Back from two weeks on the rode: Commentary from the Left: 12 ways the GOP would destroy the US if they controlled the White House after 2016

<<<  Comprehensive debate:  Anonymous Utopian versus Reality (12 point debate dealing with election issues). 

As returning readership knows,  the "comments" coming into this site,  Midknight Review, are normally published in the form of a debate,  featuring my response to the comments of "anonymous"  or some named opponent.  The following are comments from "anonymous"  but,  in reality,  are not her wording.  Rather,  this is a cut and paste and represents some of the rhetoric we can expect from the Left,  in the coming election cycle.  You will see my comments following each of the 12 paragraphs.  I will be brief:  (note:  I have decided to post this nonsense without comment.  Later in the evening,  I will add my comments.  In the meantime,  I want the readership to counter each point, and compare notes,  when I add my comments. 

 Update for editorial rebuttal: 

1. Cut health insurance to 27 million people. This would be the result from repealing Obamacare and its related Medicaid expansion, as the House-Senate’s just-passed 2016 budget agreement seeks. In its first five years, Obamacare expanded coverage to 16.5 million uninsured, and expanded Medicaid in 29 states and Washington, D.C. It did that by paying start-up costs for several years and 93 percent after that. The Republicans want none of that. They do not see health care as a right, public obligation or responsibility, but a service for those who can afford it and a profit center for the private sector.

When it is all said and done,  there will be more than 30 million Americans without coverage except for the emergency rooms in our nation's hospitals.  12 million policies out of a possible 19 million,  have been written involving 33 million Americans,  per May 11, 2015.  Understand that 6 million policies were replacement policies for those who lost their coverage in the face of the Democrat lie,  "if you like your policy,  you can keep your policy, period."  Nearly 80% of all current ObamaCare policies are given bribes (called subsidies) to enroll in this forced insurance reform. 


2. Impoverish health care for the poor. The GOP attack on public health care does not stop with Obamacare. Medicaid is the state-run health plan for 70 million low-income people. That includes single parents, people with disabilities, every third child in the U.S, and the elderly. It pays more for long-term care and for nursing homes than any source, according to congressional analyses. The GOP budget wants to repeal the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, cut another $500 billion from Medicaid over the next decade, and turn it into a block grant to the states. No matter how you parse it, these changes—which would play out differently in different states—would shrink options for society’s most vulnerable, worsening pressures for people already in crisis.

The poor have always been covered,  even before ObamaCare.  Under ObamaCare,  if you make less than $16,000 a year as a single person,  or $32,000 for a family of four,  you do not qualify for Medicaid coverage unless,  of course,  you are of retirement age.   And the official estimate of those covered is 21 million,  not 70 million.  Further,  there are no GOP plans to abandon the poor. 

3. Privatize and gut senior healthcare. The GOP’s war on safety nets continues with

Medicare, the federal health plan for Americans older than 67. The GOP would turn it into a voucher program, where beneficiaries get an annual fixed payment to buy private insurance—whose costs cannot be accurately known up front, according to Congressional Budget Office studies. That means more out-of-pocket costs for seniors on fixed incomes. Because Obamacare contained a provision that lowered prescription drug costs, those too would go up. The GOP—like the Obama White House—would cut $430 billion from Medicare over the next decade, which would undermine the health care options.

There has never been a GOP plan to save Medicare,  which is 47 trillion in debt,  that did not include a choice to continue with the traditional arrangement for Medicare   . . . . . . .   never.  

4. Put Social Security on the chopping block. Despite efforts by progressive groups and growing numbers of elected Democrats to recognize a looming retirement security crisis and call for expanded payments (paid by lifting a payroll tax cap), the GOP keeps falsely saying that Social Security is driving the federal debt. They are calling for a commission to “study” its problems and propose solutions, which means future cuts. Their intentions could not be clearer. A small part of Social Security, covering people with disabilities, will run out of money next year or face benefit cuts. Instead of using money from the retirement trust as in the past, the GOP’s budget agreement says not “a penny” can be used this way. They are pretending there is a major fiscal crisis when there is not, when the government has been acting as a bank for taxpayers and holding their money. As is the case with the health care, Republicans want to dismantle or privatize the program.

While there are all kinds of figures "out there" evaluating the unfunded liabilities of  Social Security,  know these facts:  There is no Social Security Trust Fund.  This fund only exists "on paper."   I do not know if there ever was a "Trust Fund" for S.S.,  but today,  all Social Security taxes received by the Feds are spent in payments.  No collected monies go to building up a "Trust Fund."  In fact,  the US Treasury owes the trust fund nearly 3 trillion dollars.  And,  it owes the trust fund precisely because it pays out more than it takes in.  In other words,  it is going broke. 

