I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

3monstmama

what Moyers said.

 There is a great article in the Washington Post editorial section, dated February 26, by James Loewen called "Five myths about why the South seceded."  It has to do with the Civil War [coming up on a 150 years anniversary] but one thing that it said is so very true even today.  Loewen contends that the South seceded because of slavery. because they wanted to preserve it.  With regard to the opposing contention that it could not have been slavery because the majority of Southerners were not slave owners, Loewen says:

"...Americans are wonderous optimists, looking at the upper class and expecting to join it some day.  In 1860 many subsistence farmers aspired to become large slave-owners.  So poor white Southerners supported slavery then just as many low income people support the extension of . . . tax cuts for the wealthy now. . . . ."

In my humble opinion, he nails it.

Wabbit

I don't like to see the executives of any non-profit drawing large salaries either.  But PP is a very large organization and their pay is certainly not out of line with others of their size.  It is also less than half of one percent of their income.

Charity Navigator gives them a 4 star rating (the best) for efficiency and shows that they spend 78.2% of their income on program expenses.  Nothing objectionable I can find there.

www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4338

And I am surprised that those who are generally most in favor of privitizing all services - i.e., paying a contractor to do the work - suddenly want to take a private organization already providing good service and turn it over to the government.  Makes more sense to me to stick with what is already working.

Edited to add link

bluedahlia

This was posted in one of my other forums.

Wabbit

blue ... excellent video ... "leveraged buyout of democracy" ... pretty much says it all doesn't it.

3monstmama and lindasa ... agreed.  And with each tax cut for the wealthy/corporations and cuts in services and wages for everybody else the income gap widens and the odds of anybody else moving up the ladder go down.   Most of us will be lucky if we are able to remain even middle class. 

crazy4carrots

Charity Navigator is a great place to look at how charitable organizations are handling their monies.  But I have to take issue with anyone who thinks the CEOs of these organizations -- especially the national ones - shouldn't be paid decently!  As a retired Exec Director of a healthcare foundation with assets in the tens of millions, I worked my tail off -- usually 10 to 12-hour days, most Sunday afternoons, and many, many evening meetings and fundraising events.  I produced millions of dollars to fund extremely important health research.  AND, I contributed a tenth of my salary back to the organization and continue to support it through an endowment fund.  Many other executives I know do something similar.

 Compare that to the average financial institution CEO who takes home several millions -- and exactly WHAT does he contribute to the general welfare?

Ms Richards is CEO of a national organization.  I bet she doesn't spend many days, nights or weekends relaxing at home.  And I'm quite sure she EARNS every penny.

Off my soapbox now!

Kindergarten

Thanks, Enjoyful for your reply. Hope you are doing great, Have a wonderful weekend. Kathy

Bren-2007

Wow .. seven hours to go and our government will be shutdown.  It's a crying shame the dems didn't get this done the last time .. now we're stuck with backwards thinking repubs trying to cut programs to help women.

The national parks will be closed, the Statue of Liberty will be closed and 800,000 workers will be furloughed with no pay.  How are those workers going to put food on the table and gas in their cars? 

Bren

rosemary-b

Bren

It is just plain depressing.

On another topic we are having salmon and rice for dinner. Nothing fancy here tonight.

BarbaraA

Tuscan Pot Roast  with horseradish mashed potatoes here.

Depressed also.

Wabbit

And people who are using the VA or FHA home loans to buy or sell will not be able to close their deals ... people who have trips planned and need passports are SOL ... vacations long planned in national parks are going to be ruined ... small businesses who are counting on SBA loans are in trouble ... tax refunds will be late ... state projects counting on federal money will be delayed ... new VA and SS claims won't be processed,  etc etc.  This will hurt people way beyond just the federal employees who are furloughed.

Edited to add:  Pancakes for dinner tonight  ... I never cook breakfast so that's the backup plan on my lazy days

bluedahlia

Bourbon chicken and veggies tonight.

Hoping for an 11th hour agreement.

3monstmama

The Washington Post is reporting that the two sides can't even agree as to what it is they don't agree on. . . I'm not crossing my fingers for any last minute agreements. . . .

Bren-2007

Six hours and 13 minutes to go ... and still no progress.  Maybe they should spend less time in front of the camera, and more time working out a deal.

Bren

Shrek4

I think this is the most viral Facebook event to date:

"Ensuring Pay for Our Military Act of 2011"  

 Got to 1 million participants in less than 24 hours.

3monstmama

I don't dispute that the members of the armed forces shouldn't get paid.  But as I understand the situation, they will.   Its not like people in all the agencies who are being told not to come to work and that they will not be paid when they are forced to stay home.   Everything I have read says that the government will be obligated to pay essential personnel ie members of the various armed forces and others who work during a shut down.

River_Rat

According to CNN:

Unclear/mixed Defense Military - Troops including those fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq will not be paid on time.  Troops will continue to earn money but will receive no paychecks.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2011/04/politics/interactive.govt.shutdown.list/index.html?hpt=T2

I hope they don't shut it down. 

3monstmama

In the federal government, you work and then you get paid.  So my next paycheck will be for work I completed by April 1.  I can't imagine the military is working too much differently.  

River_Rat

From what I read elsewhere they wouldn't get checks during the shutdown unless some type agreement is reached.

1. Military personnel
Although military personnel will still be required to report for duty, a government shutdown would, at least temporarily, halt or stagger scheduled payments, according to the DFAS. Once the dust has settled and an agreement is reached, active military members will be compensated for duty performed during the shutdown.

"If the government shuts down starts on the 8th and goes for a week, you’d get a half a check," Gates told the troops. "If it goes from the 15th to the 30th, you wouldn’t get a pay check on the 30th but you would be back paid for all of it. So that’s the deal"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/military-pay_n_846605.html 

GRAND RAPIDS -- With the possibility of a federal government shutdown looming at midnight, many West Michigan military families opened advance pay stubs this week that held an unpleasant surprise: missing pay.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/04/military_notified_of_pay_reduc.html 

Edited to add links 

3monstmama

River Rat....IMHO delayed pay is better than other workers in the government.  We are being told its basically unpaid vacation. . . . .

River_Rat

I agree that delayed pay is better than no pay.  But the military does have to work during a shutdown and considering that they're laying their lives on the line I think the whole situation sucks.  Also military death benefits won't be paid during a shutdown (would be paid after).

Not saying it doesn't suck for others too.  I was following the discussion that Day started, regarding the military, not trying to diss anybody else.

3monstmama

ah death benefits. . . .did you read the stories about the insurance companies that were scamming survivors out of death bennies?  its a bloomberg story....well worth reading....truth is we only sort of care about our military. . . .

Bren-2007

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/09/congress.budget/index.html?hpt=T1

Democrats, Republicans agree on a budget deal

A GOP push to strip $317 million in federal funding from Planned Parenthood failed. Democrats also turned back Republican attempts to get federal dollars currently set aside for family planning and women's health turned into block grants for states.

Such a move would have given governors and state legislatures more ability to cut funding for services opposed by conservatives.

BarbaraA

An interesting piece.

While Republicans wanted to cut more spending in Saturday's early morning compromise to keep the government open, they think they got the better of the deal.

Here's why: HR1 was originally to seek spending cuts of $32 billion until Tea Party conservatives insisted on more than $ 60 billion. House Speaker John Boehner won more cuts than he originally sought and got the Senate to agree to votes to defund the health care reform law and groups like the nation's largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood - once votes Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said he'd never allow to come to the floor.Back on February 3, Reid called $32 billion in cuts "extreme" and "draconian."

At a news conference New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed, "I happen to think some of their cuts are extreme and go overboard. But every week they keep upping the ante and proposing extreme cuts."

Over the next decade the cuts are expected to save hundreds of billions of dollars.

The deal mandates a host of studies and audits of Obama administration policies. It also blocks additional funds for the IRS sought by the Obama administration and bans federal funding of abortion in Washington, D.C.

The history of offers on this bill goes something like this. Democrats first offered no cuts, then $4 billion, then $6.5 billion, then $33 billion, then settled at $38.5 billion.

Boehner made numerous adjustments to his offer in recent days too, but started at $32 billion, then with a Tea Party push went to $62 billion, then dropped to $40 billion, then $38.5 billion.

Democrats claimed they met Republicans halfway after the $10 billion in cuts that already passed this year were approved. They settled late Friday night at three and a half times more.

Boehner came in $8.5 billion higher than the halfway point between his high offer of $61 billion in cuts and the Democrats opening bid of zero cuts.

It was not a totally lopsided bargain. Dems have some silver linings. There were no votes on defunding the EPA or PBS and NPR. Democrats fought for and won a $2 billion cut from the Department of Defense, knocking the military appropriation for the rest of the year down to $513 billion.

But the GOP had to be able to see this as a win in the end, because it is puny compared to what they want to do next.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's 2012 budget resolution proposes cuts of $5 TRILLION in the next 10 yrs.

River_Rat

3monstmama, I went and looked up that Bloomberg article you mentioned.  Thanks, it is a very important piece of information, not just for military families but for any family that might be faced with the loss of a loved one who happens to leave life insurance for them. - Don't stop reading thinking it only pertains to military families.  I sent the link on to my daughters and their husbands as information that they need to know when we die.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/fallen-soldiers-families-denied-cash-payout-as-life-insurers-boost-profit.html 

BarbaraA

Wow, R_R, that is a crime!! What a scam!

Bren-2007

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/08/budget.reactions/index.html?hpt=T2

Lawmakers react to budget deal.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann

"The deal that was reached tonight is a disappointment for me and for millions of Americans who expected $100 billion in cuts, who wanted to make sure their tax dollars stopped flowing to the nation's largest abortion provider, and who wanted us to defund ObamaCare. Instead, we've been asked to settle for $39 billion in cuts, even as we continue to fund Planned Parenthood and the implementation of ObamaCare."

Michele Bachmann sucks eggs.

bluedahlia

Even my 80 year old father (visited with him today) can't understand what has happened south of the border.  He thought it was bad enough with the healthcare issues, but now........holy cow!

BarbaraA

Holy cow indeed. I think they should have cut 100B. *slinking away before the eggs start pelting me*

crazy4carrots

Barbara -- SPLAT!!!!

Seriously, might be a good idea for your government to start seriously looking at ways of generating some more revenue -- that seems to be a vital part that's missing in trying to get rid of the deficit.  

lassie11

oh oh oh -- I have an idea. How about a bit more in the way of taxes from say, the top 5% of the population? A small percentage from them (I'm sure not one of the top 5%) would raise quite a bit of income.