Tag Archives: South Carolina

Red states and ACA’s Medicaid expansion

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Some Republican governors have no problem rejecting ACA-funded expansions of Medicaid in their states to help the poor. They believe in “small government” — even if others must suffer for it. These same governors would never dream of increasing taxes, by even a small amount, on their wealthiest residents. Instead, to balance a budget, they’d have no problem cutting public-sector jobs, programs, and services for everyone else.

“In South Carolina, a yearly income of $16,900 is too much for Medicaid for a family of three. In Florida, $11,000 a year is too much. In Mississippi, $8,200 a year is too much. In Louisiana and Texas, earning more than just $5,000 a year makes you ineligible for Medicaid.

“[Republican] governors in those five states have said they’ll reject the Medicaid expansion underpinning Obama’s health law after the Supreme Court’s decision gave states that option. Many of those hurt by the decision are working parents who are poor — but not poor enough — to qualify for Medicaid.”

“[...] Medicaid now covers an estimated 70 million Americans and would cover an estimated 7 million more in 2014 under the Obama health law’s expansion. In contrast, Ryan’s plan could mean 14 million to 27 million Americans would ultimately lose coverage, even beyond the effect of a repeal of the health law, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation of Ryan’s 2011 budget plan.

“[...] The national health law’s Medicaid expansion would start covering all citizens in 2014 who make up to roughly $15,400 for an individual, $30,650 for a family of four.

“The federal government will pay the full cost of the Medicaid expansion through 2016. After that, the states will pick up 5 percent of the cost through 2019, and 10 percent of the cost thereafter.

“Why would a governor say no?”

— Anti-Medicaid states: Earning $11,000 is too much | via

“[Mead] is worried about the 83,000 uninsured residents in the state and the impact of the high cost of uncompensated care. But he said the state needs to look at its possible savings and expenses as a “ledger sheet” and consider all the consequences of both the expansion and the rest of the health-care act… Mead said Wyoming might not need to decide if presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney wins and follows through on his vow to repeal the health-care act. “(He) said there will be a change in course if he is elected,” Mead said. “If President (Barack) Obama is elected, I assume we will continue heading down this line.””

— WY Gov. Matt Mead still wary of Medicaid expansion 

This is one example of how a political ideology is now more of a religious belief to the modern GOP than is the Christianity they always claim to follow.

Morning Bunker Report: Wednesday 5.2.2012

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——————————WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS FOR TODAY

FOX & FRIENDS has more important things to talk about than Rupert Murdoch – When the news broke [yesterday morning] that Rupert Murdoch had been declared by the UK Parliament unfit to lead an international company, Fox & Friends was in full swing. [...] After several segments critical of the Occupy movement and President Obama, trailers for a story about Karate Kid and a man falling off some scaffolding, Fox ran the big news about Murdoch. See the whole 32 seconds they dedicated to it, as well as the following story – a couple towing their grand-daughter’s toy car behind their SUV. — TPM 

MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR SCOTT BROWN (R) doesn’t see anything wrong with the fact that he has voted to overturn the Affordable Care Act four times, in spite of the fact that it enables him to keep his 23-year-old daughter on his Congressional health plan. Brown told The Boston Globe that his daughter Ayla’s use of the coverage is in no way inconsistent with his criticism of the ACA, which most Republicans call “Obamacare.” – Scott Brown opposes ‘Obamacare’ policy that covers his daughter

LINDSEY GRAHAM helps a nuclear plant get permits, is rewarded with cash — The $13-billion Cayce, SC-based energy company has long wanted a permit to build two new nuclear reactors at its Jenkinsville, SC, facilities. Graham, one of the Senate’s strongest supporters of nuclear power, actively backed their efforts. [...] In February, the U.S. Nuclear Research Commission voted to approve the country’s first nuclear reactor construction permits in more than 30 years. [...] On March 31, much to Graham’s delight, SCANA received its Jenkinsville permits. [...] Two weeks later, when Graham’s “Team Graham” Senate campaign committee filed its quarterly lobbying disclosure form, just one name appeared. SCANA Corporation, the committee revealed, had given the Graham $54,575 in bundled campaign contributions between January 1 and March 31 — raising money for him as he worked to secure their $10 billion project. — Think Progress

