DOES THIS MAKE YOU ANGRY???

A friend reminded me the other day that I haven't posted for awhile.  That is true because at times it seems so hopeless and one wonders if anyone reads this blog or cares what is going on in the world.  Why are people so apathetic?  Maybe they are just hopeless and struggling to make ends meet or have other issues that are taking up their time.  But when I saw the following it made my blood boil so I am sharing this with you.
We all know that corporations really do own the government and that is one reason why nothing gets done as everyone is trying to appease their contributors.  The other is just playing a political game to make the President look as bad as they can make him.

Anyway, from Moveon.org, this chart that shows the 30 Corporations who want to buy our government and pay for it with tax breaks.  This is eye opening and very scary.

There is a larger version of this chart at http://front.moveon.org/these-30-corporations-want-to-buy-our-government/?rc=fb.fan

Al Sharpton Rips into Olympia Snowe

Just a short post but it is a must read and it is going viral here in Maine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Ia1QxvFyA&noredirect=1

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Vice President Biden.  It was a fund raising appeal for the 2012 Obama campaign.  Obviously I hadn't given any money at this point.  That email really ticked me off.  Every day I get at least 6 requests for money.  They come from the Obama campaign, Moveon.org, Democracy for America, Emily's List, the Democratic Senatorial Committee, The House Democrats, Progressives United and who knows where else.
Now it is partly my fault as I have given all of those organizations money at one time or another and they do stand for the things I believe in, but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!  When I think of all the money that is being raised for these campaigns it disgusts me.  All of that money could be going to help feed the poor in our own country or to the Free Health Clinics that are being held all over the country for folks who have no insurance.
This country has gotten off the right track.  Instead of caring for the people we are robbing them to pay for these huge expensive campaigns.  I also understand the need to raise money when you have billionaires like the Koch Brothers who give millions and people like Karl Rove who collect millions to give to conservative candidates.  But basically I think it is wrong and we need to work to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.  Will that solve anything?  It might help but now we are in rut and campaigns cost too much.  That is why an ordinary person can't run for office and that is why we basically have only rich people running the government and don't kid yourself, they do not care about you and me, the average person.
Now I won't tar all of them with the same brush.  You have good people like Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Chellie Pingree of Maine and there are others.  But the majority of elected officials do not care one bit about the average American citizen.
I will say that this week I got notes, in the mail, from Chellei Pingree and Bernie Sanders thanking me for my donations and they didn't ask for more.   Usually it is a form letter by email that has a big Donate at the bottom of the email.  The personal touch is nice and it is effective.
So what is all this rambling about?  It is just my thoughts on the state of campaigns and the amount of money being spent.  I am tired of feeling guilty when I can't give more but the reality is that the recession has hit retirees hard and yes we are going to get an increase in Social Security but most of it will be offset by an increase in the Medicare payment so it will really not help all that much and for those of us on a fixed income it makes it that much harder.  How can we change this race for money?  How can we clean up the election process?  I am afraid that I will not see it in my lifetime.
What do you think about this subject???

Corruption, Corruption

Each day there are articles that discuss the corruption that is prevalent in our government.  Yesterday I read an article by Matt Taibi in the current Rolling Stone.  In this article he tells of whistle blowers who have given Senate and House committees evidence of the corruption in the Securities and Exchange Commission.  It seems that this is a revolving door between Wall Street and the SEC.  The SEC is being accused of destroying records of cases that have had a preliminary investigation.  This has been going on since 1993.  It also portrays an agency that has covered up crimes on Wall Street much to the detriment of our country.
I consider Matt Taibi to be a very good investigative reporter,  I recommend that you all read his article at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817.  It is eye-opening but not particularly surprising since corruption in our government seems pervasive.
Then on the same day there was an article on the staff of Darrell Issa's.  He is the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee.  This article from think Progress details one of his staff members who was a vice president at Goldman Sachs.  He left Goldman Sachs and changed his name and then became a member of Issa's staff.  Here is this quote from Think Progress.

