Green | November 16, 2011 | 25 comments

Stop the undemocratic Super Committee!

source: http://www.organicconsumers.org/corplink.cfm

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JanforGore
The super-rich 1% have plunged us into a debt crisis by refusing to pay their fair share of taxes even as they strain the budget with wars, corporate welfare and bailouts. Now, the crisis they created is their excuse to force us to accept austerity measures.
Led by the Koch brothers and using the Tea Party as a front group, they succeeded in passing a bill that set up a Super Committee charged with drafting legislation by November 23 to slash $1.5 trillion from the federal budget.

If the Super Committee fails to produce a budget reduction plan or if the plan does not become law, spending will be lowered by $1.2 trillion, with $109.3 billion in cuts per year, half of which, $54.7 billion, comes from military spending and the other half from the rest of the budget. These cuts affect both mandatory and discretionary spending with proportionate cuts to both, but Social Security and Medicaid are protected while Medicare providers would see, at most, a two percent reduction in payments.

Why the Supercommittee Should Disband

Defense Contractors Pay Little To No Corporate Income Tax While Earning Billions
Fraudulent defense contractors paid $1 trillion

The dozen Super Committee members are the targets of countless corporate lobbyists and campaign donors working to protect defense contracts and industry subsidies while encouraging spending cuts and privatization for Food Stamps/SNAP, School Meals, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

In the last three months, the Farm Bureau and Biotech have spent $700,000 to influence the Super Committee and stave off cuts to direct payments for commodity producers (most are huge corporations growing Monsanto's genetically engineered crops) by gutting nutrition programs for hungry people.

If Congress had to put each of these deficit reduction measures to a vote, they would lose. Maintaining corporate welfare and tax breaks for the richest 1% by looting programs that serve the working poor and unemployed in a time of economic crisis isn't a good reelection strategy.

The Senate recently voted 84-15 to cut farm subsidies to anyone with an average income over $1 million. They voted 58 to 41 to defeat cuts to Food Stamps/SNAP.

The Super Committee process is designed to avoid votes like that. Congress will have to vote up or down on the debt reduction package without amendments or filibuster.

The Super Committee shuts down democracy. We need to shut down the Super Committee!

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation to do just that (H.R.3201). Here's her argument:

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25 comments // Stop the undemocratic Super Committee!

  • Dusty_King
  • artemis6
  • jubal
    • +1
      jubal  

    • This "super committee" is just another scheme of the corrupt congress to ramrod their darling projects through and to underline their ideological bullshit. Keep Supporting the OWS movement....YOU CAN'T EVICT AN IDEA.

    • 6 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • Dagum
  • WakeUpPeople
    • +5
      WakeUpPeople  

    • "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

      We can be certain that the not-so-Supercommittee was destined for failure from its inception.

    • 6 months ago
  • Paratus
    • +1
      Paratus  

    • Other than the first sentence of the opening post which is a crock, I agree with this completely. We need to stop the class warfare and get on with the real problem.
      I said, when this began, that this was not a good idea. Originally referred to as the Super Congress, the name was quickly changed in an effort to make it more benign.
      This committee has to much power, power it should not have. This is why it is a target for lobbyists etc. I have said it before, return to a limited government, without the assumed power the government has taken, and this will not be a problem.

    • 6 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +5
      JanforGore  
    • Paratus:

      You really are naive about this then. I agree with you about agriculture and some other issues but your constant defending of those who don't give a damn about you either is absolutely unbelievable.The banks and the very organizations like Freddie Mac that brought this on didn't get a bailout with OUR money and then use it to pay big bonuses to their CEOs instead of using it to create jobs and give loans to spur the economy? Corporations like GE for example didn't get away with paying taxes? Corporations like Monsanto aren't buying favor? For someone who claims to be against handouts and government not doing everything for us you sure lick the boots of the biggest beggars of all with their hands out to this government at our expense. And they are STILL doing it. Matter of fact, their corporate non- person hands are out more to this government than any others. Social Security is not a handout, it is earned by those (and that also includes Republicans who work btw) who put into it as is Medicare. If any of it is touched to secure more donations from the handout loving Corporations to preserve their precious tax cuts for those who don't even pay, you "will" see more people in the streets.

    • 6 months ago
  • jubal
    • +1
      jubal  
    • Paratus:

      This is all about class warfare....the "lets get over the class warfare" slogan is crafted to divert our attention from the real issue, that the ELITES have been waging class warfare for millenia and to quote the AVATAR movie...."THIS IS OUR LAND".

