Kansas Gov. approves massive tax cut for the rich that even some Republicans opposed – Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) in January proposed a tax cut he said would give the state a “fairer, flatter, simpler” tax code, even though it raised taxes on the poor to help pay for a massive tax cut for the top one percentof state residents. Tuesday, Brownback signed an even bigger package into law, even as the state Senate’s top Republican and a host of other conservative lawmakers urged him not to. — Think Progress

Morning Bunker Report: Thursday 5.24.2012

The Obama Administration on Tuesday threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 over provisions related to Guantanamo Bay and same sex marriage. The House Armed Services Committee approved the $642 billion defense budget last week by a 56-5 vote. The budget is $8 billion over the military spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation would continue to prevent the Obama Administration from closing down Guantanamo Bay by prohibiting the transfer of detainees to the United States or a foreign country. “The Administration continues to strongly oppose these provisions, which intrude upon the Executive branch’s ability to carry out its military, national security, and foreign relations activities and to determine when and where to prosecute Guantanamo detainees,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. — Raw Story

amprog:

The House budget for fiscal year 2013 tasks congressional committees to “reduce lower-priority spending” to avert military cuts.

When they say “lower-priority spending”, they mean spending on programs that nourish children and provide safety nets, like foster care or child abuse prevention.

(Source: americanprogress.org)

…

The “PRO-LIFE” Ryan-Republican-Romney budget.

divineirony:

ryking:

Yesterday House Republicans reneged on the deal they made with the White House and Congressional Democrats last summer and, in order to prevent agreed-upon defense spending cuts, instituted draconian spending cuts that will disproportionately affect the poor, people of color, women, children, and the elderly. The White House is now on record as saying that it will allow a government shut-down rather than sign any of these appropriations bills into law.

Good. It’s time to stop pretending that the TeaOP wants to negotiate. Like JFK said: You can’t negotiate with people who say ’what’s mine is mine and what’s your is negotiable’. Namely the pentagon and corporate subsidies vs food and health programs for the poor. And you definitely can’t negotiate with those who have no intentions of abiding by the agreed upon terms.

(Source: diadoumenos)

How terrible is the Republican / Paul Ryan budget proposal?

The New-Old Paul Ryan / Republican (tea)Party Budget is terrible for everyone except the one percenters, corporations, and the Department of Defense. In addition, this budget completely reneges on the plan the Republicans agreed to earlier. Why would they do that? The answer may be at the bottom.

Ten facts about Obama’s budget

This budget will be an immediate “no-go” with Republicans. Not only are there no tax cuts for the corporations and the one percent but items 2,3 and 8 below will really make them clutch their pearls:

Ten Facts About The Obama Budget

ThinkProgress compiled 10 facts about the Obama budget based on the White House fact sheet and other reports:

1. The budget includes $350 billion in short-term measures to encourage job growth, including $50 billion in immediate infrastructure investment, $30 billion to rebuild schools, and year-long extensions of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance.

2. The implementation of the Buffett Rule and the repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy helps reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

3. For every $1 in new revenue from those making more than $250,000 per year and from closing corporate loopholes, the budget has $2.50 in spending cuts including the deficit reduction enacted over the last year.

4. The total budget reduces the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade.

5. Obama preserves the maximum Pell Grant award, a key difference from the GOP budget, and makes permanent then Americans Opportunity Tax Credit, which helps 9 million families afford the costs of college.

6. Unlike the last two GOP budgets, Obama’s budget protects Medicare and Medicaid from structural changes, and through small tweaks, saves $360 billion from those programs.

7. States will receive $30 billion in aid to prevent further layoffs of firefighters, teachers, and police officers, some of the hardest-hit workforces in the nation.

8. The budget eliminates 12 tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal companies, saving $41 billion over 10 years.

9. Obama preserves planned cuts to the Defense Department negotiated in the debt limit deal last August.

10. The budget maintains goals of putting one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015; doubling share of electricity from clean energy sources by 2035; and reducing buildings’ energy use by 20 percent by 2020.

image: godlessliberals.com

Meanwhile in the Grand Ol’ Teaparty

WHAT DOES A PIPELINE have to do with extending a payroll tax cut for the working and middle class? (Answer: Not a friggin’ thing.) — Rawstory

“If that bill comes over to us, we will make changes to it, and I will guarantee you that the Keystone pipeline will be in there when it goes back to the United States Senate.” — John Boehner, last night

