Bye Bye $24 Billion!
Posted by Michelle Moquin on October 18th, 2013
Good morning!
Social Butterfly: $24 billion drained from the economy. And the repubs wanted to save the economy. Yeah right. Obviously they failed in economics. Awesome update on the repubs though – Thanks for posting the list!
Here’s a partial breakdown from Think Progress just in case you’re curious about just exactly where that $24 billion went.
The GOP’s Default Caucus
BY CAP ACTION WAR ROOM ON OCTOBER 17, 2013 AT 5:43 PM
162 Republicans Vote for Default
Republicans’ first act in their latest manufactured crisis was shutting down the government in a failed and mean-spirited bid to deny affordable health insurance to millions.
We know that the shutdown resulted in some 800,000 federal employees being thrown out of work, hundreds of national parks and other federal lands closed, cancer treatments denied, food assistance cut off to low-income women and children, and countless other painful consequences for people across the country.
It also cost the economy at least $24 BILLION. Just to give you an idea,here are just a few examples of what else you could get for $24 BILLION:
- The net cost of to the government from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP): $24 billion
- The Department of Agriculture’s proposed budget: $22.6 billion
- NASA’s approved budget: $16.6 billion
- All air transportation programs, including the Federal Aviation Administration, security, research, and other costs: $21.9 billion
- The Child Tax Credit: $22.1 billion
- The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program (formally known as welfare): $17.7 billion
- The cost of Head Start, the Children’s Health Insurance Program(CHIP), and Women Infants and Children (WIC) program combined: $25.2 billion
The $24 BILLION sucked out of the economy thanks to the government shutdown comes on top of an estimated $700 BILLION cumulative hit to the economy thanks to the GOP’s years-long effort to govern by crisis.
Despite admitting that they got “nothing” as a result of the painful and damaging shutdown, Tea Party Republicans say it was somehow still“worth it” for them.
In fact, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) won’t rule out another shutdown, adding that he will still “do anything” to stop Obamacare. Another House Republican, Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), said, “we’re going to start this all over again.”
It gets worse.
After inflicting this painful and unnecessary shutdown on the country for 16 days, during which time they sometimes seemed to forget why they even shut the government down in the first place, Republicans voted en masse last night in favor of a catastrophic default and continued government shutdown.
The GOP’s Default Caucus — 18 Republican Senators and 144 House Republicans — apparently preferred a default that threatened to collapse the entire global economy to allowing millions to get affordable health insurance and re-opening the government at spending levels Republicans themselves proposed.
Supporting a government shutdown is bad enough, but supporting an economic shutdown by refusing to pay the nation’s bills is a stunningly extreme position. Unfortunately, it’s a position that a majority of Congressional Republicans apparently support. Even GOP budget guru Paul Ryan voted for a reckless economic shutdown on top of the government shutdown.
As National Journal noted today, “several of those who might be considered serious GOP 2016 contenders for the presidency also voted in favor of the first default in American history in order to stay in the tea party’s good graces.”
BOTTOM LINE: It’s time for the GOP’s brinksmanship and manufactured crises to end. Instead of shutting down the government, voting to default on our obligations, and proclaiming their pride in job-killing austerity spending cuts, Republicans should sit down with Democrats and agree to a budget that protects important programs and makes the investments we need to grow the economy and create jobs.
The Center for American Progress has a balanced budget plan that will replace the damaging sequester cuts for the next three years and make badly needed investments in job creation. You can check it out HERE.
*****
Readers: What are your thoughts? C’mon, tell me. Blog this BABE.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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October 18th, 2013 at 11:19 am
Leland #3 Yesterday:
You are correct for thanking the Aliens. Guam got wet but Japan — who Typhoon Francisco is meant for — got the storm for trying to lie to the Aliens about the amount of Radioactive pollution they are allowing to poison the Pacific Ocean and the world.
I quote you: “Sorry Japan, but it’s your fault. Stop polluting the seas.”
HOWIE
October 18th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Howie, and other bday well wishers, thank you. I love Santa Barbara and I love Paris also, next time I plan to travel to either I will alert the media oops I mean the MM blog audience : )
This shutdown by the GOP was just plain recklessness at the expense of everyone but themselves.
