Monday, May 22, 2017

PENSIONS CUT TO THE BONE! - Vulture Capitalist Plunder Puerto Rico....... Chicago and Los Angeles near bankruptcy

"They may be fighting over who will be first in line to be paid, but they all agree that workers, pensioners and the poor will have to sacrifice their jobs and living standards."

Such states, particularly Illinois, are teetering on the edge of default for many of the same reasons as Puerto Rico; these include accelerating pension costs, crumbling infrastructure, deindustrialization and the migration of younger workers.

Vulture capitalists fight over pickings from bankrupt Puerto Rico

By Rafael Azul
22 May 2017
Federal US court proceedings began May 17 in San Juan on Puerto Rico’s $123 billion bankruptcy. New York District Court is handling the bankruptcy. As with the Detroit bankruptcy of 2013-2014, the island faces privatization and cutbacks that will exacerbate a mass wave of emigration and further sink its economy into depression.
The court hearing took place two weeks after Puerto Rico’s federal oversight board filed for Title III bankruptcy protection, on May 3, to tackle the mountain of debt and a public pension crisis.

The opening of the bankruptcy negotiations began with a dispute over which of two groups of creditors will have priority over sales tax revenue and other assets. According to the New York Times, the courtroom was packed with lawyers, signaling “intractable battles” ahead.
They may be fighting over who will be first in line to be paid, but they all agree that workers, pensioners and the poor will have to sacrifice their jobs and living standards. In fact Title III, a provision in the Puerto Rico relief law (Promesa) that the US Federal Legislature passed last year, was specifically designed to make possible an attack on public employee pensions.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.... A NATION RULED AND PLUNDERED BY WALL STREET!
Barred from the opening meeting, however, were the hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican workers, retirees, and residents who have already suffered savage cuts in wages, health and educational benefits, pensions and government services; and are being told to brace for even more.

The lawyers, according to the Times “told Judge Swain about looming deadlines and said that certain fundamental disputes had to be resolved almost immediately or else nothing could happen.” Among the bondholders are so-called “vulture” speculative hedge funds, which, having acquired bonds at fire-sale prices, now are demanding a return of one hundred cents on the dollar.
Puerto Rico’s $123 billion debt is the result of over a decade of recession and mass emigration. Since 2007, the economy has shrunk 17 percent. It is expected to fall by another two percent this year. Its debts in default now exceed those of any municipal bankruptcy in US history. In addition to defaulting on tax-exempt bonds held by Wall Street financial institutions, Puerto Rico confronts $50 billion in unfunded pension obligations to its retired public employees. In all, the per capita debt burden on this island of 3.4 million inhabitants, amounts to $34,000 for every man, woman and child.

BLOG: HALF THE POPULATION OF CA LIVES BELOW THE POVERTY LINE!
Puerto Rico is one of the most socially unequal US territories. Half the population is under the dismal poverty line, and the current official rate of unemployment is 11.5 percent. Average annual pension benefits are $14,000. One-third of workers are ineligible for Social Security benefits. The median household income of $19,350 compares very unfavorably with $53,889 for the US. These conditions are driving the migration of tens of thousands to Miami and other US cities. A record 400,000 Puerto Ricans have left since 2007, another 240,000 are expected to leave by 2025.
Given its status as a commonwealth, or associated state—a self-governing US colony with no representation in the US legislature—Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy is being handled under special federal legislation, known as the Promise Act.
The bankruptcy is at the same time a warning to US rust belt states that may be considering asking for bankruptcy protection from their creditors. Such states, particularly Illinois, are teetering on the edge of default for many of the same reasons as Puerto Rico; these include accelerating pension costs, crumbling infrastructure, deindustrialization and the migration of younger workers. They will also face a Puerto Rican-style “solution” of draconian attacks on jobs and living standards.
Under the terms of the Promise Act, the debt burden can only be resolved through savage austerity measures that involve the dismantling of public budgets and social services. As in Detroit, Greece and elsewhere, the intention of Wall Street banks and hedge funds is that the poor and working class make good on their bonds. Most importantly, Wall Street continues to insist that there are enough resources to pay off the bondholders in full, providing that the government of Governor Ricardo Roselló becomes more efficient at collecting taxes, that it sack thousands more public employees, including education and health workers, and that pensions be sharply reduced.
Retirees are among the most vulnerable. Three years ago, the Puerto Rican government changed the retirement system that guaranteed public sector workers a full pension after 30 years of employment to a system that forces workers to work up to 15 additional years for full benefits. Driving discussions in bankruptcy court over public pension cuts is that the system is scheduled to run out of money this July. It is anticipated that ten percent or more may by slashed from existing pensions.

