Republican Alan Simpson (Chair of Debt Commission) Demanding Cut & Delay of Social Security and Medicare for the Elderly! Forces Them to Eat Cat Food!

The Debt Commission, led by Republican Alan Simpson, is making recommendations to CUT & DELAY Social Security and Medicare, leaving our Seniors to EAT CAT FOOD!

The formation of the Debt Commission (some media outlets are calling it "President Obama's Debt Commission" or "The White House Debt Commission") was originally a Congressionally proposed recommendation for a Commission to be formed to create bipartisan legislation requiring a Congressional vote on its recommendations as presented, without any amendments. In January of 2010, that bill failed in the Senate by a vote of 53-46, when six Republicans who had co-sponsored it nevertheless voted against it. Thereafter, President Obama established the Commission by executive order 13531. Republican Senator Alan Simpson was appointed as co-chair of this bi-partisan Commission.

Republican Simpson, initially supported by both Republican and Democrats as co-chair, has created a number of media frenzies with his blatant and radical outbursts. Back in August, Simpson sent an email to the executive director of the National Older Women’s League in which he described Social Security as being an entitlement program “like a cow with 310 million tits." (WOW!)

Now, Simpson, as co-chair of the Debt Commission, has foregone the support of the members on his committee and has blatantly come out and presented his so-called "committee recommendations" even though the members of the committee DO NOT AGREE WITH IT!

And now Simpson has sparked a political firestorm Wednesday with the early release of his recommendations...a report proposing sweeping changes to Social Security, Medicare and the tax code. Simpson’s plan would increase the Social Security retirement age and limit yearly cost-of-living increases to the rate of inflation rather than of wage growth. The cut in annual increases would affect current retirees! This was supposed to be off the table for the Commission. This means Seniors benefits would go down by about 3 percent after they’ve been retired for 10 years, and about 6 percent after they’ve been retired for 20 years. (Unbelievable!!)

And the retirement age increase is just a particularly cruel way of cutting benefits. The age at which the elderly can retire on full Social Security benefits is already increasing to 67 by 2027. Simpson’s plan would “index” the retirement age to increase in longevity, meaning it would hit 68 in about 2050 and 69 in about 2075.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had this to say about it: “It is reprehensible to ask working people, including many who do physically-demanding labor, to work until they are 69 years of age. It also is totally impractical. As they compete for jobs with 25-year-olds, many older workers will go unemployed and have virtually no income. Frankly, there will not be too much demand within the construction industry for 69-year-old bricklayers.”

New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman also pointed out that “the people who really depend on Social Security, those in the bottom half of the distribution, aren’t living much longer. So you’re going to tell janitors to work until they’re 70 because lawyers are living longer than ever.”

At the end of the day, only Republicans/Tea Partiers will support these recommendations. After all, anyone who supports irrational tax cuts for the rich will have no qualms about asking the Elderly in our country to be forced to eat CAT FOOD!

Guest Voz - Ezra Klein: Explaining Tax Cut Proposals Democratic vs Republican Proposals

Tax cuts for the middle-class are also tax cuts for the rich
I think people are actually quite confused about how the tax cuts work. So here's Annie Lowrey:
Pop quiz. Say you make a steady $250,001, every year. How many dollars of additional income tax will you pay if the Obama administration’s tax plan goes through? A thousand dollars? A few thousand? Nope. Three cents.
Here’s how it works. Your taxes below $250,000 remain the same. And on that excess $1, your income tax rate increases from 33 percent to 36 percent. For most earners making between $250,000 and $500,000 a year, the Obama plan would increase income tax liability by just a few hundred dollars — an average of $600, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Dean Baker.

Annie is comparing the Republican tax cuts vs. the Obama tax cuts. But if you compare the Obama tax cuts to a world without either set of tax cuts, you learn something interesting: The rich are still getting a big tax cut.

Obama's "tax cuts for the middle class" aren't actually tax cuts for the middle class. They're tax cuts on all family income up to $250,000. So if you make $300,000 a year, you're getting a tax cut on $250,000. That's a serious tax cut! That's why the graphs showing how different taxpayers make out under the Obama and Bush tax plans all show a tax cut for the rich under Obama's plan. (see picture)

Now, the tax cut for the rich is obviously much larger under the Republican plan, and rich people would prefer a big tax cut to a modest tax cut. But that doesn't change the facts of the situation: Under Obama's tax plan, everyone gets a tax cut, including families making more than $250,000 a year.

TeaParty Wacko Congressman Allen West Hires Insane, Racist Wacko Extremist who wants to HANG Latinos! Calls Nancy Pelosi "Garbage!"