Luv, Zen Lill
October 18th, 2013 at 7:35 pm
I was thinking just that but with your confirmation I ‘m more certain Howie. Good to have you back.
October 18th, 2013 at 8:59 pm
Long Overdue
October 18, 2013
Unleashing the Power of America’s Women
One hundred sixty-five years ago, a small town in upstate New York called Seneca Falls hosted a convention that changed the world. It was in that town that a small group of visionaries shook the world with a simple notion: that every right, every privilege, and every opportunity should belong to every man and every woman.
The echoes of our very own Declaration of Independence can be heard in the Declaration of Sentiments of Seneca Falls: “We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men and women are created equal…Such is now the necessity [for women] … to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.” What these courageous women did is simply astounding.
They were leaving their homes and risking their livelihoods to organize the first women’s rights convention the world had ever seen.
I was deeply honored and humbled to travel to Seneca Falls last weekend to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Joined by 19 of my colleagues—fellow women Members of the House of Representatives—and inducted along with nine other astounding women, including the late First Lady Betty Ford.
As we look forward, there’s much more work to do. For all the progress we’ve made over the last 165 years, we are still waiting to see the ideals of our democracy become a reality for America’s mothers, wives, and daughters. We must fight onward. We must move upward.
We must unleash the power of America’s women. In Congress, the House Democratic women are answering that challenge with our economic agenda for women and families: When Women Succeed, America Succeeds.
This agenda stands on three pillars of work and family balance: Fair pay—raising the minimum wage and ensuring paycheck fairness; paid sick leave; and affordable, quality child care—the lynchpin for a working mother’s success in the workplace.
The agenda will unleash the power of our nation’s women and, in doing so, grow and strengthen the middle class—the backbone of our democracy. When women earn equal pay, we know America’s economy will prosper. When women ensure fairness and balance between work and family, we know American society will thrive. When women push onward, America moves upward.
Congresswoman Pelosi speaks at her induction to the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.
The End of a Manufactured Nightmare
Finally, the unnecessary Republican government shutdown that America endured for 16 days is over. The shutdown shook our economic security and growth. It jeopardized our credit rating, slowed GDP growth by 0.6 percent, and eroded consumer and investor confidence while taking $24 billion out of our economy. This recklessness was a luxury the American people cannot afford.
This shutdown has had a severe impact on people, on workers, on the economy. Federal employees throughout San Francisco were furloughed and unable to go to work on behalf of our nation.
San Francisco’s seniors were unable to apply for the Social Security benefits they earned. Many of our local small businesses—drivers of employment in the Bay Area—were unable to get Small Business Administration loans.
And our beautiful national parks like the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, including Alcatraz and Fort Point, were closed to San Franciscans and tourists. The shutdown caused real damage to Americans, to Californians, and to San Franciscans.
But now we can finally begin what Democrats have been waiting seven months to do. We can go to the negotiating table to debate a budget, to create jobs. We can expand the economy, strengthen the middle class, and reduce the deficit in a meaningful way.
From now on, we must stop governing from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis and start working to find solutions so that we never again see a day where the government has been shut down and the full faith and credit of the United States of America has been called into question.
Please feel free to forward this information to your family and friends. To learn more about these efforts, to express your views, or to sign up for email updates, please visit my website. I am also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.
best regards,
October 19th, 2013 at 7:04 am
The moderate Republicans used the Tea Party to get votes and now they can’t control the monster they’ve created.
The Republican party is divided – unfortunately it’s like a hydra – it’s hard to find that stroke that will rid us of their idiocy once and for all.
October 19th, 2013 at 7:05 am
Republicans responded to their 2008 defeat by moving farther right, they responded to the 2012 defeat by moving right yet again.
Since they had begun from a position of total opposition to the entire Obama agenda, the newer rightward lurch took the form of trying to wrest concessions from Obama by provoking a series of crises.”
October 19th, 2013 at 7:06 am
They represent “…just eighteen per cent of the population.” That needs
to be broadcast on a continuous loop on national television (I can dream, can’t I?).
