For example, the Sustainable Defense Task Force recommends saving $200 billion by reducing the presence of U.S. troops in Western Europe and the Far East, and reducing total troop strength to 1.3 million. The Democrats could put pressure to cut the defense budget but not put any vital interests at risk.

How about cutting subsidies to ExxonMobil and other Big Oil companies? If Joe Six-Pack is concerned to the core about the budget deficit, let’s make the case that these subsidies would only grow the deficit that the grandkids will have to pay.

Can Democrats finally end tax breaks for multinational companies that ship American jobs overseas? Or ending the wink and nod of allowing huge American-headquartered companies to incorporate overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes?

How about it? What are the programs that we need to cut back or cut out? For example, what about canceling the missile defense or other expensive new systems?

Let’s come up with a priority list and go for it. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Budget Opportunities in the New Reality is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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Today’s New York Times identifies Robert Dold as a Tea Party candidate. Time and time again in recent weeks, Dold’s far right-wing positions have become evident. Earlier this week, he snubbed BJBE, Temple Beth El, Solomon Schechter, and Chicagoland Jewish High School to appear on Sean Hannity’s right-wing program, and just yesterday, we learned that Dold is supported by Fred Malek’s American Action Network.

Robert Dold does his best to pretend he’s a moderate because he knows that while this district might elect a Republican, there’s no way it would elect a Tea Party candidate. So Dold bobs and weaves, hoping to wink and nod his way to office.

Today’s New York Times listed the Tea Party candidates running in each district. Sure enough, Bob Dold made the list.

As the Times explains, “For purposes of the list, Tea Party candidates were those who had entered politics through the movement or who are receiving significant support from local Tea Party groups and who share the ideology of the movement.”

What does the Tea Party stand for? According to today’s New York Times:

While there is no official Tea Party platform, candidates share a determination to repeal the health care legislation passed in March. They vow not only to permanently extend the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush and to eliminate the estate tax, but also to replace the progressive income tax with a flat tax or a national sales tax. Several candidates advocate abolishing the Internal Revenue Service entirely.

Many have called for a balanced budget amendment. They oppose newly passed financial regulation, and oppose cap-and-trade of carbon emissions.

The candidates also promise to carry into office the Tea Party’s strict interpretation of the Constitution. Time and time again, Dold gets caught with right-wing groups. He was endorsed by Phyllis Schlafly’s right-wing Eagle Forum group and now says it was a “mistake.” He’s endorsed by Dan Quayle and Grover Norquist. He’s supported by Americans for Prosperity, Dick Armey’s Freedom Works, and the American Action Network. He’s recommended by the anti-choice Federation for Right to Life. The list goes on and on.

A great article last month by Rich Miller asks “Who really is this guy and where does he live?” After listing several right-wing endorsements and Dold’s attempts to “hide the ball,” including Dold’s attempt to get a lower rating from Conservative Magazine by telling them that he does not want a high rating because “he wishes to be viewed as a moderate,” Miller says this: “Yep. Stuff always just happens to him. For whatever reasons apparently unknown to Bob Dold, the Right just loves him. Poor guy.”

Earlier this week, Dold snubbed BJBE, Chicagoland Jewish High School, Solomon Schechter, and Temple Beth-El to appear on Sean Hannity’s right-wing talk show.

And now we learn that Dold is receiving support from The American Action Network, a right-wing front group headed by Fred Malek (the same Fred Malek who identified and attempted to purge Jews from the Nixon administration and who was involved in a recent pension fund scandal). The group is now running a series of misleading ads attacking Dan Seals.

Dan Seals, on the other hand, does not run away from his endorsements or his supporters. Dan Seals is proud to be endorsed by a broad coalition of organizations including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, JAC-PAC, Friends of Israel PAC, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Alliance for Retired Americans, National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Human Rights Campaign, Associated Firefighters of Illinois, and more.

Dan Seals is the only candidate in this race who shares the values of our district. He is pro-Israel, he is a  fiscal conservative, and he is a social moderate. Let’s make him our next Congressman.

Take care,
Steve Sheffey

New York Times: Dold Is A Tea Party Candidate is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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It is unthinkable that anyone, especially anyone who voted for President Obama in the last election would reelect any Republican and worse yet, put the Republican Congress back into power, the very people that got us into this mess.

I can’t fathom the short memory of our society, the gullibility of our populace to actually believe that the very people that lied to us about Iraq simply so that they could attack another country for their own purposes and who came so close to creating the next great depression are the “change that we now need” are the “anti-establishment” that will make our country strong, again. The irony of the word “again” is that what would happen is that they’d destroy us, again.

How incredulous I am when I see that the GDP way down during the end of the Bush era, and yet when President Obama came in, the GDP began to climb and it has climbed every quarter due to President Obama’s financial decisions. And so has jobs. And so has nearly every metric that measures our society getting stronger financially. And let us not forget that prior to the Republicans taking office, when the Democrats were in power during the Clinton era we didn’t have a deficit. We had a surplus that was squandered by the Republicans. Our current situation regarding the deficit exists because we are climbing out of a hole created by the Republicans.

To blame President Obama because he has not yet solved the problem that the Republicans created defies all logic. Why is President Obama guilty for helping solve these issues? He / we are the victims, not the perpetrators. Why would we want to put the people back in power that created the issues? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the people that created this current situation (whose policies have not changed) will simply create it again. And they will create it for two reasons, power and money. They want the top 1% of our country to have most of the money. They desperately want to try to stop us from helping out the bottom 99%, us.

Think of how this election is being funded. The Supreme Court, influenced by the Republicans passed an unthinkable law that corporations can give unlimited amounts of money to campaigns. Yes, unlimited. And further, laws were defeated by the Republicans to force PACs from revealing from where they receive their money. And even worse, many of these PACs are being funded by foreign money. So think about that. Flag waving Republicans funded by potentially our enemies or minimally, non-Americans who have an agenda, which is to help their country, their foreign interests, not us. I can’t imagine anything more un-American.

