OBOF TYMHM & MORE PART 14-06

 

WELCOME TO OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)

&

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)

YEAR ONE

YEAR TWO

YEAR THREE

YEAR FOUR

 

OBOF YEAR FOUR INDEX
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-01	Jan. 02, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-02	Jan. 09, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-03	Jan. 15, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-04	Jan. 24, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-05	JAN 30, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-06	Feb. 06, 2014

 

Agenda

 

1.  Opening Thoughts.

2.  Look what's happening already in this election year.

3.  Must the ObamaCare debate be stupid?

4.  Public financing for Congressional elections.

5.  Just when we thought we could ignore Congress.

6.  MoveOn agenda for 2014.

7.  Fast Track for TPP dimishing.

8.  Nigera population to exceed U.S.

 

 

OPENING  THOUGHTS

 

 

There is so much that I want to get to you that I believe I am going to have to put out an EXTRA, Saturday or Sunday. 

 

Folks, I could pull up two or three or four articles arrange the format, so that it fits on my blog and send it out to you.  I could do that and get it out, in at least, 3 hours or less. 

 

That is not what I do, nor do I think that is what you want me to do.  I believe you expect me to find articles and information that not only is important to our time, but information that you can feel is accurate and, as my blog name says, is "based on facts."  Once in a while, I put in some items that are not based on fact for one reason or another.  When I do, I feel that it is something you should know about, but I very plainly note that it is not factual. 

 

My point is that what I try to do takes many hours of study, research to be as factual as I possibly can.  This is the reason I am often time late in getting a posting out.  However, if I don't do these things, then my blog is not worth your time.  I greatly respect your times and I want all of us to be in the best position possible to be a good American, particularly, when it comes to casting our vote at election time.

 

Yes, from time to time, I throw in some of my personal thoughts and feelings about a subject, which you, of course, can agree or disagree about.  The main point is to simply give you some "food for thought."  We, you and I, have lots of problems that we need to address and do all, each of us, can to save this Democracy of ours.  It is worth saving and it needs saving right now.    

 

~~~

LOOKS WHAT HAPPENING

IN THIS, THE

BEGINNING OF SECOND MONTH

OF THIS ELECTION YEAR.

 

 

By Floyd Bowman, Publisher

"Opinions Based On Facts."

February 6, 2014.

 

We are just barely into the second month of 2014 and already the far Right is spending millions to paint a picture that, simply, is not true.  Today, February 3rd, I received three surveys in the mail that are just unbelievable.  Two were from the same organization, Christian Seniors Association.  They both contained many pages and were thick.  They both were being sent to 10 million, what they identified as, Christian Seniors.  I am assuming, that since I received both and there are some differences in them, they have mailed a total of 20 million.

 

I am wondering how many of you, that are my followers, have received this material?  As I read the "plain propaganda" for that is exactly what it is, I just have to write about this to show you the kind of misinformation money can buy, and what we are up against the next 10 months. 

 

First, I want to show you the kind of money they have spent at the beginning of the second month of this election year.  Then, I will write about the survey.

.

The first thing I noticed was the amount of postage they paid.  Keep in mind that all of us regular folks are now going to be paying 49 cents for a first class letter weighting one ounce or less.  These packets weigh far more than one ounce.  The Christian Seniors Association paid 09 cents for each of these.  You and I are paying for what it really costs the Postal Service to handle 20 million packets.  Even at 09 cents a copy, that is $1.8 million they would have spent for mailing alone. 

 

I have no idea what the printed material cost was plus the labor of preparing these for mailing.  I would guess that this entire project, to this point, had to be, at least, $4 million.

 

Now, that is just to get them mailed to those that they have determined to be Christian Seniors.  They are asking us to pay the postage to return this survey.

 

To finish the cost of the project, the surveys have to be tabulated and a report compiled.  They say that the final report will be delivered to the President, his Senior Staff, and all members of Congress.  I have no idea what cost is involved in this last phase. 

 

The point of what I have given you, so far, is to show you that they are very well-funded and this is the kind of spending that we are going to see a lot of during the next 10 months. 

 

WHAT IS THE SURVEY ALL ABOUT?

 

Here comes the kicker.  Both, of these mailings, have a total of 10 pages, printed on both sides.  Ninety five percent is simply words that anyone can write without back-up facts.

 

 

One packet's purpose is to "Stop President Obama's and AARP's Far-Left Agenda for America."  The other is "Concerning President Obama's War on Christianity and His Use of the IRS to Target Christians."                               

 

I have read these surveys over and over and I honestly don't know how to summarize what is being said.  I don't believe much of what is in this material, but I am not in a position to say it is wrong, although I think much of it is wrong.  

 

They are pushing hard to build their membership to 2,000,000.  There are going to be many people that get this mailing that are going to believe the statements that tear down Obama.  It may be that some of it is true, I don't know.  But, they will influence  a lot of people with this mailing.   

 

THE THIRD SURVEY I RECEIVED

 

This survey is from the COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE.  It is all about Impeaching the President.  They set up 13 questions asking you if you think those actions are grounds for impeachment.

 

Among other things, they provide a "Special Report.  "High Crimes & Misdemeanors."  They quote nine State Attorney Generals outlining violations of U. S. Law by President Obama.  These Attorney Generals are from Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia-every one Republican.

 

Some of the charges are:

 

"Obama's Unconstitutional Assault on Your Second Amendment      Right to Keep and Bear Arms."

 

"Obama's Assault on Christians and Religious Freedom."

 

"Obama Forced ObamaCare on an Unwilling Public Through     Bribery and Lying About Its Cost."

 

"Operation Fast & Furious."

 

"Obama Drops Charges Against New Black Panthers AFTER    They Were Convicted of Voter Intimidation . . . and While     They Were Awaiting Sentencing."

 

There many more things listed by U. S. Senator Ted Cruz.  There is just too much to add to this posting. 

The Committee For Justice is much more conservative than Christian Seniors Association.  They only sent their survey to

1 million people.  By the way, the Committee for Justice paid 12 cents to send their packet instead of 9 cents as Christian Seniors Association.

 

The point is, that all of this gives you an idea of the things we are going to be facing for the next 10 months.

