treetracker's Comments (1891)

“They will never do it on their own. They would be cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

There are bills in Congress now regarding this. The House bill has 125 co-sponsors. The Senate bill has 5. They will never pass. They don't want them to. And if the Supremes rule favorably for the PACs on "Hillary, the Movie," we will essentially be losing our votes to the uneducated and gullible who will cast their votes believing the lies this will spawn.

What we truly need is a "political speech" bill that requires all political speech to be truthful.

We need to demand our Governors/State Legislators call for a Constitutional Convention to get both done, among other things the Congress apparently has no intention of accomplishing -- like ending corporate personhood.”

“If Elizabeth Warren heads it up, it would be the best thing that ever happened to the consumers of this country. EVER!”

“Nothing to tell. They are against us. They made that perfectly clear when they chose to cross the arms and say "no" rather than bargain and compromise in a participatory manner of governing.

They have chosen to put partisan politics over the welfare of the people of this nation, rather than to do anything to help the people, especially at a time when so many are out of work. They even delayed the unemployment extension by 1 month. How many did they hurt doing that?

As far as I'm concerned they have given up any right to 1) a paycheck and 2) re-election

We need another party to emerge that takes governing seriously. The GOP is no longer it - their goal is to destroy government by making everything in it not work - which is what they believe anyway. So if they don't think it works, and don't want to fix it, then why are they re-elected. Go figure.”

“What you don't want an agency to protect you from a bank bumping up your interest rate by 10% and then reducing your credit line to boot, possibly putting you in a situation where you can't make the full payment or pay it on time and then you get to take a hit on your credit rating?

May all your credit card interest rates be 39.99%.

Then perhaps you'll see the light.”

“"Republicans who once pushed for total elimination of the CFPA are now ready to back a compromise solution that would make the CFPA subservient to a larger financial regulatory agency, whose leadership could modify or eliminate any protections deemed hurtful to business."

Oh, yeah, we wouldn't want to do ANYTHING TO HURT the businesses who have so screwed us already, now would we. I'm guessing his credit card interest rates haven't been bumped up!

Do any of these people get it? Obviously there are very few who do and those that don't should be given the boot come Nov 2.”

“My thoughts exactly. Good to know there are still people in D.C. with integrity!”

“I wasn't defending Acorn. If they have been dishonest, then they, too, should pay the piper. I am a retired fraud investigator. I don't care who perpetrates the fraud, they should pay for their crimes, if they are guilty.

As for Iraq, I do not begrudge what we have given the people there, not even the $900 million so they could have universal health care. I do begrudge corporations like Haliburton and KBR gouging the tax payers of this country to do those things, however.

Had we not blew everything up over there on a war that should never occurred (at least not when it did), we wouldn't have needed to rebuild it either. If it wasn't about the WMD (and it wasn't), then what was it about?”

“Perfect! I agree.”

“They're not being deported because there are several million of them and not enough law enforcement to deal with it. Those that are being identified are being

As you said, "people have been trying...for decades" --- How about we try another solution that gives them a pathway to citizenship if they are employed and a choice to go home if they don't. If they choose to stay, they're going to have a difficult time supporting themselves without jobs. Of course, there will always be people who turn to crime, but then don't we have that already? At least most of those will end up in jail and eventually on their way home a felons.

As long as employers can pay them under the table and pay them less, we are always going to have this problem. My suggestion may not solve it completely, but it would make a good start towards a solution don't you think? Certainly we are not going to solve it heading down the same path we are on.”

“If we would enforce employers across the board to pay illegals the same wages and benefits (and collect taxes on those wages) legal workers must be paid for similar work (BTW this is a CA law), employers might decided it's better to pay English speaking, educated, and trained workers than those that may not be. Any illegals who maintain employment, should be given a pathway to citizenship. I suspect many illegals would return home (as many have already with this recession) if there are no jobs for them.

The health care bill is going to add to the problem with illegals being unable to purchase their own insurance and employers fined if they don't provide employees with insurance...unless, of course, if they're illegal. No fine, no insurance, more incentive to hire them.

We complain about human rights in other countries yet deny people the right to purchase health insurance with their own money. What a sorry lot of people and politicians we have in this country.”

“Any item produced in a country that has human rights violations, or environmental violations should have a 500% tariff on each and every product exported to the United States. We decry human rights, yet continually allow countries to export products made with slave labor or child labor or who destroy their environment. And we Americans purchase their products because we want it to be the cheapest --- even though it is usually junk that falls apart within days or weeks. We are hypocrites and so are our politicians.”

“Yeah, they always believe those talking points even when there is data that indicates otherwise. I am really tired of bumper sticker mentality..especially when the answers to questions can be found by a Google search and a little digging to confirm the credibility of the author.

