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U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks during a retirement ceremony at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland March 28, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan Smialowski/Pool
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has sent America’s top general in Europe back early from a trip to Washington in what a spokesman on Sunday called a prudent step given Russia’s “lack of transparency” about troop movements across the border with Ukraine.
General Philip Breedlove, who is both NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the head of the U.S. military’s European Command, had been due to testify before Congress this week. Instead, he arrived in Europe Saturday evening and will be consulting with allies.
“(Hagel) considered Breedlove’s early return the prudent thing to do, given the lack of transparency and intent from Russian leadership about their military movements across the border,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters, which was first to report the decision.
“More broadly, he felt it was important for Gen. Breedlove to continue our efforts to consult with NATO allies, and to discuss specific ways to provide additional reassurance for our NATO allies in Eastern Europe.”
U.S. officials, speaking last week on condition of anonymity, expressed deep concern about the massing of what they estimate are up to 40,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s border. That is stoking concerns in Washington and elsewhere that Russia is preparing a wider incursion into Ukraine after its annexation of Crimea.
The United States and EU have meted out two rounds of sanctions on Russia, including visa bans and asset freezes for some of Putin’s inner circle, to punish Moscow, and they have threatened further actions.
The U.S. military has also taken steps to reassure NATO allies, increasing the number of U.S. aircraft in regular NATO air patrols over the Baltics and beefing up a previously planned training exercise with the Polish air force. More steps are being considered.
Breedlove will meet with NATO foreign ministers at their April 1-2 conference in Brussels.
“The general’s return will allow him more time to confer closely with his staff and our allies and partners, and to better advise senior leaders,” Kirby said.
Hagel made the decision to send Breedlove back to Europe on Friday night, he said.
Breedlove arrived in Stuttgart on Saturday evening. He had been scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee April 1 and the House Armed Services Committee on April 2.
“Congressional leaders were notified of Hagel’s decision,” Kirby said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation to temporarily avert looming pay cuts for doctors under the government’s Medicare health insurance program for older Americans and the disabled.
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In what appeared to be an editing error, a Fox affiliate in Oklahoma managed to remove the only mention of evolution from Sunday night’s Cosmos science documentary by cutting only 15 seconds from the broadcast.
The much-anticipated reboot of Carl Sagan’s legendary Cosmos premiered on Sunday with an overview of the history of the Universe, from the Big Bang to the advent of humans.
It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the show that host Neil deGrasse Tyson hinted at human evolution.
“We are newcomers to the Cosmos,” he explained. “Our own story only begins on the last night of the cosmic year.”
“Three and a half million years ago, our ancestors — your and mine left these traces,” Tyson said, pointing to footprints. “We stood up and parted ways from them. Once we were standing on two feet, our eyes were no longer fixated on the ground. Now, we were free to look up and wonder.”
But for viewers of KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City, that 15 second paragraph was replaced by an awkwardly-inserted commercial for the evening news. The edit was caught on video and uploaded to YouTube by Adam Bates.
At least one of the segments advertised in the news promo — a story about a 12-year-old bow hunter — did air on that evening’s newscast.
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FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2014 file photo, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon. A U.S. official says that as part of the proposed 2015 defense budget, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel is recommending shrinking the Army to its smallest size in decades. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2014 file photo, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon. A U.S. official says that as part of the proposed 2015 defense budget, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel is recommending shrinking the Army to its smallest size in decades. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday proposed shrinking the Army to its smallest size in 74 years, closing military bases and making other military-wide savings as part of a broad reshaping after more than a decade of war.
Hagel outlined his vision in a speech at the Pentagon, a week before President Barack Obama is to submit his 2015 budget plan to Congress.
Hagel said that U.S. forces must adjust to the reality of smaller budgets, even as he asserted that the United States faces a more volatile, more unpredictable world that requires a more nimble military.
“We are repositioning to focus on the strategic challenges and opportunities that will define our future: new technologies, new centers of power and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable and in some instances more threatening to the United States,” he said.
Under the Hagel plan, which Congress could change, the active-duty Army would shrink from its current 522,000 soldiers to between 440,000 and 450,000. That would make it the smallest since just before the U.S. entered World War II.
