Teapublicans are out to steal YOUR retirement insurance premiums.

Let’s call some spades, here, OK? Social Security is INSURANCE for which we are forced to pay premiums. Some of us have paid for this insurance for decades and have the right to expect that the seller will deliver the product we had no choice but to purchase. Sounds simple, yes? We pay, we should get what we pay for, like any other insurance (car, home, life) product.

But not according to “Republicans”: they are out to breach our contract and steal our money:

As one of its first orders of business upon convening Tuesday, the Republican House of Representatives approved a rule that will seriously undermine efforts to keep all of Social Security solvent.

The rule hampers an otherwise routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program. Such a reallocation, in either direction, has taken place 11 times since 1968, according to Kathy Ruffing of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The most cynical aspect of this attack is that it comes from some lawmakers who were helped by Social Security in their own lives. The roster includes Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who received Social Security benefits during his college years, after his father’s untimely death, and now thinks that the nation can’t afford to keep paying them as currently scheduled.

Another is Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), the sponsor of the House rules change, whose father died when he was 2 and then was raised by a single mother on Social Security and veterans benefits. Now he talks about Social Security going “bankrupt,” which is flatly incorrect, and promotes a measure aimed at cutting benefits for all. This is known as climbing the ladder and pulling it up behind you.

Got it, folks? The Teapubbies are doing exactly what they said they would do if elected. They are out to wreck Social Security, pocket our premiums, and throw anyone who is retired or disabled onto the streets instead of giving you the insurance benefits you paid for.

F*** those people. And if you voted for a “Republican”, f*** you too.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Facts: 1. Pundits: 0. ObamaCare is a huge success.

Though you wouldn’t know it from all the doom and gloom emanating from the wingnut whores pundits of the Right, over nine million more of the American people now have health insurance, thanks entirely to President Obama and Democrats (the GOP, you will remember, voted for none of it). From the article:

The long-awaited Rand Corp. study of Obamacare’s effect on health insurance coverage was released Tuesday and confirmed the numbers that had been telegraphed for more than a week: At least 9.3 million more Americans have health insurance now than in September 2013, virtually all of them as a result of the law.

That’s a net figure, accommodating all those who lost their individual health insurance because of cancellations. The Rand study confirms other surveys that placed the number of people who lost their old insurance and did not or could not replace it — the focus of an enormous volume of anti-Obamacare rhetoric — at less than 1 million. The Rand experts call this a “very small” number, less than 1% of the U.S. population age 18 to 64.

Rand is not some rinky-dinky outfit: they have been around for decades and are the uber-competent and impartial number-crunching outfit. They don’t give a rat’s fart about which party is in power, because they know both Repubs and Dems need them.

Compared with the idiotic, fact-challenged, hyper-partisan punditocracy, Punditocracy, there really isn’t much of a choice to be made here: facts rule, and blowhards drool.

The ACA is working, and facts prove it. Anybody who says otherwise is a liar or an idiot. Either way, they lose.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Tom Perkins: an honest motherf***er.

Yes, vulture capitalist Thomas Perkins is a motherf***er of the highest degree, one who f***s his own mother, his wife’s mother, their respective mothers, and indeed, any mothers he can lay his scummy little mitts on. Adding to that is the sense of entitlement to the mothers of the world, an outraged response to anyone who suggests that he leave all those mothers alone, and a proposal that he and others like him have laws passed reserving all American mothers for themselves alone. An honest motherf***er is he.

Mr. Perkins made an analogous proposal recently: that only taxpayers be allowed to vote, and that the richer you are, the more votes you can cast. Said it straight up and did not try to pass it off as a joke. And he has not yet walked it back as he did (partly, anyway) his comparison of people like you and me to Nazis. This is what the rich motherf***er really thinks.

And he isn’t the only one: five Supreme Court “justices” said pretty much the same thing when they imposed the Citizens United ruling on the nation. That ruling made money into speech, meaning that those with more money have a right to more speech. This is the wealthy trying to take over our government, and having some success at it.

But unlike Tommy Boy, most of the other motherf***ers don’t admit to being f***ers of mothers. They talk about “freedom”, and “unfettered capitalism” and other such buzzword-laden tripe, and pretend that their vision is not at all Orwellian. But they want the same thing he wants, make no mistake about it: a plutocracy, wherein the rich rule the rest of us.

But honest or not, he wants to f*** our mothers. And the rest of us. So f*** him.

(Next time: motherf***ers crying about being “attacked”.)

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

If you’re not buying Obamacare, stop saying you are. OK?

I have seen a fair few people (here and elsewhere) who are holding up increased employer-based health plan costs and saying that their “ACA” or “Obamacare” costs more than their “old plan. Let’s clear this up:

Number A: The only people buying “Obamacare” are those who are shopping on the exchanges.  If you’re getting any other benefits due to the ACA (lifetime caps, kids on your plan till 26, etc.) but are not buying insurance from the exchanges, you are  not buying Obamacare.

Letter 2: Most of us (80% or better) aren’t able to buy Obamacare. So blame any and all increases on your greedhead employer or scum-sucking insurance company, because that’s what you had before, and that’s what you still have.

Thirdly: If your employer cuts your health benefits and blames the ACA, ask to see their books, because they are lying. It’s not due to the ACA, it’s just them trying to line their pockets and screw you into the bargain.

Point the fourth: some states are enrolling people into Medicaid. An awesome deal, but they aren’t “buying Obamacare” either.

