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10 Things the GOP Doesn't Want You to Know About the Debt

byJon PerrFollow

   
   
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Just two weeks after he seconded Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's dire warnings about the August 2 deadline to raise the U.S debt ceiling, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor walked out of the budget talks aimed at reaching a bipartisan compromise over deficit reduction.  Like Arizona GOP Senator Jon Kyl, Cantor shifted the burden to Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Mitch McConnell and President Obama to "get over this impasse on taxes."

For his part, McConnell promised that no deal to end the GOP's hostage taking of the U.S. economy will include tax hikes.  But while McConnell boasted that "If they couldn't raise taxes when they owned the government, you know they can't get it done now," left unsaid was the inconvenient truth that the nation's mounting debt is largely attributable to wars, a recession and tax policies put in place under his party's watch.

Here, then, are 10 things the GOP doesn't want you to know about the debt:

(Click a link to jump to the data and details for each.)

1.  Republican Leaders Agree U.S. Default Would Be a "Financial Disaster"
2.  Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt
3.  George W. Bush Doubled the National Debt
4.  Republicans Voted Seven Times to Raise Debt Ceiling for President Bush
5.  Federal Taxes Are Now at a 60 Year Low
6.  Bush Tax Cuts Didn't Pay for Themselves or Spur "Job Creators"
7.  Ryan Budget Delivers Another Tax Cut Windfall for Wealthy
8.  Ryan Budget Will Require Raising Debt Ceiling - Repeatedly
9.  Tax Cuts Drive the Next Decade of Debt
10. $3 Trillion Tab for Unfunded Wars Remains Unpaid

1.  Republican Leaders Agree U.S. Default Would Be a "Financial Disaster"
Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and White House hopeful Tim Pawlenty are among the GOP luminaries  who have joined the ranks of what Dana Milbank called the "default deniers."  But you don't have to take Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's word for it "that if Congress doesn't agree to an increase in the debt limit by August 2, the United States will be forced to default on its debt, potentially spreading panic and collapse across the globe."  As it turns out, Republican leaders (and their big business backers) have said the same thing.

In their few moments of candor, Republican leaders expressed agreement with Tim Geithner's assessment that default by the U.S. "would have a catastrophic economic impact that would be felt by every American." The specter of a global financial cataclysm has been described as resulting in "severe harm" (McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi), "financial collapse and calamity throughout the world" (Senator Lindsey Graham) and "you can't not raise the debt ceiling" (House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan). In January, even Speaker John Boehner acknowledged as much:

"That would be a financial disaster, not only for our country but for the worldwide economy. Remember, the American people on election day said, 'we want to cut spending and we want to create jobs.' And you can't create jobs if you default on the federal debt."

2.  Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt
Among the Republicans who prophesied the default doomsday scenario was none other than conservative patron saint, Ronald Reagan.  As he warned Congress in November 1983:

"The full consequences of a default -- or even the serious prospect of default -- by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar."

Reagan knew what he was talking about.  After all, the hemorrhage of red ink at the U.S. Treasury was his doing.

As most analysts predicted, Reagan's massive $749 billion supply-side tax cuts in 1981quickly produced even more massive annual budget deficits. Combined with his rapid increase in defense spending, Reagan delivered not the balanced budgets he promised, but record-setting debt. Even his OMB alchemist David Stockman could not obscure the disaster with his famous "rosy scenarios."

Forced to raise taxes eleven times to avert financial catastrophe, the Gipper nonetheless presided over a tripling of the American national debt to nearly $3 trillion. By the time he left office in 1989, Ronald Reagan more than equaled the entire debt burden produced by the previous 200 years of American history. It's no wonder Stockman lamented last year:

"[The] debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party's embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter if they result from tax cuts."

It's no wonder the Gipper cited the skyrocketing deficits he bequeathed to America as his greatest regret.

3.  George W. Bush Doubled the National Debt
Following in Reagan's footsteps, George W. Bush buried the myth of Republican fiscal discipline.

