So Patty Murray is on the Super Congress

I'm trying to decide what to write to Patty Murray, one of my state's Senator's that is on the Super Congress.

I'll post my letter to her here.

Dear Senator Murray,

Congratulations on being named to the Super Congress. I am proud that a Senator from our state has been chosen to this group. As a constituent, I have some points I would like to make.

If gridlock in the SC happens, I will welcome the enormous Defense cuts that will occur as part of the trigger. We spend way too much on defense. I know this would hurt some of our citizens who work for Boeing here in the state, but so be it.

I agree that Medicare needs to be revamped, but the Republican proposals are simply cost shifting and not real solutions. Medicare should be able to negotiate with drug companies and import drugs from Canada. Fee for service is a broken and wasteful delivery model. I'm not sure what good raising the retirement age does. Protecting the current Medicare model for citizens 55 years or older is simply pandering and as a citizen that must pay taxes to support that current model while seeing my future benefits decline is unfair. We ALL must pay a price here, including senior citizens and baby boomers. Another way to save billions a year in Medicare is to strengthen it's fraud investigation branch. 60 minutes ran a story a couple years ago about how easy it is to rip off Medicare with stolen SS numbers, since Medicare must reimburse all claims within 30 days. The fraud enforcement office of Medicare is underfunded and understaffed. This kind of scenario is exactly the kind of fuel that is used to encourage distrust in Government. This has to stop.

Social Security can be fixed by simply lifting the current ceiling on wages. Right now, Social Security only taxes about 86% of all income. If you raise this to 90% as it used to be in the 80's, then Social Security is fine. Social Security did NOT cause our deficits.

Medicaid gets the short end of the stick on entitlements. It is bare bones already, and cutting it more with make things worse.

Revenues must go up. I am completely ok with having my taxes rise with the expiration of the Bush Tax cuts. My wife and I earned about $110k last year, so I'm not one of the $250k income people who are used as the floor of the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts. We all need to chip in more to pay for the things that we demand of our government. The loopholes that the President mentioned during the debt limit talks should also be in play, as well as oil company tax breaks an the ability of hedge fund managers to only be taxed at 15%. A majority of Americans support higher taxes to pay the deficit. Not just Democrats or Republicans, but Americans. Please listen to our citizens.

Perhaps something that the SC can propose would be the elimination of campaign contributions to elected officials. ALL of our problems with pork and tax loopholes and lobbying and corruption are because of money in politics. Money is NOT free speech, and purging money from politics would eliminate all the other problems that we talk about, like Citizen's United, Campaign Finance Reform, etc. We should have public financing of elections, with a cap on how much each campaign can spend. I want you and all of your Congressional colleagues to stop begging for money and do you jobs of running the country.

The current London riots are a preview of what is to come to our shores unless something is done about the gross inequality that we have in this country.

Yes, we do have a long-term budget deficit, but our priority should be on putting our citizens back to work. I implore you to not let the Republican's talking points infect your discussions with the media and your fellow members of Congress. What is good for business is not always good for America; stop calling the rich 'job creators'; we are not in a country that is over taxed and over regulated; we are in a jobs crisis, not a debt crisis; the stimulus did work, but it was too small; knowing what we know now about how bad it was in 2008. The very markets that Republicans are telling us know best are FLOODING money into buying Treasuries irregardless of S&P's downgrade on our debt. It is so cheap for the US to borrow money right now. This proves that markets are not concerned about our deficit, but about the health of the world economy.

With President Obama seemingly incapable of standing up to Republicans (or not wanting to thinking that it hurts his chances of re-election), this means the task falls to you. Don't let us down.

And please keep your talks secret so that we can avoid the posturing that we saw all sides do during the debt ceiling debate.

I know that a lot of this is a wish list of liberal ideas, but the fact that we have this Super Congress for cutting seems to be a fulfillment of a wish of our right-leaning citizens who despise the welfare state, so why not have some liberal ideas in the mix?

