I wanted to point out that BizzyBee completely ignored my challenge above.
The real story about the tea party movement
by lifeisgood 55 Replies latest jw friends
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lifeisgood
Justitia Themis,
"One manner in which to demonstrate Tea Party 'balance'"
I don't remember claiming that we had/needed/wanted "balance". You made that up.
"I am a Democrat, and while I share your goal, a desire for a balanced buget, I disagree with how you seek to acheive this goal and more importantly, your time table. "
You don't know how I seek to achieve this goal or how the tea party seeks to achieve the goal. For now, we are leaving it up to the politicians. If they do nothing about balancing the budget, which looks like what they are going to do, then that will change, but for now we are leaving it up to the politicians.
We don't have a stated time table. We just want the budget balanced in a reasonable time frame. One year is not reasonable. When a plan is put forth to balance the budget, then anyone can see if that plan is reasonable or not. If the plan is spread over some long time frame, say eight years, we will reject it and tell the politicians to put forth a real plan or start packing to come back home.
This isn't that difficult. Clinton spent 1.9 trillion dollars in his last prepared budget. Now, 10 years later, we spend 3.6 trillion dollars. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that something is wrong with this and this expenditure level cannot be sustained.
BizzyBee
"You don't own' or moderate a thread that you start. So, you cannot banish posters who disagree with you or have a different POV".I don't want you out of my thread because I disagree with you. I want you out of my thread because you are a liar, are insulting, and post ridiculous nonsense.
"Your POV is open to discussion and disagreement as is mine".
That is nice, except that is not what you post in here. So, then limit your posts to discussing my subject and stop posting lies, insults, and complete and total nonsense.
Who wants to make a wager with me that BizzyBee is completely incapable of actually discussing my original post intelligently and will continue to make ridiculous, ignorant comments like the comment where he claims that he know more about what the tea party stands for than one of the leaders of the Mississippi tea party? I will bet that he is totally incapable of doing this because he is either 1) a kid, 2) a teenager, or 3) mentally unstable somehow that requires severe medication and perhaps periodic treatment at a mental facility.
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Justitia Themis
"One manner in which to demonstrate Tea Party 'balance'"
I don't remember claiming that we had/needed/wanted "balance". You made that up.
Onelife...this is why your party is so unattractive to most Americans. You respond to my respectful comment to you with a disdainful comment directed at me. Apparently, you didn't get the high level pun in the word "balance," which is why the word was put in quotations. The pun was between the "balance" in the balanced budget sentence. It wasn't a really clear pun, so no big deal.
What is sad, is that you then chose to assert that I "made...up" a claim. What childish black/white thinking. Those unnecessary, scorched-earth types of responses and actions are precisely why members of this board, and the public in general, have tired so quickly of your party. Your posts simply help the established political parties and work against yours. Many look at how you, and many of your members, respond to others and say to themselves that they just do not want such persons in charge of government.
On a closing note, I totally agree with you that you, nor I, nor anyone with a modicum of reason, has EVER attributed the characteristic of balance to the Tea Party. ; )
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Justitia Themis
Who wants to make a wager with me that BizzyBee is completely incapable of actually discussing my original post intelligently and will continue to make ridiculous, ignorant comments
Pot callin' the kettle...
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lifeisgood
"this is why your party is so unattractive to most Americans"
And yet, as unattractive as we are we defeated 50 democrat big spenders and put 50 republicans in their place in the last election. The next election is going to see even larger numbers of big spenders sent home.
Since you don't really want to discuss the deficit, you just want to insult me, then, I am done speaking to you or reading your posts.
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whereami
we defeated 50 democrat big spenders and put 50 republicans in their place in the last election.
Yeah...the guys you put in there are really great aren't they? And these people call themselves "Christians".
Gov. Rick Scott orders immediate cuts to programs for disabled
March 31, 2011|By Kate Santich, Orlando SentinelFlorida Gov. Rick Scott ordered deep cuts Thursday to programs that serve tens of thousands of residents with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism and other developmental disabilities.
Though a range of state services face cuts from this year's Legislature, the governor invoked his emergency powers to order the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities to immediately roll back payments to group homes and social workers by 15 percent — an amount providers say could put them out of business and threaten their clients' safety.