"ThinkProgress:
Has Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) turned the House Oversight Committee into a bank lobbying firm with the power to subpoena and pressure government regulators? ThinkProgress has found that a Goldman Sachs vice president changed his name, then quietly went to work for Issa to coordinate his effort to thwart regulations that affect Goldman Sachs’ bottom line."
To read the whole article go to http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/18/298485/exclusive-goldman-sachs-vp-changed-his-name-now-advances-goldman-lobbying-interests-as-a-top-staffer-to-darrell-issa/
This type of corruption which, I believe, exists throughout both parties and all agencies of the government is abhorrent to me and I hope to all of us.  It makes me wonder if there is an honest person in Washington.
Then there is the issue of back taxes owed by federal employees.  They owe billions in back taxes.  If you or I were in that situation we would probably be in jail by now or at the very least being harassed by the IRS.  What allows them to get away with this type of fraud?
We need to keep up the pressure on our elected officials to make sure that these things are cleaned up.  It seems like a hopeless cause but we must prevail.

Will They Do What Is Right?

A letter to Senator Collins and Snowe.  Will they pay attention?  No, they never do.  Join me and send your letter off too.

NO ! NO! NO!
We do not need a super congress.  We just need the rest of you to do your job.  How can you be supporting this extreme measure when you have voted to raise the debt ceiling 7 times under Bush!  You helped create the deficit and now you are willing to make cuts that will hurt the very people you represent.

I don't trust you or any one else in Washington.  You are all corrupt and just trying to hang onto your jobs.  Go ahead and cut medicare and see how many Mainers will end up selling their homes and going bankrupt.  you are all set because we are paying your salaries, your pensions, your healthcare, supporting your gym and dining room yet you refuse to do the same for us.

I could get down on my knees and beg and you would just turn around and kick me again.  I have never in all of my 75 years seen people so unwilling to govern and to represent the people.

You are all beholden to the big corporations and Wall Street.  Am I angry?  You bet I am and further more I am totally disgusted and frankly hopeless.
Priscilla Payne

When Will They Grow Up????

After reading the news this morning on Huffington Post, I wonder when the politicians will come to their senses and act like adults.  Now the Republicans in the House are letting the Tea Party reps take over the debt ceiling negotiations.  This is surely going backwards.  Their proposals are even more extreme than those of John Boehner and Eric Cantor.
I think we should just have an up or down vote on raising the debt ceiling and forget about extreme cuts to valuable programs.  If they want to cut then cut the earmarks which still exist and Mitch McConnell is one of the worst offenders.
Both parties in Washington are acting in their own best interest and not thinking about the people who will get hurt by the cuts being proposed.  When will they realize that getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq will save billions of dollars?  But no, they will allow people to be thrown out on the streets and out of their homes before they will cut the war machine.  They will take away food from children and mothers and close planned parenthood centers before they will raise taxes on the richest 2% of Americans.
I haven't heard of them cutting their salaries or benefits and closing their gym and giving up their classy dining hall.  Let them suffer along with the rest of us.  This situation is totally disgusting and appalling.  Let's raise our voices and make them be heard.  Call the White House and your senators and representatives today and tell them enough is enough!

To Maintain a Republic by David Bromwich

 David Bromwich is a Professor of Literature at Yale University.  His article posted on Huffington Post today, which is below, touched me and made me realize that even 150 years ago Abraham Lincoln saw the problems of unnecessary wars and also the "policies of aggrandizement and intemperate self-interest" that certainly exist today.  The question for me is how do we change the course we are on?

"July 4, 1861 -- exactly a hundred and fifty years ago -- witnessed the reading aloud, on the floor of Congress, of Abraham Lincoln's Message to Congress in Special Session.
The circumstantial appeal of Lincoln's message turned on his defense of the Union against the threat posed by secession, and that is the part most people have in mind when they recall the most famous words of the address: "This is essentially a People's contest." Lincoln was speaking for democracy. He was also speaking for a Union, popular in character and progressive in direction, as the heart of all future hopes for democracy.