Inheriting a federal budget in the black and CBO forecast for a $5.6 trillion surplus over 10 years, President George W. Bush quickly set about dismantling the progress made under Bill Clinton. Bush's $1.4 trillion tax cut in 2001, followed by a $550 billion second round in 2003, accounted for the bulk of the yawning budget deficits he produced.  (It is more than a little ironic that Paul Ryan ten years ago called the tax cuts "too small" because he believed the estimated surplus Bush eviscerated would be even larger.)

Like Reagan and Stockman before him, Bush resorted to the rosy scenario to claim he would halve the budget deficit by 2009. Before the financial system meltdown last fall, Bush's deficitalready reached $490 billion. (And even before the passage of the Wall Street bailout, Bush had presided over a $4 trillion increase in the national debt, a staggering 71% jump.) By January 2009, the mind-numbing deficit figure reached $1.2 trillion, forcing President Bush toraise the debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion.

4.  Republicans Voted Seven Times to Raise Debt Ceiling for President Bush
"Reagan," Vice President Dick Cheney famously declared in 2002, "proved deficits don't matter."  Not, that is, unless a Democrat is in the White House.

As Donny Shaw documented in January 2010, Republican intransigence on the debt ceiling only began in earnest when Bush left the White House for good.

The Republicans haven't always been against increasing the federal debt ceiling. This is the first time in recent history (the past decade or so) that no Republican has voted for the increase. In fact, on most of the ten other votes to increase the federal debt limit that the Senate has taken since 1997, the Republicans provided the majority of the votes in favor.

As it turns out, Republican majorities voted to raise the U.S. debt ceiling seven timeswhile George W. Bush sat in the Oval Office.  (It should be noted, as Ezra Klein did, that party-line votes on debt ceiling increases tied to other legislation is not solely the province of the GOP.) As ThinkProgress pointed out, during the Bush presidency, the current GOP leadership team voted 19 times to increase debt limit.  During his tenure, the U.S. national debt doubled, fueled by the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the Medicare prescription drug plan and the unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Mitch McConnell and John Boehner voted for all of it and the debt which ensued because, as Orrin Hatch later explained:

"It was standard practice not to pay for things."

5.  Federal Taxes Now at a 60 Year Low
Even as Vice President Biden leads bipartisan negotiations to trim at least $1 trillion from the national debt, Republican leaders faithfully regurgitate the refrain that tax increases are "off the table."  In one form or another, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor and just about every other conservative mouthpiece parroted Speaker John Boehner's line that:

"Medicare, Medicaid - everything should be on the table, except raising taxes."

Which purely by the numbers (if not ideology) is an odd position to take.  After all, as a percentage of the U.S. economy, the total federal tax bite hasn't been this low in 60 years.

As the chart representing President Obama's 2012 budget proposal above reflects, the American tax burden hasn't been this low in generations. Thanks to the combination of theBush Recession and the latest Obama tax cuts, the AP reported, "as a share of the nation's economy, Uncle Sam's take this year will be the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way." In January, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) explained that "revenues would be just under 15 percent of GDP; levels that low have not been seen since 1950." That finding echoed an earlier analysis from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Last April, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded, "Middle-income Americans are now paying federal taxes at or near historically low levels, according to the latest available data." AsUSA Today reported last May, the BEA data debunked yet another right-wing myth:

Federal, state and local taxes -- including income, property, sales and other taxes -- consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010.

"The idea that taxes are high right now is pretty much nuts," says Michael Ettlinger, head of economic policy at the liberal Center for American Progress.

Or as former Reagan Treasury official Bruce Bartlett explained it this week the New York Times:

In short, by the broadest measure of the tax rate, the current level is unusually low and has been for some time. Revenues were 14.9 percent of G.D.P. in both 2009 and 2010.

Yet if one listens to Republicans, one would think that taxes have never been higher, that an excessive tax burden is the most important constraint holding back economic growth and that a big tax cut is exactly what the economy needs to get growing again.

6.  Bush Tax Cuts Didn't Pay for Themselves or Spur "Job Creators"
That Republican intransigence persists despite the complete debunking of two of the GOP's favorite myths.

The first tried and untrue Republican talking point is that "tax cuts pay for themselves."  Sadly, that right-wing mythmaking is belied by the massive Bush deficits, half of which (as the CBPP chart in section 3 above shows} were the result of the Bush tax cuts themselves. As a percentage of the American economy, tax revenues peaked in 2000; that is, before the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. Despite President Bush's bogus claim that "You cut taxes and the tax revenues increase," Uncle Sam's cash flow from individual income taxes did not return to its pre-dot com bust level until 2006.