~~~

Must The Obamacare Debate Be Stupid?

By E. J. Dionne

NOTE FROM FLOYD:

E. J. Dionne is a very highly respected journalist with the Washington Post and appears on many highly revered television commentator shows.  I will place all my trust in what he says as factual.  He shows how the GOP jumps to conclusions in a manner to distort the truth and he shows how really valuable the ACA is going to be as time passes.  You can hang your hat on what he says.

 

WASHINGTON — One of the best arguments for health insurance reform is that our traditional employer-based system often locked people into jobs they wanted to leave but couldn’t because they feared they wouldn’t be able to get affordable coverage elsewhere.

This worry was pronounced for people with pre-existing conditions but not limited to them.  Consider families with young children in which one of the parents would like to get out of the formal labor market for a while to take care of the kids. In the old system, the choices of such couples were constrained if only one of the two received employer-provided family coverage.

Or ponder the fate of a 64-year-old with a condition that leaves her in great pain.  She has the savings to retire but can’t exercise this option until she is eligible for Medicare.  Is it a good thing to force her to stay in her job?  Is it bad to open her job to someone else?

By broadening access to health insurance, the Affordable Care Act ends the tyranny of “job lock,” which is what the much-misrepresented Congressional Budget Office study of the law released on Tuesday shows. The new law increases both personal autonomy and market rationality by ending the distortions in behavior the old arrangements were creating.

But that’s not how the study has been interpreted, particularly by enemies of the law.  Typical was a tweet from the National Republican Congressional Committee declaring that “#ObamaCare is hurting the economy, will cost 2.5 millions [sic] jobs.”

Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post’s intrepid fact checker, replied firmly: “No, CBO did not say Obamacare will kill 2 million jobs.” What the report said, as The Wall Street Journal accurately summarized it, is that the law “will reduce the total number of hours Americans work by the equivalent of 2.3 million full-time jobs.”

Oh my God, say opponents of the ACA, here is the government encouraging sloth!  That’s true only if you wish to take away the choices the law gives that 64-year-old or to those moms and dads looking for more time to care for their children.  Many on the right love family values until they are taken seriously enough to involve giving parents/workers more control over their lives.

And it’s sometimes an economic benefit when some share of the labor force reduces hours or stops working altogether.  At a time of elevated unemployment, others will take their place.  The CBO was careful to underscore — the CBO is always careful — that “if some people seek to work less, other applicants will be readily available to fill those positions and the overall effect on employment will be muted.”

The CBO did point to an inevitable problem in how the ACA’s subsidies for buying health insurance operate.  As your income rises, your subsidy goes down and eventually disappears. This is, as the CBO notes, a kind of “tax.”  The report says that if the “subsidies are phased out with rising income in order to limit their total costs, the phase-out effectively raises people’s marginal tax rates (the tax rates applying to their last dollar of income), thus discouraging work.”

