6 BIGGEST LIES ABOUT THE US DEBT

The 6 Biggest Lies About the U.S. Debt ( I FOUND 10)

“There is one simple truth about the discussion of the looming U.S. debt crisis: it is largely a compendium of half-truths, distortions, myths and outright lies.”

This is my take on the article… I found the six quoted below and then some more…. read the entire article and see what you come up with…

*1. For example, is it true that the U.S. debt is unsustainable, which is spurring the budget-cutting fever? No and here’s why…

*2. Or what about hysterical headlines like “U.S. Debt Default Looms” (courtesy of NPR) unless Democrats and Republicans agree to raise the debt ceiling?

*3. One blatant lie is that Republicans and Democrats, the Congress and the White House are serious about reining in budget deficits to reduce the long-term debt. They are not.

*4. If you really believe shrinking the debt is an imperative, then there are easier ways to do it then stealing grandma’s meds

*5. Of course, the stand-off is based on another lie: that Congress and Obama administration can enforce cuts over a 10-year period. The budget process is an annual exercise.

*6. “We are in recovery.” So says Ben Bernanke – since 2009 no less. Obama has been saying the same since 2010, while hedging that it is “painfully slow.” Really?

These are the ones I found in the article:

*7. We are being led to think the wisest course is repeating the major mistake of the Great Depression – enforcing austerity in a deep economic funk.

*8. Obama’s burnt offering – will nick a miniscule 3 percent off the national debt by 2020, while the suffering will be enormous. But we must do it to appease the markets.

**9. But, it [S&P] warned, any “credible” agreement “would require support from leaders of both political parties.”

**10. S&P knew … By saying both parties needed to sign on to an agreement to be credible, … the Republican agenda of strangling the last of social welfare would triumph.

And by issuing the statement in the heat of negotiations, it threw its lot in with the Tea Party mob. [KOCH influence]

(** Re-paragraphing, numbering [inserts] underlining, are all my addition.)

http://www.alternet.org/story/151827/the_6_biggest_lies_about_the_u.s._debt/?page=entire

MESSAGE FROM BERNIE SANDERS...

“The American people have consistently stated, in poll after poll, that they want the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes and they want to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. In a recent Washington Post poll, 72 percent said Americans earning more than $250,000 a year should pay more in taxes.  Congress is on track to give them the exact opposite: major cuts in the most important programs that the middle class needs and wants, and no sacrifice from the wealthy and the powerful.”  

Video: http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorSanders#p/u/0/If_1T4Os270

Audio: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/media/listen/?m=c96e44b5-642f-4b3d-a81d-1cd8abd30b28

Taxes, the Debt Would Vanish IF

If Corporations and the Rich Paid 1960s-Level Taxes!  We now have a Plutocracy as we did in the late 1800s and early 1900s:By Sam Pizzigati, Campaign for America's Future

Posted on July 24, 2011, Printed on July 29, 2011 

"Once upon a time in America, back a century ago, our nation's rich paid virtually nothing in taxes to the federal government. And that same federal government did virtually nothing to better the lives of average Americans.

But those average Americans would do battle, over the next half century, to rein in the rich and the corporations that made them ever richer. And that struggle would prove remarkably successful. By the 1950s, America's rich and the corporations they ran were paying significant chunks of their annual incomes in taxes — and the federal projects and programs these taxes helped finance were actually improving average American lives."  This is an assault on the American worker.  Read more...

http://www.alternet.org/story/151754/plutocracy%3A_if_corporations_and_the_rich_paid_1960s-level_taxes%2C_the_debt_would_vanish

ALCOHOL MORE LETHAL THAN ILLEGAL DRUGS

Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Study: Alcohol more lethal than heroin, cocaine

By Maria Cheng
AP Medical Writer / November 1, 2010

LONDON—Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.
British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.

Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.

The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and was published online Monday in the medical journal, Lancet.

Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.

"Just think about what happens (with alcohol) at every football game," said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study and co-authored a commentary in the Lancet.

When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.

But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.

"We cannot return to the days of prohibition," said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study's authors. "Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won't go away."

King said countries should target problem drinkers, not the vast majority of people who indulge in a drink or two. He said governments should consider more education programs and raising the price of alcohol so it isn't as widely available.

Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classify drugs. For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior advisers, David Nutt - the lead author on the Lancet study - was fired after he criticized the British decision.

"What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science," said van den Brink. He said considerations about revenue and taxation, like those garnered from the alcohol and tobacco industries, may influence decisions about which substances to regulate or outlaw.

"Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit," he said.
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Online: http://www.lancet.com
© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/11/01/study_alcohol_more_lethal_than_heroin_cocaine/?p1=Upbox_links