Another part of the Special Message matters more to us today. For Lincoln saw
an unresolvable tension between the constitution of a democratic republic and
the policies of aggrandizement and intemperate self-interest that lead from the
manners of freedom to the slavish love of power. He spoke of the difference
between the work of establishing a constitutional republic and the longer task
of maintaining it. But maintaining it against what? Lincoln's answer was always
the same: against the internal pressure of greed, and the external pressure of
war. The predicament of the country in 1861, he said, "forces us to ask: 'Is
there, in all republics, this inherent, and fatal weakness? Must a government,
of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to
maintain its own existence?'"
We are now ten years into a policy shared by two successive administrations
to plant a new understanding of the spirit of the laws in America. That policy
has pretended there is a "trade-off" between liberty and security, and that in
a time of crisis, security ought to have the upper hand. The Cheney-Bush and
Obama administrations have accustomed us to laws and language concerned
above all with the "protection" of citizens -- as if there were something higher
or more worth protecting than the liberty that is guaranteed by our laws and
the framework of laws, the Constitution.
Today, as in Lincoln's day, we are involved in "a struggle for maintaining
...that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate
the condition of men -- to lift artificial weights from all shoulders -- to clear
the paths of laudable pursuit for all -- to afford all, an unfettered start, and
a fair chance, in the race of life." Yet the main peril in that struggle today
comes not from any foreign power capable of destroying us from without, but the
lapse of thought and faith that threatens us now from within. We are divided
between two parties: one that thinks government should be used for nothing but
wars, another that thinks government should be used for wars (whether justified
or not) in order to prove the value of government for other purposes as well.
Over the past decade we have taken many long steps across the divide that
separates a republic from an empire. The recovery of our proper ground depends
on our seeing again the rightness of Lincoln's recoil from wars that are not
wars of necessity. The words of his Special Message leave an incitement, too,
by listing the goods he valued above the new forms of power and luxury that war
can add to life. Elevating the condition of men. Lifting artificial weights from
all shoulders. Clearing the paths of laudable pursuit for all. By doing this at
home, we offer an example to those who would try it abroad. As Lincoln said in
other words in other places, that is the only honest way for a democracy to
advance the cause of democracy."

• Congress

Have You Had Enough???

I have!  Why does the media make such a big thing about politicians and their peccadilloes?  We already know so many of them are corrupt and obviously sick!  I do not need to know all the details about Anthony Weiner's penis, Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child, John Edward's secret affair, Jim Vitter's madam scandal, Mark Sanford's affair and on and on.  Then we have to listen to the Casey Anthony story.  Do you know how many children are killed each day and no one cares?  We focus too much on the lives of celebrities  and athletes as though they are the most important people in the world when often they are just a bunch of overpaid egomaniacs who set very poor examples for our children.
In my opinion there are so many more important things going on like the failing economy and why isn't Congress focusing on jobs instead of trying to get rid of Medicare and privatize Social Security?   Why don't we hear more about the foreclosure issues and how many service men and women are facing foreclosure on their homes while they are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Let's talk about the citizen's deep unrest with continuing the war in Afghanistan and throwing away money that could be used to create jobs here in America.
I am deeply disappointed in Weiner as he was one person who spoke out against what was wrong and seemed to care about the people.  I sure hope someone takes his place in speaking out.  Was he over the top sometimes?  Yes, but that is often what it takes to get the point across.  That being said I am still stating that we do not need to know the gory details and I sure wish we could make the press realize that most of us do not care about these issues but about the greater issues that need to be focused on.

The Stupidist Thing!!!

Tonight on the evening news on Channel 6, WCSH, one of the lead stories was about the Department of Marine Resources laying off the two scientists being laid off.  These two have the responsibility of testing the coastal waters for half the State of Maine.  This is what keeps our clam flats and other shellfish safe.  This is nor just about money but about food safety.  It is also about an industry that could go under if the flats are closed due to lack of testing as required by the federal government.
We all have heard about the illnesses caused by people eating shellfish contaminated by Red Tide.  There is also pollution of other types caused by us, the people, who use the resources in a negligent way.  There are also other bacteria that can make people sick and wipe out a natural resource.
We have been reading and hearing about the ecoli outbreak that began in Germany.  It is the height of stupidity to cut positions that ensure the safety of our food and that protects a profitable industry.
I drive by construction sites and see a half dozen workers just standing around doing nothing at our expense yet we cut what I consider to be a vital job.
Wake Up Augusta and remember who you work for and make sure that our food and businesses are protected.

