[Vision2020] Budget cuts could slash $1B from vets health care

Tue Jan 3 23:54:11 PST 2012

Thanks, Keely, for your response.  You said it all, I think, but I wanted to
add a couple of comments.

Keely wrote:

"The only answer isn't to cut spending.  Cutting waste, bloat, and fraud --
yes."

The irony, of course, is that to detect fraud in any meaningful way, you
have to have sufficient staff to do so.  Given the "government is bad"
attitude that permeates & results in funding cuts, spotting fraud just ain't
gonna happen when there aren't enough "worker bees" to do the basics, let
alone look for fraud . . . and I think we all know that the administrative
bloat isn't in any position to look because they are far removed from the
source & too busy justifying their personal paycheck bloat.  And, with
respect to human services, there's a ton of fraud that's happened under the
banner of privatization, or has the GOP missed that inconvenient fact in
spite of extremely visible instances?

Keely also wrote:

"But vital human services are just that, vital, and are part of not just a
social safety net, but a contract between taxpayers and the government to
whom they pay those taxes."

Amen!  One of many things that puzzles me is this attack on Social Security
and Medicare & the inane suggestions that they should be privatized.

First, am I the only one whose grandparents told me what it was like for
their parents and grandparents before Social Security, Medicare, &
Medicaid?!  Surely that can't be the case with all those stalwart "family
values" kind of GOPers, can it?

I just had a birthday, so I'll 'fess up to just turning 51 - do the math.  I
have very clear recollections of three of my five grandparents telling me
what life was like for those before Social Security & Medicare - is that
knowledge not something everyone in my age group has?  And, each grandparent
had stories of this or that unfortunate child/young adult/aged community
member turned over to the "state" because the family just couldn't
financially care for them.   As some know, my roots run deep in the midwest
& south - these were hard-working, salt of the earth people so frugal they
squeaked.  At the time, I was ignorant of politics so never asked, but I
think my grandparents were likely Republicans . . . yet they told me of the
importance of that "safety net," and what was the consequence of the absence
for other hard-working, salt of the earth people in their generations.

What in the world has happened that those important lessons have been
forgotten?!

Second, part of the explanation might be the frank ignorance of the GOP.
Did anyone see 60 Minutes on Sunday when Eric Cantor's press secretary made
an absolute ass of himself insisting that Reagan didn't raise taxes?  I used
the word 'ignorance' to be generous; a more logical explanation would be
revisionist history of the disgusting kind.  The sad result, though, is that
people actually believe that lie.  Please, dear Lord, preserve philosophy &
political science classes so our youth at least has a hope of learning the
facts rather than listening to crackpots like Cantor, Boehner, Paul, etc.,
tell blatant lies.

Third, it is completely mind-boggling to me that anyone with a brain cell
would continue to advocate the privatization of crucial programs like
Medicare & Social Security given the Wall Street crisis & revelations.  I
don't know about anyone else here, but I worked hard, saved, invested
"sensibly"  . . . and took a huge financial hit in The Troubles.  It
absolutely makes me nauseous to think that my parents & grandparents would
been true victims of Wall Street greed had they had to depend on "sensible
market" investments - rather than Social Security --  to ensure their
retirements, and my heart breaks for those amongst us who bought into that
crap.  If folks didn't learn anything from the private pension fund raids so
many hard-working Americans have been victims of, I don't know that common
sense has any hope in this country L

I've rambled on too long already, so I'll wind up with . . .

Keely also wrote:

"Let's assume that good Americans ought to face taxation that's fair,
proportional, reasonable and brings in revenue that's spent wisely, building
our nation and not tearing down others.  That would seem to be neither a
Democratic nor a Republican position -- just a solid, fair, strong and
pro-American one."

Again, amen!

I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the way, the GOP got
ordinary people to think paying one's fair share was a sin while my parents'
& grandparents' attitudes were that they were very proud of paying their
fair shares of taxes to help this nation continue to be great.  Conservative
though they may have been, the notion of "off-shoring" jobs to allow some to
live in obscene opulence would have been frankly unfathomable to them.
<shaking my head>

JMHO,

Saundra Lund

Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.

~Edmund Burke

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of keely emerinemix
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 2:02 PM
To: dickow at turbonet.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Budget cuts could slash $1B from vets health care

I spent most of the 1970s sporting a pin that said "Wouldn't it be a great
day if schools had the money they needed and the Air Force had to hold a
bake sale to buy a new bomber?"  A woman can dream, can't she?

No, Paul -- The only answer isn't to cut spending.  Cutting waste, bloat,
and fraud -- yes.  But vital human services are just that, vital, and are
part of not just a social safety net, but a contract between taxpayers and
the government to whom they pay those taxes.  To a large extent,
infrastructure maintenance and additions are, too.  Cutting spending in
areas and on projects left wallowing because of the eight years of horror
that was the Bush administration -- eight years that took us from surplus to
debt by waging two wars while slashing tax revenues -- is penny wise and
pound foolish.  Ronald Reagan, who raised taxes several times during his
administration, also took the richest Americans from a 70 percent income tax
to a level half that.  No one wants to go to 70 percent again, but today's
pledge-signing GOP wants to give away the farm.  No reasonable person
believes that the debt can be addressed without asking those who most
benefit both from the liberties preserved by those wars as well as from the
tax policies currently in hand to pay a reasonable percentage of their
income.  It seems beyond belief that the GOP also believes that overseas
profits made by U.S. corporations should be off-limits as well.  I'd love to
slash welfare programs and actually RAISE revenue -- that is, do away with
policies that coddle the superwealthy and spend wisely the revenue that that
attracts.  But don't penalize veterans, students, the elderly, the sick, the
unemployed and the already-struggling.  And don't "penalize" the rich --
just respect the needs of the citizenry by asking that they do what the rest
of us have to.  

Let's assume that good Americans ought to face taxation that's fair,
proportional, reasonable and brings in revenue that's spent wisely, building
our nation and not tearing down others.  That would seem to be neither a
Democratic nor a Republican position -- just a solid, fair, strong and
pro-American one.

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com

  _____  

From: dickow at turbonet.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 12:27:30 -0800
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Budget cuts could slash $1B from vets health care

Another solution is the take in more revenue to offset expenses. Since
increased taxation seems to be a dirty word, how about car washes and bake
sales? We have do it at the community level, in schools, etc, why not the
Fed? Shouldn't the government have a PayPal 'Donate Now' button on their
website?

Bob Dickow, troublemaker

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Paul Rumelhart

<snip>

The simple fact is that we are spending more than we are taking in.  The
simplest solution is to stop spending so much.

Paul

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