Wisconsin Election Results: David Prosser, Ally of Governor Scott Walker, Takes Lead - ABC News

On Wednesday, liberal challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant attorney general, had appeared to eke out an upset -- besting Prosser by 204 votes in an unofficial tally. But officials in heavily Republican Waukesha county now say they discovered a counting error that, when rectified, gives Prosser an additional 7,582 votes.

Waukesha county clerk Kathy Nickolaus blamed the error on her failure to save results from the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield on her database. She told reporters, "This is human error which I apologize for."

Click on the following for more details:  Wisconsin Election Results: David Prosser, Ally of Governor Scott Walker, Takes Lead - ABC News

Employment Growth After Recessions | Graphic Economics

 

Employment Growth After Recessions

While the recent acceleration in job growth is encouraging, it is still an extremely weak recovery from a downturn as severe as we have just experienced. Based on the experience of the last two severe recessions, 1974-75 and 1981-82, we should be expecting job growth in the range of 400,000 a month. Instead, we are still seeing a rate of job growth that is below the 250,000-a-month average from the 90s.

For more, read our latest Jobs Byte.

Employment Growth After Recessions | Graphic Economics

Representative Ryan Proposes Medicare Plan Under Which Seniors Would Pay Most of Their Income for Health Care | Beat the Press

According to the Congressional Budget Office analysis the benefit would cover 32 percent of the cost of a health insurance package equivalent to the current Medicare benefit (Figure 1). This means that the beneficiary would pay 68 percent of the cost of this package. Using the CBO assumption of 2.5 percent annual inflation, the voucher would have grown to $9,750 by 2030. This means that a Medicare type plan for someone age 65 would be $30,460 under Representative Ryan's plan, leaving seniors with a bill of $20,700. (This does not count various out of pocket medical expenditures not covered by Medicare.)

Click on the following for more details:  Representative Ryan Proposes Medicare Plan Under Which Seniors Would Pay Most of Their Income for Health Care | Beat the Press

Paul Ryan and the Republican Effort to Finally Starve the Beast - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

 

The fact is, right now in the United States we have unemployment hovering above 9%, inflation at a staggeringly low 1.4%, and taxes at an all-time low – especially for the very rich. Further tax cuts or even an extension of the current cuts will not push more money into the economy. Spending cuts on the other hand, will pull a great deal of money out of the economy. With inflation as low as it is, and unemployment as high as it is, the Ryan budget is a roadmap to economic collapse.

Click on the following for more details:  Paul Ryan and the Republican Effort to Finally Starve the Beast - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Prosser campaign launches fund-raising effort - JSOnline

 

On Prosser's website, the campaign has set up a "Prosser Victory Fund."

"After a challenging battle in which a historic number of votes were cast in a Supreme Court race, we need your help in preserving a victory for Justice David Prosser. The likely next step is a recount, requiring resources to protect the integrity of the ballots cast and deliver a win. Please take a moment to contribute, with your help a victory in this hard-fought battle is within reach!"

njmad - Apr 06, 2011 8:06 PM—A COMMENT FROM A READER:

If Prosser asks for a recount, the state foots the bill
given the narrowness of the final tally. So what's he
need money for, inquiring minds want to know.
Perhaps to send out "investigators" to see if people
voted in "key" precincts who shouldn't have, perhaps
to wage a PR campaign to bolster Walker's voter i.d.
bill.
If you recall, AG Van Hollen investigated allegations of
voter fraud in Milwaukee county after the 2008
election and prosecuted three people, if I remember
correctly? Three.
In the meanwhile, the GOP was successful in getting
rid of Acorn---with that group gone, who can they
blame for conspiring to help ineligible voters cast a
vote.
So again, what's Prosser need money for...

Click on the following for more details:  Prosser campaign launches fund-raising effort - JSOnline

Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy

 

slobber over all of Ryan’s ostensibly daring proposals, from the Medicare block grants to the more obnoxious Medicare voucher program (replacing Medicare benefits with vouchers to buy overpriced private insurance, which Brooks calls the government “giving you a sum of money” to choose from “a regulated menu of insurance options”).