The second GOP fairy tale, as expressed by Speaker Boehner, is that "The top one percent of wage earners in the United States...pay forty percent of the income taxes...The people he's {President Obama] is talking about taxing are the very people that we expect to reinvest in our economy."

If so, the Republican's so-called "Job Creators" failed to meet those expectations under George W. Bush.  After all, the last time the top tax rate was 39.6% during the Clinton administration, the United States enjoyed rising incomes, 23 million new jobs and budget surpluses. Under Bush? Not so much.

On January 9, 2009, the Republican-friendly Wall Street Journal summed it up with an article titled simply, "Bush on Jobs: the Worst Track Record on Record." (The Journal's interactive table quantifies his staggering failure relative to every post-World War II president.) The dismal 3 million jobs created under President Bush didn't merely pale in comparison to the 23 million produced during Bill Clinton's tenure. In September 2009, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee charted Bush's job creation disaster, the worst since Hoover:

As David Leonhardt of the New York Times aptly concluded last year:

Those tax cuts passed in 2001 amid big promises about what they would do for the economy. What followed? The decade with the slowest average annual growth since World War II. Amazingly, that statement is true even if you forget about the Great Recession and simply look at 2001-7.

7.  Ryan Budget Delivers Another Tax Cut Windfall for Wealthy
Looking at that dismal performance, Leonhardt rightly asked, "Why should we believe that extending the Bush tax cuts will provide a big lift to growth?"  At a time of record income inequality which saw the incomes of the richest 400 Americans taxpayers double even as their tax rates were halved, that's a fair question to say the least.

For Paul Ryan and the Republican Party, the answer is simple: because we said so.

As Ezra Klein, Paul Krugman and Steve Benen among others noted, the House Republicans "Plan for America's Job Creators" is simply a repackaging of years of previous proposals and GOP bromides. (As Klein pointed out, the 10 page document"looks like the staffer in charge forgot the assignment was due on Thursday rather than Friday, and so cranked the font up to 24 and began dumping clip art to pad out the plan.") At the center of it is the same plan from the Ryan House budget passed in April to cut the top individual and corporate tax rates to 25%.

The price tag for the Republican proposal is a jaw-dropping $4.2 trillion. And as Matthew Yglesias explained, earlier analyses of similar proposals in Ryan's Roadmap reveal that working Americans would have to pick up the tab left unpaid by upper-income households:

This is an important element of Ryan's original "roadmap" plan that's never gotten the attention it deserves. But according to a Center for Tax Justice analysis (PDF), even though Ryan features large aggregate tax cuts, ninety percent of Americans would actually pay higher taxes under his plan.

In other words, it wasn't just cuts in middle class benefits in order to cut taxes on the rich. It was cuts in middle class benefits and middle class tax hikes in order to cut taxes on the rich. It'll be interesting to see if the House Republicans formally introduce such a plan and if so how many people will vote for it.

We now know the answer: 235 House Republicans and 40 GOP Senators.

8.  Ryan Budget Will Require Raising Debt Ceiling - Repeatedly
Largely overlooked in the media coverage of the Republican debt ceiling hostage drama is this: those 235 House Republicans and 40 GOP Senators who supported Paul Ryan's 2012 budget billvoted to add $6 trillion to the U.S. national debt over the next decade. And that means, as Speaker John Boehner acknowledged, Republicans now and in the future would have to increase the debt ceiling - repeatedly.

Of course, you'd never know that based on the incendiary rhetoric from the leading lights of the Republican Party and their right-wing echo chamber. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said his vote to bump up the debt ceiling would come at the cost of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, "the last time we're doing it." His South Carolina colleague Jim Demintthreatened to filibuster the increase, even if it meant the GOP's "Waterloo." The number two House Republican Eric Cantor (R-VA) regurgitated that line, telling Democrats the GOP "will not grant their request for a debt limit increase" without major spending cuts or budget process reforms." For his part, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan insisted, "We won't raise, just simply raise, the debt limit," adding, "We will vote to have spending cuts and controls in conjunction with the debt limit increase."  As giddy right-wing bloggers like Pattericodescribed the right-wing's scorched earth strategy:

If Republicans are going to vote to raise the debt ceiling -- and not to do so will indeed cause financial chaos -- they have to extract concessions sufficient that they can credibly say: this is the last such vote we will ever have to have.

