Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 07, 2015

It’s what the people of Kansas wanted.

It is what the people of the U.S. want, or so the politicians say.

The GOP is a disaster for 90% of Americans

327 million × 0.9 = ______________

The people of Kansas can’t do simple math.

Craziness is breaking out all over. The feds are cutting back on the funds they give to Florida to pay emergency room bills for uninsured workers not eligible for Medicaid, because they (mistakenly) think that Florida will expand eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The State Senate voted for a program that would enable it, as long as the people seeking Medicaid were working, looking for work, in school or disabled. But the Florida House of Unrepresentatives voted against it, saying it was rewarding able bodied single people who didn’t work. Not, of course that the tax subsidy to members of the House of Unrepresentatives for THEIR health insurance isn’t exactly that, a reward to able bodied people for not doing their job.

The one job that is required in the State Constitution of the part time Legislature in Florida is to pass a balanced budget before July 1. But the House was angry at the Senate for supporting the expansion of Medicaid, so it shut down business early and no votes were finalized on the budget during the regular session.

Now they are in a ‘special’ session, and that costs the taxpayers extra. So, the members of the House get subsidized health insurance year round, and extra pay, for not doing their job. Meanwhile, Floridians who work two service jobs and can’t afford health insurance will still go without.

Craziness is breaking out all over…

Richard S. Russell, you forgot my governor, Scotty “Turdwaffle” Walker of Wisconsin, who, with his henchpeople in the state assembly and senate, have been disassembling Wisconsin for two sessions.

Tom Corbett and our current Tom Wolf have more in common that their first name. Neither of them care what their constituents want…except to give lip service to it during the election cycle.

Of course that’s par everywhere I suppose.

Source: http://eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/quotes.html . Remarks on the State of the Union Message, Key West, Florida, 1/5/1956 “In this connection, I should mention our enormous national debt. We must begin to make some payments on it if we are to avoid passing on to our children an impossible burden of debt.” Well folks, here we are nearly 60 years later with over $18 trillion in national debt and, like Greece, no desire to pay it.

Republicans are all for tax increases, on the poor (see Flat Tax).

An educated public is the politicians greatest enemy.

Rick Perry wants to do away with public education altogether and replace it with religious-affiliated charter schools. He was crap as governor (not that that matters much in Texas, where the gov doesn’t really do anything), but now Perry is taking another run at the White House.

When have any of your 50 yrs. of government assistance programs worked for anything but to replicate themselves? Generation upon generation dependent on government assistance, even though they are physically capable as you or I of holding a job.

Govt not stealing as much money as planned = giving money. Gotcha. And we can trust govt to spend that money to greater effect than the people they stole it from. They won’t play favorites, like bailing out Goldman Sachs, or start stupid wars, or jail potheads, or do a poorer job of educating students than the average homeschooled family, or use school time for political indoctrination, or…

LWP: actually, it is what those who were motivated enough to vote in Kansas wanted. Voters are a very small group of the population. Many of the working poor and middle class just don’t vote. They don’t see the point, for one thing, since their interests are not considered like those of wealthy voters. Of course, they should realize that the poor are getting axed by Gov. Brownback, but it is harder to address the negative. The wealthy are all about protecting their money, though they are already well protected here in Kansas.There are also those who can’t vote because of roadblocks of various types. The difficulty with voting is not only restricted to Kansas of course. It is true that there are many conservative voters in Kansas. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. I was glad to see Hillary Clinton addressing the issues with voting recently. For example, she addressed the ridiculous situation in which gun ownership is proof for being a valid voter but being a college student is not? Absurd. Also, it should not be limited to those with picture ID, since many elderly people can no longer drive and may have difficulty getting a photo ID as a result. This is not a new problem. My father used to lament the issues with voting. My father was a teacher who worked with the working poor. He was born in 1922. He used to talk about the fact that the country could have been so different if Humphrey had won in 1968. Humphrey lost by an eyelash. He used to say that if we had a more representative population of voters he could accept the idea that someone like Nixon instead of Humphrey would be elected. But, such as it is, it is difficult to accept…

BTW, I am currently watching CBS Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley, wife of GT.

