"Crisis Junkies!" from you know who.
 

Dear Bob :

"Government shutdowns, debt limit defaults, credit rating downgrades, fiscal cliffs, "continuing resolutions" and now sequestration. Ever since the Republicans took over the U.S. House of Representatives, we've lurched from one artificial crisis to the next. Are you sick of it? Here at the Grayson High Command, we sure are.

Congressman Alan Grayson was on national TV recently. He said what all of us are thinking about this, but no one else is saying: the Republicans are crisis junkies. Here it is:

John Fugelsang: President Obama did meet with Senate Democrats today. And according to Politico -- and I found this a bit disturbing -- "He warned them that social insurance programs, including Social Security and Medicare, would need to be cut in some way in order to keep them going." Now, we've discussed this before. The President also said Republicans would have to agree to more revenue before he'd agree to change those programs. What do you think of that particular bargain, sir? Do social insurance programs need to be cut in order to save them, and will this particular crop of Republicans ever agree to add new revenues anyway?

Congressman Alan Grayson: No. The answer is that they don't. Social Security has almost $2 trillion in the bank. It is the largest government fund in the entire world. That's what they've got sitting in the bank, and that's what the rest of the government and the American people owe that fund. Under current law, Social Security can pay 100% of its benefits for the next twenty-five years. which is probably longer than I'm going to need it. And after that point, 85% to 95% of its benefits, forever. A minor tweak like, for instance, raising the cap on who has to pay Social Security taxes above the current [limit of] roughly $100,000, or, for instance, making it apply to investment income -- either one of those two things would make the program solvent forever. The situation is not terribly different for Medicare.

John: So does the President mean it when he talks about putting these cuts on the table, sir?

Alan: Look, I take no pleasure in saying this, because the President is my President. I voted for him twice, and he is the leader of my party. But in this regard, the President is wrong.

John: Before you go, Congressman, what do you think of the Senate budget that came out today?

Alan: I think the Senate budget that came out today is a stab at trying to deal with a lot of different problems, without focusing necessarily on our core problems.I would like to see all our effort devoted towards putting people back to work, improving education standards, making sure everybody who is sick can see a doctor, and making sure people who lose their jobs don't end up living in their cars. That's the America that I see in Central Florida these days. And these are the problems we should all be concentrating on solving. I think that this obsession - this preoccupation - this terrible preoccupation with austerity, with deficits, with debt is mistaken. The government has never been able to borrow at such low rates for my entire lifetime, and going back 100 years. The government has never been able to borrow at 2% before. That's what the rates are these days. And that just shows you that there is no fiscal crisis.What it is, is that we've simply given into the Republican mindset of crisis - one crisis after another.The Republicans are crisis junkies. And they've all sucked us into the same sort of mindset.

And that's the way it is. Congressman Grayson - defending Social Security, defending Medicare, and concentrating on what matters in our lives."

From the best Representative in all of Congress!:D

Of course. They can't get the public to back slashing away at everything unless they can keep the, "It's the end of America as we know it!" fear train rolling.

Regards,
Dave

Grayson has just proved he's as snakey as any rightie.

Pete

How so?

So, your finally admitting the right is full of snakes?

Welcome!:)

Dave

LOL!! Most politicians are FOC, I thought everyone knew that ;)

Rob he makes it sound like the money's sitting there waiting to be mailed out. But then like a good politician he covers himself with this line:

"...and that's what the rest of the government and the American people owe that fund."

So what is it Congressman? Is the money there or not?

Pete

The money is there if you believe in the "full faith and credit of the United States." of course Paul Ryan does not and they keep moaning about SS adding to the deficit.

By the way we have the Repub governors in PA and FL running 11 points behind the Dem challengers but no doubt Rove, the Koch heads and teabaggers will be flooding those states with false ads, However, the DGA has someone who will double their money, that is $2 for every $1 they raise if they get to $120,000 by midnight March 31st. Just sent in mine.

Of course when Bush was president the GOP congress did not worry about fake crises they were instead busy creating real ones.

Welcome to our side Pete!

At least Grayson is independently wealthy and isn't beholden to the powers that be, be it the DNC or the Prez. Yet still, he has the president's back. Hmmm, might there be a lesson in there somewhere?:p