No Matter Who Wins

People really are losing hope and beginning to feel genuinely, clinically depressed.
———–
The only positive in the above is it tells me people must be paying attention. It’s too bad it took this level of extremity to wake them up.

Me? I’ve had temporarily depressing days/periods throughout my life, and more recently beginning with the Democratic primary season… but, lately, and of much longer duration, I have been more depressed for a longer duration than I have been in a very long time.

I don’t do alcohol or drugs (except for my airline anxiety pills… but I fly infrequently so that’s neither here or there), so my options for escapism are limited. I’m sleeping more than usual, and often I numb myself by playing bejeweled blitz mindlessly and in a non-competitive way for hours on end.

The only motivating spark, which is bearly perceptible at this point, is the thought of the future of girls. Skipper is the symbol I use to represent all girls. I can’t bear the idea that Skipper and all girls will not be allowed to actualize their fullest potential. That the obstacles will still be in place to thwart their hearts desires and goals.

That’s the only thing, at this point, that keeps me going, and, as powerful as that is for me as a motivating factor, even that seems to be slipping away while I drift on a continuous downward spiral.

Sorry to go on like this… just my islands in the stream.

I do agree that many Democrats in the Whitehouse and congress have gone so far off the rails that they have handed over the next two elections to the Republican’s. That makes me sick. (Watching our party go up in smoke)

But I do like to try and find something to look forward to before I fall down that rabbit hole of depression.

My way of coping is to try and find something hopeful to focus on while the shit hits the fan. Hunker down, play a little bejeweled (like Dances) while I zone out, watch my tv shows and do some art and knitting besides working full time and supporting my little family.

My hopes hang on Hillary running again in one of the next two elections. If I knew for sure that was never going to happen……………I would be a hell of a lot more depressed. (I can’t go there, so I don’t.)

I try to focus on the 2010 elections right now. I worry about my state being run by a Republican that fashions her politics after Raygunnnn. I am not going to vote for the woman Republican running for Governor in my state, I am pretty sure of that by now, but she could change my mind.

I will try to vote for as many woman in congress as I can, and vote out as many incumbents as possible. There are some women Dems I will keep voting for.

One thing we can all agree on, things are not boring in politics these days.
One corrupt action after another.

I don’t know how I would deal with life right now without my
(((PUMA friends))).

That’s why I feel they will get Marijuana legalized. Everyone will want to be high so they don’t have to watch the country go to “hell in a hand basket.” My generation (Baby Boomers) are one of the leading groups advocating it. Of course, I know many, that didn’t really give it up.

I guess the best way to deal with the depression is to think you can be a thorn in the side of these assholes. Sorta like that saying: When she gets up in the morning, the Devil says, “shit, that Bitch is awake!”

People taking to the streets is what gives me hope. The politicians, the media and the bloggers all hate that and they are trying to paint these people as kooks, nazis, and irrelevant. That gives you an idea of how much they don’t want people thinking and taking action on their own. They will try to discourage the activists by doing whatever they oppose, but it is the light at the end of the tunnel if people stay engaged and protest. They may lose some battles and win some. It’s a mind game and power struggle. Waiting to see who wins in the end.

BCL
How right you are.

Obama’s speech today is by invitation only -

The White House announced Saturday that President Barack Obama has chosen St. Charles High School as the backdrop for his speech next Wednesday on health care.

The afternoon address will be by invitation only, and not open to the general public, his staff said in a release.

The speech is expected to focus on the president’s latest push to persuade Congress to complete the work on legislation it started a year ago. The U.S. House and Senate have each passed a health care bill, almost entirely without Republican votes.

——–
he doesn’t want to face the general public

SHADOW: As long as we have Hillary and Sarah—
We have a CHANCE—I stand with them also !!

michelina

I agree, don’t give in to depression. Depression is hopelessness, push it away with things and people you enjoy and keep fighting for what is right.

Life has never been easy, at least for most of us, so rolling over is not an option.

Don’t look at Drudge……..

