All in one day on Capitol Hill, House Republicans voted for the Romney-Ryan-Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it and Senate Republicans voted to protect $24 billion in tax giveaways for Big Oil.

Here they go again: taking away Medicare to give more taxpayer money to Big Oil.

After a lifetime paying into Medicare, our seniors deserve the peace of mind to know they can count on the health care they’re owed. Washington Republicans don’t get it. Instead of strengthening Medicare, they keep trying to take it away. Instead of getting rid of taxpayer handouts to Big Oil, they want more of them.

Nothing’s new: yet again Congressional Republicans voted to end Medicare as we know it to pay for more tax handouts for their Big Oil campaign donors.Americans want their leaders to preserve Medicare for their retirement and for future generations — not give handouts to millionaires and oil companies.

When you’re standing at the gas pump, remember: Republicans refuse to ask oil company CEOs to give up their tax giveaways, but demand we give up Medicare we pay into with every paycheck.

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ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

CLAIM: "The GOP budget tackles our generation’s defining challenges and doesn’t hide from tough decisions."
RESPONSE:

• They talk tough on deficits, but the latest GOP budget would actually make the debt worse. They talk about making tough decisions, but their budget is only tough on struggling Americans.
• This comes down to our national priorities. Do we really want an America where more gets taken from seniors and working families just so the richest few who bankroll politicians can pay less?
• Actually, the GOP plan would mean that by 2050, our federal government won’t exist aside from Social Security, health care, and defense — that’s not the kind of country Americans want to leave for our kids and grandkids.

CLAIM: "The House GOP budget heroically and gutsily takes on entitlement spending."
RESPONSE:

• Letting seniors go bankrupt and taking food away from vulnerable children to avoid asking your wealthy campaign donors to pay their fair share? That’s cowardly.
• Courage is standing up to the wealthy and powerful special interests funding their campaigns — but Washington Republicans won’t do it. They actually want more giveaways for the 1%.
• Do we really want America led by politicians who’ll show courage only when their corporate campaign donors give them permission?

CLAIM: "The GOP budget spurs economic growth with bold tax reform."
RESPONSE:

• We tried trickle-down economics and all we’ve got to show for it are massive deficits, scarce jobs, and a shrinking middle class.
• The GOP plan would throw millions of Americans out of work, take money out of the pockets of regular Americans, and give up on investments that make America competitive in the world.
• Tax giveaways for the richest 1% don’t get the economy moving or create jobs because millionaires and billionaires don’t need or spend the money — they just hand it over to their hedge fund managers.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The GOP budget would actually make the debt worse by giving $3 trillion in tax handouts to corporations and the richest few — giving millionaires over $250K more in tax giveaways on top of the over $100K they’d get from the Bush tax cuts.
• In the last six years, Republicans got 7 out of 10 Congressional campaign dollars spent by corporations that benefit the most from tax loopholes passed by those politicians.
• At the same time, the GOP budget would end Medicare as we know it, throw millions of Americans off their health insurance, and cut more than $1 trillion from programs like school lunches that vulnerable families rely on.
• 70% of Americans, including the majority of Republicans, want to keep Medicare as it is today, instead of replacing it with coupons as the House GOP and Mitt Romney have proposed.
• The Senators who voted yesterday to protect $24 Billion in giveaways to Big Oil have received $24 Million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry over their careers.

Since 2011, Senate Republicans have voted seven times to protect their Big Oil campaign donors and against clean energy three times.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Hardcopy: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 Kindle: http://amzn.to/lUFQCV iPad/iTunes: http://bit.ly/qB88Lk Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Harris County rejecting fewer voters, but Dems want proof

By Lise Olsen

Updated 09:01 p.m., Thursday, March 29, 2012

Harris County officials have rejected far fewer would-be voters since 2008, but Democrats are demanding more proof that voter rolls are not being illegally suppressed – particularly among Hispanics – as another U.S. presidential election approaches.

The two sides will meet in secret mediation Friday as Democratic officials seek assurances the county is following the terms of a 2009 settlement reached after the party challenged Harris County voter reviews in a federal lawsuit. The county’s voter registrations have remained fairly flat at about 1.9 million since 2008, failing to keep pace with a boom in the eligible voting population.

"Harris County continues to fall behind other large cities. Harris County rejects far too many applications and removes far too many eligible voters from the rolls," Chad Dunn, an attorney for the Democrats, told the Houston Chronicle.

