Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[ice grillin you]

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C) were the only members to oppose it.

[Diomedes]

Colbert's Super PAC "Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow," has raised more than $1M.

An addendum to the disclosure contained language from Colbert that is not usually included in FEC reports.
"Yeah! How you like me now, F.E.C? I'm rolling seven digits deep! I got 99 problems but a non-connected independent-expenditure only committee ain't one!" Colbert said.

[ice grillin you]

id let her pull my chad

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/the-ron-paul-girl-is-a-star

[SD]

I'm arguing with a co-worker about how much debt Obama is actually responsible for. For instance, not how much debt was created on his watch, but how much of it was because of programs started by Bush (Medicaid/Bush Tax Cuts/Wars). I know Obama signed off on the stupid tax cuts for the rich but it's still a Republican ideal that was started under Bush.

Anyway, found this little article with a decent debt for dummies under it and thought I'd share:

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=269933

Q: What is the debt ceiling?

A: It's a legal limit on how much debt the government can accumulate. The government takes on debt two ways: It borrows money from investors by issuing Treasury bonds, and it borrows from itself, mostly from the Social Security trust fund, which comes from payroll taxes. Congress created the debt limit in 1917. It's unique to the United States. Most countries let their debts rise automatically when government spending outpaces tax revenue. Congress has increased the debt limit 10 times since 2001.

Q: What is the federal deficit, and how does it differ from the debt?

A: The deficit is how much government spending exceeds tax revenue during a year. Last year, the deficit was $1.29 trillion. The debt is the sum of deficits past and present. Right now, the national debt totals $14.3 trillion - a ceiling set in 2010.

Q: Why is the prospect of not raising the debt ceiling so worrisome?

A: The government now borrows more than 40 cents of each dollar it spends. If the debt ceiling does not rise, the government would need to choose what to pay and what not, including benefits like Social Security, wages for the military or other bills. It also might delay interest payments on Treasury bonds. Any default could lead to financial panic, weakening the country's credit rating, the dollar and the already hobbled economy. Interest rates would likely rise, increasing the cost of borrowing for the government and ordinary Americans.

Q: Who holds the $14.3 trillion in outstanding U.S. debt?

A: The U.S. government owes itself $4.6 trillion, mostly borrowed from Social Security revenues. The remaining $9.7 trillion is owed to investors in Treasury securities - banks, pension funds, individual investors, state and local governments and foreign investors and governments. Nearly half of that - $4.5 trillion - is held by foreigners including China with $1.15 trillion and Japan with $907 billion.

Q: How did the debt grow from $5.8 trillion in 2001 to its current $14.3 trillion?

A: The biggest contributors to the nearly $9 trillion increase over a decade were:

-2001 and 2003 tax cuts under President George W. Bush: $1.6 trillion.
-Additional interest costs: $1.4 trillion.
-Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: $1.3 trillion.
-Economic stimulus package under Obama: $800 billion.
-2010 tax cuts, a compromise by Obama and Republicans that extended jobless benefits and cut payroll taxes: $400 billion.
-2003 creation of Medicare's prescription drug benefit: $300 billion.
-2008 financial industry bailout: $200 billion.
-Hundreds of billions less in revenue than expected since the Great Recession began in December 2007.
-Other spending increases in domestic, farm and defense programs, adding lesser amounts.

[Munson]

Having the same arguments with dopes on emb.

the math says that actual Obama policies, and not him just continuing the policies of those before him, account for about 20-25% of the 5.whatever trillion that's been added to the deficit since 2008

[ice grillin you]

i dont know if anyone has followed this over the last couple days but farg susan g. koman

[rjs246]

Signed a hippy petition telling them to go farg themselves.

[SD]

i dont know if anyone has followed this over the last couple days but farg susan g. koman

Is that the breast cancer broad? Fill me in.

[ice grillin you]

they stopped giving grants to planned parenthood which used the money to give breast cancer screenings to poor people....simply because the powers that be at koman are republicans and planned parenthood also performs abortions...

forget the fact that they are a leader in early detection of breast cancer and perform more of these types of screenings than any organization in the country...

so basically koman who entire existence is based upon preventing breast cancer deaths stopped giving money to a leader in the field of preventing breast cancer deaths

[SD]

wow

[PhillyPhreak54]

they stopped giving grants to planned parenthood which used the money to give breast cancer screenings to poor people....simply because the powers that be at koman are republicans and planned parenthood also performs abortions...

forget the fact that they are a leader in early detection of breast cancer and perform more of these types of screenings than any organization in the country...

so basically koman who entire existence is based upon preventing breast cancer deaths stopped giving money to a leader in the field of preventing breast cancer deaths

Any reason given for this?

[ice grillin you]

this is their official statement...

We are dismayed and extremely disappointed that actions we have taken to strengthen our granting process have been widely mischaracterized.  It is necessary to set the record straight.

Starting in 2010, Komen began an initiative to help us do a better job of measuring the impact of community grants. This is important because we invest significant dollars in our local community programs — $93 million in 2011, which provided for 700,000 breast health screenings and diagnostic procedures. 

Following this review, we made the decision to implement stronger performance criteria for our grantees to minimize duplication and free up dollars for direct services to help vulnerable women.  To support this new granting strategy, Komen has also implemented more stringent eligibility standards to safeguard donor dollars. Consequently, some organizations are no longer eligible to receive Komen grants.

Some might argue that our standards are too exacting, but over the past three decades people have given us more than just their money.  They have given us their trust and we take that responsibility very seriously.We regret that these new policies have impacted some longstanding grantees, such as Planned Parenthood, but want to be absolutely clear that our grant-making decisions are not about politics.  Throughout our 30 year history, our priority has always been and will continue to be the women we serve.  As we move forward, we are working to ensure that there is no interruption or gaps in services for the women who need our support most in the fight against breast cancer.


however the CEO and vice president of koman are huge republican donors and in fact one of them ran for governer of georgia on a platform that included emliminating funding for PP

its just unconscionable and makes me furious that people would let religion/politics trump peoples health...especially poor people

[PhillyPhreak54]

Sickening.

[Rome]

Christian Taliban strikes again.

[ice grillin you]

heres a link to donate to PP....helps a great group plus acts as a sort of FU to komen....i believe mayor bloomberg is still matching dollar for dollar all donations...pass it on...

https://secure.ppaction.org/site/Donation2?df_id=3813&3813.donation=form1&s_src=SGKFundraisingBHF_0112_c3_infopage&__utma=1.1712857376.1328203968.1328208114.1328215100.3&__utmb=1.10.9.1328215103452&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1328203968.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&__utmv=-&__utmk=205658387