This was on Drudge…….right on the heels of Murphy’s post yesterday.
——–
Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican

Don Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in the diocese of Rome and the president of honour of the Association of Exorcists.

Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7056689.ece
————–

I think there needs to be an exorcism in the Whitehouse!!!!!!!!

Pelosi Remarks at the 2010 Legislative Conference for National Association of Counties

She is talking about Congress passing healthcare reform and she says …

“But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1576

This is how Obama wants you to feel. Hopeless. So he can change everything. Its all Rules for Radicals. Don’t give the bastard the satisfaction.

All these organizations: PUMA’s, Tea Parties, etc ARE WORKING!!! Without all this action digging for the truth and spreading it all over the net, the media water carriers would have sold Obama’s healthcare, we would have liked it, and it would have been a done deal.

The DC switchboards are being smoked right now. I have heard that Pelosi is 23 votes short. So keep fighting. I have a new fax list with about 15 more members who are reportedly, undecided.

Griffith Rep. Parker 202-225-4392
Bright Rep. Bobby 202-225-8913
Berry Rep. Marion 202-225-5602
Ross Rep. Mike 202-225-1314
Mitchell Rep. Harry (202) 225-3263
Giffords Rep. Gabrielle 202-225-0378
Schiff Rep. Adam 202-225-5828
Sanchez Rep. Loretta 202-226-1012
Baca Rep. Joe 202-225-8671
Harman Rep. Jane 202-226-7290
Thompson Rep. Mike 202-225-4335
Costa Rep. Jim 202-225-9308
Cardoza Rep. Dennis 202-225-0819
Salazar Rep. John 202-226-9669
Boyd Rep. Allen 202-225-5615
Barrow Rep. John (202) 225-3377
Marshall Rep. Jim 202-225-3013
Bishop Rep. Sanford 202-225-2203
Scott Rep. David 202-225-4628
Boswell Rep. Leonard 202-225-5608
Bean Rep. Melissa 202-225-7830
Donnelly Rep. Joe 202-225-6798
Hill Rep. Baron 202-226-6866
Ellsworth Rep. Brad 202-225-3284
Moore Rep. Dennis 202-225-2807
Chandler Rep. Ben 202-225-2122
Melancon Rep. Charlie (202) 226-3944
Kratovil Rep. Frank 202-225-0254
Michaud Rep. Mike 202-225-2943
Minnick Rep. Walt 202-225-3029
Peterson Rep. Collin 202-225-1593
Taylor Rep. Gene 202-225-7074
Childers Rep. Travis 202-225-3549
Shuler Rep. Heath 202-226-6422
McIntyre Rep. Mike 202-225-5773
Pomeroy Rep. Earl 202-226-0893
Arcuri Rep. Mike 202-225-1891
Wilson Rep. Charlie 202-225-5907
Space Rep. Zack (202) 225-3394
Boren Rep. Dan 202-225-3038
Dahlkemper Rep. Kathy 202-225-3103
Altmire Rep. Jason 202-226-2274
Carney Rep. Christopher 202-225-9594
Murphy Rep. Patrick 202-225-9511
Holden Rep. Tim 202-226-0996
Herseth Sandlin Rep. Stephanie 202-225-5823
Tanner Rep. John 202-225-1765
Davis Rep. Lincoln 202-226-5172
Cooper Rep. Jim 202-226-1035
Cuellar Henry 202-225-1641
Mattheson Rep.Jim (202) 225-5638
Nye Rep. Glenn 202-225-4218
Davis Rep. Artur (202) 226-9567
Kirkpatrick Rep. Ann (202) 226-9739
McNerney Rep. Jerry (202) 225-4060
Markey Rep. Betsy (202) 225-5870
Himes Rep. Jim (202) 225-9629
Grayson Rep. Alan (202) 225-0999
Kosmas Rep. Suzanne (202) 226-6299
Foster Rep. Bill (202) 225-0697
Lipinski Rep. Daniel (202) 225-1012
Peters Gary (202) 226-2356
Schauer Rep. Mark (202) 225-6281
Stupak Rep. Bart (202) 225-4744
Skelton Rep. Ike (202) 225-2695
Kissell Rep. Larry (202) 225-4036
Shea-Porter Rep. Carol (202) 225-5822
Heinrich Rep. Martin (202) 225-4975
Teague Rep. Harry (202) 225-9599
Titus Dina (202) 225-2185
Massa Rep. Eric (202) 226-6599
Murphy Rep. Scott (202) 225-1168
Hall Rep. John (202) 225-3289
Bishop Tim (202) 225-3143
Maffei Dan (202) 225-4042
Owens Bill (202) 226-0621
McMahon Rep. Mike (202) 226-1272
Boccieri Rep. John (202) 225-3059
Kilroy Rep. Mary Jo (202) 225-3529
Sutton Rep. Betty (202) 225-2266
Driehaus Steven (202) 225-3012
Schrader Rep. Kurt (202) 225-5699
Kanjorski Rep. Paul 202-225-0764
Spratt John (202) 225-0464
Edwards Rep. Chet (202) 225-0350
Perriello Tom (202) 225-5681
Boucher Rep. Rick (202) 225-0442
Connolly Rep. Gerry (202) 225-3071
Baird Rep. Brian (202) 225-3478
Kagen Rep. Steve (202) 225-5729
Obey Rep. David (715) 842-4488
Rahall Nick (202) 225-9061
Mollohan Rep. Alan (202) 225-7564