The Chronicle’s own analysis of voter registration data shows county officials denied about 39,000 applications in the last three years – far fewer than the 70,000 rejected as ineligible or incomplete in 2008. Of applications received in 2009 to 2011, about 14 percent were not immediately accepted. A slightly higher percentage of voters with Hispanic last names had applications denied, the Chronicle’s analysis shows.

In an interview, Harris County Tax Assessor Don Sumners said his staff must follow Texas election laws and reject anyone ineligible to vote because of age, citizenship status or felony convictions.

Applicants who omit required information or supply invalid or illegible data are sent a "notice of incomplete" and a new application. Most reapply.

"I will attend the mediation in hopes of finally seeing some evidence supporting Mr. Dunn’s rehashed allegations," Sumners said in a follow-up email. "I expect to find the Democrats have no more evidence than they had in 2008 and 2009 when, after months of reviewing tens of thousands of documents, Mr. Dunn was unable to produce a single person who was improperly denied the right to vote."

Reviewing applications

Sumners said he believes more applicants were rejected in 2008 primarily because a group of deputy voter registrars working for nonprofit groups turned in thousands of duplicate, illegible or incomplete applications.

CONTINUED

Harris County rejecting fewer voters, but Dems want proof – Houston Chronicle

What Americans Stand to Lose

If Obamacare gets taken away, American families will pay the price.

Health care should be about ensuring all parents can take their kids to the doctor when they get sick, not scoring political points. Republicans want the courts to strike down Obamacare because it would cost the President politically, but it would cost the rest of us much more.

Without Obamacare, we’d have more bankruptcy for families struggling with serious illnesses, higher costs for small businesses, and children with pre-existing conditions denied coverage. There’s nothing unconstitutional about Obamacare. It simply has a free-rider fee for people who don’t buy their own health insurance and instead pass the cost to the rest of us. The idea of making everyone take responsibility for their own care started as a Republican idea. Their views have changed. Fortunately, the Constitution has not.

QUOTE TO REMEMBER

The Solicitor General under President Reagan, explaining why conservatives are now opposing the free-rider fee even though it’s the "free-market alternative":

"It’s politics."

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

ATTACK: “The health reform law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional.”
RESPONSE:

• The free-rider fee started as a Republican idea. But now that President Obama supports the individual responsibility provision, they’re against it.
• Republican views on personal responsibility may have changed, but the Constitution has not.
• There’s nothing unconstitutional about Obamacare. It simply has a free-rider fee for people who don’t buy their own health insurance and instead pass the cost onto the rest of us.

MYTH: "Obamacare is a dangerous slippery slope to a broccoli mandate’"
RESPONSE:

• That sounds absurd because it is. It’s like saying we shouldn’t have a minimum wage because someone might try to raise it to $5,000 per hour.
• Obamacare makes sure everyone takes responsibility for their own care — because when people without health insurance get hurt, the costs get passed down to the rest of us. It’s just a free-rider fee that doesn’t apply to you if you already have health insurance.
• Even the Solicitor General under President Reagan says the free-rider fee is the "free-market alternative" — and says, "it’s politics" for conservatives to now oppose their own idea.

ATTACK: "The polling shows Americans want the health care law struck down.”
RESPONSE:

• The President’s political opponents have been distorting, smearing, and misrepresenting the health care law since the beginning. Yet the majority of Americans still say we should give Obamacare a chance or leave it alone.
• Most Americans actually support the individual mandate after they learn most people wouldn’t even be affected by it.
• It’s time to move forward — we can’t afford to put insurance companies back in charge and turn the clock back on the progress we’ve made.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Affordable Care Act is already working for millions of Americans, including 105 million Americans with life-threatening illnesses who no longer have to live in fear of hitting lifetime dollar limits on their coverage and 130 million Americans who won’t be shut out from coverage just because they have a pre-existing condition.
• Americans strongly support many individual parts of the health law — over 60% of Americans support the individual mandate, which is really just a fee on free riders, after they learn most people would still get their health coverage through their employers and wouldn’t even be affected by it.
• Republicans who were for the individual responsibility provision before they were against it — just because President Obama was for it — include: the leading Republican presidential candidates; George W. Bush; and Senators Jim DeMint, John McCain, and Scott Brown.
• From over a hundred law professors and some of the most conservative judges in the country to 35 economists and 3 Nobel Prize winners and even the Solicitor General for President Reagan, legal experts and constitutional scholars say there’s no doubt the new health law is constitutional.

