Retirees, disorganized, not equipped for legal battles are being attacked.

• The Alliance for Retired Americans
 

Friday, December 19, 2014

<Mostly members are retired union members from various labor organizations who have joined together under one alliance.  This a direct reprint which I will add comments.>

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Paul Ryan’s Way of Cutting Medicare to Reemerge in New Congress

The next Republican budget will look a lot like those written by exiting House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the incoming House Budget Committee Chairman said last Friday. That would mean eliminating deficits in 10 years by calling again for massive cuts to the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who takes the reins of the U.S. House budget panel in January, told reporters he will “build on” Ryan's proposals by devising ways to put more federal benefits programs under the control of states. Ryan will take over as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Price said a Republican-controlled Congress can now advance policies pioneered by Ryan, including his controversial Medicare plans. Those plans would cut Medicare by limiting beneficiaries to a set amount of money every year to buy private health care insurance. Known as "premium support," the program would mark a dramatic shift from the current Medicare system, under which the federal government helps pay for all medical services that an individual uses.

<In short, here is a voucher for health insurance, now go negotiate a health plan for yourself.>

“‘Premium support’ is vouchers and would gut Medicare and shift costs to seniors,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance. “It is another way of saying, ‘Here’s a nickel, you’re on your own for the rest of your health care costs.’” More from Reuters at http://tinyurl.com/nuuhany.

<Alliance for Retired Americans sponsors "Letters to the Editor" and awards a special pen to members who get published and forward their information to the organization.>

Budget or another Topic on Your Mind? Write a Letter to the Editor

Letters to the editor are a terrific way to get our message out.

===================================================

Huffington Post December 15, 2014

When the Senate approved the omnibus spending bill to prevent the government from shutting down, it also delivered a blow to some retirees who collect pensions. In a little-discussed provision of the bill, certain multi-employer pension plans were given the go-ahead to reduce pension checks to current recipients by up to 60 percent. 

<Watch this, also Koch Industries major employers are looking for ways to limit or reduce employee pension benefits.>

===================================================

Huffington Post December 19, 2014

The United Steelworkers union negotiated a series of collective bargaining agreements stipulating that retired employees "will receive a full company contribution towards the cost of [health] benefits." The union believed the benefits were guaranteed for life. The company contends it could take away these benefits whenever it chose--which it did in 2007.

The retirees challenged that action. The retirees won in the lower courts, and now their case is pending before the Supreme Court.

<Watch this, many retirees whose benefit includes company paid health benefits, may not be guaranteed for life as they thought.>

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The Speech That Could Make Elizabeth Warren the Next President of the United States

The Warren for President Movement already has a campaign slogan:

"The Best Candidate Money Can't Buy!"

Democrats don't like Wall Street bailouts. Republicans don't like Wall Street bailouts. The American people are disgusted by Wall Street bailouts

And yet here we are, five years after Dodd-Frank with Congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would do nothing for the middle class, do nothing for community banks, do nothing but raise the risk that taxpayers will have to bail out the biggest banks once again...So let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi[group]. I agree with you Dodd-Frank isn't perfect. It should have broken you into pieces!

If this Congress is going to open up Dodd-Frank in the months ahead, then let's open it up
to get tougher, not to create more bailout opportunities. If we're going to open up Dodd-Frank, let's open it up so that once and for all we end too big to fail and I mean really end it, not just say that we did.  Instead of passing laws that create new bailout opportunities for too big to fail banks, let's pass...something...that would help break up these giant banks.

A century ago Teddy Roosevelt was America's Trust-Buster. He went after the giant trusts
and monopolies in this country, and a lot of people talk about how those trust deserved to be broken up because they had too much economic power. But Teddy Roosevelt said we should break them up because they had too much political power. Teddy Roosevelt said break them up because all that concentrated power threatens the very foundations up our democratic system.

And now we're watching as Congress passes yet another provision that was written by lobbyists for the biggest recipient of bailout money in the history of this country. And its attached to a bill that needs to pass or else we entire federal government will grind to a halt.

Think about that kind of power. If a financial institution has become so big and so powerful
that it can hold the entire country hostage. That alone is reason enough to break them up.

Enough is enough.  Enough is enough with Wall Street insiders getting key position after key position and the kind of cronyism that we have seen in the executive branch. Enough is enough with Citigroup passing 11th hour deregulatory provisions that nobody takes ownership over but everybody will come to regret. Enough is enough,  Washington already works really well for the billionaires and the big corporations and the lawyers and the lobbyists.

