http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39308639/ns/business-forbescom/

ON THIS DAY

On Sept. 23, 1952, Republican vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon went on television to deliver what came to be known as the ``Checkers'' speech as he denied allegations of improper campaign financing.

What and who are "small businesses"? Remember when we spoke of the Republican's constant claims of Democratic "job killing" plans? It wasn't true. Now, as Forbes releases its list of the the Nation's richest individuals we hear John Boehner truthfully state only 3% of the country's "small businesses" account for 50% of all "small business" income.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#39316659

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#39316685

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#39316833

As to the Koch brothers mentioned in the first link;

http://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-koch

http://www.forbes.com/profile/david-koch

View these two brothers as the founders of the CATO Institute and the money behind many of the "independent" think tanks which we've mentioned here who will not report the source of their funding. As "corporations" do you know the limitations their must abide by when contributing to political campaigns? How much have you been paying attention to?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-b-larson/10-major-new-health-refor_b_736766.html

Postcards From the Pledge; http://www.thedailyshow.com/

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42674.html

http://www.politico.com/largevideobox.html?id=616546543001

Would you buy a used car from this man? How about a used Republican?

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/...-truth-o-meter/

Politics Texas style; http://www.politifact.com/texas/article/...creases-rick-p/

http://mediamatters.org/research/200910190048

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/glenn-beck/statements/

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/rush-limbaugh/statements/

Quote:
Limbaugh: "If you voted for Obama, you deserve to be unemployed" and "in misery"; http://mediamatters.org/limbaughwire/2010/09/23#0039

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42700.html

Quote:
GOP's big money men return
Since Obama took office, ten of the most active conservative donors identified by a POLITICO analysis have contributed $19 million to Republican candidates and the political committees that boost them

"Jamie Court debates singer Pat Boone and the
Beverly Hills Tea Party"; http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/

The legacy of Reagan, tax cuts, spending, government growth and increased Federal revenue.

"Those who oppose higher taxes and are fed up with record levels of U.S. debt may pine for Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of lower taxes and smaller government.

But it's worth considering just what Reagan did -- and didn't do ...

Soon after taking office in 1981, Reagan signed into law one of the largest tax cuts in the postwar period ...

In 1986, Reagan lowered individual income tax rates again, this time in landmark tax reform legislation.

As a result of the 1981 and 1986 bills, the top income tax rate was slashed from 70% to 28%.

Despite the aggressive tax cutting, Reagan couldn't ignore the budget deficit, which was burgeoning.

After Reagan's first year in office, the annual deficit was 2.6% of gross domestic product. But it hit a high of 6% in 1983, stayed in the 5% range for the next three years, and fell to 3.1% by 1988. (By comparison, this year it's projected to be 9% but is expected to drop considerably thereafter.)

So, despite his public opposition to higher taxes, Reagan ended up signing off on several measures intended to raise more revenue.

"Reagan was certainly a tax cutter legislatively, emotionally and ideologically. But for a variety of political reasons, it was hard for him to ignore the cost of his tax cuts," said tax historian Joseph Thorndike.

Two bills passed in 1982 and 1984 together "constituted the biggest tax increase ever enacted during peacetime," Thorndike said ...

There were other notable tax increases under Reagan.

In 1983, for example, he signed off on Social Security reform legislation that, among other things, accelerated an increase in the payroll tax rate, required that higher-income beneficiaries pay income tax on part of their benefits, and required the self-employed to pay the full payroll tax rate, rather than just the portion normally paid by employees.

The tax reform of 1986, meanwhile, wasn't designed to increase federal tax revenue ...

Annual federal tax receipts during his presidency averaged 18.2% of GDP, a smidge below the average under President Carter -- and a smidge above the 40-year average today ...

Reagan's behavior might not pass muster with those voters today who insist their Congressmen treat every proposed tax increase as poisonous to the republic.

"By today's standards, the Gipper would easily qualify for status as a back-stabbing, treacherous RINO [Republican in Name Only]" ...

Thanks in part to the increases in defense spending during his administration, Reagan also didn't really reduce the size of government. Annual spending averaged 22.4% of GDP on his watch, which is above today's 40-year average of 20.7%, and above the 20.8% average under Carter ..."

http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan_years_taxes/index.htm

"Tom Coburn; International A**hole of Mystery"; http://www.thedailyshow.com/

"Worst"; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/#39449653

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-hptb5&p=coburn%20blocks%20aid&type=

http://www.google.com/search?q=coburn+bl...art=10&sa=N

"By today's standards, the Gipper would easily qualify for status as a back-stabbing, treacherous RINO [Republican in Name Only]" ...

http://mediamatters.org/research/201009280025

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-12-2010/eric-cantor

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-oc...interview-pt--1

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-oc...interview-pt--2

Quote:
Another area where Mr. Obama and Republicans have skirmished over what their plans mean is their proposal to cancel remaining stimulus spending. In a recent Internet address, Mr. Obama said that the Republicans would

In 2004 Bush had made the promise (Remember promises? The Repubs keep saying O "promised" unempolyment wouldn't rise above 8.5% - which he did not promise.) to halve the budget deficit; http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000922.htm

The Repubs backed him on this while year after FY they passed deficit budgets until 2008 when the projection was pushed back to 2012 - three years after Bush left office. The promise was made at a time when Republicans did not control either House of Congress and were all but certain to loose the WH in the coming elections. Unfortunately, in 2008 McCain was forced to revise the promise of a projected balanced budget by 2012 once again - well, sort of ...

