Money Matters
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 4th, 2014
Hello Monday morning!
I thought I would switch up my greeting a bit just to make sure you’re awake.
First things first…
Happy Birthday, Mr. President!
I am so grateful of the day that you were born.
I remember hearing you speak for the first time on the radio. And as I listened, all I kept saying was, ”Who is this man, Barack Obama?” I know exactly where I was. I had to pull over, stop my car, and call my husband, because I was so excited and moved by you. I will never forget it.
Thank you for being the incredible man that you are, and a president that we can love, trust, respect, and admire, as our leader. Thank you for your tenacity, commitment, humor, and grace. It is because of your attributes, and the fact that you are a man of mettle, that I am inspired to maintain my dedication and wholeheartedly support you.
I HOPE you have a wonderful birthday celebrating with your family and friends!
Now onto today’s write…
Ryan’s Rhetoric 2.0
Paul Ryan’s Latest Rhetoric On Poverty Doesn’t Add Up To Any New Ideas
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced a new anti-poverty plan in a speech in Washington today. But while Ryan is trying out new rhetoric around the issue of poverty, his “American idea” is full of the same empty promises he’s been making for years, this time with Ryan Rhetoric 2.0. His plan to fight poverty doesn’t include a fair wage for hard work and would dismantle the safety net. We need an economy that works for everyone, and Ryan’s cuts to low and moderate income Americans are not what this country needs to continue to prosper.
Here are a few things we know about his plan:
1. The Math Doesn’t Add Up. Ryan claims his plan is deficit-neutral. That’s a 180 degree turn from his budget proposal from earlier this year, which gets over two-thirds of its cutsfrom programs helping low and moderate income families. So either the plan is a dressed-up version of his budget, or he has abandoned his goal to balance the budget.
2. “Consolidation.” Ryan’s rhetoric calls it consolidation, hoping you won’t notice he is actually cutting programs helping low and moderate income Americans. And we already know that this strategy doesn’t work. Ryan holds up the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program as a model reform of the safety net. But under TANF, extreme poverty rose, fewer families received help, and states were unable to respond to the Great Recession. Consolidating multiple programs into a single funding stream would carry these same risks. In fact, Ryan undermines his own argument by proposing to eliminate an already-existing block grant, the Social Services Block Grant, calling it “ineffective” (which, by the way, helps approximately 23 million people).
3. Not Every Idea Ryan Proposes Is Without Merit.Depending on the details, ideas such as reforming our criminal justice system to give people the opportunity to rebuild their lives have a lot of merit and could attract bipartisan support. In fact, Ryan is not a leader on this issue, which has already had a bipartisan team of Senate champions in Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). On the whole, however, his plan would exacerbate poverty and inequality.
If Ryan were serious about cutting poverty, here are three policy ideas he could embrace — taken from a column by the Center for American Progress’s Melissa Boteach:
1. Increase The Minimum Wage. Ryan’s speech comes on the day marking five years since the last federal minimum wage increase. Progressive leaders and advocates around the country are marking the occasion by taking the “Live The Wage” Challenge — walking in the shoes of a minimum wage worker by living on the average minimum wage budget of $77 for one week. It’s simply not enough to live on. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 could lift as many as 4.6 million people out of poverty.
2. Bring Our Work And Family Policies Into The 21st Century. Women are now the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families, but our workplace policies and public policies don’t reflect this change. One thing Rep. Ryan could do in this realm is support the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, or FAMILY Act, which would create a national paid leave program and stop the United States from being the only developed country that with no paid maternity leave. This is a critical poverty issue, as having a child is a major cause of poverty for families that can’t afford to leave the workforce.
3. Support High-Quality Child Care And Early Education.Poor families who pay out of pocket for child care spendapproximately one-third of their incomes just to be able to work. Ryan could support policies to provide greater economic mobility for low-income families, like Head Start. He could also sign onto the bipartisan Strong Start for America’s Children Act, which would invest in preschool, quality child care for infants and toddlers, and home visiting as a resource to pregnant women and mothers with young babies, simultaneously helping parents work while boosting the future economic mobility of young children.
Instead, just a day after his speech, he and his House Republican colleagues will vote tomorrow to exclude millions of low-income working families from the Child Tax Credit, pushing millions of children deeper into poverty.
