So Called Security

Struggling to find something the electorate will find favor with them on, Dummycrat politicians are trying to scare seniors with Social Security privatization.

President Obama and Harry Reid have been leading the way and lately Rozanne, err Taxanne Conlin has received some press about it.

Seeing no hope for the future of her campaign, and the scientific community is united in that fact, Conlin held a press conference to attack Senator Grassley -- “I am fundamentally opposed to Chuck Grassley’s extreme plan to privatize Social Security and throw that safety net … into the reckless hands of the Wall Street bankers.”

John Stossel helped make a molehill out of that urban myth --

...retirees and near-retirees wouldn't have been affected by the 2008 stock-market decline. Only younger workers would have diverted some of their money from government to capital markets. They would have had time to recover (unless government continued to screw up and cripple the private sector).

"A typical retiree in 2008 would be entitled to a traditional Social Security benefit of around $15,700 per year. For workers who chose personal accounts, this traditional benefit would be reduced by around $7,800. However, the worker's personal account balance of $161,500 would pay an annual annuity benefit of around $10,100. This $2,300 net benefit increase would raise total Social Security benefits by around 15 percent."

"While today's retiree would have faced the subprime crisis and the tech bubble earlier in the decade, he also would have benefited from the bull markets of the 1980s and 1990s. The average return on his account -- 4.9 percent above inflation -- would more than compensate for a reduced traditional benefit."

Stossel notes -- Social Security is popular but unsustainable. Its commitments over the next 75 years exceed its expected revenue by $5.3 trillion. Politicians know this, but pander anyway.

Add Panderanne to her list of names, because Conlin's solution is to do nothing -- “We need not panic. This program can continue to pay full benefits until 2037 without any changes at all.”

She also won’t cut Social Security benefits, raise the retirement age above 67...

Back to Stossel -- Privatization is better. Everything that works well -- everything that brings innovation and prosperity -- comes from the private sector.

There's no ideal fix. But our best hope is separation of economy and government.

It's The Same Old Song

Taking another page out of the CommieTommie Harkin playbook, CONgressman Bruce Braley is trying to score points and scare seniors by saying -- a shutdown of the federal government would mean people would not be getting their Social Security benefits , it would mean they might not have access to VA care and a host of other federal programs

Exactly why I call him MiniCommie, and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Having been down the Social Security road before with Harkin, here are the facts --

Social Security checks would still go out. Troops would remain at their posts.

And virtually every essential government agency, like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, would remain open.

The air traffic control system, food inspection, Medicare, veterans' health care and many other essential government programs would run as usual. The Social Security Administration would not only send out benefits but would continue to take applications. The Postal Service, which is self-funded, would keep delivering the mail. Federal courts would remain open.

Back to Braley --

A reporter pointed out that there hasn’t been a delay in people getting Social Security checks in the past under a shutdown.

WOW!

Color me stunned.

Braley says it’s a matter of semantics as it would impact the people who are newly enrolled in Social Security. “If one American citizen is denied a benefit they are eligible for, that’s something that should concern congress

IF.

Sounds like a politician/lawyer.

It's also similar to -- It depends on what the meaning of the word IS is.

Worst Case Scenario?

The brain trust that is the Ragister editorial board went on an ignore rant today about the debt ceiling.

We need to ignore disaster scenario deniers

The Ragister tells readers(?) that legislation Congressman Steve King is pushing, setting priorities for which payments are made first, with interest on the national debt and pay for members of the U.S. military at the top of the list, means that almost no other obligations of the federal government could be fully paid for.

BUZZ--WRONG!

As I pointed out, Tell The Truth, August revenues will total $172.4 Billion and after paying the debt interest, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Active duty military pay and Veterans affairs progams, the federal government will have $38.4 Billion still to spend.

The Ragister is worried about salaries for members of Congress, to which I say




And the scientific community is united in that fact.