Thank you for your Service,

Travis Fischer

Duh!

Ezra Klein has a post worth reading. What is sad about this is that people are JUST NOW realizing this. To assume that Republicans would compromise is...just nuts. It's not that Republicans are crazy, but crazy smart at playing the game. They are like a spoiled brat kid who knows that her parents won't let anything bad happen to her. So she can do whatever she wants and will get bailed out EVERY TIME. Even if she does get in some trouble, mom and dad are right there to help her. There is never a chance at giving her responsibility and letting her deal with the consequences.

Doom

Who says the US is still a great nation? I'm sorry, but this whole 'US needs to be #1 at everything' while turning a blind eye to the wealthy elite who own and control everything around here are deluding themselves. To still be shocked by the Democrats seemingly helplessness over Republicans hostage taking (yet Obama will still rake in a BILLION dollars in campaign contributions, with millions coming from WallStreet) just don't seem to get it. The system is rigged and we are really doomed. It's just a matter of time.

The Tragedy that is the Tea Party

Tea Party people are angry! Tea Party People hate government!

They are mad because their economic hopes from the last 30 years have been shattered. They want to turn to a third party, but the way our system is structured, they can't. So they go with what they think is the lesser of two evils and hope to bring change from within. But they don't understand how government works. They just don't like certain parts of it. So therefore ALL government is bad. Why they turned to Republican's is an odd choice. This party is mostly responsible for the degredation of our society and environment, the greed, the hypocrisy. Bohener wants a deal, but he wants to keep the Speakership more. The Tea Party has been co opted by the very people who are responsible for their anger. It's an impressive coup: Feed the electorate lies about regulation, taxes, trickle-down theory, individualism. When the whole thing crashes down the players responsible are made whole by taxpayers. The players then sweep into the front of the angry mob and lead them against the party that has the best chance to turn things around and fix things. This keeps the irresponsible players in the game while squeezing the last few drops of blood and treasure from the masses until the whole system collapses beyond repair. But by then, the big fish have left the pond and are living it up on yachts in Tahiti while the rest of us are left with the mess and the check. Of course, Obama is complicit in this. Why else would he NOT demand a pound of flesh from the banks in early 2009? Frank Rich's article about how Obama blew it puts the nail on the head. Instead, the Tea Party populism was grabbed by the likes of Sarah Palin and put to use for the very forces that brought about the recession.

Free Markets work, but the pain they cause isn't worth it for some areas. Free Markets work great for cell phones, cereal, and diapers. Not so good in health care, police work, water supply. But diapers and cell phones don't KILL YOU (ok, sometimes they do but not as often as polluted water supplies or rampant crime. Yet, we have rules for cell phones and diapers and cereal. Oh no! BIG GOVERNMENT. I can't think of one item that isn't completely free from some kind of rule. But I don't think that is bad. Why do some people think that?). Free Markets DID exist for our water supply before the EPA and Clean Water Act came into existence. Do you want to see rivers catch fire again from all the chemicals that get poured into them? Free Markets do the cleanup AFTER the fact. After customers DEMAND change in the face of mistakes. Free Markets are a tornado. Sometimes the tornado cleans our all the junk. Sometimes the tornado destroys your whole town. Regulation tries to prevent the tornado from every happening. In a lot of cases this is good. The Tea Party doesn't understand this. It's a balance. You can over regulate. The Tea Party has Bush II thinking: You are either with us, or the Terrorists. It's all black and white. Life isn't like that. Life isn't like TV. But that's a tough pill to swallow. Our culture doesn't like nuance. We've told ourselves for decades that nuance is for sissies. Big government is bad, but the Tea Party seems to be just fine with Big Corporations. It's about balance.

I think that there will be another Tea Party, but this one will be made up of 'liberal' voters who are disgusted with how corporations have take this country over. Call them the white collar 'Coffee Party'. This will come about once the next crash/recession/depression hits and the men behind the curtain are exposed for who they really are. But with how our infrastructure is crumbling, our education system breaking down, our planet becoming more hostile to human habitation, it may be too late to swing the pendulum back towards the center.

