Gray Panthers Opposes Outrageous House Budget Proposal

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar 22, 2012 -
On behalf of Republicans in the U.S. House, Rep. Paul Ryan recently unveiled a budget proposal that makes deep cuts in domestic spending for jobs, health and human services while protecting military spending and reducing tax rates for the wealthy and corporations. Gray Panthers is outraged that this legislation’s provisions are inhumane and violate the best interests of the American people.  

Judy Lear, National Chair of Gray Panthers, said that the Ryan bill gives huge tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy and protects wasteful military spending.  At the same time, this plan privatizes Medicare, slashes Medicaid funding, and makes deep cuts in safety net programs that provide jobs, training, food, education and protect our environment.   Lear said, “This plan is a classic scheme to rob the poor and middle class to protect the rich.”

Gray Panthers opposes Ryan’s proposal to partially privatize Medicare by offering vouchers to purchase private health care. This plan would shift the burden of controlling health care costs from health care providers onto Medicare patients.  Medicaid, under the Ryan plan, would be put into block grants. This move would drastically reduces access to health care for elderly and persons with disabilities, as well as low income children and their families.   The plan also eliminates funding for Affordable Care Act of 2010 that provides new consumer protections, regulates health insurance companies and expands access to affordable health care.

Gray Panthers is particularly incensed that the Ryan plan would give $3 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations and would make the Bush era tax breaks permanent.  “Americans believe that we all must sacrifice for the good of our country. This means that the 1% need to pay their fair share,” Ms. Lear said.

Gray Panthers, which has long advocated for peace and against war, are angered that the Ryan plan would protect the military budget from the automatic cuts that were put in place last fall.  Several bi-partisan commissions, including the Deficit Reduction Commission, have detailed plans to cut $1 trillion in defense spending without harming national security.

Gray Panthers is an intergenerational, multi-issue advocacy organization with members through out the nation working for social and economic justice and peace for ALL people. It is our vision to create a society that puts the needs of people over profit, responsibility over power and democracy over institutions.

View the original article here

Read More

French left captures upper house

25 September 2011 Last updated at 21:48 GMT The French Socialists are savouring their historic victory over the conservatives French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government has lost its majority in the Senate for the first time in recent French history.

The Socialist Party and its Communist and Green allies have won enough seats to gain control of the upper house.

Their victory comes just seven months before the country's presidential election in April.

Right-wing parties have controlled the Senate since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.

Early results from the indirect elections showed left-wing candidates took at least 23 seats from the governing conservative party, giving them an absolute majority.

"The 25th of September, 2011, will go down in history," Jean-Pierre Bel, head of the Socialist group in the Senate, said on French television.

"The results of this Senate election represent a real comeuppance for the right."

France's conservative Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said the right had suffered from its divisions and that the left had made a "strong breakthrough".

"The moment of truth will come next spring. The battle begins tonight," he said in a statement.

Of the 170 seats up for grabs in the election, Mr Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party had 147 seats out of a total 343 to the Socialist Party's 115 before Sunday's vote.

The number of seats in the upper house is being increased to 348 to reflect an increase in population.

View the original article here

Read More

White House 'rushed' firm's loan

15 September 2011 Last updated at 00:31 GMT President Barack Obama cited Solyndra as an example of how the stimulus bill would create jobs The White House could have rushed approval on a major government-backed loan to a failed solar panel firm for political reasons, say US Republicans.

Solyndra declared bankruptcy this month after laying off 1,100 workers, and was then raided by the FBI.

The company came to prominence when President Barack Obama visited it in May 2010 to promote green business.

The White House denied the loan had been rushed so that Vice-President Joe Biden could attend a groundbreak event.

Several US solar firms have been shuttered in recent weeks, amid a surge of cheaper technology from Chinese manufacturers, combined with falling demand for the energy panels from Europe.

Decison 'urgency'

Internal emails of the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) were subpoenaed by the investigations panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee several months ago.

The OMB was tasked with the final due-diligence review on the $535m (£340m) loan after it was approved by the Department of Energy.

House Republicans cited the emails during a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday to question whether the loan programme's selection process was sound.

"Our investigation raises several questions about whether the administration did everything it could to protect taxpayer dollars," said committee chairman Fred Upton.

US taxpayers are liable for the loan now that the company has declared bankruptcy.

The Republican lawmakers say the emails suggest that staff members felt pressured to sign off on the loan.

In one email, an unnamed OMB staff member wrote: "We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due-diligence reviews and have the approval set the date for the announcement rather than the other way around."

The Republicans said a groundbreak event for the California-based firm, attended by Vice-President Biden via satellite link, was scheduled in September 2009 before the loan was even approved.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the emails had nothing to do with pressure to approve the loan, but instead with preparing Mr Biden's schedule.

"What the emails make clear is there was urgency to make a decision on a scheduling matter," Mr Carney told reporters. "People were simply looking for answers about whether or not people could move forward."

'No danger' of failure

The company was the first solar panel company to receive a loan from a federal programme to support innovative green technologies.

The government-guarenteed loan scheme was first created by the Bush administration in 2005, but was boosted after President Obama added stimulus money to the programme's funds.