But what about the families who lost their homes or their jobs or their retirement savings the last time Citigroup bet big on derivatives and lost? What about the families who are living paycheck to paycheck and saw their tax dollars go to bail out Citi just 6 years ago?  We were sent here to fight for those families. It is time, it is past time, for Washington to start working for them!  The conventional wisdom is that to win white working and middle class voters, politicians need to move towards the center, meaning towards a more corporate approach. But in a world of growing inequality, stagnating wages, and a fading belief that with hard work your children can have a better life than you had, that may no longer be true.         Senator Elizabeth Warren   United States Senate  December 12, 2014

Senator Elizabeth Warren correctly points out the political system in the United States has become heavily weighted down for the wealthy and many Democrats have forgotten our goal is to protect working families against these forces of massive money campaigns.

If there is one thing that people understand, either they have money or someone else does and that leaves them out of the main stream of American Life.  How much longer will the poor continue to pay the penalty?

Miles Mogulescu Entertainment attorney, writer and political activist 
December 13, 2014  Huff Post Politics Writes
Elizabeth Warren represents a new politics in which, by challenging the power of the oligarchy, she has the potential of reclaiming the white working class for Democrats and uniting them with the coalition of professionals, single women, gays and minorities who elected Obama. She is the first major national politician in decades who is willing to openly challenge the power of the Wall Street oligarchy, in the manner of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who declared, "They are unanimous in their hate for me -- and I welcome their hatred."

With the increasingly dominant power of big money in politics, could Warren defeat Clinton, Inc. and then go on to defeat what is likely to be the near unanimous support of the Wall Street and corporate elite for her Republican opponent? It's hard to say. But the nation is in too much trouble to settle for a Democratic or Republican candidate of the corporatist status quo. If there's any hope, it's that once in a while the power of organized people can defeat the power of organized money. Elizabeth Warren represents that hope and it's the only thing worth hoping for.                                                                                                                                 

It transformed the conventional wisdom about American politics that the main divide is between left, right, and center, when it is really between pro-corporate and anti-corporate. Her declaration that neither Democrats nor Republicans (meaning the voters, not the Washington politicians) don't like bank bailouts rings loud and true. Tea party supporters don't like bailouts and crony capitalism any more that progressives do.

Everyone is asking the same question: Have Democrats Failed the White Working Class?

Democrats seem to be winning the majority of minority voters and losing white voters and not just in the South.  The question keeps getting louder from all corners. how do the Democrats win back their votes?

Remember the so called "Reagan" Democrats?  Today many with roots to the same White middle class working folks who are responding to economic and cultural forces that serve to drive these voters away from their New Deal Democratic home.  

Black, Latino and White workers are facing diminishing work opportunities.  Since the 1970s federal civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination started to be seriously enforced as jobs declined.  Jobs shipped overseas for lower paid wages, new robotic plant modifications requiring fewer workers and lets face it, more women and elderly in the work force have all contributed to less hiring as the population continued to grow.  

The globalization, automation of production coupled with millions of workers from all over the world seeking work have one way or another found their way into jobs and an underground work force.

Times have changed and more families find they need two incomes to stay in even the lower middle class.  People are living longer and Social Security retirement ages have been lifted forcing workers to remain in the work force longer to receive maximum benefits.

As all these forces led to diminishing jobs, organized labor and the unions lost membership and the push on their members to stick with the Democratic party.
The question should not be have the Democrats failed the White working class, the question is how do the Democrats win back those lost voters without "turning off" the new voting block of "voters of color".

I want to add in my opinion the movement of workers away from their families and the support that is given has led to the breakdown of working-class families.
Flowing from that breakdown the consequences of family splits, spiritual support with family support and pressure have left big holes and additional financial burdens on these folks.

As younger workers scattered across the country to seek jobs it has taken a huge toll on that network of moral support and resources for those White working-class people that felt comfortable with the values of the Democratic party.

So I feel the question is, how, when and where do Democrats put their coalition of working class voters back together?  Is someone like Senator Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, Senator Sherrod Brown or Senator Bernie Sanders up to the task of rebuilding the Democratic Party?

What really burns my toast here in Arizona.
The statement from Robert Graham, Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party:
"Democrats had an underwhelming primary. Untested candidates means an unenthusiastic electorate. Even the media had little to report during the Democrats' process of secretly hand-picking nominees, and no publicity in a statewide election means doom. Everyone likes a good fight, even within the party. Democrats could only find one candidate for the biggest seat in the state. Republicans, in contrast, were able to watch a thoroughly competitive primary involving six candidates have a healthy discussion about the issues. In addition, Democrats handed the treasurer’s seat over to the Republicans by failing to produce a nominee."
<Note as well as the State Mine Inspector a statewide elected office where Democrats failed to have a candidate.>

What Chairman Graham points out and Democrat should take notice and start working now for the 2016 Arizona elections.

You can't win a game if you don't field a team!

Start building the bench by recruiting and training candidates over the next year. Starting with the Legislature in 2016 and building for the next statewide election in 2018.

