Welfare Helps the Wealthy Says Ron Paul

I don't disagree at all with this from Ron Paul:

“So the middle class is shrinking and their [sic] losing their jobs and their [sic]  losing their houses, but Wall Street isn’t getting poorer. And they are the ones who are getting the bailout. So we have to address the bailout and the system that favors a certain group over another group. If you don’t have sound money and you have a welfare state, no matter whether the welfare state is designed to help the poor, you know, the welfare system helps the wealthy.”

Welfare does indeed help the wealthy. It helps the wealthy in many ways most people don't realize, and way more in terms of real dollars. Even in ways Ron Paul omits.  Or at least the American Welfare System does.  And that's because we have a system fundamentally designed to see that the rich are taken care of at much higher rates than the poor.

Since 2007 alone, the federal government has spent trillions propping up the wealthy.  This is nothing other than welfare.  For the last decade the federal government has cut taxes disproportionately to favor the wealthy, subsidized their professions, and allowed for very wealthy bosses to mismanage their companies into the ground all the while still receiving hundreds of billions in welfare payments that helped pay their bonuses and golden parachutes.  This is all welfare.  And we as a society have spent way more money subsidizing rich people than we ever have the poor.

I don't think this is necessarily what Ron Paul was saying, nor do I think he would necessarily disagree with it either.  But yes, welfare does help the wealthy.  That's the whole problem nobody wants to talk about.

Newt Quotes Bible to Define Marriage

Because his chronic adultery and three marriages aren't mentioned in the Bible.

Santorum Hates Facts Being Taught at Colleges

Obviously what Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum meant when he said President Obama "wants every kid to go to college. The indoctrination that occurs at American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America," was that while in college, students are not taught the basic fundamentals of the modern GOP.  In other words, they're indoctrinated.

You see, colleges have this terrible bias against teaching make-believe things.  For example, in college you will learn that Reagan didn't actually shrink government.  That he instead grew government to huge levels, raised spending every year, tripled the federal debt and created huge budget deficits.  Republicans don't want this sort of stuff taught especially at institutions propped up by tax money.  They want our young impressionable minds taugh that Reagan should be on Mt. Rushmore.  That he ushered in some new form of small government conservatism that has only been recently broken up by Obama.

Anything that teaches the opposite of what Republicans believe is liberal indoctrination.  Another great example is our Glorious War in Iraq.  We can't teach students that Bush lied us into war.  Oh heck no.  That would be un-Patriotic.  To avoid indoctrinating them we must teach them that Iraq had something to do with 9/11, that-- according to Santorum himself-- we found the WMD, and that our very survival as a God-fearing nation stood at the brink of our invasion. 

Colleges should also only be allowed to teach such undeniable facts like the economy was in great shape until January 2009; that Obama created the trillion dollar deficits; that slavery never happened, heck in fact, just remove all mentions of slavery from the textbooks.  Let's get un-doctrinated!  It's GOP time America!!

The Most Massive Spending Project Ever Proposed

Vote for Newt and America will have a moon colony, possibly a 51st state, by 2021!!

As anyone with half a brain knows, going to the moon is very expensive.  Colonizing it would be, by far, the most expensive project in American history.  Don't dare call this a massive spending project, though.  Oh no way.  Newt says this colony will have an American flag flying on it so that makes it every patriotic American's duty to call it our 21st century Manifest Destiny.  (NOTE: only if President Obama, or another Democrat, calls for vacation trips to the moon in 8 years time would it officially be a massive tax and spend lib project.  Until then it's simply God's Will for America.)

Something Republicans Would Have Called Treason

While this photo is going viral, I would just like to point out that had a Democratic governor confronted George Bush like this with a finger in his face, the Republican-controlled media machine would have blasted that governor as being un-American, un-patriotic and a terrorist sympathizer.  Now that Bush is out of power, nut slapping Republicans cheer on governors publicly chiding a president.  For instance, just look at these comments on from a Fox News article.  They're insane.  They are everything they claim to hate.

Mitch Daniels Is a Bald-Faced Liar

Bush's budget director, aka the least credible guy to talk about budgets and economics

Not surprisingly the GOP selected a man that knows nothing about sane economic policy to deliver their SOTU rebuttal.  In other words they selected George Bush's budget director.  In it, Mitch Daniels claims:

"When President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true," Daniels said. He added that while Obama did not cause the country's economic and budget problems, "He was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse."

Nothing could be less true.

Set aside for a moment that Mitch Daniels was George W. Bush's budget director that signed off on making the budget surplus a multi-hundred billion deficit within a few quick months after taking office.  Just set aside the fact Daniels presided over the largest increase in budget deficit history.  Never mind that that alone should make him completely non-credible when talking about sound budgets ever again.  But in the GOP Fantasy World, it only makes him a budget and economic genius that gets to go on teevee pretending he's got all the answers.

Instead let's focus on the huge lie that Obama has made things worse.  The amazement that such a sentence can be spoken with a straight face only proves just how out of touch the GOP really is.  When Obama took office in 2009 the economy was bleeding almost a million jobs a month. In the last year alone, the economy has added 1.9 million jobs.  Since 2010, total job creation is 2.9 million.  In no way, shape or form is that "worse."

