Rick Perry Third Rail

In politics there are several topics that are hot spots that can burn your ass. One such topic is Social Security. People like Social Security because it is a plan they have paid into all of their lives and it is supposed to be guaranteed. As much smoke and mirrors that is played into the funding of it the system is sound for decades. Most people never plan for retirement and that is going to be the only income they have in their retirement. For some people that is all they can afford and it is what it is. Not everyone is a business owner, some of us are the people doing the work to make that business thrive for meager wages.

Along comes the Tea Party and the folks that think that the government does not owe you a retirement even if you paid for it all you life. Then comes the politicians running on the extreme fringe like Rick Perry (R) Texas, that thinks that he can friend the extremist while he runs for President under the GOP ticket. NOT going to happen Ricky. Even hinting that Social Security needs to go the way of the dinosaurs is a third rail in politics. I should explain.

Social Security was enacted to protect the workers of America that could not save for retirement and ended up on the streets, no support, and eventually buried in poppers fields because they were the workers that worked for poor wages and lived in poverty all of their lives. The only ones profiting from their hard work were the business owners. President Roosevelt ended that cycle by passing Social Security to make people have a guaranteed income when they were in their declining years. FDR passed it to protect the lower classes and the elderly. And yes he screwed over business owners to make them take care of their workers. God bless his heart.

I should explain further that the Presidency of this country can only be won with the swing of the moderate vote of both parties. A larger portion of the political pie than people think. Be you Democrat or Republican, and if phasing out Social Security is a political candidates forum, would you vote for them? Hell NO! Stupid move on Governor Rick Perry's part.

Grab that third rail of politics Rick Perry and I guarantee that you will be the Governor from Texas that just ran for President and was blown out of the water by some old folks in their fifties to eighties that saw your threat on their wallet and voted no for you candidacy. You sir are a Double Dumb Ass winner. You sir need someone that has a clue as how to run a national campaign. You should call Mitt Romney or hitch a ride on Sara Palin's bus.

Just stupid.

Papamoka

Beware of Political Sink Holes

If you’ve not been paying attention to politics lately because there are no real elections going on then you need a heads up. Apparently, the GOP is in self destruct mode and nobody in the entire political party has the abort code because they don’t believe in abortion. This is how the GOP feels about your Medicare benefit for when you retire? You know the plan that is supposed to take care of you if you get sick after you RETIRE. The same Medicare that you have paid for your entire working life… Same one.

The GOP continued its bloody walk into the Medicare buzzsaw Wednesday, when 40 out of 47 Senate Republicans voted in support of the House GOP budget, and its plan to phase out and privatize the popular entitlement program.

The test vote failed by a vote of 57-40. But the roll call illustrates that Medicare privatization -- along with deep cuts to Medicaid and other social services -- remains the consensus position of the GOP despite the growing political backlash against them. -TPM


Next up… Let’s move on over to all those poor folks that lost everything in the massive tornados that went through Joplin, Missouri. Did you know that those people are demanding some kind of federal help? NOT GOING TO HAPPEN if the GOP DID NOT get its way…

In a stunningly heartless move, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) put strings on emergency relief for the victims of the killer Joplin tornado, saying that other government services would have to be cut to offset aid spending. Yesterday afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) to add $1 billion in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster relief fund, offset by cutting $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program at the Department of Energy. - Think Progress

We are not done yet… What does the GOP think of your Social Security benefit? They think it is constitutionally illegal… Can’t make this stuff up…

This past January, the House GOP caucus insisted that the session of Congress be launched with a reading of the Constitution. The member of Congress who led this idea into fruition was Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and he was also the first reader.

But at a town hall meeting that took place last week and was captured on YouTube, Goodlatte showed his pre-20th century view of the Constitution. At one point during the town hall presentation, Goodlatte displayed a pie chart to the audience showing the various programs that consume the federal budget, with Social Security and Medicare consuming the biggest sections.

One constituent, referencing the pie chart, said that everything on the chart is unconstitutional. Goodlatte responded that he agrees, but that the courts keep ruling the opposite way. – Think Progress

And that is all that needs to be said about that when it comes time for the next election. One political party is blindly stepping into a sink hole because they think it’s the right thing to do to keep gaining political power. Its political suicide as every political science theorist will tell you. You don’t win national power by isolating all of the moderates of the opposing political party. But it is how you piss off the moderates of your own political party and have them vote for the other party come election day. The third rail of politics, Social Security, Medicare, and as George Bush AKA George Katrina Bush, you don’t act as if you are doing nothing for disaster victims in the United States.

Papamoka

Obama a One Term President

News reports, although never realistic based on push polls, can not be trusted when you insert reality or simple common sense into the scenario. Polls are out asking if President Barack Obama will be a one term president. I’m just thinking that the President still has two years left to his term but I’m funny like that wondering how this can even be realistically polled or predicted?

Alzheimer’s is rampant in the electorate given the last election results! We all know people are fickle and will vote their wallet and this fact is true because everyone forgot how screwed we all were under the leadership of George W. Bush. That is why Obama won the White House over Republican candidate John McCain in the first place! One has to ask if the voting public are sheep that will run the first time someone screams wolf? This past elections proves that theory given the fear factor of the Tea Party candidates that actually won and all of the democrat’s that were tossed out of office. Common sense lost and fear won.

Even Congressman Alan Grayson in Florida’s 8th Congressional district, a die hard for the people candidate was ousted. There was no common sense fiscally to understand his ousting at the polls knowing that he was a closet conservative budget watch dog on spending that just happened to be a liberal democrat.

Politically, it will look amazing in the history books on all of the accomplishments that President Barack Obama has been able to do in just his first two years as president. Obama passed Health Care Reform and when you look at history, every president since Harry Truman has tried to pass some form of national health care reform and none have succeeded. Obama passed banking and investment reform of Wall Street that cleaned up the mess that was disguised as pure capitalism but really was a house of magic where accounting tricks and mirrors were only the beginning to undermine the investments of all Americans. A banking industry where anyone that was breathing could qualify for a mortgage and bingo the house of cards in the housing market collapsed.

President Obama passed credit card reform and dealt a blow to the unscrupulous banking industry that gouged consumers simply because they could. Turning the employment numbers around since his predecessor, George W. Bush, whom is apparently the “New Ronald Reagan”, from a constant loss to positive yet small growth in the private sector was not a simple thing to do and it took leadership.

I find it amazing that it is even suggested to think that Obama will be a one term president. Yes, he was dealt a severe loss with the recent election but his presidency is only two years old. The party of “NO!” now has the House of Congress but they do not have the Senate. And the only real loser’s in this past election is the gridlock and bull that the GOP will unleash to stop any progress to help the people of America to not get out of a recession.

When I hear the crack heads in the GOP wanting to touch the third rail of Social Security, reducing benefits, cutting or even eliminating benefits for some, I’m reminded of my own advancing age. That brings up the “Get Out of my Pension” factor. AKA the GOP. That third rail burns anyone that touches it and that will be the reason President Obama will see a second term. When rich politicians touch seniors that vote in larger than life numbers based on the only income they have coming in then the third rail candidates always lose! Go GOP and crack heads.

As a political writer, the GOP taking the House of Representatives is a godsend. I’m wondering where all of these fiscally conservative people were when our nation went to war on two fronts and saw no problem with no bid contracts? Same folks want grandma and grandpa’s pension to bail out the deficit but see no problem with war profiteering? Go GOP!!!

Papamoka