House Republican Study Committee recommends huge cuts

[jasmeel]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/House_Republican_Study_Committee_document_recommends_huge_0922.html

"An internal Republican Study Committee document which is now available online and was simultaneously leaked to RAW STORY Thursday outlines an array of huge cuts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, including the elimination of funding for Amtrak and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The document was first reported on by Roll Call.

RAW STORY has analyzed the pages and presented some of the more specific cuts. At this stage, these are cuts proposed by the Committee, which is composed of 86 House Republicans." <snip>

Fantastic.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Grover Norquist and his Bathtub again

[acmejack]

2. Not many cuts there that will affect rich people.

Like none of them.

[sarcasmo]

3. Going to cut every Government program the Repukes can, except of

course the Military.

[hadrons]

11. no, Military will be cut too ....

of course its things that helps the grunts and their families:

The Navy Times today reports that those cuts "include trimming military quality-of-life programs, including health care" . . . This, while troops are fighting and dying for our country in Iraq.


. . . The specifics are ugly. They are, for instance, asking troops to "accept reduced health care benefits for their families." Additionally, "the stateside system of elementary and secondary schools for military family members could be closed." In the past, this idea "has faced strong opposition from parents of children attending the schools because public schools are seen as offering lower-quality education."

....

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=7E479431-0FCB-2076-D3D1FE0B7965BE11

[QuettaKid]

12. correction

they are not EVEN fighting and dying for their country in Iraq!!! THAT'S the worst thing about it. They are fighting for OIL.

[alfredo]

22. there is a tread on that topic

here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x158816

[mike_c]

4. there is a powerful monetary low pressure zone...

...centered over Baghdad at the moment-- a veritable black hole for America's financial future-- but repigs will cut funding for domestic programs before they'll throttle THAT beast! Have I mentioned today HOW MUCH I HATE THESE REPTILES?!

[Ganja Ninja]

5. Basically amounts to a screw over of the sick, old and poor.

Why am I not surprised?

[skooooo]

6. I don't look for this to succeed....

Just don't think they're going to get by with it. Americans know what they want cut, and it's the expenditures in Iraq that have to go.

[Boredtodeath]

8. Who is it you think is going to stop it?

Those Democrats voting for John Roberts?

Don't hold your breath.

[skooooo]

9. I don't think moderate Republicans will..

...support it. Just like Bush didn't get his Social Security plan through, I don't think he'll get this either.

[Boredtodeath]

16. That's to be seen isn't it?

Bush's social security plan hasn't been introduced. You are basing your argument on wishful thinking.

[skooooo]

19. we'll see...

the SS plan hasn't been introduced, because there's no support for it.

Time will tell. Hope I'm right and you're wrong.

[Nite Owl]

7. This is what they have

always wanted to do.

[ticapnews]

10. I'm all for removing those earmarks on TEA-LU

They never should have been there in the first place. No more "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.

Getting rid of the loans for grad students is a nice touch. :sarcasm: Paves the way for them to eliminate all federal college loans.

Eliminating the penile implant from being covered by Medicare is good too. Can we stop paying for Bob Dole's Viagra as well?

[cornermouse]

15. Wouldn't it be more to the point to stop paying for Dole's

(and all the others) retirement?

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. How about the 2 billion a week being sent to Iraq?

Oh, that's right, that is intentionally left "off the books" as a "supplemental" and is off-limits, it's "war time" after all.

[Raster]

14. of course the rich will still get their tax cuts, corporations will

NOT pay their fair share and the common man and woman will take it in the shorts as usual. Government isn't the problem, it's the assholes in government who are the problem.

Here's my solution:

1) No new tax cuts. Period. Roll back previous tax cuts to before raygun levels of taxation. In fact, we want do-overs on the entire raygun presidency. That's when this cancer took hold on the American body.

2) Re-evaluate income taxes. Institute a more progressive tax. Make the highest tax bracket 59%, and no loopholes. I don't give a damn how many tax attorneys you have, you pay 100% of your fair share. If you're going to fancy yourself a robber baron, then you'll damned well be taxed like one.

3) Re-visit the estate tax. Take it back to 20-yr ago amounts. F*** paris hilton and f*** the walmart heirs. Big dynastic fortunes breed people like, well, paris and the walmart heirs. 'nuf said.

4) FULLY tax Social Security Income. Remove the $90,000 cap. If you make $20 million in one year, you pay Social Security on the FULL $20 million.

5) Throw that piece of shit Medicare bill to the dogs where it belongs. Immediately the government will negotiate (just like most other civilized countries where the government is in the health care business) prices on all pharmaceuticals and other components of healthcare. Why should the U.S. government pay premium while everyone else gets to go bargain basement?