Hagel said Obama’s budget proposal will include a government-wide “Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative” that would provide the Pentagon with $ 26 billion on top of the $ 496 billion it is due to receive in 2015 under terms of the budget deal passed by the Congress two months ago.
Among the bolder moves in Hagel’s proposal is the elimination of the Air Force’s fleet of A-10 aircraft as well as its venerable U-2 spy planes, as well as reductions in the size of the Army National Guard. Those moves are expected to draw some opposition in Congress.
Hagel said the administration will propose a new round of domestic military base closings in 2017, while noting that Congress has rejected such requests in recent years.
Army leaders have been saying for months that they expect their service to shrink as the nation prepares to end its combat role in Afghanistan this year.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said recently that whatever the future size of the Army, it must adapt to conditions that are different from what many soldiers have become accustomed to during more than a decade of war. He said many have the misperception that the Army is no longer busy.
“People tend to think that the Army is out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is not much going on,” he said Jan. 23 at an Army forum. “The Army is not standing still. The Army is doing many, many, many things in order for us to shape the future environment and prevent conflict around the world.”
The last time the active-duty Army was below 500,000 was in 2005, when it stood at 492,000. Its post-World War II low was 480,000 in 2001, according to historical tables provided by the Army on Monday. In 1940 the Army had 267,000 active-duty members, and it surged to 1.46 million the following year as the U.S. approached entry into World War II.
Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday that Hagel consulted closely with the military service chiefs on how to balance defense and budget-saving requirements.
“He has worked hard with the services to ensure that we continue to stand for the defense of our national interests — that whatever budget priorities we establish, we do so in keeping with our defense strategy and with a strong commitment to the men and women in uniform and to their families, Kirby said.
“But he has also said that we have to face the realities of our time. We must be pragmatic. We can’t escape tough choices. He and the chiefs are willing to make those choices,” Kirby said.
Job cuts at the Environment Agency have been put on hold while it deals with the floods crisis in England.
The quango said it still intended to press ahead with long-term plans to cut its workforce by about 1,550.
But it said discussions with staff who might be affected would be delayed until “current flooding has subsided”.
Labour has claimed the jobs of 550 flooding specialists are at risk from the shake-up but the Agency said this was not currently being considered.
The Agency has been criticised for its performance in recent weeks and for its past policy on river dredging in Somerset, one of the worst-affected areas.
But its chairman Lord Smith, whose own position has come under pressure, has praised the dedication and professionalism of its frontline staff, many of whom have been working non-stop since the start of December.
The Agency, which has an annual budget of £1.2bn, announced plans last year to reduce staff numbers from 11,250 to about 9,700 in response to a cut in the amount of money it gets from central government.
‘Change programme’
It has never specified which departments would be affected and it has now confirmed that it has postponed a consultation on potential redundancies until the current crisis is over.
We will not be entering a formal consultation with staff until the current flooding has subsided”
End Quote Toby Willison Environment Agency
“We are prioritising incident response above all other work,” said its programme director Toby Willison.
“With this in mind, we are reviewing the timetable for the Environment Agency’s change programme and will not be entering a formal consultation with staff until the current flooding has subsided.
“Once we move out of incident response mode, we will refocus our efforts to continue to bring Environment Agency costs in line with our budget from government for 2014-15.”
Labour leader Ed Miliband highlighted job cuts at the Agency during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, urging the government to reconsider what he said was the threat to 550 flood specialists’ jobs.
The BBC’s political correspondent Alex Forsyth said the 550 figure may have come from an internal exercise into future changes but it had never been confirmed and the organisation said it was not being considered.
The Agency insisted that any future reductions in staff would not affect “its ability to respond to flooding incidents”, adding that it would minimise the impact on other frontline services as well.
‘Stay of execution’
Speaking before the Agency’s announcement, David Cameron said the reported job cuts had never been confirmed.
“Those aren’t plans that are going to be put in place,” he said. “Of course every organisation has to make sure it is efficient – but nothing will be done at the Environment Agency that will hamper our flood relief effort.”
Labour welcomed what it said was Mr Cameron’s “changed position” on frontline flood staff, opposition leader Ed Miliband tweeting: “We’ll make sure he keeps his promise not to sack them.”