Why I might not vote for anyone for president in 2012

It's been a long while since my last post. Lots happening. This debt ceiling debate is really putting things into perspective. It's teaching me that: a) I don't think I will ever vote Republican ever again. b) Obama has got be the worst negotiator ever. David Frum does a great summation of what Obama has done wrong. You can't argue against it. Obama's last few press conferences have been showing his increasing frustration. Too little, too late. If he still thinks the Republicans will be adults he needs to leave office. These people are ASSHOLES, nothing more or less.

Then we get the sanctimonious David Brooks on the News Hour on Friday saying how Obama's 'tone' at the press conference is terrible and unproductive. How nice it must be to be David Brooks. A week and a half after he calls out the Republicans with the same 'tone' that Obama used today he says that Obama is not helping the situation. Please. Republicans are doing this because the KNOW what they are doing is unpopular. But this is their last chance to dismantle the welfare state, and the only way to make it happen is through a President who is a Democrat. If the Republicans lose big but manage to fatally wound SS and Medicare/Medicaid, it's worth it to them. They know how difficult it was to get these programs enacted in the first place. Destroy them now and even if the next Congress tries to reverse things, they will never be like they are today. If Republican's can't have their version of 'America', then no one can have any America.

Republicans are out of their minds. This nonsense that we can pay our interest on the debt, meet Social Security and Medicare payments, pay the troops, and do the other things that we want to do AND then cut wasteful spending without raising the ceiling are simply false. But Obama seems to think that meeting these loonies halfway is a good idea. I don't think so. The man is increasingly naive, and more and more disappointing. The Bush Tax cuts are terrible. They need to go. Sure, my taxes will go up. I want to have a country, so I gotta pay for it. Baby Boomers, you want all this crap, then PAY FOR IT. And let's not forget the real truth here:

Macys.com

Just had a CRAZY conversation with a macys.com phone support person about an order I made for Mother's Day. I feel bad for folks that have to work the phones. It's a tough job. But the reason they gave me for why my order didn't get the guarantee was BONKERS, CRAZY GO NUTS.

I ordered my gift for my wife for Mother's Day on May 3. Macy's has a website that explains that if you order before May 4, you are guaranteed to have the order by Mother's Day. So I'm a day early. Great.

I get an shipping confirmation on May 5. I track the order. No order by Friday. Nothing by Saturday. Sunday morning, the order arrives in Redmond. UPS tracking says the order will arrive on Monday, May 9. Ugh!

My wife is way cool about it and doesn't mind the delay, but I do. So I call up Macy's and ask about my order. I have the following exchange: "Your order does not qualify for the guarantee because it was made on May 3. The guarantee only applies to orders made between May 4 - May 8. "

"What? That's not what the website says."

"Sir, that is what the guarantee is for. Only orders made on May 4 - May 8."

"So if I made an order on May 7, UPS would show up and deliver the package by the next day? How is that possible, when UPS doesn't deliver on weekends?"

"...."

"They have a...special....delivery...." (I'm not kidding about all the pauses)

"I would like to speak to your supervisor."

"Ok, but my supervisor will tell you the same thing."

"Great, I want to hear them tell me that. What you said doesn't make any sense."

"Ok, please hold."

After a couple of minutes of waiting, I am told that I will be getting an accommodation for the guarantee. Good. That is why I called.

So we'll see what the accommodation is. It should be what the website says. This isn't a big deal, but I'll be darned if some corporation is going to try to stick it to me like that.

I would be understanding if they said the order was delayed due to weather or something. But to just say absolute bullshit like that is upsetting. I'm not going to be scared off like that, Macys.

UPDATE: My Accommodation is they are resending me my order! I don't want another order! I want what the guarantee is. Oh well. I'm just going to return this order to a local Macy's store and get my money back. Same as the guarantee, except I can spend the money where ever I want and not just Macys.

