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The Deficit Reduction Act Of 2005

https://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=7028&sequence=0

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Major facts about this that should tick you off:

1. House Speaker Dennis Hastert invoked "martial law" in the chamber, forcing representatives to pull an all-nighter and vote on the 774-page act after only forty minutes of debate. Major bill that changes the face of current American economics, but the GOP had to force it through over night, like the Patriot Act, before anyone knows what they are signing. Dirty and underhanded politics again.

2. Raised the interest on student loans, replacing a lower variable rate with a higher fixed rate. As a result, students leaving college with $17,500 in loans will have to cough up an additional $5,800 to pay off their debt. Having student loans, not to happy about this.

3. The bill cuts nearly $5 billion in funding to state agencies responsible for tracking down deadbeat dads and collecting child-support payments. I like this one, since maybe deadbeat dads are going to start supporting his kids on his own. Great, hit the kids who have the most problems in life by making it harder to make their dads give money to help the live.

4. the GOP bill hikes premiums and co-payments, forcing low-income patients to pay as much as $100 to visit a doctor or obtain an asthma inhaler. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the added costs will prevent many patients from seeking treatment or, in the case of new monthly premiums, even enrolling in Medicaid. Eighty percent of the projected $16 billion savings in Medicaid will result from a decline in poor people seeking medical care. Again, the poor get hit, seeing a trend here? Lawmakers eliminated provisions in the original Senate bill that would have required pharmaceutical companies to discount the drugs they sell through Medicaid and ended a slush fund for insurers that a nonpartisan advisory commission declared a complete waste of money. The two measures would have produced a combined savings of $20.5 billion -- making the cuts to Medicaid unnecessary.

5. Foster Parents So much for family values -- the bill not only cuts $343 million from foster care, it specifically overturns a federal ruling that granted foster-care funds to low-income grandparents who take in their own grandchildren rather than sloughing them off on strangers. Say Mike DeWine, Rep Sen from Ohio, "I felt that the bill hurt Ohioans who most need our assistance," he says, "whether it is poor children and seniors affected by cuts to Medicaid or families hurt by cuts in foster care."

6. The Working Poor Under tough new rules created by the bill, families on welfare will have to work longer hours to qualify for federal assistance. In two-parent families, both the mother and father must now find full-time jobs or job training. Meeting the requirement could cost states $8 billion -- but the bill provides no new funds, only fines as high as $100 million a year for states that fail to meet the new standard. To avoid the penalties, many states are expected to stop offering welfare to two-parent families -- providing a perverse incentive for working parents to split up to preserve their benefits. Even more troubling, the GOP budget slashes $11 billion in federal support for child care. By 2010, as many as 255,000 kids could be booted out of day care, forcing poor parents to choose between working or caring for their children.

7. To make matters worse, its is estimated that an absorbedant amount of nearly $20 Million dollars will go back into the pocket of those making over $1 Million a year with a cut in capital gains tax.

In short, our absurd GOP majority can not seem to stop screwing the poor and feeding the rich. They give us an "income tax break" then slap us again. The poor and middle class bear the brunt of the financial burden in the country, and the poor get more down trodden. This effectively destroyed the one good this this presidency has done. Loading up the backs of the poor is going to indeed break the back of America eventually. When no food is on the table, people will rise up against yet another ridiculous GOP sponsored bill.

But don't take my word for it, or even go find someone preaching on your side of the political fence. The last thing we need is more political party puppet voters. Read the bill for yourself on the link above. Its an official copy and the bill is fairly clear. Read, and find out what your government is doing to our poor.

Act Reduction Deficit The

I will add my 2 cents to this discussion and try to show why some of the cuts that have been proposed, and that were earlier today passed by the House, are and were needed.

Here is a quote from a USAToday.com article which sums up where the largest reductions will take place. Konq touched on this also in his summary

https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...dget-cuts_x.htm

Student Loans:
As was discussed in length in another topic on the forum, going to college in the US is a privilege, not a right. The student loan program should be designed to aid those who not only need it monetarily, but also show potential that they are college-worthy. College is not for everyone, and we can't expect ALL the people in the U.S to be college educated. This allows for selective weeding-out for lack of a better term, and only the students who really can make it through college, and show that they can do something with it when they are done, will really take the sacrifice to take out loans and go the distance. Sure there will be those who are gifted and will be left out, but no more than is left out today, in my opinion

Medicaid and Medicare:
I live in a State where I see first-hand how the current Medicaid and Medicare systems are being abused, day in and day out. Patients and doctors alike constantly abuse the privileges that these programs offer, and, in my opinion, it is about time that the government pulled the strings a bit tighter on these programs. Hopefully this will limit the abuse and force people to think twice about going to the doctor for a minor cough and cold, when over-the-counter remedies, or simply rest, can cure most of their ailments.
I also am glad that the premiums for wealthier Medicare beneficiaries will rise, because let me tell you, there are those who should not even be on Medicare. You see patients with cell phones, Columbia jackets, brand name shoes, cigarettes and decent paying jobs, flashing Medicare cards all the time. Please explain to me why someone who has a job who can afford these pleasures of life is on Medicare, paying the same co-pays that very poor citizens of this country are paying? There are those who work at prestigious hospitals such as Mayo Clinic, making decent wages, and they have kids because they know that these kids can be put on Medicare right away, no questions asked. If you can't afford to have children, don't have them! Don't have children because the government will pay for them.

I don't mean to sound harsh here, but the welfare system in this country has really gone a bit too far, and I for one, am glad to see someone with the guts to tighten the reins a bit, in an effort to limit the abuse it has taken. Is it absolutely the best thing to do; maybe not. But it is a step in a direction that many have been too afraid to go in. If you think about it, this may have all but sealed the vote for the next election to the favor of the Democrats. Is it smart politics; not really. However it sets a precedent that we as a nation really need to pay attention to the programs that many, for so long, have ignored.

The Deficit Reduction Act Of 2005 History & Civil Business Politics

First off, great points male. You make an excellent point about the abuse of the medicaid system being abused. And you make excellent points about the education system. I agree with all of your views. The abuse in medicaid has been costing the country for a long time, and free hand outs to students who aren't serious should stop.

Problem is, cutting money will not stop these problems. Less money for medicaid will only effect those who honestly need it. In my reasoning, people who abuse and cheat medicaid are going to find a way around it either way. Cutting the funding won't stop up the loop holes, it simply ensure that less money will be spent on it. In the end, those who abuse will continue on, but less money will go out to medicaid simply on the bases that there are less people getting money. But maybe, less people who deserve it getting money as well.

As for education, cutting the funding again only ensure the lack of benefit for those poorer who cannot afford to pay the loans interest. You may be right, and it may ensure less abuse and more serious students. Only time will tell, and I think its to early to say that the benefit of that portion will be beneficial or not.

Some of these things in the bill are simply theoretical and can go either way. They can both hurt or help our economy, we have to wait and see. Your takes have shown me that there are definitely good parts to this bill. I didn't see it before because I could not see past the idea that the poorer will be the ones immediately effected. I hope that this bill ends up helping our system, we need to clean it up a bit.