Mitt Romney Didn’t Build That

By Bill Maher

I encourage everyone to read the latest issue of "Rolling Stone." And not just for their glowing review of the new Dylan album (Five stars! And the guy sounds even more like a frog than ever!), but for Matt Taibbi's cover story on how, exactly, Mitt Romney made his millions. The short answer: debt. He saddled companies with debt, extracted what value he could, paid himself a big bonus, and walked away. As Matt puts it:
  
"This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America's top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time."

Matt's right: nobody that I'm aware of has made the connection between the theme of the GOP convention -- "We Built It" -- and what leveraged buyout outfits like Bain do, which is to un-build things. KB Toys had 1,300 stores when Bain took them over; now they have 0.  That's not building, that's un-building.  When Bain took over Ampad paper and stuck the company with $60 million in annual debt payments that resulted in bankruptcy and the firing hundreds of workers -- that's not building, that's un-building. There's a reason the euphemism for this is "creative destruction," and not "creative building." Because everyone involved knows that it's not about building.

And it's certainly not about creating jobs.

Med-Ridden

By Bill Maher

One of the problems America faces is we have an entire generation walking around whacked out on drugs.  And you can't tell them anything because they're defiant and they think they know all the answers.  I’m talking, of course, about America’s seniors.  They're slurring their speech, falling down and practically catatonic -- and that's just what I noticed watching "The Expendables 2."
An ABC News report regarding a new Dutch study confirms what we already know, that many of our seniors fall victim to "polypharmia," getting prescribed way more drugs than are necessary or healthy.  The report says,

"One in five prescriptions written for elderly patients were inappropriate." and, "By some estimates, approximately 30 percent of hospital admissions of elderly patients are related to medication toxic effects."

And the problem isn't just the drugs.  Our for-profit medical industry cleans up preying on our inability to face our parents' and grandparents’ mortality. The dying are kept artificially alive for weeks, sometimes months, at ICU costs of up to ten grand a day.  A 2010 CBS News/60Minutes report points out,

"Last year, Medicare paid $55 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives. That's more than the budget for the Department of Homeland Security, or the Department of Education. And it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenses may have had no meaningful impact. Most of the bills are paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked."

In that 60 Minutes report, a doctor explains,

“Something like 18 to 20 percent of Americans spend their last days in an ICU. And, you know, it's extremely expensive. It's uncomfortable. Many times they have to be sedated so that they don't reflexively pull out a tube, or sometimes their hands are restrained. This is not the way most people would want to spend their last days of life. And yet this has become almost the medical last rites for people as they die."

I'm not suggesting we adopt death panels to decide who lives and who dies, but if we weren't such a pussy nation afraid to address sensitive issues, wouldn't we be having an intelligent, uncomfortable discussion about the difference between prudent senior care and just backing up a dump truck full of cash to the problem?

Talkin' 'Bout Shaft

By Bill Maher

Here's the big lie of this campaign, the thing the Tea people can't seem to understand: the wealth is being redistributed in this country, but not from hardworking, taxpaying "real Americans" to lazy, good-for-nuthin' welfare leeches. Oh sure, that happens -- but it’s nothing compared to the redistribution from the middle up. Wealth is being taken, and has for decades been taken, from the middle class and redistributed to the rich-prick, top one-percent whose money makes money tax-free.

And the whole time this grand fleecing was going on, healthcare and college prices were skyrocketing. The top one percent realized that these are two commodities that middle class families simply cannot do without. So why not charge an ever-increasing arm and a leg for these necessities, you know, like a gas station does, gouging for 10 bucks a gallon after a hurricane? The cost of a college education has gone up 1,120% since 1978 while the cost of medical expenses has gone up 600% in that same time period.

So, now the have-it-alls are looking around at the American landscape with a dry piece of bread wondering, "Where are the last remaining drops of wealth I can sop up off the plate? The poor are still poor and we're cutting their entitlements, the middle class have been mugged and kicked to the curb with their pockets turned inside-out... I know: the elderly!" Old people still have money. In 1984, old people (65 and up) were ten times richer than young people (under 35). Now they're 47 times richer! That's where all the dough is! And, coincidentally, isn't it time we talked about privatizing Medicare?