In 2008, Americans without health insurance consumed almost $120 billion of health care services but weren’t able to pay for over 60% of those costs — meaning the rest of the costs were passed onto others.

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My Book– Follow Me– Visit Me

My fellow Democrat Deborah Mowrey sent me an email last night with a link to the article below titled “5 Words And Phrases Democrats Should Never Say Again”. The article is well written and is a must read. The GOP has been destroying the middle class for the last 30 years yet because of the words they use people consistently vote for them. The charts on the left says it all.

There is also a book by Drew Westen, an author I met at Rebuild the Dream, that explains this phenomenon and how to address it named The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. His major tenet is that we must get to the emotional level of those we are trying to enlighten in order for them to listen and then see the truth.

There is also a great book by Dylan Ratigan named “Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry” that explains in every day English what these guys have done and how they get away with it. I am still reading it but find it very fascinating in that he breaks down what our legal crooks, our titans of finance have been doing to America; one phrase; Capital Extraction.

And if I may self promote a bit I wrote the book “As I see it: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom” that pretty much ties things up in simple terms.

CONTINUED

5 Words And Phrases Democrats Should Never Say Again–MUST READ

Many abstain from going to a drug abuse rehab center because of several reasons. Atlanta drug abuse rehab centers makes it easier. Sometimes folks just fear what they must go through to be rehabilitated. Sometimes they are simply scared that their friends or their employer would find out and change their view of them or altogether lose respect for them.

One should note however that Atlanta Drug Rehab can be as discrete as you need it to be. The center is not in the business of telling your friends and acquaintances your personal issues. They are in business to provide a service and make money. They are well aware that not ensuring both will diminish their supply of clients and with that their profits. So it is safe to say that just the profit motive ensures a high degree of privacy.

Now above and beyond all that was said, if you are a drug abuser or have some sort of drug dependency, the faster you get help the faster you can end you embarrassment, misery, and self loathing. It is imperative that you seek assistance quickly not only for your family but mostly for yourself. It is not easy. In fact it is downright hard. But is it not true that you are worth it?

The Author of this post is Cheryl Martinez

Being in Florida has made my life so much better already. I love the weather here and this new house is so cute – I’ve got it almost fixed up the way I want it, the cable is connected and the home security Jacksonville is hooked up and the furniture guys are coming next week to deliver my new couch. I wish I had a dog to play in the big backyard but I’m trying to take it one thing at a time and not rush into any big decisions, after all this is the first time I ever owned a home and I need to make sure I’m doing the right things! I love it here and being just a short drive from the beach makes me feel much less stressed than I did in Indiana. I wish there was some other way for me to describe it but I think my mood has a lot to do with the weather, to be honest with you, as silly as that sounds. I love being in Jacksonville!

Kingwood Area Democrats attended a rally at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston Texas. It was a well-attended event bringing attention to Governor Perry’s actions that materially affects the healthcare of women who use Planned Parenthood for their services.

There were many speakers and politicians at the event. I got the opportunity to interview Congressman Al Green of Texas about the potential ruling of the Supreme Court on the Affordable Care Act. He brought up an excellent point with regards to a negative ruling’s effect on how Medicare is funded.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Hardcopy: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 Kindle: http://amzn.to/lUFQCV iPad/iTunes: http://bit.ly/qB88Lk Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Your eyes is your most precious resource. It is not something that you can play with. When accessorizing your eyes you must first ensure that the service you choose to provide your exams and your product are in fact the top of the line. After all there are no second takes to eye damage. There are no second takes to premature aging of the eye from bad outcomes.

Richmond Hill optometrist is a company that has hundreds of choices where it comes to glasses. Most importantly their exams are affordable and complete. The comfort of their store fronts as well as the ambiance in general is what you want when you are looking for that place it get your vision in order.

So do not worry about locale for your next eye exam or your next eye accessory. They will provide all that you need. Be cognizant of what is out there and then return to that place that will treat your eye as the precious resource that it is.

This is the trailer of the video that puts into context all that we have been through with President Barack Obama. The Republicans are already crying foul because when his record is examined through unfiltered lens, this man has accomplished more than most presidents under not only intense world economic pressures, world political upheavals, but an intransigent Republican Party that in its hate and disdain for the president will put the nation and with that the economic security of the world in peril.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Hardcopy: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 Kindle: http://amzn.to/lUFQCV iPad/iTunes: http://bit.ly/qB88Lk Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies