"Making hard decisions" - why hasn't anybody called this out as code for

[hedgehog]

"eliminating social security and medicare rather than making the uber-wealthy pay a fair share"?

[cindyperry2010]

1. exactly

[The Magistrate]

2. An Excellent Translation, Ma'am: Why Is It A 'Hard Decision' To Screw the Poor And Fellate The Rich?

They seem to make it easy as falling off a log....

[OccupyTheIRS]

11. Sexual similes really class up the place. N/t

[The Magistrate]

12. They Certainly Do, Sweet-Heart: Quick And Evocative And Easily Remembered

They will stick in the mind long after your April Fool's prank has been forgotten here entirely....

[OccupyTheIRS]

13. Is that what you think the Occupy movement is?

Glad to hear it. Now go over to some site where GOP loving morons are welcome

If you could bump my other thread again, that would be great

[The Magistrate]

14. It Is What Your Signing Up To Democratic Underground Is, Sir

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=282941

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[JackintheGreen]

3. Apparently cutting defense is a harder decision n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Calls for "shared sacrifice"

are equally meaningless as not everybody is actually being asked to sacrifice- just the people at the lower end of the spectrum whom can't afford lobbyists. I refuse to believe, unlike the Republicans apparently do, that there are no other ways to address budget shortfalls than to just cut social programs, particularly when there are plenty of other ways we can cut spending or raise revenue to help balance our budget.

[emulatorloo]

5. Shared sacrifice typically means the rich have to pay too

I seldom hear Republicans use that phrase.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. I'm pretty sure that I've heard Republicans use that phrase before

but, of course, it doesn't mean to them and their allies what you and I think it means though.

[emulatorloo]

8. True - they will twist pretty much anything to mean the opposite of what it means.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. Another thing I hate about the anti-Social Security/anti-Medicare/anti-safety net people

is when they start talking about ensuring a hopeful future for their "grandchildren" or "future generations" (and preventing a miserable one) by having to make these "hard decisions" yet all they talk about is cutting things that improve people's lives (or keeps them from dying or falling into poverty, homelessness), which pretty much means that "grandchildren" and "future generations" are going to have it worse off in any event.

[Moostache]

6. Until the top marginal tax rate is over 90%, there are PLENTY of options available!

I am sorry to tell the people who think that tax cuts actually create anything but swollen bank accounts for the very well-to-do, but this country is literally awash in options that would make most any other nation on Earth blush.

- End the war in Afghanistan (NOW....its pointless, expensive and already in its SECOND DECADE)
- Retask 50% of the military budget immediately to infrastructure improvements (bridges first, then rail) and energy research (renewables and also building the materials and equipment necessary for implementation).
- Raise tax rates to what they were when Reagan came into office - and if that's not enough revenue to make the improvements necessary, then we go back to Eisenhower's rates!
- Forgive ALL college loans and implement a national program of FREE university level education in exchange for 3 years of community service (as teachers, mentors, civil engineers and more) or military service (as either an officer or as a specialist in one of the branches of the service) at the discretion of the person receiving the loan
- Implement a National Health Service for the United States and tax profits of health insurance as regular income (no one should derive their living by rooting for and profiting from the human misery of others)

Take those 5 steps.
Take them now.
And I promise that in 10 years, the United States will be awash in college educated workers, free of crushing debt, without fear of imminent ruin from illness or accident and a nation leading the world again instead of being a punchline and a fading imperial power.

The sad thing is that NONE of these ideas will be even TRIED! To even mention them on the national or state level is to invite attacks and hysteria the likes of which would make Joe McCarthy blanch!

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. ... and or cutting the top end of the military budget. K&R. n/t