State-Aid Package (Funds for Teachers and Medicaid)

Cost:

$26,100,000,000*

On Aug. 5, the Senate approved a bill (HR 1586) that would increase Medicaid funding to states and provide funds to states to prevent layoffs of teachers. The bill includes $10 billion for teachers and $16.1 billion for Medicaid reimbursements to states. Republicans call the bill a political payoff to teachers' unions. The House is expected to vote on the bill the week of Aug. 8.

Update: As of  August 11, it passed. Way to go Dems!

Hard Hearted?

I don't want to sound hard hearted but I'm sure that everyone at one time or another has lost a family member or good friend. But you or I don't jump on a plane and go on a expensive vacation to Spain. As for paying for it out of your own pocket, are you not suppose to? All I can say is show me the receipts!! The last time I heard the tax payer was paying for the secret service and air force one? And guess what  the poor Lady did not know the secret service was booking her into the most expensive Hotel around? Yeah Right! I'm lucky to be able to pay my electric & water bill.

Glenn Beck Says

84% of Americans don't like the way things are looking. But what's even more disturbing is the fact that 67% of the political class (that's your politicians) think everything is going just fine. How can the politicians be THIS clueless? 

Black Political Activist Herman Cain

Black political activists who also call themselves members of the Tea Party movement on Wednesday rebuked charges of racism running rampant in the group.

At a news conference in Washington, the black members asserted that the Tea Party is not at all racist and that the accusations come from outsiders trying to discredit and sabotage the movement.

"The injection of race has come from those who want to destroy us," said Selena Owens, an regular speaker with the Tea Party Express, one of the many libertarian, anti-tax groups in the movement that organized the news conference.

Herman Cain, a radio talk show host, said the accusations are "hurled at us to divide us and to deflect attention away from the failed policies of this congress and this president."

Kevin Jackson, author of "The Big Black Lie" added, "There are two kinds of people I have never seen at a Tea Party: a racist and anyone who owns a yacht. And if they do own a yacht, they pay their taxes."

By Jake Gibson

Published August 04, 2010
FoxNews.com

Way to go Judge Hudson!

The state of Virginia can continue its lawsuit to stop the nation’s new health care law from taking effect, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson said he is allowing the suit against the U.S. government to proceed, saying no court has ever ruled on whether it’s constitutional to require Americans to purchase a product.
“While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate — and tax — a citizen’s decision not to participate in interstate commerce,” Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision.
“Given the presence of some authority arguably supporting the theory underlying each side’s position, this court cannot conclude at this stage that the complaint fails to state a cause of action,” he wrote.
The decision is a small step, but in no way a minor matter to opponents of the health care bill rejected by all congressional Republicans but signed into law by President Obama earlier this year.

Left Side View

Myth: Social Security is going broke.

Reality: There is no Social Security crisis. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.3 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a 'T'). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever.¹ After 2037, it'll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits--and again, that's without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers retirement decades ago.² Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.

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Myth: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.

Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than did 70 years ago.³ What's more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly--since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half.⁴But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

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Myth: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security.

Reality: Social Security doesn't need to be fixed. But if we want to strengthen it, here's a better way: Make the rich pay their fair share. If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come.⁵ Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income.⁶ But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.

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Myth: The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided and is full of IOUs

Reality: Not even close to true. The Social Security Trust Fund isn't full of IOUs, it's full of U.S. Treasury Bonds. And those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.⁷ The reason Social Security holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has never missed a single interest payment on its debts. President Bush wanted to put Social Security funds in the stock market--which would have been disastrous--but luckily, he failed. So the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget, are as safe as can be.

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Myth: Social Security adds to the deficit

Reality: It's not just wrong -- it's impossible! By law, Social Security funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security can't add one penny to the deficit.¹

The picture above shows how crazy it has become in America and why so many Americans are mad about the government not enforcing the immigration laws! For one thing what other country in the world allows illegals to come into their country and protest against that country's immigration laws? None! Most would probably throw them into jail right away for being there illegally in the first place! If you think American people and their laws are so bad, why did you leave your own country and come here in the first place? But then again what other government would sue its own people over trying to keep out the illegals?

Clinton Appointee Judge Susan Bolton

PHOENIX – A federal judge stepped into the fight over Arizona's immigration law at the last minute Wednesday, blocking the heart of the measure and defusing a confrontation between police and thousands of activists that had been building for months.
Coming just hours before the law was to take effect, the ruling isn't the end.
It sets up a lengthy legal battle that could end up before the Supreme Court — ensuring that a law that reignited the immigration debate, inspired similar measures nationwide, created fodder for political campaigns and raised tensions with Mexico will stay in the spotlight.
Protesters who gathered at the state Capitol and outside the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City cheered when they heard the news. The governor, the law's authors and anti-illegal immigration groups vowed to fight on. "I knew the judge would say that part of the law was just not right," said Gisela Diaz, 50, from Mexico City, who came to Arizona on a since-expired tourist visa in 1989 and who waited with her family early Wednesday at the Mexican Consulate to get advice about the law.
"It's the part we were worried about. This is a big relief for us," she said. About 100 protesters in Mexico City who had gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy broke into cheers when they learned of Bolton's ruling. They had been monitoring the news on a laptop computer.
"Migrants, hang on, the people are rising up!" they chanted.
Mexico's Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinoza called the ruling "a first step in the right direction" and said staff at the five Mexican consulates in Arizona will work extra hours in coming weeks to educate migrants about the law. Unsurprisingly the U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is a Clinton appointee. Does federal law trump state law, when the Federal government will not enforce the law? Judge Bolton’s decision is an important victory for the Obama administration in the face of a rising tide of concern among several states that the federal government is not effectively enforcing immigration law or effectively protecting US borders.