"lt's not like, 'Gee, does this mean I have to skip a vacation this year?'" said Amy Van Bergen, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Central Florida. "Potentially, these cuts have life and death implications for these people."
An estimated 30,000 Floridians with severe developmental disabilities receive services that help them live outside of nursing homes — typically with family or in small group homes. Aides help them eat, bathe, take medication and otherwise care for themselves.
But the governor said the Agency for Persons with Disabilities' ongoing budget deficit — currently at $170 million — had reached a critical point and needed to be addressed immediately.
The cuts go into effect Friday and last at least through the fiscal year, which ends June 30. Lawmakers are currently debating what will happen after that.
Providers had not been informed of the cuts.
"No one has gotten any notice," said Linda Cumbie, an Orlando social worker who coordinates services that clients need to live outside of a nursing home — which would be a more expensive arrangement for the state. "We have to find out through the newspapers."
Cumbie said funds for the disabled already had been pared back to skeletal levels. She personally is holding a carwash and bake sale to help out one young disabled client so he can attend a daily workshop program.
Katie Porta, president of Quest Inc., which operates a series of group homes and programs for those with disabilities, said provider rates in Florida already rank in the bottom 10 percent for all states.
"We are almost to the point of impossibility in providing for our clients' basic health and safety needs," she said. "I just fear for our people."
She wasn't the only one. Alan McIntosh, a 57-year-old Orlando man with cerebral palsy, relies on an aide to do just about anything requiring movement. "I don't know what he [Gov. Scott] is thinking," McIntosh said. "As it is, I'm just trying to survive."
His aide, Debbie Pascascio, works 24 hours a day, four days in a row, to care for McIntosh and two other people with severe disabilities. Though she did not want to reveal her salary, other aides say $800 a week for round-the-clock care is typical, and many workers receive no health insurance, sick leave or retirement benefits.
APD Chief of Staff Bryan Vaughan said his department had no choice. "These actions are necessary … so that we are not forced to eliminate services to this vulnerable population," he said in a news release issued late Thursday. "APD is committed to protecting the health and safety of Floridians with developmental disabilities while living within our budget."
But at the Threshold Center for Autism in Winter Park, former CEO and current board member Bob Wright said something has to give. Staffers there work with children and adults who are severely impaired and sometimes violent.
"If this were any other workplace, you would consider it a war zone," Wright said. "My staff gets bitten, hit, kicked, spat upon, defecated on, urinated on — for $8.23 an hour. And every time we start talking about giving our guys a pay raise, the governor comes along and cuts the rates."
The center has not had a rate increase for its services since 2005, and it has had several rounds of cuts since then. At the same time, training requirements for staffers have increased.
"The state can cut my rates by 15 percent, but I can't cut my staffing 15 percent or I'll be in violation of staffing ratios," Wright added. "This may break our backs."
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BizzyBee
One of the very first Tea Party winners - Sen. Scott Brown. I'm starting to like this guy:
Mar 31 2011
Scott Brown Letter To Senate Leadership On The Ongoing Budget Negotiations
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) sent the following letter today to both Senate leaders, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Budget Committee and Appropriations Committee. The letter outlines his views on the ongoing budget negotiations and the importance of reaching a compromise that takes steps toward tackling our debt and deficit:
Dear Senators Reid, McConnell, Conrad, Sessions, Inouye and Cochran:
Since the beginning of the 112th Congress, the House and Senate have been seeking common ground to finish the appropriations work for FY 2011. Sadly, rather than reaching a workable, bi-partisan solution to responsibly address our staggering deficit, we are repeatedly given a false choice between CR proposals that either don’t go far enough to reduce federal spending and proposals that set the wrong priorities that would disproportionately affect low-income families and seniors, while doing little to address critical, long-term issues.
I am disappointed that despite passing six different FY 2011 Continuing Resolutions, each with the understanding that passage would move bi-partisan negotiations further along, that we are once again faced with the likelihood of a government shutdown. A government shutdown absolutely serves no purpose and is in no one’s best interests. I stand ready to work with each of you, to do what it takes—and to put politics aside—and work on behalf of a greater good to ensure that Congress reach a bi-partisan compromise for FY 2011 and avoid a government shutdown.
