Hillary Clinton would be a horrible candidate in 2016

I know that it's been a couple of weeks since I wrote my last blog post but currently I'm taking two classes this semester and I'm also looking for a job so writing blog posts is something that I've just not have time to do. The government shutdown is over and now we have moved on to other issues. However that's not the reason why I'm writing this blog post tonight. The question that I had on my mind recently is who is going to run for president on the democratic side in 2016. I know that 2016 is still three years away but it's something that progressives need to think about because honestly we can't run Hillary Clinton because in my personal opinion she would be a horrible candidate for us in 2016. The reason why I make this point is after eight years of President Obama we can't afford to have someone that would be running for President Obama's third term. For the record I have nothing against Hillary Clinton but when 2016 does roll around I don't think that she would not be a strong candidate for President because she is a establishment candidate and she would be funded by the bankers and the top one percent to do their bidding, and what we need in 2016 is a true progressive. One example I can name is Elizabeth Warren, she is a true progressive and I believe that she would regulate wall street and make sure that the top one percent pay their fair share of taxes as some examples. I understand that a lot of people are Hillary supporters, I want my readers to understand that she would not be the best candidate for president. This is just my opinion.

How Can we End GOP Manufactured Crisis

Today is the eighth day of the government shutdown caused by the tea party republicans and now even the quote moderate republicans now are siding with the tea party and they want to defund the Affordable Care Act in order to fund the government and to raise the debt ceiling. So why are the republicans doing this? The reason why is because the first time the republicans threatened to not raise the debt ceiling in 2011 President Obama gave in a negotiated with them. That was a big mistake by the president, if he did not negotiate with the republicans back in 2011 then they would not be doing this now in 2013. All of the republicans are expecting President Obama and the Democrats are going to give in and give them something in exchange for opening the government and raising the debt ceiling. If the Democrats give in now, then every time the debt ceiling needs to be raised, the republicans will want something for doing their jobs and the Democrats and the President can't allow that for the sake of the country.

Now the question must be what can President Obama do to end the republican manufactured crisis? The debt ceiling is easy, all the President has to do is invoke the 14th amendment and order to treasury department to continue to pay our debts the way that they've always have. Section four of the 14th amendment states as follows,"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void." With the republican party's threat of not raising the debt ceiling they are questioning the debt of the United States and the President should be able order the treasury to continue to pay the debts of the United States no matter what the republican party says. The President can't allow the republican party to insert fear into not only the American people but to the rest of the world he has to have a backbone and say no to the republican party America will always pay her bills no matter what.

Now to the issue of opening the government back up, that's much tougher because according to the Constitution, Congress has the power of the purse strings which means that only congress has the power to fund the government, which is why that President Obama can't be responsible for the government shutdown because the executive branch of the government can't fund the government that's up to Congress and they've failed to do that so it's the republicans fault not President Obama. The question is what can President Obama do about the budget? Unfortunately not much the Republican party has the power of the purse, because ignorant Americans voted for the tea party republicans who had no interest in governing their interest is shutting down the government and to destroy the American government. The issue is that the founders never imagined that one day in the far future that there would be a political party that would be willing to hold the American people hostage in order to get what they want from the political party in power. To me what the republican party is doing is the most Anti-American thing that any political party has ever done in America's history.

Desperate times calls for desperate measures, and maybe it's time to arrest certain republican members of the house and charge them with treason. I know that this will lead to a shit storm but this is the only way that I can see that we can't get the government functioning again and as a nation we can't wait until 2014 in order to vote out the republican party. However this suggestion would be a last resort to me because if anybody does this then it would set a dangerous precedent and if a president does not agree with any congress they can arrest them for treason so in my opinion this would be the nuclear option, but it maybe time for the president to use it because the republicans in the house will not budge from there current position. The Republicans need to be scared straight and the only way that I can see that happening is that the President arrests some of the republican leaders of the house and maybe just maybe that scares them straight.  

Are we going to lose our representative democracy?

