And now a message from Alan Grayson...

[Trajan]

I thought this was worth sharing.


By: Alan Grayson Monday February 18, 2013 2:40 pm

"Would you like to buy a pen?" She asked me

As we approach the self-immolation known as “The Sequester,” I find myself thinking about a woman in West Africa, asking people, “Would you like to buy a pen?”

She was a middle-aged woman, wearing a bright-colored dress. Judging by wear and tear, it may have been the only dress she owned.

She was standing on the steps in front of a small department store, which was selling pens by the dozen. She repeated softly, in French, to passers-by, “Voulez-vous acheter une plume?” And she held up a pen.

I didn’t need a pen, but I did need to know what she was up to. I asked her how much her pen cost. She quoted a fair price. I gave her that much, plus some more. She gave me a pen that I didn’t need. And she had enough money to eat something that day. Or so she said, en francais.

Back to “The Sequester,” the 12% budget cut for the military (leaving aside soldier pay and benefits), and the 9% budget cut for other federal programs (leaving aside Medicare and Social Security). Opponents of The Sequester are focusing on the military cuts. Their theory seems to be that the American public has been signing blank checks made out to “DoD” for so long that there is no way that we’ll stop now. Or maybe they think that we will subliminally translate the words “defense cuts” into “some crazy Arab is going to blow me up” without anyone actually having to say that, much less make the case for it.

I have a nodding acquaintance with polling, so I understand that foreign aid might be the least popular federal program right now, second only to black helicopters. But our immunization program alone saves three million lives each year. Our emergency food assistance program fed more than 66 million starving people last year. Possibly including the lady who sold me that pen.

And the total cost of all that food was equal to one-sixteenth of a new aircraft carrier. In fact, for the cost of one aircraft carrier, we could feed every hungry person in the entire world.

So let’s see. A nine percent cut in the foreign aid budget means that six million more people go hungry. And American taxpayers save 44 cents a month. Not even enough to buy one hamburger.

Further translating this into Americanese, give some thought as to what The Sequester will do to the food stamp program, or the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. A lot of Americans will be going to bed cold and hungry.

I know that I will never see that lady with the pen again. Even though I remember her, she probably doesn’t remember me – if she is still alive. She is not going to vote for me, and she is not going to contribute to my next campaign. Nor will her relatives, nor will her friends. I’m not sure why I cared whether or not she was hungry, but I did, and I do. It’s just part of being human, I guess.

So here is one argument against The Sequester that you’re not hearing elsewhere – it will cause a lot of pain. A lot of hunger, a lot of disease, a lot of death. I understand that this argument is hopelessly unfashionable, and completely contrary to the zeitgeist of fear and hatred that dominates our political discourse. But there it is, nevertheless. I sure see it. Maybe you do, too.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

lets see....

Congress, especially Republicans, should embrace the sequester. While it represents only its a 10-year spending equaling $1.1 trillion—approx. 3% projected federal spending...in annual terms its the same- on fed. gov. spending of 3.6 trillion,( $110. bn).

That also turns out to be only $2 of spending cuts to the $1 dollar of the president's tax increases as to that expanded revenue he wanted and got. That's not the 3:1 formula recommended by the president's 2010 Simpson-Bowles deficit commission either, its less......

Nov. 21 2011-In is own words;


"Already, some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts.

My message to them is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one. "

Statement by the President on the Supercommittee | The White House




defense takes the axe and some discretionary spending too, thats what the left wanted, defense to get cut back, and, it will, and the federal packages of discretionary budgets take a hit too, 50/50 so I don't know what anyones bitching about....

 

[Avatar4321]

Good piece - good post.
But it takes me back to the days when I was learning to be a lifeguard. The first thing they taught us is how to get out of the grasp of a drowning person. Because if that drowning person drags you down, two die instead of one and you never help anyone again.

"For you have the poor always with you; but me you have not always."
Matthew 26:11

I do have a heart for the poor and the suffering. Unfortunately, even we don't have the resources to help every one of them. And if we bankrupt ourselves trying, we will never help any more in the future.

Ah, but we DO have the resources, we just think having the biggest "toys" is the priority, not helping people.

You're delusional if you think that borrowing trillions of dollars indicates that we have the resources to pay for pet projects.

Not to mention the Federal government has no authority to give our money to other people. It's the responsibility of individuals to give and provide for others. Not the government. But then none of you actually care about helping others. If you did, you would be giving your own money and not other peoples money.

 

[Avatar4321]

we could feed every person in the world who needs food.

Man just choses to buy war instead.

lets practice for war no more and feed the world

Get off your butt and work for your food.