#19

And who created that ‘fog’? The woman actually believes we are stupid enough to swallow this swill?

Im not depressed, im not sad, Im damned mad at how many scandals are coming out and yet the biggest scandal of them all lives at 1600 pennsylvania avenues, he’s gonna leave an inheritance to the next person who is president far worse than what he inherited. Im really quite sure some rumors im hearing about how he plans to do somethings with energy like the alaskan natural gas pipelien arent far down the pipe, he’s an arrogant, know nothing. He’s been brainwashed
for so many years his ideoligies are not main stream dem and def aint repub, he’s the one causing all this freaking mess because he is surrounded by people who just well, love him, axelrod, i just love the guy,jees, do you believe that, i dont i think axelrod really thinks he’s the president and rahm aint far behind, this who admin is joke.
and a clear and present danger, so you better get your boots on the shit is gonna get real deep.

by the way, when the cencus does get here and it ask for my race and it has other on it, im putting american. period.

They are still working on the healthcare bill…

Many businesses have determined that because of government mandates and threats of mandates it simply makes sense to hire more part-time workers and fewer full-timers. This is because it would simply cost less to employ a part-time worker to come in and complete a job or task compared to a full-time worker with all of the government regulated strings attached. So someone in the House has realized that this trend could conceivably become a reality. They are trying to change the House healthcare bill require businesses to count part-time employees when calculating healthcare penalties.

In a new change sought by House Democrats, the fix-it bill would require businesses to count part-time workers when calculating penalties for failing to provide health coverage for employees. Smaller businesses would be exempt. The Senate bill would count only full-time workers in applying the penalties, but under the change, described by a Democratic aide, two part-time workers would count as one full-time worker. Businesses say that’s unduly burdensome, but Democrats contend it would prevent businesses from avoiding penalties by hiring more workers part-time.

Separately, some House Democrats have been lobbying to add to the health care bill unrelated legislation overhauling the nation’s student loan programs. The administration has called for all federal student loans to be originated in the Education Department instead of through banks and other lenders. The government’s savings is estimated at about $87 billion over a decade, money that would be put into larger Pell Grants and other forms of student assistance. A stand-alone measure has cleared the House but is stalled in the Senate.

source: the AP

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_HEALTH_OVERHAUL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-03-08-23-31-33

goandersen 03.10.10 at 1:33 pm

# 24

I will answer one question on the census, and one only.
———
Which question will you answer?

Maybe we should just answer all questions with, “I’m a PUMA, bite me!”

(Dances, your making my head hurt—you sound lonely more than anything)
——————-
Interesting. I don’t feel lonely. As a matter of fact I prefer being alone, although there are those rare occassions when my aloneness is a bit uncomfortable. I’ll take a look at your take. Thanks.

