There goes the humor

[altivo]

Without the comic relief of Rick Santorum, the GOP race for the presidential nomination is no longer going to be amusing. It will just become abrasively irritating. They really have nothing to campaign on other than "We hate Obama, so vote for us." Warning: Pay attention closely, not just to what those candidates are saying, but to the implied subtext. Electing any of them will result in more shakeups and changes than Obama promised in 2008, and far more than have actually come about. (Frankly, other than a badly written reform of health care policy that is in fact no reform at all and will achieve next to nothing, Obama has yet to deliver a thing that he promised.) The GOP candidates are making bigger promises yet, promises that would force the destruction of the Obama health care plan, yes. They would also likely try to privatize social security, cut taxes on the wealthy even further, eliminate more social programs, and feed even more money to the military industrial complex than Dubya did. Is that really what you want?

In other news, tiny bears, rather cartoonish and menacing, are now complete and ready to be installed in the railroad scenery. Still need a fox and a couple of coyotes if I can get them done. It's cold outside, has been all day and was so last night. We appear to be making up for the warm March by freezing our tails off in April.

Comments

[avon_deer]

How can social security be privatised?! Surely by it's very nature it is impossible to profit from. Unless what they are REALLY proposing is a return to the workhouse?

Those have pretty much already come back in the UK in the form of Workfare. The privatisation of the NHS is also nearing completion (after a slow burn dismantling over the course of some 25 years). When even a right wing rag like the Telegraph points out that this is a bad idea you KNOW it's gone too far.

Don’t worry..we’re catching you up. Last one to the bottom is a rotten egg!

[altivo]

You "privatize" Social Security by taking the money out of government hands and putting it in some sort of individual retirement accounts that are managed by private brokers and invested in the stock market. The GOP has been pushing for this at least since the Reagan-Thatcher years. It has no real advantage for most Americans, who lack the skills and risk-taking mentality required to do better in the stock market than what Social Security will return for them under the present plan. However, it has tremendous advantages for bankers, brokers, and private corporate interests that will gain administration fees for handling the accounts. It also would produce a huge infusion of cash to Wall Street, boosting stock prices at least temporarily and allowing the greedy and unscrupulous to scoop off that "surplus" and pocket it.

The whole idea is a self-serving product of Wall Street and the corporations who believe their stock values would rise without any effort or investment on their own part simply due to increased demand for securities. The concept is inherently dishonest, dangerous, and would inevitably defraud millions of Americans of their retirement savings just as the 2008 housing deflation has defrauded them of their home equity. Bankers and Wall Street would benefit significantly, however, and the GOP could claim it had "reduced the size of government."

My preferred method for reducing the size of the government is to kick out every single member of Congress and the Executive branch and hold new elections. No existing office holder would be allowed to run. Get the crooks and panderers out of there permanently and start over. All of them.

[avon_deer]

Oh, I get it now. That's terminally depressing.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Not to mention it (shifting social security to the stock market) is more than a little bit like cattlemen feeding ground up cattle to feed their cattle, considering how much profit on Wall Street comes from undermining fair labor, environmental and human rights laws by exploiting the unprotected, underpaid -- and in the case of laogai, fully unpaid -- workers of China.

[lhexa]

Frankly, other than a badly written reform of health care policy that is in fact no reform at all and will achieve next to nothing, Obama has yet to deliver a thing that he promised.

Legislative victories are not administrative victories. Because of the passing, Congress, due to two-and-a-half centuries of political cruft, will now be forced to revisit the issue of health care every single year until either one half of the country's populace gives in or a big enough distraction occurs. (Like, say, the next generation's war. In Africa, I'm guessing.) Instead of being something that appears briefly and then vanishes quickly every time a new Democratic president appears, health care law is now a permanent part of the political circus.

That is a good thing.