{Isn't it telling that in Arizona every state official with the exception of two Corporation Commission members out of five are elected in the non-presidential, "off-year", low voter participation elections.}

Can Democrats Crawl and Scratch Back by 2016?

Democrats across the country stood for Nothing and Lost Everything!

No surprise Democrats lost this last election, they were campaigning on a losing strategy.  Since when does running against the leader of your party, President Obama, campaigning against your values and accomplishments equal electoral victory?

Stepping back blaming a disappointing voter turn-out, the worse since 1942 when we were fighting World War II, without looking at the message we were delivering to all U S citizens just doesn't wash.   <"That dog don't hunt, North or South.">

Here in Arizona we had the best ground operation that we could throw money into, dedicated, educated and well-financed young workers from around the country were transported here to protect candidates unwilling to acknowledge Democrat's progressive agenda and accomplishments.

We need to remember and remind the Republicans that President Obama was elected and re-elected by far greater number of people than accepted Republican candidates this election.

President Obama and the Democrats in Congress were STOPPED time and again by the far-right Republicans determined to defeat Obama by spending taxpayer dollars for useless lawsuits.  The Republican Congressional machine in the House were making laws, over 50 alone to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which if ever reaching the Senate and passed would have been seen a Presidential Veto with no hope of a legislative override.

President Obama and the Democrats offered programs that would have spent money helping the economy expand and grow, against extremist Republicans talking about impeachment and actually shutting down the Federal Government throwing money away without any plans to help the country.

The Republicans were elected but didn't win the 2014 off-year election.  The Democrats lost because they didn't present enough reason to kill voter apathy which led to lack of voter turn-out.  Democrats ran from President Obama, used ill-advised strategies, lacked leadership on progressive issues and did not standby the Democrat Party's principles.

Running from election victories two years previous was the same as campaigning against yourself.  Success denied is confessing to a crime you didn't commit.

Line up the real wins for the American people:
•    That there was 55 months of job growth under Obama versus multiple years of job loss under Republican leadership.

•    That even though the economy is doing better, it isn't doing as well as it could be because Republicans continually block job bills that could put millions back to work rebuilding America's decaying roads, bridges, etc.

•    That Democrats strongly support scientists and their work to stop the man-made destruction of our planet by controlling air and water quality, but the Republican Party does not even address the issue.

•    That Republicans want to proceed with their oil and gas donors' plans to construct the Keystone Pipeline, even though it would damage the environment and have minimal job growth.

•    That the millions of people who have healthcare and access to doctors outside of the emergency room for the first time, would lose their coverage if Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

•    That Republican governors blocked Medicaid Expansion in numerous states, keeping their state from getting billions of federal dollars in addition to bankrupting many hospitals.

•    That Democrats are fighting for a minimum wage increase, while Republicans are opposing giving employees a raise.

•    That while Republicans say they want to lower the deficit, they consistently increase it under their leadership in contrast to Democrats who decrease it when in office.

•    That old, white, Republican men feel that controlling women's health decisions, economic equality and family planning is their job, not the woman's right.

•    That Democrats fight for the programs American citizens want and need such as Social Security and Medicare, while Republicans want to privatize them, and eventually eliminate them.

Where in the list of real accomplishments do the Democrats need to hold their head in shame?  Time after time when pollsters ask the American Voters where do they stand on these important issues, the voters overwhelmingly support the Democrat positions.

Right here in Arizona where the Democrat registered voters are now in third place behind Republicans and "other" voters, Independents, what is the road to winning again?  It certainly isn't following the same old worn-out slogans and finding leadership willing to hit the streets as proud supporters of Democrat values.  There is plenty of work to be done so we best get started.

Democrats across the state need to use our resources and people to engage our friends, neighbors and family members registered as Independents and find out where their political views actually fall.  We know how to use the information, collect and input into the VAN, prepare ourselves for meaningful contact door to door in 2016.

At the same time every area in the state needs to hold "mini Democrat conventions" adopting local platforms allowing our voters the opportunity to express themselves and direct our candidates the values that are important to us.
Issue conferences, talking and adopting resolutions and directions for future election discussions.

It is time to listen and bring together our fellow citizens seeking to broaden our base, using the opportunity in the next few months to engage and involve otherwise "bystanders" into our political tent based on a broad cross-section of hopes and visions for Arizona's future.

Getting right down to it, as an experienced Democrat activist is pleading, now is the time to start the 2016 campaign.  It is two year's work that can't be done in less time!

Sorry state of Public Education in Arizona

Do you really need to think twice about the rank of Education in Arizona?

