More statements I cannot disagree with.

There is NOTHING here that Sen. Rick Santorum has said that I disagree with him on. Gays try to force their values unto the rest of civilized society. It needs to be stopped or we fail as a civilization just like the Roman & Greek societies did millienium ago. Families have got to stay whole or we are doomed to fail.

Rick Santorum’s 10 Weirdest Statements

By Igor Volsky on Apr 14, 2011 at 10:10 am

Last night, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R) became the third Republican to announce that he was forming apresidential exploratory committee, a stepping stone towards officially jumping into the 2012 race. “[T]he test for me is whether we can raise the money that’s necessary,” Santorum told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren last night. “So I’m going to set up a committee…which you can go to at Ricksantorum.com. And we’re going to determine over the next few weeks as to whether the resources are going to be there to do it.”

But in a sign of how messy Santorum’s candidacy may become, Van Susteren used the announcement to question the former Senator about his claim that abortions have undermined the solvency of Social Security, forcing Santorum to walk back his comments:

VAN SUSTEREN: [Y]ou said on a radio station in New Hampshire that the abortion culture is to blame for the Social Security program’s financial problems. Do you want a do-over on that one, or do you stand by that? [...]

SANTORUM: And of course, Social Security is based on, you know, having people working to support those who are in retirement. And one of the problems with Social Security is a demographic problem, which is people are living longer and collecting benefits on Social Security, and those — and we are — our birth rate is lower [...]

VAN SUSTEREN: It is weird, though, isn’t it? I mean, come on. You got to admit this is weird.

Indeed, Santorum has a long history of making “weird” or offensive statements about gay people, African Americans, women, and Muslims. Below is a short preview of his record:

GAYS:

1. “In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be….If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” [4/2003]

2. “Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?” [5/22/2008]

3. On repeal of DADT: “I’m worried when many people will stand up and say, ‘well whatever the Generals want.’ I’m not too sure that we haven’t indoctrinated the Officer Corps in this country that they can actually see straight to make the right decisions.” [2/20/2010]

RACE:

4. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.” [1/19/2011]

5. “Marriage is an institution that’s a bridge too far for too many African-American woman and is not desirable among African-American males….I think [Obama] has to realize that flying to New York is…self-indulgent. Go down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot and a beer.” [6/2/2009]

WOMEN:

6. In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don’t both need to….The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness. ['It Takes A Family,' 7/6/2005]

ISLAM:

7. Santorum responded to the Pentagon’s decision rescind its invitation to evangelist Franklin Graham to speak at the upcoming National Day over his statement that Islam is “evil” by saying that Graham’s comment was “a reasonable statement at the time.” [3/23/2010]

8. “I think the Democrats are actually worried [Obama] may go to Indonesia and bow to more Muslims.” [3/23/2010]

9. “The creeping Sharia throughout Europe and here in this country and in Canada. The Islamization of Europe that is already on the way and will visit these shores not too soon is a concern for us and something that we need to identify and we need to talk about and we need to fight with every ounce of our being. [2/28/2009]

10. “Now we have the Attorney General confirming to Osama bin Laden just bide your time and the effeminate and pampered Americans will cower away.” [2/28/2009]

More statements I cannot disagree with.

There is NOTHING here that Sen. Rick Santorum has said that I disagree with him on. Gays try to force their values unto the rest of civilized society. It needs to be stopped or we fail as a civilization just like the Roman & Greek societies did millienium ago. Families have got to stay whole or we are doomed to fail.

Rick Santorum’s Top 10 Most Outrageous Campaign Statements

By Igor Volsky on Jan 4, 2012 at 10:46 am

Rick Santorum’s surprising second-place finish in Iowa comes after months of dogged campaigning throughout the sate’s 99 counties and more than 350 town halls. ThinkProgress tracked the former Pennsylvania senator throughout this period and has compiled a list of his top 10 most outrageous claims:

1) ANNUL ALL SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: Arguing that gay relationships “destabilize” society, Santorum wouldn’t offer any legal protections to gay relationships and has pledged to annul all same-sex marriages if elected president. During his 99-country tour of Iowa, Santorum frequently compared same-sex relationships to inanimate objects like trees, basketballs, beer, and paper towels and even tried to blame the economic crisis on gay people. As Santorum explained back in August, religious people have a constitutional right to discriminate against gays: “We have a right the Constitution of religious liberty but now the courts have created a super-right that’s above a right that’s actually in the Constitution, and that’s of sexual liberty. And I think that’s a wrong, that’s a destructive element.”

2) ‘I’M FOR INCOME INEQUALITY’: “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality,” Santorum said during an event in Pella, Iowa in December. “I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.”

3) CONTRACEPTION IS ‘A LICENSE TO DO THINGS’: Santorum has pledged to repeal all federal funding for contraception and allow the states to outlaw birth control, insisting that “it’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

4) GAY SOLDIERS ‘CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN CLOSE QUARTERS’: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday in October, Santorum defended his support for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by arguing that gay soldiers would disrupt the military because “they’re in close quarters, they live with people, they obviously shower with people.” He also suggested that “there are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore.”