6) Institute an energy windfall profits tax. If the fucking oil companies are going to price gouge, penalize the snot out of them. Speaking of the oil companies...

7) Nationalize the energy infrastructure in this country. Since big oil already owns the government, it's only fair the people own big oil. on edit: something as important as the energy infrastructure in this county should NOT be left to business interests. We ALL HAVE FAR TO MUCH AT STAKE, to let private interests control this most valuable and necessary areas of concern.

8) Resist further deregulation and privatization. Look at the enron. Look at the airline industry. All deregulation and privatization do is make a VERY SMALL portion of the population rich and the rest of us pick up the tab.

9) Put the new bankruptcy bill right where it belongs, up the ass of MBNA. Indentured servitude went out 150 yrs ago. ANYONE in Congress who voted for the bankruptcy bill needs to get their walking papers in 2006. EVERYONE!

10) Once again, taxes. All companies doing business in the United States will pay their fair share of taxes. No more Cayman Islands tax dodges. If the big corporations in this country paid their fair share, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Big corporate has bamboozled American business into thinking the best interests of big corporate are the best interests of American business. Couldn't be further from the truth. Big corporations are lousy citizens. And speaking of...

11) Reexamine basic corporate law in this country. Corporations are not persons. People are persons. Corporations are entities that exist to enrich themselves at the expense of everything else. Corporations don't give a shit if the air and water are clean. They don't breathe or drink. Corporations are like viruses: viruses exist to replicate themselves; corporations exist to enrich themselves. Remove the "person-hood" status for corporations.

12) Outlaw all lobbying of government officials. Give lobbyists 24 hours to vacate D.C., then put a price on their heads and shoot them on site. They're a huge problem with American government. The cash corrupts everyone it touches.

[BR_Parkway]

20. I'd vote for every one of them, except the 59% tax bracket, but that

wouldn't even be necessary if you got all the other stuff approved.

[Raster]

21. the 59% top tax bracket would be for persons that made over $500,000

The average person would pay what they pay now or less. The idea of a progressive tax is to shift the burden away from those that make the least and toward those that make the most. Incidentally, that's how the norquists and other tax liars have gotten the public to swallow their drivel: they tell you that you'll pay more while those horrible poor people will get a free ride. What a load of shite. Warren Buffett has said numerous times that he pays proportionately less tax than his executive assistant, and that is wrong.

[Solon]

25. Why not? Used to be MUCH higher than that in the 1950's

think closer to 90% than 50%.

[Raster]

23. And finally, let me add my thirteenth:

13) The citizens of the United States will once again control the military and decide when and where to war. A country should never go to war because it wants to, only because it has to. Eisenhower told us to beware the military/industrial complex because they would start wars and hostilities because it was their business and they would make a profit. Eisenhower was right. Take Iraq for example: based on lies, poorly planned, poorly executed and no contingency plans. None. We have yet to fully comprehend the negative ramifications for the United States and the rest of the planet. The Iraq fiasco will go down in history as one of the worst mistakes; militarily, financially, politically. There is no silver lining. The traitors that laid Iraq at our doorstep are guilty of the highest crimes and should be punished.

[Solon]

24. Better watch out, you sound like one of those damn pinkos...

Then again, I'm a Socialist myself, agree with your post 110%. Should have been implemented yesterday.

[Raster]

26. I AM one of those damned Pinkos. The predatory capitalists have

plundered and pillaged long enough. Far too many have become wealthy through the blood and sweat of others. For true capitalism to work, it must be liberally spiced with socialism, otherwise, it's just repackaged feudalism.

[Mark E. Smith]

17. Only bastards as cynical as the GOP...

... can use a national disaster as a ploy to cut programs they have always hated.

Of course, what the American people really want is for us to stop flushing billions and billions of borrowed dollars down that sewer called Iraq.

But that certainly wouldn't fit into the plans of these assholes.

[Mari333]

18. and NONE of them will cut any REAL Pork...

http://truthlaidbear.com/porkbusters.php

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. let's speak plainly here

what the GOP is doing is fulfilling its wet dream,

That said, while they do that, they are laying the foundation of the Second (hot) American Revolution. they have been doing this for a while... and one day they will wake up surrounded among an armed populace that will rise....

The other option is that Americans will fail the test of history and just go, please sir can I have more?

The third option is that the country will balkanize and break apart into three to four successor states and historians will mark this as one of the reasons for the end of the American dream

[Raster]

28. Long live the Republic of Cascadia! Long Live Neuvo California!

[MasonJar]

29. Of course it would be the arts and the trains that get cut; never

think of voiding inherently obscene tax cuts for the rich or the war in Iraq, where incidentally nothing goes to the troops but faulty armor, water from the polluted Euphrates and ultra old food.