Friday, December 2, 2011

Mr. Gingrich Flops/Flips/Flops, Deficit Committee Fallout


Newt Changes His Mind

"Newt Gingrich may have stepped into trouble again -- appearing to flip-flop on an earlier flip-flop over his statement last spring that Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare plans amounted to 'right-wing social engineering.'"  "Recall that back in May, conservatives pounded Gingrich after he made those comments during what was widely viewed as a disastrous appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.  The next day, Gingrich appeared on Fox News to declare that he made two mistakes -- answering a 'hypothetical, baloney' question from host David Gregory, and then using 'some of the words' he mentioned."

Mr. Gingrich often finds himself apologizing for mis-speaking or word choice.  Sometimes, it seems that he also mis-chooses his policies or positions (perhaps because he's had so many of them and they have varied so much and occasionally they have been too "nuanced" thanks to those very word choices), and then he has to apologize (no problem) for answering such a bothersome question and mis-speaking again the policy or position he once had but he hasn't had for a while, so he's just somewhat confused, but very willing to apologies (no problem) for answering and mis-choosing the wording or even the policy, you see.  After all, he's just a poor historian -- with at least a $500,000 credit line at Tiffany's -- and a former House Speaker who was disciplined for ethical wrongdoing by his own party, resigned, and paid an unprecedented $300,000 penalty to avoid a full hearing.  And Fox News is right there to help with his rehabilitation.  (http://medicaredailyreport.blogspot.com/)

Boehner Asks for President's Help

"House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday called on President Obama to intercede in the growing push to change the automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs triggered by the congressional supercommittee’s failure to strike a deficit-reduction deal.  . . .  Obama has threatened to veto any effort to undo the trigger, known as sequestration, although the White House is still pushing for a broad deficit pact."

Democrats Want To Save Medicare

"While some Republicans are taking heat for seeking to mitigate $600 billion in sequestration cuts to the Defense Department, a handful of House Democrats this week put forward their own proposal to spare Medicare from spending cuts triggered by the August debt deal."  "The Budget Control Act requires $1.2 trillion in cuts to planned spending after the deficit-reduction supercommittee failed to agree on cuts by their Nov. 23 deadline.  About $600 billion of those cuts are slated to come from defense spending, and another $600 billion are required from social programs like Medicare.  The law specifies that Medicare can be cut no more than 2 percent for a fiscal year, a cut of about $123 billion over a decade."

Even though I am a strong advocate for the protection of Medicare, I must point out that it seems that no one in Congress is interested in moderation.

For Your Information

Social Equality; Economic Inequality --  "Since the 1960s, a contradictory dynamic has been at work in the United States.  The country has become socially more inclusive even as economic inequality has increased.  Ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation have receded as sources of stigma.  Socially, we are more egalitarian than ever before.  The reverse is true however with regard to the economy. I nequality is on the march.  According to the most recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, in 1979 the top 1 percent of households received about the same share of income as the lowest 20 percent.  By 2007 that same highest percentile received more income than the lowest 40 percent."

The Republican Reality-Free Zone



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