Tag: Chuck Schumer

Jul 18 2011

Starving the Beast: Cut, Cap and Balance

cross-posted from Main Street Insider

The debt limit is a largely symbolic check on excessive borrowing which in the past has been frequently raised with little to no controversy. Such periodic increases are necessary to keep the government running and paying its bills, regardless of ideology.

However, Congressional Republicans are now demanding that certain conditions must be met in order to win their approval of a debt ceiling increase. They have termed their list of demands Cut, Cap and Balance, and claim it is a necessary measure in order to keep the government debt from spiraling out of control, and thus keep the country functioning.

Yet the Cut, Cap and Balance Act scheduled to reach the House floor this week is anything but necessary to keep the country functioning in its . Rather, it is the crown jewel, the final step of conservatives’ long-pursued “Starve the Beast” strategy to downsize government. It would radically limit the flexibility of the federal government to provide a social safety net, buttress the economy in tough times and respond to great national challenges, now and into the future.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out this week’s 90 Second Summary and decide for yourself:

Dec 05 2010

The brilliance and necessity of Julian Assange’s Wikileaks

Originally posted at Polizeros.com

Bloggers like Bob Morris of Polizeros have pointed out that even some who are typically rebellious in their rhetoric are condemning Julian Assange (while there are people like Jonah Goldberg and Chuck Schumer calling for his head), so I think it’s worth pointing out how historically important Assange (and Wikileaks, of course) could be.  With the caveat that we have all yet to see the effects of what Wikileaks is doing, he has the potential to play two essential and complementary roles: radical anti-authoritarian and someone who makes it safe for others to voice similar opinions.

Feb 26 2010

Removing Health Insurance’s Antitrust Exemption — will Lower its Cost

With all the other HCR news, you may have missed this important tidbit. (I know I did.)

House Votes To Repeal Antitrust Exemption for Health Insurance Firms

Thursday, February 25, 2010

On Wednesday, the House voted 406-19 to end a 65-year-old antitrust exemption for health insurance companies, part of Democrats’ broader strategy to revive their health reform efforts ahead of Thursday’s bipartisan health care summit, Roll Call reports (Dennis, Roll Call, 2/25).

The bill (HR 4626) would amend the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which exempts insurers from federal antitrust law if they are regulated by the states.

http://www.californiahealthlin…

Granted it’s NOT the Public Option, BUT still it’s important to finally putting the brakes on the run-away rising costs of Health Care, hopefully …

Dec 17 2009

OH NO HE DI.N’T!

Good God, I haven’t been able to pull myself away from the swift undercurrent of depression long enough to get seriously pissed at anything but “healthcare reform” (what a fucking joke lately), but this article on HuffPo awoke the beast within:

Senator Chuck Schumer forgot to check his dirty mouth for a flight on Sunday.

The New York senator was overheard calling a female flight attendant a “bitch” after she insisted that he shut off his cellphone so the plane could take off.

A Republican aide who witnessed the incident claims Schumer muttered the insult to none other than Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

According to Politico, who first reported the story, the aide quotes Schumer as saying, “It’s Harry Reid calling. I guess health care will have to wait until we land.”

Schumer’s spokesman later apologized for the incident, say that the senator “made an off-the-cuff comment under his breath that he shouldn’t have made, and he regrets it.”

So lemme get this straight, Schumer:

Dec 13 2009

Should Wall Street Speculators, have to pay their Fair Share? w Poll



H.R. 1068, the Let Wall Street Pay for Wall Street’s Bailout Act.

Wall Street Transaction Tax Proposed by Democrats

Ryan J. Donmoyer

Dec. 3, 2009 (Bloomberg) — A group of congressional Democrats proposed taxing large transactions in stocks and derivatives, an idea that has received a cool reception from the Obama administration. […]

.25 Percent for Stocks

The measure would be based on legislation DeFazio proposed in the House that would apply a tax of 0.25 percent or 25 basis points to stock transactions in excess of $100,000, and a levy of 0.02 percent or 2 basis points on derivatives including futures, options, swaps and credit default swaps.