Sadly, as Ezra Klein of the Washington Post explained last month, "Republicans can't meet their own deficit and spending targets." The Ryan plan to privatize Medicare, slash and convert Medicaid into block grants, and deliver another tax-cut windfall for the wealthy nevertheless "blows through both their spending and debt caps":

House Republicans voted to make the Ryan budget law. But the Ryan budget includes $6 trillion in new debt over the next 10 years, which means that to become law, the Ryan budget would require a substantial increase in the debt ceiling. But before the Republicans agree to increase the debt ceiling so that the budget they passed can become law, Republicans are demanding the passage of either a balanced budget amendment that would make the Ryan budget unconstitutional or a spending cap that the Ryan budget would, in certain years (and if you're using more realistic numbers, in all years), exceed.

It's no wonder Klein's Washington Post colleague Matt Miller deemed the Republican budgetary horror story "The Shining - National Debt Edition" before concluding that Boehner's "awe-inspiring hypocrisy on the debt limit" is one of those moments of "political behavior that can only be dubbed Super-Duper Hypocrisy So Brazen They Must Really Think We're Idiots."

9.  Tax Cuts Drive the Next Decade of Debt
"President Obama's agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying," the New York Times' David Leonhardt explained in 2009, adding, "The economic growth under George W. Bush did not generate nearly enough tax revenue to pay for his agenda, which included tax cuts, the Iraq war, and Medicare prescription drug coverage." That fall, former Reagan Treasury official Bruce Bartlett offered just that kind of honesty to the born again deficit virgins of his Republican Party. Noting that the FY2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion was solely due to lower tax revenues and not increased spending, Bartlett concluded:

"I think there are grounds on which to criticize the Obama administration's anti-recession actions. But spending too much is not one of them. Indeed, based on this analysis, it is pretty obvious that spending - real spending on things like public works - has been grossly inadequate. The idea that Reagan-style tax cuts would have done anything is just nuts."

Which is exactly right.  Thanks to the steep recession, as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and others have documented time and again, the overall federal tax burden as a percentage of GDP is now down to levels not seen since Harry Truman was in the White House.  (The two-year tax cut compromise in December didn't help any, adding $400 billion to the deficit this year and next.)  But is the Bush tax cuts themselves, which Republicans want to make permanent and then (as the Ryan budget mandates) lower further, which account for much of the revenue drain into the future.

As a recent analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed, over the next decade the Bush tax cuts account for more of the nation's debt than Iraq, Afghanistan, TARP, the stimulus, and revenue lost to the recession combined:

10.  $3 Trillion Tab for Unfunded Wars Remains Unpaid
Over the next ten years, the costs of America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will decline as the U.S. commitments there come to an end.   But almost ten years, 6,000 U.S. dead and over a trillion dollars after the attacks of September 11, it's time to pay for our wars.

In May, the National Journal estimated that the total cost to the U.S. economy of the war against Al Qaeda will reach $3 trillion. In 2008, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitzput the price of the Iraq conflict alone at $3 trillion.

But by 2020 and beyond, the direct cost to U.S. taxpayers could reach $3 trillion. In March, theCongressional Research Service put the total cost of the wars at $1.28 trillion, including $806 billion for Iraq and $444 billion for Afghanistan. For the 2012 fiscal year which begins on October 1, President Obama asked for $117 billion more. (That war-fighting funding is over and above Secretary Gates' $553 billion Pentagon budget request for next year.)

But in addition to the roughly $1.5 trillion tally for both conflicts through the theoretical 2014 American draw down date in Afghanistan, the U.S. faces staggering bills for veterans' health care and disability benefits. Last May, an analysis by the Center for American Progressestimated the total projected total cost of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' health care and disability could reach between $422 billion to $717 billion. Reconstruction aid and other development assistance represent tens of billions more, as does the additional interest on the national debt. And none of the above counts the expanded funding for the new Department of Homeland Security.