Obamacare AKA the ACA applies to less than 20% of all Americans. For most of them, it’s a pretty good deal. For the rest of us, it’s a few consumer protections on the plus side, and another bogeyman for our employers to blame on the minus side.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: Reince Priebus

The man must think we don’t have an Internet. “Republican” National Committee chair Reince Priebus would have you believe that he is appalled, just appalled with the notion of self-deportation, oh yes, how very appalled indeed. Click the link to see how appalled he claims to be. There is just one little problem: he signed off on the concept in the latest “Republican” party platform. Whoops.

He can call self-deportation all kinds of nasty names, but he himself blessed this plank:

“”We will create humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily, while enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas.”

That is to say, have people choose to deport themselves. Or, put another way, self-deportation.

Hey, RNC Reince: I’d be appalled to tell you to “wear s*** on your head”; so here is a Crown O’ Polished Turds for you. See, totally different, right?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: Ron Johnson

Sometimes, the bulls*** is truly epic. Ron Johnson, “Republican” Senator from the great state of Insanity, went magnificently bugf*** crazy this week at the FundieFest.

Yes, this man thinks that we should hate and fear our government. Really. He also says the Founding Fathers felt the same way.

Ya know, people who build houses rarely hate and fear houses. People who hate and fear booze rarely go into the Bourbon business. But in JohnsonLand, people who hate and fear governments build, well, governments.

Not just a liar, but crazy into the bargain. Ron Johnson, here’s your Crown O’ Polished Turds. (Sorry, we don’t have anything for nutjobs, just liars. See a doctor for the crazy. Please.)

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Pro-Life” Policies Are Killing Pregnant Women. “Republicans” Support The Same Policies and Therefore Support The Same Killings.

Here is yet another story of anti-abortion laws that are murdering pregnant women. (It has happened in Ireland, too, lest you think El Salvador is unique.)

This case is simple: woman becomes pregnant, finds out her baby will be born without most of its brain and will thus die soon after birth: also finds out that she will die if she carries that child to term; and is forced by the El Salvadoran Supreme Court to carry the child to term anyway. This “pro-life” law will kill the mother, and will also result in a dead baby. So no lives are being saved by the so-called “pro-life” laws: in fact, these laws will end up killing even more people.

The “Republican” party fully supports such laws, and wants America to have them too. This means that Repubs are OK with murdering pregnant women. Let’s say that again: Republicans support murdering pregnant women.

Oh, they’ll try to dodge this, of course, but if you support a policy that includes a consequence, then boyo, you support that consequence. If you support a policy that results in killing pregnant women, you support killing pregnant women. Period. Own it.

Anyone who votes for a Repub shows their own support for murdering pregnant women. Think about that when you next enter a voting booth. They hold these policies because they think you support them (said support being proven by your vote). If you withhold that vote, they’ll get the message and change the policy. If you give them that vote, they will keep the murderous policy in place. Your choice, to support or oppose the murder of pregnant women.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

ObamaCare is Cutting Health Care Costs. Haters Ignore This Fact.

Here is a link to a story in Forbes that shows how ObamaCare is saving money by slowing the previously unsustainable growth in health care costs. Yes, that is correct: the much-reviled Affordable Care Act would appear to be making health care, well, affordable.

And do we hear any of the many haters recanting? Of course not. Because facts mean nothing to them; all they care about are their opinions, and they will cling to those irrational beliefs long after reality has rendered them irrelevant.

The ACA is doing exactly what the Prexy said it would. And, much as it may gall us to say so, we owe President Obama an apology, and our thanks as well.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Sunshine Week, Day One: We Deserve to Know Where Our Money Is

This is Sunshine Week, which is devoted to making the government more open, transparent and accountable to we the people. Corruption being a particular hobby horse for Mr. Blunt and Cranky, this blog shall ride it all week long. Today, we look at how the gummint takes our money and does secret s*** therewith. As an example we shall justly pillory the Governor of Ohio, John Kasich.

The Kasich has a habit of keeping secrets. This wasn’t a problem on Wall Street, where he made more than a million bucks before and during the Bush Market Crash. But, as Mitt Romney learned during his run for President, the public has an annoying habit of demanding their elected officials answer questions. The Kasich really, really hates this.

Most recently, the Auditor of the State of Ohio, David Yost has been asking what happened to a few million dollars of taxpayer money that went to cronies of The Kasich via the Jobs Ohio boondoggle. You know, he’s auditing, which we pay auditors to do. The Kasich threw an enormous s*** fit, saying that the auditor has no right to audit a private business. Said private business, mind you, has a few mill of our hard-earned dollars in its invisble accounts, but Little Johhny K. thinks that is none of our needlenosing business.

Hell, people, these unelected, unsupervised business buddies of The Kasich could have stashed our money in off shore bank accounts like Mitt Romney and Bernie Madoff do, and we’d never know. And if the Guv has his way, we never will know.

Leopards don’t change their spots, and sneaks don’t become open, honest virtuous citizens either. Since the voters of Ohio were idiotic enough to elect a millionaire con man as the state’s chief executive, we need to at least support Mr. Yost in finding out who has stolen what from us, and what they have done with our money. Or people like The Kasich will keep more secrets, steal more of our money, and screw us even more thoroughly.

Mr. B & C

Note to Mitt Romney: Whining is not Leadership

Over the weekend, Willard and Queen Ann sat down for a bunch of softballs an interview with Fox News. Mr. Blunt and Cranky has watched it and was struck by the whiny-arsed tone that was taken by the also-ran couple.

Contrary to what the other-than-dynamic-duo appear to believe, pissing and moaning after you lose does not make you look like a leader. It just makes you look like a spoiled crybaby brat with an overly-developed sense of entitlement.

Suck it up, Buttercup. Most of us wish we had a consolation prize of several hundred million dollars of mostly-untaxed assets, you pathetic sore losers.

Mr. B & C