Obama, Biden and the unidentified Obama staff members who owe the Internal Revenue Service $831,000 in back taxes should forget about being paid too!

While we're at it, cancel that trip to Chicago for your 50th birthday -- LAME-O!

Back to the Ragister, they say it is not fear-mongering to say there would be no money to pay employees to process Social Security and Medicare checks, even if a stream of revenue could be protected for those entitlements (See previous revenue scenario paragraph).

There's another crisis that Obama and the Dummycrats don't want to deal with.

Debt crisis punctures Social Security Trust Fund myth

Haven't Washington's professional politicians been telling us for decades that Social Security is in no danger of bankruptcy because of those trillions of dollars supposedly just sitting there in the Social Security Trust Fund?

The Scheme

Rick Perry has come under fire, from pretty much everyone and the scientific community is united in that fact, for his position on Social Security.

It appears Chris Matthews agrees it is a Ponzi scheme in the sense that the money that’s paid out every day is coming from people who have paid in that day.

SmartMoney says -- Today's workers — boomers, Gens X and Y — like to carp about Social Security, but it's not all sour grapes or skepticism about paying into a system with an uncertain future. Employees today pay more in Social Security taxes than previous generations did. They're also likely to get smaller benefits when it's their turn to retire.

SmartMoney also noted -- It's common to think of Social Security as an individual account of sorts — what you pay in, you get back, more or less. That's far from accurate. By design, the Social Security Administration says, the system is tilted in favor of lower-income workers who have fewer resources to save for retirement.

Perry just needs to back it up with these types of facts.

Lies

Iowa's junior Senator, CommieTommie Harkin, is trying to rile up the elderly while spreading lies about any possible government shutdown.

Harkin says GOP spending cuts will hit Main Street Iowa

Harkin said if a government shutdown did occur, Social Security and disability payments would stop, employees of the federal government wouldn’t be able to go to work, the Internal Revenue Service would halt, and there would be interruptions to veteran’s programs.

BUZZ--WRONG!

As the Liter noted earlier (Misinformation)...

Social Security checks would still go out.

The air traffic control system, food inspection, Medicare, veterans' health care and many other essential government programs would run as usual. The Social Security Administration would not only send out benefits but would continue to take applications. The Postal Service, which is self-funded, would keep delivering the mail. Federal courts would remain open.

Troops would remain at their posts.

And virtually every essential government agency, like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, would remain open.

Here's more from CommieTommie --

“You’ve got some people on the House side...who are being totally unreasonable.”

Harkin added --

“I just don’t think I can support any kind of a bill that just makes spending cuts without also raising revenue...".

That's unreasonable and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Fine, if you want to raise revenue then let's sell $767 billion in land, $421 billion in “mineral rights” and $1.17 trillion in fixed reproducible capital (things like buildings and machinery) and $290 billion in inventory owned by the federal government.

Need more?

Selling off shares of General Motors could bring in an estimated $18 billion.

Then there's always the $100 billion and $200 billion in duplicative spending CONgress could clean up.

A few Billion here and a few Trillion there, now we're getting somewhere.

Misinformation

Eastern Iowa Government, a website of the Cedar Rapids Gazette and KCRG TV, ran this story

Eastern Iowa Offices Plan for Government Shutdown

It contained this erroneous information --

Military benefit checks and social security would be effected as well, if a resolution is not reached in time.

The President and fellow Dummycrats believe this, but the press should know better and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Psst. No shutdown during a 'government shutdown'

Social Security checks would still go out. Troops would remain at their posts.

And virtually every essential government agency, like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, would remain open.

The air traffic control system, food inspection, Medicare, veterans' health care and many other essential government programs would run as usual. The Social Security Administration would not only send out benefits but would continue to take applications. The Postal Service, which is self-funded, would keep delivering the mail. Federal courts would remain open.

The Weak, err Week Ahead

The cartoon is funny and sad at the same time and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Here's the thoughts of a couple of Iowa CONgressman on the coming health care debacle...

