Re: Why Are Republicans So Obsessed With Obama?

[Crap Detector]

On Jun 27, 12:05 am, Casey T <caseyterry5...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Jun 26, 8:47 am, Crap Detector <cicer...@rogers.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
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> > On Jun 26, 7:56 am, bobby the brain <cy_pur...@excite.com> wrote:> On Jun 26, 7:39 am, Crap Detector <cicer...@rogers.com> wrote:
>
> > > > When Massachusett's Democrat Senator John Kerry first heard about
> > > > South Carolina's
> > > > Republican governor Mark Sandford being AWOL, he apparently said "Too
> > > > bad it couldn't
> > > > have been Sarah Palin".
>
> > > I'm obsessed with Obama.   All good Republicans are.
>
> > ***
> > But you retard, Obama is president. Palin is only one of 50 governors.
> > The Republican  governor that Democrats should most fear is not Palin
> > of Alaska
> > but Texas' Rick Perry, leader of a thriving, low-tax state, with a
> > budget surplus,
>
> Bold faced lie.   What else can be expected from a criminal like you?
>
> Cloud looms over Texas budget
> 07:27 AM CDT on Thursday, March 26, 2009
>
> By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
> rtgarr...@dallasnews.com
> AUSTIN – Senate Republican leaders keep saying the state has no money
> and can't launch big initiatives to help Texas families reeling from
> the recession – even with billions of dollars of federal economic
> stimulus money in a two-year budget that could total $177 billion.
>
> The plan, which the Senate Finance Committee is expected to approve
> soon, highlights a new fiscal reality that is likely to frustrate
> Texas lawmakers and residents for years to come: budgets with little
> leeway.
>
> Also Online
> Blog: Trail Blazers
> More Texas Legislature coverage
> More Politics coverage
> There are several reasons, but the biggest is that the GOP-controlled
> Legislature agreed to shift education costs so local property taxes
> can be cut. Texas already ranks last in state spending per capita, so
> deeper cuts to offset the education funding are unlikely. And
> politically, tax increases are off the table.
>
> There are other factors forcing Senate budget writers to be
> tightfisted, such as past accounting tricks and reliance on a stock
> market portfolio to pay for school textbooks. But experts agree that
> the 2006 school property tax cuts, combined with the recession's late
> arrival in Texas, have forced lawmakers to hoard billions to help them
> cope with a permanent budget deficit for years to come.
>
> "We're going to need every penny," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst,
> explaining how about $16 billion of stimulus aid offered by Washington
> has translated into only a $9 billion leap from last session's $167.7
> billion budget.
>
> The Republican leaders say they're trying not to let the stimulus
> money become a long-term obligation and to protect tax cuts that are
> important to Texas homeowners.
>
> Dewhurst, the Senate's presiding officer, said it's critical for
> lawmakers to sock away the state's cash reserves for the next budget
> and "not be facing an ever-increasing deficit." A state "rainy day
> fund" is projected to grow to $9.1 billion by late 2011.
>
> Thanks to a slow start in the House, where new leadership has been
> getting settled, Dewhurst and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve
> Ogden, R-Bryan, have dominated the budget process for months.
>
> They've been warning of budget problems since, and they continued to
> do so this week. The recession may last longer than anyone expects,
> they said. The 2006 property tax cuts, while originally envisioned as
> a revenue-neutral tax swap, are eating into future budgets, Dewhurst
> acknowledged. And he and Ogden predicted that next session's budget
> will require cuts unless lawmakers resist temptation to raid the rainy
> day fund.
>
> Restraint, though, is colliding with pleas for more help for the poor,
> particularly when more and more people are losing jobs and health
> coverage.
>
> Senate budget writers did very little to make college more affordable
> and almost nothing to give more Texans health insurance. They rebuffed
> pleas to make it easier for poor children to stay on Medicaid; hire
> more state workers to fix the screening process for Texans who need
> aid, which was fouled up in a privatization push four years ago; and
> hire more child-welfare workers so that fewer abused youngsters
> languish in foster care.
>
> "How can we get $16 billion in federal stimulus money and still
> have ... the most uninsured in the country – and rising – and fewer
> students who can afford college?" said Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El
> Paso. "What is going on in Austin?"
>
> Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, the Senate's chief budget writer for
> health and human services, said the budget's 8 percent increase in
> federal-state spending on social programs would cover inflation and a
> few raises for health-care providers and menial workers, such as home-
> care aides. The aides, who shop for and bathe the old and disabled,
> will get $8 an hour, Deuell said.
>
> Federal aid won't last forever, though, so program expansions would be
> irresponsible, he said.
>
> "We already have a biennial revenue estimate gap," Deuell said. "Do we
> want a 'stimulus gap' on top of it?"
>