Read this copyrighted story.  Search really deep, which candidate for Governor do you really think has some answers and determination to improve public education in Arizona.  One who has been working along those lines for years, Fred Duval or ethically challenged businessman Doug Ducey.  <Google:  Doug Ducey and COLD STONE CREAMERY: Failed Franchisees Attack.>

Arizona’s teacher salaries rank among the lowest

By: Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services October 6, 2014 , 8:32 am

Read more: http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2014/10/06/arizonas-teacher-salaries-rank-among-the-lowest/#ixzz3FwHvty9T

If the ongoing political debates about education funding have not convinced you, a new study might: Arizona is the sixth worst place in the nation to be a teacher.

The report by WalletHub says the average starting salary for teachers, listed as $31,874 for 2012-13 school year by the National Education Association, is the 44th lowest of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. And that ranking comes even after accounting for the lower cost of living here than many other places.

It’s also not great for those who stay in the profession, the study says, with median salaries for all Arizona teachers at No. 48, also measured against the cost of living.

The pupil-to-teacher ratio, listed at 21.3 according to the National Center for Education Statistics, is worse than anywhere but Utah and California. And it compared with a national average of 16.7.

And WalletHub cites NEA figures showing that Arizona spends only about $1,250 per state resident on education. Only Idaho comes in lower.

About the only thing in the WalletHub rankings that kept Arizona from being lower than 46th overall is that there’s probably good job security here.

The personal finance website figures that Arizona will have among the higher percentages of school-age population of all the states by 2030. More children equals more demand for teachers.

Jill Gonzalez, a WalletHub staffer, said there’s a reason these statistics matter.

Consider class size.

“If I have a child I know struggles with learning, then that’s definitely something I want to take into consideration,” she said. But Gonzalez said for some parents, class size won’t matter.

Teacher salaries present a different issue, particularly in Arizona’s ability to recruit.

“If this is a teacher right out of school looking for somewhere to teach, it might matter more to them than someone with a family and who can support themselves in other ways,” Gonzalez said.

One place Arizona is not in the bottom 10 is in what WalletHub calls teacher wage disparity. Gonzalez said this is the difference between salaries at the 90th percentile level — near the top — and those at the 10th percentile level. That measures whether there’s room for wage improvement.

Arizona is No. 38 nationwide.

The report comes as questions of school funding have taken center stage in courtrooms and the gubernatorial race.

Key is the ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court that during the recession state lawmakers ignored a 2000 voter-approved mandate to adjust aid to schools each year for inflation.

The exact amount missed is still being litigated. But Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper said just resetting basic state aid to what it should have been had legislators complied with the law all along totals $317 million.

If and when the state comes up with that cash, that will make another $279 per pupil available, on top of the approximately $7,550 a year per student from all sources.

That does not count an additional $1.3 billion that schools claim they are owed for the years the state ignored the inflation funding formula. While that would be a one-time infusion, it translates out to close to an additional $1,150 per student.

Both Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Fred DuVal and Republican Doug Ducey say they want to put more money in the classroom though they differ on how to do that.

Read more: http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2014/10/06/arizonas-teacher-salaries-rank-among-the-lowest/#ixzz3FwHOIgOB

Just wish they would oppose hate

GOP tax cutters are like snake oil salesmen at a medicine show.

Just cut taxes and we'll defeat the terrorists and cure ebola, at least that is what the followers of Congressman Paul Ryan, R-WI and Governor Sam Brownback, R-KS would like us to believe.

Governor Brownback has taken Kansas for a very bumpy fiscal ride downhill, it just hasn't worked. Period, No question!  The very Republican state of Kansas has so many statewide GOP elected and former officials coming out for Democrats on the ballot this year.  Right now it looks like a "local wave" for the ouster of Republicans and the election of Democrats unheard of since the great depression of the 1930's.  Read the Brownback "crazy experiments"

Respected fiscal analysts are proving one myth after another of the "cut taxes" gang wrong.  The story has been small business is the creators of jobs.  No, job creators are the new startups businesses.  Another myth cutting taxes moves down and helps the middle class and low income workers. "Trickle down" economics, just makes the top income earners keep more money to hide in overseas bank accounts.

What Congressman Ryan needs to do js get through this one more election with the Republicans in control of the House allowing Speaker Boehner and his Tea Party wing of the party another two years fighting President Obama at every turn and holding back the improving economy.

Want some really enlightening discussion on tax cuts?
Read this now:  Click here

It's the Republican Record

You can throw anything you like. Dirt, facts, wishes, it all boils down to the record. What have the Republican done to this state, what do they have in store for us next? Time for a comparison in real time, the GOP record shows what is in store for our future.

It's not Koch brothers or special interests.   

They have dug their hole.

It a Vision, stupid.    
CHECK THE RECORD


Paint a picture of the Republican record with a vision of the future based on their Congressional actions.

Multiple attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act throwing millions off of health care back to the mercy of profiteers of the insurance monopolies.
More government shut-downs, medicare vouchers, ending Social Security as has been in place 75 years.  We have seen their actions!  It's a threat hanging over our heads.  We have had a taste of Republican plans looking at the Paul Ryan Budget.  We have seen and suffered the Tea Party control of the Republicans in Congress.
  
