The National Academy of Science's formula, which is gaining credibility with public officials including some in the Obama administration, would put the poverty rate for Americans 65 and over at 18.6 percent, or 6.8 million people, compared with 9.7 percent, or 3.6 million people, under the existing measure. The original government formula, created in 1955, doesn't take account of rising costs of medical care and other factors.

"It's a hidden problem," said Robin Talbert, president of the AARP Foundation, which provides job training and support to low-income seniors and is backing legislation that would adopt the NAS formula. "There are still many millions of older people on the edge, who don't have what they need to get by."

Last week, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker proposed a series of devastating cuts that unfairly target the most vulnerable in Milwaukee County. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Walker’s budget would cut $2.4 million from programs for the elderly and disabled. Walker’s budget would totally eliminate the Youth Sports Authority program, aimed at helping at-risk teenagers stay out of trouble, and a short-term disability aid program.

Perhaps worst of all is Walker’s proposed cuts of $1 million to county support for homeless shelters. While Walker was riding a motorcycle across the state campaigning for Governor on the Milwaukee County taxpayer’s dime in June, the foreclosure rate in Milwaukee County jumped by 21%. More than 26% of all foreclosures in Wisconsin occurred in Milwaukee County in June, meaning Walker’s heartless cuts to homeless shelters couldn’t come at a worse time for the people of Milwaukee County.

The editorial board at the Journal Sentinel has it right: “…the bottom line should be that the county's difficulties should not be borne solely on the backs of the county's neediest people.”

Contrast that with Governor Doyle.

Judge for yourself.

http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/GOPbudget

By all accounts it's still a big, fat nothing from the state Republicans on how to solve the massive budget deficit the eight years of failed George W. Bush policies have levied on Wisconsin and nearly every state in the nation.

One Wisconsin Now sent our OWNews reporter Cody Oliphant to the state Capitol in the hopes of finding answers from GOP leaders.

There’s been a noticeable silence on the part of the right wing Wisconsin blog community about the vanished postings of the previously-oft frothing Jo Egelhoff, who regularly peppered liberals and pro-family economic and social policies on her FoxPolitics.net blog-n-site.

For a walk down memory lane, you can visit One Wisconsin Now’s http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/page/content/foxpoliticsrevealed/ to see all of her gems of yester-month. And if you can’t stand reading them, by all means, check out our new web ad “Say It Ain’t So, Jo.”

While America’s attention was riveted on hunting trophies and beautified pigs, Wall Street decided it was time to distract us with some melodrama of its own.  The recent financial meltdown was not the work of foreign enemies, though it may give them great comfort to learn how adept we have become at producing self-inflicted wounds.  All of a sudden, John McCain is a regulator who will protect us against the unrestricted free market he denies he ever advocated.  But who will protect us against John McCain and his running mate, who have replaced the now discredited financial derivative with an even better instrument of economic mass destruction, the budget neutral tax credit.

My mother’s experience living in an Atria Senior Living facility is a cautionary tale for other Wisconsinites who are seeking housing and care for their elderly parents. When my father died in 2000, I moved my mother out of her apartment because she couldn’t do the stairs any longer without help. After a brief stay in a senior housing complex, it became obvious that she needed the care she would get in an assisted living facility.

She had long term care insurance, and I had heard good things about Atria from a nearby senior group. Atria looked like a great place. We took a 2 bedroom so I could stay there when I was in town. That was 2002.

John McCain and Sarah Palin have spent much of the past few weeks attacking the greedy, corrupt villains behind the collapse of our financial markets. And there truly were some pretty shady characters involved in some very questionable financial dealings. But a crisis of this magnitude never is the fault of just a few rotten apples. What McCain and Palin can't seem to grasp is that environmental factors can turn honorable people into criminals and people of questionable morality into models of probity.

Shade the truth just a bit, do this over and over again, and the possibility of weapons of mass destruction becomes a certainty. Create financial instruments that no one really understands, add a little more risk with each derivative, and all of a sudden you've inoculated the entire financial system with a virulent strain of almost worthless paper. But John McCain and Sarah Palin are as wedded to their mistaken notion of free market economics as George Bush is to his war in Iraq. Out of political necessity, McCain and Palin may try to sound like they understand the need for government referees at a free market football game, but in the end they simply can't surrender their favorite theory to some stubborn little facts.

