@Thom_Hartmann #ThomHartmann blog: The GOP Have Tipped Their Hand
by Thom Hartmann,posted Dec 10 2012 3:16PM
They’re going to use the debt ceiling to hold senior citizens on Medicare hostage. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, prominent Senate Republican Bob Corker said Republicans plan to use the upcoming debt ceiling debate as leverage to force cuts to insurance programs like Medicare. Corker said, “The Republicans know they have the debt ceiling…The leverage is going to shift, to our side where hopefully we’ll do the same thing we did last time, and that is if the president wants to raise the debt limit by $2 trillion we get $2 trillion in spending reduction, and hopefully, this time it will be mostly oriented towards entitlement.”
Republicans have been purposefully misleading the American people about what the debt ceiling is – claiming that by raising it the President will have unlimited money to continue spending. In reality, raising the debt limit just gives the US Treasury the authority to pay off the debts that the nation has already racked up, like Bush’s two wars and his Medicare Part D prescription drug program, which were never paid for.
The debt-limit is about paying off the nation’s credit card; not spending more money on that credit card. By using the debt-limit as a political tool, Republicans are questioning the credit of the United States, and threatening to turn us into a dead-beat nation.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
It seems that everybody wants to know what's been going on at the NSA. Everybody, that is, except for 53 US Senators. Last week Senators were given a briefing by high-ranking intelligence officials about the surveillance programs. Only 47...
Tea Party senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) says that "restoring faith in government" is "the wrong solution." Well then by all means, keep talking, Senator. Instead, Johnson says "we need to engender that healthy distrust, that healthy...
Senator Elizabeth Warren is fighting hard for government transparency, and it has nothing to do with the NSA. On Thursday, Senator Warren sent a letter to President Obama's U.S. trade negotiations nominee, calling on the Administration to...
While signing a Merry Christmas bill in June, legalizing usage of phrases like 'Merry Christmas' on school property, Texas Governor Rick Perry took the opportunity to appeal to his evangelical base. "I'm proud we are standing up for...
The Supreme Court ruled that human genes cannot be patented, because they are a product of nature. However, the offered a compromise which allowed synthetic, complementary DNA, known as cDNA, to be protected by patent law, because it is not...
Before last week, very few people knew the name Edward Snowden. Not the case now. It seems he's either a hero or traitor, depending on who you talk to and their political ideology. No matter what you think of him, however, we owe him a...
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will do anything to avoid getting any actual work done. As if 37 votes to repeal Obamacare didn't waste enough taxpayer time and money, the House GOP has decided to vote on a...
We need to have a debate over surveillance. Even more, we need to have a debate over exactly who is doing the surveilling. Government surveillance can be worrisome, but it's much more worrisome when the surveillance is being done by private...
Today, the United States Senate will begin debate on the so-called comprehensive immigration plan. Senators will consider the overall legislation, and dozens of amendments, before a final vote can be reached. The debate is likely to last...
Is Edward Snowden a whistleblower or a leaker? This story still has a lot of gray areas. For now, he's something like a whistle-leaker. To some people, Snowden is a hero, to others he is a traitor. To most Americans, he's the guy whose face in...