ISSUES PEOPLE ‘CARE ABOUT’ — Steve Benen has some followup questions for Romney with regard to his statement yesterday: “Of course, I would have taken out Osama bin Laden, but what’s the right course for the economy? What should we do with taxes? What should we do with regulation? What should we do with trade overseas? What should we do with our energy policy? How about our labor policy? These are important issues people care about.”

  • * When you say you’re focused on “important issues people care about,” why do you exclude counter-terrorism? Do you believe targeting the al Qaeda leader behind 9/11 is an unimportant issue people don’t care about?
  • * When you said four years ago that an Obama victory would be “a surrender to terror,” do you still think that was a sensible argument?
  • * When you say “of course” you would have launched the raid on bin Laden, do you realize that completely contradicts your campaign promises from four years ago? And do you understand the complexities and enormous risks of the decision itself?
  • * When you decided to visit New York firefighters today with Rudy Giuliani, are we to think this wasn’t a political move associated with the one-year anniversary of killing bin Laden?
  • * Republicans politicized the fear of terrorism in several recent election cycles. Why didn’t you complain then? And do you recognize a qualitative difference between politicizing fear and politicizing a victory?

MITT ROMNEY AND RUDY GIULIANI carried pizza a whole two feet for their firehouse photo op, then unloaded the pizza onto an aide — The presumptive GOP presidential nominee and his former critic emerged from a black SUV bearing gifts for some of New York’s bravest: six boxes of fresh pizza, which Romney and Giuliani personally lugged into the firehouse as a gaggle of photographers, cordoned off at a safe distance, snapped away. Moments later, the photo op complete and the press pool (mostly!) out of sight, Romney and Giuliani unloaded all six pizzas into the arms of an aide. — Daily Intel

FYI: MITT ROMNEY has always been a dick – Back in 2004, President Bush ran a smear campaign against challenger Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) which undermined his service in Vietnam and questioned Kerry’s ability and determination to protect the United States — just three years removed from the 9/11 attacks — from another terror strike. “If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we’ll get hit again,” then Vice President Dick Cheney said at the time. And while Romney complains about Obama’s alleged “politicization” now, he willfully participated in the Bush-Cheney smear campaign on Kerry in 2004. During an August 9, 2004 (accessed via Lexis/Nexis) interview on Fox News, Romney suggested that Kerry would “twiddle his thumbs” when dealing with terrorism and in September 2004, also on Fox News, Romney said Kerry is too much of a flip-flopper to protect the country. – Think Progress

WHAT DO SANTORUM AND GINGRICH want before they officially endorse Mitt?

PRESIDENT OBAMA / DEMOCRATS————————————————————

MARKING TWO ANNIVERSAIRES yesterday — 2003 and 2011: 

“As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home, it’s time to renew America,” Obama said at 4 a.m. local time, the first time a sitting U.S. president has addressed the nation from inside an active war zone. “This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end.” [...] Shortly after arriving unannounced at the military base near Kabul, Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement that memorializes the relationship between the two nations for the 10-year period following the draw down of combat troops by the end of 2014. At that time, Obama said the U.S. will assume a “support” role and deliver aid to the struggling nation that will become responsible for its own security. “The agreement we signed today sends a clear message to the Afghan people: as you stand up, you will not stand alone,” Obama said. And in a statement after the meeting, Karzai stated, “By signing this document, we close the last 10 years and open a new season of equal relations.” – Obama in Afghanistan: This is Where the War Will End