I think they say depression is anger turned inward. Not sure.
Anyway, this too shall pass. I’ll think of it as a period of rest, gestation, and rejuvenation.

Onward and upward!!

http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/mar/10/health-care-reform-draws-protest-obamas-arrival/

yep murphy now 2,000 protesters are there, this speaks volumes of the one thing in this plan to me, mandated people to have healthcare. people, well, americans in general dont like to be told what they have to buy. This
is not going well folks

Hi PUMAs -

I got the stupid letter from the Census too – telling me that I will be receiving the actual Census form next week – jesus christ – how goddamm dumb has this country gotten anyway – not only was the letter stupid but there were about 7 or 8 different frickin’ languages also giving the web site for the census – if people can’t speak English or write it or read it – how the hell can they use a computer???? or maybe they can – if so, learn English…………..

I was feeling really depressed right after May 31, 2008 and took a long time for me to let go …now I am just plain pissed and angry as hell – that keeps me going – I feel like old Moses Heston shouting his statement about the gov prying the gun from his cold dead hands – that’s how angry I feel

Another thing I don’t understand – 80% as of today of people think congress critter weasels are ready to be dead (more or less) but that the fraud still has high approval ratings – who the hell are they polling – the obots in the basement who still think he’s mr underful???? thought that pool was shrinking – Don’t they see the cupcakes we see – who’s doing this polling anyway????

Did anybody notice how quickly all the talk about Massa has faded into the ether???
Also – did anyone else notice that when Gates made his ‘surprise’ trip to Kabul – guess who else snuck into Afghanistan too – ole amdinnerjacket – what’s up with that??? Fox news supposedly had a reporter traveling with Gates – gonna send them an email and ask what the hell was that all about – more damm backroom deals? as if we don’t have enough already and with that piece of shit dictator – why??

Please, please – can we impeach this arrogant, narcissistic POS yet? Pretty please w/sugar??

Raining like crazy here – getting rid of the snow but may cause flooding of the Red River again – that’s our LA area – ya know people keep rebuilding on mountains, getting burned our – we pay them to rebuild – same with rebuilding on the hurricane coasts – whole red river area is a flood plain – farmers have put in drain tiles or fields or whatever the hell they are which means the water has no place to go except to just flood and sit there till the sun gets warm enough to evaporate it – stupid stupid stupid – the food is all modified anyway – I don’t want to eat it…………..

Okay – done now (for awhile)

If you resent the questions, you could just lie on the census. How would they know?

Today our president is trying to convince the public to support the health care bill and tomorrow he will be working on national ID with Schumer and Lindsey Graham. He is a busy bee

ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954904575110124037066854.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

BigCatLover 03.10.10 at 1:58 pm

If you resent the questions, you could just lie on the census. How would they know?
——-
Leave questions blank or lie????

Now that’s a thought. I can say there are 15 people living in my 2 bedroom apartment, all speak Italian and I have multiple husbands that work for the teamsters. (I am half Italian, so I can can say it…I was going to say Greek, but thought I would be more pc.

scarlet 03.10.10 at 2:02 pm

Today our president
———-
Let me be clear on this……… He is not my president!

#43 Shadowfax

My sister is going to say she has an out-house, 18 children, an out door hand water pump, no indoor plumbing, uses hurricane lamps for light, doesn’t know how to read, is blind and deaf.

Pantsonfire

The president’s habit of telling untruths

http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/09/obama-and-the-l-word

#50

Wonder what answers bring the most federal funding into our areas?

—-
Answer:

You are an obot and expect the gov to buy you a new car a house and take care of you.

#50 Shadow

and a pink pokey-dotted pony

Go 54
I would like to have freedom from scraping by…nothing less to lose, you can always lose more, your health, people you love, your sanity…
—
More or less the truth

#55 Shadow

That is assuming I haven’t already lost those.

honora,

Mmmmm Bushmills and Guinness. Maybe Spring trip to Ireland. Haven’t been back in a long time.

Silence- I would wait until summer. I have only been once, but I had a ‘grand’ time.