 

[Avatar4321]

Greyson is the real deal.

its why the right hates him so

He lied about his political opponents wanting people to die in order to push through Obamacare which is actually going to cause REAL casualities that can be avoided.

Yeah. He's the real deal. He's a real piece of crap.

 

[Political Junky]

Good piece - good post.
But it takes me back to the days when I was learning to be a lifeguard. The first thing they taught us is how to get out of the grasp of a drowning person. Because if that drowning person drags you down, two die instead of one and you never help anyone again.

"For you have the poor always with you; but me you have not always."
Matthew 26:11

I do have a heart for the poor and the suffering. Unfortunately, even we don't have the resources to help every one of them. And if we bankrupt ourselves trying, we will never help any more in the future.

Ah, but we DO have the resources, we just think having the biggest "toys" is the priority, not helping people.

You're delusional if you think that borrowing trillions of dollars indicates that we have the resources to pay for pet projects.

Not to mention the Federal government has no authority to give our money to other people. It's the responsibility of individuals to give and provide for others. Not the government. But then none of you actually care about helping others. If you did, you would be giving your own money and not other peoples money.

Like the $trillions bush spent on Iraq without putting it in the budget?

 

[Avatar4321]

According to my own set of standards, those numbers clearly make him a liar, beyond any shadow of a doubt. And if you want to say that "the other guys do it too", that's fine, they're liars as well.

Deflection doesn't excuse his behavior, nor theirs.

Why do we just sit back and allow this, much less defend it?

.

Because as a society, we are a bunch of liars. A majority has decided that it's too difficult to be honest people. They don't even try. Our society is so corrupt that people like Grayson are able to win elections. We get what we deserve.

That's why it's important to fix ourselves first.

 

[Avatar4321]

Like the $trillions bush spent on Iraq without putting it in the budget?

It was wrong of Bush to avoid putting money spent on the budget. Doesn't change the fact that we can't afford to borrow Trillions of dollars we don't have and the fact that we are indicates that we don't have the resources.

Why do you people seem to think pointing to Bush's budgetary games somehow makes Obama's even bigger budgetary games acceptable? We complained about it under Bush and somehow we are supposed to ignore it when Obama multiplies that? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

 

[Trajan]

this is what you are dealing with, back in march 2011 during another budget fight, heres good ole harry......they cannot even give up $56,000 for a "Cowboy Poetry festival"...if the sequester is the only way, then, thats on them.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCi4I4vxqBQ]Reid's cowboy poetry crusade - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Trajan]

Ah, but we DO have the resources, we just think having the biggest "toys" is the priority, not helping people.

You're delusional if you think that borrowing trillions of dollars indicates that we have the resources to pay for pet projects.

Not to mention the Federal government has no authority to give our money to other people. It's the responsibility of individuals to give and provide for others. Not the government. But then none of you actually care about helping others. If you did, you would be giving your own money and not other peoples money.

Like the $trillions bush spent on Iraq without putting it in the budget?

link(s) to the iraq war tab ( I already know he ran it off budget)...I get approx. 1 trillion, give or take ....


and I don't see what difference it makes. obama has added what to the debt. and is running how much in annual deficits?

 

[Carla_Danger]

According to my own set of standards, those numbers clearly make him a liar, beyond any shadow of a doubt. And if you want to say that "the other guys do it too", that's fine, they're liars as well.

Deflection doesn't excuse his behavior, nor theirs.

Why do we just sit back and allow this, much less defend it?

.

I'm not defending lying, but in the scope of politics, Grayson is pretty tame on the "lie" scale.

You must not support a single politician since they're all "liars".

No, Grayson takes the cake. He isn't Jesse Jackson Jr caliber. He's his own breed of lying scum.
Grayson ad compares Florida religious fundamentalists to Taliban | The Raw Story

I happen to agree with Grayson on that subject.

That's not a lie, that's an opinion. I know it's easy for you to get the two confused.

 

[Avatar4321]

Instead of attacking the speaker, why not address the points?
It's all to easy to find fault in any human being.

Probably because it seems rather ridiculous for a man who actively supports legislation that will end up killing people to be complaining about people dying because of legislation. Because it's completely obvious to anyone paying attention that we are spending beyond our means and that to do so indefinitely is foolish behavior and unsustainable. Because the very idea that he has the right to Rob the American people and give our money to himself and to others is insane.

It's the responsibility of individuals and the private sector to help others. The government has a clearly defined role to play and wasting our resources, our labor, and our time to buy votes and to avoid doing real work to help people is complete corruption.