But the answer to this is either to make the law’s subsidies more generous — which the ACA’s detractors would oppose because, as the CBO suggests, doing so would cost more than the current law — or to guarantee everyone health insurance, single-payer style, so there would be no “phase out” and no “marginal tax rates.” I could go with this, but I doubt many of the ACA’s critics would.

The rest of the CBO report contained much good news for Obamacare: that insurance premiums under the law are 15 percent lower than originally forecast; that “the slowdown in Medicare cost growth” is “broad and persistent”; and that enrollments will catch up over time to where they would have been absent Obamacare’s troubled rollout.

The reaction to the CBO study is an example of how willfully stupid — there’s no other word — the debate over Obamacare has become.  Opponents don’t look to a painstaking analysis for enlightenment. They twist its findings and turn them into dishonest slogans. Too often, the media go along by highlighting the study’s political impact rather than focusing on what it actually says. My bet is that our citizens are smarter than this.  They will ignore the noise and judge Obamacare by how it works.

E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne

~~~

PUBLIC  FINANCING

for

CONGRESSIONAL  ELECTIONS.

Dan Cantor
National Director
Working Families

Floyd,

Democracy means one person, one vote, right?  Imagine what Congress would look like if you had as much say as the Koch brothers.

In 2010, the Citizens United ruling woke a sleeping giant: unlimited spending on elections. Since then, right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson have pumped untold millions into politics and distorted democracy in their own terrible image.

Today, Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes is introducing a bill to create public financing of Congressional elections, to put the people back in charge, and make sure every voice can be heard. Not just corporate billionaires.  And here’s the big news: it’s already got more than 100 co-sponsors in Congress.

Will you add your voice?

Sign on as a citizen co-sponsor and call on Congress to pass the "Government by the People Act." Click here to add your name along with us, Daily Kos, Progressives United and US Action.

In places like New York City and Connecticut that have enacted publicly financed elections, candidates can run for office even without having a rolodex of Wall Street executives and corporate lobbyists. Instead, they only have to appeal to voters.

For the 1%, the current system works great. They’ve got the best Congress money can buy, lurching from crisis to crisis, but offering no solutions on inequality, foreclosure, climate change, unemployment or racial justice. Our democracy shouldn't be for sale at any price.

The 2014 and 2016 elections promise to be the most expensive yet: a multibillion dollar air war to confuse and distract, while the issues that impact ordinary people are left out altogether.

Let’s kick the super PACs to the curb and put the people back in charge.

Join the campaign to pass public financing of elections for Congress and end the undue influence of Big Money in politics. Click here to add your name along with us, Daily Kos, Progressives United and US Action.

Onward and upward,

Dan Cantor
National Director
Working Families

Become a Working Families Sustainer!  Other political groups have corporate donors.  We have you. Just $5 a month supports our fight.

---

~~~

Just when you thought it was safe to ignore Congress—the debt ceiling returns

 

By Jia Lynn Yang

February 3 at 3:16 pm

 

NOTE FROM FLOYD:

 

The following is a lead-in to the first article.  It was reported to you back on December 24, 2013 posting #65.  I had told you then that what is happening now and it all ties in together.

~

From posting 65    12-24-13

 

House Speaker Boehner has told the Tea Part to Drop Dead.  Yes, that is what has been reported and the actions he took supports that. 

 

First, Rep. Paul Ryan (R) and Senator Murry (D) put together a bipartisan budget for the next two years.  As Ryan said, "I didn't get everything I wanted and Senator Murry didn't get everything she wanted.  We compromised and that is the way it is suppose to work." 

 

Speaker Boehner put his foot down and got the budget passed in the House.  It then, went over to the Senate and was passed.  It has gone to the President for his signature. 

 

For this Congress, this is historic.  GOVERNMENT WORKING AS IT IS SUPPOSE TO WORK.  No more budget fights for two years.  No more Government shutdowns due to lack of a budget, for two years.

 

We are not out of the woods yet however.  Later on there will be a fight over the debt limit.  If, what we have just witnessed, continues we may see a common sense solution to that.

~

 

Regrettably, it's time to pay attention to the debt ceiling again. The temporary suspension of the limit passed in October runs out at the end of this week.  And unlike before--when Treasury had a whole slew of options for buying time--this time will be different.

 

Because it's tax filing season, cash flows will be more volatile over the coming weeks as the government likely pays out more in refunds than it's getting in income.  That means less breathing room for Treasury as it tries to come up with solutions to stave off default.

 

On top of this, one of the two major "extraordinary measures" that Treasury used last year--and that helped buy the government five months of extra time--is not available this year.