Just compare the record of where the Obama Administration has taken us. 
Constant growth in jobs, forward steps in education, rebuilding industry and infrastructure, enforcing environmental and occupational safeguards. 
Stock Market at record levels, retirement accounts regaining value, property values coming back, working our way out of the great recession.

Obama and the Democrats have proud records of accomplishment or the GOP record of doing nothing and stonewalling progress. Fighting for equality or dividing the spoils among the very rich, that's the Republican record. Keeping people working with pay below the poverty line or the Democrats attempts to move folks to decent wages with an increase in the Minimum Wage.  

Moving forward with President Obama and the Democrats or more doing nothing and following Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham and make war.
  
The Republicans have a record, is that what any of us want for our future?  Time to ask ourselves, what's in it for us?

The GOP Loves to Scream about the National Debt

Answer the Question, is the country better off today than six years ago when President Obama became President?

By Jerry Webman, Ph.D., CFA

Chief Economist

Oppenheimer Funds BLOG

https://www.oppenheimerfunds.com/advisors/article/us-deficit-shrinking-and-debt-stabilizing

Public opinion polls consistently name the federal deficit and resulting debt among the top problems facing the nation. 1 And just a couple of months ago, a nationwide poll showed that 94% of Americans believe the deficit is growing or unchanged. 2 In the aftermath of the Great Recession, these views were understandable as revenue dried up, automatic stabilizers kicked in and the Obama administration pushed a large fiscal stimulus package through Congress. When President Obama was sworn in for his first term, the federal deficit as a percent of GDP had already grown from an average of 2% during the Bush administration, to a monthly run rate of 5.5% by January of 2009, based on monthly U.S. Treasury numbers; it would swell to a peak of 10.4% by the end of December 2009. 3 And higher deficits translated into a growing debt burden. Around the time of the debt ceiling debate in the summer of 2011, the U.S. was on track to accumulate, by the end of 2022, debt in the public hands equal to nearly 90% of total output – a level where, the economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff had (in)famously told us, growth dies. 4

But a funny thing happened on the way to becoming the next developed country with a debt crisis- the deficit started shrinking rapidly. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts that, under current law, the deficit will shrink to 2008 levels – $642 billion or 4% of GDP – by year end and continue to fall until 2016. 5 How did that happen?

For one, while the press bemoaned Washington’s failure to achieve a “Grand Bargain” for the $4 trillion deficit reduction ratings agencies requested – Simpson-Bowles, Super Committee, Gang of ‘insert number here’—believe it or not, Congress – with its mere 15% approval rating 6 – acted.

As my political science professor taught me years ago, American politics doesn’t produce grand bargains, we do things incrementally. And this incrementalism, however unlovely the process, has worked. The Budget Control Act of 2011 (which put caps on discretionary spending), the American Taxpayer Relief Act (which, though poorly named, resulted in $600 billion in new tax revenue), and the sequester (the full effects of which we have yet to see) have had a real impact on the nation’s fiscal situation.

Improving economic conditions have also been helping the deficit equation. Consider revenues. On average, revenues account for 18% of GDP, but at the end of 2012 revenues were only 15.8% of GDP. 3 As the economy improves the government will collect more revenue and, according to congressional budget office projections, revenues will likely return to 18.3% of GDP in 2014. 7 In fact, April tax revenues were $100 billion higher than they were for the same month a year ago. 8The near-term fiscal problem is on the mend.

We and our elected officials, however, had better not grow complacent. As I noted in a previous post, the aging U.S. population is poised to add an ever-growing burden to the government and its taxpayers. Today the average Baby Boomer is 55 years old. 9 And, in 10 years, when she turns 65, the nation’s debt-to-GDP will likely resemble a hockey stick if current on entitlement policy is unchanged. As a country, to prevent an ever greater share of the nation’s yearly output from funding Social Security and Medicare benefits, to the neglect of defense, education, and infrastructure investment, we will have to make very difficult decisions in determining who receives what benefits, when they receive them, and at what cost to the recipient.

For now, however, policymakers’ actions and the improving economy have bought us time. We have gotten close to the target of $4 trillion in deficit reduction. And, per the CBO, we have stabilized debt-to-GDP around a level of 70% for the foreseeable future. 5 Not bad for a country once considered doomed by its debt.

Digging out from under the pile of unfinished business Speaker Boehner and his cronies left behind when the House went on vacation again!

It's called winning!

GOTV  Without your efforts Arizona will go Republican again.   
Get Out the Vote

Obama isn't given any credit!
The economy is on the mend.
Jobs are coming back.
More Americans than ever before have health insurance.
Everyone agrees, Congress didn't help one tiny bit.