HP Reports: Wacko Teaparty Congressman Allen West (R-Fla.) hired wacko, racist radio show host Joyce Kaufman. Some of her her most combative statements include:
* In August 2007, when discussing illegal immigrants, she said on her show, "If you commit a crime while you're here, we should hang you and send your body back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it."
* She became infuriated at illegal immigration after she called Comcast and the recording said, "Press 2 for Spanish."
* She said at a rally, with West standing by, "Calling illegal immigrants 'undocumented workers' is like calling a drug dealer a pharmacist without a license." She was furious that children of illegal immigrants were educated in public schools and received health care at emergency rooms. "There are people who want to change your way of life, and some of them may be your gardeners," she said.

The Florida Independent also notes Kaufman has rarely spared Muslims from her harsh words, and, according to the Washington Post's transcript of her show Tuesday, she referred to Democratic leaders such as outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as "garbage":
"Over these months I have been blessed to form very wonderful relationships with the West family," Kaufman said, adding that she had been a supporter of his campaign. "I looked at this family and [told] myself, how do you not fight and put them up on the pedestal when we've got this garbage up on the pedestal now, people like Nancy Pelosi?"

Successes of President Obama's Administration

HEALTHCARE REFORM
1. Health Care Reform Bill, preventing insurance companies from denying insurance due to pre-existing condition.
2. Health Care Reform Bill, allowing children to remain covered by parents’ insurance until age 26.
3. Tax cuts for up to 3.5 million small business owners to help pay for employee health care coverage.
4. Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for health insurance.
5. Require health insurance plans to disclose how much of the premium actually goes to patient care.
6. Added $4.6 billion to the Veterans’ Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health care professionals.
7. Cut prescription drug cost for Medicare recipients by 50 percent; close medicare prescription drug donut hole starting in 2011 and complete closing by 2020
8. Signed the Children’s’ Health Reauthorization Act which provides health care to 11 million kids, 4 million of whom were previously uninsured; coverage of children with pre-existing conditions.
9. Signed the Christoper Reeve Paralysis Act, first piece of comprehensive legislation aimed at improving the lives of Americans living with paralysis.
10. Signed Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act, giving the FDA authority to regulate the manufacture, marketing and sale of tobacco for the first time.
11. Launched recovery.gov to track spending from the Recovery Act, providing transparency and allowing the public to report fraud, waste or abuse.
Economic Recovery
1. Created more private sector jobs in 2010 than during the entire Bush years.
2. Tax cuts for middle and lower class Americans.
3. Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers.
4. Increased average fuel economy standards from 27.5 mpg to 35.5 mpg starting in 2016.
5. Established the Credit Card Bill of Rights, preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers.
5. Signed financial reform law establishing a Consumer Protection Bureau to look out for the interests of everyday Americans.
7. Signed financial reform law requiring lenders to verify applicants’ credit history, income and employment status.
8. Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers.
9. Significantly expanded Pell grants which help low-income students pay for college.
10. Provided $12.2 billion in new funding for individuals with the Disabilities Education Act.
11. Signed financial reform law allowing shareholders of publicly traded companies to vote on executive salaries.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
1. Significantly increased funding for Violence Against Women Act.
2. Expanded hate crime law in the U.S. to include sexual orientation through the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
3. Increased funding for national parks and forests by 10 percent.
2. Appointed first Latina to U.S. Supreme Court.
3. Appointed first chief technology adviser.
4. Promoted social responsibility through creation of serve.gov, a national database of volunteer opportunities
5. Voluntary disclosure of White House visitors for first time in U.S. history.

DIPLOMACY
1. Signed the new START Treaty, a nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia.
2. Provided travel expenses for families of fallen soldiers.
3. Provided the Department of Veteran Affairs with more than $14 billion to improve services to America’s veterans.
4. Ended Bush administration CIA program of “enhanced interrogation.” Army’s field manual to be followed as a guide in terrorist interrogations.
5. Reversed the policy of barring media coverage during the return of fallen soldiers.
6. Developed stimulus package which includes $18 billion for non-defense scientific research and development.
7. Signed the weapons systems acquisition reform act to stop fraud and wasteful spending in the defense procurement and contracting system.

Univision Exposes NM Republican Governor's TRUE Beliefs!

Sometimes I talk about Coconuts.
But expect me to expose you when you go on Univision!
New GOP Governor Exposes her True Beliefs on Univision!

Guest Voz - MeeMaw: As More Healthcare Fraud is Revealed through "Obama Care" initiatives, Billions are Saved!

