This is short and sweet.
The House Budget Committee is just starting.
Ok, I wanted to watch it for many reasons. Mostly to watch the procedure and learn.
Of course, too, I wanted to see if I could learn more from both sides.
I heard the head of the Committee, John Spratt, Jr. then he turned it over to the ranking member Paul Ryan from Wisconsin for 10 minutes.
Rep. Spratt, not a great speaker, is rather laid back. Ok I handle that by doing other things while listening. Then there is Rep. Ryan. Next thing I know I am angry.
Talking to the TV in not so nice language. He repeats the same old Repub. stuff. I hear a man talking to his fellow Repubs. not giving me anything new to learn. this guy flat irritates me. I believe he is the one that talks about the rest of us just need to be better consumers. That will take care of everything-consume, consume, consume.
Now here is the next Repub. talking about his mother and her doctor and no government interference. Maybe his mother is quite young therefore not on Medicare?
anyway you can probably watch for yourself. CSpan 1 and I believe CSpan 3 are carrying the Committee.
Find out more about the Committee here
The more the Repubs. keep it up the more I want to give more to defeat them and help pass the health care bill. I wish it were stronger and more left leaning (I don't like insurance companies) but these Repubs. are so smug acting. I hope you can watch or listen.
Also read: CBO's March 11th update
From: Opensecrets.org
Top Industries
Congressman Paul Ryan 2009 - 2010
Select cycle and data to include:
* Campaign Cmte & Leadership PAC Combined
Top 20 Industries contributing to Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC
Industry ↓ Total ↓ Indivs ↓ PACs ↓
Insurance $102,220 $9,720 $92,500
Securities & Investment $71,900 $20,900 $51,000
Retired $71,836 $71,836 $0
Health Professionals $63,806 $12,306 $51,500
Misc Finance $37,850 $23,350 $14,500
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $32,250 $1,250 $31,000
Oil & Gas $28,600 $10,600 $18,000
Lobbyists $27,250 $26,250 $1,000
Lawyers/Law Firms $26,300 $12,800 $13,500
Accountants $25,650 $1,650 $24,000
Health Services/HMOs $22,268 $2,768 $19,500
Hospitals/Nursing Homes $19,350 $10,850 $8,500
Air Transport $18,743 $0 $18,743
Real Estate $18,650 $5,650 $13,000
Building Materials & Equipment $16,150 $10,150 $6,000
Electric Utilities $15,250 $1,500 $13,750
Retail Sales $15,200 $200 $15,000
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing $15,150 $4,150 $11,000
Beer, Wine & Liquor $15,000 $0 $15,000
Building Trade Unions $14,500 $0 $14,500
Kanna;
ReplyDeleteI haven't been able to watch, but I am afraid I would be yelling at the TV more than you were.. I don't do well with finances and budgets, and, so I don't know for certain what the answer is to our problems in this nation; well, apparently the world. I have written a couple of little things on it, but again, I am not one to talk about budgets. I do believe that the ones in power and money are greedy and that greed has caused a kind of hoarding of money and not allowing it to be in the hands of the working people who will spend and create a cash flow that would prove to be more profitable for the top than their current me for myself mentality. I don't pretend that giving money to the poor would solve anything, but allowing a better than fair wage would be a start. The economy is built on the ideals of consumerism. We have people who produce, for example, cars, but way too many cars that most of the population really can't afford to own and drive, so the system is congested. Part of this is due to government mandates on ridiculously ineffective safety and emission controls, but a lot of it is due to bad marketing strategies and really not caring what the main body of consumers really need or can afford. Housing is much the same problem.. We rely on the idea that if we build a product, which keeps a certain group employed, there will be other groups who are willing and able to buy that product. We want production jobs, but who is going to consume that production? We need to have a marketable product and a market with money to buy that product. Then there will be a tax base that will supply money to the government so there will be enough for all the government programs. Then, they in turn can make rules that choke the production and drive it into another country and lose the production jobs. oops.... I went too far.
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
I am pretty busy this morning so will get back to your comment when I have more time and functioning brain power.
I really do appreciate your time.
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteThere is only one thing in your comment I can reply to-sort of...
How do we know giving money to the poor won't work? We have never really tried it.
I mean real money not some less than subsistence or "entitlement". Of course some would not use it wisely but what about the rest? I'll just bet that there are many poor that would use it well.
I read recently, that we are afraid to tax the wealthy. We have all the old reasons, they earned it etc...
But the end was basically when are most of us going to quit accepting scraps thrown to the dogs?