5) OBAMA SHOULD OPPOSE ABORTION BECAUSE HE’S BLACK: During an appearance on Christian television in January, Santorum said he was surprised that President Obama didn’t know when life began — given his skin color. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people,” he explained.

6) WE DON’T NEED FOOD STAMPS BECAUSE OBESITY RATES ARE SO HIGH: Speaking in Le Mars, Iowa in December, Santorum promised to significantly reduce federal funding for food stamps, arguing that the nation’s increasing obesity rates render the program unnecessary.

7) ABORTION EXCEPTIONS TO PROTECT WOMEN’S HEALTH ARE ‘PHONY’: While discussing his track record as a champion of the partial birth abortion ban in June, Santorum dismissed exceptions other senators wanted to carve out to protect the life and health of mothers, calling such exceptions “phony.” “They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective,” he said.

8) HEALTH REFORM WILL KILL MY CHILD: Santorum, who claims that Obamacare motivated him to run for president, told reporters in April that his daughter Bella — who was born with a genetic abnormality — wouldn’t survive in a country with “socialized medicine.” “Children like Bella are not given the treatment that other children are given.”

9) UNINSURED AMERICANS SHOULD SPEND LESS ON CELL-PHONE BILLS: During a meeting with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register in August, Santorum said that people who can’t afford health care should stop whining about the high costs of medical treatments and medications and spend less on non essentials. Answering a question about the uninsured, Santorum explained that health care, like a car, is a luxury resource that is rationed by society and recalled the story of a woman who said she was spending $200 a month on life-saving prescriptions. Santorum told her to stop complaining and instead lower her cable and cell phone bills.

10) INSURERS SHOULD DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS:Santorum sounded like a representative from the health insurance industry when he addressed a small group of high school students in Merrimack, New Hampshire in December. The former Pennsylvania senator not only defended insurers for denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, he also argued that individuals who are sick should pay higher premiums because they cost more money to insure.

We can't follow the failed ways of the Greek & Roman societies.

There is NOTHING here that Sen. Rick Santorum has said that I disagree with him on. Gays try to force their values unto the rest of civilized society. It needs to be stopped or we fail as a civilization just like the Roman & Greek societies did millienium ago.

Rick Santorum’s 12 Most Offensive Statements

By Igor Volsky on Jun 6, 2011 at 9:10 am

This morning, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R) announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “We are ready to announce that we are going to be in this race and we’re in it to win.” But Santorum — who is possibly most famous for his “Google problem” — may have an uphill climb to the nomination. He currently polls in the single digits in the early primary states and has a long history of making offensive statements about gay people, African Americans, women, and Muslims. Below is a short recap of his record:

GAYS:

1. “In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be….If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” [4/2003]

2. “Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?” [5/22/2008]

3. On repeal of DADT: “I’m worried when many people will stand up and say, ‘well whatever the Generals want.’ I’m not too sure that we haven’t indoctrinated the Officer Corps in this country that they can actually see straight to make the right decisions.” [2/20/2010]

4. On gay adoption: “A lesbian woman came up to me and said, ‘why are you denying me my right?’ I said, ‘well, because it’s not a right.’ It’s a privilege that society recognizes because society sees intrinsic value to that relationship over any other relationship.” [5/3/2011]

5. On teaching history of gay Americans: “I certainly would not approve of [a bill moving through the California legislature compels the state to add gay history to the state education curriculum], but there’s a logical consequence to the courts injecting themselves in creating rights and people attaching their legislative ideas to those rights that in some respects could logically flow from that. So I’m not surprised.” [5/10/2011]

RACE:

6. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people’.” [1/19/2011]

7. “Marriage is an institution that’s a bridge too far for too many African-American women and is not desirable among African-American males….I think [Obama] has to realize that flying to New York is…self-indulgent. Go down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot, and a beer.” [6/2/2009]

WOMEN:

8. “In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don’t both need to….The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness“. ['It Takes A Family,' 7/6/2005]

ISLAM:

9. Santorum responded to the Pentagon’s decision rescind its invitation to evangelist Franklin Graham to speak at the upcoming National Day over his statement that Islam is “evil” by saying that Graham’s comment was “a reasonable statement at the time.” [3/23/2010]

10. “I think the Democrats are actually worried [Obama] may go to Indonesia and bow to more Muslims.” [3/23/2010]

11. “The creeping Sharia throughout Europe and here in this country and in Canada. The Islamization of Europe that is already on the way and will visit these shores not too soon is a concern for us and something that we need to identify and we need to talk about and we need to fight with every ounce of our being“. [2/28/2009]

12. “Now we have the Attorney General confirming to Osama bin Laden just bide your time and the effeminate and pampered Americans will cower away.” [2/28/2009]

Fix Medicare, ignore scare talk

STEVE HUNTLEY shuntley.cst@gmail.com January 2, 2012 9:02PM

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Updated: January 3, 2012 2:09AM

 

I’m old enough to remember when cars came without seat belts, when a gallon of gasoline could be had for a little more than two bits, and when a stamp cost a nickel. My first full-time job after college paid $100 a week, a nice sum in 1965. My first new car was the hottest chariot of its day — a 1965 Ford Mustang (seat belts accenting its sporty character) with a price tag of $2,500. And 1965 was the year Congress enacted Medicare.

