In October, my husband and I attended Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity – a gathering dedicated to the proposition that, if we all just dialed down the rhetoric and listened to each other, we could work together and make America a better place. What a lovely thought.
Lately, however, I can’t help but notice that the only folks who are dialing down the rhetoric, trying to play well with others, and – yes – compromising, are Independents and Democrats. The GOP, including its Tea Party faction, has turned up the volume and is single mindedly pursuing its “lower taxes and smaller government” agenda. In the name of that agenda, Republicans are blatantly and shamelessly pursuing policies that benefit major corporate interests and the wealthy at the expense of America’s middle class and less affluent citizens.
The GOP’s top priority is “lower taxes” for the wealthiest Americans: Republican Senators and Representatives made this undeniably clear by their willingness to add $874 billion to the Federal deficit by passing a “compromise” extension of the Bush tax cuts and emergency unemployment benefits earlier this month. Meanwhile, in the name of smaller government and deficit concerns, these same Senators and Representatives refuse to fund health care reform and health benefits for our post 9/11 “heroes.” Look for them to use the same justification for cutting or withholding Federal funding for education programs, regulatory enforcement, entitlement programs, and anything that looks like a stimulus program.
Of course, everything that Republicans want to cut in the name of “smaller government” and/or “deficit reduction” directly benefits the lower socio-economic classes of Americans. The wealthiest Americans don’t need these programs: they can afford to pay for the best education, health care and long-term care, in addition to saving a bundle for a comfortable retirement. They can afford them in part because they pay a ridiculously small percentage of their income in taxes. And, with the GOP ascendant, they can count on their ridiculously low tax income and estate tax rates to remain in effect for the foreseeable future.
The GOP says it is declaring war on the “welfare state” in order to enforce “constitutional limits” on government and protect the “financial liberty” of American citizens. From where I’m sitting, it looks like it’s declared war on everyone but the wealthiest 10% of us. So, no more sanity and polite discourse: I’ve been attacked, and I’m declaring war on the GOP. I will expose and fight the GOP’s agenda by every legal means at my disposal. If you’d like to join my army, or contribute ideas, I’d love to hear from you. I’m guessing that I’ll need some help.
Well, one thing I think we should all consider is for all of us to stop buying the mantra that taxes are evil, or that "we" can spend our money better than "they" can. Taxes pay for services - police, fire departments, teachers, clean air, food safety --- things that individually, we cannot do by our selves in virtually all cases.
ReplyDeleteThe middle class was all too happy to support continuing tax cuts for themselves...but we do, as a country, have debts to pay...and we should pay for our wars (or not get into them or get out of them), for one thing.
We could also stop believing the myth that the US is best at everything...Maybe that was once true, but it is not anymore. Perhaps we should look at how the government of Chile handled their crisis with their trapped miners....They went all over the world seeking the best advise, the best equipment and what a success they had. There's a lesson to be learned there. The US is now the best at only a few things -- our bloated defense budget, our prison population, and our execution rates....