Republicans looking to change the nomination process for the Redistricting Commission

AZ BlueMeanie

by Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings From the Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) – Advertisement Republican legislative leaders aren't happy with their choices for the Independent Redistricting Commission and are asking that a nominating commission reconvene and reconsider. Kirk Adams, the Republican Speaker of the Arizona House, and Russell Pearce the Tea Party Republican … Read more

Students know good teaching when they see it

David Safier

by David Safier This is an interesting observation which, like all observations about education, needs to be stored away and evaluated rather than being accepted outright. That being said . . . As part of a Gates study, thousands of students evaluated their teachers in confidential questionnaires. The students' evaluations tended to agree with the … Read more

More on East Valley Patriots for American Values

David Safier

by David Safier I posted the other day about the gall of some progressive group calling itself Patriots for American Values. Those folks are in danger of being sued by the Right for copyright infringement. "Don't those lefties know we own the words Patiot, American and Values?" Here's more about the group, which calls itself … Read more

Sen. Bernie Sanders: a tutorial on tax policy

AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) went old school on Friday and demonstrated for the boys and girls in the millionaire's club of the U.S. Senate what a real filibuster is supposed to look like, not that cowardly chickenshit nonsense the Republicans have been doing in their scorched-earth obstructionism of the people's business. While … Read more

Obama-McConnell Tax Compromise Not as Advertised – It’s a Trap!

AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Huffington Post has an analysis of the Obama-McConnell tax compromise which finds that 50 million low wage workers will be paying more in federal taxes even as America's wealthy elite enjoy a windfall. Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers: The tax deal reached between President Obama … Read more

The corporatocracy’s war on government and labor

AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Modern free societies rest upon a three-legged stool for equilibrium and balance: the means of production, labor, and government (for maintenance of order). Remove any one leg from the stool, and the free society collapses.

The wealthy elite and their servants in the Republican Party have forever opposed the interests of working men and women, and have a visceral hatred for organized labor. The Republicans have long been known as "the party of cheap labor." They want a work force just smart enough to do the work required, but not smart enough to organize and to challenge the weathy elite's exploitation of "cheap labor" by demanding fair wages, safe working conditions, and a share of the benefits of their labor.

Movement conservatism has waged an assault upon government for decades. Their goal is to convince you that government is incapable of doing anything right, that government is never the solution but the problem. Hence, Ronald Reagan's most terrifying nine words in the English language: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." We are all familiar with Grover Norquists' familiar threat that he wants to defund government so that he can "reduce government to the size that he can drown it in the bathtub."

You will notice that knocking out the legs of labor and government leaves only one leg of the stool — the means of production, controled by multi-national corporations with immense wealth and the über-rich investor class. Society's equilibrium and balance are destroyed.

Not only does this destroy the individualism of liberal capitalism but it will destroy the individualism of our democratic republican form of government in the process. This shift in the balace of power will result in replacing the form of government with which we are all familiar with a modern-day version of "absolutist corporatism," a class-society feudal system controled by multi-national corporations with immense wealth and the über-rich investor class. Individual liberties and freedom will be reduced to a feudal system of "serfdom."

This is the blueprint that the Republican Party is pursuing on behalf of its clientel, the multi-national corporations and the über-rich investor class. Reuters reported this week the Secret GOP plan: Push states to declare bankruptcy and smash unions:

Congressional Republicans appear to be quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy. This may be the biggest political battle in Washington, my Capitol Hill sources tell me, of 2011.

* * *

[T]he Build America Bonds program (BABs) now accounts for more than 20 percent of new debt sold by states and local governments thanks to a federal rebate equal to 35 percent of interest costs on the bonds. The subsidy program ends on Dec. 31.  And my Reuters colleagues report that a GOP congressional aide said Republicans “have a very firm line on BABS — we are not going to allow them to be included.”

In short, the lack of a BAB program would make it harder for states to borrow to cover a $140 billion budgetary shortfall next year, as estimated by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The long-term numbers are even scarier. Estimates of states’ unfunded liabilities to pay for pension benefits range from $750 billion to more than $3 trillion.

* * *

Republican Representatives Devin Nunes and Darrell Issa of California and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin have introduced a bill that would require state and local governments to estimate the size of public pension liabilities if their assets earned a more conservative rate of return than many plans currently expect. Failure to do so would result in the suspension of their ability to issue tax-exempt bonds.

* * *

Some Republicans hope the shock of the newly revealed debt totals will grease the way towards explicitly permitting states to declare bankruptcy. Indeed, legislation  amending federal bankruptcy law is currently being prepared by congressional Republicans. Local municipalities do declare bankruptcy from time to time, most famously California’s Orange County in 1994. But states can’t. Allowing them the same ability to renegotiate obligations could enable them to slash public employees’ pension benefits, a big factor in their financial woes.

[This is made possible by use of the "cram down" rules in bankruptcy court.]

Public employee unions have traditionally carried great influence with Democrats, even if President Barack Obama’s willingness to freeze their pay on the federal level suggests their clout may be waning. From the Republican perspective, the fiscal crisis on the state level provides a golden opportunity to defund a key Democratic interest group. For the GOP, it’s an economic and political win.

Republicans’ day of shame holding America hostage for the “two percenters”

AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Last week all 42 Republican senators signed a letter stating that they would hold America hostage and not allow any legislation to pass unless and until the Congress acceded to their extortionary demand to first approve an extension of tax cuts for the über-rich clientel they serve, the "two percenters." On Thursday, these Republican insurrectionists … Read more

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