Reply #23: Here's coverage of his talk in Tauton - very very strong words again

[karynnj]

How many politicians have the guts to say that if we don't commit to upgrade our infrastructure we will not be a first rate power? (He was actually even stronger at Tuesday's Finance committee hearing - we are spending less than than 2% of GDP on infrastructure - China is spending 9% and Europe 5% - he ducked in about 2/3rds of the way in the hearing (absenting himself from the SFRC hearing that he returned to - still coherent in both after arriving from Af/Pak at 6:30 am!)

On the Ryan budget, no problem getting a definitive position from this MA Senator - and the same one he has held since Ryan put out his monstrosity. "reckless and dangerous" Beyond that he says:

Kerry sharply criticized the Ryan budget proposal, saying its steep cuts would break the government’s social compact with America and would lead to further turmoil. It targets cuts to social programs for middle-class Americans, he said, without eliminating tax breaks for big oil companies or investing in economy-boosting sectors such as energy technology or infrastructure.

"“This is a no B.S. conversation,” he said. “This is about real choices. I want to balance the budget, but I want to do it smart, the way we did it in the 1990s … We’ve got a knee-jerk, extremist, irrational, anarchical group of people out there whose idea of compromise is ‘do it my way.’”

Read more: http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/business_news/x1796494589/Sen-John-Kerry-talks-budget-infrastructure-policy-at-economic-meeting-in-Taunton#ixzz1N0P7cmOZ

Incidentally, I found an easy to read analysis ( http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/04/americas_budget ) with lots of detail on many of the other bad things in the Ryan bill.
It really shows that the Republicans offer their basic agenda as the solution to every problem. How could it ever make sense to eliminate the estate tax and the tax on capital gains because we have a deficit! (I looked at some right wing sites to see if they tried and they are arguing "double taxation" which is beyond ludicrous - only the GAIN in either case is taxed for capital gains and then at a preferred rate. On the estate tax, the impact is really on the person(s) who inherit the estate - and seeing that they are getting millions, it is really hard to feel sorry for the fact that they should pay a tax - when the first dollar made by a single parent at a minimum wage job incurs payroll taxes.