Pelosi characterized the Republican view as, “‘We prefer tax subsidies for big oil rather than the health of America’s women.'”
Two years ago I went to the University of Oregon campus and tied a proclamation around an old oak tree. This was before Occupy Wall Street, and Occupy Eugene. I rang a bell, and tried to get students to sing a proclamation that read:
On this day………..I grant………Patriotic Permission to help liberate assets disloyal Americans have hidden on the Cayman Islands, so that this Loyal American, can help pay for their college tuition, and the tuition of millions of Freedom Loving Students!
John Presco
Great Grandson of Real Patriots
A year ago I returned to this campus dressed as Uncle Samaclaus, who takes from the rich, and gives to the poor, with the help of his sidekick Robbing (Robby) claus, who is a gre-gre doll that cast curses on the rich which is a Biblical tradition.
Above are two photos of me at the second Occupy Eugene meeting where I tried to get folks interested in occupying the old Post Office and saving it, and all Post Offices, from being shut down as part of the plan of Evangelical Republicans to shut down our Government. Why would they want to do that, you may ask? Because, these freaks are a bunch of nobodies trying to draw attention to their Doomsday Jesus they have painted themselves in a corner with – and some great nation has to be brought – low!
I have failed to get any of my Liberal friends to believe this is a real agenda, and, that it is even possible, because, they are agnostics who don’t want to believe any religion could have that much power. so, they ignore ME – a True Prophet – along with the true nuts!
The Occupy Eugene Campers ignored me, because most of them were poor and needed a place to live. Radicals turn over their power to Tea Party Christians because they set their sights – REAL LOW – while their opponent shoots for the moon – because their loons!
Meanwhile, Noble Oil has gone Swiss, and is about to start drilling in the Gulf, after they tricked people into believing they got rid of the British Drillers, and Oil Tycoons are Loyal Americans. Billions of dollars will go into Swiss Bank accounts – and not go to educating young Americans so WE can compete in the world job market.
I hereby give Patriotic Permission to American Students to ignore, and disassociate themselves with all Occupy movements, and go for a real brass ring – the real gold Real Traitors have socked away in a foreign land! America stands to lose millions of jobs to foreigners because they are better educated. This is a real attack on our True American Values by stupid religious addicts who believe Jesus petted dinosaurs!
Another campaign I tried to launch at the Eugene Post Office, was to mail a bag of rice, or, a can of corn, to the most selfish elected law maker so that he or she would have to play the role of Santa Claus to the Poor when they are forced to give away a mountain of food. Make Congressman Ryan ‘Jesus For A Day’ when he feeds the multitude – for free! I mean, you don’t think he would sell this food – and give cash to the rich?
“It’s a miracle – on Wall Street!”
Jon Presco
Uncle Samaclaus
Only Uncle Samaclaus can stop the world from ending – for free! I will give away my Anti-Doomsday remedy – for free!
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press – 23 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House threatened a veto Friday of a Republican bill keeping the interest rates on federal student loans from doubling this summer, objecting that the measure would finance its $5.9 billion cost by abolishing a health care program.
The veto threat came as GOP leaders began pushing the legislation toward passage Friday in the House. The warning escalated the election-year clash over a measure that has evolved from a dispute over helping millions of students into a broader proxy battle between the two parties over how to best help families cope with the weak job market and ailing economy.
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — A Senate bill passed this week to rescue the indebted U.S. Postal Service is drawing fire from key agency officials and House Republican leaders.
And it’s looking increasingly unlikely that the House and Senate will agree on a plan to save the Postal Service by May 15, when a moratorium on closing postal processing plants expires.
The GOP bill would repeal a preventive care program created under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law of 2010. Picking up on a theme that House Democrats have been sounding this week, the White House said that “women in particular” benefit from the program — a message that reflects the Democratic effort to woo women voters by accusing Republicans of waging a war on them.
“This is a politically motivated proposal and not the serious response that the problem facing America’s college students deserves,” said the White House message. It said Obama’s advisers would urge him to veto the bill.
Republicans have called the prevention program a “slush fund,” saying the money is not controlled tightly enough.
“The president is so desperate to fake a fight that he’s willing to veto a bill to help students over a slush fund that he advocated cutting in his own budget. It’s a simple as this: Republicans are acting to help college students and the president is now getting in the way,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Republicans noted that many Democrats had voted earlier this year to take money from the preventive health fund to help pay to keep doctors’ Medicare reimbursements from dropping. Obama’s own budget in February proposed cutting $4 billion from the same fund to pay for some of his priorities.
The House bill would keep interest rates for subsidized Stafford loans at 3.4 percent, instead of letting them rise to 6.8 percent on July 1 without any congressional action.