But that two-plus trillion dollar tab doesn't account for the expansion of the United States military since the start of the "global war on terror." As a percentage of the American economy, defense spending jumped from 3.1% in 2001 to 4.8% last year. While ThinkProgress noted that the Pentagon's FY 2012 ask is "the largest request ever since World War II," McClatchy explained:

Such a boost would mark the 14th year in a row that Pentagon spending has increased, despite the waning U.S. presence in Iraq. In dollars, Pentagon spending has more than doubled in 10 years. Even adjusted for inflation, the Defense Department budget has risen 65% in the past decade.

Even as the World Trade Center site was still smoldering, Republicans insisted Al Qaeda represented an existential threat to the United States. President Bush repeatedly compared9/11 to Pearl Harbor and his war on terror to World War II. But he never asked Americans to join the military or sacrifice at home. Instead, Bush told us to go shopping and "get down to Disney World."

From a public policy standpoint, post-9/11 America in no way resembles FDR's response to Pearl Harbor. George W. Bush was the first modern president to cut taxes during wartime. Barack Obama was the second.

It's time, as Bernie Sanders, Al Franken and the Congressional Progressive Caucus each proposed, to begin paying for the unfunded conflicts fought in our name.

I follow closely, read, research and write about politics because I am passionate the subject, the ideals of good governance Ancient Greeks & Chinese philosophers identified, the Greeks set the framework for all of Western civilization.   Our forefathers produced, I would argue, divinely inspired documents. I can even imagine the innovation for the New World later the United States of America, as a G-d experiment for humanity, in a blessed nation, this one truly blessed with all the components available for success, rich in resources, easily marginalized Native American primitives without weaponry or malice of intent, with unprecedented, egalitarianism structured into the system and founding documents with statement, "all men are created equal" directing shared opportunity beyond what other nations with divine right of kings a mere assumption of man (or maybe G-d thought it best at first but realized the isolationism of wealthy, ruling elite class combined with greed and will to power, or need for power would be misused and oftentimes abusively against the unequal others, whom were all the rest but the monarch, emperor, rulers.  b, inbreed royal rulers .  mapped out including warnings heralding what to watch out and be on guard to squelch should it appear.  so not by divine right of kings and emperors revolutionary concept and country with novel ideas for freedom, autonomy, where all men are created equal, common good, general welfare replaced all that guided them to write the constitution and the bill of rights, and differentiated with vision and hopes for a New World vastly eorder, from limitations and inequality under monarchy of our forefathers building upon Ancient Greek political wisdom Western civilization, from Ancient Greeks; while Ancient Chinese outlined the best leadership qualities.   I hate what I am watching as America, thanks to conservative Supreme Court justices corporate personhood ruling, opened a Pandora's Box to usurpers of political power, so egregiously motivated with not just a Profits first, primary directive, already contradictory of the purpose of government which is not prioritized with making money formst ntand manipulative demanding their full agenda not the one preferred by a majority who braved the GOP legislated, lengthy voter lines in primarily Democratic districts.  Caucasian and Republican districts waited minutes. Minority, low income, student districts waited hours in some states. 

,  Knowing fewer voters favors Republicans and less minority voters   that even appalls, presumably surprises, Scalia who didn't predict real world outcomes like we have seen.  sold to highest bidders and the results unfold, unravel for many.  Focused regular political blogging on this blog is my goal.   My comfort zone has been sharing, posting commentary with my thoughts, grievances, disgust, disseminating information Facebook and tweeting links or tweeting truth to power in DC and beyond.  I try to keep in mind those without a high baseline of knowledge on the topics presented, to more astute political followers and knowers of truth, my need to break down or repeat obvious redundancies in an effort to reinforce, overly burdensome. 

