Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Truthiness in Messaging

If there was ever a time that we should hook up public speakers to a lie detector, it was last night for the Republican response by Rep. Paul Ryan, I could go on for a long time about him, but instead I’ll just highlight some of the most blatant lies and pitiful attempts at obfuscation that were used.

Our debt is the product of acts by many presidents and many Congresses over many years. No one person or party is responsible for it. Right, except for the fact that the last Democratic president left us with a budget surplus and then a Republican president wiped that out by providing massive tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% and not paying for it. Oops.

“There is no doubt the President came into office facing a severe fiscal and economic situation.” Again, correct but he fails to mention who championed the deregulation which helped cause it. (Hint: It was Republicans)

“Unfortunately, instead of restoring the fundamentals of economic growth, he (President Obama) engaged in a stimulus spending spree that not only failed to deliver on its promise to create jobs, but also plunged us even deeper into debt.” But wait what about the 1.6 million jobs it has created so far?


Last, but not least, his argument against health care reform:

“What we already know about the President's health care law is this: Costs are going up, premiums are rising, and millions of people will lose the coverage they currently have. Job creation is being stifled by all of its taxes, penalties, mandates and fees.”

Once again, reality is taking a pretty big hit here. Premiums aren’t going up, sorry. Employees of small firms would effectively see unchanged premiums, at large firms the premiums would be unchanged or go down a little and more than half of those who buy their own coverage would qualify for tax credits, earning a family of four up to $88,000 per year.

Next, it’s not really a job killing bill. In fact HCR could increase jobs by 250,000 to 400,000 per year over the coming decade.

Those millions of people who are losing their coverage, yeah, that’s actually from a study where 123 million people would choose a public option if it were cheaper than their current coverage, but since there’s no public option I guess we won’t have to worry about this.

As an extra bonus, for all those Republicans concerned about the deficit, if we repeal HCR, the Congressional Budget Office expects that the deficit would increase by $145 BILLION from 2012-2019 and if you go to 2021 it’s an increase of $230 BILLION. Now that’s not very responsible.

Stay tuned for our look at one of our favorite ranting, raving, right-wingers, Michelle Bachmann and her response to the State of the Union.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Happy Anniversary to Citizens United

This Friday marks the one year anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Citizens United case that allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on federal campaigns. In 2010, we saw the disastrous consequences this decision had on our elections when special interests were able to buy a campaign victory in November. This ruling undermined the very ideals of the democratic process by allowing the money of corporations to trump the votes of Americans.

As a result of this decision, insurance and pharmaceutical companies were able to pour unlimited funds into the fight against health care reform and to elect anti-health care reform Republicans in November. Because of this, the Republican controlled House voted on Wednesday to repeal health care reform, one of the most important pieces of legislation ever.

We need to put an end to this corrupt influence and ensure that special interests do not take over our elections in 2012. We may not be able to match the millions of dollars corporations will spend, but we can beat them by organizing a strong grassroots campaign. 21st Century Democrats believes that by electing strong supporters of campaign finance reform, we can make a permanent change in the way elections are run.

Populism in Today's Politics - Register Now

A populist revival is currently happening in America and it is important we address the fact that as Democrats, we are the true voice of the Populist movement. It is crucial that we use this message to bring back our economy and ensure Democratic candidates are elected in 2012.

Please join 21st Century Democrats and a selected panel of populist leaders on Monday, January 24 at 7:00pm EST in our conference call, "Populism in Today's Politics: A Pre-State of the Union Conversation." Click Here to register for this event and to submit questions to our guest speakers.

Populist leaders Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, radio host Jim Hightower of Texas, and Democratic consultant Vic Fingerhut will answer your questions and address the opportunities we have and the challenges we may face with a populist agenda 2011.

Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity! Register Today and please spread the word about this exceptional event.