The Washington Post notes that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell demands spending cuts, Medicare overhaul for deal on debt limit. This is because he wants to kill off middle and lower class Americans who have spent their entire working lives paying Medicare insurance premiums, so they would have health insurance in retirement.

The Republicans don’t want to pay back the 17.9% of the deficit that is owned by the Social Security Trust Fund in the form of government bonds. They gave that money to the wealthy as tax breaks, and don’t want to have to get it back.

Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune wrote an informative piece, Medicare is going bankrupt! Again., listing all of the predictions that Medicare was going broke. Those who predicted it make Harold Camping’s Apocalypse predictions look like Paul the octopus on World Cup winners, rather than the total loser he is. After all, Camping is only O for 2, while the Medicare crowd are O for 12+.

The best way of dealing with the deficit and improving Medicare is to put people to work by repairing the country’s infrastructure, just like FDR did in the 1930s.

CBS covers the latest Republican attack on people: Funds for tornado victims will be offset

(CBS News) House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Sunday said that the government would “find the money” for emergency assistance to disaster-struck regions like Joplin, Mo., but that any aid would be offset by cuts to the federal budget.

Joplin is the latest American city to face devastation at the hands of a powerful tornado in what has been the deadliest tornado season on record since 1950. As of Sunday, the Joplin death toll was at 139, but is expected to go higher as the search continues for more than 100 people still missing.

In an appearance on “Face the Nation,” Cantor (R-Va.) emphasized that, in dealing with the devastation, “there is an appropriate federal role” – but that, like any family, the government doesn’t have unlimited resources.

“Congress will find the money,” Cantor told CBS News senior correspondent Harry Smith. “And it will be offset.”

The Boehner Politburo won’t even consider helping the victims of disasters unless it can extract a “pound of flesh” from some other weak and defenseless group. They created a slush fund in the Defense budget to hide the earmarks that they claim are no longer allowed, so let’s start by eliminating that, and then we can talk about reducing the size of Congressional staffs. If that isn’t enough, we can jack up their health insurance co-pays, and reduce their salaries and travel budgets.

Position: 34.5N 137.5E [ 9AM CST 1500 UTC 0000 JST].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 30 mph [48 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 75 kph].

Songda was disrupted by the rugged terrain of the Wakayama Prefecture and is transitioning to an extratropical gale. This is the final advisory.