Bad Deeds for 10-18-2010

 

Five Lies That Republicans Are Spreading About Social Security – Some powerful people keep spreading lies about the program to scare people into accepting benefit cuts:

Lie #1: Social Security is going broke.

Reality: There is no Social Security crisis. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.6 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a ‘T’). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever. 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. Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.

Lie #2: 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 they did 70 years ago. 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. But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

Lie #3: 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. Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income. But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.

Lie #4: 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. 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.

Lie #5: Social Security adds to the deficit

Reality: It’s not just wrong—it’s impossible! By law, Social Security’s 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.

A list of sources for the above facts is at the link.

 

Republicans Allowed Dumping of Mining Wastes Into America’s Waters (and They’ll Keep Doing It if We Let Them) – In 2002 the Bush administration created a loophole to the Clean Water Act that allows mining companies to dump untreated mining wastes in America’s lakes and streams. From mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia to gold mines in Alaska, untreated waste is destroying our waterways with tons of dumped material and threatening our communities with heavy metals and other toxins.

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to close the waste loophole in the Clean Water Act, but in order to ensure this happens by the end of the Obama administration’s current term, the process needs to begin immediately. Before the EPA can initiate the regulatory rulemaking process, however, it needs the go-ahead from the White House.

 

Extremist Republican Candidates to Replace Sane Deliberation With Crazy Knee-Jerk Reactionism – Republicans in the U.S. Senate have already broken all records for unprincipled partisan obstructionism, preventing the administration from putting people into key positions in the executive branch, blocking judicial confirmations, and delaying and preventing Congress from dealing with important issues facing the nation, from financial reform to immigration. Now a bumper crop of far-right GOP candidates threatens to turn the “deliberative body”into a haven for extremists who view much of the federal government as unconstitutional and who are itching to shut it down.

Fueled by the unlimited deep pockets of billionaire anti-government ideologues, various Tea Party and corporate-interest groups have poured money into primary elections this year. They and conservative voters angry about the actions of the Obama administration have replaced even very conservative senators and candidates backed by the national Republican establishment with others who embrace a range of radically right-wing views on the Constitution, the role of government, the protection of individual freedoms, and the separation of church and state.

Republican Senators have spent the past two years exploiting Senate rules and procedures to wage obstructionist partisan warfare to an unprecedented degree. But things could be even worse. If the November elections usher in a new crop of Senators with a 19th-Century view of the Constitution and reality-denying approaches to urgent problems, they could prove disastrous for America’s future, for the values of individual liberty and equality under the law, and for the ability of the federal government to take any effective action to advance the national interest and the common good.

 

Tea Party Intends to be in Charge of Counting the Votes – Do you remember how:

Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell helped elect George W. Bush? Do you want the Tea Party to count the votes in 2012? With less than four weeks left until the election, many Secretary of State races in key battleground states hang in the balance. Whoever is elected now will be in charge of counting the votes for President Obama’s re-election. Not surprisingly, the Tea Party has made Secretary of State elections a key priority. If they win, vote suppression, demands for excessive ID requirements and sheer hysteria would rule the day in 2012.

 

Employees Given Ballots Pre-Marked for Republicans – According to a lawsuit, in 2008, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) came to the Altech Industries facility and talked to the employees about voting Republican. Plaintiff and other employees were informed they had to attend the rally with Senator Sessions. In addition, the owner of the company informed the employees they should vote Republican and gave the employees pre-marked ballots.

A white coworker told a black worker to take off a pro-Obama shirt when he wore it to the plant after the election.

He averred that his colleague told him that the “O” on his shirt “was the perfect circle for a cross hair. I can reach you from 500 yards away,” and added, “I’m not kidding.”

A second employee said that the firm allowed workers to wear Confederate flag insignia and that Altec “condoned and tolerated the racial harassment” and “has a habit and/or practice of discrimination against African Americans.”

Jim