You know it amazes me, they want people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but expect them to be able to do it on $7.25 (or less) an hour.

http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/001104.shtml

http://www.uvm.edu/~vlrs/doc/min_wage.htm”

“While I COMPLETELY agree the mandatory provision should be removed from the final bill, you aren't taking into consideration possible subsidies for percentages above poverty level as now provided for in both the House and Senate bill.”

“I'm grateful they increased the minimum wage. I'm just aggravated that it always comes with yet another GOP tax break to business. The taxpayers end up subsidizing businesses with one tax exemption, tax break, tax loophole, tax subsidy after another. Some are warranted. But where does it end?

If this were a "free market" system that the GOPers and Dems claim it is, everybody would have to live or die without them.

But like the banks, the taxpayers end up increasing the bottom lines of businesses.

"Free market" - what a joke.

It's like "Drill, Baby, Drill" - where the oil would end up being sold on the world market & there is not an oil co on the planet that would flood the market with that oil to reduce prices.

But, hey, it makes a nice bumper sticker for the masses who are just plain clueless.

And there are people in both parties that are selling us out.”

“You do remember that it was the Democrats who were behind the increase that passed in May 2007? The first increase in the minimum wage in 10 years!

They had to tie it to an Iraq spending bill and give business a big tax cut to do it. One tax break among many that business continually gets.

"The measure would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 in three stages over two years. The bill includes $4.84 billion in tax breaks for small businesses. They have made a case, supported by Republicans and the White House, that the wage increase would be a burden for them.

President Bush said he would sign the measure as part of the bigger spending package that had been negotiated between Democratic lawmakers and the administration."”

“Don't they also have free college tuition?”

“Promote candidates who are not part of the party machine. Solid citizens who have the interests of the country and its citizens at heart rather than the corporate predator state. They don't have to have and "I" beside their name, they just have to be independent of the insider politics. And, hopefully, enough of them can be elected to make a difference. We must throw out the bums who have sold us out on both sides of the aisle.”

“Because someone told them everyone should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps "like our ancestors did" and take care of themselves. You know, Reagan - "government is the problem." Of course, none of them have ever read anything about what our ancestors did - pulled together to help each other build and defend their homes and help plant crops and take care of the sick, orphans and maimed in the community...right along with being designated as county road builders...as a community service, not for pay (that also included maintaining that road).

I just love it when Regency Blue Shield puts their NW commercial on out here in Puget Sound and tells how the company was founded by NW loggers who banded together (those dam ned socialists!) and created a non-profit fund to take care of the medical bills incurred by the loggers in the community. Actually it really ticks me off they have the nerve to rub it in our faces.

But hey, everyone remembers Reagan's quote - including "welfare queens" - it didn't matter that it was all BS and just another bumper sticker slogan to fool the masses and get votes. That was all that counted and still is.”

“Well first of all this was not "health care reform" - it was more like insurance reform. Sure there's some health care issues covered in the bill, but it's mainly in reimbursements and other issues...not much there that is going to have a huge impact on the health care industry...mostly it's going to help them, right a long with the insurance companies.

Would you be happier if they put all the money in the hands of a non profit like Blue Cross/Blue Shield?

If that would make you happier than having the government send them the checks after they made the payments (which is what they do now), maybe we can work that out.

You do realize that Medicare contracts with private insurance carriers to handle all their claims? That all that "Medicare fraud" is actually paid by the private carriers who handle the claims? But then, of course, Medicare goes after that money using the FBI and the Justice Department, while the private carriers who pay fraudulent claims under their own policies, just increase their premiums so you and I get to pay for those costs.”

“Don't forget the 1.7 trillion in tax breaks to W's base, the "haves and haves more."

Not all of the 2nd TARP provided by Congress to Obama has been spent. The vast majority of the deficit and the debt are owed to Bush, not Obama.

I have plenty of things I'm willing to hang around the Dems necks, as well as the GOPers, but I won't charge them with doing things they didn't do.

Every GOPer since Reagan(?) has grown the government and raised taxes, except W who lowered them in the middle of two wars...what a dope!

Of course starting a second war was insane. He could have taken a lesson from Lincoln, but I'm guessing he never read his biography.”

“They LIE! It's nowhere close to a "socialized health care" system. LOL.

What a joke.”

“I had not heard of these clinics before this. There are actually many already set up across the country.

http://ers.hrsa.gov/ReportServer?/HGDW_Reports/BCD_NHSC_SITE/NHSC_Appr_Site_List&rs:Format=HTML3.2&theWhere=Site_State_Abbr=%27WA%27”

“We can only hope this will be a bigger mess than we have and more and more people will understand that a single payer system makes much more sense.

They worry about it being "government run" - fine - let's take a non-profit like Blue Cross and have them administer the entire program.

End of "government run."”

“Agreed.”

“Exactly.”