GOVERNMENT GOES BOTH WAYS!

Seniors and those in need of assistance were recently informed that the annual Cost Of Living Adjustment, COLA will not go into effect this year. That means that anyone collecting Social Security will not get the tiny raise in benefits they have been getting at the start of next year.

The reason COLA will not take effect according to the government is, simply put there has been no inflation and therefore no need to for increased payments.

But at the same time Medicare premiums paid monthly by many of the same people not getting a COLA on their Social Security will rise by as much as 53% next year or from $104 to $159.30!

The reason given by the Republican controlled House of Representatives (remind me just exactly who do they represent?) is rising healthcare costs.

Those two statements are obviously at odds with each other but neither the first time nor the last time anomalies such as these will be used against the middle class.

On Long Island the energy industry friend Long Island Power Authority, LIPA is allowing and about to implement a rate hike of 9% over the next three years.

They claim this is necessary due to a shortfall in the budget caused by a drop in sales tax revenue.

By the way the reason the sales tax revenue is down is because Long Islanders cannot afford to buy as much as in previous years due to lower incomes and rising costs.

The American Association of Retired Persons, AARP says LIPA is using ‘fuzzy math’ to make their case.

All the arguments used by those in power sound legitimate when taken by themselves but when put together start to smell of lies, greed and corruption.

In college logic courses they teach syllogisms which are generally two or three statements put together that sound logical but will cause the listener or reader to pause and think, wait what?

For example:

The American buffalo is a vanishing animal.

That animal is an American buffalo.

Therefore it is vanishing!

Or one of my favorites:

News of Russian aggression is no news.

And since No News is Good News,

News of Russian aggression is good news!

Business owners started using the double standard tactic a while ago too.

They claim no raises will be given because business is down and the economy is terrible.  They also moan about the increased costs in health care as reasons for dumping more of the costs on the individual.

So the worker gets less money in his/her paycheck but has to use the less money to pay for higher healthcare costs etc.

But what costs are going up?  Surely they’re not salary related since no business is giving raises so what is causing this?

Could it just be general inflation?

No, that cannot be because inflation is so low that those on Social Security will not be getting a COLA!

The bottom line is if you can figure out two sides to any financial story and you want to feed the information to the public use them both but make sure the middle class gets the short straw!

Balance the Budget!

Balance the Budget or ‘BtB’ sounds like the acronym for Business to Business, a term used when one going concern sells its wares to another for eventual final mark-up and sale to the end consumer.

But this BtB leaves out all the middle men and silly end product or service thingies and makes the consumer PAY FOR NOTHING!

Literally!

You will get nothing but you will pay!

Let’s face it when politicians, and especially the so-called fiscally responsible yet hypocritically phony Republicans say they wish to balance the budget what they are really saying is screw the poor and middle classes.

Now some may feel that I am merely using hyperbole (I use words like hyperbole to confuse the likes of Sarah Palin and her friends who’ve never seen the inside of a book.)

But when I say the Republicans are out to get the middle class just look at the facts.

Tax cuts for people who do not need tax cuts, aka the filthy rich is about to cause a record and unsustainable increase in the deficit.

If the deficit rises too far in order to keep the Nation afloat we will have to float loans at dangerously high interest levels and borrow money from wonderfully friendly places like China.

And this will merely kick the can down the road to our children and their children.

As a result of this strategy cuts in services become necessary.

And on whose backs will those cuts fall?

Well we've just given the wealthy a tax gift or rather continued the gift from 'W' so they won’t be involved.  And that leaves, uh, er, um who exactly?

Well by process of elimination we’re about to eliminate the middle class.

But first we must appease that group of eunuchs with a ‘Trojan Horse’ type of gift in the form of a tiny tax cut of their own.

When you are making $50,000 per year a 3% tax cut is nice but it won’t get you a new car.

However 3% for one of those wonderful hedge fund managers who took in over one billion dollars last year and add so much to society allows them to buy a dealership and have enough left over for a nice year long vacation.

Of course the extra walking around money for these pillars of mankind might allow them to hire one or two workers but at minimum wage only and possibly just part time.  After all there is always that ‘uncertainty’ thing hanging around in the future somewhere.

Next we lower the Social Security payroll deduction from 6.2 % to 4.2%.  This means the average worker, assuming he or she is still employed will receive an extra pittance in their post deduction take home pay pocket.

But before you go out and book the Plaza for your next affair you should know that our leaders have just removed millions of dollars from an already hurting fund meant to cushion our ‘golden years.’

In other words they are starting to chip away at that most socialistic program of all, Social Security.

And who will be hurt most when Social Security is gone, the wealthy?

Give me a break!

I happen to love the guy but does anyone think Warren Buffet will be relying on his Social Security payments to get him through his retirement?

Next on the agenda for the new majority in the House but thankfully not the Senate will be the dismantling of another program meant to help the eunuchs in the middle class, health care reform.

Why should the wealthy corporations have to take care of the little guy?  After all the more money they spend on those ragamuffins the less bribe dollars there are to go around from “K Street.”

So what’s the solution?

Should we just forget about the budget?

No indeed!

Balancing the budget is a good thing.  And it’s been done before, under Democratic Presidents with the help of a Congress that had the greater good in mind.

Unfortunately these days the only thing these hypocrites have on their minds is who will be in charge after the next election and then the one after that.

The heat of summer had not yet passed and all we heard on the news was who is running for President in 2012!

So as far as our government is concerned damn the middle class, full speed ahead.

Perhaps it is time for the little people to understand what is going on in DC and the board rooms of the corporations that own that town.

Perhaps WE should start threatening second amendment rights!

Of course that's just as absurd a notion now as it was when that idiot from Nevada first said it but...

When the government does not listen or worse, does not care about WE THE PEOPLE it may be time for WE THE PEOPLE to speak a little louder!