Again, consider the Dow is up 85% since Obama took office.  Bush presided over the largest monetary loss in the history of the Dow.  It's no longer in free fall.  It's gaining value again.  In every sense of the word, that means it is not "worse."

The budget deficit, which Republicans now claim to care about since they are out of power, has shrunk under President Obama.  Not to mention, the largest contributor to the budget deficit (and our federal debt) are the Bush tax cuts that Daniels instituted when he was Bush's budget chief, along with other left over Bush policies.

Things aren't great.  But they are no way "worse" than they were when George Bush was president.  You would have to be mentally retarded, just waking up from a 3 year coma and lacking all your chromosomes to think the economy is worse. Or be Republican, because really there is no difference.

Romney Gave More to a Church that Believes Eden Was in Missiouri Than He Paid in Taxes

Zack Ford makes an excellent point.  Mitt Romney gave more money to the Mormon Church than he paid in taxes in 2010.  That's all fine and dandy and I'm sure the Christian Right wackos will say it's better to give to God than to the IRS.  But let's look at what the Mormon Church professes.

Ford brings up societal and legislative discrimination against gays as a solid platform of the Mormon discipline.  While that's important enough, we can't neglect to mention just how far out of the mainstream this church really is.

• Like Militant Islam, the Mormon religion is the only other religion to wage war against the American government.

• Mormons believe the Garden of Eden is in Jackson, County, Missouri.  This alone should be enough to classify them as a cult.  I'm sure it would, however, if Romney was a Democrat.

• Mormons also believe God lives in outer space on Planet Kolob.

• They believe Jesus visited America.

• Blacks were not allowed to be Mormon priests until 1978.  Women are still banned.

• Weirdly enough, they believe there are multiple universes each with their own God. Thus, they believe in multiple Gods.

This is what Mitt Romney supports more than he supports his country.

Big Love Romney Pays Very Low Tax Rate

Big Love Mitt Romney, a millionaire who believes the Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri, pays a much lower tax rate than me.

In addition, as of 2010, he had millions stashed in overseas accounts notorious for tax havens by American millionaires. In other words, he is hiding millions overseas to avoid paying taxes. Meanwhile the Middle Class-- the people who can't afford to use foreign tax shelters-- pick up the brunt so the top 1% like Romney can keep getting richer and keep hiding money.

And finally, Mitt's 13.9% tax rate in 2010 is still too high he claims.  He wants to make his tax rate, which is already astronomically low, even lower.  On top of that, he wants to raise taxes on people making less $40,000/year.  You know the Republican-way:  Lower taxes on the wealthy and raise taxes on those who can afford it the least.  This economic plan by Romney will ensure the rich keep getting richer and everyone else foots the bill.  Class warfare at its finest.

*Update:

Another excellent point not made by me.

Mitt Romney made nearly 12 times more income than President Obama in 2010, but paid almost half the tax rate as the president.  Needless to say, the president is a wealthy man, no doubt about that.  He made $1.8 million in 2010 and paid a 25% tax rate.  Romney, however, is way wealthier than 100 Obama's combined when you add in his net worth and he paid a meager 13.9% rate.

Now here's the difference in case you missed it.  The president is campaigning to raise his taxes even though he pays nearly double the rate Big Love Romney does.  And Mitt Romney is campaigning to cut his already very low tax rate in half and raise taxes on those just barely getting by.  That's what this is about.

Bill of Rights Still Apposite

Today the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the government must obtain a warrant before tracking people with GPS systems.  Huge victory for privacy!!

It's also a huge step into the 21st century for the Constitution.  I can't help but argue today's ruling by the Supreme Court unequivocally places the 225 year old piece of paper into the realm of being a living document.

GOP End Is Near?

I'm so terrible at this stuff, I don't even know why I try.

Here's what I thought would happen.  I thought Ron Paul would win Iowa.  Romney would win New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and by February the Maine primary would officially seal Romney as the nominee.  Instead, Santorum won Iowa, Romney did win NH but Newt Gingrich cleared out an epic upset to win SC.  And, today at least, it appears Gingrich is set to win Florida. Currently that means there has been a different winner in each Republican contest so far.  Three elections, three different winners.  This can only mean one thing, right?  End of the world for the GOP.  Hardly.

The GOP will survive this primary season.  They will unite behind a candidate and they will vote to oust the president.  I don't think they will succeed but like I said at the beginning I'm terrible at this stuff.  Anything can happen I suppose.  But if Republicans are good at anything it's maintaining unity.

A look at the remaing calendar easily shows this race could go all the way through Super Tuesday and maybe through March.  I'll also add, there's nothing wrong with that at all.

Feb. 4-- Maine, Nevada
Feb. 7-- Colorado, Minnesota
Feb. 28-- AZ, MI
March 3-- Washington
March 6 (Super Tuesday)-- AK, GA, ID, MA, ND, OH, OK, TN, VT, VA, WY

Aside from Nevada and Arizona, Feb. 4th, 7th and 28th look safe for Romney.  That means it's still his race to lose.  Instances where that is still applicable are getting further and further from being true, however.