Even if the House bill passes as expected, it seems certain to go nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats have a bill of their own extending the lower interest rate and paid for by boosting payroll taxes paid by high-earning owners of some private firms. Republicans oppose it.
Friday’s vote comes with congressional Republicans and Democrats, as well as Obama and his near-certain GOP opponent this fall, Mitt Romney, competing at every turn over who has the best prescription to wring jobs out of the still-struggling economy. The student loan battle fits nicely into that theme, with 7.4 million low- and middle-income students and their parents reliant on Stafford loans and a college education symbolizing the ticket to economic success.
The vote also follows days of campaign-style road trips that Obama used to get in front of the issue and portray Republicans as foot-draggers on it. The week began with Romney saying he favored keeping loan rates low, remarks he hopes will prevent Obama from making the matter a campaign fight but may have helped prod congressional Republicans into action.
On Thursday, Boehner tried putting the focus on Obama’s travel this week to three college campuses, where the president used rousing rallies to talk up his student loan effort. Boehner called the college visits “political stunts and, frankly, they aren’t worth it and worthy of his office.” He said Obama should repay taxpayers for the use of Air Force One for the trip.
White House spokesman Jay Carney defended the travel, saying it helped win over Republicans.
“This is official business. And he did it effectively,” Carney said.
Democrats noted that Republicans previously had questioned the wisdom of keeping students’ interest rates low. They also accused Republicans of reversing themselves, after voting earlier this month for a 2013 federal budget that let Stafford loan rates double as scheduled.
For House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the emphasis was the GOP’s cuts in the preventive health program, whose initiatives she said include breast cancer screening and children’s immunizations. She contrasted that with a Democratic bill extending the low student rates by cutting subsidies to oil and natural gas companies, which is opposed by the GOP.
Pelosi characterized the Republican view as, “‘We prefer tax subsidies for big oil rather than the health of America’s women.'”
The higher interest rates, if triggered, would affect the 7.4 million undergraduates expected to borrow new Stafford loans beginning July 1. This year, 8 million students took out such loans, averaging $3,568, according to the Education Department.
Despite the partisan battle lines, it seemed possible that some members of both parties would defect from their leaders’ positions.
Heritage Action for America, a conservative group, was lobbying Republicans to oppose the GOP bill and let interest rates rise, saying to do otherwise would burden taxpayers. Several conservative GOP lawmakers said Thursday they hadn’t decided how to vote.
On the Democratic side, party leaders were pressuring their rank-and-file to oppose the Republican measure. Some Democrats were eager to vote to keep student loan rates low, though it meant accepting GOP health care cuts.
Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., said some Democrats “may feel upon reflection that they’ve got to swallow hard but swallow” those health care reductions. He said he hadn’t decided how to vote.
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — A Senate bill passed this week to rescue the indebted U.S. Postal Service is drawing fire from key agency officials and House Republican leaders.
And it’s looking increasingly unlikely that the House and Senate will agree on a plan to save the Postal Service by May 15, when a moratorium on closing postal processing plants expires.
PrintComment
The Postal Service Board of Governors, the panel that runs the service, issued a statement late Wednesday, saying the Senate bill “falls short” and “would not enable the Postal Service to return to financial viability.” The Senate bill passed Wednesday night.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who has authored a House plan to save the Postal Service, called the Senate bill “wholly unacceptable.”
Aides say Republican leaders don’t feel pressured to take up the House bill right away, because they’re not worried about postal closures. In fact, the House legislation paves the way for more closures, as well as the end of Saturday service.
The House bill also breaks union contracts, making it easier to lay off postal employees or force those eligible to retire.
Plan to fix Postal Service passes Senate
Without congressional help, the Postal Service will pursue its own plans to cut Saturday service, delay mail delivery and close hundreds of postal processing plants and post offices, triggering thousands of job cuts nationwide.
The recession, declining mail volume and a congressional mandate to prefund retirement health care benefits have put the service in a bind. It reported a $5.1 billion loss for the year ended Sept. 30.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the Senate bill doesn’t move fast enough to address cost reduction goals. But at a hearing last month, he said likes “practically everything” in the House bill.
One of the things that Postal Service chiefs and House Republicans don’t like in the Senate bill are all the extra roadblocks that would prevent the closing of postal plants and offices. They also don’t like how senators delayed the elimination of Saturday mail service by at least two years.
The House bill would give the Postal Service two years to make drastic cuts to plants, offices and Saturday service. If the cuts don’t take, the House bill sets up an independent panel that would supplant the U.S. Postal Service board and make the cuts.
Rosamond Press 