IT ALL STARTED right after Team Obama debuted their new campaign’s slogan: “Forward“—the long-awaited sequel to 2008′s “Hope and Change.” And in those seven letters, members of the conservative commentariat detected a whiff of totalitarianism. On Tuesday, ThinkProgress editor Alex Seitz-Wald threw together a primer on the bizarre, petty, and not entirely unexpected freak-out. For example, Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard criticized the president for having signed off on a word so closely linked to Chairman Mao’s mass-murder-tastic Great Leap Forward. (“[P]erhaps President Obama might rethink this slightly creepy slogan,” Kristol pondered earnestly.) Breitbart.com’s Joel Pollak (this guy) wrote about how the seven-letter slogan is further proof that Obama’s political heritage belongs to a long line of Communist tyrants. Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit took Forwardgate as his cue to yet again draw the Obama-Hitler connection. – Hitler, Obama Both Fond of Slogans

  • AND PEOPLE WONDER why our public discourse is so stunted – there’s more: National Review‘s The Corner: “I knew that sounded awfully familiar. From Wikipedia: Vorwarts (“Forward”) was the central organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany published daily in Berlin from 1891 to 1933.” Daily Mail: “Mao, Lenin and a century of Marxist radicals: The controversial origins of Obama’s new campaign slogan ‘Forward’” The Washington Times: “New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism” – Moving ‘forward,’ into a red scare
  • WHICH BEGS THE QUESTION — Was Richard M. Nixon a closet Marxist? “Forward Together” 

NOTE: THOUGH THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN voluntarily chooses to disclose all of its fundraising bundlers, the Romney campaign has decided to keep bundlers’ names secret.

South Carolina, you so crazy!

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“When someone asks when the Republican Party abandoned its longstanding position as the party of family values, we will all be able to say it was shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 19, 2012, in Charleston, South Carolina.”— Roland Martin, detailing precisely how SC’s Republican primary has demolished the Republican party’s credibility. (via: mie-eponymous)


Source: early-onset-of-night


Source: phroyd

mie-eponymous: This one’s for you, South Carolina!  Good on ya for taking a FIRM moral stance.  And how nice of you, to let us see just which morals you favor…

What we think about Newt Gingrich winning in South Carolina

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Image: apsies 

Will you look at the demographics of this Fox News exit poll? 


Image: brooklynmutt | Source: Fox News

This is hilariously believable: 

Stung by Defeat, Romney Considers Adultery « Borowitz Report

According to one senior advisor, the Romney campaign was already holding focus groups and conducting special polling to determine the best person with whom Mr. Romney should conduct his extracurricular dalliance.

And in a sign that Mr. Romney is taking precipitous action to find an object for his adulterous intentions, today his campaign launched a new dating site, SexyTimeWithMitt.com.

Via: apsies | Source: brooklynmutt

And meanwhile, in the Guy-Who’s-Clearly-Running-for-Vice-President camp: 

producermatthew:

GOP presidential nominee Rick Santorum, apparently unaware of ironic acronyms, wants you to participate in the Conservatives Unite Moneybomb, or C.U.M.  This is real.

(If you’re having a hard time understanding why this is ironic, Google the word “Santorum”)

Finally, Dr. No the “libertarian” icon is still hanging in there — not going anywhere, anytime soon: 


Original gif: zuckerco

Why does the government subsidize rich people like Mitt Romney at the expense of average Americans?

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The larger question is: why will working and middle class conservatives vote again and again against their own best interests by voting for someone like Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates who favor such tax laws?  The answer might be: numerous psychological issues.

But this is a good question — why do we have laws that tax capital gains at a lower rate than income earned from a job? And if it were up to Mitt Romney, he’d reduce the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans (and himself) even further.

From the Maddow Blog:

Chart: Economic Policy Institute

Taking Mitt Romney’s own estimate that he pays a tax rate of 15 percent, this chart compares what he owes the IRS to what an average American family would pay. Ethan Pollack of the Economic Policy Institute, who posted the chart, writes that this is a matter of long-term policy choices by our government:

Why is the government favoring Romney’s income over that of most Americans? After all, it’s not like he’s been working recently—he’s been running for president for the better part of five years. And even if he did have the time to actively manage his investments, he’s not able to because they’re in a blind trust. As for the risk factor, sure he’s risking his capital, but he’s not bearing any more risk that most households in this economy face. So tell me again, why is it so important for the government to subsidize rich people like Romney at the expense of average American households?