Saving Faith

By Bill Maher

A new poll found that Americans who describe themselves as "religious" has dropped from 73% to 60% over the past seven years. And in that same time, those who say they’re "atheist" has risen from 1% to 5%.  And polls show more and more high school kids don’t believe in God -- which makes you wonder what they shout out during sex with their teacher. Not only are some kids getting more comfortable with the idea that God is an ancient myth concocted to control the masses with promises of a blissful afterlife, they're beginning to start atheist clubs in their schools. Or at least trying.

A group called the Secular Student Alliance is starting to get requests from teens who want to start atheist clubs at their high schools. These are kids who happen to believe that life can be lived fully and ethically through reason, and that studying is much more effective than prayer for, say, preparing for an American History final.

There were only about a dozen atheist clubs at U.S. high schools at the beginning of last school year but now there are 39 in 17 states with lots more in the pipeline. Just this year, the Secular Student Alliance has gotten 73 additional requests for their club starter kits.

Now, to start a club in your high school, you basically have to get a faculty advisor to agree to sponsor you and prove that enough kids are interested in participating. But despite petitioners meeting these criteria, some high schools continue to resist atheist clubs. One Florida high school refused an atheist club, saying it would be "too controversial." A principal at a Houston high school would not allow the club to be called "atheist" because that name "could disrupt the educational process." By citing disruption and controversy, what these schools were basically saying is, "We don't just see your independent thinking as independent; we see it as a provocation, as an attack on the approved thinking of the majority."

The kicker is the Florida high school that refuses to approve an atheist club on the grounds that it doesn't allow any religious clubs. But an atheist club, by definition, is not a religious club. That's the whole point. Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position. Like not being hungry is a meal.  Like not believing in magic is a trick. What is it about non-belief that believers find so threatening?

Birther Control

By Bill Maher

Chris Matthews dressed down RNC Chair Reince Priebus last week for Romney's playing the race card with the birther joke, and the party doing it with the false welfare ads, constantly bringing up that he's a "European-style socialist," etc. At first, Priebus didn't have much of a response at all, because he knows it's true. By the end, he just seemed contemptuous of Matthews, but had no legitimate defense.

But Tom Brokaw chimed in that he disagreed with Chris, and thought it was just an "awkward joke," adding that Republican leaders should have corrected the record when people started calling Obama a Muslim and a socialist, but "both sides" do it. Bullshit. Half of Democrats don't believe Romney was born in a foreign country. On another planet, maybe, but not a foreign country. That was the whole point of Romney's "joke," wasn't it? "Nobody's ever asked to see my birth certificate" -- yeah, because you're a white guy, you dipshit, and you're not the victim of that kind of racism. When people say he can't empathize with ordinary people, that's part of what they mean.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has an amazing essay in this month's Atlantic called, "Fear of a Black President." He writes, "Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others. Black America ever lives under that skeptical eye." True dat.

The first time I ever saw Obama’s citizenship questioned was in a chain email well before the 2008 election. I thought, "Wow, this is obviously racist," and dismissed it as a fringe rumor that would end with white supremacists. How did it grow to the point where half of Republican primary voters believed it? It wasn’t just the silence of Republican leaders, it was the failure of people like Tom Brokaw to just dismiss it as racism from the beginning. People like him are always championing "balance" over objectivity. They have to bring everything back to a discussion about how "both sides" are guilty, instead of doing his job as a referee. If every single journalist just simply labeled birtherism what it obviously is -- racism -- the cancer wouldn't have infected half the party. Maybe 25% or so, but most would be like, "Okay, this isn't socially respectable."

Every journalist knows it comes from a racist place, so why can't they all be as no-bullshit about it as Chris Matthews?

Whack-a-Mole Accounting

By Bill Maher

No one seems to be talking about how “putting our financial house in order” and “slashing the federal budget,” while sounding good on the surface, simply transfers responsibility to provide critical entitlements to the states.

