The Republican Jihad on the Middle Class

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” – Goldfinger (probably a Republican or a Nazi, but I repeat myself.)

At one time, I was heard to say, “I can understand the tenants of the Republican party”. It came down to the following, “I don’t want to pay taxes to allow some artist to urinate on a canvas and call it art.” Also, “I don’t like paying for people who abuse the system.”

This was before the blatant attacks, the economic terrorism, on the middle class by the GOP. It was George W. Bush Jr. that really opened my eyes as to how corrupt these bastards are. They are evil. I like to be thought of as miscreant, but honestly, I am nowhere near as diabolical as these guys. Much like how the GOP doesn't like funding performance art, I really did not like funding “Faith Based Initiatives”.

Republicans are against “big government”. 

They like to say “expansion”, “reining it in”, and “deregulation”. The largest expansion of Government in the last 30 years was under W. I am for scaling back programs and letting the market off the leash in times of economic prosperity… 

Economic prosperity like we had when Clinton left office.  Look what happened when a Republican Governor from Texas showed up. If left alone, the economy was projected to keep in the black over the next five years. Making money. Another Republican Governor from Texas considered running for President. What could go wrong??? I could ask Perry to count the ways, but he would get to two and then say "Oops."

When Republicans say they don’t want big government, it means that they do not want the government making it harder, through rules and regulations, for the mega-corporations to make more obscene amounts of near tax-free profits.

These people are the ones who created the “Roberts” Supreme Court, who have made political rulings in favor of getting corporations the rights of individuals, under the guise of freedom of speech.  This allows corporations to spend as much money on campaigns as they want. Surprisingly, the majority is not even on Congressmen and Senators, but judges.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the main entity behind this. Not in any, way, shape, or form a part of the government. They are a lobbyist group formed by reps from some of the largest corporations on the planet.

Two words – Clarence Fucking Thomas. ‘Nuff said. When Citizens United (or the "Koch Brothers want to buy EVERYONE!") was passed, Thomas' wife received a $750,000 endowment from a shell corporation, but essentially it was from the Koch Brothers... Ol' Clarence should have excluded himself from the ruling...

A lot of you will now be screaming, "But the Democrats have the UNIONS!!!!" True... But they have and will never compete with the Kochs, Big Pharm, and Oil.

When Walker was elected Governor in Wisconsin, he went after Teacher's Union. "Education is in the red! We need to cut salaries!" The Teacher's Uunion said, "We understand..." The next thing the Gov. said was, "Education is in the red! We need to cut benefits!" The Teacher's Union said, "All right... temporarily..."

Then the Gov. said, "Education is in the red! We need you to give up the right to ever come back and ask for anything. Money or benefits. We want you to give up your seat at the bargaining table. Forever." The Teacher's Union said, "Fuck you."

It was an archetype to bust the unions up. Reagan pioneered it back in the Air Traffic Controller Strike in the early 80's. But... no big government... unless...

When it comes to who you want to love, they want the BIG government to step in... Define stuff that grown ass people should have the right to define. 

Republicans don’t want taxes raised. 

They say that now is not the time to raise taxes on anybody. The President wants to raise it on millionaires and the like. If you made a million dollars, you would owe $260,000. The President wants to raise it so a millionaire would have to pay $290,000.  Holy shit!!! How is this American supposed to live on $710,000 a year???

The aforementioned ruling gave the corporation’s the same individual rights as you and I, yet the courts and GOP  protect the corporations from having to pay the taxes that you and I have to pay, as individuals. How can they have it both ways?

Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont, pointed out a building on a Cayman Island. It was about 4 or 5 stories tall, nice curb appeal. It just happens to be the residence of over 18,000 corporations. American corporations. They “reside” there to NOT pay their share of taxes. 

I don’t want my taxes raised… I want people/corporations to pay their more than fair share so our government can function.

Republicans really don’t want to tax America’s Job Creators. 

Bush Jr. deregulated and let the free market run wild and gave tax cuts – to create jobs… The theory was much like the “trickle down” economics from the Reagan years. That did not work, and neither did Bush’s plan. It was folly from the beginning. 

That 30k difference I pointed out 5 paragraphs ago, was supposed to be a job created. In my opinion, a person can live on 30 grand a year, but only with the help of social programs. Oooh, the bad word… “Social”. Those “programs” would be the “entitlements” that the GOP keeps mentioning and trying to brand as evil.

My father, who I think pretty highly off, asked me the other day, “You know why I call my retirement, after working for the government for 33 years, an ‘entitlement’??? Because I am fucking entitled to it!” 

If the GOP gets their way, my father’s three decades of faithful service would be viewed as a precursor to his “leeching off the government”.

Bush Jr. is a direct descendant of Franklin Pierce, whose xenophobic actions were pretty much responsible for the Civil War. Historians are now torn between Pierce and Bush Jr. as to the worst president in the history of the U.S.A. I would petition scientists to identify and eliminate the “I Must Rape America” gene. Also known as the “Must Start a Devastating War and Kill A Lot of Americans” gene.

Bush Jr.’s tax cuts didn’t create jobs – it destroyed them, 600,000 of them. While the corporations posted record profits due to lower taxes, they were also granted tax loopholes for closing shops, factories, and plants and shipping jobs overseas. 

Companies like Bain Capital specialized in dismantling companies and shipping jobs overseas so that the stockholders got a premium dividend... The workers? The pension holders? The people who actually MADE the company? Fuck 'em. Guess who pioneered and ran ol' Bain? Mitt Romney. 