 impassioned to do so. I know I have many politically astute, well-informed, highly analytical Facebook and Twitter friends, I also know I have some friends without interest in politics who would, probably not, be drawn to read, research or post political articles or commentary, there are those who I know, even despite their infrequent if ever comments, when I visit their timelines it is evident they have diametrically opposing views with Fox News talking points adopted, posted and defended without further investigation which often, easily contradicts with hard evidence, the conjectures being sold via snakeoil, salespeople of media like Fox, Beck, Limbaugh, Breitbart and the mega-troupe of paid right wing think tank, sold out intellectuals and researchers devoid of integrity, journalistic or otherwise, to parrot continually until and beyond such time as it becomes entrenched belief in the Republican base.   , political hires for corporate beneficent legislation and governance of states, etc.  Then there others, some unfortunately I have banned for repeated messaging, what find naive views frequently anti-Obama (he is the same as Bush) sentiments and no difference between parties, both clumped into Republicrats. This erroneous notion is just as nihilistic and extreme, in my view, that both parties Equally corrupted by corporate culture and equally unconcerned about the responsibility of their oaths to public service representing and governing. A few of the more belligerent, always challenging and forcing my defense, have been blocked.  I don't want them to muck up my message that I know with humility tossed aside, is most often well researched, fact checked if right wing media was source is involved.  The outright lies and direct contradictions to reality abound online.  The right wing machine, with Koch cabal limitless funds, pays bloggers, social media antagonists to refute liberal ideals, policy or humane decency with consideration for others, most amazingly, becoming a democrat/liberal trait exclusively. As long as the Republican base stays on board and allows themselves to pulled further into their hatred, division creation, designed run interference, confuse and infuse with angry rejection of those in any need, if government intervention (all handouts including military benefits to those who fought, suffer(ed) and have to live with themselves today after an unwarranted, lied about preceding incidents to justify the result of GW, "no weapons of mass destruction under here" as the worst joke following 100'000's lives lost in Iraq and 4000 dead and how many  truly blessed with mercy death, veit reto distract and focus emotionally charged, negative attention (think SNAP users FOX News wants their viewers to have a quick, easy, image of unkempt, aimless, surfer dude eating lobster rolls he used foodstamps to buy)  reducing working poor with children living a poverty level, Walmart parttime hours to avoid benefits). burger flipper skills aren't worth more than $7.25 needed  with the media outlets and politicians advocating hatred, their own self & corporate interests elevated to dictate the national agenda that is supposed to play out for all involved.   altruism is weakness and breeds dependence  our division as a nation and as a community of human beings, increasing outrageous deviation from common national good, with social welfare and well-being no longer a governmental bother in anti-taxation, small government, especially Koch cabal, nihilistic libertarianism on steroids.   to be torn further into selfishness elevated to priority national value.  of spread talking point Twitter, Facebook and comment section trolls to refute liberals, with their phony facts, aggravated angry diatribe opinions, or intimidation via name calling, threats or telling people to just DIE or leave, etc.   

as well as the nuuanced and veiled  to create the desired result of antipathy toward Obama and his policy or sugar coated corporate interest gain only comprehensively understood dynamics surrounding the issue, will with rhetoric if it's extremist or poorly reasoned from either extreme-
Obama is Bush II, the parties are not different, Republicrats all; and small government, fiscal conservatives with/without social consciousness.   

The truth is evident if you research a little beyond what FoxNews, right wing media, Koch cabal think tank generated sophisticated, well-funded, well-oiled, Madison Avenue level with a brilliant sell out or two but any academic brilliant intellectual type truly would be repulsed if forced into writing policy for Club for Growth or Americans for Prosperity or Heritage, even Cato Institute (once geniune  support system of confabulated facts, data, research, talking points-all to influence and shape public opinion to cover up by refocusing attention elsewhere, while they rob, pillage and destroy all exploitable commodities and resources, both human and environmental.  towards distrust of Obama/government, opposition, towards or away from,  stereotyping as Rand Paul has managed to do by completely subverting and revising research findings as his only support for  his cupposed reductionistically ALL long term unemployed, barely hanging on financially, emotionally discouraged and surely often depressed with great anxiety about their families futures, how they will survive.  fellow human beings in our neighborhoods and all over our country  ment  fictionalized fantasy political ideological which history shows has been a domain for Democrats). have been FAR superior with budgets, deficit reduction, balancing budgets, leaving surpluses (as Clinton's balanced budget left George W Bush with a surplus of  raising taxes when write about politics most don't have the dedication to political junkiedom that I do, I posted on Facebook the most relevant, significant and politically charged issues drawing media attention and my analysis of the situation.  With ADHD, Bipolar I mood swings immobilizing or energizing, personality disorders with inferiority issues resulting in overcompensating actions, to stand out, attract admiration and praise, do better than the others, etc etc ad nauseum.  in an effort to prove my value, I find social media sites versus longer, more thoughtful, blog entries, more suitable. I One thing I agree with Barbara, is more job creation is essential, unemployment alone is not the answer. Democrats with Obama's vision and agenda have tried numerous times. If you read Mark's post under mine, he cites 300 job and infrastructure related bills were filibustered by Republicans. They wouldn't even allow a yes or no vote on whether to discuss the bills, just flat out FUCK You all. You ALL is a fair share of our nation with millions out of work.