Dave No Sack...err Loebsack calls it “highly significant stuff”.

Gee, Thanks professor.

The health-care glass “is more than half-full, as far as I’m concerned.”

“This is a real piece of legislation that will do real good for millions of Americans, I’m proud to be associated with it.”

Obviously not a professor of English.

"...I have no doubt we Democrats are going to do awfully well in the fall.”

I believe he's half right.

CONgressman Bruce Braley...

“I feel very confident we will be in the majority at the end of this election.”

We'll see, time wounds all heels.

Braley also said he believes there will be a shift in public attitudes about health care reform, just as there was with other major programs, such as Social Security.

“There were naysayers and doubters that made it very difficult to get those bills passed,” he said. “But then over time the public came to see the important contributions they had to our social compact and now they are very wildly popular programs."

Social Security is not viewed as "wildly popular" by anyone below 62.

Lastly, what's wrong with this sentence?

Typically, the party out of power loses congressional seats in the first election after a presidential contest.

That would be the word "out" Alex, because typically the party in power loses seats in mid term elections.

Thanks for playing Ed Tibbetts and the Quad City Times.

Its only make believe

Iowa was greeted by this headline from the Ragister...

Report: Illegal workers no burden

The report cited comes from the Iowa Policy Project.

According to O.P.P., err I.P.P.

undocumented workers pay nearly as much in taxes as citizens in Iowa, but they receive fewer government services in return.

Really?

Based on what?

Its an ESTIMATE based on two HYPOTHETICAL Iowa families, one legal and one illegal.

The researchers found that the undocumented family would pay about $1,671 in taxes - $1,254 in sales and excise taxes, $110 in property taxes (as part of their rent) and $307 in state income taxes. That's about 80 percent of the amount paid by an Iowa family with the same income.

You can't count paying rent as paying property taxes!

One of the people who produced the study then makes the the gigantic leap that...

If illegal immigrants are working with false Social Security numbers, they pay federal Social Security and Medicare taxes. It is possible for people with fraudulent documents to apply for state programs, but they are unlikely to do so for fear of getting caught.

Because their such law abiding citizens? Yeah sure!

I.P.P. says on its web site...

"Providing fact-based analysis to engage Iowans in an informed discussion of public policy..."

Estimates and Hypotheticals are not fact based and the scientific community is united in that fact.

I.P.P. is nothing more than a Fiberal front led by social activist David Osterberg.

BTW...In 2002, Osterberg and four colleagues toured Northern Europe on solar powered bicycles to bring attention to global climate change and explore renewable energy methods in other countries.

Solar Powered Bicycles?

The pedal kind were contributing to "Gore-bull" warming?

Sad Scare Tactic

With Halloween coming before Election Day, CommieTommie Harkin is out scaring Senior Citizens about Social Security.

Harkin told reporters on a conference call arranged by the Iowa Democratic Party that personal accounts are the first step in a GOP plan to eliminate the 75-year-old program.

“If Republicans take control of Congress, that’s one of the first things they’ll do,” Harkin said. “They’ll start doing away with Social Security.”

The only ones who keep talking about this are Dummycrats who need to demagogue the issue for votes, its not in the Republican Pledge To America.

Let's just humor Harkin and say it is.

It appears Iowa's Junior Senator, after serving 35 years in CONgress, needs a refresher on how a bill becomes a law and the scientific community is united in that fact.

President Obama would VETO any such bill and it would lack the sufficient two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate be overridden.

Tell The Truth

President Obama is being less than truthful when he says --

"I cannot guarantee that those checks (Social Security) go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it."

The U.S. will take in $172.4 billion in revenue from August 3 to 31 and will pay out $29 billion a month in interest payments on the debt.

Social Security will cost about $49. 2 billion.

Medicare and Medicaid will cost about $50 billion.

Active duty military pay will cost about $2.9 billion.

Veterans affairs programs will cost about $2.9 billion.

