Ryan's Dark Ages Budget, The Chamber Doesn't Speak for You!

Kristy Tillman via Fast Company's Co. Design

Republican Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's recent budget proposal would make this graphic on extreme inequality in America even worse! His plan would make our country unrecognizable with levels of poverty and hardship not seen since the worst days of the Great Depression. About 2/3 of the $4.3 thousand billion Ryan wants to slash from the budget would come from programs that assist lower income Americans. Ryan wants to eventually turn Social Security over to Wall Street, and end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them.  Medicaid's beneficiaries are primarily children of low income families, seniors and disabled people. What is "courageous" about going after the most vulnerable in society? Ryan's plan would create a two-tier system in which health care is increasingly rationed by income. Ryan wants to shower the already ultra rich with billions more in tax cuts while raising taxes for the middle class in the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in US history.

Ryan's proposals look very much like those advocated by the extreme right-wing Koch brothers, so it is not a surprise that Ryan spoke at Koch's strategy meeting in February (in the past, Supreme Court Justices Alito and Thomas have also graced those gatherings). And isn't it interesting that for 10 years, Ryan raised about the average for House members, but in 2010 his contributions soared from about $1.5 million to $4 million, mostly from "large individual contributions."

The Koch brothers are the largest funders of climate change denying organizations (spending almost three times as much as Exxon Mobil!) want to repeal health care and Wall Street reform and helped elect Republican governors like Scott Walker in Wisconsin, to eviscerate the rights of workers (political stooge Walker is also making it easier for Koch companies to pollute Wisconsin water with phosphorous )What Paul Ryan says publicly is outrageous enough, but can you imagine what is said behind the closed doors of a Koch  gathering?

To get a better idea of who the Kochs are, here are just some of their offenses outlined by the Center for Public Integrity:

In late 2000- Koch was hit with a 97-count indictment for covering up the discharge of more than 15 times the legal limit of benzene, a carcinogen, from a refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.The company faced penalties of more than $350 million. Four Koch employees were also charged individually and faced up to 35 years in prison.

Three months after the Bush administration took office—and just before the lawsuit went to trial—the Justice Department abruptly settled the case. Koch agreed to pay $20 million and plead guilty to a single count of concealment of information. In return, the Justice Department dropped all criminal charges against Koch and the four employees.

In another case, Koch was sued by the government in 1995 and 1997 over a reported 300 oil spills at pipelines owned and operated by the company. Those lawsuits sought from $71 million to $214 million in penalties for the spills, which dumped an estimated three million gallons of oil into lakes and streams in six states.

On January 13, 2000, the government settled that case for $35 million in fines.

The Kochs were also sued by their own brother several years ago in a case where the company was accused of stealing millions of barrels of oil from federal and Native American lands.

Notice how they always seem to escape the worst fines and penalties for their criminal behavior? It helps when you "own" the politicians who are supposed to regulate you. The Kochs have given millions to politicians, almost all Republican. They funded 62 of the 87 incoming House GOP freshman class, not to mention 85 right wing think tanks and countless astroturf groups like Americans for Prosperity that helped organize the Tea Party. "Their reach into virtually every aspect of political, economic and physical life on the planet is probably greater than you thought possible."

Paul Ryan hides behind the need to reduce the deficit. It must be addressed, but Ryan's way, the GOP's way, the Koch brothers way to do it- to hurt those struggling the most, while further lining the pockets of the wealthy - is unacceptable and un-American.

"If we just went back to what [defense spending] was under Clinton and also went back to the tax rates under Clinton for the rich and everybody else, we'd save $7.5 trillion over the next 10 years without taking money from the mouths of starving children." Bill Mahr on Rachel Maddow 4/12/11

The US Chamber of Commerce Doesn't Speak for You!

 

Many thanks to 350.org for their new campaign, The US Chamber Doesn't Speak for Me! 


"Unnecessary Austerity," a new Institute for Policy Studies report, explains how Congress could raise more than $4 trillion in revenue over the next decade by reversing years of tax giveaways to the richest Americans and largest corporations.

And finally- a little fun. Watch Colbert expose Fox and Friends for the idiots they are.