When there is only one job to 3 applicants and unemployment is as high as it remains & without hope on the horizon for more jobs (continued obstruction by GOP House) is not a time to leave millions without any income. Leading of course to more homeless/houseless/hopelessness & worse. There is a need for increasing the numbers of jobs which with political will COULD be done, but also for retraining some for jobs that are not finding adequate numbers workers, help to relocate to regions where job markets are strong, but people underwater in mortgages or without resources can't move, etc. There are many possible solutions but it takes action based on factual, reliable information. None of which right wing conservative media like Fox News are capable of providing. Not free of corporate contrived think tank generated policy, which is designed EXCLUSIVELY for maximum benefit of the few wealthiest, without consideration whatsoever for all the rest of the nation. The stereotype groups Fox perpetuates are selective, often like ACA debunked stories falsely presented, as ALL welfare queens ALL lobster eating surfer dudes in an attempt to reduce impoverished of humanity to single negative, emotionally outraged, thought in SHEEPLE'S minds.

They distort research findings to serve their self-interested/corporate-interested policy agenda, Rand Paul cited research findings completely contrary to the actual researcher's results & conclusions, so egregiously misused and abused that the author was compelled to make a harsh response to the Senator-http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/no-rand-paul-theres-no-reason-to-cut-unemployment-benefits/282698/

They don't care about means, only the end and they are willing do ANY and EVERYTHING to accommodate the orders of their political contributor's desired, END GAME. If they don't it is over and spells political death at minimum.

Their goal is not helping or solving our nation's problems, social ills, environmental/infrastructure problems, they refuse to even represent the majority of constituents, 63% in Speaker Boehner's state want unemployment extended, the House doesn't even have a discussion on the agenda. Responsible gun control laws polled high nationally yet NRA voices were the only ones law makers represented.

Barbara mentioned immigrants getting tax breaks, I must admit that's a new one to me. Unless they own corporations with mega tax advantages and loopholes. But, I do know that many if not most, immigrants contribute to the economy and national coffers via income, sales, property and other taxes as well as consumption.

Bigoted exclusionary, white supremacy ideology, fear of different "others" with whom we inhabit the planet, if not country of origin, is easily played into with anti-immigration lies, they are taking jobs from Americans, not contributing, using services and resources yada yada...

Aside from paying taxes too, taking jobs Americans won't do, given the younger population of Hispanics in general, in contrast to US aging population, Social Security could be shored up and solvent indefinitely with responsible immigration policy and the dream act.

On a socio-economic/cultural level, diversity is essential we all benefit, many great contributions have been and will continue to be made by immigrant "others" which all Americans are if not Native American. Diversity is necessary for growth of humanity & personal evolution to expand our horizons.

We have an obligation, a social contract from our founders to give hands up and reach out inclusively as we were taught as children to do. To share, not be selfish, think about how others feel, etc. These are basics folks, if we let our political leaders rewrite the Golden Rule, Judeo-Christian values/virtues upon which our country is founded, the political agenda with loyalty and representation only for the benefit of a very few to whom they are financially/politically beholden, we are DOOMED.

They can't be allowed to rewrite their job description as no longer representative of constituent's interests, or WE ARE DONE.

Fox News & right wing corporate, ALEC/Koch cabal, news fabricators & actors, political operatives are following directions to actively dish up MISINFORMATION, DISTRACTION & displacement of blame. Shape public opinion in such a way, as to allow for what was historically always mandated efforts (ie GW Bush extending unemployment 5 times) to sudden seem ill-advised, handouts to a mooching class conditioned not to work because they get benefits while they continue to look. Remember, unlike Rand Paul entirely misconstrued, benefits means people HAVE to be seeking work and prove it.

