budget cuts // Current TV

"Courageous" budget plan of Rep Ryan - not well thought out....

Besides using a 2.8% unemployment figure which is unreal, even in the best of times,... more

SerialGramma
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2 years ago
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GOP's price to delay shutdown? $12B

President Barack Obama called top lawmakers to the White House for a meeting Tuesday, even as House Republicans edged closer to a real government shutdown Friday if the GOP’s demands for domestic spending cuts are not immediately met.

A draft bill being prepared by the House Appropriations Committee on Monday night would put the Defense Department on permanent footing through the end of this fiscal year but require $12 billion in new cuts as the price for keeping domestic agencies and the State Department operating another week.
The GOP proposal would also include a provision “preventing both federal and local funds from being used to provide abortions in the District of Columbia,” according to a statement from the Appropriations Committee.

Whether this blunderbuss will be really fired—or kept as a threat—was unclear. But the turn of events Monday was ominous given the short time left before funding runs out Friday.

The day began with Obama extending his invitation for the White House meeting and negotiators were hoping for final decisions from the leadership to finish a bill before Friday’s funding cutoff. Instead Republicans came out blasting, venting their frustration with a flurry of accusatory press releases aimed at the White House — but even more so at Senate Democrats.

At a special party caucus Monday night, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) set out a range of options for the GOP, including a shutdown scenario and the new funding resolution.

The $12 billion is intended as a further down payment toward a final deal, just as $10 billion in cuts were promised under two prior extensions. But Boehner has also raised the ante by demanding total cuts of more than the $33 billion target that was the focus of talks over the weekend.

At the same time, having pursued a deal even in the face of tea party criticism, he is not giving up and even called out those in his party who had failed to support him on the last extension.

The idea of breaking out Defense will be popular with his conservatives and reminiscent of a strategy Republicans also used in the 1995 government shutdown. But giving up this political engine for just another week is risky since many think Boehner will need the Pentagon budget to enact a final deal—shutdown or not.

“I’ve made clear that their $33 billion is not enough,” Boehner said, “and many of the cuts that the White House and Senate Democrats are talking about are full of smoke and mirrors.”

“It’s become sadly evident to me, and to the American people, that the White House and Senate Democrats are just not serious yet about enacting real spending cuts. … If the government shuts down, it will be because Senate Democrats failed to do their job.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52508.html#ixzz1IemxhUSlPresident Barack Obama called top lawmakers to the White House for a meeting Tuesday,... more

bundlebear
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2 years ago
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The 10 Most Painful Education Budget Cuts

As the economic crisis continues, states and school districts are playing a cruel game... more

bundlebear
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2 years ago
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24 comments

Senator Ryan won't talk about cutting corporate welfare

Chris Wallace on Fox pressed on the question of cutting tax loopholes, but Ryan... more

lazloman
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2 years ago
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Update-Fasting for Freedom!

Update-{thinking about the tens of thousands of kids who rely on Head Start nutrition... more

figgdimension
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2 years ago
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33 comments

Tell Congress to Help Create Jobs Not Cut Them

Tell Congress to vote NO on H.R. 1. Now is not the time to cut investment in business... more

bravenewfilms2
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2 years ago
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New York’s Day of Rage: Thousands protest against plans to slash education and healthcare budgets in state with highest income inequality

In the shadow of towering colonial-style office buildings of the world’s most... more

joeeddy
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2 years ago
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Hundreds of arts groups lose funding due to budget cuts

Today was a dark day for arts organisations across the UK as more than 200 of them... more

sbacker
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2 years ago
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3 comments

March for the Alternative // London anti-cut march

a brief experience of the anti-cut March for the Alternative which took place in... more

naorelimelech
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2 years ago
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March for the Alternative // London anti-cut march

a brief experience of the anti-cut March for the Alternative which took place in... more

naorelimelech
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2 years ago
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Raw Video: Protest in London Against Cuts

Raw Video: Protest in London Against Cuts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUYrIr_l8UA

CarlosBobthe3rd
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2 years ago
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4 comments

FL Governor’s Premeditated Plan to Bloat His Own Bank Account

What is the limit on how much money is enough for Rick Scott?

Greed and corruption are not just whims to Scott; apparently it’s his entire lifestyle.
In a State with one of the largest populations of citizens over 65, Republicans and the New Governor are taking painstaking efforts to assure that the elderly and disabled have little to no chance of protecting their health.

Scott obviously knows at this point that he is a one term Governor. Before his term is done, he intends to damage and defund Florida’s social programs at the expense of and its people while further enriching himself and his wealthy friends.

This move to ‘reform’ Medicaid has nothing to do with the budget. Scott and Florida Republicans are currently trying to enact a sweeping Medicaid reform bill that would give HMOs and other private health care companies unprecedented control over the government health care program for the poor.

The bill would also put a hard cap on the amount of money that these managed care companies could spend on Medicaid, which advocates say could particularly harm disabled and elderly patients who require costlier long-term care.
Scott’s new Medicaid reforms will basically force Public employees and people receiving food stamps, welfare or any other social financial aid to visit his Wife’s company (Solantic) for drug testing before they would be considered eligible for these programs or for public employment.

The Florida governor founded Solantic in 2001, only a few years after he resigned as the CEO of hospital giant Columbia/HCA amid a massive Medicare fraud scandal. In January, he transferred his $62 million stake in Solantic to his wife, Ann Scott. The Medicaid bill that Scott is now pushing would expand the pilot privatization program to the entire state of Florida, offering Solantic a huge new business opportunity. It’s difficult to believe the transfer of Solantic before he took office and the push for Medicaid ‘reform’ is a coincidence.

Casting himself as a free-market champion, Scott put his opposition to "Obamacare" at the heart of his campaign. But he could ultimately stand to gain from one of the federal government's biggest entitlements—a program that's also set to expand massively under the Affordable Care Act. Concludes Georgetown's Alker: "It's especially ironic when people who speak out against government involvement in health care turn around and profit from it."

"This is a conflict of interest that raises a serious ethical issue," says Marc Rodwin, a medical ethics professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. "The public should be thinking and worrying about this."
Once the damage is done will Florida ever have the funds to reinstate Medicaid back to where it stood before Scott executed his war on the neediest citizens of Florida?

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/rick-scott-florida-medicaid-solanticWhat is the limit on how much money is enough for Rick Scott? Greed and corruption... more