Last year when the country's borrowing authority expired, Treasury was able to free up money by deferring new investments in its civil-service disability and retirement fund.

Here's how it works:  Throughout the year, securities in the fund mature, or interest is earned on the securities, and that money is credited to the fund. In an unusually dire situation where Treasury has run out of borrowing authority, it's possible for the government to defer those credits temporarily and apply that money towards issuing more debt to pay its bills.  It's just a way of rearranging things for a while until Congress raises the debt ceiling.

 

This year, though, this major tool won't be available.  By a fluke of timing, there isn't money scheduled to be credited to the fund in the coming weeks.  And so Treasury has less time to work with.

 

When will the clock run out exactly?  The timing with the tax season makes it hard to pin down an exact date.  In its latest analysis, the Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that the government will not be able to meet all of its obligations sometime between Feb. 28 and March 25.  The BPC says default will mostly likely occur “on or in the days before March 14.”

This is a big difference from last year, when Treasury was able to keep things afloat from May to October.  This time around, Sec. Jack Lew is working with weeks, not months.  And the House GOP is still deciding on its strategy.

 

Comment

Dryly 41

2/3/2014 3:40 PM CST

It's important to understand that the Radicalized Republicans are deficit hawks only when there is a Democrat in the White House.  Thus, in 1995 Newt Gingrich shut down the government ostensibly for the reason of deficit reduction. 
 
In 1946, after WW II, the Gross Federal Debt amounted to 121.7% of GDP.  The Truman administration reduced it to 71.4%; Eisenhower to 55.2%; Kennedy/Johnson to 38.6%; Nixon/Ford to 35.8%; and, Carter to 32.5%. 
 
Then came Ronald Reagan with "supply side" tax cuts.  Budget Director David Stockman, in the December 1981 issue of the Atlantic, told William Greider "supply side" was a "Trojan Horse" to get the top rates reduced.  Reagan had eight years of deficits which increased the Gross Federal Debt from 32.5% to 53.1% of GDP.  Bush I had four more years of deficits increasing the Debt to 66.1% of GDP. Clinton had 4% unemployment, budget surplus's which decreased the Debt to 56.8% of GDP. 
 
Bush II had two rounds of "supply side" tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.  When Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil objected to the second round in 2003 as the Clinton surplus had turned to deficits after the first round, Dick Cheney told him: "You know Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter."  When O'Neil continued to object, Cheney fired him whereupon he got in his car and drove to his home in Pittsburgh.  Eight years of deficits increased the Gross Federal Debt from 56.8% to 95.1% of GDP and left a crippled economy. 
 
In 2011 the House Republicans succeeded in their blackmail to secure budget cuts imposing "austerity by sequestration" for their new found concern over the Debt which they created.  In 2013 the Radicalized Republicans shut the Government down again for 16 days which reduced GDP. 
 
Somehow, the commercial news media and pundits can't seem to see this even though the facts are there for all the honest world to see.  How can this be?

~~~

MoveOn  Agenda for 2014

 

 

Dear MoveOn member,

 

 

This year, MoveOn members will lead thousands of powerful campaigns, from our local city halls to the halls of Congress. And as a national MoveOn community, we'll pick a small number of high-priority campaigns where we pool our resources and focus to make the biggest impact.

 

Here are the top national priorities MoveOn members identified for 2014, out of dozens of worthwhile options, in priority order:

 

1. Work to overturn Citizens United and get money out of our politics.

 

2. Pass a new Voting Rights Act and stop voter suppression in the states.

 

3. Prevent war with Iran.

 

4. Raise the minimum wage (federally or locally).

 

5. Work to defend and expand Social Security benefits.

 

6. Fight against fracking and other polluting industries.

 

7. Fully implement Obamacare.

 

Members also overwhelmingly said we should use this as a guide, but have the flexibility to shift and be responsive to opportunities as they emerge.

 

See the full results of the 2014 MoveOn Member Priorities Survey.

 

It's an ambitious agenda, but if there's any community of folks who can make progress on all those fronts, it's MoveOn members. In the first few weeks of 2014, we've hit the ground running.

• We marked the four-year anniversary of Citizens United by co-hosting a movement-wide virtual teach-in, building support for the soon-to-be-introduced Government by the People Act, and getting ready to respond to the Supreme Court's pending McCutcheon ruling (which could open the floodgates for even more millionaires and billionaires to corrupt our political system with out-of-control spending on elections). 

• MoveOn members have launched campaigns in every congressional district in America to improve and pass the new Voting Rights Act—and are gearing up for nationally coordinated action.

• And we've already made a difference in helping ease the standoff with Iran. More than 150,000 members have taken action by signing petitions, making over 10,000 phone calls, and descending on decision makers in person—calling for Senate Democrats to support, not undermine, the Obama Administration's efforts at diplomacy.¹

~~~

POSSIBILITY FOR FAST TRACK

DIMISHING.

