Day: August 5, 2011

Categories
Politics United States

America’s Credit Downgraded, Another Win For Republicans

The Standard & Poors rating agency has, for the first time in America’s history, downgraded America’s Credit ratings, from a Triple A rating to AA+ ratings. The agency cites the political system in Washington as one of the reasons why the credit downgrade happened.

“We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process. We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.

Our lowering of the rating was prompted by our view on the rising public debt burden and our perception of greater policymaking uncertainty, consistent with our criteria (see “Sovereign Government Rating Methodology and Assumptions,” June 30, 2011, especially Paragraphs 36-41). Nevertheless, we view the U.S. federal government’s other economic, external, and monetary credit attributes, which form the basis for the sovereign rating, as broadly unchanged.”

A credit downgrade is serious business. It means that interest rates on the government, banks and ultimately the American people can rise. Borrowing money at a higher interest rate means we all pay back more towards our debt, whether it’s the government borrowing from China, or a middle class American borrowing to buy a home, a higher interest rate is never a good thing.

This is the work of Republicans and their effort to bring this economy to its knees. This decision by Standard & Poors is a loss for America, but another win for Republicans.

Categories
New Jersey Politics

O.M.G – Chris Christie Defends A Muslim, Don’t Tell The Republicans!

His mouth got him in trouble again, this time, for actually speaking the truth. The Republican governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, went against what has come to be the norm in the Republican party these days – bashing Muslims.

Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who successfully defended other Muslims wrongfully detained by the Bush Administration after the September 11th attacks, was recently appointed to the judicial bench in New Jersey. Naturally, like is customary these days with the Republican party, the attacks against Sohail began, with some even suggesting that if the Muslim becomes a judge, he will introduce Sharia Law in New Jersey.

Christie had heard enough. He stepped to the podium and defended his appointee, in the process, knocking down the insane accusations the Republicans have unfairly heaped on all Muslims, and officially putting an end to any speculation that he would run for president in 2012 – Republicans will never vote for him now, especially after Christie’s very reasonable, truthful comments made in defense of Sohail Mohammed, and the verbal whipping he put on members of his own party.

Categories
Politics taxes

I.R.S – 1400 Millionaires Paid Zero Taxes in 2009

If the family struggling to put food on the table, or keep a roof over their heads make a mistake on their tax returns and is audited, the taxman will bring out the army to make sure that family pays all the taxes they owe. But if you’re a millionaire, you could get away with paying nothing, while your income reflects six or more digits.

A new report issued by the IRS shows that over 1400 people who earned more than 1 million dollars in 2009,  paid zero in taxes. Credit this effort to keep the rich happy to two things;

  1. The raping of the tax system through tax loopholes set up to primarily pacify the greedy;
  2. A lobbying group voted into Congress by the American people. This group of lobbyists is called the Republican Party.

But let’s not forget the Republican’s claim, that providing the rich with more tax cuts in the form of Corporate loopholes and welfare, is the only way to create jobs. With this ideology, no one would have expected the unemployment rate to balloon to 10.2% in 2009 and now stands at 9.2%

It is time that Americans and Republicans face the truth – extra tax cuts and tax loopholes that benefits the rich does nothing for everyday middle-class America, and the Bush Administration supports this conclusion when massive trillion-dollar tax cuts were given to the wealthiest people in America, resulting in 700,000 people a month losing their jobs at the end of his term.

At a time when middle class America is being asked to give up the shirts off their backs to keep the economy from falling into total destruction, the millionaires and billionaires in this country should at least be asked to pay something back. Maybe not 90% like they paid in the 1950’s, or the 50% they paid under the Reagan administration. But having millionaires pay zero in taxes should be unheard of, especially in this economic crisis.

Categories
Politics

The 14% Approval Ratings For Congress – A Win For Republicans

America sent these clowns to Washington to work together and get the economy back on the right track. The operative word there, is “work.” And the American people are quickly coming to understand the true nature of its elected officials – one group seems determined to fix a broken system and get the economy working again, even if it means negotiating away the very ideals that jumpstart the economy in the past, and the other group is hellbent on keeping the system broken, you know, hiding the jumper cables.

So America is now disgusted, and that feeling is reflected in a new CBS News/New York Times poll, “82 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job – the highest disapproval rating since polling began in 1977. Just 14 percent approve of Congress’ performance.”

The uptick in frustration comes after Congress narrowly avoided an economic catastrophe of its own making by failing to hammer out a deal to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit until the deadline for action. And neither side was happy with the outcome: Conservatives said the final deal, which is projected to cut around $2.5 trillion over ten years from a projected $24 trillion debt, didn’t go far enough; liberals complained that the initial deficit reduction came entirely in the form of spending cuts, not revenue increases as Democrats initially demanded.

I guess you can call it a win – for the group hiding the jumper cables.

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