Chicago and the State of Illinois are lurching toward insolvency, burdened by enormous pension liabilities, political payoffs from past generations that kept the Democrat Machine in power for generations.  Rahm Emanuel knows this, and is doing h...

Rahm’s latest plan to stave off Chicago financial collapse under fire – from Dems



Chicago and the State of Illinois are lurching toward insolvency, burdened by enormous pension liabilities, political payoffs from past generations that kept the Democrat Machine in power for generations.  Rahm Emanuel knows this, and is doing his best to come up with financial schemes to keep paying bills. His latest effort at borrowing to keep the Chicago Public Schools (already almost a billion dollars behind in paying its expenses – particularly pension fund contributions) afloat is being called a “payday loan” even by Democrats, as the Dems scramble to blame Republican Governor Bruce Rauner for the collapse of the Blue Model. Fran Spielman reports for the Chicago Sun-Times:
Under fire for authorizing a “payday loan,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday defended his plan to let the Chicago Public Schools borrow $389 million secured by late block grants owed by the state.
“You have a situation…created by the state of Illinois to create a maximum amount of pressure on the public schools, specifically Chicago,” Emanuel said.
“It’s a short-term solution to a short-term problem created consciously, woefully by the governor to create political pressure. That’s how we’re handling it. That’s the most appropriate way to deal with it.”
Aldermen don’t see it that way. They likened it to the skipped pension payments that got CPS into this mess and Emanuel vowed to end.
“Daley didn’t pay pensions. This is borrowing instead of not paying. You’re still robbing Peter to pay Paul and putting a Band-Aid on it,” said South Side Ald. Anthony Beale (9th).
“We’re borrowing money hoping that, eventually, the state comes through. If the state doesn’t come through, we’re gonna be in worse shape tomorrow than we are today. It’s gonna cost to borrow money. Taxpayers are still losing.”
Illinois is as broke as Chicago. If this were a business, Rahm would be borrowing against his “accounts receivable” – also known as “factoring.” That is a common practice among financially-troubled businesses to keep the doors open. Rahm is trying to find a factor that will lend almost $400 mill against the promise of a broke state to come up with the cash.
The source of the borrowing has not yet been determined, nor has the interest rate. That must wait until the borrowing goes out to bid. The maximum interest rate allowed by state law is nine percent.
Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown said the short-term loan will be limited to $389 million because the school system’s “lending partners” were willing to finance only about “85 percent of the outstanding receivable” of state grants. The rest will come from savings generated by mid-year budget cuts, Brown said, with a hazy explanation that raised more questions than it answered.
Nine percent is a handsome return in a low interest environment. If Rahm is unable to borrow at that price, it would be a sign that the financial crisis is getting closer.  But I suspect that he already has sources of funds, and that the bet would be that the feds would come up with a loan if the effort fails.
Chicago has already sold off major assets, including the right to collect money from parking meters. There are fewer and fewer sources of funds available.
The crash is coming. The Dems are just looking for opportunities to blame Republicans for the consequences of their bribes to unionized public employees. 

BARACK OBAMA:

BUILDING HIS RETURN TO POWER PARTY WITH ILLEGALS!

FUNDER AND LEADER OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA “The Race”

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-racist-mexican-fascist-party-of-la.html


During Obama’s 8 year bankster regime, he openly operated and funded the Mexican fascist racist party of LA RAZA “The Race” from the White House under La Raza VP Cecilia Munoz…. Google Obama and LA RAZA!

California: Will the Mexican Welfare State Fall Into Bankruptcy and Cut State Pensions?

The sick man of the United States…. A STATE UNDER MEX OCCUPATION!


PUS-SPEWING XAVIER BECERRA…. Is what happens when illegals vote LA RAZA FASCISM.



“As one attorney general, Kamala Harris, steps down to replace Barbara Boxer, another attorney general is secreted out of the glands of selfsame power in the form of pus-spewing Xavier Becerra.