BOTTOM LINE: Addressing poverty with more than rhetoric is the challenge our country faces. America was not built on rhetoric, it was built on an idea that if we came together and worked hard, we could create a nation full of opportunity. There are policy proposals that exist that would help us do that — create an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest. Paul Ryan’s latest rhetoric on poverty is not the answer we need.
*****
Readers: This is the update on the vote. No surprise all Republicans voted in favor and most Democrats opposed. The bill cleared the House by a vote of 237-173. The White House threatened to veto the bill, though thankfully the Democratic-controlled Senate will unlikely pass it.
Thoughts? Blog me.
Social Butterfly: No, I have not thought of a separate club for the LSOS ladies, but if you ask me, I feel they deserve to be included with the LSOS men in the same club. After all they do follow lockstep with the men so why give them any special privilege. If that’s all right with you, I will add your choice of Peggy Noonan as a new member, with a DAABOR status. Sound good with you? I HOPE you had a wonderfully delicious birthday! xox
Any other nominees for membership? We haven’t had a lot lately but we all know they’re out there. Send ‘em to me!
Peace & Love.
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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August 4th, 2014 at 10:22 am
95. Jeff Says: August 4th, 2014 at 9:33 am
The color of his skin has nothing to do with it.
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You are so right. He is incompetent, and the color of his skin does not matter. Ignorance like that person who wrote the article sets society back 100 years.
August 4th, 2014 at 10:24 am
Dan#109, No wonder that before the Presidential Primaries she didn’t see much hope for him, so she took the opportunity to say, ” This is the first time I do not HATE America”. What will placate her after they leave the White House? I wonder sometimes if she is worse than he is?
August 4th, 2014 at 10:27 am
Milgar#110:
August 4th, 2014 at 9:50 am
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My Grandmother allways said you only call a BAD Black person a Nigger! She’s been dead 44 years now! I think her version would cover Obama!!!! And I am not a Racist !
August 4th, 2014 at 10:30 am
This president had a moral obligation to bring the races closer together but he does just the opposite. Should the lesson learned be that it was a mistake to elect a nigger and should we wait another 230 years before we think about doing it again?
August 4th, 2014 at 10:31 am
Everyone should just chill out and head to Baskin Robbins for their new item-Barrocky Road. It’s a dish with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, but they don’t tell you about the vanilla. Then they surround it with nuts and flakes. They charge you way too much for it and then give it to the person behind you that can’t afford it.
August 4th, 2014 at 10:33 am
Salvatore#108 your right on Racism has nothing to do with it.. He is just ruining this wonderful country and does not know how to run it and never should have become President.. and in reality probably never honestly won anyway.. !
August 4th, 2014 at 10:37 am
Tom#4, Just what makes it “this” president’s “moral obligation to bring the races closer together”? WTF was the obligation of the other 43?
That’s the kind of racist bullshit the “liberals” have been talking about while you racist bastards have been using this as an opportunity to rant your bigoted diatribes.
August 4th, 2014 at 10:38 am
So Steve#5, did you spend a lot of time making that little racist ditty up? But hey, you’re not a racist.
August 4th, 2014 at 10:48 am
I mean, right from word “jump”, this president has had to put up with the outrageous undercover racism AND DISRESPECT that is rife on this blog today. Nothing like this kind of disrespect towards a sitting President has ever happened before.
Someone yelling “YOU LIE!” during a live televised Presidential address to congress showed outrageous disrespect, and nothing like it had EVER been done previously.
I could go on and on, and give example after example of the extreme right wing repugs both hard and soft types of racism. But for the people who have “drank the tea”, I’m afraid my words will only fall on deaf ears.
My god if reading the vitriol on the blog from you racist creatures doesn’t make OTWs head to the polls in November nothing will.
If you could go into the White House and lynch the man on the spot, you would do it, have a party and bring the beer and your little racists-to-be creatures in the tradition of your past hangings of innocent black men.
But the law and the people won’t let you so your rant and rave and insult him as much as you can.
August 4th, 2014 at 10:56 am
Pro- Barack Obama or not this article is clearly offensive. We as a country have made strides to move forward, and educate ourselves past what was a dark time in American history, why must there be unnecessary set backs as this.
