Where will health care cuts be made?: Louisiana-Bobby Jindal

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/07/where_will_health_care_cuts_be.html

Originally, Louisiana Sen. Landrieu cut a deal in the new Healthcare bill in 2012 –so Louisiana would not be penalized for federal money pouring into the state after Hurricane Katrina. The fix was to help Louisiana avoid cuts in the Federal Medicaid portion—the state paying a higher rate. Since it looked like economically, Louisiana was doing well, but it was artificially high because of Federal aid, which would make the state pay more for their portion of Medicaid.
Democrat-Blue Dog-Sen. Landrieu was doing her job looking out for her state. For her troubles, she was called names such as a whore—I think that was started by
Rush Limbaugh on his radio show. Then the name-calling continued with the many, many Louisiana Southern GOP radio show listeners. I saw it as Ignorant Hate for anyone or anything Democrat. And of course, Southern GOP hate for Obama’s Healthcare Bill.

Louisiana took a big hit after Hurricane Katrina–the poor the most. Sen. Landrieu was making sure any state in the United States suffering after a disaster would not be penalized from the Medicaid Rates.

These Medicaid and healthcare cuts in Louisiana–I wonder if it has anything to do with Gov. Jindal wanting to Privatization everything. He just put in school vouchers to Religious Schools.

Something big is up here and I am looking into it. I think I will start with Gov. Jindal’s belief system–it is very extreme. I know he is on the short list –on Romeny’s VP list. Since I have a disabled brother that I see to in his care in a Nursing Home –I keep an eye open in Louisiana’s Medicaid and Mental Healthcare. Big cuts are happening fast—too fast for anyone to figure what is going on. Maybe that is the idea too.

The GOP governors in these states do not want to take any of the Federal Medicaid money in the New Healthcare Law. They want to stick it to Obama–but the poor and the uninsured will be the ones that suffer. Because of their Anti-Obama Politics.

In the ACA–The federal government will pick up 100% of the cost for the first three years and 90 percent for the next 5. Right now, the federal government pays 57% of Medicaid’s costs in Louisiana.

Paul Ryan budget seeks Ayn Rand’s America

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/03/30/paul-ryan-budget-seeks-ayn-rands-america/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

The praise GOP and other conservative leaders have for Ayn Rand: • Paul Ryan says Ayn Rand is the reason he entered politics and he requires all staff and interns to read her books. Says Ryan: “Ayn Rand more than anyone else did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism.” • Clarence Thomas requires his law clerks to watch The Fountainhead, and has sa…id “I tend really to be partial to Ayn Rand.” • Sen. Ron Johnson, Ryan’s GOP colleague from Wisconsin, calls Atlas Shrugged his “foundational book.” • Rush Limbaugh calls Ayn Rand “the brilliant writer and novelist.” • Fox News repeatedly promoted the recently released movie version of Atlas Shrugged, airing the trailer on several shows and interviewing cast members. Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/13/the-gops-godless-philosopher/#ixzz1r6NfQEGC

Is The South Too Republican For Republicans?

Understanding the South—Republicans in Alabama and Mississippi reside in a universe where virtually all white voters vote Republican. And no, this isn’t just an Obama thing—Obama only got 11 percent of the white vote in Mississsippi in 2008, but that was barely worse than the 14 percent John Kerry got four years earlier. Increasingly, being a Democrat in the Deep South—a Democrat when it comes to national politics—means being African-American. This means that political polarization in the Deep South is of a different sort than it is elsewhere. @AlecMacGillis

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-stump/101634/the-south-too-republican-republicans

FLASHBACK: Fox News On Gas Prices In 2008

Following GOP strategy, Fox News is again blaming the Obama administration for rising gasoline prices — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked by energy analysts. But back in the summer of 2008, when the average U.S. gasoline price hit a record high of $4.11, Fox said that “no President has the power to increase or to lower gas prices.”

In 2008, Fox’s coverage occasionally even mirrored the facts: expanding domestic oil drilling willnotsignificantlylowerprices, and the only way to reduce our vulnerability to gas price spikes is to use less oil. Perhaps there was more room for reality-based coverage at Fox when there wasn’t an incumbent president to defeat?

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201203050007

Is the GOP a Religion?

he Dish covered the remarkable web essay of Mike Lofgren, but I didn’t comment myself because it so closely follows my own argument in “The Conservative Soul” and on this blog, that it felt somewhat superfluous. But I want to draw attention to the crux of the piece, because if we are to understand how the right became so unmoored from prudence, moderation and tradition and became so infatuated with recklessness, extremism and revolution, we need to understand how it happened.

 

 

Is the GOP a Religion?.