It didn’t stop Becerra, a prominent Latino rights  advocate who has served in Congress since 1993, from pushing for the dealer’s release at the request of his father, Horacio. The elder Vignali, a rich Los Angeles businessman, contributed thousands of dollars to Becerra’s various campaigns and a favor was in order. 


CALIFORNIA UNDER LA RAZA SIEGE:
                  
Mexico’s looting and ethnic cleansing of a once American state.

                                                      

OPEN BORDERS: The Democrat Party’s Weapon of Mass Destruction on the American Worker


http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-la-raza-mexican-crime-tidal-wave.html


"Los Angeles saw all crime rise in 2015: violent crime up 19.9 percent, homicides up 10.2 percent, shooting victims up 12.6 percent, rapes up 8.6 percent, robberies up 12.3 percent, and aggravated assault up 27.5 percent," Landry said.”


IMAGES of  LA RAZA CRIMINALS  IN LOS
ANGELES ALONE: 

200 MOST WANTED (MURDER) CRIMINALS IN LA RAZA-OCCUPIED LOS ANGELES:


“Mexican drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in virtually every community across this country.” JUDICIAL WATCH


ROBERT RECTOR:

Importing poverty…. 

WE ALSO IMPORT ALL THEIR CRIMINALS


“The lifetime costs of Social Security and Medicare benefits of illegal immigrant beneficiaries of President Obama’s executive amnesty would be well over a trillion dollars, according to Heritage Foundation expert Robert Rector’s prepared testimony for a House panel obtained in advance by Breitbart News.”

MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO U.S.: poverty, anchor baby breeders for welfare, criminals, unregistered dems and HEROIN!


ILLEGALS VOTING …. (for more)!



ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS ORDERS CALIFORNIA TERMINATED.

MEXICO IMMEDIATELY DENOUNCED THE DECREE AND FIRED SESSIONS.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Emergency Intervention Needed in California NOW!


MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO U.S.: poverty, anchor baby breeders for welfare, criminals, unregistered dems and HEROIN!


By Arthur Schaper

Townhall.com

In California, illegals can vote: it’s possible and very likely. California’s automatic motor-voter law all but assures that illegals seeking driver’s licenses will get a ballot along with their license.

Miscreants from any corner of the world can register to vote in California online, too. No vetting, no assurance, no integrity.

Voter fraud in broken inner city hellholes like Detroit and New York City cannot compare with the ballot stuffing throughout the once Golden State. 

MEXICO ANNOUNCES CONTROL OF CALIFORNIA ACCOMPLISHED.


De Léon, who introduced the bill, made his remarks at a hearing in Sacramento on SB54, the bill to make California a “Sanctuary State.


California State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Léon (D-Los Angeles) said last Tuesday that “half his family” was in the country illegally, using false documents, and eligible for deportation under President Trump’s new executive order against “sanctuary” jurisdictions.


"The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."  --- EXCELSIOR --- national newspaper of Mexico

BELOW LINK IS TO THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” MEXICAN FASCIST SEPARATIST MOVEMENT (WARNING! GRAPHIC!)
They claim all of North America for Mexico!




SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, HUBBY LOOTER RICHARD BLUM AND LAP B ITCH, BARBARA “BRIBES” BOXER…. Along with Nancy Pelosi, four of the most corrupt and self-serving plunderers of America… These Cretans redefine the term CRONY CAPITALIST PIGS!


FOR YEARS THEY HAVE SUCKED THE BLOOD OUT OF A DYING NATION!

“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes.  This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.”


Karen McQuillan  THEAMERICAN THINKER.com


TWITTER TRUMP'S BUDGET TO PROPOSES MASSIVE CUTS IN MEDICAID AND FOOD STAMPS FOR MASSIVE CUTS ON TAXES FOR THE SUPER RICH

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/334493-trump-budget-will-slash-medicaid-food-stamps-programs