THE EMPLOYMENT NUMBERS ON THAT PIPELINE are being greatly exaggerated: it’ll create 20,000 jobs? No. More like 3,500 temporary jobs, offset by job losses because of the increase in gas prices that it would cause. — Politico

ONLY A TEAPARTY PATRIOT (read: idiotic moron) would take a gun into LaGuardia Airport. — CBS News

CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA! Congress cuts winter heating aid for the poor while boosting the defense budget. — Think Progress

AND WHO BETTER TO SIGN A “MARRIAGE PLEDGE” than Newt “the Ging” Gingrich? — NRO

According to the Internal Revenue Service, in 2008, those in the top 1 percent of the income distribution, with incomes over $380,000, had an effective tax rate of 23.3 percent. In 1986, a year when the real gross domestic product grew a healthy 3.5 percent, their effective tax rate was 33.1 percent. It has been much lower every year since.

If this group were still paying 33.1 percent, federal revenue would have been more than $166 billion higher in 2008 alone. That would be enough to reduce the budget deficit by about 10 percent this year. If the top 1 percent of taxpayers had continued to pay the same effective tax rate they paid in 1986 every year from 1987 to 2008, the federal debt today would be $1.7 trillion lower.

Bruce Bartlett, The Rich Can Afford To Pay More Taxes (via letterstomycountry)

Florida Governor Rick Scott’s “jobs budget:” 1,300 are officially unemployed today

More wingnut economics brought to you by a Florida Tea Party darling, Rick Scott (R):

[Effective today] 1,300 state employees [have been] put out of work by the new budget approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott on May 26. Scott kept his promise to reduce the size of the state government bureaucracy. But he did so at the expense of real people with mortgages, healthcare bills, college tuition payments and credit card payments.

Many of them earned less than $30,000 a year after years of state employment. […] The state agencies that took the biggest hits are the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Children and Families, which together account for most of the layoffs.

Actually a total of about 4,500 state jobs were eliminated. But Scott did get some corporate tax cuts in there, totaling $37 million — which is much less that the $1.6 billion he wanted originally. How to pay for such a hefty loss of revenue when you’re over budget? Cut stuff:

Vetoed from the budget

Public Television and Radio Stations, $4.7 million
Compulsive gambling and addiction treatment, $539,000
National Veterans Homeless Support Group, $12 million
Senior Citizens Center grants, $1.4 million
Florida Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs, $1.7 million
Environmentally endangered lands, $350 million
To see a complete list of Gov. Rick Scott’s budget vetoes, go to links.tampabay.com.

Florida currently has a 10.6% unemployment rate and laid-off state employees will now add to that. Scott also turned down $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money to build a high speed rail (although he did accept federal stimulus money for other things). So where are all the ‘jobs’ in Scott’s ‘jobs budget’ going to come from? Well from those corporation that got the tax cuts, of course! Because that trickle-down goodness has worked SO WELL for American workers and the middle-class up to now. I’m sure the corporations won’t continue to bank that extra money or give their CEOs larger bonuses – this time.

Remember this economic logic at the polls in 2012: the wingnut ideology of bottom-to-top income redistribution is exclusive to those who call themselves GOP, Republican or Tea Party. Vote accordingly.

via

Clinton to Obama on raising the debt ceiling by August 2: “Don’t blink.”

Make the Republicans raise it like they did SEVEN TIMES during King George’s Administration:

Aspen, Colorado (CNN): […] Regardless of the Republican field, however, Clinton believes Obama will be re-elected in 2012. Under Obama’s leadership, Wall Street has been salvaged, and the automotive industry has been saved, Clinton said. Also, manufacturing jobs have increased with the United States now building 20% of the solar batteries globally — up from 2%. That could go up as high as 40% by 2014, the former president added.

Obama has also delivered on national security with the killing of Osama bin Laden and increased drone activity in terrorist countries, Clinton said. Domestically, he has offered laudable education and health care reforms, as well as student loan reforms that allow borrowers longer time to pay back their debts, Clinton said.

Clinton also said Obama has been very good on gay rights — a serious sticking point for the Clinton presidency, which created the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

And, at a time when European multiculturalism is apparently failing, Obama’s been able to speak to the diverse sectors of the U.S. population, Clinton said.

From CrooksandLiars: 10 Inconvenient Truths About the Debt Ceiling:

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

Also? Let tax cuts for the rich expire. Our nation could really use the revenue (and a sense of fairness).