The worse Congress, probably ever, doing nothing, blocking every effort President Obama has attempted to deliver for America.

It's time to send the correct message to Washington, 
'Get on board, help President Obama.'

If you can't be part of the solution get out of the way!

No more fooling around!

Time to see, things are changing America is on the move again. 
President Obama has us on a progressive track!

Send President Obama a Congress more worried about the country, than narrow greedy special interests.

The call is clear, electing progressive Democrats. Save the GOP from itself!

Right on Arizona, this election needs to turn the tide toward a more Liberal and progressive state leadership. Statewide and legislative election of Democrats and putting progressives in charge for the next two years is the answer.

Starting with electing a progressive as Governor. Here are the problems as I see them. The idea that cutting taxes for the rich, offering government safety net programs for low-wage income earners, then eliminating or cutting them and some how destroying education in the name of school choice will bring employment to Arizona has been proven wrong. It's a totally false program that keeps us next to poverty.

Both on the Federal and State level government spending on infrastructure, education and alternative energy are more likely to create jobs than Republican calls to cut spending and taxes to build business confidence and spur employment.

Gutting government programs, hostility to unions, opposition to minimum wage increases are sucking us dry in building a revenue base for any economic growth in Arizona. While we rely upon sales taxes to fund all of our government functions, brag about tax loop-holes for the corporations and wealthy folks, who has the purchasing power to generate those sales taxes.

The Republican and the right-wing myth with the wonderful experiment and uniquely strong ability to lie to themselves about trickle-down economics and less government is better government is just part of the problem.

The Republican Party is so disorganized and in such disarray it is really two parties each trying to pick up the banner of conservatism. The Tea Party Republicans and the more moderate Republicans fighting among themselves then coming out to hold power against the Democrats without solving their own internal discourse.

Ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. "Obama is not a real American, a Muslim intent on destroying America with his Socialist ideas."

What I see is the Tea Party and a rump of spineless modrates. The GOP, quite simply, has been split in two.

We need to send them out in the desert for a couple years to fight it out while the progressives in charge of the Democrat party seek to put Arizona back on track again. That includes electing a full slate of Democrats to statewide and legislative offices.

It shows totally in the difference between the Republican parties in Arizona and Mississippi. In Arizona the GOP is complaining about the registered Independents voting in their primary rejecting the true believers and nominating establishment Republicans.

In Mississsippi on the other hand has the Tea Party favored GOP candidate complaining about the establishment wing of the party inviting Democrat outsiders to vote for their candidate defeating the Tea Party candidate in the run-off election.

Which is it? Only the pure can vote in the Republican primary or outsiders invited in to some how protect them from their own registered GOP voters.

Out to the desert and come back when you have sorted out the issues and the platform of the Republican party.

The ideas expressed by Fred DuVall in his campaign to become our next Governor are awesome, and allowing him the opportunity to build all of our infrastructure including all levels of education is the choice we should take this election.

Republicans--Only the Pure need to apply!

After writing this and reading it over, I want to make this disclaimer: In no way do I expect voters who have chosen to register as Independents will now run out to reject the Republican Party and become Democrats. My message to Independents, register as Republicans and screw them over from their own ranks. To my fellow Democrats, read, laugh, enjoy, remember over 2/3's of the voters in Arizona reject you!

Sour Grapes!!
Oh how politicans hate to lose. A.J. LaFaro, chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, said he wants the party’s lawyers to find ways around the 1998 voter-approved measure which allows Independents to participate in choosing the nominees of any recognized party. He said Independents who may not believe in the party’s “conservative values” are affecting who ultimately runs under the GOP banner.

Carolyn Cox, his Pima County counterpart, agrees Independents may be having an unwanted influence on GOP politics. “I just think it’s kind of unfortunate when people who are not in the party are selecting who the party is going to have as a candidate,” she said. So what's wrong? Up until this Primary Election the Republicans busted their buttons courting the Independent voters. All of a sudden are the Independents getting in the way of some of their Tea Party-Right-Wing extremists?

Diverse view points are not welcome. Last month with 16 percent of all Republican ballots cast by non-Republicans and the remaining 84 percent can't find candidates with pure enough views for a few Republican County Chairmen? Maricopa Republican County Chairman LaFaro said it might require actually going to the ballot in 2016 to rescind or alter the 1998 voter-approved Constitutional Amendment which empowered Independents to affect primaries.

Oh, but wait a pretty moment. That runs contrary to certain GOP money interests backing a proposal that is being pushed by a separate group going in the exact opposite direction: totally eliminating partisan politics from the primary and allowing all voters to choose among all contenders, regardless of party. Wow! Let the Dark Money in politics rule, top two special interest funded candidates face-off in the General Election.