Trump budget will slash Medicaid, food stamps programs: reports






Trump to cut $800B in Medicaid cuts
Inform News
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President Trump’s first major budget proposal will include sweeping cuts to Medicaid, federal pensions and food stamps, according to new reports.
The Washington Post reports that Trump’s budget will include $800 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next 10 years, which would cause 10 million low-income people to lose health benefits.
The White House will also give states more flexibility to impose work requirements for people taking part in various social welfare programs, according to the report.
Trump’s budget reportedly includes a massive $193 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps, over the next 10 years, slashing its budget by more than 25 percent. The food stamp cuts are part of a broader $274 billion cut that’s labeled welfare reform, according to The Associated Press.
The budget also contains $1.6 billion in funding for Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a larger $2.6 billion spending hike for border security programs. 
The president’s first budget promises to balance the federal budget in 10 years, using an optimistic outlook on economic growth that projects 3 percent growth after passing huge tax cuts, according to the Post.
Trump promised repeatedly on the campaign trail to avoid cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The budget plan, which is set to be publicly unveiled Tuesday, does not contain cuts to Medicare and Social Security, but its large cuts to Medicaid fall in line with House Republicans' desire to curtail the expansion of the program under former President Barack Obama
Trump's budget will be released Tuesday, but the proposal is a blueprint for Congress, which appropriates the funds. The Post noted that some Republicans won’t back some of the larger cuts Trump will propose.

"The Democratic Party and the media are not concerned with having a fascistic-minded president and an administration packed with corporate CEOs and generals dedicated to waging war, tearing up social programs and organizing a further redistribution of wealth to the rich. On such matters, there is far more that unites the ruling class than divides it."


“Barack Obama and his henchmen would not have been 

emboldened in their ostensible machinations to undermine an 

election and then a presidency if  it were not for the fecklessness

of  the Republican  Party and the blind eye as well as the tacit

support of the mainstream media.”

Washington Post and New York Times urge pullback on calls for Trump impeachment
22 May 2017
In editorials published simultaneously for their Sunday editions, the New York Times and the Washington Post called for caution in the anti-Trump campaign they have been spearheading with claims of nefarious connections between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government.

The Times editorial, headlined “Watergate? We’re Not There Yet,” cites comparisons between the crisis of the Trump administration and the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon 43 years ago, only to suggest that impeachment or forced resignation is not yet the order of the day.

After repeatedly slamming Trump as a stooge of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a threat to US national security, including the publication last week of an editorial with comparisons to Watergate, the Times now counsels the Democrats to proceed cautiously and avoid “distraction.” It advises leveraging the official investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, along with the continuing decline in Trump’s poll numbers, to “win back a majority next year in at least one house of Congress” in the 2018 mid-term elections.

The Washington Post editorial similarly suggests that the anti-Trump campaign “will require time,” both for newly appointed special counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director, and for the various House and Senate committees investigating alleged Russian intervention into the 2016 election.

The Post editorial, under the headline “It’s time to focus—finally—on running the country,” demands that the Democrats “talk about something other than impeachment in the coming weeks,” and that Republicans “face the task at which they have so far failed: governing responsibly.”
The Post is more explicit about the social and class policies underlying the campaign over alleged Trump-Russia connections. It demands action on health care to reduce “uncertainty among the insurers upon which the system relies.” In other words, the two big-business parties must contain their mutual mudslinging and get on with the pro-corporate austerity measures demanded by the financial elite.
Similarly, Congress must “pass a new budget and raise the debt ceiling.” It must carry through “tax reform,” which means cutting taxes for the wealthy and for corporations, while making sure that such actions “cannot result in higher deficits.” In other words, tax cuts for the rich must be paid for by slashing social programs for working people.
Last but by no means least, the editorial cites concerns about Trump’s foreign policy in relation to North Korea, Syria, the Islamic State, Iran, Russia and “other hostile powers.”
Neither newspaper attempts to square the intensity of their onslaught against the Trump administration, particularly over the past two weeks, with their current declarations in favor of caution and biding one’s time.

The situation could shift quickly, but the editorials from the Times and the Post reflect a broader pullback from immediate calls for impeachment and references to Watergate from within the media and political establishment. In recent days, prominent congressional Democrats such as Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have called talk of impeachment premature.
These developments underscore the fact that there is no democratic or progressive content to the opposition to Trump from within the political establishment and the capitalist state. The Democratic Party and the media are 
not concerned with having a fascistic-minded 
president and an administration packed with 
corporate CEOs and generals dedicated to 
waging war, tearing up social programs and 
organizing a further redistribution of wealth 
to the rich. On such matters, there is far more 
that unites the ruling class than divides it.
What are the considerations driving the warnings about proceeding too rashly on the question of impeachment?
First, the central concern of Trump’s opponents within the ruling class since his inauguration has always been to force a shift in policy, particularly foreign policy. On the US war in Syria, the maintenance of the NATO alliance and, above all, aggression toward Russia, Trump was deemed to be not on message by the dominant factions of the military and intelligence apparatus.
The president has already sought to appease such concerns by ordering a missile strike on Syria, followed last week by a US bombing raid on a pro-Syrian government militia and approval of a Pentagon plan to escalate the US intervention in Syria, Iraq and northern Africa.
There are related concerns that a perpetual crisis at the center of the American state and a protracted impeachment process pose a threat to the international standing of the United States and the overall interests of American imperialism.