As recently as two months ago, Solyndra's chief executive Brian Harrison told the committee that the company's finances were sound and there was no danger it would fail.

Solyndra cited the falling world price of solar panels as the reason for closing down the firm.

The FBI and the energy department's inspector-general office raided the company and the homes of several of its executives on 8 September.

Solyndra said the FBI was seeking records on its loans.

The company laid off 1,100 employees at the end of August.

Two of the company's executives were invited to Wednesday's hearing but did not attend, saying they were focusing on the firm's sale. They are expected to appear next week instead.

Energy department loans director Jonathan Silver said Solyndra's failure should not reflect on the loan programme as a whole.

"I can't imagine a scenario in which we would willingly as a country walk away from what would be undoubtedly one of the largest - if not the largest - industries in the world over the next several decades," Mr Silver said.

View the original article here

Read More

SIMPLE Dinner At Umi Sake House

written by John Chow on July 28, 2011

After codename: SIMPLE, we went to dinner at Umi Sake House. This is a premier sake house located in the heart of the Seattle Belltown district. The restaurant offers a unique and sophisticated twist on the Japanese Izakaya style drinking and dining. The room is designed in a way that mirrors a Japanese country-style house complete with a “back porch” as well as a “front porch.” For the serious sake drinker, Umi offers over 45 premium sakes that are highlighted on a menu with many different Pan-Asian, Japanese, Sushi and Raw Bar dishes.

Unfortunately, no one in our group were big sake drinkers. That was OK, however, because Umi serves some of the best sushi in town. We sample half-dozen different sushi dishes and all left our mouths watering. The restaurant was also extremely accommodating to our needs when we changed the number of people attending. Even though they had a full house, they were able to make a table for us.

The speciality at Umi is the sushi roll. In addition to the standard sushi roll, Umi offers nearly 30 speciality rolls, with names like yellow fever, 007, naughty roll, and the badboy roll. Price wise, Umi is quite economical, with most entrees costing $10 to $15. While, I didn’t try any sake, I did order an Asahi beer, which came in a 1000ml can. They take their drinking seriously at Umi Sake House!

    Tweet This Post!

Posted in Fine Dining

View the original article here

Read More

House prices in UK 'stabilising'

29 July 2011 Last updated at 12:03 GMT Chief Economist at Nationwide, Robert Gardner: "It's a very stable picture in the housing market at the moment"

House prices are stabilising, according to the latest monthly report from the Nationwide building society.

Prices across the UK rose by 0.2% in July, to £168,731, leaving them just 0.4% lower than a year ago.

The society said demand for homes was still sluggish, and a gradual rise in the supply of available houses was keeping prices stable.

Separate figures from the Bank of England showed a slight rise in mortgage activity.

Down and up

Although prices are almost the same as they were a year ago, since July 2010 they have fallen and then recovered, according to the Nationwide's measurement.

Completed sales are still running at roughly half the level recorded before the banking crisis. Since December 2010, the average house price, not seasonally adjusted, has now gone up by 4%.

Economists often argue that the best guide to short-term trends is to compare the average price over the last three months with that of the previous three.

Continue reading the main story

Property transactions are at severely low levels due to the disconnect between buyers and sellers”

End Quote Matt Hutchinson Spareroom.co.uk The Nationwide says that on that basis, prices have risen by just 0.3%.

The building society's chief economist, Robert Gardner, said this stability reflected the "uncertain" state of the economy.

"House prices remain relatively high compared to incomes and, together with more demanding deposit requirements, this is dissuading, or at least delaying, some first-time buyers from entering the market," he said.

"The Nationwide talks of stability, but this is little more than a euphemism for stagnation," said Matt Hutchinson, director of flat and house sharing website Spareroom.co.uk.

"With the exception of London, property transactions are at severely low levels due to the disconnect between buyers and sellers. Properties are not selling because what buyers are prepared to pay falls well short of what sellers are willing, or able, to accept."

Figures released on Thursday by the Land Registry, which covered prices in June, found that prices over the previous year had varied significantly in different regions of England and Wales.

Continue reading the main story

The interactive content on this page requires JavaScript

Mortgage market The number of home loans approved for house purchases rose slightly in June, according to figures published on Friday by the Bank of England.

Continue reading the main story

Pressures on household finances such as high inflation and low wage growth are clearly taking their toll on the ability of households to save”

End Quote Adrian Coles Building Societies Association There were 48,421 mortgages approved for house purchases - higher than the average of the previous six months of 45,850.

But, with few signs of interest rate rises in the coming months, the pace of remortgaging activity has slowed.

Although there was a slight rise in the number of approvals for remortgaging to 30,705, this was below the average of the previous six months.

Consumer borrowing through loans and credit cards also rose slightly in June, the Bank's figures showed.

Figures from the Building Societies Association (BSA) show that the stock of savings held in mutuals in June shrunk by £362m.

"Pressures on household finances such as high inflation and low wage growth are clearly taking their toll on the ability of households to save," said BSA director general Adrian Coles.

View the original article here

Read More