I recently saw where California is trying a new thing with voter registration, in which if you have a driver’s license, you are automatically registered to vote. This should improve the representation in California. If you are going to say that a photo ID such as driver’s license is needed, may as well allow such drivers who are over 18 to become automatically registered to vote. This does not mean that having a photo ID is the ONLY way you can vote, only that you are automatically included as registered if you do have a driver’s license. I realize this may be too much nuance for the opposition, but it seems like it is a step in the right direction at least.

Vote for Bernie

Brownback’s opponent in the last election was Paul Davis, who was supported by a number of Republicans. But Brownback’s people learned that Davis had been given a lap dance years ago while attending a friend’s bachelor party. Because of that, apparently, Kansans decided Davis wasn’t fit to be their governor. So instead, they re-elected Brownback, who has been making more of the voters symbolically give him lap dances.

No matter what happens with the details, Brownback is going to sign the largest increase in taxes (in sales taxes, gas taxes, tobacco and liquor taxes) in Kansas history. Yet if they’d just left things the way they were, instead of mindlessly passing huge tax cuts for the rich: no huge hole in the budget (for this year and years to come, no doubt), no downgrade in the credit ratings, no being a national laughingstock. Yet none of them can admit it was a mistake.

btw Trickle-Down Dick is channeling Mr. Butts expertly. I miss Mr. Butts but at least here we get the next best sleaze.

Or they could just cut spending. Nah.

Current Federal laws regarding public assistance allow for no more than 5 years of assistance per person per lifetime. Clinton broke that generational “birthright” of laziness and sloth so many have enjoyed at taxpayers expense. 16 million BUMS off of welfare. In my county, if you are able bodied, they send you to work at the local “chicken plant” I love it that they hate it as it is one of the crappiest jobs to have here, It’s so very Dickensian!

They have already cut spending tremendously. That is the whole point. That, and the fact that taxes are already super low for the very wealthy.

As someone who lives in Overland Park, Kansas, I will say that Brownback is awful. Brownback is embarrassing. But, he is not the only politician in the US who is awful and embarrassing, unfortunately. Huffpost just announced that Walker has proposed to change the constitution in order to ban gay marriage. Talk about out of step with what people are thinking outside the GOP bubble. (Strangely, even among Republicans, they are not this extreme, as a whole, just the evangelical types.) But, I will own the fact that Brownback is bad, don’t get me wrong.

Beware of any government that whats a less educated public.

There’s my gov, Mary Fallin, in Oklahoma. Our unofficial state motto is "Thank heavens for Mississippi. " Mississippi is the only reason Oklahoma isn’t listed as the worst state in the Union. Our teachers are poorly paid, our roads have potholes so large we give them names, our low and middle class have trouble affording medical BUT Gov Fallin cut taxes. Thank heavens for Mississippi.

Trickle down economics was a concept invented by the GOP. And you are right, there is no such thing as trickle down economics. Trickle down was tried and failed. GT never advocated giving all his wealth away, through trickle down or otherwise.

The facts hurt don’t they scratchy18. And the only way to make that nasty old hurt go away is to ignore them and engage in ‘what about’ politics. Try to distract from the facts with finger pointing. Well, scratch you can’t cover every issue in the country with one Sunday comic. You just pick one and fly with it. Oh by the way, the Oregon gov was not a pedophile. He had an affair with a consenting adult. Get at least a few facts straight.