 

 

 

Harry Reid just came out against fast track. Now it's Nancy Pelosi's turn.

The petition reads: "Leader Pelosi: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has now gone on record opposing the Camp-Baucus fast-track bill. Now it’s time for you to publicly oppose fast track and use your leadership position to help stop the TPP."

Dear Floyd, On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid uttered four simple yet game-changing words: “I’m against fast track.” Public opposition to fast track from the top Democrat in the Senate is a serious blow to the supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- a secret corporate power grab disguised as a “trade” agreement. Under the TPP, more American jobs would be offshored. Internet freedom would be a joke. Developing countries would lose access to lifesaving medicines. Unsafe foods and products could pour into our country. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To stop the TPP, we need to stop fast track in the House. Tell Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to join Senate Majority Leader Reid and the overwhelming majority of her fellow House Democrats in publicly rejecting fast track. Click here to automatically sign the petition. In the House, not a single House Democrat is co-sponsoring the Camp-Baucus fast-track bill, and we need to keep it that way. If Leader Pelosi uses her power and influence to encourage other Democrats to take a stand opposing fast track, that alone could put the last nail in the coffin of fast track and the TPP. But Leader Pelosi, who has previously opposed fast track under both Presidents Clinton and Bush, has not yet gone on the record opposing the current fast track bill or the TPP. Tell Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to join Senate Majority Leader Reid and the overwhelming majority of her fellow House Democrats in publicly rejecting fast track. Click here to automatically sign the petition. Fast-track trade authority would allow the president to sign a trade deal before Congress has an opportunity to approve it. Then the president could send it to Congress with a guarantee that it will get an up-or-down vote within 90 days. Fast track would mean there would be no meaningful hearings, limited debate and absolutely no amendments to the deal. And there would be tremendous pressure on Congress to rubber-stamp anything the president signs. It's the job of Congress to fully vet trade deals and ensure they work for everyone, not just giant corporations. And it would be a deeply irresponsible abdication of responsibility for Congress to pass fast track when we know the TPP is coming down the pike, especially when we know the consequences of the TPP could be disastrous. That is why hundreds of groups including CREDO, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, National Nurses United, the Sierra Club, Democracy for America, and Public Citizen have spoken out against fast track. Recently, 152 House Democrats, including Rep. James Clyburn (the third most powerful Democrat in the house) and Rep. George Miller (a close ally of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi) signed letters opposing fast track. Majority Leader Reid’s statement gave our campaign a powerful boost.  And now Leader Pelosi’s silence on this is even more conspicuous. Tell Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to join Senate Majority Leader Reid and the overwhelming majority of her fellow House Democrats in publicly rejecting fast track.

~~~

Nigeria Will Have More People Than the United States by 2050

 

The most important demographic story over the next few decades could be Nigeria.  From a new Pew Research Global Attitudes Project report about attitudes toward aging around the world:

India, it is projected, will secure global demographic primacy by 2050.  The population of India is expected to increase by more than 400 million from 2010 to 2050, to 1.6 billion.  Meanwhile, the population of China may increase by only 25 million, remaining at about 1.4 billion. The U.S. is projected to add 89 million residents by 2050. However, the U.S. is likely to be displaced by Nigeria as the third most populous country.  In 2050, India alone may be home to nearly as many people as China and the U.S. combined.

Advertisement

All in all, Nigeria’s population is projected to grow about 176 percent, moving it from the seventh-most-populous country in the world to the third. By 2050, 25 percent of the world’s population will live in Africa, up from 15 percent in 2010.

Populations are aging rapidly almost everywhere, but nowhere as rapidly as in East Asia.  The median age in Japan—already the oldest country in the world – is expected to increase from 45 to 53 by 2050.  South Korea could catch up, increasing from 38 to 53.

Not surprisingly, Pew’s survey data show those two countries have the highest number of people describing an aging population as a “major problem.”

Joshua Keating is a staff writer at Slate focusing on international affairs and writes the World blog.  Follow him on Twitter.

~~~

If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again, probably Saturday or Sunday February 8th or 9th, 2014 and again on Wednesday February 12, 2014.

 

God Bless You All

&

God Bless the United States of America

Floyd