I understand that we still have individuals and people who still carry hatred in their hearts but they are out numbered (hence the land of the free electing a multi-raced President not once but twice) in todays America.
These individuals should not be able to freely voice themselves in such a manner and should be kept muzzled. America today is but a mere glimpse of what it is to be in the future. Love, Peace, and acceptance of one another across all races is what is to be.
August 4th, 2014 at 10:59 am
Jeffery#10, I used to believe that. That will never be in America, the white majority have made it abundantly clear they would rather die than treat other humans fairly. Couldn’t be anymore obvious.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:06 am
My advice to OTWs, keep ya record clean and get a gun, lots of them, the bigger the better, cuz this shit…..could hit the fan.
If white people harm Obama, they better know that what happened after they murdered MLK was a small outdoor barbecue.
Fuck some 9/11. We are going to go to their rich neighborhoods and burn those fuckers to the ground.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:11 am
A New York newspaper is under fire for running a headline that called President Barack Obama the n***er in the White House.
According to The Wrap, “The WestView News, a small paper that touts itself as “The Voice of the West Village,” ran an op-ed column in its July edition titled “The Nig-r in the White House.” The article, penned by James Lincoln Collier, was actually pro-Obama and criticized what it called “racism” by far-right voters.”
It is never okay to use the n-word in a headline. It doesn’t matter if the article is pro or anti-Obama. It is disrespectful to the President Of The United States as a man and disrespectful to the office that he has been elected twice to hold.
It was not in any way an appropriate headline. In fact, it is headlines such as this that give the people who hate Obama because of the color of his skin something to point to when they get called out for their bigotry.
PoliticusUSA has, unfortunately, had to spend loads of column space pointing out and criticizing the race-based hatred and behavior of some conservatives. Headlines that go for shock value such as the one that The WestView News used is a discredit to journalism and the journalistic community.
President Obama has had to deal with race-based opposition to his presidency since before he was elected to his first term. Republicans have calculatingly used race as a political tool to divide the country.
Republicans have championed conservatives who questioned the president’s nation of birth, the validity of his birth certificate, and even his college transcripts. The constant drumbeat of race-based hatred of this president has been a consistent theme of his presidency.
The last thing that the millions of Americans who are working hard combating the conservative attempts to exploit the nation’s ugly underbelly of racism and discrimination needed was a headline calling the president an n-word.
By even using the headline, The WestView News perpetuated the racism that the article’s author opposes.
Supporters of a colorblind society should be saddened and outraged by this headline. I would like to think that supporters of the president are smarter than those who were involved with the creation and publication of this headline.
Partisan anger brings out the worst in people, but defending the president by perpetuating racism is not the way to build a better society.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:18 am
North Carolina state Rep. Larry Pittman became the latest elected Republican to disrespect and insult the president, with a “joke” about Obama being a traitor from Kenya.
Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfs2FTQnb74
Republican North Carolina state Rep. Larry Pittman said, “Someone had posted something with a picture of Barack Obama and across it said ‘traitor.’ And, you know, I don’t always agree with the guy, I certainly didn’t vote for him but I gotta defend him on this one.
I just don’t think it’s right at all to call Barack Obama a traitor. There’s a lot of things he’s done wrong but he is not a traitor. Not as far as I can tell. I haven’t come across any evidence yet that he has done one thing to harm Kenya.”
This video comes on the heels of Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) being outed as the House Republican leader who told President Obama “I cannot even stand to look at you.” The racism and hatred towards President Obama has quite possibly grown since his reelection last year.
What Pittman said was a disrespectful delegimization of the President of the United States disguised as a “joke.” Elected Republicans still refuse to accept the fact that Barack Obama was legitimately elected president twice.
The racism being demonstrated by Republicans has become a part of their platform. It is the language they use to entertain and connect with their base.
The idea that election of Obama would somehow made made this country post racial was a fairy tale driven by the media.
After Republicans made the decision to use race as a weapon against President Obama, the nation has been taken back to a much uglier time in our recent history. It was part of the Republican strategy to “take their country back.”
Republicans have not realized that this strategy does not work for them. After four years of race baiting, President Obama won a second term.
This stuff plays well in red districts and states, but it has destroyed the image of the Republican Party. When Republicans disrespect the president, they disrespect their country.