October 19th, 2013 at 7:07 am
Where Does The GOP’s Suicide Caucus Live?
in a van, down by the river
October 19th, 2013 at 7:10 am
Sean Hannity Gets Fact-Checked Hard On Obamacare Claims
The Huffington Post | By Catherine Taibi
Posted: 10/18/2013 4:32 pm EDT | Updated: 10/18/2013 11:33 pm EDT
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/sean-hannity-fact-checked-obamacare_n_4124699.html
=====================
They know why they want an end to ObamaCare. They want to control their employees. They can do that if they control their employees’ access to healthcare. If they need the job to keep their healthcare they will stay.
But the lemmings who join the republican party are fighting ObamaCare against their own best interests. If they can afford healthcare, they are related to, or know someone who can’t or couldn’t get it because of pre-existing conditions or life time limits.
The 1%’s paid provocateurs use race baiting, religion and xenophobia, among others to promote irrational scare arguments against ObamaCare. But they are easily accepted by 30% of the country that want to delegitimize the election of a black man as president.
Today it is about ObamaCare. Tomorrow it will be about Obama________ fill in the blank. It really doesn’t matter to this 30%. The MSM takes up the particular blank of the day and debates it as if that were the real issue of this 30%.
If the rest of white america would consistently call it what it is when that is the issue, then America could deal with the real issues Obama proposes that merit genuine differences of opinion.
70% of the american people can’t get their differences with Obama or the Democratic Party agenda heard because of the racist rantings of the 30%. Someone in leadership needs to step up.
October 19th, 2013 at 11:05 am
Certain Blood Pressure Drugs Are Linked to Breast Cancer Risk
What is the most common chronic medical condition among US adults? High blood pressure.
And what is one of the most common cancers among women? Breast cancer.
Now, no one is suggesting that the high blood pressure causes breast cancer…but because they’re both so common, it just makes sense to look for any possible links. And researchers have found one.
It turns out that a certain type of drug used to treat high blood pressure is associated with more than double the risk for breast cancer…while a different type of blood pressure drug is associated with a reduced risk for breast cancer.
If you or a woman you love takes blood pressure medication, you should know which is which.
IN-HOME INTERVIEWS FOR ACCURACY
Previous studies that looked for a connection between blood pressure drugs and breast cancer had only small numbers of patients…did not factor in how long the drugs were used…and/or relied on patients’ own recall about medication use, which can be inaccurate. So epidemiologists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle tackled the subject in a unique way.
The study participants included nearly 2,000 Seattle-area postmenopausal women who had been diagnosed between 2000 and 2008 with either invasive ductal breast cancer (the most common form, which arises in the milk ducts) or invasive lobular breast cancer (which arises in the milk glands)…plus nearly 900 cancer-free postmenopausal women who served as controls.
To ensure that participants’ reports about medication use were as accurate as possible, the women were interviewed in their own homes and asked to show the researchers the actual bottles of all medications that they were currently using. To aid participants’ memories of past medication use, the researchers also showed the women photographs of commonly used blood pressure drugs, along with cards listing their brand and generic names. In addition, the women answered detailed questions about medication dosages and dates of usage…and about other risk factors for breast cancer, including their reproductive, medical and family health histories.
BREAST CANCER/BLOOD PRESSURE CONNECTION
The rate of high blood pressure was the same—44%—among the women with breast cancer and the women without breast cancer.
Researchers analyzed the data several different ways, cross-comparing women with and without breast cancer…women with and without high blood pressure…women who did and did not take the various types of blood pressure drugs…and short-term versus long-term use of the drugs. The researchers also adjusted for age and other breast cancer risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol use and family history of breast cancer.
Here’s what they found…
Using a type of blood pressure drug called a calcium-channel blocker for 10 years or more was associated with 2.4 times higher risk for ductal breast cancer and 2.6 times higher risk for lobular breast cancer.
There was some indication that risks were even greater—3.7 times higher for ductal breast cancer and 3.6 times higher for lobular breast cancer—among current users of the so-called short-acting calcium-channel blockers. However, because short-acting formulations are prescribed less often, the effect of duration of use could not be assessed.