Today marks the 73rd birthday of the single most successful government program in the history of our country, Social Security. As such, it is rightfully being honored by the Alliance for Retired Americans (AAR) at events all across Wisconsin. They will be holding noon events in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Madison. AAR is the same organization that was very quick to respond to U.S. Senator John McCain when he called Social Security “a disgrace.” They followed up their initial reaction by calling on McCain to return his own check if it is such “a disgrace” and then ran both a web and TV ad highlighting the issue. Here is the actual McCain quote:

“Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace and it’s got to be fixed.” -John McCain, July 8, 2008 town hall

When John McCain made those unfortunate comments, he once again revealed just how out of touch he really is on many issues. Most people that earn a paycheck for a living already know that they are paying into the program and that present retirees collect the benefit. So is McCain really suggesting that most people don’t already know that? Maybe it was news to him but most working people are already aware of how the system works and how it will continue to work for them when they retire. Even more troubling, doesn’t this mean that McCain feels that Social Security is a disgrace because it is working exactly the way it’s supposed to?

Sen. John McCain used to make no secret of his support for a privatized Social Security run by his investment donors on Wall Street. He backed off of that this summer, but now he's come roaring back on the privatizing wagon.

In 2006, McCain voted convert Social Security surpluses into a private account, but then in mid-June of this year, he told a New Hampshire audience, "I am not for quote 'privatization of Social Security.'  I never have been, never will be.”

Although the media is trying its best to paint him as something different, Congressman Paul Ryan continues to prove that he is from the same polluted conservative mold as the most unpopular president in history. While the rhetoric around Ryan may suggest otherwise, reality and his actual record have proven him to be nothing more than a rubber stamp of the worst kind. The latest example came only yesterday when he voted against a bill with massive bipartisan support. The bill postponed a planned cut in payments to physicians who treat Medicare patients. If the bill is not passed before July 1 doctors that treat Medicare patients will take a 10.6 percent hit. Such a dramatic pay cut could easily jeopardize access for both seniors and the disabled. Why would Paul Ryan vote for that?

Ryan’s vote is even more peculiar when you consider that 129 of his fellow Republicans joined with the Democrats to support the bill. There are only two explanations for Ryan’s hard line against this measure. Either he is just that loyal to a grossly out of touch president that has promised to veto it or he has a deep desire to protect big insurance at all costs. The cut to doctors was replaced by a reduction in payments to private insurers that participate in the Medicare Advantage program. According to a congressional advisory commission, those companies get some 13 percent more than it costs Medicare to offer services itself. For a guy that prides himself on his imagined budgetary prowess, it seems an odd thing to defend. Someone should corner Ryan and ask him exactly why he would rather cut doctors and seniors rather than slow down the gravy train for big insurance.

Having looked all over my house for my missing driver’s license, it was clear that I needed to make a trip out to the DMV in Madison to get a replacement—a perfect chance to spell out what goes into a trip to the DMV, like thousands of Wisconsinites will have to do if state leggies and “voter ID” advocates Jeff “Poll Tax” Stone and Joe “Can’t Prove a Voter Fraud Case” Liebham had their way and passed a ridiculous voter ID law in Wisconsin.

The DMV office in Madison I went to is open from 8:30-4:15 MWF, and from 10-5:45 Tuesday and Thursday – not exactly convenient for a 9-6 working man. But hey if I want to vote, I need an ID, right Jeff? So I bit the bullet and took off from work at 3 pm on Thursday. So I’m already being charged for my right to vote – losing at least 3 hours of work time, and using 3 hours of my vacation time. So far, total estimated cost: $50.

On “normal” days, I walk to work. But today, since I need my car to get to the far-east side DMV, I had to pay to park - $6 more.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that Indiana's voter ID law is constitutional, about 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph. 

Another person who attempted to vote with a federal ID card was turned away because the card had no expiration date on it, and a woman who was newly married was turned away because her driver's license name didn't match the one on her voter registration record.

You can check out the full story here.