Who Needs Alan Grayson When We Have Al Franken?

Shameless demagoguery, about as subtle as a sledgehammer.



Hat tip: Breitbart. Cross-posted.

Pathetic: Sebelius Says Seniors Will Die Sooner Under Ryan Plan

She's on to Paul Ryan's nefarious scheme. It's quite obvious a winning plan involves killing off old people, right?

Seriously, can these people be any more pathetic? In a sane world, her boss and her party would denounce her and have her removed from her job. Instead, they'll run with this nonsense.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that the Ryan Medicare proposal will lead to early deaths among seniors.

During testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee, she said seniors “will run out of money very quickly.”

She continued, “If you run out of the government voucher and then you run out of your own money, you’re left to scrape together charity care, go without care, die sooner. There really aren’t a lot of options.”

Medicare already is broke and there really aren't any options. But with demagogues like Sebelius and Obama nothing will get done. This is their campaign message for 2012: Hey, old people: Vote for us or die!!!

But They're Just Paying Their Fair Share, Chuckie

Sudden concern for consumers

This schmuck never met a tax hike he didn't embrace, never met a proposed tax cut he didn't demagogue and has helped oversee the largest expansion of an intrusive federal government this nation has ever seen.

So all of a sudden he's feigning outrage over some utility increase? Hey, Chuckie, in case you haven't noticed the price of everything has gone up while you and the Democrats have been in charge, so shut your piehole and deal with it.

Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday posed four tough questions to operators of the state's private power generating plants -- as consumers and politicians battle shocking rate increases the companies are planning for this summer.

The furious political leaders want to reverse a boost of 12 to 14 percent for New York City residents authorized by the asleep-at-the-switch Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which ignored big property-tax breaks that some of the firms get.

"These power companies owe New Yorkers clear and unambiguous answers why, on top of massive tax breaks, they also need massive rate hikes that will sock energy consumers," Schumer told The Post.

As someone who's never held a job outside the public sector, Schumer clearly has no understanding how business works. These companies don't simply create energy for nothing and decide to gouge consumers. They purchase a product and in order to stay in business sell it at a higher rate in order to make a profit. If this knuckle-dragging mouth-breather ever gets a clue it'll be the first time.

"While I realize that there are legitimate costs that need to be considered when building new generation facilities in the city, I think it is unconscionable for generators to go before FERC and argue for rates that amount to winning the lottery," Schumer wrote.

Perhaps New Yorkers ought to think twice the next time this tool is on the ballot. But hey, they're the chumps who just gave him another six years.

Suckers.

'This is a Serious Movement to Undo the Most Successful Government Program of the 20th Century'

These Democrats sure have a curious way to defining success. Here we have the odious Chuckie Schumer telegraphing the fact he plans to demagogue Social Security reform despite the fact the GOP is already pretty much retreating from the issue and even the president has acknowledged there is a need for reform. Of course, that's lip service, but we'll take him at his word for whatever that's worth.

Senate Democrats led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are gearing up for a battle with House Republicans over Medicare and Social Security benefits.

Schumer and other Democratic strategists see Medicare and Social Security as winning political issues that can help them regain the momentum they lost over the last two years.

Schumer, who has taken over the Senate Democrats' communications operation, delivered some of his most direct shots at House GOP leaders.

“They want to privatize Social Security,” Schumer said of Republicans. “Privatize equals end, no more.”

Well, nobody has actually introduced legislation proposing that, but hey, why quibble with facts? That's never stopped this pinhead before.

Senate Democrats have unified over the issue after President Obama stayed away from proposing a cut in Social Security benefits at Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Democratic pollsters warned that if Obama called for raising the retirement age, it would create a schism in the party.

House Republicans have discussed advancing a proposal to privatize Medicare in the budget plan they expect to unveil in the next few weeks.

God forbid the GOP act responsibly to save programs through cost-cutting measures. Has it occurred to Schumer and Sanders that there won't be any money left in the Social Security Ponzi scheme a few decades down the road once the retired baby boomers have chewed through it? Apparently not. Because to them government dependency on a broken program equates success.

Democrats say the growing influence of the Tea Party in Congress poses a threat to entitlement programs.

“The fact that five senators are for privatizing Social Security shows we’re not crying wolf here,” Schumer said. “This is a serious movement to undo the most successful government program of the 20th century.”

I shudder to think what he would consider a failed government program.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Angerous, MO): "It Really is Time for Americans to Take Up Pitchforks"

WARNING: This video contains shameless demagoguery, violent rhetoric, and nearly three full minutes of face-time for Chuck Schumer's ugly mug in the background.

Viewer discretion is strongly advised.



For those keeping score at home, Gateway Pundit has a helpful chart showing how the deficit has exploded exponentially during Obama's term.

So the real gut-buster, obviously, is why anyone takes the Democrats seriously about the deficit.

Also note that this is the first time (to my knowledge) that a Democrat has pejoratively categorized all taxpayers who itemize their deductions as 'wealthy'.

So much for that $250,000 threshold, I guess.

Cross-posted.

Hundreds of Bills in California Face Friday Deadline

It's the annual Chicken Little Convention in Cal-ee-for-nee-ah and members of the state legislature must decide if they have the courage of their convictions. Here's something that doesn't stand a snowball's chance in Progressive hell.

A bill by Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-La Mesa, would require the Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System to sell off any investments they have in companies that have energy- or defense-related business in Iran.

Read on to see what's really important on the Left Coast.

Breck Girl Wants to Investigate Oil Companies

Next thing you know, there will be calls to investigate slick trial lawyers and those gouging practitioners from Big Haircut.

Edwards Calls for Investigation of Oil Company Mergers, High Gas Prices

As if we don't get this demagoguery on a daily basis from unctuous nabobs such as Charles Schumer.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says a wave of mergers in the oil industry should be investigated by the Justice Department to see what impact they have had on soaring gasoline prices.

During a campaign stop in Silicon Valley Thursday, Edwards planned to berate the oil industry for "anticompetitive actions" and outline an energy plan he says would reduce oil imports "and get us on a path to be virtually petroleum-free within a generation."

"Vertically integrated companies like Exxon Mobil own every step of the production process -- from extraction to refining to sale at the pump, enabling them to foreclose competition," says an outline of Edward's energy plan.

For all their investment, oil companies don't even make 10 cents on the gallon, while the federal and state goverments rake in six times that in some cases.

How about drastically cutting or eliminating some of the taxes before we go after those who produce a commodity that is in such high demand? Heaven forbid the Democrats would ever allow for drilling in ANWR or oil companies to build more refineries. It's much easier for them to play the shameless class warfare game.

Democrat Demogogues

Thomas Sowell, as usual, is right on the money when assessing the current state of demagoguery amongst the Democrats.

Unfortunately for the congressional Democrats, their left-wing supporters have taken the antiwar rhetoric of Mrs. Pelosi, Rep. John Murtha, et al., at face value and consider it a betrayal that they talk the talk but will not walk the walk.

It has been painfully clear Speaker Pelosi was serious only about scoring political points. Her big grin when she won a narrow vote for a nonbinding resolution was grotesque against the background of a life-and-death issue. You don't grin over a political ploy you have pulled when men's lives are at stake.

It is not just congressional politicians who are so preoccupied with scoring points against the administration that they show no sign of concern for the actual consequences of their words or actions for troops in the field, nations in the Middle East, or the global war on terror. Much of the media are similarly caught up in scoring points on Iraq. For example, the cover of the March 18 issue of the New York Times Magazine featured a story about women in the military who said that they had been raped in Iraq. A week later, the Times had to print a correction, after discovering one of these women had not even been to Iraq.

Read it all.