Bad Deeds for 3-16-2011

 

Republican View of the Mentally Ill: Ship Them to Siberia to Freeze to Death – New Hampshire Republican State SenatorMartin Harty told Sharon Omand, a Strafford resident who manages a community mental health program, that “the world is too populated” and there are “too many defective people,” according to an e-mail account of the conversation by Omand. […] Harty confirmed to the Monitor that he made the comments to Omand. […] Omand says Harty then stated, “I wish we had a Siberia so we could ship them all off to freeze to death and die and clean up the population.” Omand said Harty appeared to be serious. After Omand responded that his idea sounded like what Adolf Hitler did in World War II, Omand said Harty responded, “Hitler did something right, and I agree with (it).”

 

Michigan’s Republican Governor Slashes Corporate Tax Rate By 86 Percent, But Hikes Taxes for Working Poor – As we’ve been documenting, several conservative governors have proposed placing the brunt of deficit reduction onto the backs of their state’s public employees, students, and middle-class taxpayers, while simultaneously trying to enact corporate tax cuts and giveaways. Govs. Rick Scott (R-FL), Tom Corbett (R-PA), and Jan Brewer (R-AZ) have all gone down this road.

Gov. Rick Snyder (R-MI) has proposed ending his state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, cutting a $600 per child tax credit, and reducing credits for seniors, while also cutting funding for school districts by eight to ten percent. At the same time, as the Michigan League for Human Services found, the state’s business taxes would be reduced by nearly $2 billion, or 86 percent, under Snyder’s plan:

Business taxes would be cut by 86 percent from an estimated $2.1 billion in FY 2011 to $292.7 million in FY 2013, the first full year of the proposed tax changes…Taxes on individuals from the state income tax would rise by $1.7 billion or nearly 31 percent, from an estimated $5.75 billion in FY 2011 to $7.5 billion in FY 2013, the first full year of the tax changes.

Snyder has also asked that the state be given the power to dismiss local government and appoint emergency “town managers” who could break contracts and “strip powers from elected officials.”

 

Kansas Legislator Suggests Using Hunters in Helicopters to Control Illegal Immigration, likens Immigrants to Feral Hogs – Kansas Republican State Rep. Virgil Peck said Monday it might be a good idea to control illegal immigration the way the feral hog population has been controlled — with hunters shooting from helicopters.

 

Michigan’s Republican Governor Wants the Power to Auction Off Its Towns to Corporations – Gov. Rick Snyder in Michigan has also asked that the state be given the power to dismiss local government and appoint emergency “town managers” who could break contracts and “strip powers from elected officials.” The plan: Use the budget crisis to starve cities and towns, then put in an “emergency town manager” who could (1) kill any contract the town entered into AND (2) dismiss elected officials AND (3) “disincorporate” the town itself. Oh, and the emergency manager can be a corporation. (Imagine the bribing for that contract!)

 

Republicans Attempting to Do Away With the Agencies That Can Help Prevent Another Wall Street Collapse – In case you hadn’t noticed, the U.S. economy is still recovering from a major financial crisis caused by reckless Wall Street practices. As part of its response, Congress in 2010 beefed up two investor cops to clean up crime in the suites and created a new cop to protect consumers. But the new House of Representatives has taken steps to de-fund all three – the investor cops at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the consumer cops at the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It’s now up to the Senate to save consumer protection. The dean of U.S. personal finance columnists, Jane Bryant Quinn, says that the CFPB is “badly needed,” but that the Republican House “whacked” it.

 

Republicans to Spend $50 Million to Make Capitol Environmentally Unfriendly -The U.S. House GOP is conducting an all-out assault on the Environmental Protection Agency. As an example, Congressional Republicans have declared war on the compostable cups and cutlery that were introduced as part of the Green the Capitol initiative that Democrats rolled out when they were in the majority.

It’s basically the GOP’s environmental agenda in a nutshell: irrational rejection of anything remotely smelling of green.

The office of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) took a look at the GOP’s program and estimated that it will actually cost $50 million over the next 10 years to un-green the Capitol. That’s because reverting back to the Capitol’s environmentally unfriendly ways means ending programs like composting and single-stream recycling, double-sided printing, reducing water use, and managing computer power more efficiently—all of which save money in the long run.

Oh, and not to mention jacking up health care costs if any Hill staffers should get cancer, since the EPA considers styrene “a suspected carcinogen.” What was it the Republicans were saying about runaway spending again?

 

Republican Anti-Gay Rights Senator Admits He is Gay – Republican Roy Ashburn announced he is gay during a radio interview in California, where he sits on the state legislature. Last year, Mr Ashburn opposed a bill to establish a day of recognition to honour murdered gay rights activist Harvey Milk. He has also voted in the statehouse against efforts to expand anti-discrimination laws and recognize out-of-state gay marriages.

Regards,

Jim