Category: Class War

They’re still winning the class war

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Oh, I am so tired of these political minions who talk out of both sides of their mouth — and their media enablers. Have you noticed how few journalists even think about our point of view? The Iraq and Afghanistan wars continue to drain the national treasury and beggar our nation, and the president just signed a trillion dollar tax increase FOR MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES. Hell-o?

And somehow, we’re supposed to pretend that those things do not contradict this “austerity” blitz from a Democratic president. We’re supposed to nod and agree when they justifying it by saying stupid things like, “We’re cutting back on spending, just like Americans do around their kitchen tables.”

As if we all pay cash for our homes and cars.

And now, at a time when new college graduates face record levels of unemployment, we’re going to add this to the average family’s economic burdens. Why should we believe anything they say about the deficit “crisis” when they don’t address the ten-ton WAR elephant in the national living room?

WASHINGTON — In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama promised thatinvestment in education and getting the next generation of Americans ready to face their own “Sputnik” moment would be a focus of his administration. But at least one component of his FY 2012 budget, which will be released tomorrow, will likely pile more debt upon students who decide to pursue graduate school, potentially making the dream of higher education even more unattainablefor many Americans. The move, say administration officials, is needed to ensure that a popular financial aid award stays available at current levels.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew said that interest on graduate school loans will begin building up while students are still in school. Currently, interest does not begin compiling until after students graduate.Host Candy Crowley questioned Lew about whether this would make graduate school less accessible for many Americans:

CROWLEY: Here’s the problem, I guess. If you are a graduate — let’s take one of your examples. You’re a graduate student; you are, right now, getting loans. You don’t have to pay those loans or any interest on them until you graduate. But now you have to pay — or it accumulates, I’m assuming — you have to pay interest beginning on day one of grad school, and that makes it so that you can’t go to grad school.

LEW: Well, let’s just be clear. Interest will build up, but students won’t have to pay until they graduate. So it will increase the burden for paying back the loans, but it will not reduce access to education. That’s, I think, part of how you can responsibly have a plan that deals with the challenge of solving our fiscal crisis, getting out of the situation where the deficit is growing and growing, but also investing in the future.

Unbelievable. Don’t these economic wizards have any friends or relatives outside that Beltway bubble, someone who could knock some sense into them?

Elite

~ susie

Kevin Manahan from the Newark Star-Ledger:

Let me get this straight: Chris Christie, the governor born on third base, the guy who grew up in Livingston and lives in Mendham, the guy who sleeps beside an investment banker who makes about a half mil a year, the guy with the multimillionaire stock-broker brother who some say bought Christie the U.S. attorney’s job, the guy who could fit my entire house in his kitchen, the guy with filthy-rich friends (public and secret) who write him checks, the guy who could melt down his door knocker and feed a mission for a month — that guy called me an elitist?

Hold on a second, the mechanic is on the phone. He wants to know if I’ll spring for new brakes on my elitist ride — a dented 2005 Toyota Corolla with 99,000 miles on it. I’m thinking I’ll tell him no, because any day now the bottom is going to rust out and I’ll be able to stop the car like Fred Flintstone does. That is, if the accelerator doesn’t get stuck on the floor mat.

Recently, Christie decried “the elite on the editorial boards of newspapers.” Well, the last guy who drove the governor anywhere was rewarded with a cushy six-figure job on the Parole Board, even though he already was collecting a 90K pension. The last person who drove me anywhere was my wife — when I hurt my back and had to go to the clinic last week. She got a kiss.

Elitist? My sons are still laughing. They figure the Christie children probably have to file tax returns just for their allowances. When my kids were looking for summer jobs, they said, “Dad, maybe the governor needs a lifeguard for that pool in his yard. Ask him.”

I told them, “If you’re drowning in the governor’s pool and you make less than $500,000, you’re probably on your own.”

Destroying workers rights in Ohio

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Remember: When a Republican says, “We have no other choice,” what he means is “Because I would never in a million years tax the rich instead.”

I wish I could understand why people are so willing to cooperate in the stripping away of workers rights, instead of insisting that they have them, too. That kind of thinking is a sorry part of human nature — “If we can’t have a good job, nobody should!” Oh well:

Gov. John Kasich and Republican lawmakers made it clear this week that big changes are coming to the public employees collective bargaining law as the state looks to close an $8 billion budget gap. “All of this is an effort to reduce the cost of government to reduce the tax burden on families and job creators,” said Rob Nichols, spokesman for Kasich.

Kasich said Thursday if lawmakers don’t dismantle public employees collective bargaining then he will. “All this is rooted in job creation.”

It’s a fight shaping up with unions in states across the country, particularly those with Republican-dominated governments that are in fiscal trouble. Indiana, Idaho and Tennessee all have legislation in the works that would scale back or eliminate collective bargaining.

A study by the Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank*, found Ohio’s public workers made more than private sector counterparts. Liberal counterpart, Policy Matters Ohio, released a report Thursday that found Ohio’s public employees are paid less than those in the private sector. More than 300,000 public employees in Ohio belong to unions, including teachers, police, firefighters, municipal employees and state workers.

* “Conservative think tank” — as always, a contradiction in terms.