Elimination of undesirables is a form of Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest now means if they are fit enough to find jobs in 26 weeks, of course, against all odds of 3 applicants for every 1 job, while Republicans obstruct all policy designed to remedy and employ people, the new expendable class, now equated with SNAP users, welfare recipients, Social Security Disability receivers (all targeted).

The increase in suicide rates since 2008 attributed to the financial crisis and unemployment has skyrocket internationally. Trust me those numbers will increase dramatically if Koch cabal & Republicans taking their orders get their way on not extending benefits. While at the same time, they fuck up the economy more as a result of the 100,000's of jobs predicated to vanish as a result of the loss from the economy of billions of dollars, those barely hanging on forced to homelessness, hopelessness and despair. In 2010 there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html?_r=0

SHEEPLES please turn off Fox News try msnbc instead. I guarantee they check facts, have decency based principled, ethical awareness inclusive of others and sense of responsibility; plus many are genuinely exceptional beings, with concern for the totality of national well-being, havenots included-like Rhodes scholar, Rachel Maddow and worker/union advocate, Ed Schultz on Ed Show. This is the biggest distinction-with whom interests and loyalty lie, between Fox News and msnbc/liberal media, as well as, a primary difference between democrats & republicans-Dems being the people's party while Reps NOW exclusively loyal to corporate big biz entities ALEC/Koch cabal-

Americans who are not earners at the tippy top brackets, so sorry you no longer have representation and your interests are irrelevant...to republicans.

The snakeoil bunch of CRAP sold to sheeples to keep them looking the other way, blaming the wrong people IS all so the already enormously wealthy, can steal away even more while you are not looking, at the expense of ALL the rest of We the People, aka those electing political representation for our interests. The majority no longer rules anything. The minority agenda, WE rejected, has been forced down our throats by those who cannot get rich enough despite now richer than wealthy counterparts ever in history. Our income inequality has surpassed the Gilded Age. What have they done with it all, why haven't they expanded businesses, hired, helped the economy? as GW Bush insisted would follow if low taxes, corporate loopholes were given. GW threw in incentives to offshore and outsource too, now hiding/hoarding in the Cayman islands with amounts greater than the entire US deficit. http://moneymorning.com/2013/05/01/check-out-whos-hiding-32-trillion-in-offshore-accounts/ Know one thing for certain.

To continue to vote ANY republican back into office, will be DOOMING all of us to more of the same and much WORSE. Unless a republican will stand firm against Koch cabal as Office of Speaker Boehner did for one day, hopefully to regain cajones now, fighting back against Club for Growth (see below) and compounding human misery index while hurting the economic recovery when it can least take a hit by forcing loss of .2 - .4 to GDP- much greater loss than the cost of continuing benefits.

I believe Koch's have gone far beyond ALEC conservatives and anti-taxation big biz interests agendas. They have more power and klout with political will to dominance combined with Rupert Murdoch long time relationship buying Fox for Koch and their more extreme nihilistic, libertarianism on steroids.

Koch's psychological/corporate/political profile is one of relentless insatiable greed, over compensatory for real or perceived lacks, acquiring maximum power and control for global dominance and the mega dollars they are willing to spend to make it happen, they have the most political will and an Ayn Rand ethic of any and all means to achieve selfish ends are acceptable.

We are doomed if republicans are not voted out of the House in 2014. Social Darwinism will work if we don't intervene. We cannot wait. Get involved, speak up and speak out directly to politicians in power via social media of phone, talk to family and friends turned Sheeples (be patient and loving as possible), bombard them in the House especially on cowering to Koch cabal's Club for Growth think tank with admonishment to vote against extensions or rate low scores, be primaried and replaced by more compliant puppets. Here's how they are manipulating our elected officials: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/194506-dscc-hits-gop-candidates-on-unemployment-insurance
Here's how Koch brothers orchestrated government shutdown costing 25 billion tax payer dollars. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/how-the-koch-brothers-did_1_b_4143928.html