two other leases for the field have yet to expire.


President Barack Obama's administration has criticised companies for sitting on big oil finds and not developing them, a practice which deprives the US of tax revenue. However, the drastic step of taking away an oil discovery is rare and raises the prospect of a protracted legal battle, with co-owner of the field, Statoil, also affected.


ExxonMobil sues US government over seizure of oil leases - Telegraph

On a related note look at Obama's stonewalling of the Keystone Pipeline.

Btw, you said that the moratorium ended in 2010, if that were the case the Interior Department wouldn't have been held in Contempt of court in 2011, and Exxon Mobil wouldn't have had to sue later that year...

 

[[serious]]

Seems to me that you have no clue what you are talking about...

For starters you said the Oil Moratorium ended back in 2010...

Feb 2, 2011

A federal judge in Louisiana held the Interior Department in contempt late Wednesday, citing the agency for “dismissive conduct” by blocking offshore oil drilling during last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

From the judge's actual order, which is linked in the story:
"The second moratorium was then lifted on October 12, 2010,"

 

[Assuredcw]

So, Paul Ryan is surprised that the President of the United States isn't going to do it his way?

Paul Ryan: Obama budget shows parties working 'from different planets'

Vouchers, vouchers and more vouchers. But there might be another way to control the deficit. Fancy that.

(Not that Social Security has anything to do with the deficit. Those inceased revenues are going to be needed to pay it down, and NOT adequately collecting from the upper brackets is that flattened tax code again, that sticks it to the rest of us.)

 

[Schroeder]

For Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand is God. Atlas Shrugged and The Virtue of Selfishness are his Scriptures, and he reads them with no less devotion than a Christian reads the Bible.

I don't doubt that he really believes in his fantasy world where the top 1 pct (really the top 0.01 pct) "job creators" are being persecuted by "class warfare" as they continue to accumulate more and more wealth while the poor get poorer and the middle class gets squeezed out of existence.

You obviously like sooo many other liberals haven't read the book or looked into what she was getting acrossed. But typical stuff from the left. Please explain how Obama has helped anyone but the rich. Your notice the only thing getting better is the stock market. Wonder how many poor have money there. you all crack me up. Obama sure shows how he is one of us doesn't he. good grief.

 

[Schroeder]

Paul Ryan is the (Republican) Chairman of the House Budget Committee and the architect of the proposed voucher program to replace our current Medicare program (many people think that Social Security will be next). He also wants to increase taxes on the poor and middle class and to reduce them for the upper brackets. This is all detailed in his Roadmap for America, and you can read it for yourself - just do a Google search.

But Paul Ryan isn't done (actually he hasn't gotten started thanks to his Democratic brethren, who have blocked this nonsense).

Quoting from this site:

Paul Ryan: Obama Preying On 'Fear, Envy and Resentment'

"We're now getting this class warfare that pits people against each other," Ryan said. "[The President] is going from town to town, impugning the motives of Republicans, setting up straw men and scapegoats, and engaging in intellectually lazy arguments, as he tries to build support for punitive tax hikes on job creators."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pushed back on Ryan’s criticisms, noting that the GOP lawmaker was attacking Obama for being politically divisive while giving a speech at a "highly partisan conservative think tank."

"The president's commitment to overcome divisive politics is at the core of who he is," Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. He pointed to past remarks by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about his top priority being to deny Obama a second term, adding, "Sounds like divisive politics to me."
Carney also took issue with the substance of Ryan's speech, citing tax cuts for "the average millionaire" and the "voucherization of Medicare" as proposals that Obama opposes.

OK, folks, let's discuss. Is Paul Ryan (and with him the GOP) declaring war on the middle class? Why or why not?

Here's one more link -- whoever the Republican president is going to be, isn't supposed to have a choice about Paul Ryan's policies. He will be expected to do what he is told. That will have implications for Romney:



Norquist: Romney Will Do As Told—David Frum - The Daily Beast


They don't care WHO the Republican president is, and he isn't going to have a choice. He is going to have to rubber-stamp Paul Ryan's agenda, so says Grover Norquist.

Edited: Romney lost, and Paul Ryan is still the de facto head of the GOP in Washington right now. This should not be a surprise.

actually what is not surprising is the typical same old rant from the left who cant quite get things right or true. But time will show. Right off you got it wrong with the same old lie. it does not REPLACE anything. You all make it sound so much like a stupid DR Evil movie. its ridiculous. We conservatives just are evil and want to kill of the sick and old and bla bla bla.

 

[Schroeder]

Let's get something straight -- regardless of what Grover Norquist says, going back to Clinton rates doesn't raise taxes -- it simply corrects them. The Bush tax cuts were supposed to be temporary and not permanent, but oh how soon we forget!

taxes were temporary too. and welfare and social security ect ect. BUt oh how we forget.

 

[Schroeder]

How about instead of raising taxes, we start with the elimination of all tax credits? This would ceratinly remove loopholes, loopholes being bad of course.

how about we go back to the first hundred and so years of our nation where there was no federal tax. Goodness how did we make it. Dig there you might find a lot of good answers to what our problem is. Seeing how we were told the federal tax was temporary.

 

[Assuredcw]

actually what is not surprising is the typical same old rant from the left who cant quite get things right or true. But time will show. Right off you got it wrong with the same old lie. it does not REPLACE anything. You all make it sound so much like a stupid DR Evil movie. its ridiculous. We conservatives just are evil and want to kill of the sick and old and bla bla bla.

I was a registered Republican until very recently (within the last couple of Presidential elections), and that is a direct result of the GOP's efforts to get rid of the progressive tax code. We disagree on this one point, but that wouldn't make me a "liberal."

 

[Belk]

how about we go back to the first hundred and so years of our nation where there was no federal tax. Goodness how did we make it. Dig there you might find a lot of good answers to what our problem is. Seeing how we were told the federal tax was temporary.

Should we go back to being a non technologically advanced agrarian society as well?

Oh, and there was federal tax. There was no income tax.

 

[Assuredcw]

Paul Ryan is getting flack from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on his budget. Good!

Ryan speech in Atchison tests the faith in politics - KansasCity.com

Quoting:


The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote letters starting in 2011 to note that plans to cut taxes on the wealthiest and shrink the social safety net weren’t exactly a heavenly example of putting the needs of the downtrodden first.

Ryan looked for a bishop to take his side. He wrote to Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, and argued that reining in spending also has moral implications. Dolan wrote back, noting Ryan’s point as valid and reiterating the church’s position that society needs to protect the poor.

Nope. They are not backing down. They don't like that budget.

​

 

[Assuredcw]

And now he is getting flack from everybody else. Because he just doesn't understand WHY the term "anchor baby" would be so offensive. It's uncanny how people who have an ATTITUDE problem keep saying the wrong thing, huh?

HuffPost Live

 

[Assuredcw]

That tax issue keeps coming up. The closer we look at the plans Paul Ryan has to re-do the tax code, and budgetary priorities, the more there is to worry about:

The Facts Are In And Paul Ryan Is Wrong -- Daily Intelligencer

 

[Assuredcw]

This link doesn't work - I'll post another.