A dysfunctional Society
America is divided
Who and what set us on this divisive
path? Certainly it wasn’t the Progressive Liberals who turned this country of
ours into a Capitalist Oligarchy. It is clear that the accusations of the far
right are not just unfounded but ridiculous. When we hear them say that the
Liberal Progressives want a class war I just get angry. A class war they say
and it is the Extremist Far Right Republicans who have been eroding and hurting
an already beleaguered Middle Class.
Redistribution of Wealth is what
they are saying, not really taking into consideration that the REDISTRIBUTION
OF WEALTH has already taken place: it has gone from the poor and the middle
class to the very wealthy and the corporations. The Republicans assured this
outcome by systematically giving tax cuts to the rich and even subsidies and
give always.
In his speech after winning? the Illinois primary Romney
promised prosperity…but be real, prosperity for whom? If you have a Romney who
proposes not just a continuation of the failed policies of the past…the very
ones that got us into this financial mess and even goes further than that to
make it even more profitable for the rich and the corporations, slashing more
of the social programs so that they not only keep their tax breaks and
subsidies but the Republican Budget (Ryan’s) is a carbon copy of the one they
had last year and that budget by all accounts would add to the deficit not
eliminate it.
In contrast, Democrats are
stating it very clearly:"Our budget does a few key things," Ellison
said at a news conference. "One, it investments in America's future by
creating jobs up front, with the proper investments. ... Also, it preserves our
safety net. No cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. It persons the
tax code. Our tax code needs to reflect the resources available across America
to pay for the needs of Americans, and not exempt people or give them a break
simply because they have the money to get people to give them tax breaks and
loopholes. And finally, it is a fiscally responsible budget; it is a budget
that reduces the deficit."
The details of how the budget
accomplishes that will be released on Thursday. But the basics are that the
budget allocates more than $2 trillion over 10 years to specific job-creating
activities, ranging from school and transportation reconstruction to boosting
clean energy and manufacturing businesses. It pays for that investment by
ending tax cuts for the top 2 percent of Americans; ending loopholes for oil,
gas and coal companies; and closing other corporate tax loopholes.
By contrast, said Rep. Jan
Schakowsky, D-Calif., "Republicans on the Budget Committee are going to
press forward with a budget that asks ask low- and middle-income taxpayers to
shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction, while giving massive tax
breaks to the wealthiest Americans and preserving huge giveaways for the big
oil companies."
Ryan, when he presented his
budget on Tuesday, said that the only two choices America faced was a future of
debt and decline and a future under his budget, in which the federal government
would stop supporting economically struggling Americans, but would continue to
prop up the wealthy. The Progressive Caucus' budget shows that there is another
choice: jobs and economic security for all Americans, in which each segment of
the society contributes based on the extent of what they have.
"This budget is a
contrast," Grijalva said, "and we are very very comfortable
presenting that contrast to our colleagues and to the American people."
There is one thing that Republicans
are not abandoning and that is that stupid Reagan TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS theory.
It didn’t work then and it never will.
The general attitude from
Republicans as we have seen is that they should block and do everything in
their power to make the present government and President Obama fail so they can
take it over once again and set us on the same destructive path as before.
It is no longer a secret nor do they
even try to mask it or hide it. The Republicans represent the interests of the
wealthy and want to screw the middle class. We had a perfect example this week
with one Senator blocking very important legislation that would have extended
unemployment benefits. Never mind that he took this stand because he said “it
is the principle” but to do so with people’s only way of financial income is
downright insensitive and cruel. There was even one of his buddies that said
that why give them unemployment extensions, that only encourages them to not go
out and look for work.
And the American people would dare protest? The arms of
repression have come down on Occupy Wall Street hard and brutally. The protests
of last fall were squashed, repressed with excessive force. But let us all be
warned: this Occupy Wall Street movement is not going away, it is going to
return with a vengeance this spring.
It is always amazing to me that the
Republicans begrudge a few million dollars to help those less fortunate in our
society yet they have no qualms about spending billions in an unnecessary war
they got us into and they even lied to us and the world in order to benefit the
oil companies. Our deficit is so high because of these wars, our financial
chaos was caused by their incompetence and the millions of people affected by
this should never forget who caused their grief.
Yet, Republicans and the ultra right
conservative pundits are accusing our President of being a socialist and a
welfare President. I ask you this: If President Obama was a socialist, would he
not have nationalized the banks when they went belly up? They were bankrupt and
nationalization of the banks would have been totally acceptable. Also, when the
car companies in unison announced they were about to go into bankruptcy, the
U.S. Government could have also taken over and nationalized them. Obama was
very clear on this and he said: (paraphrasing) that he had no intentions of
taking over nor did he want the car companies to be in government hands.
I don’t know if you are aware, dear
reader that the Castro brothers has declared President Obama to be on top of
their “blacklist”. Now, if he was a Marxist-Socialist as these wing nut ultra
right fanatics claim, do you think that the Castro brothers would have been so
unkind?
We Democrats, progressives, liberals
and the otherwise sane general public should get off our collective asses and
tell the Republicans that we are not going to take their bullshit anymore. We
are going to pass whatever legislation is needed to make sure our country
survives and the poor and middle class can thrive again.