The Sluggish Economy

I find it utterly amazing that the Republicans think they have an issue to campaign on since the economy is not rebounding as we had hoped.  I say Boehner, Where are the jobs?  The Congress and the President have given huge tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans in the excuse that they (the wealthy) would be creating the jobs,  Obviously that has not happened.
They have also voted to keep giving the oil companies big subsidies while the consumer is paying for it at the pump AND with their tax dollars.  Food prices are rising yet they are cutting monies for food stamps and many families are now dependent on those and food pantries to feed their families.
When will the Republicans admit that they got us into this mess by putting us into two wars and allowing the banks and Wall Street to be corrupt.  They squandered a nice surplus and put us into this deficit.
When will the mainstream media begin to make them be accountable for their actions.  Now I realize that the Obama administration  carries some responsibility in all of this but when you look at job growth and growth in the economy it is a complete change for the better from the Bush administration.
Unfortunately the  mainstream media is too focused on every sex scandal they can find to pay attention to what is really happening in this country.  There are few good journalists who really look into the truth any more.
As I have posted before Congress really does not care about the people but about collecting the most money from some big lobbyist or corporation so they can get reelected to continue the corruption that now exits.  And then they say trust us to do what is right!  Well, not me!  I don't trust them at all.

"YOU GONNA EAT THAT?"

That title comes from an article on Huffington Post which talks about the Republican's plan to cut millions from domestic and foreign food programs.  They are showing once again that they do not care about the people.  They profess to be Christians but I have yet to find a TRUE Christian who would deny the poor and hungry food which is the very basic need to survive.
Believe me John Boehner, Paul Ryan, et al will not go hungry.  They are living high off the hog on our tax dollars.  How many of the Republicans are denying their own constituents food!  Do they want to see children go to bed at night hungry?  Too many of them already do.  We should be fixing this problem not adding to it.
From the Huffington Post article Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the GOP budget "rolls back years of progress.This budget threatens the health and security of American families, while asking the most of low-income seniors and the most vulnerable among us," she said.
Where do our Maine Senators stand on this issue? There are plenty of Mainers who are hungry and struggling to survive.  Try and find out how they feel as their offices never give out their position before they vote.  The stock answer is, "The Senator has not made a public statement on this issue."  So we have no knowledge of how they will vote.  But let's keep calling and emailing them and hope that they will finally hear our voices.

This is Incredible and Unbelievable

I am having trouble believing that our government is so stupid as to give Pakistan 85 small drone aircraft plus 3 billion dollars in military aid.  This with our own infrastructure falling apart, people going to bed (if they even have a bed) hungry and then cutting essential programs here in this country.
I am beginning to wonder if President Obama is a republican in disguise.  He certainly does not stand hard for the beliefs of the Democratic Party.  He is not listening to the people as all the polls show that the majority of Americans support neither his nor Paul Ryan's budget.  He is caught up trying to compete with the Republicans when there is so much need here.
But to get back to the issue of Pakistan, we need to remember that their government is almost as corrupt as that of Karzai in Afghanistan and yet we continue to pour money and equipment into both countries.  I don't understand how we can continue to be sucked into giving more.  All that results in more innocent citizens getting killed by our troops or our missiles and more of our young men and women getting killed.
When will our elected officials wake up and realize that these wars are killing our economy as well as hurting our own people?
At least Howard Dean has changed his mind on the wars and is urging withdrawal as soon as possible.  Maybe he can have some influence on the President.  As far as I am concerned Howard Dean should have been asked to serve in the cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  But the Obama administration has ignored a very important voice.