”Any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood.” ~ Newt Gingrich

The epic Newt Gingrich whirlwind, non-stop Walkback-Apology Tour

Sunday – 15 May: Gingrich called Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal “right-wing social engineering” and “radical.”

Monday – 16 May: Gingrich told the Wall Street Journal editorial board that it would “catastrophic” for Congress to pass the bill as written. Of course the House of Representatives, with votes from every Republican save four, has already done that.

Monday – 16 May: Gingrich defended his remarks, and blamed the liberal media for stoking a controversy by taking them “out of context.”

Tuesday – 17 May: Gingrich called brave Paul Ryan to apologize.

Tuesday – 17 May: on Fox News that evening, Gingrich argued that it was dishonest to quote anything he said two days ago.

Wednesday – 18 May: Chuck Schumer gives Newt a Medicare-death-hug: “Newt and I are considered political opposites, but I couldn’t agree more with what he said Sunday about the House Republican proposal to end Medicare…. In a straight shooting way he acknowledged that this is right-wing social engineering.”

Rachel Maddow describes it this way: he’s the head on the pike outside the city. Newt has failed the GOP / Teaparty litmus test:

“In order to be a real candidate, you’ve got to endorse the Paul Ryan/kill Medicare thing, which is a classic catch-22 for Republican candidates, because if you do endorse the Paul Ryan/kill Medicare thing, voters will likely have something to say about that.”

inothernews:

David Fitzsimmons / The Arizona Daily Star

Anthony Weiner tells the Teaparty Republicans to stop acting like ‘fragile little butterflies’

Via AskAnthonyWeiner

Transcript via C&L:

WEINER: Boy oh boy. Have these Republicans been listening to themselves over the past three years? Have they been listening to the tone that they have used against the president when having this debate? I’ve got to tell you something. I was watching that speech, and I was the opposite. I was thinking “Boy the president’s being so gentle and modest.” I mean, you know what I would have said. I would have said the Republican plan stinks and I will chew my right arm off before I sign any part of it. The fact is, this is a competition of ideas. And now my Republican friends, they have the audacity to say what common sense, what a fifth grade math student can tell, which is they’re idea is a terrible abdication of our responsibilities as Americans. Their math doesn’t add up. And if you go back and take a look at the speech, it was remarkably gentle. Continue reading →

FY2011 Spending Bill — done. Next up: FY2012 Budget — Let the Class Wars begin!

Yesterday’s vote:

Passed the House (with Democratic help) — 179 Republicans joined 81 Democrats for easy final passage of 260-167. Fifty-nine Republicans and 108 Democrats opposed it. [source]

Passed the Senate 81-19, easily surpassing the necessary 60-vote threshold. [source]

The President will sign today and our government is funded through September 30.

The numbers according to a CBO analysis:

Domestic discretionary appropriations will fall $38 billion from levels set at the beginning of the year. [source]

Because of several factors, the bill will only reduce direct spending by about $350 million. [source]

The FY2012 Budget:

Paul Ryan (R-WI) 2012 budget plan: directs Congress to cut at least $5 trillion dollars of spending over the next decade by reforming Medicaid to become a block grant program, reconfiguring Medicare to be a voucher program, defunding health care reform, and reducing taxes [source] — (My note: he proposes reducing taxes for the wealthy).

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) 2012 budget plan: freezes non-security discretionary spending for five years, cuts security spending by $89 billion over ten years, phases out funding for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 and reduces farm subsidies by $20 billion over the next decade. [It] preserves Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and repeals the Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making more than $200,000 per year. [source]

President Obama’s long term spending plan: proposes $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 12 years [with] a “balanced” approach as deficit reduction would be attained from a combination of spending cuts and tax increases …cutting non-security discretionary spending by $770 billion, reducing security spending by $400 billion and repealing Bush-era tax cuts for the “wealthiest Americans.” [It] aims to save $480 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. [source]

Three-minute clip of the President blasting the GOP / Paul Ryan budget plan:

ICYMI Wednesday in the Bunker

The Paul Ryan Plan President Obama flatly and sternly dismissed Rep. Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity,” stating the plan would “end Medicare as we know it,” has a “deeply pessimistic” vision for America, and there’s “nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.”

The Tax Man plan? The crux of the President’s rebuttal is that taxes on our highest income earners not only must go up, but that they should go up — a marked departure from more moderate rhetoric he’s used in the past years, likely due to the opposition’s success in injecting the word “socialism” into the debate. source

More Wednesday after the cut: Continue reading →