True — and more to the point, saying “China loaned us money” is accurate in one sense, but misleading in the normal sense of the word “loan.”We didn’t go to them and fill out a loan application, as one might do with a bank.The government borrows by selling treasury bills, notes, and bonds on the open market — which anyone can buy. China bought a bunch, hence we owe them money — we’re supposed to pay them when the securities mature.If we happen to default (which has never happened, though when the Repubs threatened to do so a couple of years ago it lowered our credit rating), China can do nothing about it. They hold no collateral, just “the full faith and credit of The United States.”Owing China money is no different than the U.S. owing money to kids whose grandmother buys them savings bonds for college.As the old saying goes, “If you owe the bank a little money and don’t repay it, you’re in trouble. If you owe the bank a LOT of money and don’t repay it, the bank is in trouble.”The money we owe China gives us leverage over them — not the reverse!

If you and your spouse have good jobs, somewhere along the way the “system” has served you pretty well. That includes benefiting from all those ridiculous tax cuts that gave you more money to spend, at the expense of the national balance sheet. One of the reasons Junior’s tax withholding may have to increase is because the irresponsible GOP planted its feet firmly in cement in the early 1990s and stopped making the necessary (very gradual) adjustments to SS and Medicare tax rates that would have eased the boomers’ transiiton from work to retirement without unduly burdening younger workers.

GT donates a good share of income to charity, including groups that help wounded veterans. He lives in a state AND a city that has an income tax. He pays that without complaining. He has a staff, so he is a job creator.

Yep, and if they ask for their money we’re gonna give em Kansas

Mr. Trudeau never ceases to be relevant.

Sorry that’s what the GOP is planning to take away as soon as they have the Presidency and both houses of Congress. Hope you aren’t one of the people counting on Social Security. Cause that’s number one on the GOP hit list. Cause even though you’ve probably paid into it for many years, they see it as an entitlement which you don’t deserve. And anyway they’ve already spent it paying for Iraq.

Trust me, it’s not what ALL the people of Kansas wanted. I voted against this clown twice (as did many other voters). However, the Koch machine is a tall wall to climb in this state.

Nationally, 36.4 percent of eligible voters turned out in 2014.At those same midterm elections, 42.8 percent of eligible voters turned out in Kansas. Brownback won very narrowly over Paul Davis with more than half the voters staying at home. (Now Brownback, who blasted Davis’s tax plan during the election, came up with something very very close to it. Hypocrisy and cowardice, anyone?) I live in Kansas City (just a few blocks from the state line), so I can laugh at both Kansas and Missouri politics with a clear conscience. (Problem is, at election time my TV is filled with idiotic commercials from politicians in both states……..)

If you can have a list of felonies ready to slap on someone believed to be a Liberal, and the judges lined up to convict them, you are well on the way to getting the voting participation you want.In many states, felony conviction means you can’t vote – ever.Case in point, Prohibition II (dread marijuana) and the CIA’s push to addict the Black community (nationwide) on crack cocaine.To a politician, everything is politics.

Funny, how righties forget about the trillions of dollars wasted on the Iraq war. Thousands of lives wasted. Money that could have been spent on our own crumbling infrastructure and jobs.

A real education pays for itself over and over over a lifetime..The amazing thing is how many finish college unable to think for themselves — people of many ilks.

Irony of the strip is about tax breaks for the rich (for which I certainly am not). Yet Mr. Trudeau undoubtedly is living quite well – certain that his net worth is far higher than mine shall ever be. “Love” these liberals.

Brownback wanted to Kansas a shining example of “Supply Side” Economics. The Tea Party was so damn ready to follow Sam off the cliff…which they did. One more time Republicans…Trickle Down DOES NOT WORK. Never has….never will. Tom – I’m so sorry about Walker has done. Wisconsin so bakly hurt it a shame that great state elected a dofus like Walker.

Rich or poor, we all the right to our political beliefs. I am much more baffled by the poor folks who vote Republican than the rich ones who vote Democratic. If you are rich, chances are you will be able to manage no matter who is in office, Democrat or Republican. Stakes are always much higher for those who are poor.

Yet, the rich always moan the loudest and the longest. Also, the rich are always in favor of government freebies for themselves.

Common Core strikes again

I am tom

Funny,I had plentiful work and my money was worth more with Reagan supply side economics. Revenues into the treasury went up and taxes down.You must have been living elsewhere.