But unions and environment campaigners warned that this could not just be a “stay of execution”.
“While the Environment Agency has put consultation on redundancies on hold this statement makes clear that they will press on with redundancies after the floods have receded,” the GMB’s Justin Bowden said.
“This is ludicrous. Has government learned nothing from the current floods?
“At the root of the current flooding crisis are successive years of central government cuts that have trimmed maintenance budgets to unsustainable levels.”
The Environment Agency has admitted it did not have enough specialist staff to deal with the flooding caused by the unprecedented rainfall since December and it has had to take staff off other duties to reinforce relief efforts.
Asian markets declined after the Fed announced a pullback on its bond-buying program, the second time in six weeks. The WSJ’s Deborah Kan speaks with Jake Lee about the ripple effect it has had on global markets.
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More than 14 million people are enrolled in the private Medicare Advantage plans. | AP Photo
This time around, the insurance industry isn’t even waiting for the Obama administration to threaten cuts to private Medicare plans: It’s launching a peremptory strike.
America’s Health Insurance Plans will announce Tuesday an all-out advertising campaign. “Seniors are Watching” is the group’s biggest ad mobilization for Medicare Advantage, a spokesman said, in advance of an annual notice that sets the plans’ payment rates for the upcoming year.
The ads will appear in Washington-area buses next week, and the campaign will expand to include TV, print and digital promotions, as well as grass-roots mobilization of the Coalition for MedicareChoices, an advocacy group that AHIP says includes 1.5 million seniors — who are “ready to defend the Medicare Advantage coverage they like and want to keep,” according to one aggressive ad.
AHIP says the campaign is well-financed but declined to specify how much money is behind it.
The blitz follows a successful campaign last year to reverse a proposed 2.3 percent cut by CMS. Every February, the agency releases a notice of proposed pay rates for Medicare Advantage plans for the following fiscal year. The estimate is supposed to be based largely on expected health care costs, which of late have been growing at a historically slow rate.
For the past decade the calculation has assumed that a draconian cut to physician payments, called for by the sustainable growth rate formula, would take effect and reduce those expected costs — when in fact Congress has reversed the physician cuts each year. A bill moving through Congress would permanently repeal the flawed formula.
The pressure brought to bear by the industry in 2013, which included advertising in New York, Pennsylvania and Louisiana and letters from at least 160 supportive lawmakers, forced CMS to reverse its standard assumption. Instead of a 2.3 percent cut, the plans saw a 3.3 percent increase.
This year could be different, however. Because of the way the calculations are made, low-ball estimates of spending one year because of the SGR typically leads to offsetting higher payments the following year. If CMS follows the same methodology this year, the private Medicare plans would not receive that compensation.
The 2013 adjustment “just moved up when the plans got the extra bump,” said Edwin Park, a Medicare expert at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The campaign comes as Medicare Advantage faces a host of payment reductions and fees under the Affordable Care Act, as well as cuts from the budget sequester.
“This is just setting the stage so that when the 2015 announcement comes out, AHIP will try to argue that these are new cuts,” Park said. “But there are no new cuts.”
More than 14 million people are enrolled in the private Medicare Advantage plans — about one-fourth of the total in the federal health care program for seniors. On average, the government spends more per person on Medicare Advantage than on Medicare, in part because the private plans offer additional benefits.
Certain ACA provisions were designed to bring the private Medicare payments in line with the traditional program. But the insurance industry hopes that the plans’ popularity with seniors will convince CMS to avoid proposing any cut next month, saying that plan choices and benefits could be limited as a result.
“If CMS doesn’t keep Medicare Advantage payment rates flat next year, it is going to create a huge political problem for members of Congress this fall when they have to face millions of angry seniors who just found out they are losing benefits and choices they were promised they could keep,” said an insurance industry source familiar with the campaign.
On November 21, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, unveiled adiscussion draft of tax reform legislation that focuses on cost recovery and accounting rules as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code. This draft package includes the elimination of some longstanding tax breaks for Big Oil companies. The discussion draft proposes to eliminate as much as an estimated $ 46 billion in unnecessary tax breaks for hugely profitable Big Oil companies over the next decade.
The White House just announced that Sen. Baucus will be nominated to become the next U.S. ambassador to China. If he is confirmed, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is expected to replace Sen. Baucus as chair of the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Wyden introduced legislation in previous Congresses that would have eliminated several big oil tax breaks. As chair, Sen. Wyden would have an opportunity to build on Sen. Baucus’s proposal to make the tax code fairer by proposing to repeal additional special oil tax breaks, as proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).
BBC weather forecaster Peter Gibbs has the forecast for the Christmas period
Travellers have voiced anger and frustration after flooding at a Gatwick Airport power station led to cancelled flights and ruined Christmas plans.
Passengers left stranded at the airport have described scenes of “absolute confusion” and “heartbroken” families.
Thousands of homes, mostly in southern England, are facing Christmas morning without power after stormy weather lashed the UK.
And residents in Surrey and Kent are facing serious flood warnings.
The River Mole in Surrey has burst its banks in several areas.
There is an Environment Agency severe flood warning – which means a danger to life – at the Mole at Leatherhead, with already high levels of water expected to peak around midnight.
A “multi-agency response” to flooding is also taking place in Godalming on the River Wey.
The Environment Agency said the River Medway in Kent had continued to rise and flood risks would continue for three days.
Steve Wood said the flood waters had reached houses on the High Street in Tonbridge, Kent
Kent Police said the river had flooded areas from Tonbridge to Allington, with Mereworth and Yalding badly affected.
Emergency services have started evacuating people from their homes in Tonbridge.
Surrey Fire and Rescue tweeted just before 22:00 GMT to say “many rescues” were being made due to the floods.
Anne Coleman and her 83-year-old husband from the village of Brenchley in Kent have been without power for 24 hours.
“The freezer was absolutely full,” she said. “But now it’s full of soggy food.”
They had been preparing to host parties for friends and family.
Now, Mrs Coleman said, she was not sure what they were going to do.
They have no means to cook food and one wood burner to heat the house.
“People have been very helpful and kind, but most of our neighbours are away or hosting big family parties.”
She said that while she understood these incidents can happen, “there was no suggestion the power would be off this long”.
UK Power Networks supplies power to the area. It said it is aiming to have everyone switched on by the end of Boxing Day.
The power cut at Gatwick’s north terminal was caused by flooding on the Mole which affected airfield substations and saw more than 30 flights cancelled.
All departures, apart from British Airways, were switched to the South terminal.
Around 90 flights are due to leave Gatwick on Christmas Day – including some services rescheduled from Tuesday – and no delays are anticipated, although passengers are advised to check with their airlines before setting off for the airport.
Gatwick said: “Due to adverse weather in the last 48 hours there are still power outages in parts of our North Terminal. These are causing delays to departing flights and our engineers are on site rectifying this.”
It added that all flights would continue to be operated through the South Terminal except for British Airways.
I am appalled and disgusted that no one came even admit to fault. It has only angered people more. ”
End Quote Jamie Whiteford
Joe Pattinson, 35, from Wokingham in Surrey, had been due to fly from Gatwick to Barcelona but has ended up returning home.
“It was absolute confusion,” he said.
“We’d been waiting for three hours in the queue. There was no information and we couldn’t find anyone to explain what we should be doing. Eventually three armed police turned up to try and calm people down.
“Lots of people were getting angry and shouting, they were booing the police and arguing with each other.”
Jamie Whiteford arrived at Gatwick at 05:30 on Christmas Eve and spent more than 12 hours waiting at the airport for his flight to Edinburgh to depart before it was eventually cancelled.
“Flights around us began to cancel despite being told they were waiting on the buses to transport them and the aircraft were ready.
“Eventually all were cancelled and this caused angry scenes at a flight to Naples which involved a police presence and very confused and untrained staff.
“As I work in the very top end of customer service in central London, I am appalled and disgusted that no one came even admit to fault. It has only angered people more. The faces on families is heartbreaking.”
‘Restaurant appeal’
The Energy Networks Association said about 75,000 homes were still without power across the UK after “notable collisions” along power lines during the stormy weather.
Power supplier Southern Electric said 44,000 of its customers remained without power.
It said about 19,500 of its customers, most of them in South Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex, could be without power overnight.
Engineers will restart work on Christmas Day, a spokesperson for the company said.
UK Power Networks, which supplies power to eight million people in the south of England, said it was aiming to restore power to everyone by the end of Boxing Day. Those whose power is not on by midnight should make contingency plans, it said.
It said it had “appealed to restaurants and pubs in areas still affected by the storm, to let us know if they have any availability to accommodate our customers should they still be without power from the storm tomorrow”.
In Devon, a man died after jumping into the River Lemon to rescue his dog.
Witnesses saw the 46-year-old enter the river before being swept away, police said, and he later died in hospital. The dog escaped unharmed.
Footage of flooding around the UK
Meanwhile, about 800 homes in the north of Scotland are still without power, mainly around the Deeside area, Buchan, Elgin, Wick and the Western Isles.
Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution said about 400 of its staff are working to reconnect the properties this evening.
Winds gusting up to 80 mph causing disruption to Christmas travel in Scotland, with the Northern and Western Isles hit by ferry and flight cancellations.
There has been heavy rain in Northern Ireland, while winds in Wales have reached 78mph in Pembrey and 77mph in Aberdaron.
A post mortem examination has been carried out on a woman whose body was recovered from a fast-flowing stream in heavy rain in Gwynedd on Monday.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet ferry crossings. ferry said it would take the unusual step of operating a Christmas Day sailing following cancellations during the day.
More than 10 flood warnings remain in place across mainland Scotland, with high tide being accompanied by heavy rainfall, but the number is beginning to fall.
BBC Radio Cumbria are reporting that more than 1,000 homes are without electricity in the county. Electricity North West says there is a problem with overhead lines, probably caused by strong winds.
There has been widespread disruption to train services because of the weather with Southern, South West, East Coast, First Capital Connect, Virgin Trains, Arriva Trains Wales and East Coast running amended services.
Robin Gisby, managing director of network operations at Network Rail, said engineers had cleared scores of line blockages and over 200 trees since the stormy weather moved into the UK from the Atlantic during Monday.
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Establishment Republicans are almost indistinguishable from their Democrat counterparts. They want to continue the swindle and tax the American people into oblivion. Democrats want to cut the military, or some of them do at least, and Republicans want to cut Medicare and Medicaid.
House Speaker John Boehner, the Ohio Republican, is upset with the largely ineffectual tea party faction in the House. It’s time to get back to business as usual, he says.
This article was posted: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at 2:54 pm
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U.S. Republicans to keep cuts if budget talks fail -Boehner http://currenteconomictrendsandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/2c34e__p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif
WASHINGTONThu Nov 21, 2013 12:11pm EST
WASHINGTON Nov 21 (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday he hopes budget talks can lead to a fiscal 2014 spending plan, but if they fail Republicans intend to pursue a stop-gap measure that keeps automatic “sequester” spending cuts in place.
If the talks fail to provide government funding ahead of a Jan. 15 deadline, Boehner said he hopes the House is prepared to pass a temporary spending bill at levels set by the Budget Control Act, which specifies a $ 967 billion discretionary spending level after the automatic cuts start in January.
Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy in a televised debate.
Before Nov. 22, 1963, Abraham Zapruder was an ordinary citizen of Dallas: a 58-year-old prosperous manufacturer of women’s clothing who had arrived in the city from Russia by way of Brooklyn. If that day had unfolded differently, that is most likely what he would have remained. But like a small but growing number of Americans at the time, he was also a home-movie hobbyist. With his receptionist, Marilyn Sitzman, as location scout and technical support, Zapruder took his 414PD Director Series Bell and Howell 8-millimeter camera to a spot on Elm Street, not far from his office, hoping to film the presidential motorcade as it drove past.
Bob Jackson/Dallas Times-Herald, via Associated Press
The assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.
The 26.6 seconds of footage he captured — 486 frames, without sound — inscribed Zapruder’s name in the official history and popular folklore of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Its images, blurry yet vivid, in color when almost all television and a great many movies were still in black and white, form part of what we know or think we know about what happened at Dealey Plaza. On the Web, you can find seemingly infinite versions: in slow motion, with musical accompaniment, with or without Kevin Costner’s explanation and Oliver Stone’s enhancements in “JFK.” And you can encounter an equal number of arguments about what those silent, shaky frames mean: that Oswald acted alone; that other shooters were present; that a conspiracy came to fruition in plain sight; that the truth will never be known.