Is the GOP a Religion?

he Dish covered the remarkable web essay of Mike Lofgren, but I didn’t comment myself because it so closely follows my own argument in “The Conservative Soul” and on this blog, that it felt somewhat superfluous. But I want to draw attention to the crux of the piece, because if we are to understand how the right became so unmoored from prudence, moderation and tradition and became so infatuated with recklessness, extremism and revolution, we need to understand how it happened.

 

 

Is the GOP a Religion?.

Outrage Index: Near Majority Blames GOP For Frustration With Washington | TPMDC

Outrage Index: Near Majority Blames GOP For Frustration With Washington | TPMDC.

Robert Reich Takes On The 6 Biggest GOP Lies

UpTakeVideo’s Channel – YouTube.

GOP and Obama’s jobs plan: Do Republicans oppose the president’s economic policies for ideological reasons or political ones? – By Jacob Weisberg – Slate Magazine

You can’t stop President Obama from reaching out to Republicans; it’s what he does. In Thursday night’s speech, he tried two separate maneuvers—reminding them of their support for stimulus measures in the past and accepting the good faith of their opposition. “Now, I realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy,” he said. “Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations.”

 

GOP and Obama’s jobs plan: Do Republicans oppose the president’s economic policies for ideological reasons or political ones? – By Jacob Weisberg – Slate Magazine.

The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism – War Room – Salon.com

The debt ceiling crisis is the latest case in which the radical right in the South has held America hostage until its demands are met. Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln refused to appease the Southern fanatics. Unfortunately, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress chose not to follow their example and instead gave in. In doing so, they have encouraged the neo-Confederate minority in Congress to find yet another opportunity in the near future to extort concessions from America’s majority by sabotaging America’s government. 

 

The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism – War Room – Salon.com.

The Willful Ignorance That Has Dragged the US to the Brink | Common Dreams

The Tea Party version of the American Revolution is not just fundamentalist: it is also Disneyfied, sentimentalized, and whitewashed. It rests on a naïve, solipsistic and exceptionalist faith that for America it will all work out in the end, because America is “the greatest nation in the world”. They take solace in tautology: America is great – this they know – because Fox News tells them so.

 

 

The Willful Ignorance That Has Dragged the US to the Brink | Common Dreams.

IT’S OFFICIAL: The Whole World Thinks Republicans Are Dangerous Maniacs Threatening Everyone

Yes, the rest of the world is watching this embarrassing debt ceiling nonsense, and it is growing dismayed. 

Der Spiegel has a roundup of commentary in German newspapers about the fight, and the universal message is this:

The US is holding the entire world hostage, and it’s the Republicans that are playing with fire.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/its-official-the-whole-world-thinks-republicans-are-dangerous-maniacs-2011-7#ixzz1SCJ8FzLA

 

 

IT’S OFFICIAL: The Whole World Thinks Republicans Are Dangerous Maniacs Threatening Everyone.

The Mother of All No-Brainers – NYTimes.com

The Mother of All No-Brainers – NYTimes.com.

But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.

The members of this movement do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch in order to cut government by a foot, they will say no. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch to cut government by a yard, they will still say no.

The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities. A thousand impartial experts may tell them that a default on the debt would have calamitous effects, far worse than raising tax revenues a bit. But the members of this movement refuse to believe it.

The members of this movement have no sense of moral decency. A nation makes a sacred pledge to pay the money back when it borrows money. But the members of this movement talk blandly of default and are willing to stain their nation’s honor.

The members of this movement have no economic theory worthy of the name. Economists have identified many factors that contribute to economic growth, ranging from the productivity of the work force to the share of private savings that is available for private investment. Tax levels matter, but they are far from the only or even the most important factor.

How Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Failed at Setting Up a Strong Republican Candidate for 2012 — New York Magazine

This is a very revealing, and honest, article of what really goes on behind the scenes at Fox News.
 

How Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Failed at Setting Up a Strong Republican Candidate for 2012 — New York Magazine.

How conservative greed and corruption destroyed American politics

Fantastic misgovernment of the kind we have seen is not an accident, nor is it the work of a few bad individuals. It is the consequence of triumph by a particular philosophy of government, by a movement that understands the liberal state as a perversion and considers the market the ideal nexus of human society. This movement is friendly to industry not just by force of campaign contributions but by conviction; it believes in entrepreneurship not merely in commerce but in politics; and the inevitable results of its ascendance are, first, the capture of the state by business and, second, all that follows: incompetence, graft, and all the other wretched flotsam that we’ve come to expect from Washington.

How conservative greed and corruption destroyed American politics – Republican Party – Salon.com.