Reports and opinions on the top political news and events in the United States and around the world. Presidential Politics, national and local issues are all commented on with sharp viewpoints.
Signs of trouble in the family are brewing. As election season draws closer the mainstream Republicans are trying to keep their odd relatives in the back room, but they keep going out of the window and talking to people outside, this will get ugly.
One of the flagship signs of strife is when what seemed like a runaway train conductor in Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona pulled the emergency brakes and vetoed a bill that would have required proof of citizenship from Presidential candidates in Arizona. That proof of citizenship could have included baptism or circumcision certificates. Brewer said the bill was a bridge too far. That is saying a lot in the current climate.
Now the Republicans have a different problem, a billionaire birther who won’t stop talking about the birthplace and citizenship of President Barack Obama. Donald Trump is out of control. Trump is not subject to the pressures of Karl Rove or any official in the Republican Party. Trump is a runaway train that came out of nowhere and is leading the Republican Presidential polls.
Donald Trump has unlimited media access and has not found a news camera that he does not like. Trump is on television every week with the top rated show on NBC in the Celebrity Apprentice. Who would have imagined that the real Americans would get behind a New York billionaire as their champion to take their country back.
After the Republican Party used Tea Party enthusiasm to make gains in the 2010 mid-term elections, they now expect them to go to the back of the bus and be quiet. Tea Party members and birthers are not going away quietly. Now the Republicans have to deal with the odd Uncle sitting in the middle of their living room because they didn’t tell him that his behavior was strange when it suited their purposes.
Rush Limbaugh officially kicked off his 2012 election campaign of President Barack Obama bashing by calling Obama supporters vile, savages and walking debris. This was in response to the President speech to the nation on the 2012 budget.
Republicans were outraged over the fact that President Obama illustrated the difference in approach to addressing the nation’s budget issues by drawing a contrast between his approach and theirs. What is so interesting is that the Republican position was already written in black and white in the form of Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan.
Ryan’s budget plan laid it all out and was passed by the House of Representatives on April 15, 2011. Ryan’s budget proposes to end Medicare as we know it and distribute it out as vouchers that do not guarantee full cost coverage for medical care if private insurance costs increase. Another part of the Republican plan was to maintain the Bush tax breaks for the rich while slashing Medical coverage for seniors.
What President Obama pointed out was a system that hammered on the poor and elderly while allowing the rich to become richer was unfair and painted a pessimistic view of America. Republicans were outraged that their actual written plans for the United States was presented to the American public as a plan that favored the wealthy over the old, poor and sick. Well.
Now there seem to be hurt feelings that the President pledged to protect older Americans from potential lack of health coverage due to escalating private health insurance costs versus the Medicare guarantee that is in place now.
There is a line of thought that says to the Republicans that in order for them to avoid being publically called Scrooge then don’t put his mask on and wear it around town. Now Limbaugh goes into the gutter to express his view, but Limbaugh is not elected to any office and only plays to an audience that shares his views. The Republicans on the other hand should represent everyone in the districts and states, not just the rich that contribute to their campaigns.
The United States government avoided a shutdown at the last minute, but a fight for the future of the United States looms as the 2012 budget battles takes shape. Democrats can thank Sarah Palin for giving them the upper hand in the Senate.
The next few months will determine if the United States emerges out of the dire financial situation it finds itself in as a nation that abandons long held principles of compassion for personal and political gain or as a country reclaiming the core of it greatness. The stage is set and in many ways the lines on the field of battle have been drawn.
The coming budget fight is a test of what this country will be for the next 50 years or more. You see the United States is viewed by many as something to be exploited for the gain of certain groups while others view it as a idea that represents a way of life, those two opposing points of view are at war.
Take the lines drawn in the near government shutdown that recently took place, all the way until the last hours the budget measure was held up by an added measure that would have defunded Planned Parenthood that had very little to do with actual budget numbers. In the end the Planned Parenthood defunding measure was removed from the final bill. In a separate measure Republican Congressman Paul Ryan authored a 2012 budget that basically ends Medicare as we know it an transitions to a voucher system that allows seniors to purchase health care from private insurance companies. Ryan’s plan may not become law, but it signals the difference between how the same issued is viewed, one view is from a need to provide guaranteed care to seniors and the other is to provide something for care to seniors, but there is no guarantee that it will be enough. An article titled “Paul Ryan Budget Proposal Approved By House Panel” by Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldizar and Alan Fram April 6, 2011 and published in the Huffington Post goes into details of Ryan’s budget plan.
Ryan’s plan basically turns health care for seniors over to private insurers, with all of the issues that everyone has with private insurers of escalating cost etc. How long would it be before private insurers and medical providers increased the cost of care beyond what vouchers would cover? If vouchers could not cover the costs of the medical car required then suddenly seniors need to come out of pocket or be basically uninsured.The attack on Planned Parenthood had a similar tone, but was approached from a cynical angle of not funding abortions. There is a law that prevents federal funds from being used to fund abortions.
So there you have it. Will the United States rewind the clock using the need to control our national debt to a time where seniors are left to fend for themselves on health issues? Will women continue to be under assault on their freedoms when it comes to reproductive health? The push to move more functions to private companies will be loud and intense. The Environmental Protection Agency will be under attack and branded as too restrictive as exemptions on what emissions it can regulate have already been surfaced.
Get ready as a push for profit over serving the public has begun. All is not lost as the Tea Party Republicans only control the House of Representatives. Of all people, Democrats may have to thank Sarah Palin backed candidates like Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell as the reason the Republicans don’t control the Senate. Sarah Palin helped provide a firewall against the Tea Party, you betcha.