That leaves $38.4 Billion and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The only thing we have to fear, is four more years of hope and change.

The Chain

Protest of “chained CPI” at Federal Building in Des Moines

I love it went the leftsists protest the President they elected and then re-elected.

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

The Social Security Administration says it has been using the Consumer Price Index to measure inflation for the cost-of-living adjustments since legislation instituting automatic cost-of-living increases was enacted in 1972.

Even when inflation was so low that COLA didn't kick in, the politicians in CONgress could always get a a few more dollars into retirees checks to keep that voting bloc sated.

Also, Danny Homan may not be a good example to hold up to the public as someone worried about retirement.

The Head of ASSME will probably triple dip, receiving dollars from IPERS, his union and Social Security.

The turnout was pathetic too, as these Fiberals (Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans, several labor groups and other liberal entities) had alerted the media at least 5 days prior to the event.

Radio Iowa had the crowd(?) at about 40 and the Ragister was more than generous with its guestimate of about 50.

Pawlenty of Cantor

A lot of Conservatives have got their panties in a bunch worried that John McCain is going to pick a pro-choice veep.

They're especially indignant that he may select his friend Joe Lieberman, especially with him speaking at the Republican Convention.

I'll let this editorial from the Wall Street Journal speak to that...

Mr. Lieberman would make a fine Secretary of State, and that, given the political risks, making him vice president would probably be too great an election gamble. But Mr. Lieberman's national security credentials are first-rate, and we've known him long enough to remember his opposition to an income tax in Connecticut, and his support for lower capital gains taxes, school vouchers and private Social Security accounts. Liberated from having to run as a Democrat, he might recall those policy instincts.

Its obvious that McCain needs youth on the ticket, to balance his age and that of Obama, and the scientific community is united in that fact.

I was hoping that he would select Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and would have been content with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

I went to bed last night thinking he would select Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Good & Pawlenty would have been the headline, but this morning I noticed that Virginia Representative Eric Cantor is not listed as a Convention Speaker and that is who I am picking as McCain's running mate.

There's more on Cantor here and here.

That selection would put an end to the pissing and moaning of some Conservatives who love this Country so much they would be willing to let it go to hell in a handbag by staying home election day.

In the words of John McCain...

"If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you are disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and correct them."

And

"Serve a cause greater than oneself".

Junior's Wailing

The subtitle of this post could be -- Shit my Socialist Senator says and the scientific community is united in that fact.

It was quite a quote-a-bull week for CommieTommie Harkin.

In celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act's 22nd anniversary, Harkin told the press he is working with business, government and non-profit groups in an effort to add 1 million people with disabilities to the nation’s labor force by 2015, which would be a 20 percent increase.

I contacted the Senator to inquire as to how many people with disabilities are on his staff and how many more he'll be hiring, but I have yet to hear back from Harkin.

My gut tells me it'll be similar to how Harkin handles Equal Pay for women.

Harkin harps on the issue, but in reality he's been found to pay men 23.2% more than the women in his office.

Tofu Tom also talked about Meatless Mondays, telling the press -- “I don’t eat as much meat as I used to. I grew up eating meat three times a day. You know, we just don’t eat that way anymore. We used to. I still consume my fair share, but not as much as I used to, I can tell you that.”

That either signals the end of his annual Steak Fry, or Tom's just chewing his cud.

Speaking on sequestration, which mandates cuts in federal spending, Harkin is warning against making deeper cuts in non-defense spending to spare the defense industry. Some cuts make sense, such as reducing funding for the F-22 stealth fighter, which he called a “Cold War relic.”

That must be why Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (Dummycrat) is deploying one F-22 squadron to Japan's Kadena Air Base--in the backyard of China and North Korea.

The permanent basing of the super-stealthy, super-fast fighter jet comes as the Obama administration is shifting America's national security and foreign policy focus to the Asia-Pacific region. China for years has been developing advanced radars and anti-aircraft weapons. Sending in Raptors during any conflict with China would constitute Washington's best hope at evading those radars and destroying them, the anti-aircraft systems, and other targets ahead of a broader military campaign.