And think of the Tea / Republican Party and their candidates; candidates that are against minimum wage, against social security, against the VA, and crazy enough, against… masturbation. How bizarre.

Bizarre people, funded by foreign money, ill equipped to run for office, part of a party that has obstructed over 400 bills in the Senate that passed in the House, not only possibly being elected, but being the majority power in Congress. How frightening. We forget how close we are to complete anarchy in our society. I could not imagine such candidates just a few years ago, but now, they are mainstream – candidates who have to go on TV to declare they’re no longer “witches.” Ridiculous insanity.

But lets look at this from a completely different angle. Lets look at it from the angle of who do we want running our country? Intelligence or stupidity? Honesty or dishonesty? Kindness or mean-spiritedness’? Those who believe in truth or lies? Sanity or Insanity as Jon Stewart would say. And by the way, Jon and others, please give President Obama a break. Serious and not so serious pundits are expressing dissatisfaction with President Obama. I understand he’s not doing every single thing we wanted. Was the healthcare bill perfect? No. But there were serious forces trying desperately to keep the status quo. He had to fight against that. Just the fact that the healthcare bill stopped the pre-existing clause is miraculous. Give him some credit. Be honest with yourself when you criticize and understand the limitations of the office.

Remember, it was President Obama’s message that resonated with so many voters just a few years ago because he was being honest; simple as that. He’s exceedingly intelligent; the right person for the job. Who else would you want in office now? The people that are disappointed with him, saying that he hasn’t solved everything or done everything the exact way they wanted or had to make compromises should simply ask themselves if they could do better in his shoes? I doubt it. I can’t imagine a better person to run our country during one of the most trying times in modern history than President Obama, except maybe Michele Obama.

Just before the election I wrote a song, created a video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4srDYEPoqo

seen by over 130,000 people in one day, #1 on YouTube on inauguration day, millions of YouTube impressions. It had a great effect on many people around the world. I paid for this video out of my own pocket because I was inspired – six figures I paid, to get the best artists in the U.S. to be part of my creation. It made a nice splash on inaugural day, but has now fizzled out as has the enthusiasm that we once had as a nation. I’ve tried to get the attention of the DNC, of the White House of any Democrat to tell them that this video, this message, this enthusiasm is the key to votes in the midterms and in 2012. They simply ignored the power of the message. What was the message? Hope. That “Yes We Can (Change Our Destiny)”. The feeling that we can change our own destiny, that we can “bend the arc of history” is what caused us all to vote, to get involved, because we felt we could make a difference. We now wrongly feel we can’t make a difference. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

The “enthusiasm gap” that the Democrats are facing now could be changed if someone would be brave enough to once again say that it’s not corny to hope, it’s not corny to dream, it’s not corny to be an optimist, it’s not corny to say, “Yes We Can (Change our Destiny)”. I wrote this song, created this video because I knew two years ago, that unfortunately we’d be here today and we’d need a huge lift in enthusiasm. What I didn’t expect is that I couldn’t get anyone to listen again, to use my free work of art that inspired millions, that no one would get it, that it’s INSPIRATION that creates change.

We need to inspire the world again.

So go out and inspire someone.

Stop complaining.

Life isn’t perfect.

Vote.

And vote for the Democrats or you’ll be terribly regretful that your inaction has created yet another mess for our country and our world.

Vote.

Vote.

Vote.

Vote to keep the change we started.

Yes We Can (Change our Destiny)

Unthinkable Anyone Would Re-Elect The Republicans That Got Us in This Mess is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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A few days ago, Bob Dold was named one of the new Young Guns by the NRCC – just a little more party spotlight. In order to get this title , Dold had to meet certain fundraising and media relations criteria.
Fundraising especially was no problem for Dold. As the self-proclaimed Tenth District candidate for small business, Dold has definitely been making friends with business interests. However, his new friends are mostly corporate backers. Local moguls, such as John Canning, Patrick Ryan, Andrew McKenna Sr., and William Osborn, all donated to Dold in the primary. So did Alan Lacy, the CEO of Sears. So, a handful of leaders of corporate America trying to buy off election: not the best display of democracy. However, things could be worse. We could have a candidate who claims to support small businesses, while actually running his campaign in a way which commits him to corporate interests for twenty-four months of his hypothetical two –year term. Wait, that sounds familiar. However, these moguls do live in-district, so the voices of more than five district 10 residents would be heard in Congress, were Dold elected.

Aiming to keep Kirk’s open seat Republican, Dold has also been fumbling with the adjective independent, which he likes to put in front of his party affiliation as often as possible. I always though ‘independent’ meant thinking outside of party lines, in order to adjust to the desires of constituents and stay away from overly-radical party demagogues. However, to Dold, it looks like Independent has taken a whole new meaning: supporting irrational radicalism. According to Dold, the “Tea Party has] a great voice out there”, because it is “talking about liberty and the Constitution. ” Further he claims that he appreciates the Tea Party’s work, because, like them he also ‘likes liberty and the Constitution’.

If anything stands against independent thinking, it’s the repetitive, senseless chants of angry mobs filled with a lot of emotion but no constructive solutions. .Even Dold admits that “the Tea Party is just angry.” I thought the 10th district was too educated and rational to be associated with racism, intolerance, and blind hatred. I though voters in the northern suburbs would like politicians to go a little deeper then ‘liberty is good, I like liberty.’ I thought our district was smart enough to differentiate between small business and corporate interests. However, Dold does not seem to agree. In November, we will prove him wrong.

Bob Dold, man of the people (not the people in our district) is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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