Today is the fifth day of the government shutdown which was caused by the far right in the republican party and the individual most responsible is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and as we all know that Ted Cruz only did this to benefit himself for his presidential run in 2016, he does not give a damn about the tea party or the republican party all he cares about his himself. Now to the point of this post, I know that I don't usually write a blog post on Saturday's however I came across a piece in the New Yorker it was called "The Shutdown Prophet" I recommend that everyone reads this and that piece got me thinking a scary thought, what happens if or when we lose our representative democracy? The United States has always been called "The Great Experiment" and throughout history we've seen representative democracy fail time and time again and my hope that the United States representative democracy does not fail and we can continue with the "The Great Experiment" the reason why I'm concerned that we are going to lose our representative democracy is because we have a minority in the republican party holding up the government in order to get what it wants, damn the election results from last year the tea party will do whatever it takes to get what they want. If the Tea Party are still in Washington after the 2014 elections then look out because what the Tea Party is doing is unsustainable. The representative democracy will fall because they Tea Party will shutdown the government every change that they will get and they don't give a damn about the American people.

Some writers have said that we in America must go to a direct democracy system. I honestly laughed when I read that, and the reason why is because most Americans are not smart enough to figure out what's in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) how in the hell will these Americans figure out what the Codex Alimentarius is or what is a Nuclear proliferation treaty, these are a couple of examples. With all of the propaganda that Fox News foments there is no way that most Americans will figure out what's true and what's not true. To be quite frank most Americans are too dumb to allow America to become a direct democracy we need representatives that are theoretically smart enough to run our country, if Americans keep voting for the Tea Party I'm not so sure that our representative democracy will last. I hope to God that our representative democracy falls because if that horrible event does happen then I don't know what will become of America. Not just progressives but Americans in general need to vote for sensible leaders and not for people like the tea party republicans who will hold the government hostage in order to get what they want. Vote the Tea Party Out in 2014!

Austerity Measures do not work!

Today is the fourth day of the government shutdown and the republicans show no signs of passing the Continuing Resolution in order to fund the government and get everyone back to work. How long will this Republican government shutdown will last? I honestly don't know, because the republicans party is so insane that no one knows how long the republicans will try and hold out and get Democrats to compromise on the Affordable Care Act. First of all Mr. Boehner we had an election just last year where all of the Republicans campaigned on repealing the Affordable Care Act "Repeal and Replace" the Republicans kept saying through out the Presidential campaign last year and guess what Mr. Boehner President Obama won reelection which means the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. The Republicans claim that the Democrats won't negotiate on the budget or on the Affordable Care Act and if you've been paying any attention to what's been going on in Washington DC, you know that the Democrats have given in on negotiations with the republicans over and over again. To the point where the continuing resolution that the Senate passed was for a total of $988 billion dollars. Which is an amazing figure because that number is less than Paul Ryan's original budget for 2014 which was 1.086 trillion dollar budget. So once again the Senate Democrats have conceded to the republicans but it's not enough for the republicans instead they want more and more from the Democrats and to me that pathetic. The Democrats should stop giving in to the Republicans, because things will get worse and worse for America.

I'm sure that there are some people who are going to ask me at some point okay what would you do if I was in power? If I was the President of the United States I would have never given in to the Republicans on the debt ceiling the first time that they threated to default of the debt of the United States, and I would have ut political pressure on the republicans in order to get them to pass a progressive budget that I want. How would I put the political pressure on the republicans you might ask? Well I would into the districts of congressmen Boehner, Cantor, Ryan and explain to the people why my progressive budget will work not only for the people that voted for me, but for them as well. I'm not that will totally work but at least I fought for what I believe in. That's another thing that makes me mad why would the Democrats agree to regressive cuts to the government when we need to government to spend more money in order to fix our deteriorating infrastructure, spend more money on social programs like SNAP and WIC and  Social Security Medicaid, Medicare. The austerity measures that we have imposed on ourselves has been disastrous for our economy and it's not going to get any better as long as the Democrats keep giving into the Republican party.

So what do you think of my policy ideas? I think my idea would work but these are my ideas of course so I'm biased in my favor. The President needs to fight for that progressive budget that Americans truly need

Poorest American's don't get Medicaid! (Rant Post)

WTF? Wow just open the government back up GOP!