Republicans voting on raising the debt ceiling. 

The call to raise the debt ceiling came to vote 17 times while Bush Jr. was in office. It was raised 11 times, with overwhelming Republican support. NOW, under Obama, there is a terrible stink about spending. The only problem is that the spending helps Americans. The Republicans are choosing to forget that they caused this quagmire we find ourselves in, and did it with a smile.

The GOP has also been proposing things, like Cap and Trade, and when the President says “Great! Good Idea!”, they bail out. The vote for Cap and Trade failed by seven votes. All seven – SPONSORS OF THE BILL!!!

Republicans and the Shift of the Middle.

A Republican president could not propose cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. However, if the GOP could jack up the economy bad enough that a Democrat would have to entertain cutting those programs that millions of Americans depend on. They could not do it when Clinton was in, because the economy was rocking.

By shifting off the charts to the right, when the left comes to the table to negotiate and look for the middle ground in the hopes of meeting in the center, the center is far, far, to the right.
 

The GOP proposed a budget plan where 85% would come from spending cuts and 15% from increased tax revenue. The Democrats countered with 83% spending cuts, 17% tax revenue (Oil subsidies and taxes on corporate jets made up the extra 2%). The Republicans were shocked and outraged! Their new proposal was for 100% spending cuts. Once again, allowing the richest 2% to get off scot free.

In the end. 

The GOP is committing economic terrorism. They are holding the Government hostage, allowing nothing to pass or get voted on that would actually help the economy and you. WHY?

That would help the President.

They don’t want that.

They want to cut funding on public education, while sending their kids to private schools on your dime, since we pay their salaries (and health care cost, but that is a whole other can of worms). So the next generation is dumber and more easily manipulated by the propaganda arm of the GOP, FOX “News”.

They want to cut spending and attack cops and firefighters. So when the “have-nots” are at their wits end, they don’t have enough police to do anything about it. Crime becomes epidemic. Not in their privately patrolled gated communities…

They want to cut spending on things like the EPA. These bastards don’t even care about their own grandkids. Scientists (another dirty word to the GOP) say that the climate change phenomenon will get more rapid, and cause more storms. Even if they don’t believe in science, truth, facts, the non-enforcement of safety measures lead to things like the BP oil spill.

In the state of Texas, a town blew up... AN ENTIRE TOWN!!! It was discovered that the amount of ammonium nitrate being stored at the fertilizer plant was 500% more then it was REGULATED for... So, did Governor Rick "Bush Clone" Perry talk about enforcement? NOPE! "Texas won't regulate businesses to death!"... Your town might blow up... But, that's capitalism!!! 

They want TORT reform. If a corporation wrongs you, and I mean jacks up your life, your frivolous law suit will have a cap on the amount of damages you seek. TORT is the root of the word torture. The most famous case they like to point out is the old lady and the hot cup of coffee. I have seen the photos of the burns. I would sue the hell out of them as well. She asked for money to cover the medical costs (skin grafts were needed!) and for McDonalds to make a more secure lid. The jury awarded her the equivalent of 2 days of coffee sales by McDonalds. 2.9 million dollars. This was in the 80’s, McDonalds did not miss that money at all.

Reagan pointed out a guy in a phone booth (big glass enclosures that people would get into, shut a door and make a phone call) was hit by a drunk driver. Reagan scoffed as he explained that the guy had the audacity to sue the phone company. FOR SHAME!!! What he forgot to mention is that the guy tried to get out, but since AT&T did not properly maintain the booth, the door would not open. There were also thirteen other incidents where the placement of the booths were found to be “dangerously close to traffic”. AT&T didn’t miss that money.

Republican state legislatures want to cut funding for Social Services. People complain about people pulling up to get their welfare check in a new Cadillac. They fail to realize that one agent, whose job it is to check for abuse, can’t. They can’t because they have thousands of other cases to check as well. “Well, why not get more agents???”. They don’t have the money. So the abuse continues and proliferates. If the Republicans can’t vote down a program, they will starve it.

They want to kill Planned Parenthood. Some Arizona representative stated, on record, “97% of what they do is abortion!”. After two minutes of fact checking, you can find out that about .3% of what they do is a CONSTITUITIONALLY PROTECTED MEDICAL PROCEDURE! When this lying old white guy’s office was contacted about this complete and utter fabrication, they issued the following statement – “That was not meant to be taken as a factual statement.”

Not kidding. Twelve states have laws being proposed to make your reproductive rights go away. If they get their foot in the door… If they start that ball rolling of legislating morality based on Christian and Family values, are atheists like me going to be rounded up first?

They don’t want to spend money on infrastructure. So when you bust your car on terrible roads, and lose your mediocre job that you had to take because your education was substandard, and Grandma’s health coverage ran out… So crime becomes an option… but there are not enough cops…

In the End.

The Republicans have declared war on you. What are you going to do about it?

I have written to my Senator twice. Once about the Stimulus Vote, which he was too busy pimping himself out to Wall Street to even be present to vote on. In the other message, I called him a prostitute to big business. Both times, I received the standard, rubber stamp, “Thank you” message.

If this could be considered taxation without representation, can I revolt?

I have always hated being ignored or dismissed. I feel that the voice of everyday America is falling on deaf ears.

Ears plugged by campaign contributions, in greater amounts then I could ever earn in a lifetime.

d

This blog is another re-post from a year or so ago... Sorry... Little dated... I BLAME YOU! Gimme something to rant about, dammit...