5. Increase hunger for tens of million of poor. The GOP doesn’t want to confront the realities of poverty in America, which include tens of millions of children. The House Budget Committee Democrats’ analysis of the GOP budget explains that it would cut $300 billion to food stamps, “greatly reducing benefits or pushing many more people from the program.” In Kansas, the GOP went even further in revising state welfare law, which now contains lifetime benefit caps, harsh work requirements, $25-a-day limits on bank withdrawals, restrictions on where recipients can shop and buy food, background checks, ongoing drug tests, and more.

Understand that programs such as food stamps and the "earned income tax credit" do not have caps as to spending.  As a result,  Barack Obama,  who never so much as spent a single minute in a college finance/economics class,  advertises our food stamp welfare program in Mexico as an enticement to "come to the U.S. and vote Democrat."    As a result,  that program, alone,  has doubled in size,  from 25 million to nearly 50 million while he has been the Occupier In Chief.   And,  "earned income tax credit,"  monies given to folks who file a tax statement but do not pay state and federal  taxes,  will be  "free" money given to the five or six million and more,  under Obama's executive ordered amnesty plan  (add a 1000 dollars x 5 million and see what you come up with).  For the time being, since last February,   this program has been put on hold,  by a Federal Court.   And Kansas?  "Caps" implies a budgeted program and responsible financial management (versus the fantasy that "we can never run out of money") and "harsh work" is "work of any kind,"  to a drug invested Utopian, post-modern hippie.  Let's not forget that it was Bill Clinton who ordered a job compliment to welfare,  not the GOP. 

 6. Cut public school programs and funds. The GOP does not believe education is an investment in America’s future. Spending on education would fall to its lowest level in 15 years, with 46,000 additional children losing access to Head Start, more layoffs of special education teachers and those who work with disadvantaged youths, the House Budget Committee Democrats said. Similarly, adult job training would be cut, as well as funding for medical and scientific research grants.

It is Barack Obama  who opposes charter and private schools while sending his girls to the most elite private school in the nations.    Let's not forget that Obama and his Utopian buds had two years to fix "education,"  back in 2009/2010,  and did not raise a finger in that effort.  And,  it was Barack Obama,  who has broken all his promises to the college-aged voters,  during his time in office.  As a result,  the latest PEW poll,  found that 56% of young adults,  now,  believe that this country is headed "in the wrong direction."  Finally,  front running GOP candidates only plan to enable the states to take back their role in the management of education. None of them have any plans to cut programs that are in place and successful in their  application(s). 

7. Make college out of reach and more expensive. As higher education keeps getting more expensive, student debt keeps growing. Yet the GOP budget worsens this problem. It cuts another $200 billion from higher education over the next decade, of which $85 billion is Pell grants—federal student loans—whose maximum will be frozen “forever,” according to House Democrats. Additionally, the GOP would start charging interest on loans while students are in college, adding thousands to borrowing costs. It also ends a $2,500 tax credit “that helps more than 10 million low- and moderate-income students,” House Democrats said. Taken together, the Republican’s philosophy toward education only can be characterized as a Darwinian, based on their belief that government should have no role in helping people achieve goals—even through education.

The comment,  above,   "As higher education keeps getting more expensive, student debt keeps growing,"  proves that Obama's much acclaimed "fix" for college students,  was meaningless gibberish.  Several years ago,  Obama "solved" the student loan problem with an executive order that by-passed Congress   . . . .   an illegal expansion that needs resolution.  Students pay at least,  3.5% interest and could escape half of their student debt 25 years from now,  but they still have to secure those loans before entering school.  Again,  college-aged voters are unimpressed with Obama's solutions,  and believe that he has taken this country in the wrong direction. 

8. Raise taxes on middle- and working class. The GOP budget would increase taxes for millions because it ends an annual tax credit that helps millions pay for college, and it lets key provisions expire in the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. The National Priorities Project, whose analysis of the GOP budget echoed House Democrats, said these moves would end up “raising taxes on millions of working families.”