The distance between 1963 and now can be measured by the fact that so few cameras were on the scene then. In retrospect, Zapruder can be seen — and is frequently cited — as a pioneer of citizen journalism, a resourceful amateur who caught something crucial that the professional news media somehow missed. Now, everyone with a smartphone is a potential Zapruder.
But while the Zapruder film holds an important place in the evolution of media — perceptively examined by Alex Pasternack in an article on Vice’s Motherboard site this year — it also belongs to the story of cinema. What Zapruder made, after all, was not a Vine or a YouTube post, but a film. This is partly a technical distinction, a matter of photochemical processes and separable frames as opposed to bits of digital information. For a dozen years after it was shot, the film was unseen by the public, an almost unthinkable fate now. But these material, technological facts are inseparable from the film’s meaning, which remains a singularly potent topic of argument.
In a 1993 interview in The Paris Review, Don DeLillo, our leading literary investigator of the epistemological shadowlands of American politics and technology, made a distinction between Kennedy’s assassination, which was captured on film, and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, which happened in front of television cameras. As a result, “Oswald’s death became instantly repeatable,” he said. “It belonged to everyone. The Zapruder film, the film of Kennedy’s death, was sold and hoarded and doled out very selectively. It was exclusive footage.”
The near-simultaneity of these two events, and the different ways that the moving pictures were made and distributed, reveal late November 1963 as one of those moments when the coordinates of history become visible. The televised shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby was a harbinger of the future — a future that would include the moon landing, the Rodney King beating, the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle and the second plane striking the World Trade Center. Television, as Mr. DeLillo understood it, was a medium of instantaneous transmission and endless reiteration, a template (though this was not clear at the time) for the digital world we now inhabit.
Kennedy was a youthful agent and symbol of the emerging video future, telegenic before that word was widely used. His televised debates with Richard M. Nixon showed his mastery of a medium not yet central to the politician’s repertory, and he nimbly used it during his presidency to address the nation in times of crisis. But he also belonged, less obviously but perhaps more decisively, to the world of film. In 1963, film was both more established, and more prestigious; it was an ascendant cultural force. To Mr. DeLillo, there was “something inevitable about the Zapruder film. It had to happen this way. The moment belongs to the 20th century, which means it had to be captured on film.”
The four major network Sunday news programs failed to report on the newly enacted decrease in food stamp benefits, which affects more than 47 million Americans.
On November 1, USDA reported that “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients will see their monthly benefits decrease” after the expiration of benefit increases enacted in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA). But Fox News Sunday, NBC’s Meet The Press, ABC’s This Week, and CBS’ Face the Nation all failed to bring up the issue on the November 3 editions of their respective shows.
Writing at Salon, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explained: ”As of November 1 more than 47 million Americans have lost some or all of their food stamp benefits.” He added that “Half of all children get food stamps at some point during their childhood.” CBS News reported that the SNAP benefit cuts would shrink benefits for a family of four by as much as ”$ 432 over the course of a year.” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) highlighted how SNAP benefit cuts would affect hundreds of thousands of veterans:
Many veterans returning from service face challenges in finding work. While the overall unemployment rate for veterans is lower than the national average, the unemployment rate for recent veterans (serving in September 2001 to the present) remains high, at 10.1 percent in September 2013. About one-quarter of recent veterans reported service-connected disabilities in 2011, which can impact their ability to provide for their families: households with a veteran with a disability that prevents them from working are about twice as likely to lack access to adequate food than households without a disabled member.
Veterans who participate in SNAP tend to be young, but their ages range widely: 57 percent of the veterans in our analysis are under age 30, while 9 percent are aged 60 or older. They served during many conflicts, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Vietnam, and in some cases, Korea and World War II, as well as in peacetime.
The media continues to ignore food stamp cuts that affect millions of Americans and negatively impact the economy.
No more cuts – the public is fed up. Democrats won the shutdown fight. Republicans lost and the public-at-large hates them and their ideas. There is no reason for Democrats to play on their playing field. Here is a guiding message Democrats should use from here on out: Jobs help the economy. Cuts hurt the economy. Don’t even talk about any more cuts.
