Bad Deeds for 6-6-2011

 

Republicans Give Bonuses to Staffs While Urging Fiscal Restraint For Others – Six anti-spending House Republicans from the Greater Houston area handed their congressional staffs generous bonuses – some exceeding $4,000 – at the end of 2010 when the GOP was pressing for steep cuts in federal spending.

The Republicans’ payouts contrasted with Houston’s three House Democrats who said they did not provide holiday-season bonuses because they preferred providing consistent monthly paychecks or had rejected bonuses because of the nation’s economic ills.

Payroll data compiled by LegiStorm, an independent organization that tracks congressional finances, showed the six Republicans paid an average salary of $55,713 in 2010 and added in an average bonus of $3,097 to boost the total average salary to $58,810. Democrats paid an average salary of $54,375 with no bonus, leaving the average Democratic staffer earning $4,435 less than a colleague on the GOP staff.

 

Rick Perry vs. The Bible – Texas Gov. Rick Perry has invited the nation’s 49 other governors to join him at “a day of prayer and fasting on behalf of our troubled nation.” The big event is scheduled for Reliant Stadium in Houston.

Perry seems to have forgotten about what The Bible (Matthew 6) says:

Take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Truly I say to you, They have their reward. But when you do alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does: That your alms may be in secret: and your Father which sees in secret himself shall reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Truly I say to you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly.

 

Republican Views Education as an Entitlement That Needs to be Cut – Last week, Republican Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston called the school finance proposal “a true cut in an entitlement.” Note the use of that dirty word — entitlement — as if public education is some kind of welfare, not the underpinning of democracy envisioned by Thomas Jefferson.

This school finance bill is a tipping point for the Texas public education system. If the state’s obligation to local schools is no longer carved in statute, public education funding becomes vulnerable to last-minute budget balancing by 10 lawmakers on a conference committee. If they decide to trim a couple of billion from education, the other 171 members of the Legislature have little voice.

(But for Republicans, education is only deserved by those who can afford it. – JLV)

 

Big Bank Forecloses on Homeowner Who Didn’t Even Have a Mortgage, But … – You’ve heard before about banks unjustly foreclosing on homeowners. In this case in Florida, Bank of America apparently tried to foreclose on a homeowner who’d paid cash for their house. A court found the homeowners had never had a mortgage and ordered BofA to pay their legal fees. When the bank didn’t pay after five months, the homeowners’ attorney initiated foreclosure proceedings against the bank. Sheriff’s deputies, movers, and the homeowners’ attorney went to the bank and foreclosed on it. The attorney gave instructions to to remove desks, computers, copiers, filing cabinets and any cash in the teller’s drawers. After about an hour of being locked out of the bank, the bank manager handed the attorney a check for the legal fees.

 

Republican Prefers Bad Public Policy if it Makes for a Good Slogan – In the 1970s, people earning more than $200,000 a year faced a top rate of 70 percent. But the top rate is now half that and tax collections have fallen to their lowest level as a share of the economy in 60 years. Major tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 also contributed to the decline in revenue — and helped drive up budget deficits.

Recently, three sane Republican U.S. senators (Tom Coburn, Mike Crapo and Saxby Chambliss) banded together in support of higher tax revenue as a means of balancing the federal budget. Even with drastic spending cuts, they concluded, Washington could not vanquish its soaring $14.3 trillion debt without additional income. Such reasoning was common in the GOP circa 1963, when Republicans denounced tax cuts proposed by President John F. Kennedy as a road to red ink and rampant inflation. But today’s GOP adheres to a “no new taxes” orthodoxy that has proved far more powerful than the desire to balance the budget.

Republican strategist Grover G. Norquist, who invented the pledge not to raise taxes, says protecting tax breaks must be done, even if Republicans view it as bad public policy. That’s right, they view bad public policy as god as long as it makes for a good slogan that helps win elections.

 

What Can We Learn From The Bad Deeds?
The idea of bringing everyone together and making sure that everybody is contributing, everybody is responsible, but everybody also looks out for one another has traditionally been the idea at the heart of America. But not for conservatives [without conscience].

For conservatives, a capitalist environment does not “engineer,” but “liberates” through competition, a zero-sum competition in which one individual does better only at the expense of another.

Many people make up their political minds, not because they know much about what’s going on, but because they know too little. These folks will line up with whatever clown and circus act comes to town as the sideshow barker shouts “I’ve got mine; you get yours,” and “Show ME the money!”

So learn everything you can about what is going on and why it is happening, then educate others.

Regards,

Jim