The only people who are still hanging on to the birther stuff are Republicans. The only people who think it is funny are the racists who are obsessed with delegitimizing President Obama.
The only traitors to their country are the Republicans who shutdown the government because they are still protesting the voters’ choice to give this president a second term.
This is who President Obama’s opposition is, and this is what he has to deal with every single day of his presidency.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:24 am
Lyin’ Ryan is at it again, thinking people are too stupid and/or lazy to actually add up his theft from the lower classes, his punishing children because their parent’s jobs got outsourced, and nothing came back. God this prick makes me sick. He should go back to playing Eddie Munster on TV.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:25 am
So he’s going to assign every poor family a ‘life coach?’ Get idea, Paul. Who’s going to pay for that? Our schools used to provide this service..a counselor in every elementary school to help struggling kids and their families. Several in each building at the higher grades. Gee, we even and school nurses once upon a time.
Guess who cut funding for schools time and time again? It wasn’t Democrats. And guess who refuses to even vote on a Jobs Bill? And people will vote for more of this crap?? Wake up, America. If the GOP takes over, this nation is through.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:26 am
Life Coaches should be assigned to the dumb politicians. Did they forget what their jobs are? Representing THEIR constituents not promoting themselves to a job for life while doing very little work.
They should have to go home one week a month, to town hall meetings, meet with the people who elected them and answer questions. Any working class person who votes for the gop or Tea Party needs a mental exam.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:27 am
A friend called me today. Her SNAP benefits were cut from $189.00 per month down to $80.00. When she asked why, she was told because of you are bringing in $632.00 per month.
Back story is this: She moved out of her home, she rents it out for $1500.00, her mortgage is $868.00 per month. She pays her sister $300.00 per month for rent, and is left with $332.00 per month. She owns a 1994 Honda Accord LX, the tags are expired, costing $87.00 to renew. She cannot afford insurance and seldom can fill the tank up, which is roughly $50.00.
She used to have a successful business until Dubya burned down the house and threw us into a recession. Can I say She and I both despise Paul Ryan and his ilk? Ryan is a joke, with a mile high ego, thinking he can fix the impoverished! He has nothing original to offer!
August 4th, 2014 at 11:27 am
Drew#15, My thoughts exactly on every point except the last sentence. I think Lyin’ Ryan should just go home, shut the door, and never, ever be heard from or seen in public again. It is he who needs to be shamed and shunned.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:28 am
So Lying Ryan wants to enact penalties on poor people. When Ryan advocates penalties on corporations that outsource jobs, then maybe I’ll listen to something he may be saying.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:29 am
Paul Ryan is still pushing his ‘Path to Prosperity,’ every year we get a new sell pitch, but its the same garbage. Not impress.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:29 am
This sob is as bad as putin. Put his worthless ass in prison.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:30 am
I cannot forget when Ryan was with Romney campaigning at the Villages in Florida, he was using his 70 something mother as an accessory on the stage saying that he would never do anything to social security or medicare, that would hurt people just like his mother.
All the time he was busy trying to convert medicare to a voucher plan that would have cost seniors thousand and thousands of dollar (that they do not have).
August 4th, 2014 at 11:31 am
Tani#21, He still neglects to tell us just whose prosperity it’s a path to…
August 4th, 2014 at 11:31 am
Joan#23, Yup! And I guarantee that those seniors, and/or their families, don’t have Ryan’s kind of money to foot the bill for their care when these programs are cut to shreds.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:33 am
Tani#23, Ryan is a pathological liar, just like Romney is.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:33 am
Paul Ryan is not nearly as smart as he is made out to be. His plans are nothing more than regurgitated fluff.
He thinks people are poor because they don’t have the drive to not be poor, which means he doesn’t even realize that most people who are poor work – and work more than one job trying to make ends meet. His plans would hurt children as well.
I’ve seen no evidence that he actually cares about people. They’re line items on a spreadsheet to him, nothing more and nothing less. He sees people in terms of black and white (and I don’t mean race); they are “this” because of “that” and that’s about as far as his thinking goes.
He should investigate the real reasons for poverty in this country and address those reasons, not run about the country on some “tour” so he can say he “knows” what poor people are dealing with and he’s come to their rescue with a “plan” that will do nothing to actually help them.