A letter to No Lables.org

 This letter is in response to an email from the organization No Labels sent out titled Left Behind which discusses the debt ceiling.

I am totally disgusted with the entire budget process.  To those of us at home we see several ways that the deficit can be cut.  First get all of our troops out of Afghanistan as we are losing too many good men and women and it is costing us too much money and a great deal of it is being used by the Afghanistan government in corrupt ways.  Then pull all of our troops out of Iraq.  We cannot win these wars and it is time we woke up and admitted it.

Second, we can take back the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts which put an unfair burden on the middle class.  Those cuts added a great deal to the deficit and they were not paid for!  But what happens?  Paul Ryan’s budget is called “courageous” and President Obama’s is called not enough.  Both of these proposals hurt the poor, the elderly and the middle class.  Also we can stop giving subsidies to big oil and big agriculture and do more to regulate the banks and Wall Street.  Can you imagine giving a 19 million dollar raise to Jamie Dimon?  That is a travesty and it is obscene.

Everyone is Washington is crying about social security but the simple solution is to raise the cap on earnings.  I paid on my full salary and so should everyone else.  But elected officials are too blind and too interested in what person or corporation is going to give them the next donation so they can stay in office and continue to wreck this country.  Greed and power are the problems here and the problems were not caused by the middle class.

But unfortunately I don’t see No Labels or any other group pushing for these solutions.  It is all about COMPROMISE and who get hurt by these compromises?  You know the answer.  It is the poor, women, the elderly and the middle class.

The Republicans campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs and yet not one bill has come out of the Congress that addresses this critical problem.  If people don’t have jobs, they can’t spend money and therefore the economy suffers.

I could say so much more but I know you probably either won’t read this or will not pay any attention to it.  But groups like this could have a huge impact if they fight for the right issues but people are beaten down and see no hope for the future and that lack of hope kills the country and the will of the people.

Poverty in John Boehner's District

The Nation Magazine has a blog and recently there was a posting by Greg Kaufman describing the poverty that exists in Boehner's district.  The poverty rate is 14%.  The woman, Tina Osso, who has run The Shared Harvest Food Pantry for forty years has tried many times to contact Boehner.  He neither responds or accepts her invitations to visit.  She has worked tirelessly to get Boehner to recognize these problems.  She has written to him and explained how the proposed budget cuts will hurt his people but still gets no response.
Kaufman reports, "Indeed in 2009, childhood poverty rose over six points in the Boehner district to reach 19.1 percent, or 29,173 kids. Overall, 14 percent of Boehner’s constituents live below the federal poverty line of $22,400 per year for a family of four. Shared Harvest’s work has more than doubled—it distributed approximately 7 million pounds of food in 2007, and 16 million pounds in 2010."
This is not the only problem.  There are 152,000 people in this district who are struggling to make ends meet and hunger is a major problem.  The food bank is only in a few of the schools but serves 2100 children each week.
Why, you might wonder, do I think this story is important.  With these visible problems in Boehner's own district he is in favor of cutting the food stamp program and other programs that help the poor.  It is one more reason that points to the fact that those in Congress do not care about the people they serve.  As I mentioned in my last post neither Republicans or Democrats listen to anyone but the big corporations and wealthy who give them money for their campaigns.
Osso says this about the budget cuts. “It’s not just the cuts to the programs that we manage. It’s the overall meanness of this budget that targets the most vulnerable populations in our country—the weakest and the ones with the smallest voice,” she says.
I do  not understand how anyone can not listen to pleas like this and call them selves Christians.  Jesus believed in taking care of the least of these my brothers.  If we follow him how can we allow babies and young children to go to bed hungry and old people to get $20.00 worth of food  a month.
I shake my head in disbelief and weep for those who are so in need.

Does Any of This Surprise You?