In both Pima and Maricopa County, 15.8 percent of the Republican primary votes came from Independents. Out of nearly 550,000 Republican ballots statewide, 16 percent were from Independents. LaFaro said initial analysis suggests those Independent voters might have helped save the seats of some Republicans who his organization tried to defeat. Again, my Democrat friends, Wow! The Republican County Chairman's organization tried to defeat some of the elected Republicans in the Primary. "Eat your own" get angry and cry fowl if you lose. That's where the sour grapes come in.

“Independents, in my opinion, may not support the Republican platform, conservative values,” LaFaro said, meaning they may instead be supporting candidates that are “more to their liking” but less reflective of GOP positions. “If you want to vote in a Republican primary I firmly believe that you should be a registered Republican.”

The scene in the Republican run-off election in Mississippi is a case in point on the other side. The establishment incumbent US Senator was forced into a second ballot when the Tea Party candidate won the most votes in the Primary but not enough to win the nomination. In the second election the Republican Party leaders openly courted Democrats to come to the aid of the GOP and vote for the (maybe-really questionable) more moderate regular Republican long-time serving United States Senator.....Republican County Chairs where are you now? By invitation "Non-Republicans" pulled the GOP fat out of the fire!

Then we have the at one time darling of the Republican Party, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal telling the GOP stop being the party of STUPID!

America needs a leader to bridge the widening gulf between faith and science, and Louisiana Republican Govenor Bobby Jindal, thinks he can be that person. After initially supporting the Common Core attempt to write national education standards, the governor now opposes the project. Governor Jindal said, in a statement. “What started out as an innovative idea to create a set of base-line standards that could be ‘voluntarily’ used by the states has turned into a scheme by the federal government to nationalize curriculum.”

He of course joins the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, Jindal takes the latter stance in the name of greater "local control" of education -- which would presumably allow Louisiana schools to teach his version of acceptable "science." This is the guy that said, "the Republican Party has to stop being the stupid party", we'll see if he get on the stage with the other GOP candidates in the 2016 Presidential debates and still thinks the Republican Party is the stupid party.

Jindal you remember was chosen to delver the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union Address a couple years back and truly blew it. His newly found opposition to Common Core is widely viewed as a strategy to fuel Jindal’s presidential aspirations by currying favor with Tea Party conservatives. A onetime Common Core supporter, Jindal now claims that the federal government has overstepped its role in a whole host of areas, especially in education. Don't want to single out Governor Jindal but when he was picked to go before a nationwide total TV audience he was a bright and shining light of the "new Southern Republican Party".

When you look at the Republican leadership in the Arizona Legislature, you see it all over. Use education as a whipping boy, kiss the backsides of the Tea Party with a little sweetener for corporate and financial sponsors and otherwise pretend the reason jobs don't come to Arizona is because of all those awful regulations from the FEDs in Washington, D. C. that only Arizona has to comply.

You know comparing the Republican leadership in the last session of the Legislature with the "no-nothings", we can put them in the same box as Gov. Jindal on the issue of taking advantage of expanding Medicaid using the money available under the Affordable Care Act. (Obamacare, you know the one that has given health insurance coverage to 8 million Americans.) The miracle is some how Arizona was wise enough to join and Gov. Jindal was strong enough in Louisiana to make sure their citizens lost out.

No where here am I suggesting Republicans are guilty of flip-flops, being stupid, owned by special interests bound and determined to destroy Federal Regulations for clean air, clean water, keeping our food safe and forcing safe working conditions, not at all. Like grandpa said, if the shoe fits wear it. Democrats have their own problems with Independents, on the issues and values held most dear in the Democrat's platform and while the Independents agree time and time again, some how they end up voting for those Republicans who no longer want them around.

Go figure! Beat them up, they like it.

Quotes and information are being used from the news article as reported in news media across the state by: September 16, 2014 12:00 am • Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services

Review from Amazon---Dog Whistle Politics

Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class

Campaigning for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan told stories of Cadillac-driving "welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks" buying T-bone steaks with food stamps. In trumpeting these tales of welfare run amok, Reagan never needed to mention race, because he was blowing a dog whistle: sending a message about racial minorities inaudible on one level, but clearly heard on another. In doing so, he tapped into a long political tradition that started with George Wallace and Richard Nixon, and is more relevant than ever in the age of the Tea Party and the first black president.

In Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney López offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and financial markets, and aggressively curtail social services. White voters, convinced by powerful interests that minorities are their true enemies, fail to see the connection between the political agendas they support and the surging wealth inequality that takes an increasing toll on their lives. The tactic continues at full force, with the Republican Party using racial provocations to drum up enthusiasm for weakening unions and public pensions, defunding public schools, and opposing health care reform.

Rejecting any simple story of malevolent and obvious racism, Haney López links as never before the two central themes that dominate American politics today: the decline of the middle class and the Republican Party's increasing reliance on white voters. Dog Whistle Politics will generate a lively and much-needed debate about how racial politics has destabilized the American middle class -- white and nonwhite members alike.

