This is what the chair of the Democratic Black Caucus called it. He wasn't kidding; he knows whereof he speaks. The so-called deal passed on Tuesday is going to go hardest on the poor in society, and if you haven't heard, that means people of color basically. Cutting domestic spending falls disproportionally on programs that assist them. This is of course right in line with the aims of a substantial portion of the Republican party--I'm being as fair as I can. Maybe there's a Republican under a rock somewhere who does not want to cut social programs that help the disadvantaged and the middle class people of this country. For the life of me I cannot understand how anybody not in the economic top tier of the country can possibly think the Republican party has their interests in mind. Think about it for a second. What do they actually espouse that helps the 94 percent of the US people who have less than $100,000 annual household income? Think about it . . . I can't think of anything right off the top of my head. Indeed, all I can think of are policies and programs that help the other 6 percent, the people with all the money already. Now, I'm not against people making money. Not at all. But I am against greed and selfishness. My position is simple: citizens of the US who have been abundantly blessed by this society owe that society in proportion to their blessings. That's called fairness. That's called justice. Two things that the Republicans oppose, from every indication I've observed in them for years and years now.
5 comments:
i totally don't get it. one thing might be the very successful way that the word 'tax' has been so demonised over the years... it's as though the only way we lose money is thru taxes, so above all, we must not raise taxes, and in fact must lower them. the fact that taxes do pay for some very good stuff gets lost--who needs firefighters, or hospitals, or streetlights? not me--unless i'm the one whose house is on fire, but that can't ever happen.....until it does.
the other piece of that is that nothing else equates--so if i get taxed $10 more a year, it's somehow worse than if, say, the price of bread goes up $50 a year, that $10 loss is terrible and has to be fought, but i don't think about the bread cost rise.....
another part is the seductive power of the horatio alger myth. okay, so now i'm the out-of-work can't pay bills screwed by the economy guy. but i won't always be: i won't fight the privileges of the rich because if i work/pray/whatever enough, i'll be one of the rich myself. so why should i fight against my self-interest...
magical thinking run amok--but hey, this is america, right?
I commented on my iPad, which for some reason I don't see here on the big computer . . . to the effect that the stupidity and ignorance of the American people is the real problem. If they were not so, how else could they be so supine whilst being raped as they are?
When Michael Bloomberg says that taxes are needed and he thinks he is getting good return for his tax dollars, why is he ignored?
Why is uni-dimensional Grover Norquist listened to?
I always said that I knew a couple of them Tea Party/ New Republican types: nice folks, but a little light upstairs.
Everything sort of reduces to "getting our house in order" to them, which seems to be a melange of whatever religion they profess and balancing their puny checkbooks. and Voila!
You've fairly well captured the simple-mindedness of the Tea Party people. They blame all the problems on the government (spending and deficit), ergo the fix is to cut deficit and spending and taxes. Voila. There is never one cause for anything, and there is never just one fix. A good start, of course, would be to include additional revenue in whatever "fix" is constructed. But as I have observed more than once, I am not hopeful. I think that's your job, maintaining a glimmer of hope.
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