Yesterday as I was flying home from a great vacation in sunny California I was reading an article in Mother Jones magazine.  I just happened to pick up a copy at the airport and am I ever glad that I did.  It reaffirmed what I have thought all along.  I would recommend that you get a copy of the March/April issue as it has several very good articles in it.
In the article "Plutocracy Now" author Kevin Drum points out two things that we all need to be aware of.  The first is the fact income inequality has grown since the mid 70's.  He says, "the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and even more dramatically-among the top 0.1 percent."
The second things is that American politicians don't care about the voters who have moderate incomes.  In a study by a Princeton political scientist done in the early 90's he found that US Senators respond more to high income voters than to anyone else.  He also found that Republican senators do not respond at all to those voters with modest incomes.  He also found that Democratic senators don't respond to voters with mosdest incomes either.
The author draws the conclusion that if neither party cares about the desires of the middle class and poor, and they have put in place policies that favor the wealthy.  This has not only taken money out of the pockets of the middle class but that has deeply affected the economy.  It has also put power into the hands of a few and that does not benefit most of us at all.
Mr. Drum connects this to the declining strength of the unions and the Democratic party.  As unions have lost their political power and funding the Democrats have turned to Big Business for funding.  This is one reason that they don't care about those of us with modest incomes.  This is a long article with many charts and graphs and a wealth of information.  I recommend it to all of you. Here is the link to the article http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline
My own take on this article is that it verifies what I already suspected.  It make me angry but I also know that those of us who care must keep up the pressure on our Congress people.  It may seem discouraging but we need to make our voices heard by supporting folks like Russ Feingold and his new organization, Progressives United, http://www.progressivesunited.com and moveon.org.  These groups allow many voices to be heard through a group that is organized and has more political clout.  Other voices to support are those of Anthony Weiner, a congressman from New York and Senator Bernie Sanders an independent from Vermont.  Both of these men speak up for the common person and I respect them for their courage and their willingness to speak out and to stand by their beliefs.
As you can tell this article made a big impression on me and I hope that many of you will read it and keep the faith that eventually we can change things.

Government Shutdown Averted. But At What Cost?

Well, after weeks of scaring the beejesus out of the public and capturing the attention of the beltway media, Congress and Obama have come to an agreement.  The problem is the cost to taxpayers especially the poor and middle class.  The details of the agreement are not yet published so there is still much to learn.
But Ezra Klein of the Washington Post and MSNBC said that estimates of job loses from this agreement are between 150,00 and 450,000.  That is just what we need.  I find it very strange that the Republicans campaigned on job creation but have yet to sponsor one bill that actually creates jobs and the worst part of it is that the Democrats seem to be going along with them!
As usual it will be the middle class and the poor who will suffer.  The fight over Planned Parenthood is just one example.  So many women get benefits from that organization that have nothing to do with abortion.  Women receive cancer screenings, mammograms, SDT screenings and diabetes screenings.  This actually saves the government money as it is cheaper to prevent disease than to treat it.
The lies told about Planned Parenthood are ridiculous.  Senator John Kyl (R) got up on the Senate floor and said that 90% of Planned Parenthood's money went towards abortion.  When confronted with the truth his spokesperson said "that was not meant to be a factual statement."  So that means that we cannot believe anything that Senator Kyl says.  So why is he still in the Senate?  Do they all  lie like that?
It is mostly men who are advocating no funding for Planned Parenthood.  It is mostly men who want to have control over women's health.  Now if the women put forth a bill that said Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan, would no longer pay for Viagra or Cialis there would be an uproar the likes of nothing we have seen.  This is just another example of men in power who want to control women and not treat them equally.
Now don't get me wrong, not all men are like that but the majority of men in power are.
So when will we actually see all of the details and why is President Obama saying this is an historic agreement when he and Harry Reid have given in to the Republicans AGAIN!  More on this topic as details become available.

WHAT???? Another War?

I am totally shocked that President Obama is leading us into another war.  Not only will we lose more young men and women but this is nothing short of an invitation to terrorists to try and take their vengeance out on this country.  We do not need to be the caretaker of every country in the world.  I thought President Obama was opposed to the War in Iraq.  I think we have been misled and I for one do not appreciate it.  I thought he was a peace loving man and not a warmonger.
We are spending billions of dollars a week in Afghanistan and who knows how much to keep troops in Iraq.  The cessation of these two wars could help repair the deficit and avoid the horrendous cuts that the Republicans are making.  So how can we afford to take on more?
I know that the President has said that he will not ask Congress for more money but obviously the money has to come from somewhere.  Now we have lost an aircraft and how much will it cost to replace it?  Thank God the two crew members have been rescued.
I hope everyone will write to the White House and express their anger and disappointment as I have.