Quote:
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Sadly, no one thought to first consult with the presidential nominee of their party. In April, just two months after promising to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term, John McCain gave up his pledge to erase the deficit by 2012.

Before abandoning his balanced budget pledge during his Pittburgh address yesterday, McCain had made it a feature on the campaign trail. For example, during a February 15th rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, "McCain promised he'd offer a balanced budget by the end of his first term." He told the audience that he could end the red ink by 2012:

"I've got to give you some straight talk: I doubt, given the deficits we're running, that I can propose a balanced budget in the first year. But that's my goal. It has to be our goal, because we're mortgaging these young people's future."
Alas, McCain's life as a deficit hawk was a short and unhappy one.

Even as Mr. Straight Talk was promising a 2012 end date for the budget deficit, his top economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin was reading from a different script, instead targeting the end of a McCain second term in 2017. And he should know. A month later, Holtz-Eakin, an architect of the McCain tax plan, admitted, "It will make deficits expand up front, no question." Just a day before McCain's April 15th economic address, Holtz-Eakin previewed the campaign's new position on balancing the budget:

"I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction."
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001068.htm

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You can see the record for Bush's deficit spending through 2007 here; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020202042.html

The 2008 FY budget would be the first approved by a Democratic Congress in 12 years.

Quote:
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But even in the unlikely event that he were to get his way, the budget deficit would jump sharply, from $163 billion in 2007 to about $400 billion in 2008 and 2009 -- partly the result of the new economic stimulus plan. Such deficits would rival the record deficit of $412 billion of 2004, though administration allies argue that shortfalls of that size now represent a smaller share of the overall economy and are thus more manageable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020202042.html

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What you do not see in the budgets as they stand are the costs of two unfunded wars. Bush never once put the cost of the Afghanistan or Iraq wars on the fiscal year budget - both were done as "emergency" supplementals each year for seven years. So add another $200-250 billion per year to the actual deficit figures.

As you can see one of the changes Obama has made is to keep the funny non-existent costs of war from being hidden. His FY budgets have and will include the actual cost of war; http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&...books&type=

Remember that when you start talking about O's spending.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43883.html

Quote:
The new health care law will "force seniors into Barack Obama's government-run health care program."

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/...k-obamas-gover/

Quote:
Donohue: "If everybody practiced what the Catholic church teaches in terms of sexuality, you wouldn't even have people dying of AIDS

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201010250002

Quote:
Kilmeade says Hawaiian birds will "redo their chromosomes" to "adjust" to football stadium lights

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201010250006

Remember, it's these same logical, well informed and studious people who are claiming climate change isn't happening. Lead on, oh brave ones, and the dimwitted amongst us will easily follow!!!

http://mediamatters.org/research/201010210037

Quote:
Levi Johnston gets a platform, disses Sarah

He may have no political experience, no knowledge of how to run a campaign and abysmally low popularity ratings around Alaska, but Levi Johnston finally has a platform! TMZ reported Wednesday morning that the man most famous for being Bristol Palin

Quote:
A Pageant for Patriots

Apologies to all those aspiring Miss Americas out there: being crowned the most beautiful and well-rounded woman in the country does not have the cachet that it used to. In 1960, the pageant had a television audience of 85 million, while in 2010 the pageant drew a mere 4.5 million. Yet a new beauty event

Did you vote for one of these people?

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/...ign-seasons-pa/

Shame on you!

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201011030008

On Nov. 6, 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates for the U.S. presidency.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/art...ity/#paragraph2

http://factcheck.org/playersguide2010/

Just the other day I happened upon Beck's radio show for a few minutes. At the time he was prepping his audience for his "Soros" expose. At the same time he was crying about how "These People" have ruined the name of Glenn Beck. Which we should all recognize as a constant right wingnut ploy; cry about how R's and C's are constantly under attack and how they are always the disadvantaged group. Then, in the next sentence, tell us about how R's and C's make up the vast majority of this "center right" Nation.

Glenn Beck draws criticism over latest Holocaust comments; http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/201...ocaust-comments or http://mediamatters.org/blog/201011110027

http://people-press.org/report/675/

Quote:
Republican lobbyists on rise again; http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45114.html

http://www.politifact.com/