Harkin also wants revenue increases.

Sometimes Harkin calls them revenue enhancements, but revenue increases are tax increases.

Someplace else CommieTommie wants a tax increase is subjecting income above $110,100 to the payroll tax, bringing more money into the Social Security System.

It's all part of his scheme to solve the retirement crisis.

Harkin hopes to implement a privately operated hybrid pension plan that would be overseen by a group composed of employee, retiree and employer representatives. People who do not have access to a retirement fund would have universal access to the system, and would pay into it through an automatic payroll deduction from their paychecks into a larger pool along with other active employees and retirees. A person could choose to change their contribution level or opt out of the program entirely.

HUH?

Everybody's Right & Wrong at the same time

Both Verizon & BellSouth have denied they gave the government, the National Security Agency, customer call data regarding domestic calls or that it had been asked to do so. That would be consistent with what President Bush and the administration have said. The hang up (pun intended) is with the USA Today article of May 10, "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls". The writers of the story keep referring to phone call records, but their anonymous sources state that, "Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information." As I said in my post on May 12 (I say the N.S.A. is OK), the phone companies own the telephone numbers. Therefore it would not be difficult for the N.S.A. to create a database using telephone numbers. Obviously it would be easier if the telephone numbers were provided by long distance carriers vs. regional carriers, there would be less telephone numbers involved. The USA Today article also states that, "The agency today is considered expert in the practice of "data mining" — sifting through reams of information in search of patterns. Data mining is just one of many tools NSA analysts and mathematicians use to crack codes and track international communications.

Paul Butler, a former U.S. prosecutor who specialized in terrorism crimes, said FISA approval generally isn't necessary for government data-mining operations. "FISA does not prohibit the government from doing data mining,"

The caveat, he said, is that "personal identifiers" — such as names, Social Security numbers and street addresses — can't be included as part of the search. "That requires an additional level of probable cause".

The problem is the mainstream media need for a conspiracy when there isn't one, and politicians without backbone who keep focusing on the wrong aspect of the story. They see illegal wiretapping and privacy invasions when the reality is it's legal data-mining of telephone numbers.

A day without illegals, is like...

M&M's in the jowls of a bulldog, "It's gonna be a good day tater". My apologies to Ron White. It has its plusses per Representative Tom Tancredo, (R) Colorado. For an article in National Review Online, Tancredo states...

Hospital emergency rooms across the southwest would have about 20-percent fewer patients, and there would be 183,000 fewer people in Colorado without health insurance.

OBGYN wards in Denver would have 24-percent fewer deliveries and Los Angeles’s maternity-ward deliveries would drop by 40 percent and maternity billings to Medi-Cal would drop by 66 percent.

Youth gangs would see their membership drop by 50 percent in many states, and in Phoenix, child-molestation cases would drop by 34 percent and auto theft by 40 percent.

In Durango, Colorado, and the Four Corners area, the methamphetamine epidemic would slow for one day, as the 90 percent of that drug now being brought in from Mexico was held in Albuquerque and Farmington a few hours longer. According to the sheriff of La Plata County, Colorado, meth is now being brought in by ordinary illegal aliens as well as professional drug dealers.

Colorado taxpayers would save almost $3,000,000 in one day if illegals do not access any public services, because illegal aliens cost the state over $1 billion annually according to the best estimates.

Colorado’s jails and prisons would have 10-percent fewer inmates, and Denver and many other towns would not need to build so many new jails to accommodate the overcrowding.

Our highway patrol and county sheriffs would have about far fewer DUI arrests and there would be a dramatic decline in rollovers of vanloads of illegal aliens on I-70 and other highways...