Our collective work begins by having a clear understanding of the seriousness of our budget crisis and what is at stake if we fail to address it. We can all agree that we simply cannot continue on this reckless, unsustainable course. Reducing and eliminating needless spending and programs are appropriate, but a wholesale reduction in spending, without considering economic, cultural, and social impacts is simply irresponsible. We must also be mindful that many of the proposed spending reductions would disproportionately affect the neediest among us, including housing and heating assistance. Likewise, some of the proposed cuts would be economically counterproductive, negatively impacting our ability to innovate and invest in research and development.
Deficit reduction is a necessary goal for our country. But deficit reduction should not be achieved in isolation of our priorities as a government and a society. I believe that responsible and meaningful bi-partisan support must be found and forged if we are to achieve long-term fiscal stability. I intend to be a part of the discussions and the solutions for how to move our country forward, without eliminating programs that are successful, cost-effective, or critical to the livelihood of the neediest among us.
Thank you for your consideration.
Very respectfully,
Scott P. Brown
United States Senator
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Even Boehner and Gomert are waffling:
John Boehner, GOP May Not Be Hearing Tea Party Pals
First Posted: 03/31/11 07:00 PM ET Updated: 04/ 1/11 10:50 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The Tea Party roared Thursday. Or, it tried to, but it wasn't clear how well its demands were heard on Capitol Hill.
A couple hundred anti-tax activists braved a chilly drizzle outside the Senate in an unimpressive scene that was a far cry from the throngs that overflowed the Capitol grounds in past rallies.
The top demand was for GOP leaders to stick to their blueprint of cutting $61 billion from the rest of this year's budget.
Kathy Dirr, of Liberty Township, Ohio, in Majority Leader John Boehner's district, put it bluntly.
"I say to the Republican leadership, take off your lace panties, stop being noodle backs, take a strong, bold, unwavering stand," she told the rally, to great approval.
Mark Meckler, a Tea Party Patriot leader, told the Associated Press Boehner and others would face primaries if they fail.
But Boehner suggested to reporters he was willing to settle for "spending cuts that we can get an agreement to." Democrats are offering a compromise $33 billion in cuts.
And even Tea Party darling Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert told the Huffington Post there was room to make a deal -- although moments later he told his fans they should toss the GOP from office if they don't win the full $61 billion cut.
"We could work out some differences," Gohmert said, before taking the stage and praising the crowd for keeping lawmakers from caving.
"You bring calcium to those who need more of it for their backbone," Gohmert said to the crowd, adding that if Republicans fall short, "We deserve to be thrown out of office."
Gohmert wasn't alone in serving different rhetorical brews to the Tea Party and reporters.
Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), known as intractable even to his party leaders, fired up the crowd -- then suggested he also is willing to deal.
"The American people want us to be bolder than $30 billion," he told HuffPost, but did not rule out supporting the Dems' $33 billion offer. "It's hard to tell, because I don't know what it would include. But I want to vote for something that cuts a whole heck of a lot more than that."
Spending was not the only issue Tea Partyers may lose the GOP on. They also want Republicans to stick with several riders in the spending bill that fight the culture wars, including defunding Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio, and crippling EPA enforcement.
Senate Democrats have hinted they could entertain one such unrelated measure, but Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) served notice more would bring stalemate.
"If you're going to select riders, be very selective, and avoid those that are going to blow this deal up," Durbin told HuffPost, signaling the EPA measure was one.
If Republicans are not really listening to the Tea Party, which a CNN poll found on Wednesday was dropping in popularity, the Tea Partyers did not appear to be listening to the GOP rhetoric aimed at shifting the blame for a still potential government shutdown away from the activists and Republicans.
Even while Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) insisted the Tea Party doesn't want the government closed, people in the crowd hollered "Shut it down!"
They also repeatedly chanted "Cut it or shut it!"
Dirr explained that no one really wants it closed, but that may be the only "leverage" her side has."If it's necessary to shut the government down, then shut the government down," she said.
If the GOP wasn't listening, it's a good bet Democrats were. And it is likely they will point to it as proof it is the GOP's fault if the government runs out of money on April 8.
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Once they're elected, you have no control over them. Politics as usual.
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NeckBeard
Once they're elected, you have no control over them. Politics as usual.
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BizzyBee
Nice. That will go a long way toward civil discussion and silencing the criticism that the Tea Party advocates violence to get their way.