These numbers should remind us that the promises made to the elderly — soon to encompass huge numbers of baby boomer retirees — were made at a much different time. Costs were lower. People didn’t live as long. Unavailable were today’s revolutionary — and usually quite expensive — medical treatments and tests.

I’ve contributed to Medicare every year of its existence. Yet, it’s a myth that seniors have paid the costs of their Medicare services, as demonstrated by the research of economists Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane of the Urban Institute think tank.

Their study showed that a two-income couple earning $89,000 a year would pay $114,000 in Medicare taxes during their careers but could expect to receive $355,000 in medical care in retirement. They could get prescriptions, doctor visits and hospital services valued at three times their contribution to Medicare.

Medicare combined with Medicaid and Social Security add up to an entitlement time bomb — they’ll consume all tax revenues by 2052, according to a Heritage Foundation analysis — for the people who’ll be stuck with the bill: working Americans. In 1950, there were 16 taxpaying workers for each retiree; by the time the baby boomers all retire, there will be two workers for each retiree.

Entitlement reform has to happen. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) proposed a common-sense approach last year, moving people under age 55 to a premium support program. Those over 55 and approaching retirement would stay with the current system. Democrats responded with demagoguery designed to scare senior voters, accusing Ryan of advocating a voucher plan that would kill Medicare and saddle seniors with an expensive, unreliable system of private insurance.

Nonsense. A voucher program would give retirees money to buy any insurance, be it from a reputable company or a fly-by-night fraud. Ryan’s plan calls for government support for premiums paid only to insurers meeting stringent standards. What’s more, the government would pay more for the very sick and the poor and less in support for the rich. Competition among insurers would lower costs. That’s what happened with a similarly designed program for retiree drug benefits — it came in 40 percent under projected costs.

Last month, Ryan teamed with moderate Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon to offer a revised plan to let future seniors choose between traditional Medicare and private insurance under the premium-support system.

The White House responded to this bipartisan compromise with renewed demagoguery, charging it would let Medicare “wither on the vine.” Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the Ryan-Wyden announcement a “big day for our kids and grandkids” by offering a way forward to resolve the looming entitlement crisis. Should Romney win the GOP nomination, voters will face a clear choice on Medicare reform — Romney’s support of common-sense compromise or Obama’s political Mediscare rhetoric.

Are You Paying Your Fair Share for Medicare?

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Tuesday January 11th, 2011   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 8:02am PST   •   4 Comments

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Just in time for the end of 2010, the Associated Pressreleased a story suggesting that retired Medicare beneficiaries are being promised way more in medical care than what than they’ll have paid for during their working careers:

What you paid in Medicare taxes shows up on your W-2 income tax form every year. So when you retire, you want your money’s worth.

That’s how most Americans see it. In an Associated Press-GfK poll nearly 6 out of 10 said they paid into the system so they deserve their full benefits — no cuts.

But a newly updated financial analysis shows that what people paid into the system doesn’t come close to covering the full value of the medical care they can expect to receive as retirees.

Two researchers at the Urban Institute, Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane, ran the numbers:

Consider an average-wage, two-earner couple together earning $89,000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers.

But they can expect to receive medical services — from prescriptions to hospital care — worth $355,000, or about three times what they put in.

The estimates by economists Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane of the Urban Institute think tank illustrate the huge disconnect between widely-held perceptions and the numbers behind Medicare’s shaky financing. Although Americans are worried about Medicare’s long-term solvency, few realize the size of the gap.

“The fact that you put money into the system doesn’t mean it’s there waiting for you to collect,” said Steuerle.

That would be the key difference between a real investment and a government “investment,” which works much differently from how most people may think it does:

Many workers may believe their Medicare payroll taxes are going for their own insurance after they retiree, but the money is actually used to pay the bills of seniors currently on the program.

That mistaken impression complicates the job for policymakers trying to build political support in coming months for dealing with deficits that could drag the economy back down.

That misconception has real consequences, especially as the working population whose taxes will have to support the now beginning-to-retire Baby Boom generation is so much smaller in comparison, with 2.3 workers to each Medicare beneficiary in just 20 years, down from today’s ratio of 3.5 workers per Medicare recipient.   Steuerle provides the bottom line:

“With Medicare, we are all still making out like bandits, shoving all those costs to future generations,” said Steuerle. “At another level, we know that this system is totally unsustainable.”