Top of the agenda: avoiding cuts to Medicare and Social Security

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Friday November 09, 2012 · 1:46 AM PST

2012/11/09 · 01:46

I saw a recent diary called Top of the Agenda: Filibuster Reform Now. While I fully agree that the filibuster needs to be reformed if not abolished outright, I think that this cannot be the top item on the agenda, because first we have to deal with the upcoming fiscal cliff in the lame-duck session.

Things did not start off well and we need to take care not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (it wouldn't be the first time). In fact, Glenn Greenwald has already described the developments of the upcoming weeks, see below. Hint: it does not end well, at least for those of you who are in favor of Medicare and Social Secutiry.

Poll

25 votes Show Results

Will Social Security and Medicare be cut in the lame duck session?

25 votes Vote Now!

Will Social Security and Medicare be cut in the lame duck session?

Yes

4 votes

Yes, unless we fight hard to prevent it

12 votes

Maybe

1 vote

6 votes

Hell no, Obama would never do such a thing

2 votes

California joins National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

Twoflower

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Tuesday August 09, 2011 · 2:58 AM PDT

2011/08/09 · 02:58

This was mentioned in an election diary yesterday, but I thought it deserved its own post: California has joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact! This is a compact that will go into effect if states representing at least 270 electoral votes represent it. It will ensure that the winner of the national popular vote becomes president, by allocating ALL (>270) electoral votes of the participating states to that winner.

I think this is a great step towards a more equal system of elections. In the current system of course, there is hardly any point in voting if you happen to live in California or Texas.

The compact is now halfway to getting implemented: already, states representing 132 electoral votes have signed up for it. While it seems unlikely that this compact will be in effect for the 2012 election (enough additional states would have to sign up before July 2012), at the current rate of progress, this might very well be the way that the 2016 election gets decided.

For more details, see the Wikipedia page linked above. I'm sure not everyone will be enchanted by this compact: please discuss.

Poll

38 votes Show Results

Is the NPVIC a good idea?

38 votes Vote Now!

Is the NPVIC a good idea?

Yes

32 votes

5 votes

Maybe/don't know

1 vote

Obama only fights to get war funding

Twoflower

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Wednesday April 13, 2011 · 5:16 AM PDT

2011/04/13 · 05:16

I have seen suggestions that Obama can now take the upper hand in the deficit debate by fighting to defend Medicare at all cost. He could suggest instead to try and get more taxes from corporations, cut defense, and work on health care cost control.

Instead the only thing that has transpired so far is that Obama doesn't seem to want to extend the Bush tax cuts even further. Big deal - that's what he said in 2008 and look what happened.

Indeed it seems to me very clearly that Obama will not really fight for anything. Except war money.

Twoflower

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Wednesday January 12, 2011 · 1:35 AM PST

2011/01/12 · 01:35

Dear Congressman King,

we, the undersigned, commend you for your planned introduction of legislation to outlaw guns within 1,000 feet of any government official. We think it is high time for such a law to come into effect, and are very pleased with your effort to make this a reality.

The purpose of this letter is to urge you to expand the scope of your proposed legislation. It is not yet clear whether you also mean to include state government officials, but they should certainly be included as well. Have you also given thought to their families? Surely the spouses and children of government officials should be protected in the same way.

Furthermore,

Twoflower

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Friday December 10, 2010 · 7:48 AM PST

2010/12/10 · 07:48

Great news everybody! Bank bonuses will be taxed by 90% from now on: this is what the government of Ireland is proposing as part of their new budget. If only that sort of thing would happen in the United States, I was thinking...

But wait! Wasn't there a similar proposal passed in the US House? Why I do believe there was! And that refers to a newspaper article from March 2009, so the US is clearly ahead of the curve, right?

Oh. Apparently 'President Obama and his administration are hinting they oppose such a significant tax – and arguing that it is a mistake to "govern out of anger." ' Oh well. Never mind then... At least we can't say that we haven't been warned. So there's that.

Update: as pointed out in the comments, bank bonuses are currently taxed at a very low rate, certainly much lower than income. This does NOT hold for other bonuses! So simply taxing bonuses as income for everybody would already be a huge improvement, and could hardly be considered to be governing from anger.

Questions for Obama

Twoflower

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Wednesday January 27, 2010 · 7:06 AM PST

2010/01/27 · 07:06

Yeah, I'm upset. This is mostly to get this off of my chest, and hopefully to get some people to think.

