Wake The Hell Up America

So Rick Perry wants to repeal the 16^th Amendment (Income Tax) and thinks Social Security is a sham: “This unsustainable fiscal insanity is the true legacy of Social Security and the New Deal. Deceptive accounting has hoodwinked the American public into thinking that Social Security is a retirement system and financially sound, when clearly it is not….Now if you say Social Security is a failure, as I have just done…”  Mr. Perry’s 2010 book “Fed Up” will provide lots of fodder for his opponents.  I suppose he will claim that passages were taken out of context (reminds me when Charles Barkley complained that words from his own autobiography were out of context), which is exactly what he did when he cherry picked quotes from the Federalist Papers. 

A vote for Perry is a vote for no healthcare coverage and minimum wage jobs.  By the way did you know that since June 2009, Texas has lost 1,800 manufacturing jobs while adding 39,000 government jobs?  Perhaps it is time to talk about quality of jobs created and not quantity of jobs created.

Could Jon Huntsman end up being the Americans Elect nominee?  The web based open party where all members are delegates is the exact place where a moderate could end up.  Six months until the New Hampshire primary and Huntsman could surprise, assuming he’s still around.

Don’t get distracted by Bachmann’s mistakes and goof ball comments.  While she may be a nincompoop with respect to distinguishing Concord, NH from Concord, MA, John Wayne from John Wayne Gacy, and Elvis Presley’s birthday from the day he died, she is razor sharp in her beliefs of a US Christian Constitution.  And that is a dangerous proposition.  I have no problem with a politician’s faith and personal beliefs.  I especially like it when the likes of Joe Lieberman do not have to flaunt their religious beliefs and commitments but instead quietly follow their faith.  But when a politician; a lawmaker; a candidate for the highest office in the nation has spent decades studying a revisionist evangelical interpretation of the U.S. Constitution we all need to take notice.  Not only is the separation clause at risk, we have an ignorant fundamentalist with a misguided interpretation building a following of like-minded close minded acolytes.

How about freshman Florida Congressman Steve Southerland (R)?  During a recent town hall meeting, Southerland complained that his $174,000/yr salary and benefits plan were not so great:  "And by the way, did I mention? They're shooting at us. There is law-enforcement security in this room right now, and why is that? If you think this job pays too much, with those kinds of risks and cutting me off from my family business, I'll just tell you: This job don't mean that much to me. I had a good life in Panama City."  Yep cut from the same cloth as the Founding Fathers. 

Take Southerland and Mitt Romney’s recent gaffes about himself being unemployed and corporations are people too, is it any wonder that Americans are growing even less convinced that the Republicans are ready, willing, and able to solve our economic problems?

Want further proof that Republicans only care about the wealthiest?  They are willing to let the temporary payroll tax cut (from 6.2% to 4.2%) expire.  Why?  They claim it is because they oppose temporary measures and only want permanent tax cuts.  You mean like the TEMPORARY Bush Tax cuts passed in 2001 through budget reconciliation?  No the real reason is punitive.  The Republicans want to punish the 46% of all Americans who pay payroll taxes, but no income taxes.  And what is even more perverse is that according to John Kartch, director of communications at Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, “Obama in late 2010 asked for the reduced tax rate for Social Security as a temporary tax cut -- a stimulus measure like the temporarily refundable tax credits of the 2009 ‘stimulus’ package.  One could argue that therefore allowing it to lapse was not a tax hike.”  What a hot steaming pile of rationalized bull shit.