Arizona's Public Education in Trouble-BIG TIME!

Nothing New!

Every since a Republican moved into the Governor's Office again, Public Education in the form of "District Schools" have suffered one cutback after another.  Underfunded, unappreciated and under constant attack by ideologues and for profit private charter schools parading as extensions of public schools, funding has dwindled.

The voters of Arizona mandated funding for public education, however the Legislature has cut and short-changed District Schools.  Now the Court has ordered the voter approved public education funding be fulfilled and the Legislature has been ordered to pay up that obligation.  Now it is time to live up to the Constitution and voter approved Law.  Taken to Court a  ruling has been given, "Money is owed public schools".

It's high time we move into gear and demand the Governor call a Special Session of the Legislature and pay our public schools the money they are owed.  

http://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/judge-arizona-owes-public-schools-more-than-m-now/article_9f33cd77-aa09-512e-88c5-38962d9ed4a2.html

Not one voice but thousands of voices.  Members of the Legislature, all candidates, political leaders, school board members, teachers and all teachers groups should be making news letting the Governor know they want action now.

Letters to the editor, social and business networking sites, students starting back to school writing to blogs, picketing and letting their friends and fellow students know that they have been cheated by past legislatures.  Better education choices, teachers, schools and students have waited long enough, it's the Law, the Constitution of Arizona requires it.

The Governor should have shown leadership on this issue and she has let us down.  At the minimum she should have vetoed the theft, now she needs to call the Legislature into session and request they do the right thing.  Start paying the students of this state the funds for their education that the Courts have ordered them to pay starting immediately with 300 Million.

The Court can order, but the Legislature has control of the state budget process.  The Legislature needs to be called into Special Session to do their Constitutional duties.

Waiting for the regular session of the Legislature with the political charades the leadership demonstrates and the dysfunctional members display will result in no solid accomplishment.   Sneaky, tricky sweeps of funds from dedicated (or what should be dedicated funds) is fraudulent budget balancing. 
 
A special session with a narrow objective will cut down on the smoke and mirror distractions the few in control use to promote a few profiteers and payback special interests who furnish campaign funds.  

Let's see who really believes in the Law, the Court has ruled. Time for action!  Time to demand payment!

I have full confidence in FRED DuVAL if he is elected Governor education at all levels will be a top priority of his administration.  The problem is IF!   The voters in Arizona have been so distracted by other issues election of any Democrat statewide especially in an off-year election is problematic. Great candidates, better qualified are not always elected.  

BUT, Pro-Public Education candidates have a good opportunity to pick up three additional State Senate seats giving a new look and more friendly outlook for proper funding coming out of the State Legislature for public education.  People like State Senator Steve Farley, Legislative District 9, are working tirelessly to elect more Democrat candidates to the State Legislature, however, that's a battle royal and the Republican machine in this state is well aware of those efforts.

Dr. Randy Friese a candidate for the Legislature in the same LD 9 puts education high on his "to do list" in the Legislature.   Dr. Friese states, "Public investment in our public education infrastructure equalizes opportunities."  Friese knows the difficulties providing solid education and pledges top priority for proper funding.  In order to have a high performing economy investment in education and skill training are building blocks to accomplish our goal of more good paying jobs.

Out of Arizona's thirty legislative districts, the candidates for the election in LD 9 this November you couldn't find more dedicated proponents of public education than State Senator Steve Farley, State Representative Victoria Steele and State House candidate Dr. Randy Friese.

Narrow business special interests have stakes in keeping anti-environment, anti-tax tea party types in full control of the Legislature.  Private prisons, Charter Schools and "Special Favor Tax" benefits get involved in campaign finances with dark money flowing into crucial campaigns of their legislative supporters.

Elections matter, and this election is critical for Education, Jobs and the Economy for Arizona.  People are moving to Arizona and will continue,  The difference is are we moving forward with a solid base of better paid working people as well as the seniors and retired folks who for the most part support lower paying jobs or not? 

School Vouchers are another red herring.  Take your eye off the ball and switch, more of the same deceptive transferring state revenue from public education. 

More discussion on education vouchers, click here 

The discussion if the Governor called a Special Legislative Session where would the money come from to repay the schools the Court Order requires.   One suggestion has been taking money from the "State Rainy Day Funds".

Another person wrote recently in the Tucson Weekly:

...call a special session and repeal the vouchers and tax credits for private schools that are sucking money out of the general fund into religious education. After that, raise the revenue that voters have demanded and that is the legislators' obligation. Finally, publicize the name of every legislator who voted for the cuts, vouchers and tax credits and make this an election issue. 

Whatever we do, speaking out for a Special Legislative Session seems like the best course of action.