Sounds like statistics Representative Steve King, (R) Iowa, was skewered for by the Ragister last Thursday. According to King, if there were no "illegal invaders...there would be no one to smuggle across our border the heroin, marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines that plague the United States. . . . The lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day. . . . Our hospital emergency rooms would not be flooded. . . . Eight American children would not suffer the horror as a victim of a sex crime." King called the May 1st boycott, "Nothing Gringo Day" and "Bite The Hand That Feeds You Day." Actually the May Day celebration in Mexico was called, "A Day Without Gringos." There boycotts against U.S. goods and companies were endorsed by government officials. Mexico's restive union movement, which traditionally holds rallies on May 1, dedicated this year's march to the legalization of undocumented workers in the United States and President Vicente Fox called for a migration accord that would legalize the millions of undocumented Mexican workers living in the United States. Undocumented? I don't think so! These people purchase fake licenses and social security cards. Which is illegal, I do believe! The Associated Press ran a couple of interesting quotes, "We are the backbone of what America is, legal or illegal, it doesn't matter, said Melanie Lugo, who joined a rally in Denver. HUH? Let me say that again backwards....HUH? Then there's this gem, "I want my children to know their mother is not a criminal," said Benita Olmedo, a nanny who came here illegally in 1986 from Mexico...Seems to me illegal actions would make one a criminal. The A.P. also noted, "In Chicago, illegal immigrants from Ireland and Poland marched alongside Hispanics". I don't care where they're from if they're ILLEGAL! My Italian grandfather migrated to this country and became a legal citizen, even learning the English language! I did find it interesting that WHO TV13 had a news story stating that Victoria Cleaners could not offer their usual same day service because of workers who took part in the boycott. The taped piece showed workers of Southeast Asian heritage toiling away pressing clothes. The owner stated they were offered the day off too, but chose to work. Isn't that ironic! I'm going to take a silly, wild ass guess and say they're LEGAL immigrants! CNN's Lou Dobbs weighed in with this....It is no accident that they chose May 1 as their day of demonstration and boycott. It is the worldwide day of commemorative demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and even anarchic organizations. Dobbs noted, "that ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) has become an active promoter of the national boycott." Even those among the left admit that ANSWER is a Marxist organization. Dobbs also took on meat-packing companies like Cargill and Tyson who closed many of their plants."The meat packers are confirming what we know," says University of Maryland economics professor Peter Morici, "and that is that this large group of illegal aliens in the United States is lowering the wage rate of semiskilled workers, people who are high school dropouts or high school graduates with minimal training."In fact, a meat-packing job paid $19 an hour in 1980, but today that same job pays closer to $9 an hour, according to the Labor Department. That's entirely consistent with what we've been reporting -- that illegal aliens depress wages for U.S. workers by as much as $200 billion a year in addition to placing a tremendous burden on hospitals, schools and other social services...Looks like I need to get back to buying my beef from my friend T.J. He has a small family owned business butcher his cattle. I feel good having done my part to derail the boycott by spending my money, but I'm only one Gringo!

Hey Grandma

From the looks of it, Rozanne, err Taxanne Conlin has a history with empty chairs.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate candidate held a one hour debate with an empty chair.

One Hour?

That explains why the Des Moines Register felt that Conlin was not an especially impressive choice for the job of U.S. senator.

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

It probably took that long because Conlin and the chair hold several similar positions.

Neither wants to do anything about the unsustainability of Social Security and both can be found in various tax shelters.

Maybe next time she can debate CommieTommie Harkin about his same yes vote on the Wall Street Bailout (vote 213, 10/1/08) that she's attacking Charles Grassley for.

Chain Of Fools

I can't wait for each new day to see what new depths Team Obama/Biden will sink to.

Yesterday, before a crowd of 666 err 660, Biden Invokes Paul Ryan's Deceased Father to Question VP Candidate's Values

"My dad used to have another saying, for real. And, by the way, I've been saying this for 30 years...But my dad [had] a lot of wisdom. Every time someone tell you, say, 'Look, let me tell you what's important to me, what I value.' My dad would go, 'No, no. Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.'"

