Posted on 10/20/2009 7:49:31 AM PDT by SmithL
It's hard to instill confidence in the U.S. economy when Washington keeps finding new and creative ways to spend money it doesn't have.
Take President Obama's proposal to send additional $250 checks to Social Security recipients - on top of the $250 checks they already received as part of the president's $787 billion economic stimulus package.
Because seniors don't need a cost-of-living increase, the president wants to give them a bonus. Don't even try to follow the logic. You can't find it.
Last week, the Obama administration said that for the first time since automatic Social Security cost-of-living increases were instituted in 1975, there will be no cost-of-living increase in 2010 because the cost of living declined in the period used to calculate the payment.
As it turns out, seniors got a too-big cost-of-living adjustment - 5.8 percent - for 2009. So that January adjustment was like a raise of about 4 percent above inflation. Hence, there is no justification for a 2010 cost-of-living increase.
Except: the D.C. Beltway abhors a spending vacuum - at least for a demographic with high voter turnout.
So Obama proposed giving Social Security and disability recipients, as well as veterans, an additional $250 "to help them make it through these difficult times." The cost: $13 billion to $14 billion.
Where are Republicans on this?
For all their talk of fiscal responsibility, the GOP leaders have an uncanny affinity toward any plan that throws tax dollars at elderly voters, whether they need the money or not.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
My Mother will be 92 next month and she would NEVER vote for a Dem........
that 250.00 is a useful idiot bribe.
Add this to the free cell phones they are giving away to the poor and the whole situation becomes out of control.
Huh?
So their grocery, utility, and fuel bills won't increase? Is there some sort of secret power they have?
Seniors ought to be outraged at this cheap attempt to buy their support particularly when they will soon see a significant increase in Medicare part B premiums that this $250 won’t begin to cover and Congress is now debating cutting billions from Medicare.
Y’all.........READ the last post on this page. Beck was just talking about it. Will someone please post it in the forum for me? I have to get my little one to the docs. Thanks!!!
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1929128,00.html
This latest ploy, like most of what the Obamanoids have tried lately, has backfired rather seriously.
Check today’s Rasmussen, which includes two weekend nights: the worst numbers for Hussein in weeks.
That’s because these socialistic Chicago ballbusters are trying everything but governing and doing something real to help the economy.
He can take his 250 and shove it where the sun dont shine.
He wants to help seniors?
Then get the hell out of the healthcare business.
Let me tell ya, there isnt a senior out there, who wont accept this cash..but it sure as hell isnt going to buy him a vote. He needs to do a lot more than shove a few worthless dollars at us.
This 250 dollars is a bribe plain and simple. Obummer wants seniors to forget all about his death panels and rationed health care and Medicare cuts. He hopes this 250 dollars will do the trick. Chicago politics and your tax payer money at work!
1993-1994 (16 years ago) was such a hopeful time. Republicans were never in complete charge, always could blame spending and deficits on democrats. I remember repeating the Rush-bo line, “tax cuts don't have to be paid for because it's our money”. An older Ross Perot voter warned me that Republicans demand ‘their’ spending, with the tax cuts. I didn't listen, I believed Rush.
Then Republicans won GWB presidency and was determined to ‘expand’ the party. That meant spending like this to buy more votes(similar to California under Arnold.)Later much of this spending was to buy back the voters lost by Iraq, a Tom Delay/Karl Rove strategy. Long term it compressed the party 2006 and 2008 as republicans looked like the soulless prostitutes that they are.
Republicans under GWB turned taxes concept from 'our personal money' to 'our collective money' as NEW republican voters lined up to get theirs.
This is in exchange for the cuts in MediCare. Kind of like when Homer traded his Union’s Dental Plan for a Keg of Beer.
Obama’s proposal to send additional $250 checks to Social Security recipients
Mine too.
Mine will only go to a conservative.
Take the $250 and still vote against the street hood bro. Use the $250 nobamamoney to buy more ammo.
Free broad band to be the next Constitutional "right", flat screen TVs soon to folllow.
I've read that premiums wont increase except for new enrollments, which will include me.
I say YOU LIE to the government’s assertion of no inflation. What’s gone down this year besides gasoline? There is much more food, taxes and meds in a retired person’s market basket than gasoline.
Also the author did not cite that the year before last understated inflation just as last year’s overstated it. But then again facts would have disturbed pre-established spin. In the long run inflation increases do not keep up with actual inflation.
You could also throw in that the government’s efforts to keep interest rates low has resulted in loss of investment income which seniors use to live on. Value of house went down but real estate taxes didn’t.
PS 75 cents per day will buy votes? Wall Streeters should come so cheap.
There is something wrong with his mind if he thinks thats going to get him anywhere.
Old people, unlike what the young think, are very wise. Obozo isnt the first of his kind to be around. Most old folks see him for what he is. Believe me, he can dish out all of the money he wants..it wont get him anywhere.
when even the Bay Area MSM is willing to call you out, you’re hitting rock bottom
The sad part is some old people do eat cat food next time your at the store look what food they buy.
Of course, it will buy a lot of smokes and booze.
It’s fun to buy votes with other people’s money
Long term it compressed the party 2006 and 2008 as republicans looked like the soulless prostitutes that they are.
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Many, perhaps even a majority of Republicans, are not soulless prostitutes - the RINOs in the party and other so called Republican leadership are. There is a vast portion (perhaps a majority) of Republicans that reject the ‘big tent’ idea, especially when that concept requires compromise on basic conservative values. There are now a handful of leaders that are emerging within the Republican party to perhaps reclaim the Conservative ground and drive the party and its leadership back to its Conservative base.
Generally, third parties have not and do not work. The isolated case of the Rep in NY State that might win as a Conservative Party of New York candidate is a rare exception, and that only in a state that has a history of a Conservative party. One does not have to be a hack for the RNC to know that. It is simply true based on history, Constitutional law, convention and reality. To wit: In the history of the United States, not a single third party has come close to winning the presidency, only 7 3rd parties have even won a single state’s electoral votes and only 5 third parties have won even 10% of the vote. For a Conservative Party to work and displace the at that point hapless Republicans at the national level would require a massive exongenous shock to the political system - something in the order of the leadup to the Civil War.
Can a strong, principled, Conservative leadership truly mature within the Republican party, or is this nation at the point of a massive shock to its political identity that could usher in a Conservative Party? This is our challenge. We cannot afford 20 years of trial and error.
It wont pay for many smokes in NY, where cigs run about 10 bucks a pack..and I doubt much booze, either.
True, we don’t have 20 years....hell, we don’t have 20 months.
True, we don’t have 20 years....hell, we don’t have 20 months.
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Exactly. We must marshall every resource NOW. 11/3 election is the beginning.
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