Upthread there’s been mention of Pelosi’s speech to The 2010 Legislative Conference for National Association of Counties. Right after the gaffe already mentioned she comes forth with this meandering thought as well as a bombshell ending (IMHO):
Furthermore, we believe that health care reform, again I said at the beginning of my remarks, that we sent the three pillars that the President’s economic stabilization and job creation initiatives were education and innovation—innovation begins in the classroom—clean energy and climate, addressing the climate issues in an innovative way to keep us number one and competitive in the world with the new technology, and the third, first among equals I may say, is health care, health insurance reform. Health insurance reform is about jobs. This legislation alone will create 4 million jobs, about 400,000 jobs very soon.” http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1576

No doubt those 4 million jobs will be GOVERNMENT jobs.

If we are screwed either way, then why not vote third party?

http://www.mythirdparty.com

California unemployment reaches 12.5% in January

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cal-jobs11-2010mar11,0,3667613.story

Slaughter Solution

March 10. 2010

The twisted scheme by which Democratic leaders plan to bend the rules to ram President Obama’s massive health care legislation through Congress now has a name: the Slaughter Solution.

The Slaughter Solution is a plan by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the Democratic chair of the powerful House Rules Committee and a key ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), to get the health care legislation through the House without an actual vote on the Senate-passed health care bill. You see, Democratic leaders currently lack the votes needed to pass the Senate health care bill through the House. Under Slaughter’s scheme, Democratic leaders will overcome this problem by simply “deeming” the Senate bill passed in the House – without an actual vote by members of the House.

An article in this morning’s edition of National Journal’s CongressDaily breaks the story, starting with the headline: “SLAUGHTER PREPS RULE TO AVOID DIRECT VOTE ON SENATE BILL.” Excerpts:

“House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.

“Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.”

The CongressDaily report was authored by Anna Edney, with Billy House and Dan Friedman contributing.

http://search.nationaljournal.com/?query=slaughter+preps+rule&site%5B%5D=cd&startDate=&endDate=&limit=10&ranktype=pub_date

I love Slaughter, I take no stand on her actions regarding the Health Insurance Company Support Act. But if she is working on it, Stupak will not be happy with the final bill.

Susie – the Fraud has been at -21 several times in the past couple of months… it should be lower!!

—–
Went over to TC, they are bummed, then even went to the Kos…no happiness there and very few bloggers.

Someone at TC mentioned we didn’t even get to enjoy the end of the Bush years…that’s no joke.

Also read somewhere that the present state of the economy is being called The Great Recession. How’s that for being PC……..

Go

So what happens to folks that don’t carry the card?

Tickets?
Can’t go to work?
Is there a GPS chip in the card?
Do we have to pay for the card, and pay to renew it?
Who do we report it to if the card is stolen and what happens at that point?

What freakin’ crap.
I thought the congress was going to work on JOBS!

#10 dances —nails it.

The “may you live in interesting times” is a CURSE. I would much rather live my own damned life in boring times, as during the Clinton era.

Oh, WELL.

The only thing we can do is make sure the newly awakened people don’t think that this time is unique to Obama. In fact, the only “hopeful” sliver in this entire scenario is that we survived, barely, the Bush-Cheney era….as soon as we can point out that fraudbama is a continuation of that, the better off people will be.

Sorry, Allesandro, that doesn’t mean that the fruitless, counterproductive voting for one of the gazillion “third” parties is the answer. Too much hard work for you armchair mouse-click agitators to accomplish, but nice try!

Do the hard work first and then mouth off at the mouse.

#56 honora…. very interesting, thanks!

wonder if his ex-mistress’s husband was blackmailing him…

More Messages Link Senator to Job Effort

WASHINGTON — Previously undisclosed e-mail messages turned over to the F.B.I. and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Senator John Ensign’s efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress and could deepen his legal and political troubles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/politics/11inquire.html?hp

VOTE FOR PENIS-FREE CANDIDATES

I was depressed when GWB “won” the presidential election in 2000. I was shocked when he did it again in 2004. Ever since then, I have been watching the train wreck. By 2008, I was ready for a fight. This last fraud perpetrated on the American Public is biggest Joker yet.