Today is day three of the government shutdown that the far right wing of the republican party has caused, we now have republicans trying to shift the blame to the democrats because they refuse to negotiate with the hostage takers or better known as the republicans. The democrats should not negotiate with hostage takers, so the republicans are 100% wrong as they usually are I will be the first one to bash the democrats when they deserve it but they are 100% right in this case. I'm really mad after I read a article in the New York Times called "Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law" the reason why I'm so mad is because the whole point of the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act is to try and insure the poorest of Americans who can't afford private health insurance. Instead what do we see from the conservative states? They reject Medicaid expansion and they doom the poorest people in their state to not have any health insurance. That makes me so angry, the reason why is because I live in the state of New Jersey and we are expanding Medicaid next year and I'm a college student and I can't afford private insurance so now because of the Affordable Care Act now I can get Medicaid and I have President Obama to thank for that. I'm fortunate that I live in a state that is expanding Medicaid, now I kind of feel bad because what about the people that live in states that are not expanding Medicaid? They are out of luck I guess because millions of people that live in those states are going to continue to die thanks to the republicans in these states.

Every American deserves health insurance! 

What frustrates me is that the federal government is paying for the Medicaid expansion, it's not like the Affordable Care Act is making the states pay for the Medicaid expansion, I would be against making the states pay for the expansion. The article says that "The federal government will pay for the expansion through 2016 and no less than 90 percent of costs in later years." After 2016 these states would have to pay for 10% of the cost of the expansion, why don't those conservative republicans take the money for the Medicaid expansion? I really don't understand how heartless these conservative republicans are, every person in America deserves some type of health insurance no matter if they are very wealthy or they are the poorest people in this country. Most of these states are in the deep south and except for Arkansas all of these states have rejected Medicaid expansion under ACA. The New York Times says that "Every state in the Deep South, with the exception of Arkansas, has rejected the expansion. Opponents of the expansion say they are against it on exclusively economic grounds, and that the demographics of the South — with its large share of poor blacks — make it easy to say race is an issue when it is not. In Mississippi, Republican leaders note that a large share of people in the state are on Medicaid already, and that, with an expansion, about a third of the state would have been insured through the program. Even supporters of the health law say that eventually covering 10 percent of that cost would have been onerous for a predominantly rural state with a modest tax base."

I'm not sure whether race is a factor or not in the reasoning why these southern states are rejecting the Medicaid expansion, part of me thinks so, however I will give them the benefit of the doubt. In Mississippi a large percentage of their people are already on Medicaid which is the reasoning the Republicans have in why they reject Medicare expansion and they do not want to pay for the 10% of the expansion after 2016. Really? They can't pay the 10% after 2016? Why? Because the rich in the south need more tax cuts? If that's the case that's an outrage because these people still need insurance and no matter what they deserve respect and these conservative republicans do not respect these poor people because if they did they would take the money for the expansion and they would make sure that those poor people were covered under Medicaid. “Any additional cost in Medicaid is going to be too much,” said State Senator Chris McDaniel, a Republican, who opposes expansion." I don't know this man but I bet that he's against any tax increases on the wealthy and corporations in order to pay for the expansion. If you can tell from the tone of this post I'm disgusted by these republicans that are rejecting Medicaid expansion and letting their poor people go without any health insurance, yes I'm damned disgusted.

My question is what kind of country do we want America to be? Do we want a country that will neglect their poor and sick because they don't want to pay 10% of the cost of an expansion of Medicaid that will cover poor Americans? Do we want to let heartless conservatives control our domestic policy making here in America? Because if that's the type of country that most Americans want then we've misunderstood the meaning of America. However I know that most Americans are not like these heartless conservatives that claim that they can't expand Medicaid because they don't want to pay 10% of the cost are the same conservatives that are in favor of fighting two wars that cost us trillions of dollars and giving subsidies to massive oil companies that cost us the tax payer billions and billions of dollars. They are in favor of that but they are not in favor of expanding Medicaid. How dare they! What nerve do they have in rejecting those funds that are supposed to help the poorest Americans get Medicaid in order to get the minimal care that they deserve. Ten fucking percent that's the reason why they rejected Medicaid expansion how dare they!

Postscript: Yes I was very made when I wrote this blog post today and I don't regret anything that I wrote here, thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Now back to the government shutdown, I saw a couple of more covers from the New York Daily News and Time Magazine which I loved and I will post here.  

Why Heath Care Must be a Right not a Privilege!

I've tired to sign up and I keep getting this screen damn it!

