Uncategorized

Here Are the Proposed “Entitlement” Cuts



A Pivotal Moment in American History


With one week to go before an Aug. 2 deadline for raising the nation’s debt limit, the stakes are enormous. Some in Congress continue to press for steep cuts in programs for working families. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid remain in jeopardy. Funds for education, child care, nutrition, affordable housing, environmental protection and energy independence also are at stake. When Republican leaders talk about $3 trillion or $4 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, with no new taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, please understand what they mean. 


SOCIAL SECURITY — The average Social Security recipient who retires at age 65 would get $560 less a year at age 75, under a proposal to change the formula which determines cost-of-living adjustments.  The same retiree would get $1,000 less a year at age 85 than under current law. Another provision pushed by House Republicans would require that Social Security always be solvent for 75 years, an avenue to even larger cuts in benefits.  All of this would take place despite the fact that Social Security has not contributed one penny to the deficit and has a $2.6 trillion surplus.
 MEDICARE — Raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 is one proposal. Another would cut benefits by as much as $500 billion over 10 years. How are 66-year-old Americans with modest means going to afford health insurance with a private company especially if they have medical problems?  It’s not going to happen. They are going to suffer.  Some will unnecessarily die.
MEDICAID — At a time when 50 million Americans already have no health insurance, Republicans and some Democrats are proposing to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid. That means that many men, women and children will lose the health insurance they have.  According to a Harvard University study, some 45,000 Americans die each year because they don’t get to a doctor when they should.  How many more will die if Medicaid is slashed?  How many children will be thrown off the Children’s Health Insurance Program?
EDUCATION — Childcare and college education already are unaffordable for millions of working families. Head Start has long waiting-lists.  If Republicans and some Democrats get their way, Pell grants and other educational programs will be deeply slashed.  Affordable childcare and a college education will no longer be possible for many families in our country.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY — Forget about the government having the ability to protect the people from corporations who want to evade Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act regulations. With massive cuts in the EPA, the resources will not be there.  Forget about this country having the investment capability to transform our energy system to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.  Forget about creating millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and improving our public transportation system.
We don’t have to make these cuts. Adopting a fair budget plan which ends tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations and makes real cuts in military spending is the kind of shared sacrifice that the American people want — and that Bernie has been fighting for.







UPS

I Hate When That Happens

                                UPS Truck Strikes Mentor House


Authorities are investigating a Monday evening crash in Mentor that sent a UPS truck into a house.  (I hate when that happens)

Mentor Fire Department Battalion Chief Terry Szabo said crews were called out at about 7:30 p.m. to the area of 7198 Lake Shore Blvd. for a motor vehicle accident.

Szabo said a UPS truck, headed westbound, sideswiped a white car going the opposite direction before continuing through a neighbor’s yard and into the living room of the house at 7180 Lake Shore.



You can read the whole story here plus pictures and video.


Uncategorized

The American Sellout

Wednesday, July 6, 2011





Mexican trucks: Today’s attack on the middle class





Once again the multinationals are having their way with the U.S. government at the expense of the American middle class. Today U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and his counterpart in Mexico signed away thousands of good American trucking and warehousing jobs by agreeing to open the border to Mexican trucks.

The Teamsters will fight to keep the border closed to dangerous trucks, as they have for almost two decades. Teamster General President Jim Hoffa had harsh words for the agreement:

Opening the border to dangerous trucks at a time of high unemployment and rampant drug violence is a shameful abandonment of the DOT’s duty to protect American citizens from harm and to spend American tax dollars responsibly.

This so-called pilot program is a concession to multinational corporations that send jobs to Mexico. It erodes our national security. It endangers motorists. It ignores the rampant corruption among Mexican law enforcement. It lowers wages and robs jobs from hard-working American truck drivers and warehouse workers.

It adds insult to injury to force U.S. taxpayers to pay for monitoring equipment on Mexican trucks so Mexican carriers can take away their jobs. The DOT shows more loyalty to the Mexican people than it does to Americans.
The Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association isn’t pleased either. Their press release said small-business truckers and drivers are fuming about the deal. Said OOIDA President Jim Johnston,


If the agreement is good for the U.S. why the hell is he (Secretary LaHood) sneaking down there to sign it?” … Why not let the public see the details before signing the agreement? Seems like the Administration is dead set on caving to Mexico’s shakedown regardless of the costs to the American public and our tax coffers.
And Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, filed a bill today to limit the pilot program and forbid the U.S. government from spending taxpayer money on equipment for Mexican trucks.  DeFazio said,

…three issues must be addressed in the cross-border trucking program: safety, security and job loss. I have sent several letters to DOT asking them to address these issues. My calls for caution have gone unanswered. My legislation puts the brakes on a bad deal for American truck drivers and the traveling public…As we debate deep and harsh cuts to programs that help middle class families, it is outrageous that taxpayers are being told to foot the bill for the Mexican trucking industry to comply with American safety standards…



Posted by Teamster Power at 2:32 PM

Uncategorized

Prepare For the Attack



Super PACs target Colorado

Karl Rove ‘s Crossroads GPS is buying online and TV political ads.

By Kurtis Lee
The Denver Post

Posted: 07/09/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
     Eight months after the 2010 midterm elections, Colorado is once again a targeted swing state by so-called super PACs.
Crossroads GPS, an independent conservative advocacy group started by Karl Rove, announced Friday that it has launched $291,190 in TV and Internet ads here for the next two weeks.
     Nationally, the organization will spend about $7 million in the two-week span, with ads also airing in North Carolina, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and Virginia.
     “It’s a taste of things to come,” said Eric Sondermann, a local independent political analyst. “These super PACs are going to be much more the norm than the exception between now and the 2012 election.”
     Officially known as independent expenditure-only committees, super PACs represent spending by individuals, corporations or unions advocating for or against candidates. However, expenditures cannot be in direct cooperation with a candidate or political party.
     Sondermann said the groups’ presence in Colorado speaks to the pivotal role the state will play in the 2012 election.
     In 2010, Colorado was the No. 1 state in attracting outside money as PACs pumped millions into the U.S. Senate race between GOP hopeful Ken Buck and incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet.
     “It was a new phenomenon in 2010, but the list of targeted states seems to be shrinking from then till now, which puts even more of a premium on Colorado’s nine electoral votes,” Sondermann said.
     This is the second phase of Crossroads’ summer-long, $20 million nationwide effort attacking Democrats and President Barack Obama on government spending and the national debt.
     “After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, it allowed corporations and unions to use Treasury dollars to make independent expenditures and electioneering communications,” said Mary Brandenberger, a Federal Election Commission spokeswoman.
     Last month, Crossroads churned out its first phase of summer funds, which was $5 million in ads — spanning 10 states, including Colorado — that went after Obama’s record on the economy.
     In response, Priorities USA, a pro-Democratic group started by former Obama staffers Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, began a multistate advertising campaign “to inform voters about the source of the Rove ads and the truth about the Republican economic record.”
     “Republicans are playing a familiar game: When the facts aren’t behind them, they simply ignore the truth,” said Rick Palacio, the Democratic Party state chairman, about the latest ad campaign by Crossroads.
     “Karl Rove is afraid that when the American people see a president working for them, Republican political fortunes suffer, so he and his allies will do whatever they can to undermine the president.”
     Ryan Call, the GOP’s state chairman, said he doesn’t expect these outside groups to supplant the traditional roles of candidates and political parties.
     “Reminding Colorado voters about Obama’s failed leadership on the economy is certainly a role that some of these outside groups will play,” Call said.

UPS driver information