Jobs
Jobs help the economy. Later this morning (8:30 a.m.) we will finally see the delayed September jobs report. Unless there is a miracle and there is a sudden very strong boost in job growth, it will show what previous reports have shown. It will underscore the folly of austerity policies and the urgency of government policies that create jobs.
By the way, the Alliance for American Manufacturing wants YOUR jobs report. They will post it and tweet it out. Send it to info [at] aamfg [dot] org or tweet it to @KeepItMadeinUSA.
Democrats Won
Here are some things to keep in mind. Democrats won the election. Republicans lost the election. Even the House, Democrats got more votes. Yes, there are more Republicans in the House because of gerrymandering, but even in the House Democrats (like Al Gore in 2000) won the most votes. Democrats won, and Democrats should start understanding and believing that and acting like they won. They have a responsibility to the country to use their power to deliver what the public voted for.
What Public Wants
But wait, there’s more. Public opinion polls show that the public supports Democratic and progressive positions on almost every issue. So there is no reason for Democrats to play on the Republican playing field of cuts and cuts.
The public wants Social Security protected and even expanded. The last thing Democrats should be talking about is any kind of cut, especially since much of any future shortfall is caused by the way income gains increasingly go to the already-wealthy (whose earned income is well above the “cap” on taxes sent to the Social Security trust fund). I mean, income inequality causes the shortfall, so therefore the victims of that inequality are supposed to take the hit? Really? And with 74 percent opposing, would any politician with a brain even talk about “chained CPI?”
There are so many more issues where the public solidly lines up with Progressive or at least Democratic positions. But in every instance the public has been and is being thwarted by the ongoing obstruction of Republican filibusters in the Senate and by House rules that prevent votes on bills that would be passed by majorities that include Democrats.
Talk About Jobs, Not Cuts
Regular people out in the country expect Democrats to go into the next round of budget negotiations and next year’s legislative sessions to get jobs and economic growth. Don’t even talk about cuts. Don’t even talk about cuts. Don’t even talk about cuts. No one is going to understand why Democrats would even talk about more cuts, when the country needs to get out of the recession. (If 95 percent of all gains since the “recovery” started go to the top few percent of wealthy, it is fair to say that the rest of the country is still in a recession, right?)
So the public is fed up. The economy is suffering from previous rounds of budget cuts and especially from the “sequester.” It is time to get the economy moving, instead of cuts taking money out of the economy.
Here is what people want: Jobs. Infrastructure. Higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. City transit. Environmental protection. Bank regulations. Jobs. Stop the incentives to move jobs and profit centers out of the country. Fund the Post Office. Rebuild our cities. High-speed rail. Wind and solar energy. Jobs. This list could go on for a very long time. Jobs.
Obama for the first time in his Wednesday press conference went on record in supporting a short-term increase in the debt ceiling, saying, “If they can’t do it for a long time, do it for the period of time in which these negotiations are taking place.”
As the October 17 deadline for raising the US government’s borrowing limit approaches, both sides are zeroing in on their real goals: a “Grand Bargain” to make sweeping cuts to social programs, while lowering corporate taxes.
Obama reiterated that the Democrat-controlled Senate has already passed a budget at funding levels demanded by Republicans, and that “we’re willing to have conversations about anything.” He added, “I will sit down and work with anyone of any party, not only to talk about the budget; I’ll talk about ways to improve the health care system … I’ll talk about ways that we can shrink our long-term deficits.” This is Washington-speak for cutting social programs.
Obama added, “If anybody doubts my sincerity about that, I’ve put forward proposals in my budget to reform entitlement programs for the long haul and reform our tax code in a way that would … lower rates for corporations.”
Leaders of both parties had been angling for such a deal during the 2011 debt ceiling crisis, but such a sweeping agreement proved elusive. Instead, the White House and Congressional Republicans approved a more limited series of cuts that largely left Social Security and Medicare intact.
Obama made a stark admission of his broader goals in the debt negotiations during the press conference, when, in response to a reporter’s question, he said, “Whenever I see John Boehner to this day, I still say, you should have taken the deal that I offered you back then, which would have dealt with our long-term deficit problems, would not have impeded growth as much, would have really boosted confidence.”