Second, there are the concerns outlined by the Post that a full-scale impeachment crisis will derail the administration’s program of corporate tax cuts, deregulation and the gutting of social programs upon which Wall Street has been banking and is determined to see pushed through. This was the message sent by the financial markets in last week’s huge one-day selloff. That the message was received was indicated by the announcement the same day of the appointment of a special counsel to take the political faction fight in hand.
Third, there are fears that a full-scale constitutional crisis and fratricidal struggle within the ruling class can create an opening for an independent intervention by the working class. Under conditions of mass disaffection from both political parties, rising social anger and a general discrediting of all official institutions of power, the destabilization of the political system has potentially revolutionary implications.
The appointment of Mueller, who headed the FBI for 12 years, under both Bush and Obama, puts the Trump administration under the effective receivership of the intelligence agencies, with the constant threat that if he steps too far out of line, he could quickly be faced with criminal charges. References to the formation of some sort of caretaker regime have begun appearing in the press. A Post op-ed column by Dana Millbank devoted to celebrating the anti-Russian campaign as a heroic journalistic exploit, while acknowledging that it was made possible by systematic leaking from the military-intelligence apparatus, concludes by describing Mueller as “a regent, if you will, to protect against future abuses.”
All of this underscores the completely reactionary character of both factions of the ruling class, whatever turn the crisis might take in the days and weeks to come. It demonstrates the political dead end of subordinating the struggle against the Trump administration to the Democrats, whose opposition to Trump is entirely different from and hostile to the concerns and interests of millions of workers. They must intervene on the basis of their own, socialist, program and perspective.
Patrick Martin

 Memos, Tapes, and LEAKS — Oh MY!
DRIP, DRIP, DRIP — DEATH BY 1,000 LEAKS IS WHAT IS FACING TRUMP RIGHT NOW
1. Another late-afternoon news dump hit the Trump White House yesterday. This time a New York Times report stated that former FBI Director James Comey allegedly wrote a "memo" stating that Trump had told him to "back off" Michael Flynn.[Could this be the straw that breaks the back?] 

2. Of course this set off a firestorm in the MSM, which reached "peak meltdown." [Is it really PEAK though?]

3. Soon after the news broke, calls for a congressional subpoena arose. Some GOP members are ready and willing to do so to get to the bottom of the matter. [Chaffetz says he has his pen ready]

4. Chaffetz is also making a request that the FBI turn over any, and all, documents they have on Trump and Comey. [That could be a lot]

5. Could it really come down to impeachment? [Even some Rs are using the word]

6. This could be just the first round in what turns into a heavyweight match between Trump & Comey. [Just the first punch? Or is the fight already over?]

7. Mark Levin says that we have to be aware that the media has its sights set on taking down Trump, and they have help on the inside. [Watch LevinTV from last night where Mark lays it all out]
 Keeping the Media Honest 
LOVE TRUMP, DON'T LOVE HIM — THE MEDIA IS ALL IN AGAINST HIM; HERE'S HOW TO KEEP THEM HONEST
1. There is quantifiable evidence that the media is all-in against Trump. [CNN anecdote]

2. The question is, if they are doing this just for clicks, how do you "read between the lines"? Here is a little friendly help. [How to read the newspaper]
 Are There Any Links Out There?
CAN ANYTHING DISTRACT US FROM 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE?
1. TV: The effort to "Save Tim Allen." [115k and counting]

2. Western Wall: Nikki Haley isn't toeing the line when it comes to Mid-East diplomacy. [She tells it like she sees it]

3. College: Is it time to cut off whiny, liberal, entitled colleges? [Hit 'em where it hurts]

4. Sth Rch: Did Steven Crowder get to the bottom of the mystery? [You have to WATCH to find out]



THE SINS OF THEIR FATHERS:

