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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Inauguration Day Madman
January 26, 2009
Old and Stale Versus New and "?"
It ain't easy to land on your feet while pulling yourself up by your own
bootstraps.
I have an idea: Remember that next $350 billion earmarked for the financial
industry? Screw 'em. Don't give it to them. Instead, take that $350 billion and
put it towards all of the programs which Barack Obama and those who are serious
about getting our nation back on track economically have suggested.
By the way, that group does not include the GOP minority leadership in either
house of Congress.
The argument now being used by those fiscally conservative Republicans (*choke*)
in the House and Senate, along with their still noisy mouthpieces in the main
stream media and on Hate Radio, is one we've heard before:
"Tax cuts - Nothing but tax cuts."
It's like they've all turned into rainmen.
On cable news shows and Hate Radio programs everywhere you hear them expound the
successes of tax cuts throughout America's history. And, believe it or not, they
even point to the tax cuts by the Bush administration as a great big giant kick
in the butt that fixed our economy. And they want a Bush-type tax cut program to
fix the economy George Bush and the Bush Republicans left us with today.
The Republicans still believe that all of us will land on our feet with the aid
of more tax cuts. Their feeling is that, instead of a targeted approach where
those in the most need (the ever increasing US unemployed middle class) and
those who would do the most with money had they been given the opportunity (the
rest of the middle class) is no match for the Bush tax breaks which, by design,
targeted the wealthiest of America.
Their supply-side-trickle-down economics won out during the Bush years, as it
did before during the worst years of our nation's economic past (the Great
Depression); the Reagan years (which caused President Reagan to raise taxes
before he left office; and the ensuing George H. W. Bush years which caused the
man who said "Read my lips - no new taxes" to actually create brand new taxes.
We've heard it all before, including that so many of us regular Americans need
to help ourselves - to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.
It ain't easy to land on your feet while pulling yourself up by your own
bootstraps.
What the Right doesn't get - and what Bush didn't get when he pushed through his
tax cuts for the very, very wealthy - is that poor people don't pay taxes; out
of work people don't pay taxes; most people who are just getting by don't pay
taxes; and much of the American middle class pays very little in taxes. In
truth, the kind of tax breaks the Republican party s famous for benefits mainly
the very rich, or their "base of haves and have mores".
Over the past few days, all I've heard on Right-wing Hate Radio has been how
targeting any financial plan towards the middle class is a bad idea. They've
lectured callers and hosts alike on the horrors brought on by such programs as
FDR's Works Progress Administration (WPA) which put Americans back to work while
fixing our infrastructure. In the GOP world, however, jobs don't matter, unless
they come with golden parachutes and big bonuses.
It's the old, stale ideas of the last eight years versus something different. we
know where we've been - do we really want to go back there?
-Noah Greenberg
And Denise notes:
Tax cuts for the wealthiest is all the GOP is ever about. The last round of tax
cuts from the Bush Administration put less than five bucks a week more in my
pocket but plenty of dollars in the wealthy's pocket which as we can all see,
has done nothing to stimulate the economy. The minority leader of the House has
already stated an emphatic NO on all the talking head news this Sunday. It is
sad when they won't even start with an open mind. I just hope the Dems don't
cave in to the spoiled childish actions of the party that has still yet to hear
the people and understand that the election was about change. Of course, as old
"Rush" stated so clearly, "yes, they do want Obama to fail." Sad, because the
Republicans could probably push some good ideas through if they would be willing
to work with instead of against everything. I guess, to them, it is all about
the next election - which , if headed in the direction they seem to be going
now, will only put them more in the cold and they will become even more
meaningless. Against everything, but for nothing must be their motto.
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-Noah Greenberg