Team Obama/Biden values debt so much that you'd swear they're bankruptcy lawyers and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Although he has served less than a term, Obama is now the first American president to see the federal government's debt increase by more than $5 trillion during his time in office.

Today, Biden told supporters that Republicans would “put y’all back in chains” and imitates the sign language lady while doing it, which received inconsiderate and insensitive laughter from the audience.

It's the Massuh Guv'mint of Obama/Biden that is keeping this country in chains.

Real economic growth during the recovery – now three years old – has averaged 2.2%, less than half of the historic average for post recession rebounds.

There are 1.1 million fewer people on non-farm payrolls today than when President Obama took office.

The unemployment rate has been above 8% for 42 consecutive months, the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression.

An increase of 18 million people, to 46 million Americans now receiving food stamps

A 122% increase in food stamp spending to an estimated $89 billion this year from $40 billion in 2008

An increase of 3.6 million people receiving Social Security disability payments

A 10 million person increase in the number of individuals receiving welfare, to 107 million, or more than one-third of the U.S. population

A 34%, $683 billion reduction in the adjusted gross income of the top 1% to $1.3 trillion in 2009 (latest data) from its 2007 peak

Cast off your chains, because clearly you are not better off than you were four years ago.

Shut Down?

Both WHO HD and KCCI covered the local angle of a possible federal government shutdown.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: Federal employees in Iowa await answers, budget agreement

Is the headline at WHO HD and in the story they mentioned that AFGE members held a protest Wednesday outside the Social Security office in Des Moines.

13's video is here.

How Will Government Shutdown Impact Iowa is the headline for their video report.

Not all the "protesters" were AFGE members and the scientific community is united in that fact.

It must have been a slow day at the Statehouse as Dummycrat State Representative Bruce Hunter (pictured) was a sign holder.

Your tax dollars at work?

Hunter was joined by his wife, who is the State Political Director for Iowa Federation of Labor, and the organizer for the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans at the Iowa Fed.

The D Moines Register

In a less than stunning development the Ragister endorses the Dummycrat woman (Becky Greenwald) for CONgress running against a long term incumbent (Tom Latham), but supports a first term Dummycrat CONgressman (Dave Loebsack) against a Republican woman (Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks).

This is what they said about the woman they didn't support...

Like most campaign newcomers, including Loebsack two years ago, her knowledge of many issues is shallow. But her background indicates she'd come up to speed quickly.

This is what they said about the woman they did...

When asked about a number of subjects, she in essence described the positions of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama: health care (expand access to coverage and let consumers buy into government insurance plans), Social Security (tax income beyond current levels to shore up the system's finances), and withdrawal of troops from Iraq (do so as quickly as safely possible).

Those are good approaches to those issues, and they generally differ from Latham's, but she showed little evidence of having considered alternative approaches, an exception being her support for more domestic oil drilling.

Greenwald also didn't seem to understand the complexities of the looming financial shortfall in Medicare, perhaps the biggest fiscal issue facing the country.

It's expected that a challenger will have less knowledge about many issues than a longtime incumbent. But Greenwald failed to show she had boned up significantly on the issues since the editorial board first met with her in May before the primary.

They chose the dope (Greenwald) over hope (Miller-Meeks) and the scientific community is united in that fact.

World Of Hurt

On Wednesday, CommieTommie Harkin whined, the federal government shutdown will hurt medical research and have a negative impact on the Social Security Administration, Head Start classes and other important  programs.

On Thursday, Harkin and his fellow Senate Dummycrats put party before Country (and the scientific community is united in that fact) by following Majority Leader Harry Reid and blocking a House bill providing funding to reopen national parks along with funding for the National Institutes of Health, the military reserves and National Guard, and veterans affairs

Reid: ‘Why Would We Want To’ Help One Kid With Cancer?

Senate Dummycrats need only look in the mirror to see the source of the negative impact.