Mr. Romney seems to like the general drift of American tax policy just fine. Under Mr. Romney’s plan, the richer you are, the more likely you are to get a smaller tax bill.

Remember that Mitt said he hasn’t released his tax returns because he wants to beat Obama. Take that as you will.

Via TPM: How does [Romney] stack up to the rest of us, most of whom are regular wage earners? When you account for the fact that most people also pay payroll taxes, and don’t enjoy enormous deductions, credits or other benefits, you see that Romney’s making out about as well as a taxpayer who makes $50,000 a year. Not bad for a man whose net worth is estimated to be in the neighborhood of a quarter billion dollars. 

Related: 

South Carolina: too small for a republic, too large for an insane asylum

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“What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party? I’ll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things, every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor” — written by Lawrence O’Donnell Jr for The West Wing

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the red state of South Carolina — a state with a poverty rate of 18% and unemployment numbers well above the national average — and how see how GOP ideals could ruin it further:

From Think Progress,

Here’s a look at how the GOP candidates’ positions would affect the vulnerable populations of South Carolina, by the numbers:

– Over 3,000,000: There are at least at least 3,380,000 eligible voters in South Carolina, but many students, seniors, low-income voters, and minority voters may find it difficult to actually cast a ballot thanks to the state’s new voter ID law. Rick Santorum called it a “common-sense anti-fraud” measure that prevents the vote of “people who probably shouldn’t be voting.” Newt Gingrich blasted President Obama’s rejection of the law as trying to “steal elections.”

– Over 200,000: There are at least 213,000 unemployed South Carolinians contributing to the state’s 9.9 percent unemployment rate. While those receiving unemployment insurance actually work harder to find a job, according to studies, Gingrich equates joblessness with laziness and demands that any benefits come through a work-training program — or a drug test.

– Over 400,000: There were at least 408,000 veterans living in South Carolina in 2009. veterans increasingly need to be treated for traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and other health consequences of war. While Mitt Romney briefly flirted with turning the VA into a voucher system, Gingrich adopted the idea wholesale, stating we should “find a way to have a voucherized system for those who want it.”

– Over 650,000: In 2009, there were over 650,000 people in the state participating in the food stamp program, and the economic recession has no doubt only increased those numbers. Rather than address the need of vulnerable South Carolinians, Gingrich and Santorum traffic in “ugly, racial stereotypes” to justify calls to drug test recipients and cut funding for the needy. 

With all the problems and need within their own state, what matters most to the conservative Christian voting base today? The candidate who can best “take the fight” to Obama (i.e. put him in his “place”). Some of these voters think that’s Mittens, or Sweater Vest, or Dr. No, but it looks like a majority have decided it’s Newt the Grandiose Hypocrite.

Because to the conservative voter’s way of thinking, or programming, Obama is Teh Evil Kenyan Socialist, and Newt has proven he can put those lamestream media types in their place. Reporting facts is now a sin.


image: andrewsullivan

To a base with sharp teeth and a voracious appetite, Newt Gingrich smells like the red meat they dream of tearing to shreds.

South Carolina primary day: will they choose the Plutocrat or the Serial Adulterer?

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In recent polling, the serial adulterer has pulled into first place over the plutocrat — but who knows WHAT can happen in South Carolina by the end of the day?

Andrew Sullivan gives us two opinions on Marianne Gingrich’s revelations:

Lloyd Grove says:

In case anyone needed to be reminded of Gingrich’s outrageous hypocrisy, ABC helpfully spliced in footage of the then-adulterous speaker, in a breathtaking feat of compartmentalization, pursuing the impeachment of Bill Clinton for arguably less egregious behavior, denouncing the Clinton-Gore administration as having “less moral authority than any administration in history,” and continually defending the sanctity of marriage as a political talking point.