An Open Letter to The President and to Congress

Mr. President, Speaker Boehner, Senators Harry Reid, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Representatives Chellie Pingree and Michael Michaud,
This business of budget cutting is getting out of hand.  Yes, we need to cut the budget and control spending but we need to create jobs even more.  We need to be fixing our infrastructure.  You people are playing a game of chicken with the lives of American people to see who is going to give in first.
When you cut things like LIHEAP which will affect the working poor and middle class you are playing with fire.  . My hero is Joe Kennedy!  He knows how to help people.  You are guessing that the price of heating oil will not go up.  Well, I have news for you, it already is!
When you begin to take away the rights of women to choose and to receive basic health care screening such as screening for cervical cancer or mammograms you are saying that you don't give damn about women.  When you try to redefine rape to make it seem like the woman is at fault you denigrate women.
I wonder why you are not proposing to cut your own government paid health insurance when you want to defund health care for the rest of us.  Don't forget who is paying for that!  The American taxpayer, that's who.
You want to freeze federal employees' salaries but not the salaries of the Congress.  Come on guys and girls share the burden with us.  What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
But no, you will not share with the people and you will still kowtow to corporate interests in the hopes that you will get money from them to be reelected.  You know this is not supposed to be a lifetime job .  Don't forget you just gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy when we could have had that money go towards the deficit.  You have shown who you care for and that is not the ordinary citizen.  We are as corrupt as any other nation, thanks to you folks and Wall Street and the big banks and corporations.
Get us out of Afghanistan and Iraq and save the money instead of putting it on the backs of the American people.  These two places are so corrupt that out tax money is being stolen away and we might as well get it back by withdrawing.  Also  make the corporations pay higher taxes.  They aren't hiring people anyway and then they are discriminating against people who are unemployed.  We sent you to Washington to fix these problems and they have just gotten worse.
The people aren't stupid and you can see from what is happening in Wisconsin and may move to other states, the people are fed up.  So instead of taking a week off every three weeks put in a full year of working together (like the rest of the country does) to fix these problems

Who Wants to Cut Social Security and Medicare

The answer to this question is obvious.  It is the Republican "deficit hawks".  Of course they weren't deficit hawks when they gobbled up a huge surplus and funded two wars and spent liberally.  Today in the Maine Sunday Telegram Tony Payne had an article advocating these cuts.  What follows is a letter to the editor in response to his article.  How do you feel about this?
To the editor:
This morning I read the article by Tony Payne, "We must bite the bullet and cut back Social Security, Medicare".  As I read I grew angrier and angrier.  Mr. Payne must be one who is wealthy enough not to have to rely on Social Security.  Even Representative Paul Ryan, who Mr. Payne mentions in his article and who doesn't have to worry as he will get a healthy pension and health insurance paid for by us, the United States taxpayers.
Recipients of Social Security have not had an increase in two years, yet the cost of food, clothing, heating oil, gasoline have continued to rise steadily.  It is a balancing act to keep ahead of these rising costs.
He and others want to raise the retirement age.  Have you gone to a grocery store lately or some other retail store or restaurant and seen the elderly working there when they should be able to be enjoying their retirement years but work to survive.
Maybe we should cut Social Security off for those folks who make over $50,000.00 a year in retirement.  Lets raise the cap on Social Security so that income over $90,000.00 is taxed.  But don't cut the benefits for those of us who need it to live on.
As for medicare, it always amazes me that people in power or who are wealthy want to see seniors medical coverage taken away from them.
Let's get real, and know that this is a country that has prided itself on caring for its people.  We are losing that to the power and greed of the wealthy corporations who control Washington.