Some old thoughts and new thoughts

I wrote this first part about a month ago but never posted it until now. Think back to when Paul Ryan released his budget and you'll be in the right frame of mind.

Republicans are bullys and want to go back to 1925.

Paul Ryan's budget is courageous in the fact that it reveals what true Conservatives have always wanted: A dismantling of the welfare state and a return to the rule of Robber Barons. The real kicker here is that the President is letting them hold the narrative. I can't really take anything that doesn't include tax increases seriously, because it just ignores reality. Paul Ryan voted for Medicare Part D, the perscription drug benefit that is completely unfunded and was used to buy senior voters for the 2004 Presidential election. So Mr. Ryan is not on my list of People Who Want to Get Things Done The Right Way. Voters want all this stuff government provides, and polls show that they would be willing to pay more taxes to avoid benefit cuts. But they don't really need to pay much more. Just let the Bush Tax Cuts expire, and make some tweaks (eliminate the cap on Social Security Taxes from $107k to everything, use the government's power to negotiate cheap drug prices and medical equipment). Why don't Republicans propose increases? Because it would go against what the rich people who run the party behind the scenes want and care about. Plus, the idiotic Constitutional Amendment just signed by all 47 Republican members of the Senate would invalidate all the years of the Reagan Presidency and George Bush Presidency. But the past doesn't matter. Republicans are bullies.

Ezra Klein is lamenting the fact that Obama is almost nowhere to be seen as far as leadership goes.

E.J. Dionne is saying that if Obama doesn't stand up to Republicans, it will be the end of Progressive government.

While I can sympathize with the Tea Party's anger, it has been co-opted by the very forces that have caused their ire. How good must it be to be rich? You spend the last 30 years slowing removing all the restraints set up to keep banking and finance from going crazy. Then when banking is unleashed, you make a TON of money while destroying whatever value the other 99% less wealthy Americans have. After you nearly destroy the economy, you get a government bailout to 'save the system'. A whole bunch of regular Americans see their wealth dry up, their 401(k)'s implode, and stupid wealthy people getting bailed out with taxpayer dollars. Naturally, these Americans take to the streets in protest. Somehow, you are able to co-opt these fed up Americans and convince them that they need to direct their anger not at the wealthy bastards who jiggered the system, but at the government! You have somehow convinced the angry mob that is at your doorstop to turn around and go after the the auto workers and teachers! It's amazing. I guess that you rich people deserve your wealth if you are able to convince that many people to fight against the very institutions that were designed to protect them from the likes of you.

Look at this quote from Thomas Jefferson about corporations:

"I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws our country."

~ Thomas Jefferson Nov. 12th, 1816

I do take issue with the Tea Party's line of 'take our country back.' Take it back from whom, the majority that voted democratic in 2008? Too bad, we live in America, where the majority rules from elections, not majority rules from poll results.

So now for a posting that is more current:

Can someone PLEASE explain to me how 9% unemployment means that we should ignore doing any kind of federal jobs program and instead focus on austerity measures like the UK for deficit reduction? How is this helpful? It's not. That's the big secret. If Republicans went for a federal jobs program, they would be in effect going against their 'principles' of small government. In terms of what small government means for Republicans, that means less regulation and more corporitization. That's what small government means. Trample the people to help the rich, entitled elites even more. It's reckless and irresponsible and no one who can really make a dent is calling them on this. All the while, we are increasing our defense spending??!?! How is this sensible? I am all for having some austerity in terms of world security. We don't belong on bases all over the place!!! It's dumb! Look at Great Britain. They have embraced austerity measures and have been immediately plunged into another recession. Brilliant, that. We slash our education and infrastructure spending while putting all that money towards nation building. It's idiotic. Even the Pentagon thinks so!

On a Paul Ryan budget note, even folks at the Economist are coming out against his ideas.