Perhaps the author of the above statement,  should wait until the GOP holds the presidency and actually hammers out a budget with regard to student loan issues,  before she starts whining about what the GOP is and is not going to do.  The Dems major in fear-mongering when they,  themselves,  have no solutions   . . . . . .   after 7 stinking years in office.  Let's not forget,  it is Obama who has raised more taxes on the middle class than any president in history,  not the GOP.   Does anyone on the Left remember the voters indictment on Obama's policies,  in the last mid-term elections?  In 2014,  the voters of America handed Obama the worst mid-term defeat in modern history. 

9. Postpone needed infrastructure repairs. The Republicans also believe America’s roads and bridges can get by for another decade with minimal maintenance, and will cut transportation funding by 26 percent—$235 billion—over the next decade.

Again,  we really should wait until the GOP actually writes proposed legislation on this matter.  But,  more than this,  in 2009,  Obama came up with a trillion dollar Stimulus bill that proposed 20% of that money be spent on infrastructure.  In the end,  he and his Democrat buds only spent 2% of that money on infrastructure,  with all of that money going to union sponsored contracts.  The average "working Joe," was left out in the cold,  as always,  by the deceit of an Utopian cabal that promises the world,  in order to stay in power,  but seldom makes good on its promises    . . . .   ObamaCare being the first example of a program based entirely on Democrat lies,  that comes to mind. 

10. Turn away from vets but boost the Pentagon. The GOP hounded the White House when a scandal broke out a Veterans Administration hospitals where vets could not see physicians promptly. Yet the GOP budget cuts discretionary funding for vets next year by $1.9 billion and envisions $20 billion in cuts over the next decade. That’s coming as vets from Iraq and Afghanistan are returning with horrible injuries requiring more—not less—health care and services. At the same time, the GOP budget uses loopholes to add $187 billion for next year’s overseas military operations “for unrelated defense needs,” the House Budget Committee Democrats said. This is more of the “love war but abandon the soldier” pattern that’s existed for years in Washington.

This actually makes me angry.  To suggest that the GOP hates the military while the hippiefied  Left is a friend to military causes is absolutely obscene.  It is the Left that believes cuts to the military,  at all levels, should be the order of the day, with these "savings" spent on social welfare programs.  It is the the hippiefied Left that wants to be as "military free" as the European nations,  not the GOP.  It is the Dems who have done nothing for the Vets over the past six years.    Understand this:  in a CNN report,   the approval rating for Obama,  within the military,  is 15%.  Say that outloud,  a couple of times   . . . . . .   "15%."  In the 2016,  expect the Dems to try to suppress the military vote (again) because of their failed military policies and their Utopian hatred for anything "military."  

 11. What’s not happening? Apart from going backwards on government programs, the GOP is ignoring many pressing issues. Their budget has nothing for immigration reform. Instead, Congress is siding with right-wing governors who sued to block White House executive orders suspending deportations—even as 2.3 million undocumented people live in those red states. There’s an ongoing effort to block federal climate change research at the CIA, Pentagon and most recently NASA. Meanwhile, all of the GOP’s presidential contenders are downplaying or denying that climate change is real, siding with the fossil fuel industry, which works to undermine renewable energy options.

Climate change legislation is not about fixing anything.  It is only about the redistribution of money from the wealthy and the hard-working middle class,  to pay for welfare/social programs that produce nothing in return and do not offer any real sense of "upward mobility" for the welfare recipient.   Under Obama,  the welfare roles,  in many states,  have become problematic,  with the inclusion of more than 50,000 immigrant children in 2014,  alone,  compared to an influx of 3,000 in 2011.  The problem,  here,  is this:  every state in our Union,  has to balance its budget,  unlike the Federal Government   . . . . . . . .  that is the law.    Apparently,  Obama is not aware of this little fact,  but it is a limiting reality,  nonetheless. 

12. A GOP lock on the Supreme Court? The GOP’s budget in Congress and recent developments in red states show what they would seek to do if they had a congressional majority and the presidency after 2016’s elections. It’s clear they would try to dismantle or privatize health care and retirement security safety nets, like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. They will do nothing to make higher education more accessible; instead they would raise student loan interest rates. Meanwhile, their rough treatment of the poor would keep the most vulnerable Americans trapped at the bottom—and they’d punish those who seek public assistance, starting with food stamps.

Keep in mind these facts:  Under Obama,  we now have the weakest workforce in 35 years,  the lowest per-hour earnings ratio in three decades,  the shortest work week in history  (from 40 hours to 30 hours as defined by ObamaCare),  and the weakest economy (under 2% GDP) since WW II.  Those are the facts.  "Point 12" is campaign crap     . . . . .    the facts,  by contrast,  are the facts.  Time for change.