What he doesn’t mention is that Ryan’s proposal also includes dropping the top tax rate for rich people from 35 percent to 25 percent.

ambitious program to cut taxes for [rich] people , and paying for it by “consolidating job-training programs” and forcing old people to accept reduced Medicare benefits.

Ryan’s act isn’t even politically courageous. It’s canny calculation, but courage it is not. …Ryan is proposing a budget he knows would have no chance of passing in the Senate. He is simply playing out a part, a non-candidate for the presidency pushing a rhetorical flank for an out-of-power party leading into a presidential campaign year. If the budget is a hit with the public, the 2012 Republican candidate can run on it. If it isn’t, the Republican candidate can triangulate Ryan’s ass back into the obscurity from whence it came, and be done with him

Click on the following for more details: Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy

Wendell Potter: Pay Much Attention to the Insurers Behind Paul Ryan's Curtain

 

Ryan et al would never propose such a fundamental reshaping of those programs unless they were confident that corporate America stands ready to help them sell their ideas to the public. Like big business CEOs, Congressional Republicans wouldn't think of rolling out Ryan's budget plan without a carefully crafted political and communications strategy and the assurance that adequate funding would be available to carry it out.

Republicans know they can rely on health insurance companies -- which would attract trillions of taxpayer dollars if Ryan's dream comes true -- to help bankroll a massive campaign to sell the privatization of Medicare to the public.

the insurers were lobbying hard for a provision in the bill requiring all of us to buy coverage from them if we're not eligible for a public program like Medicare or Medicaid. They won that round, too. That provision alone will guarantee billions of dollars in revenue the insurers would never have seen had it not been for the bill the president signed.

behind the change in the Medicare program in the 1980s that allowed insurers to offer what are now called "Medicare Advantage" plans. The federal government not only pays private insurers to market and operate these plans, it pays them an 11 percent bonus. That's right: People enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans cost the taxpayers 11 percent more than people enrolled in the basic Medicare program.

The insurers and their allies have demonstrated time and again that they can persuade Americans to think and act -- and vote -- against their own best interests.

 

Click on the following for more details: Wendell Potter: Pay Much Attention to the Insurers Behind Paul Ryan's Curtain

Medicare: How Paul Ryan's budget would change it - CSMonitor.com

 

Medicare is a fee-for-service program which itself pays for health care procedures for most beneficiaries. Under the GOP plan, drafted largely by Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, it would be changed into a program which subsidizes the purchase of health insurance by individuals.

Current Medicare beneficiaries, and those approaching retirement age, would not be affected by the GOP’s proposed changes. Instead they would apply to people currently 54 years of age and younger

Making health care something seniors purchase from their own pockets would unleash the power of free market competition, according to Ryan. Customers would gravitate to programs that offered higher value or greater quality, he said.

Critics counter that the Medicare subsidy inevitably would shrink relative to health-care costs due to the high rate of medical inflation

Click on the following for more details:  Medicare: How Paul Ryan's budget would change it - CSMonitor.com

“Political Grandstanding can have an effect on regular Americans”

The above words from a constituent  were quoted by President Obama at 1:45 PM ET this morning. As he commented on late night negotiations to avoid a government shut-down.

Wisconsin State Supreme Court race headed for likely recount - JSOnline

Madison — A recount is all but certain in the race for state Supreme Court, which would pose a host of legal questions, raise the political stakes in efforts to recall state senators, ignite a new bout of political fundraising and further fuel Wisconsin's ongoing battle over union bargaining.

On Wednesday, nearly 20 hours after the polls closed, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg claimed victory over Justice David Prosser after an unofficial tally showed her holding the thinnest of leads.

Kloppenburg's lead could disappear or grow stronger once official tallies are sent by counties to the Government Accountability Board, which runs state elections.

last statewide recount was in 1989 over a referendum to change the state Constitution to allow officials to provide income tax credits on property taxes or sales taxes people paid. The proposal lost by 650 votes in the first official count and by 1,098 in the recount, he said.

With a recount looming, the next step is to make sure "ballot integrity" is protected, Nemoir [Prosser Campaign Director] said. Nemoir said the campaign was beginning the process of checking with vote counters in each of the state's 72 counties to make sure ballots are protected and no one tampers with them.

Click on the following for more details:  State Supreme Court race headed for likely recount - JSOnline