But, you see, none of that matters to the GOP base because… lamestream media!

Margaret Carlson’s view is closer to Grove’s but still she isn’t sure the interview will do Gingrich much damage:

Newt was not polling well among evangelical women before Marianne’s revelations, and surely won’t now. But he makes up for it with his surge among men in a state where divorce is not unheard of, despite the fact that 60 percent of Republican voters identify themselves as Christian conservatives. Residents of South Carolina divorce at a rate twice as high as for that den of iniquity, Washington, D.C. Many fewer people divorce in the bluest of states, Massachusetts, than in the Palmetto State, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.

Ah, okay. Sanctity of marriage means one man and one woman being able to marry and divorce numerous times. I just hope evangelical conservative wives are ready for their husbands to announce how they’d like an open marriage too.

According to the GOP base, adulterous behavior and grandiose hypocrisy appear to be great personal attributes in a leader. The SIN is for the media to report it (if the adulterer is a Republican that is).

image: balloon-juice.com

How’d that GOP debate go?

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Wonkette has the highlights,

  1. South Carolina Republicans booed a black person for mentioning blacks (Juan Williams / Newt Gingrich), and
  2. Rick Perry got some huge applause for defending the Marines desecrating the corpses of whatever people the Marines were killing that day. It’s inspirational, as always…
  3. Mitt Romney gave an ‘uncomfortable’ performance.

And here’s video of the South Carolina audience BOOING Ron Paul when he mentions the Golden Rule with regard to our foreign policy:

http://embed.crooksandliars.com/v/MjMwODEtNTM2NzQ?color=C93033

Would this be an audience full of rightwing Christian fundamentalists or evangelicals? I can never tell…

– The End –

Video: Stephen Colbert’s first Super PAC ad in South Carolina

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John Lithgow narrating FTW!

Via ryking:

Stephen Colbert’s first ad in South Carolina labels Mitt Romney “a serial killer.”

“If corporations are people, then Mitt Romney is Mitt the Ripper.”

See the Super PAC site The Definitely Not Coordinated With Stephen Colbert Super PAC with a forward from Jon Stewart. Genius.

“Their greed was only matched by their willingness to do anything to make billions in profits”

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Previews of a new film produced by a pro-Newt Super PAC that will air in South Carolina are as brutal as they come about Romney’s brand of management. (via: TPM)


…

Capitalism made America great – free markets, innovation, hard work – the building blocks of the American Dream. But in the wrong hands some of those dreams can turn into nightmares. This film is about one raider and his firm and how they destroyed that dream for thousands of Americans and their families – Mitt Romney and Bain Capital.

Corporations are people too, my friends.

Related:

If corporations are people…

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…then Walmart is a sociopathic asshole.

Several customers were appalled when a South Carolina Walmart remained open for business after a man stabbed his wife to death inside the superstore. [...] After police roped off the blood covered crime scene, the store manager allowed customers to continue shopping.

And as far as the South Carolina customers who wanted to continue shopping for cheap, China-produced imports? No surprise. Here’s what the inside of an American Walmart looks like before Christmas:

Guess how many attended the South Carolina Teaparty rally?

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I wonder if they counted the statue.

Tea Party Rally Fizzles in South Carolina — Though as many as 2,000 people were expected at a Tea Party rally in South Carolina, just 30 showed up after Donald Trump canceled his appearance with Gov. Nikki Haley (R), according to the Columbia State.

The picture from the rally is priceless.

Damn the lamestream, liberal media for taking pictures. Will the rightwing blogs / media describe the ‘crowd’ size as 2,000 anyway?

via liberalsarecool

Religious extremist hangs a dog from a tree with an electrical cord and sets it on fire — for chewing on her Holy Book

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HuffPo:

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Authorities have charged a South Carolina woman with felony animal cruelty, saying she hanged her nephew’s pit bull from a tree with an electrical cord and burned its body because the dog chewed on her Bible.

We need to ask ourselves: How would Jesus have tortured the dog?

Dog Killed Bible