But hey, he went on a tour so he can say he…
August 4th, 2014 at 11:34 am
Let’s see Paul Ryan take his own challenge with his family for a year.
Freeze bank accounts, reduce any employment income to minimum wage (even his wife’s) if she works. No income other than min. wage should be incoming to the family. Rent an apartment, buy your own health insurance, etc.
You go ahead Mr. Ryan, try it for a year and then get back to us.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:35 am
The Krug nails his ass
Ezra Klein Asks the Wrong Question
He asks, Why should anyone trust Paul Ryan’s poverty plan? That’s easy: nobody should. This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.
krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/…
August 4th, 2014 at 11:35 am
he’s a fascist just like the rest of the republican party
SCUMBAG !!!
August 4th, 2014 at 11:37 am
Paulette#27, my last line is “so he can say he knows.”
August 4th, 2014 at 11:38 am
Allen#30, Got that right, and he is an arrogant bastard as well. HE did not make his money, his family did with government contracts. What a hypocrite.
August 4th, 2014 at 11:45 am
Featured in a article in the WestView News, James Lincoln Collier wrote this story entitled The N*gger in the White House because he was trying to be ironic. Seriously?
The whole concept of the article was about the Republican’s racism towards the Obama agenda, but it failed.
Instead it sparked an outrage all over twitter and other social media. Columnist Collier wanted to use the title as an ironic gesture, to spark attention to the way the racists feel about the Obama presidency, but it backfired.
Who wants to open their newspaper or turn on the computer and see a title like this first thing in the morning?
Then why would a newspaper allow a writer to title his article with such negativity? The answer is simple,right? Not really, because the answer really doesn’t make any sense.
The writer actually wanted to use the word to shock the public into realizing that there are still those who will use this word. Others at the paper do not see how the use of using this word benefits anyone.
Collier is a journalist whose work in the 70′s got him a Newbery Honor for a book he wrote, My Brother Sam is Dead.
Here’s a clincher, he also co-wrote a book called Jump Ship to Freedom and there is also controversy behind the book as well for its use of the n word. Did the publisher do this for attention to their newspaper? It’s a question asked around the world.
August 4th, 2014 at 1:04 pm
Happy Birthday Obama.
August 4th, 2014 at 2:13 pm
Meet a navigator:
http://wp.me/p2VylS-Tv
He’s not giving all his secrets away, but he’s got them.
PrP
August 4th, 2014 at 3:33 pm
Alycedale: Not quite sure if I owe you an apology or not. I do know I gotta be missing a few people. If I do (and I am pretty sure that I do) would you please accept the apology I am now offering you. You have never said anything offending that was ever directed at me. Please allow me this opportunity to clear any past transgressions, and to wipe the slate clean.
Sincerely,
Al
August 4th, 2014 at 5:54 pm
Happy Birthday Mr. President.
August 4th, 2014 at 8:38 pm
Not necessary, Al. It’s a blog. Anyone can go off on anyone. If you don’t want to be known when blow your stack, use an alias. The next time you feel a super mad coming on and you want to let loose. SCREAM it through an alias. That way you will remain to us the “beautiful” person Linda thinks you are.
By the way Linda you could do worse than Al. He has a gift for the flowery prose. After all, if I’m not being a “muppet,” you are from or in Ireland. So have at that long distance romance.
I hope I am not discouraging any of your competition. I know you look forward to a spirited challenge for Al’s attention. You sound like a Lady who is formidable in Love and War.
G’luck Cha Anyway Laaad!!!
Alycedale
August 4th, 2014 at 8:41 pm
PrP#35, Interesting in that the grid on the top left resembles the grid formed from the Mercury,Venus,Earth,Mars triangular entry points.
August 5th, 2014 at 7:15 am
A Tuesday morning funny for you…
How many republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
None.
They’d rather sit in the dark and blame Obama
Luv, Zen Lill
August 5th, 2014 at 7:17 am
That’s a great idea Alycedale, though I’d catch AL’s voice and yours and several others bc it’s tough to hide the nuances that make peoples ‘voices’ here who they are…I’m going to give it a go next time I go ‘Mt Vesuvius’ and see if it works…
August 5th, 2014 at 9:09 am
Good one Zen Lill. LOL