Do you, at any point in your presidency, plan to fight for anything besides getting more money for wars?

Tell me more about the false choice between liberty and security. Oh, and about the rule of law.

Twoflower

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Tuesday December 08, 2009 · 2:10 AM PST

2009/12/08 · 02:10

I am curious as to the current status of several presidential records. I see that the records of Reagan and Bush sr. have been made available in April. One would think that there should be some interesting information in there (Iran Contra, anyone?). Has anything been found in the meantime, or are all the interesting bits still classified?

Also, I note that EO 13489, which of course revoked the odious EO 13233, thereby also removed the 12-year automatic limit after the end of a presidential term which EO 13233 set up for the release of all presidential records.

This would mean that the records of Clinton and Bush are now also available (or should be!). Particularly the records of Bush could probably be of some interest.... Does anyone know what the status of these records is? Thanks!

Twoflower

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Friday August 21, 2009 · 1:08 PM PDT

2009/08/21 · 13:08

Paul Krugman today writes that progressives generally no longer trust the President (h/t Glenn Greenwald).

As you may know if you read my previous diaries, I for one am quite distrustful of Obama, basically ever since last year's FISA debacle immediately after Obama ensured his nomination.

I am very curious to hear whether what Krugman writes about progressives is true, and who better to ask than the Kos crowd? Let me know by entering your opinion in the poll and in the comments...

Poll

378 votes Show Results

Do you trust Obama?

378 votes Vote Now!

Do you trust Obama?

Yes. We have to trust him. He is the greatest President ever!

135 votes

No. We need to keep an eye on him. Power corrupts.

243 votes

But Obama IS breaking the law

Twoflower

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Saturday April 04, 2009 · 12:21 PM PDT

2009/04/04 · 12:21

(rewritten)

Diaries on the rec list are fighting over whether or not Obama broke the law. I realize this is an issue on which people here have strong opinions.

But it is also true that Obama definitely is breaking the law, and over a far more serious issue. The US has signed a treaty making it mandatory to prosecute torture. Despite extremely strong evidence that torture has taken place, Obama is not even starting an investigation. On the contrary, his lawyers are doing everything they can (doing everything they can(Update 1) to prevent OLC memos with incriminating information from seeing the light of day.

Twoflower

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Monday March 09, 2009 · 8:51 AM PDT

2009/03/09 · 08:51

Don't get me wrong. I am as happy as anyone about the executive orders that Obama is putting out, like today's one on stem cells. But EOs can and have been rescinded often, just look at EO 13233 (and EO 12667).

If you want to have permanent rules, or at least rules that cannot be erased simply at the stroke of a pen of the next Republican president, you need laws.

Twoflower

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Wednesday January 14, 2009 · 6:16 AM PST

2009/01/14 · 06:16

I knew I would get you to read this diary with that headline :-) But there is a good reason for my somewhat provocative title. All you read these days is how Bush has been such a dismal failure. But look at the goals he had during his presidency, and how much of that he has accomplished. It is really quite an impressive list...

Bush: "I want to have large tax cuts for my rich buddies." (though, truth be told, they don't seem so large anymore these days...)
Congress: "No problem!

Bush: "I want to invade Iraq."
Congress: "Sure!"

Twoflower

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Tuesday January 13, 2009 · 5:21 AM PST

2009/01/13 · 05:21

I did not see a diary on this bit of good news:

H.R.35
Title: To amend chapter 22 of title 44, United States Code, popularly known as the Presidential Records Act, to establish procedures for the consideration of claims of constitutionally based privilege against disclosure of Presidential records.
Sponsor: Rep Towns, Edolphus [NY-10] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (5)
Latest Major Action: 1/8/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

MAJOR ACTIONS:

1/6/2009 Introduced in House
1/7/2009 Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 359 - 58 (Roll no. 5).

Of course, the last time this was tried, Senator Bunning placed a hold on the bill in the senate and it died without a whimper. It remains to be seen what Bunning (and Reid!) will do this time. Still, definitely good news.

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Top of the agenda: avoiding cuts to Medicare and Social Security

California joins National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

Obama only fights to get war funding

An open letter to Peter King

Bonuses to be taxed 90%!

Questions for Obama

Any historians here? On presidential records

Poll: has Obama lost the trust of progressives? (Krugman)

But Obama IS breaking the law

Are EOs an accepted way of governing now?

Bush: highly successful president

EO 13233 to be repealed?