Guest Voz: Meemaw's Medical Joural reports:
Medicare Fraud Continues to Skyrocket but Obama Administration Arresting Them All -- Anti-Fraud Law Coming to the Rescue!
I am always amazed by the amount of Medicare Fraud that continues to happen every year. Every time the Feds have a large bust, they say it is the largest fraud ever. In 2010, we have had four of the "Largest Medicare Fraud ever!" headlines.
March 2010 - "The largest Medicare fraud ever in the nursing home industry"
Medicare fraud by California-based nursing home company North American Health Care (NAHC), which operates 35 nursing homes in four states. NAHC may be falsifying patient records and overcharging Medicare by tens of millions of dollars each year. Indeed, a number of former NAHC employees have testified to repeated orders to alter and falsify patient records. NAHC appears to be an industry leader in "upcoding" services provided to Medicare patients and charging Medicare the highest possible rates for resident care.

July 2010 - "Brooklyn Arrests Are Part of "Largest Medicare Fraud Bust Ever"
The FBI has arrested three doctors and doctors "professional patients" in Brooklyn for allegedly submitting thousands of bogus medical claims to Medicare and Medicaid. Prosecutors said the doctors and their clinics stole more than $80 million from taxpayers. The local arrests are part of the largest Medicare fraud bust ever. Dozens of suspects accused in scams totaling $251 million were busted in five states, authorities said. In one Brooklyn office, the doctors had set up a "cash kickback room" to pay patients for allowing them to submit false bills to the government health programs. The so-called "kickback" room had a poster on the wall resembling Soviet-era propaganda, showing a woman with a finger to her lips and two messages in Russian: "Don't Gossip" and "Be on the lookout: In these days, the walls talk."

October 13, 2010 - "44 Charged in Huge Medicare Fraud Scheme" An Armenian-American crime syndicate stole the identities of doctors and thousands of patients and used them and more than a hundred spurious clinics in 25 states to bill Medicare for more than $100 million for treatments no doctor ever performed and no patient ever received, the federal authorities announced on Wednesday.

October 21, 2010 - 4 arrested in alleged $200 million Medicare fraud case
Federal agents arrested four Miami-Dade health care operators Thursday in one of the nation's biggest Medicare fraud cases, charging them with scheming to fleece $200 million from the taxpayer-funded program by billing for bogus mental health services. Lawrence S. Duran, 48, of North Miami, and his company, American Therapeutic Corp., were charged along with other employees in a conspiracy indictment. The Miami-based company's chief executive officer, Marianella Valera, 39, was also among the defendants named in the indictment.
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This fraud has been going on for years. The good news is, the Obama Administration is catching up to them and filing charges against them. Additionally, for decades, Medicare and its contractors have relied upon a largely antiquated policy of reimbursing health care claims quickly without verifying them. The brisk payments, typically made within 14 days, keep the healthcare system going but also fuel corruption.

In September, President Barack Obama signed an anti-fraud law that will require the behemoth Medicare bureaucracy to act more like a credit card company in flagging suspicious claims that could save taxpayers billions of dollars a year in wasteful government healthcare spending. The anti-fraud provision, tucked into the Small Business Lending Act, will force Medicare and its claims contractors to adopt new billing software with "predictive modeling" for the 10 worst states by next year.

No wonder many in the Healthcare Industry, including Doctors, want to make sure President Obama does not win re-election in 2012.

Republicans in Texas looking to End Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Leaving Millions of the Elderly and Children with No Aid!

Now that the 2010 elections are over, many Republicans and Tea Party backed candidates are looking to end what they term are "entitlements." What are "entitlements?" To right wing extremists, "entitlements" are:
. Medicare
. Social Security
. Medicaid
. CHIP
. Unemployment Benefits

In Red-State Texas, not only did many Republican Congressmen win their election bids, but so did Governor Rick Perry. Some Republican lawmakers — still reveling in Tuesday’s statewide election sweep — are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s estimated $25 billion budget shortfall: dropping out of the federal Medicaid program.

Far-right conservatives are offering that possibility in impassioned news conferences. Moderate Republicans are studying it behind closed doors. And the party’s advisers on health care policy say it is being discussed more seriously than ever, though they admit it may be as much a huge in-your-face to Washington as anything else.

Their plan: by 2013, opt out of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which has 3.6 million children, people with disabilities and impoverished Texans enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, will release a study on the detrimental effects of ending the state’s participation in the federal match program. Republican State Senator Jane Nelson who heads the Senate Public Health Committee, said dropping out of Medicaid makes fiscal sense.