I work hard for the money I make. I have to spend time away from my family to provide for them. When politicians take my time and waste not only the time they have taken from me, but also the time they take from my children and their children, it very much annoys me. Especially when they lie and claim they are doing it to help people while making their lives worse and glutting themselves on my labors.

So yes, when a man tries to give away my time and money to others to pretend that he is a good man while not giving any of his own time and money, I don't particularly care for that self-righteous pompous fool. And I am completely amazed that this isn't obvious to everyone.

How does that not piss you off?

 

[Avatar4321]

It actually about guarantees it.
Grayson might be the biggest liar in Congress. But it's a high barrier.
In any case, the sequester will do none of those things. The only people who will suffer will be gov't bureaucrats who won't get raises this year.

And they will still be eating caviar on our dime while claiming they are for the little people.

 

[Avatar4321]

No, I'm sorry.

Even if we spent every penny we have on feeding the hungry, we wouldn't elimenate poverty and hunger.

There's approximately 32 trillion dollars hidden in offshore accounts. It would cost around 5 trillion to feel all the hungry people.

So you want to steal people money?
OK, we take the 32 trillion and feed the poor for 6 years and a few months.
Then what? Do you then tell them that they must starve now?

We are talking to Robbers here.

 

[Carla_Danger]

He just barely speaks English.

I bet that didn't stop you from voting for Bush 2.

Bush is far more honest.

AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Thanks for the laugh!

 

[Avatar4321]

they have this nutjob and they talk about Palin

Apparently, they would prefer being lied to than listening to someone with a funny accent.

 

[Avatar4321]

grayson is a good man.

May our government have more like him in the future.

caring about your fellow man never really goes out of style.

Sociopaths are always arround trying to make people feel BAD about caring for others.

Only stupid people allow their party to be run by sociopaths.

Oh yeah Jindal did call the republican party the stupid party huh?

Im shocked. You think a Proven liar is a good man. But then you dont have a problem lying either so I shouldn't be that shocked.

If you or him cared about your fellow man, you wouldn't have to lie to them. And dont pretend we havent proven both of you liars countless times.

Cite a lie by Alan Grayson.

Republicans oppose Obamacare because they want you to die. Or did you completely forget that entire presentation he made in the House? Or how about his attempts to paint Christians as the Taliban? Or how about you try researching for yourself since many of these have already been hashed out on the board multiple times, which you should be well aware of since you were around at the time and probably participating in the threads.

 

[Avatar4321]

I'm not defending lying, but in the scope of politics, Grayson is pretty tame on the "lie" scale.

You must not support a single politician since they're all "liars".

No, Grayson takes the cake. He isn't Jesse Jackson Jr caliber. He's his own breed of lying scum.
Grayson ad compares Florida religious fundamentalists to Taliban | The Raw Story

I happen to agree with Grayson on that subject.

That's not a lie, that's an opinion. I know it's easy for you to get the two confused.

No. It's a lie. Why do you people think that stating an "opinion" that is blatantly untrue is any less a lie because you claim it's an opinion.

If it's my opinion that 2 is less than 1, it's not any less a lie. If it's my opinion that Mitt Romney really won the election, it's not any less a lie.

Has our society become so corrupt that people can't honestly define what the truth is and what a lie is?

 

[Avatar4321]

I bet that didn't stop you from voting for Bush 2.

Bush is far more honest.

AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Thanks for the laugh!

The funny part is you don't have any problem with that fact.

 

[Political Junky]

Im shocked. You think a Proven liar is a good man. But then you dont have a problem lying either so I shouldn't be that shocked.

If you or him cared about your fellow man, you wouldn't have to lie to them. And dont pretend we havent proven both of you liars countless times.

Cite a lie by Alan Grayson.

Republicans oppose Obamacare because they want you to die. Or did you completely forget that entire presentation he made in the House? Or how about his attempts to paint Christians as the Taliban? Or how about you try researching for yourself since many of these have already been hashed out on the board multiple times, which you should be well aware of since you were around at the time and probably participating in the threads.

Both of those things were his opinions and I agree. You have a different opinion. Opinions are just that, opinions.

 

[Stephanie]

Cite a lie by Alan Grayson.

Republicans oppose Obamacare because they want you to die. Or did you completely forget that entire presentation he made in the House? Or how about his attempts to paint Christians as the Taliban? Or how about you try researching for yourself since many of these have already been hashed out on the board multiple times, which you should be well aware of since you were around at the time and probably participating in the threads.

Both of those things were his opinions and I agree. You have a different opinion. Opinions are just that, opinions.

No it wasn't, it was a lie and you people regurgitated it here after he said it