Bad News with a silver lining

[Minimalist]

Your capacity for self-delusion is reaching the level of "legendary," Woodie. You should really have a light installed in your asshole. Maybe you could see better.


http://www.salon.com/2014/05/01/gop_sen_...imum_wage/

Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn not only defended Senate Republicans’ Wednesday filibuster that quashed a Democratic attempt to raise the federal minimum wage, but went one step further and argued that the federal minimum wage should not only not be raised but should be repealed entirely.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-...13969.html

. But in Arizona, Republican legislators are pushing a bill that would allow employers to pay teenagers working part-time a full three dollars per hour less than the state minimum wage, which works out to a mere $4.65 per hour.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-...-obamacare

100% of Newly Elected GOP Senators Campaigned on Repealing Obamacare

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2013...ation.html

House Republicans vote to slash food stamps with disgraceful “let them starve” legislation

[KUSA]

Heywood
Your plan would only exacerbate the problem of dependency on the government. It would breed a culture of lazy people that were content with just getting by.

[Heywood]

Heywood
Your plan would only exacerbate the problem of dependency on the government. It would breed a culture of lazy people that were content with just getting by.

What is breeding a culture of lazy people that are content with just getting by is automation rendering more and more jobs obsolete and rising standards of living for everyone including the poor.

What I want to prevent is the government from controlling how people spend their technology/prosperity dividend.

[DeistPaladin]

My own view is we should get rid of food stamps and give people money instead...

That has to be the most idiotic thing you've ever posted and that's saying a lot. No, thank you. I don't want my tax dollars misused. Most poor people would use the money to buy food but some might abuse it to feed a drug addiction or some other misuse. Beggars can't be choosers.

but I am a real independent.

"Independent" is another rebranding effort by Republicans to get the Bush stink off of them. I'll at least grant you that it doesn't involve goofy cosplay and lies about "Oh no, I'm not a Republican. I'm getting involved in politics for the first time..."

Here's a video that helps understand the history of Republican rebranding since 2008:

That being said, the reason the right wants to cut food stamps is because they believe that most people getting them don't really need them....that the government is nurturing a culture of dependency. Right now the number of people getting food stamps is at a record high. If everyone who gets food stamps needs them....Obama's economic policies are a disaster.

...or so it is in your fantasy world.

In reality, the majority of food stamp recipients are full time workers. So why do they need food stamps? Because while the cost of living has gone up, the minimum wage has not.

In a report footnote, Rosenbaum averaged the two statistics and said that, as of 2005, half of all food stamp recipients expected to work were working.

So you want to cut the number of food stamp recipients by more than half? Simple. Raise the minimum wage to the point where a full time worker on it is no longer eligible for food stamps.

By the way, since the current minimum wage is below the line at which you can survive, that means the only reason corporations get away with paying so low is because of food stamps. The government is subsidizing the labor costs of certain corporations.

So either we need to:
1. Raise the minimum wage until 40 hour workers are making enough to not be eligible for food stamps.
2. Make a special tax on corporations that have full time workers on food stamps to recoup the costs of food stamps plus administrative fees.
3. Provide ALL businesses including mine with a labor subsidy.

Republicans certain do not want people to go hungry. That is just you lying about their motives to sell hate.

No, this is me talking about their policies. GOP policies will create hunger. It will throw seniors off Medicare as well. "Here's your coupon. Good luck." If my mother and father in law ever applied for private health insurance, coupon or no, the health insurance company would laugh and hang up the phone.

Now I could also go into minimum wage and Obamacare(which doesn't provide health care) but do I really need to? Do you think any rational person who has examined republican positions really believe the republicans want people to go hungry, or get paid pennies an hour, or not have access to health care?

Yes. That's precisely what they do. OK, the "pennies an hour" is a touch hyperbolic but any reader of it will assume this is sarcasm to underscore the point that the GOP will increase poverty in America. The end game of their policies is to make America like a third world nation, with the top 1% haves living in gated communities and the rest of the have-nots living in squalor, no middle class.

They're making progress on that goal. The economic recovery has mostly benefited the wealthy. The rest of the country is still waiting for economic relief. Obama is no liberal and what little he's done has been hampered by Republicans.

You are lying. You are either lying because you are a liar or because you have been brainwashed by liars.

OK, show me where I lied. Quote me. Then provide evidence to refute me. It's one thing to scream "liar". It's another to pony up evidence to back the claim.