THEIR GLOBAL LOOTING of the POOR


THE OPEN BORDERS PARTY of GEORGE SOROS, HILLARY & BILLARY CLINTON, BARACK OBAMA and DONALD TRUMP


DONALD TRUMP, HIS PARASITIC FAMILY, 

HIS GOLDMAN SACHS REGIME and GOD 


FATHER, GEORGE SOROS… .global looters of 


the poor! 


http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-jared-kushner-donald-trump-george.html


 THE OBAMA DOCTRINE:


DESTROY AMERICA TO BUILD A MUSLIM-STYLE 

DICTATORSHIP WHERE LA RAZA MEXICANS VOTE HIM 

PRESIDENT FOR LIFE

"He is intent on maximizing the damage he inflicted on the country during the two terms of his faux presidency, having now set up shop in Washington to pursue a post-presidency agenda advancing a left-wing insurgency, civil unrest, racial conflict and the destabilizing activities of a shadow."



BARACK OBAMA: BUILDING HIS RETURN TO POWER PARTY WITH ILLEGALS!

FUNDER AND LEADER OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA “The Race”

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-racist-mexican-fascist-party-of-la.html


During Obama’s 8 year bankster regime, he openly operated and funded the Mexican fascist racist party of LA RAZA “The Race” from the White House under La Raza VP Cecilia Munoz…. Google Obama and LA RAZA!


BARACK OBAMA PLANS A THIRD TERM: HIS CRONY BANKSTERS, LA RAZA, MUSLIMS AND THOSE MUSLIM DICTATORSHIPS HE FUNDED ARE BEHIND HIM…. Along with George Soros!

THE OBAMA COUP TO BE DICTATOR:
THE ARMY OF ILLEGALS TO BRING AMERICA DOWN AND FORM THE OBAMA MUSLIM-STYLE DICTATORSHIP THAT WILL BE OPEN BORDERS AND PRO LA RAZA FASCIST SUPREMACY.
                                                  
Daniel Greenfield, the award-winning Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, believes (OBAMA'S POLITICAL PARTY) “OFA will be far more dangerous in the wild than the Clinton Foundation ever was.”

“Barack Obama and his henchmen would not have been 

emboldened in their ostensible machinations to undermine an 

election and then a presidency if  it were not for the fecklessness of 

the Republican  Party and the blind eye as well as the tacit 

support of the mainstream media.”


THE LEGACY OF BARACK OBAMA:
 Final Death of the American White Middle Class

Under the Obama administration, more Americans have found themselves consigned to economic ghettos, living in neighborhoods where more than 40 percent subsist below the poverty level.

*
Millions more now live in “high poverty” districts of 20-40 percent poverty, according to recently released report by the Brookings Institution.


THE OBAMA BOOK DEAL: Sixty-five million dollars—or even $267.5 million—is a small price to pay for the contribution the former president made to enriching the already fabulously rich, defending the American ruling elite’s geopolitical interests around the world and continuing the assault on the wages, benefits and living standards of the working class.


THE SWAMP DWELLERS:

GLOBAL LOOTING of the POOR

TRUMP, KUSHNER  and FAMILY, BILL, HILLARY & CHELSEA CLINTON, MICHELLE AND “HOPE & CHANGE” PSYCHOPATH MUSLIM BARACK OBAMA!


Will they finish off America as they serve themselves and the super rich???

HOW TO DESTROY AMERICA:

THE OBAMA DOCTRINE OF UNLEASHING MEXICAN CRIMINALS ACROSS AMERICA FROM BORDER to OPEN BORDER

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/03/has-mexico-and-barack-obama-destroyed.html