    • 6 months ago
  • BrushwithDeathToothpaste
  • Paratus
    • -1
      Paratus  
    • JanforGore:

      I don't know what you are reading but you really missed on this one. Your sentence structure is really unclear but if you are referring to me saying that the first sentence is a crock you are dead wrong. It is a fact that 53% of the taxpayers in this country pay 100% of the federal income tax. This is not defending them. You may be uncomfortable with the facts but I cannot help that. GE didn't "get away" with anything. They file their return within the rules of the Internal Revenue Code as written by the government. This also, is not defending them but a statement of the facts. I am not commenting on whether this is right or wrong. If it changes then so be it. I would like to do away with the IRC completely. No credits, deductions, so-called "loopholes". Flat percentage rate. As for the rest of it I have no idea why you are even trying to make an issue of this. I really don't think you have any idea of what you are talking about. As I said, return to a limited government. Take the power of lobbyists to influence legislation detrimental to us. Without all encompassing power the government presently possesses the corporate, union, PAC, lobbyist influence will at least be diminished if not go away. If there is no power to influence there will be no influence.
      Wake up and read. I lick no ones boots and to say I do is an outright lie especially when you utter Monsanto as an example.

    • 6 months ago
  • Paratus
    • 0
      Paratus  
    • jubal:

      The progressive tax system is class warfare. Making half the people pay all the fed income tax then complaining about not paying "their fair share" is class warfare. What is the "fair share" of those who pay not FIT?

    • 6 months ago
  • Paratus
  • artemis6
    • +8
      artemis6  

    • We need to take back the entire political process . Including the Supreme Court , which should have blocked this BEFORE it started . This super committee is ILLEGAL . OWS Occupy Everywhere !!

    • 6 months ago
  • Leen61
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  
    • artemis6:

      Yes, the Tea Party held this country hostage. It was either default or give it all away to the corporate benefactors with this fascist committee. That is criminal, and to see Democrats veering again to caving into them because they have no spine is also criminal. When are people going to wake up to understand that DC in general regardless of party is not on our side? I think that too is an impediment to true progress and change and a true democratic process...partisan politics+ greed.

    • 6 months ago
  • csmonut
    • +2
      csmonut  
    • JanforGore:

      Both parties are so busy trying to destroy the other that they have become totally ineffective in what they are SUPPOSED to be doing....while the backdoor deals proliferate.

      Maybe it is time to Occupy the Country

    • 6 months ago
  • jubal
    • +2
      jubal  
    • artemis6:

      Constitutionally, wages were never meant to be taxed, only profits. With the help of SCOTUS corporations have turned that completely around and their religion is TAX THE WORKERS AND DON'T TAX US CORPORATIONS BECAUSE WE CREATE JOBS.

      WHERE ARE THE FUCKING JOBS??????

      Outsourced to foreign lands....this is complete and utter BS.

    • 6 months ago
  • jubal
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  
    • jubal:

      Taxing profits and NOT wages makes all kinds of sense .... The constitution is a fairly sensible document , and should be honored , the super committee is NOT in it ! maybe it is time we occupy the senate , the house , and supreme court ... We are the PEOPLE ! We did NOT elect this super committee . What the committee REALLY is , is PROOF , the U.S. government to longer serves it's intended function . It has fallen to corporate influence and is no longer OURS at all . I , am not OK with this . I refuse to recognize it as a legitimate entity . It is not .

    • 6 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +7
      JanforGore  

    • We're being hoodwinked by both sides. I agree with Maxine Waters that we need to stop this committee, but as Cenk Uyger stated ( I agree on this) you are very naive to think any of them on either side are in this for you. In my opinion, you also cannot be for the OWS movement and trust either of these parties at this point. I wish those like Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders and a few others would start their own party and put up a candidate to challenge these frauds on all sides.

    • 6 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  

    • Watch this at 1hr .27 seconds as a protester interrupts a Super Committee hearing to walk forward and politely say:

      "The American people want to tax the rich and end the wars. That's how we fix the deficit. And all this obfuscation with percentages of GDP, this is just trying to confuse the issue. We would have enough money for housing and health care and everything that we want if we stopped spending our money on the military machine. It's very obvious. I speak for the 99 percent: End the wars and tax the rich"
      ____
      The Super Committee is setting us up to take another fall. If this happens, they better know the consequences. I called both of my Senators today to tell them my feelings on this and that this committee is a fake set up to serve their own interests at our expense and that I will no longer sit and take it. Let's all do that. Even if we cannot make a protest, let's Occupy their phones and e-mails!

    • 6 months ago
  • artemis6
  • JanforGore
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  
    • JanforGore:

      OWS is writing on the wall too . It started writing on Wall street , but the message needs to be heard in the halls of power . It is like a song in a language they do not understand . They want to censor it because it is alien to them and might be dangerous . I believe it is the true song of humanity , the true song of civilization . We could not live in a lie forever ... The lie was , that we are driven by greed . No , we are driven by love (those of us with the courage to be able to love , anyway) . If they had not bought into the system of the lie , they could understand the language of the heart . The heart is where out true life exists . The Monetary system , is just a sorry substitute for it . America still has heart . I suppose they though they repressed it completely with all the hate and fear they spewed over the years . Nope . Here we still are ....

    • 6 months ago
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