P.S. I'm an ex-Republican conservative. I used to believe trickle down nonsense during the Reagan years. I switched when I saw I was wrong and none of that crap works.



"...and *snort* they STILL believe it to this day! *Bwahahahahaha*"

[Heywood]

My own view is we should get rid of food stamps and give people money instead...

That has to be the most idiotic thing you've ever posted and that's saying a lot. No, thank you. I don't want my tax dollars misused. Most poor people would use the money to buy food but some might abuse it to feed a drug addiction or some other misuse. Beggars can't be choosers.......

......the majority of food stamp recipients are full time workers[/url]. So why do they need food stamps? Because while the cost of living has gone up, the minimum wage has not.

You want to limit the freedom of most food stamp recipients just so you can try to control the behavior of a few? That is what is wrong with you liberal elites. You think your so good at governing peoples lives that no harm is being done when you screw with a majority of hard working food stamps recipients just to protect a few who would otherwise engage in behavior you deem bad.

And guess what...most food stamps recipients...if you gave them money...would spend it more efficiently. They would look for sales, clip coupons, etc to save money on their food bill in order to buy stuff that would further improve their lives. They wouldn't buy six packs of Red Bull just to use up their food stamp allotment.

And guess what again.....addicts take their food stamps and convert them into the objects of their addiction. They will buy bottled water...dump out the water. Return the bottles for the deposit....then with the cash buy hand sanitizer and cut it with orange juice to get drunk.

You liberals just don't get it. You're not good a making good decisions for individuals....and your not good at preventing individuals from making bad choices. You just plain suck.....and in Miminalist case...you swallow too.

[The Valkyrie]

How many women actually voted for these idiots??

It's like battered spouse syndrome.

"They love me, really!"

[Heywood]

OK, show me where I lied. Quote me. Then provide evidence to refute me. It's one thing to scream "liar". It's another to pony up evidence to back the claim.

You're a liar because you said it was the republican position that people should go hungry, not have access to health care, and get paid pennies an hour.

None of that is true.

I called you a liar because you lied about republican positions.

Not only are you are a liar but you are a hater.....on a mission is to sell hate. You want people to hate the same people you've been brainwashed to hate.

[Cato]

First of all, Senator Cruz cannot become Speaker of the House. Pretty sure DP originally meant Senate Majority Leader, which I think there isn't a chance in hell this will happen. The GOP was largely successful in preventing a vast majority of the teabagging lunatics form succeeding in primary races.

It will be interesting to see what happens, but I think there is a very easy path for the GOP to secure both houses and the presidency in '16:

- Leave the Affordable Health Care Act alone. Don't even discuss it.
- Shove dicks down the throats of anyone saying the word impeachment.
- Continue to keep 'family values' discussion to a low murmur: abortion, Jesus, marriage equality, etc.
- Reintroduce and pass proposed Fair Minimum Wage Act (2014) after removing provision to tie future rates to inflation (provides reasonable cover when Dems cry obstruction to original proposal). Democrat non-support or Veto would be political suicide.
- Work with blue dogs to put meaningful immigration reform on Obama's desk. This shouldn't be too hard and Obama wouldn't dare veto an immigration bill that had a modicum of Democrat support, not to mention something that satisfies the masses. Let Rubio sponsor.
- Do whatever it takes not to have another government shutdown. With control of the Senate, getting a budget out should not be a problem. If Obama wants to veto it, so be it.
- Initiate balanced budget and tax reform legislation in the Spring of 2016. It will languish of course, but it will be toxic for Democrats leading up to the election. By tax reform I mean simplifying the tax code, not corporate tax relief.
- Let Ted Cruz continue to marginalize himself. The Tea Party has been neutered by the electorate. He can only ever hope to attract the ignorant right wing lunatic fringe a la Sarah Palin unless he drastically changes his tune. The GOP leadership only has to keep calling him out for being a dumbfuck.

Now, I doubt much of the above happens, but I think it is a reasonably achievable path for the GOP to secure success in 2016 while avoiding the continued gridlock that everyone assumes is coming. If they can't, then it will be business as usual and they'll get what they deserve in 2016.

[Faith No More]

And guess what again.....addicts take their food stamps and convert them into the objects of their addiction. They will buy bottled water...dump out the water. Return the bottles for the deposit....then with the cash buy hand sanitizer and cut it with orange juice to get drunk.

It sounds like you've been smoking bath salts.

[stonedape]

How did your ballot initiatives go?
Rumor is they mostly had liberal results.