Trump calls for $1.7 trillion in social cuts
23 May 2017
The Trump administration will unveil a fiscal year 2018 budget today that includes $1.7 trillion in cuts to major social programs. The plan marks a new stage in a bipartisan social counterrevolution aimed at eviscerating what remains of programs to fight poverty and hunger and provide health care for millions of workers.
The unveiling of the budget underscores the reactionary character of the Democrats’ response to a gangster government headed by a fascistic-minded billionaire and composed of Wall Street bankers, far-right ideologues and generals. The Democratic Party has chosen to base its opposition to Trump not on his assault on working and poor people, his attacks on democratic rights, or his reckless militarism, but on his supposed “softness” toward Russia.
In the political warfare in Washington, the Democrats are aligned with those sections of the intelligence apparatus and the “deep state” that are determined to compel Trump to abandon any notion of easing relations, and instead continue the Obama administration’s policy of escalating confrontation with Russia. As the Democrats and the so-called “liberal” media pursue their anti-Russia campaign, the Trump administration continues to advance its brutal domestic agenda.
Trump’s budget is the opening shot in a stage-managed tussle between the two big business parties over social cuts that will end with the most massive attack on core social programs in US history.
The budget includes a cut of $800 billion over a decade in Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people jointly administered by the federal government and the states. More than 74 million Americans, or one in five, are currently enrolled in Medicaid, including pregnant women, children and seniors with disabilities.
Like the American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed earlier this month by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Trump’s budget plan would put an end to Medicaid as a guaranteed benefit based on need, replacing it with per capita funding or block grants to the states.
The AHCA would also end the expansion of Medicaid benefits under Obamacare and allow states to impose work requirements for beneficiaries. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that an earlier version of the Republican plan would result in 10 million people being stripped of Medicaid benefits.
Trump’s budget would also cut $193 billion over a decade from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, a 25 percent reduction to be achieved in part by limiting eligibility and imposing work requirements.
Welfare benefits, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, would be cut by $21 billion. Spending on the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which benefit mainly low- and middle-income families, would be reduced by $40 billion.
The budget reportedly includes changes in funding for Social Security’s Supplemental Security Income program, which provides cash benefits to the poor and disabled.
While gutting social programs, Trump proposes to sharply reduce taxes for the wealthy. In addition to slashing income tax rates for the rich, he is proposing to dramatically cut estate, capital gains and business tax rates. At the same time, he is demanding a huge increase in military spending.
While Democrats will make rhetorical criticisms of the Trump budget, the fact is that the administration is escalating a decades-long assault on the working class overseen by both big business parties.
The outcome can be seen in the reality of social life in America:
Poverty
More than 13 percent—some 43.1 million Americans—were living in poverty in 2015. Of these, 19.4 million were living in extreme poverty, which means their family’s cash income was less than half of the poverty line, or about $10,000 a year for a family of four. The poverty rate for children under 18 was 19.7 percent.
These are the official poverty rates, based on absurdly low income baselines. In reality, at least half of the population is living in or on the edge of poverty. These are precisely the people targeted by Trump’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, welfare and food stamps.
Hunger
Almost one in eight US households, 15.8 million, were food insecure in 2015, meaning they had difficulty providing enough food for all their members. Five percent of households had very low food security, meaning the food intake of household members was cut. Three million households were unable to provide adequate, nutritious food for their children.
Lack of health care
In 2016 under Obamacare, 28.6 million people of all ages, or about 9 percent of the US population, remained uninsured. Many of those insured under plans purchased from private insurers on the Obamacare exchanges were unable to use their insurance because of prohibitively high deductibles and co-pays. Many who gained insurance under Obamacare did so as a result of the expansion of Medicaid. Trump plans to reverse this, throwing millions of people back into the ranks of the uninsured.
A bipartisan assault
In the wake of Trump’s budget proposal, the Democrats have responded with their standard empty rhetoric. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer—one of Congress’ biggest recipients of Wall Street campaign money—decried Trump’s “hard-right policies that benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the middle-class.” Just three weeks ago, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were hailing the passage of a bipartisan fiscal 2017 budget that cut food stamps by $2.4 billion, slashed funding for education and the environment, and added billions more for the military and border control.
Obamacare paved the way for the present assault on Medicaid and the coming attacks on Medicare and Social Security by further subordinating health care to the profit demands of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and imposing higher costs for reduced benefits on millions of workers.
Nothing less than a mass movement of the working class will prevent the destruction of Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, public education and every other social gain won by the working class. But this movement must be completely independent of the Democratic Party, the historic graveyard of social protest in America. That includes left-talking demagogues like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
It is not a matter of appealing to or seeking to pressure the Democrats or any other section of the political establishment. They are all in the pocket of Wall Street.
The working class needs its own program to secure its basic social rights—a decent-paying job, education, health care, a secure retirement. These rights are not compatible with a capitalist system that is lurching inexorably toward world war and dictatorship.
Workers and youth must intervene in this crisis with a socialist and revolutionary program geared to the needs of the vast majority, not the interests of an obscenely rich and corrupt financial oligarchy.
Kate Randall