Using drugs known as ACE inhibitors for 10 years or longer was associated with a 30% reduced risk for ductal breast cancer and a 40% reduced risk for lobular breast cancer. Using an ACE inhibitor for less than 10 years did not significantly decrease or increase breast cancer risk.
There was no increase or decrease in breast cancer risk among women taking other types of blood pressure drugs—diuretics, beta-blockers or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs).
HELP FOR THE HYPERTENSIVE WOMAN
The different blood pressure drugs work in different ways. Calcium-channel blockers work by preventing calcium from entering the cells of the heart and blood vessels, which allows the muscle cells to relax and thus reduces blood pressure.
Nearly 15% of blood pressure drug prescriptions are for calcium-channel blockers such as amlodipine (Norvasc)…diltiazem (Cardizem)…felodipine (Plendil)…isradipine (Dynacirc)…nicardipine (Cardene)…nifedipine (Procardia)…and verapamil (Calan).
Why are calcium-channel blockers associated with increased risk for breast cancer? That’s not known, and this study wasn’t designed to answer that question. Researchers also could not say why ACE inhibitors were associated with lower breast cancer risk, and they noted that this finding needs to be replicated in future studies that include a greater number of long-term users of ACE inhibitors.
The current study results must be interpreted with caution and should not yet affect clinical practice, the researchers said—so clearly, more research is needed.
What can you do in the meantime? Reduce your blood pressure naturally—which may reduce your need for any sort of blood pressure drug—by eating right. For guidance, read Foods That Help Control Blood Pressure.
Editor’s note: For more information on blood pressure drugs, read Are You Taking the Right Blood Pressure Medication? and then discuss the risks and benefits of the various options with your doctor. Also, for 19 news-filled articles on how to prevent, detect, treat and recover from breast cancer, see our special Breast Cancer Guide.
Source: Christopher I. Li, MD, PhD, epidemiologist specializing in breast cancer, division of public health sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. His study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
October 19th, 2013 at 11:37 am
I am 68 years old & have taken atenolol since I was 30! I had stage 3-1/2 Invasive ductal carcinoma 4 yrs ago! I have been cancer free for 2 1/2 yr’s! It really does work @ keeping my blood pressure down! I was put on lisinipril a while back, but I developed a cough that wouldn’t go away til I quit taking it!
October 19th, 2013 at 5:56 pm
Thunder and lightening across the sky
Sometimes makes me wonder
Why.
Mother nature can b so strong.
I can hear her say
This is where I belong,
Her occasional roar
Keeps us in place.
And lets us know there’s
More to explore in space.
When thunder and lightening
does go by.
It’s mother nature trying
to spy.
October 19th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
9. Leta0 Says: October 19th, 2013 at 7:10 am
Sean Hannity Gets Fact-Checked Hard On Obamacare Claims The Huffington Post | By Catherine Taibi Posted: 10/18/2013 4:32 pm EDT | Updated: 10/18/2013 11:33 pm EDT http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/sean-hannity-fact-checked-obamacare_n_4124699.html =====================
The perfidy of the 1% is disgusting but understandable since money is their god. They know why they want an end to ObamaCare. They want to control their employees. They can do that if they control their employees’ access to healthcare. If they need the job to keep their healthcare they will stay.
But the lemmings who join the republican party are fighting ObamaCare against their own best interests. If they can afford healthcare, they are related to, or know someone who can’t or couldn’t get it because of pre-existing conditions or life time limits.
The 1%’s paid provocateurs use race baiting, religion and xenophobia, among others to promote irrational scare arguments against ObamaCare. But they are easily accepted by 30% of the country that want to delegitimize the election of a black man as president.
Today it is about ObamaCare. Tomorrow it will be about Obama________ fill in the blank. It really doesn’t matter to this 30%. The MSM takes up the particular blank of the day and debates it as if that were the real issue of this 30%.
If the rest of white america would consistently call it what it is when that is the issue, then America could deal with the real issues Obama proposes that merit genuine differences of opinion.
70% of the american people can’t get their differences with Obama or the Democratic Party agenda heard because of the racist rantings of the 30%. Someone in leadership needs to step up.