How are you represented by congress

The National Review has released what they say is the Republican debt limit bill. What is listed is nothing less than an attempt to undo the entire middle class of the United States. Here is what they list as the terms of the bill:

1. Increasing the debt limit until December 2014, rather than for a dollar amount
By moving the debt limit to a date after the elections, the Republicans hope to prevent the debt limit debacle from being used as an election year issue.

2. Delay Obamacare for one year
As with the debt limit change, by moving the implementation of the Affordable Care Act until after the election, then the Republicans can claim it as theirs for the election.

3. Fast track the Ryan Budget tax reforms
Paul Ryan’s tax plan has already been found to cost more than it saved, which would cause the deficit to balloon. This would in turn be blamed on President Obama in the election, undoing his years of deficit reduction.

4. Eliminate the governments ability to regulate energy production, including blocking regulations on coal ash and carbon emissions
Direct attacks against the EPA and Department of Energy. By eliminating their ability to regulate, the Republicans aim to allow companies to continue poisoning our skies, lands, and waters, such as through unfettered fracking. They will sell this as to create jobs, as the damage would not be obvious until after the election.

5. Sets down provisions for the Keystone XL Pipeline, offshore drilling, selling off federal lands for energy exploitation
John Boehner must be thrilled here, as he would personally gain a small fortune. These are, again, election-year mantras they want to use to sell to their otherwise demoralized base.

6. Implement the REINS Act
Paul Ryan’s proposal to overturn the ability of the government to regulate virtually everything. Developed by the Heritage Foundations, the REINS act would require congressional approval on every single regulation proposal. Seat belts in cars? Water that does not have laundry detergent in it? The knowledge of what is inside of our food? All gone in one move.

6. Reform consent decree used by our nations police and military forces
Get rid of those pesky rights. This move would make programs such as stop and frisk national policy. Forget about Miranda, about your lawyer or due process. Once a policeman selects you, they can beat your entire family up, strip search you on the roadside, anything their little hearts desire.

7. Eliminate the ability to regulate the internet, and kill Net Neutrality
If Comcast wants to block your ability to read Addicting Info, under this deal, they can. The GOP aims to eliminate the ability to get facts, information, or to organize by allowing their corporate backers to simply eliminate your ability to surf the net freely.

8. New sequester provisions
The sequester wasn’t good enough for the Republicans, they want to double the damage, slashing every program (except military) and then blame Obama when the economy tanks.

9. Eliminate the Federal Employee retirement pensions
Dedicating your life to the civil service, unless you are elected, will no longer be enough. They seek to steal the pensions of hard-working civil servants, handing them over to the megabanks.

10. Eliminate Dodd Frank
By eliminating the funding to the agencies set up by Dodd Frank, the GOP seeks to allow the big banks to become the unregulated cash machines, hoping it will crash our economy again, just in time for the election.

11. Move the funding for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to a line item in the budget appropriations
This allows the GOP to kill the bureau, allowing companies to once more exploit consumers in this country without worry.

12. Restructure the Child Tax Credit
In the guise of fraud prevention, the proposal would slash tax credits for most families while giving new deductions for the wealthiest 1%. By moving the tax credit to the line item deduction, most people would no longer be able to claim the credit. Only the wealthiest would be able to claim it.

13. Eliminate Social Services Block grants
Who needs social services in Republicanland? Get rid of all block grants to the states dealing with social services. This would, of course, eliminate much of the support for anti-poverty programs across the US, and would force a cycle of dependency on social welfare programs.

14. Transition Medicare to a means tested program
Sorry seniors, no Medicare for you unless you make under $25,000 a year. By transitioning it to a means based, rather than a universal system, it would introduce inefficiencies in the program. It would also make it a program which they could then exploit as a wedge issue. They could then force people off of it, until they can finally eliminate it entirely.

Overturn Medicaid tax deductions

This would force Medicaid providers to pay more in taxes. The goal here is to eliminate providers.

15. Eliminate people’s ability to due for damages against corporations, under the guise of “tort reform”
The GOP has pushed this for years. No surprise to witness it here. The goal here is simple, to eliminate corporate accountability in the courtroom. Your product kills millions? No worries at all with this bill in place.

16. Drastically reduce or eliminate Disproportionate Share Hospitals
This would eliminate programs aimed at helping hospitals which serve low-income neighborhoods. Without these programs, many of them would close, which would leave many neighborhoods without any medical treatment options at all.

17. Eliminate the Public Health trust Fund
The last provision of Obamacare which had not yet been eliminated or drastically restructured. With this, they would have completely eliminated Obamacare, causing our national debt to balloon out of control while making the poor pay for it. This plan is not a debt deal, it is an attempt to destroy America. it is not an honest brokered deal, it is a poison pill. Call your congressman today and tell them to get serious about the debt ceiling, and to stop playing politics with our lives. And call the White House and tell him to refuse to let Congress take this country hostage. We will remember this in November.

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