> Budget writers, eager to preserve the rainy day money, used stimulus
> money to fend off other problems. The stock market plunge has cost
> Texas money in the trust fund that pays for school textbooks. Also,
> though it was widely foreseen as an accounting maneuver, lawmakers two
> years ago low-balled this year's Medicaid costs, by as much as $1.9
> billion.
>
> They're also trying to avoid future court edicts on school finance,
> giving public schools a boost of up to $2.5 billion.
>
> In 2006, flush with revenue from an economic boom, they tried to
> reverse that trend, primarily motivated by a desire to deliver
> homeowners and businesses relief on their property taxes.
>
> Under court orders to relieve school districts bumping up against a
> state cap on property tax rates, the lawmakers and Gov. Rick Perry
> slashed rates by one-third, to $1 per $100 of assessed valuation. But
> an expanded business tax and assorted other tax increases, while they
> never were expected to fully pay for the property tax cuts, have
> yielded even less than expected.
>
> Former state District Judge Scott McCown, who heads the Center for
> Public Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Austin, said
> lawmakers will need the current rainy day stash to cover the deficit
> created by the tax swap next session. After that, though, he foresees
> a "$10 billion hole," with little prospect of a replenished rainy day
> fund.
>
> McCown said the long-range fix is for Texas to adopt a state personal
> income tax to reduce reliance on revenue from the sales tax, which
> hurts the poor the most. But an income tax is fiercely opposed by
> state GOP leaders.
>
> Dewhurst said there's now a built-in budget deficit. "We hope to grow
> our way out of that, but it's going to take us a few years," he said.
>
> WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU: The state budget
> Under the $177 billion two-year budget the Senate is on track to
> approve, education and transportation would receive significant
> funding increases. But the spending blueprint holds the line
> elsewhere, resisting major new initiatives in social programs. Here
> are highlights:
>
> EDUCATION
>
> Teachers: No across-the-board raise. A merit-pay program, the nation's
> largest, would grow by $148 million, to $491 million, over two years.
> Retired teachers: Retirees received an extra monthly payment last
> year, but none appears likely this time. Also, the state's
> contribution to the teacher pension fund would decrease to 6.4 percent
> of current payroll, from 6.58 percent currently.
>
> Public schools: Public school funding would increase by nearly 6
> percent, even after covering student enrollment growth. Also, if a
> separate bill by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, passes, extra
> spending would rise to $2.5 billion, from $1.9 billion in the Senate's
> "base budget."
>
> College students: Texas Grants, the state's main financial aid
> program, would receive a boost, from $428 million to $514 million,
> though nearly half of eligible students still wouldn't get help.
>
> State universities: With one exception, each of the 35 four-year
> institutions would receive at least 4 percent more from a general
> academics funding formula. Texas Woman's University in Denton,
> adversely affected by a phase-in of new formula weights, would receive
> $7 million less.
>
> Dallas higher education priorities: Decisions haven't been made on
> whether to create more top-tier research universities. The University
> of North Texas at Dallas would receive $6 million to expand into a
> four-year school in southern Dallas. The budget doesn't include any of
> the $40 million requested to establish a UNT law school in Dallas.
>
> Mentally disabled: State schools for the mentally disabled, under fire
> for poor care and abuse, would have their enrollments cut by one-third
> over four years and eventually capped, at 3,000 clients. The Senate
> would spend $500 million more to shorten the years-long waits for
> services to help the mentally disabled stay home or live in group
> homes. Waiting lists in three "Medicaid waiver" programs would be cut
> by 18 percent.
>
> ELDERLY, PHYSICALLY DISABLED
>
> Home care attendants who help keep enfeebled Medicaid recipients out
> of nursing homes are paid as little as $6 to $6.75 an hour, officials
> say. Their minimum pay would rise to $7.25 an hour this fall, and $8
> by 2011. Also, home- and community-based services programs to keep
> people out of nursing homes would receive $33 million more, trimming
> those waiting lists by 12 percent.
>
> CHILDREN'S HEALTH
>
> AND WELFARE
>
> The Senate wouldn't increase eligibility or create a buy-in program
> for more families to join the Children's Health Insurance Program.
> Child Protective Services was denied 175 more caseworkers to allow it
> to visit 95 percent of foster children each month, as federal rules
> require.
> MEDICAID
>
> Doctors, hospitals and others who treat Medicaid patients would
> receive a onetime, 3 percent increase in reimbursements. The Senate
> budget would add $750 million of state money to cover rising inflation
> and enrollment in the next two years – less than half the amount
> sought by officials.
>
> STATE EMPLOYEES
>
> No across-the-board pay raise. Correctional
>
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***

You have expended a great deal of time and effort in promulgating your
liberal bullshit.