Mitt Romney has been quoted, out of context he claims, that he’s not concerned about the poor, only because the safety net takes care of them. But what he really means is he plans to block-grant Medicaid, which will drastically reduce spending their health care, cuts to the budget that includes housing vouchers and food stamps, and cuts to the federal workforce administering those programs. He literally means, “not concerned.”

During Thursday night’s GOP debate, a woman from Florida told the candidates she’d lost her job and with it her health insurance. What would each of the candidates do to get her covered or otherwise provide the health care she needed?

You had to listen carefully, but the effective answer they all gave her was, “this is your problem, not ours.”

This week’s holiday mandates giving thanks. For many Americans, that is complicated by the harsh years since 2008.

There’s the bitterness of lost jobs, foreclosed homes and diminished opportunity. There’s the resentment over bailing out Wall Street, then watching banksters grant themselves sensational bonuses while denying Main Street loans to save businesses. There’s the fear generated by county club conservatives demanding draconian cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It’s hard to muster gratitude while suffering, to feel appreciative while dreading a meaner future.

The Democrats on the Super Committee, in their efforts to reach an deal with Republicans, have offered a new deficit reduction package and just like their last offer this one also contains cuts to Medicare benefits.

Democrats are planning to attach a veteran’s hiring preference, one of the original remaining pieces of the Obama Jobs Bill, to a House-passed bill that repeals a law requiring 3 percent withholding from federal contractors. These people aren’t serious.

Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has not been traditionally opposed to a deficit reduction plan. The CBPP supports chained CPI, for example. So it’s quite something to see Greenstein, along with Paul van de Water and Richard Kogan, savage the Democratic opening bid in the Catfood Commission II, describing it as to the right of Bowles-Simpson, the Gang of Six and other deficit plans.

The Obama Administration approved cuts to California’s Medicaid program that will slash reimbursement rates and potentially cause providers to reject treatment for the program for the poor.

How facilitating tax cheating counts as a jobs measure is beyond me, but whatever the case, the bill and its offset go to the Senate. A 3% withholding bill got 57 votes in the Senate last week, with a different offset that just reduces expenditures across the board. That was before the Administration came out in favor of the bills, however. So surely, something incorporating 3% withholding is likely to pass Congress.

Yesterday, House Republicans cherry picked GOP-friendly elements from the President’s jobs bill, creating a bad bundle of repealing a 3% tax withholding rule for contractors with a reduction in Medicaid benefits for seniors. Predictably cynical and craven. But now the White House says it supports both measures, suggesting the GOP cherry picking and repackaging is okay. Huh?

The House GOP’s next trick. Their plan is to find the two worst parts of the President’s jobs bill and deficit plan, and combine them for a package that sounds almost comically silly, but that gives them the talking point that the President supported the component parts