Not much needs to be said about this video, since Rep. Debra Maggart (R-Hendersonville) lays it out on the table for us: since “all these people” get public housing and buy beer and cigarettes, they have to have a photo ID already.
Following the release of a stunning poll showing “two-thirds of the public say an agreement to raise the debt limit should include tax hikes for wealthy Americans and corporations, not just spending cuts,” top economy hostage-keeper and Congresswoman Diane Black tries her hand at damage control. Quoting the Credit Rating Bureau Standard & Poors, she tsk-tsks the negotiations over the debt ceiling:
“Look no further than this week’s announcements by Standard & Poor and Moody’s credit agencies. In the July 13th statement from Moody’s, they announced that the organization “has placed the AAA bondrating of the government of the United States on review for possible downgrade given the rising possibilitythat the statutory debt limit will not be raised on a timely basis, leading to a default on US Treasurydebt obligations.”
Indeed, what the Obama Administration has been warning us of for months is true. The US is at serious risk of losing it’s AAA credit rating if it doesn’t forge a balanced solution to the deficit. Given the citizenry’s mood and growing demands for fair revenue increases, has she decided to do the rational thing and raise revenues by closing tax loop-holes and putting a end to billionaire tax dodgers? Don’t for a minute imagine that. What, give up the hostage by improving our Nation’s fiscal health & security? Never! You see, the GOP still believes that we must… wait for it… stop spending. Period. Oh the nightmare of… spending!
Never mind that the debt ceiling must be raised not to accomodate new spending, but to pay the bills they’ve already run up in the previous decade. I guess it’s like when you buy your billionaire friends extravagant Christmas presents using Great-Aunt Betty’s credit cards: “…and here’s a big contract for you Halliburton, and a big tax dodge for you Exxon-Mobil, and we wouldn’t forget the Koch boys: here’s a big stocking of risky mortgage lending deregulation. Have fun!” Then, instead of paying the balances, just shred the bills when they arrive in the mail box . “Aw, too bad Aunt Betty, your credit rating is ruined! But here’s a can of cat food. Oh, were you going to pay for prenatal appointments for your daughter’s first pregnancy? Oops. And that retraining program for your out-of-work son? Not gonna happen. Buh-bye, I’ve got some stocks & bonds to count!”
Diane’s Black and her partners have the answer to it all:
“In order to restore certainty in our economy to bolster job growth and keep America competitive, we need to stop spending money we don’t have.”
Really? With a plan called “Cut Cap and Balance” that breathes not a word about raising revenues, Black and the GOP truly believe that Americans are stupid enough to agree with this Cut Down America Plan? We’ll see our communities gutted, our homes foreclosed on, and our personal incomes eclipsed by inflation (if we haven’t already been laid off) and still line up behind the GOP to blame Obama and vote for Michelle BachMittPerry?
In fact, spending money they don’t have is exactly what the GOP is best at, except they only spend it on their billionaire bosses and cronies. Remember the rationale behind the “temporary” Bush tax cuts? There was a surplus that year! Yay! Money! We were rolling in it! The fact that it was a Democratic administration’s surplus that should have been locked-down for future Social Security solvency didn’t stop the burning hole in their GOP pocket. What better way to transfer those assets to the upper crust than to “cut” taxes. Now they want the cuts to rain down on the working and middle class. For the surplus is spent but the greed never leaves them, their appetite must be fed.
No, the Congresswoman has decidedly NOT come to her senses. Clearly that the word “balance” is beyond her reckoning. She closes:
“All politics aside, I am committed to getting our country’s fiscal house in order. This burden of debt will be with us long after the debate over raising the debt limit is decided, and I am in this fight for the long haul. Securing our country’s fiscal future remains a top priority of mine, one that will last well past August 2nd.”
Is she lying, or does she believe that the condition of her stock portfolio & her fellow millionaires tax write-offs is the measure of our great Nation’s fiscal future? I would not doubt that her vision is so narrow and her ideology so rigid that she believes that if she is doing well, the rest of us must be just fine. What, Aunt Betty’s eating cat food? Who could have predicted? I am here to report that millions of Americans, no less the hundreds of thousands of her constituents here in the 6th district, will be soon telling her she is mistaken.
Tonight Congresswoman Diane Black will be hosting a town hall meeting in Sumner County and we hope to see you there! The meeting begins at 5p.m. at Hendersonville City Hall in the main meeting room. Below are some facts you may want to know before coming tonight!
Diane Black’s Lies by Omission
In an e-mail to constituents last week, Diane Black repeatedly left out key facts as she tried to blame the current economic struggle on Pres. Obama. Here is just a small sampling of her lies:
“Under the current Administration, the cost of energy has skyrocketed. In January of 2009, the national average price of gasoline was $1.84. Today it is $3.95.”
In Sept. 2008, during the Bush Administration, gas prices were $3.84, right at what we have been paying in the last few weeks. (Consumer Reports)
“But even with gas prices at near all-time highs, the White House has continued to block and delay American energy production.”
Gas prices are high right now because of speculation and record-breaking profits of oil companies and refineries, NOT because of a lack in production. (Kansas City Star)
Also, Pres. Obama is putting American resources into green energy–energy that would be created right here in America while creating even more jobs here at home. (Politico)
“The Administration’s six-month official moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in up to 12,000 jobs lost in the Gulf alone.”
Diane Black obviously failed to mention the moratorium was issued because of a billion dollar environmental and economic catastrophe, called the Deepwater-Horizon oil spill.
Diane Black Takes Aim at Tennessee Values
This year in Congress, Diane Black has:
Rep. Diane Black defends her plan to privatize Medicare, which puts big insurance companies in charge of health care coverage for seniors — a plan that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says will raise out of pocket costs for seniors by more than $6,500 a year.
From the Herald Citizen:
School board member Janet Moore got up to speak about Medicare.
“I think we do have to turn the costs down, but there are other ways to do it rather than eliminating Medicare,” she said. “If the Ryan plan passes, seniors will have to pay more of their health care costs and that’s not a solution. It puts more costs on the backs of seniors.”
Black responded that Medicare is sustainable under the Ryan program and it will be there.
“The program will be in the market…when you put things in the market, it will increase competition and it drives prices down,” Black said.
“Seniors struggle (with the costs of health care,)” Moore said.
“We have got to face the facts — this is simply not sustainable,” Black said.
The Paul Ryan budget plan, which every Tennessee Republican voted for, will raise the out of pocket costs of health care for 1 million Tennessee Medicare enrollees, while at the same time delivering nearly $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, such as Rep. Diane Black.
What: Town Hall Meeting hosted by Congressman Diane Black
When: Monday, May 16 at 5:00 p.m.
Where: Hendersonville City Hall, 101 Maple Drive North
Facebook Link: Click Here
Rep. Diane Black will be hosting her first town hall meeting in Sumner County since becoming our Congressman. It’s imperative that we show up and ask her about the votes she has been casting in Washington, because those votes are NOT being cast for hardworking Sumner Countians, but for wealthy folks like Congressman Black, who is worth over $30 million.
So far, Rep. Black has voted to END MEDICARE, and give millionaires like herself tax breaks. She also voted to extend tax breaks for oil companies, like ExxonMobil, who continue to post record-breaking profits while we pay $4.00 a gallon at the pumps!
Message Matters News from the TNDP FactCheck.Org