Today is day one of the government shutdown and who knows how long does this shutdown even last. There are over 800,000 people are going to be furloughed and the Republican party and the conservative "movement" does not give a damn. Why? Because they care more about making President Obama look bad than governing and working for the American people which is supposed to be their job. We all know the reason why the Republicans in the House of Representatives wanted to shut down the government it's over the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans are basically saying that they don't want the American people to have health insurance instead I'm going to paraphrase Representative Alan Grayson the republican party plan is for you to die quickly. That's what the Republican Party wants the Federal Government's plan for health care, and they can deny it all they want but that's the facts. So let's talk more about America's health care system. The main part of the Affordable Care Act went into effect today, The Health Care Exchanges where Americans can go on the website healthcare.gov and sign up and buy cheap health care, for example I live in the State of New Jersey and I'm going to quote healthcare.gov  "New Jersey will expand its Medicaid program in 2014 to cover households with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. That works out to about $15,800 a year for 1 person or $32,500 for a family of 4." Since I'm a college student and I'm not making anywhere near $15,800 dollars a year then under these rules I qualify for Medicaid in my state. I do not think that the Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare" is a perfect law not by a long shot, however I am thankful that this law is in the books or else I would not be able to get insurance of any kind and if I would've gotten sick then I would be in a lot of trouble obviously.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Now I was looking through the Huffington Post and I came across a blog post by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and it's called "Health Care for All" and Sen. Sanders is basically arguing for single payer health care in his blog post and I could not agree with Sen.  Sanders more. The reason why is because I believe that having health care insurance is a fundamental right of every human being whether that person is an American or not. Sen. Sanders wrote that "The only long-term solution to America's health care crisis is a single-payer national health care program. The good news is that, in fact, a large scale single-payer system already exists in the United States and its enrollees love it. It is called Medicare. Open to all Americans over 65 years of age, the program has been a resounding success since its introduction 48 years ago. Medicare should be expanded to cover all Americans." Sen. Sanders also wrote that "Congressman Jim McDermott and I have introduced the American Health Security Act. Our bill will provide every American with health care coverage and services through a state-administered, single-payer program, including dental and mental health coverage and low-cost prescription drugs. It would require the government to develop national policies and guidelines, as well as minimum national criteria, while giving each state the flexibility to adapt the program as needed. It would also completely overhaul the health coverage system, creating a single federal payer of state-administered health plans."

Corporate Media Fails Again!

I may not be a socialist however I love the idea behind that "American Health Security Act" Every American deserves health care, regardless of the Republican talking point that says that government can't do anything right, this talking point pisses me off because it's not true, Medicare, Social Security are government programs and the people love these programs and they work very well. To me government does a better job than private companies and we need government to step in here and do the right thing for Americans. I think that the easier way to introduce single payer health care or socialized medicine as conservatives would call it is to offer an amendment to the Affordable Care Act and I would call that amendment "The Single Payer Health Care Amendment" and I could be wrong about this because I don't have cable but I did not hear any coverage at all about Sen. Sanders bill "American Health Security Act" I honestly thought that every American should have Medicare for a couple of years now and I thought I was the only one that thought this, and that I was smart for coming up with this idea but Sen. Sanders had the same idea as well so I'm not that smart. The mainstream media in this country have just ignored this bill, this would help even more Americans to get health care but the media does not even cover it. I partly understand why, the republicans shut down the government and that's the top story but I still think that this bill deserves some coverage in my opinion.

On the comment section of Sen. Sanders blog post there was a comment from a conservative which I thought was interesting he wrote that "Where does our Constitution tell us we are entitled to health care insurance? It does not; so that automatically makes it a privilege, not a right. I have a right to own guns, because of the second amendment. I do not have a right to health care because it is not in the Constitution. Read the Constitution so you will know the difference between rights and privileges." This comment makes me mad, because Republicans have managed to make conservatives believe that health care is not a right but a privilege and that the second amendment gives Americans gun right. On the gun issue if you've read my past blog posts I've discussed why the second amendment does not give Americans gun rights. This conservative makes the point that health care is a privileges, I will make this point again the US Constitution was a document which was written back in the 18th century and the founders would not have any idea that the country would need health insurance for Americans. Once again I will end this post with this point, why are we looking to an 18th century document to make policy in the 21st century. Medicare for all!

PS: I know that this post for today was very long and I'm sorry for that but I'm passionate about this issue and I truly believe in everything I said here. Now back to the government Shutdown, I came across the cover page from the New York Daily News which I loved and I'm going to post the picture here because I love the NY Daily News putting the blame for the Shutdown on John Boehner and the cover page and brilliant in my opinion check it out down below.