Go ahead, cut education, federal funding for municipal projects, Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment benefits. That may make you feel like you’re striking a blow for “ending the culture of dependency,” but kids still have to learn, aging classrooms still need to be renovated, books still need to be bought, teachers still need to be paid, bridges and roads still need to be built and repaired, and poor and out-of-work people will still get sick and hungry and need diapers. Having the feds stop paying to solve these problems doesn’t make the problems go away; it just transfers the onus of solving these problems to the states. The good news: Paul Ryan has reduced your federal income tax responsibility to 10%. The bad news: your state government now needs 55%.

Or do they? Maybe the federal government can stop paying for these things and states run by Republican governors and legislatures can finally start governing based on the cherished conservative principle of “Fuck you, every man for himself.”

Writing for the AP, Carla K. Johnson and Kelli Kennedy point out that many Republican-run states are refusing to abide by the part of Obamacare that shifts Medicaid responsibility to the states. Out of one side of their mouths, they demand federal cuts and out of the other they refuse to pick up the slack.

The national health law calls for individuals to be covered at an income under $15,400 and a family of four at an income under $30,650 – but that’s too generous for a few southern states. According to the AP, “In South Carolina, a yearly income of $16,900 is too much for Medicaid for a family of three. In Florida, $11,000 a year is too much. In Mississippi, $8,200 a year is too much. In Louisiana and Texas, earning more than just $5,000 a year makes you ineligible for Medicaid.”

More from the AP story: “Medicaid now covers an estimated 70 million Americans and would cover an estimated 7 million more in 2014 under the Obama health law's expansion. In contrast, Ryan's plan could mean 14 million to 27 million Americans would ultimately lose coverage, even beyond the effect of a repeal of the health law, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation of Ryan's 2011 budget plan.”

And it’s hardly premium coverage. Medicaid sucks and most doctors refuse to even treat patients on it. It’s so shitty you’d be better off with an actual safety net. Should poor people just go fuck themselves?

We're All Sarah Palin Now

By Bill Maher

Back in 2008 we all stood with mouths agape when we learned that Sarah Palin, fresh off not being able to tell Katie Couric what newspapers she read or what nostrils were for, would no longer be doing any interviews or taking questions from the Washington press. It was all going to be stump speeches and friendly interviews with the lickspittles at Fox News from then until November (or, as it turned out, eternity). It was unheard of. What had our political process come to?

Except that it turns out Sarah Palin was a bit of a trailblazer. And not just because she was the first person from the slow reading group to become the vice presidential nominee of a major party. Because now everyone is adopting that tactic.

Mitt Romney is not taking questions or doing any interviews with the Washington press corps either. He's done one recently -- when he rolled out Paul Ryan for 60 Minutes. But that's it. No David Gregory. No Chuck Todd. Not even Katie Couric. He's all stump speech all the time. The only questions he takes are from friendly audiences at fundraisers, usually with the press kept outside. There's no way to pin down his position on anything. Or even get him to answer something so simple as, "So when you say you paid no less than 13% in taxes, you mean 13% in income taxes, right?"

Fox News, attack ads, and stump speeches. That's it.

Even worse, the same goes for President Obama. And he's the fucking president. He just gave his first press conference in months, and recently has only granted interviews to the likes of Entertainment Weekly and People. Oh, and to local news stations, like the recent one with the morning team at KOB FM in New Mexico, who asked him "What type of chili do you prefer, red or green?" and "If you could have a superpower, what superpower would you choose?"

Which is how President Obama gets to go from the beginning of the campaign until now without having to mention anything he might do in a second term. Not a peep.

And what's left when no one will talk about any issue with anyone other than a lapdog or a cipher? Gaffes. Endless coverage of gaffes. From Mitt Romney’s gaffe to Obama's gaffe to Joe Biden's gaffe, to Todd Akin's gaffe. And not only their gaffes, but what do other people say about their gaffes? How do you feel about his or her gaffe? Do you condemn his or her gaffe? Does the person who gaffed deserve to be fired? Or should the person who gaffed step down?

In that sense I can't even blame the media here. Because if the candidates aren't going to do interviews or answer questions, or talk about actual issues, and they're going to say the same thing at every campaign stop (and trust me, they do) there's nothing for the press to cover except when someone goes off that script.

So enjoy the coverage of the candidates' gaffes. And their offshoot, the candidate's spokesperson's gaffes. And the offshoot of that, the candidate's celebrity supporters gaffes. It's all you're going to get.