Just look around for a leader.

HILL-LAR-REE!

Nobody said it would be easy.

Zee-

:snip:
…Too much hard work for you armchair mouse-click agitators to accomplish, but nice try!

Do the hard work first and then mouth off at the mouse.
————–
What’s with all the freaking attacks on PUMAs lately?
You’re comments go beyond just an opinion, they are inconsiderate.
How about your not derailing the blog with such harsh comments.

Hi NormaPuma..yes rescind, repeal, revolt then restore and re establish some core principles and decency to our culture, society and government. We CAN be an inclusive, non discriminating, honest and sincere nation …actually I believe we as individuals and the country as a whole are that at heart…but our politicians and those who are supposedly in “power” have fixated on how to maximize on their greed and our fears, all in the name of what’s good for the country.

We are all stronger than that, we see through it and as Murphy says we are losers if we just shift from party to party. Think all we can do is boldly assert our watchful eyes, ears and voices and constantly assert pressure to have our elected officals do right by the people.

wontbackdown 03.10.10 at 11:26 pm
That is because she knows what the votes in the primary ACTUALLY were.

#85 BillieJo

Deal with it. I comment on the subject at hand, not the PUMA. But nice try at attacking me. It’s been a while. ;p

And speaking of derailing…!!!!! Zephyr…!!! I looked up Scrabble Blast and am addicted! It’s like Boggle, one of my faves….I was just IMing my son and saying we could make up a physical version of the game with our Scrabble board….

Dances: “Clown Prince Opiccolo” – That gets me every time – LOL!

I have to hand it to Mrs O, she’s turned out to be a hell of a lot more authentically like-able than fauxtard always pretended to be.

I’ll bet she kicks his arrogant a$$, at least once a day.

Silence Dogood

I loved reading about your great grandmother – maybe it was just genes, but I think the whiskey was probably good for her blood pressure and arteries!

Murphy,

PUMAs give me hope and so do my kids. Sometimes I read so many stories of dead women I feel hollowed out with nothing but rage inside me. But love centers me and gives me strength to keep going.

that simple saying, “This too shall pass” has helped me walk through some hard things I could not change. There are things we can change, and so action has to be taken to keep hope alive. The actions we take may seem meaningless, like drops of water in an ocean, but we are all part of the tide, and everything we do makes the tide stronger.

Today’s tabloids
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/tabloids-wh-vs-scotus-rahm-pork-wars-war-one-for-the-gov/

Here’s something to cheer you up – a karmic moment
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/today-in-schadenfreude-monica-conyers/

Health-care reform’s ‘back-door’ tax

WASHINGTON (Fortune) — The big talk on Capital Hill may be about health-care reform, but as part of this massive undertaking, the Democrats are quietly reshaping the tax system too. Tucked inside President Obama’s latest health-care proposal is a major change to the Medicare tax.

Since its conception, the Medicare tax has always been tied to payrolls. Every paycheck, employers and employees each chip in 1.45%, regardless of how much someone makes. Under Obama’s proposal — which should be very close to what Congress winds up enacting — a Medicare tax would now be applied to investment income too: Individuals who earn more than $200,000 and couples over $250,000 would pay an additional 2.9% surtax on unearned income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.

Two things happen here. The first one is that the Medicare tax would go from being a payroll tax (like Social Security) to an income tax.

“You can certainly make the argument that [payroll is] really not appropriate anymore and we may as well tax all income,” says Howard Gleckman, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute and editor TaxVox, the center’s tax and budget policy blog. “But this is kind of a back-door way to do it.”

The Democrats found their way to this “back door” because they couldn’t agree on how to pay for the health-care bill: House Dems don’t like the Senate’s proposal to tax so-called Cadillac plans, and Senate Democrats don’t like the House bill’s inclusion of an income tax on the wealthy to pay for health care.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/10/news/economy/medicare_tax.fortune/

July 16th was her birthday.