Someone needs to remind Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and his Party that they lost the election in November. On Monday, House Republicans presented their proposal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff and – as you’d expect – it’s a giant kick in the gut to working Americans. The Republican proposal extends the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans and reverses the automatic defense cuts, which could cut into the profits of war profiteers in Virginia.

But Republicans argue their plan still achieves trillions in savings over the next ten years by closing unspecified tax loopholes and by slashing spending on insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare as well as public healthcare programs and other social welfare programs for working people. The Republican proposal also raises the eligibility age for Medicare two years from 65 to 67, which poll after poll has shown a large majority of Americans opposing. Altogether, not a single dime is asked of the wealthy in America, while seniors, the sick, the poor, and the young are asked to make sacrifices.

The White House has already rejected the Republican proposal saying it, “does not meet the test of balance.” This issue should have been settled after the election, but Republicans still won’t budge and the American people know it. That’s why a new Washington Post poll shows that by a margin of 53% to 27%, the nation will blame Republicans more than President Obama if Congress takes us over the cliff.

-Thom

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Monday's Daily Stack

Article: "Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs" by Arindrajit Dube and Ken Jacobs.

Article: "ATTN GOP SENATORS: Walmart Is The Largest Food Stamp Recipient In The Country—Fine Them!" by jillwklausen.

Article: "Walmart Logo Poster: Walmart logos over the past 50 years." by Brandon Evano.

Article: " Fortune 500: Walmart Keeps Top Spot, But Exxon Is Profit King".

Article: "Walmart's New Health Care Policy Shifts Burden To Medicaid, Obamacare" by Alice Hines.

Article: "New Study Finds Wal-Mart’s Miserly Wages Cost Taxpayers" by Stacy Mitchell.

Article: "CO2 emissions rise to 2.4 million pounds per second" by AP.

Article: "Corporate profits hit record as wages get squeezed" by CNNMoney.

Article: "Adelson spent nearly $150 million on the election. Did he waste his money?" by Ned Resnikoff.

The Big Picture
- Sam Sacks, The Big Picture producer, progressive commentator

Article: "Grover Norquist: ‘Tea Party 2 Is Going To Dwarf Tea Party 1 If Obama Pushes Us Off The Cliff’" by Noah Rothman.

Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956", August 20, 1956.

Article: "House GOP offers plan to avoid fiscal cliff, but White House says no" by Dana Bash, Jessica Yellin and Tom Cohen.

Article: "Global Sea Level Rising 60 Percent Faster Than Predicted, Study Finds" by Carl Franzen.

Article: "World temperature set to increase 9 degrees: study" by AFP.

Article: "U.S. Supreme Court to Review Patents on Human Genes" by Brent Kendall.

Article: "Street artist behind satirical NYPD 'Drone' posters arrested" by Joshua Kopstein.

Article: "GOP Leaders May Be Pondering Surrender On Taxes" by Sahil Kapur.

Site: "Thom Hartmann store".

Site: "Mondragon Corporation".

Book: "Threshold: The Progressive Plan to Pull America Back from the Brink" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Hour Two: We put an end to the fast poisoning of Americans...how about the slow poisoning?
- Julie Gunlock, Independent Women's Forum, Women for Food Freedom project

Article: "Keep the state off my plate" by Julie Gunlock.

Article: "Study: Low-Income Families Cook Dinner at Home Five Nights a Week, Aspire to Eat Healthy".

Article: "Prop. 37 lost, but backers keep fighting" by Stacy Finz.

Article: "Negotiations resume as port strike enters 6th day" by AP.

Article: "Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach strike rolls on as negotiations continue" by Brian Sumers.

Book: "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back" by Thom Hartmann - new updated version out now!

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones, White House Correspondent

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "Republicans Give Counter-Offer Amid Fiscal Cliff Standstill" by Justin Duckham.

Article: "Obama warns al-Assad against chemical weapons, declares 'the world is watching'" by CNN.

Article: "Assad's 'Chemical Weapons' a 'Red Line'" by Dana Hughes.

Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956 ", August 20, 1956.

Letter: "to Edgar Newton Eisenhower, November 8, 1954" by Dwight Eisenhower. "Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Article: "Edward Mazria" by Wikipedia.

Article: "After Sandy, Occupy shined" by Michael Tracey.

The good: "Fr. Jonathan Morris Gone Rogue On Fox News War On Christmas?" by Priscilla.

The bad: "Allen West: "Lincoln Only Served One Term In Congress, Too"" by Martin West.

The very, very ugly: "Principal Tim Richard Forces Boys to Hold Hands at School" by Michael Allen.

Transcript: "Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon Second Joint Radio-Television Broadcast", October 7, 1960.

Article: "Bob Costas Makes Controversial Gun Control Remarks on Sunday Night Football" by Ben Chodos.

Article: "One Quarter Of Republicans Want To Secede" by Annie-Rose Strasser.

Article: "IGA (supermarkets)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Federal judge rules atheists must become ‘clergy’ to perform marriages" by David Edwards.

Article: "A detached Romney tends wounds in seclusion after failed White House bid" by Philip Rucker.

Article: "Fracking Our Food Supply" by Elizabeth Royte.

Site: Move to Amend

Hour Two: Will conservatives throw homeowners to the vulture capitalists?
- Tanya Marchiol, Conservative Commentator / Team Investments Inc.

Hour Three: Jobs, The Economy & the fiscal cliff...oh my!
- Senator Sherrod Brown

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