Monthly Notes:
- Average American spends 52 cents of every dollar on housing and transportation
- $2.8T spent on top 1%
- Trade tariffs: US = 2%, China 20%, India 40%
- Government isn’t about turning a profit
- Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq are all Muslim countries which we’re bombing
- Bush tax cuts promised growth in GDP, increase in wages, and more jobs but has only lead to the slowest growth of any period since WWII
- 40% of the Bush tax cuts went to the top 1%
- One half of Americans can’t come up with $2,000 in 30 days
- More than $6.6B in Iraq reconstruction funds are missing
- Meat packing industry causes 18% of greenhouse gas emissions
- Less than 2% of people are without health care in Massachusetts, kids less than 1%
- We consume in one year what it takes to produce in 1.3 years
- During the Bush Administration, Republicans voted 19 times to increase the debt ceiling by $4T
Republican Hypocrisy:
- Four Republican Senators who wanted to do PayGo backed out when Obama wanted it
- Republicans came up with the bipartisan Deficit Commission but as soon as Obama backed it, they didn’t want it anymore
- Cap and Trade was a Republican idea, now they don’t support it
- Health insurance mandate was a Republican idea, now they don’t support it
- Terrorism trials they once supported but now do not
- Republicans were for ending oil subsidies but now are against it
- Number of GOP Senators who voted for the debt ceiling increase: 31 in 2002, 50 in 2003, 50 in 2004, 51 in 2006, 26 in 2007, 34 in 2008, 33 in 2008… Since Obama took office: 2 in 2009, 1 in 2009, 0 in 2010
Monthly Questions:
- How come we still practice Bush policies but Obama gets blamed for the slow economic recovery?
- Is it really mature to walk out of a meeting about something as important as the debt ceiling?
- How bad is it that our citizens have to rob banks to get health care?
-
niles38 posted this