Harkin and DeFazio said the proposed new levy is backed by more than 200 economists, the AFL-CIO labor union federation and business leaders including Warren Buffett and Vanguard Group Inc. founder John C. Bogle, now president of Bogle Financial Markets Research.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…

Sep 29 2009

So you’ve decided to lose your next election. 5 DINO Republocrats who need to be primaried NOW

The vote is in on the Rockefellar Public Option Amendment and it has failed, not because Democrats do not have a majority, but because some Democrats are corrupt shills who hide behind Republicans as an excuse for their own corruption,

    The following Democrats voted against competition, thus ensuring their own defeat in their next primary elections.

NO – Baucus      (BlueCross-MT)

NO – Conrad      (BlueCross-ND)

NO – Lincoln     (BlueCross-AR)

NO – Carper      (BlueCross-DE)

NO – Ben Nelson  (BlueCross-FL)

    Oh, and regarding Bif$%kingyousansh!t, let it be noted that EVERY SINGLE Republican voted NO, including Senate Majority Leader Olympia Snowe.

    Throw down the gauntlet, progressives. The electoral beatings of DINO’s should begin NOW!

And now the Schumer version of the Publiic Option is dead too, only Nelson and Carper voted yea out of the 5 DINO Republicrats, Conrad, Baucus and Lincoln all voted NO.

   They have to go. Simple.

   So, wehn they ask for your vote, money or volunteer work, the best answer we can give them is “Sorry, we just don’t have the votes to get you re-elected, so I am voting NO and primarying your ASS”

   FUCK THESE SENATORS AND THE LOBBYISTS THEY RODE IN ON!!!!!

Jul 26 2009

60-70% of stock volume is “Ficticious”. One way or the other, we’re screwed

     Crossposted at Daily Kos

hat tip to Inky99 who covered this first in his diary Stock market “Rally” is bogus, volume in market “ficticious”. I thought this subject was so pertinent it need to be expanded on.  

   From Bloomberg News, Joe Saluzzi, on July 6th, 2009


Saluzzi:     ” The volume that you see during the day right now, somedays as high as 12 million across all three exchange, is ficticious. It’s not real, okay. I’m gonna say that 60-70% of this volume that you see coming across, it’s volume, but it’s done by what is called high frequency traders. These are machines. The biggest machine wins the game.”

    More on how we are totally screwed one way or the other below the fold.

Jul 07 2009

WSJ reports: White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan

crossposted on Daily Kos

White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan

By LAURA MECKLER and JANET ADAMY – JULY 7, 2009 – WSJ


WASHINGTON — It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday.

[…]

One of the most contentious issues is whether to create a public health-insurance plan to compete with private companies.

Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama’s goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public option has never gone into effect.

Mr. Obama has pushed hard for a vigorous public option. But he has also said he won’t draw a “line in the sand” over this point.

http://online.wsj.com/article/…

OH NO! Not that stupid Trigger Option again!

Enough Already!  

Feb 11 2008

An Open Letter to Senator Charles Schumer

To the honorable Senator Schumer,

Hello sir!  It is unlikely that you know who I am, although I have written to you before and even once had the pleasure of working with your daughter.  But I hope you will take a moment to hear what I have to say.

Like many other of your constituents, I wrote to you asking that you vote against the confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General of the United States.  You chose instead to support his confirmation, which led directly to his being appointed to the office.  You did so saying to us that he was not “my ideal choice,” but that you were “confident that this nominee would enforce a law that bans waterboarding.”  

Nov 09 2007

On Dying Free: An Open Letter to Sen. Charles Schumer

Recently, in a remarkable essay for the New York Review of Books, famed Russian biophysicist and political activist Sergei Kovalev wrote:

I imagine-with both sorrow and certainty-that the Byzantine system of power has triumphed for the foreseeable future in Russia. It’s too late to remove it from power by a normal democratic process, for democratic mechanisms have been liquidated, transformed into pure imitation. I am afraid that few of us will live to see the reinstatement of freedom and democracy in Russia.

Kovalev’s words echoed something recently said to me by Meteor Blades: “I expect to die as part of the permanent internal opposition in the Democratic Party. I don’t see any more Sanderses on the horizon, of any stripe. Maybe in your lifetime, but not likely in mine.”

I cannot begin to say how disheartening it is to hear such things from such lions of political activism, both of whom went to prison rather than relinquish their right to fight for their freedom and the freedom of their fellows.  The following is a letter sent to one of my Senators, Chuck Schumer, which is my response to the conclusions of Kovalev and MB.