The past few weeks watching congressional efforts to deal with the self-imposed debt crisis have been at once mesmerizing and disgusting.
Republican leaders harp and harp on broadening the tax base (meaning flattening it out so they pay less) and tirelessly work to protect the wealthy from any tax increases whatsoever.
As far as I have been able to see, their plan for economic recovery is nothing more that further tax breaks for the rich. They are vainly trying to convince the public that trickle down economics is viable. It simply is not.
We are told that the wealthy are the movers and shakers and that they will not invest in the present climate of political and economic uncertainty.
This idea is false. Investors will not invest until there is demand for their goods and services and there will not be demand until money reaches the pockets of the consumer. Does anyone see that happening soon?
Corporations, aided by politicians, have been sending our jobs overseas for the past two decades. Now that the jobs are gone, Republicans shrilly scream that the Obama administration is responsible and should be voted out of office. I don’t hear anything from Republicans about that. I don’t hear anything about that from bought and paid for politicians either.
How about Grover Norquist? Where does he get off exacting pledges from congressmen that they will not vote for any tax increases? Is he an elected official or is he just some self-important, right wing ideologue whose entire purpose in life is to push the conservative agenda?
Perhaps someone should point out that he does not represent anybody other than those who own his soul, and most Americans sharply disagree with him. Wasn’t he great pals with Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed and other dirt-ball scavengers who were convicted of illegal political activities?
I have a real problem with congressmen who will sign a pledge instigated by a radical conservative like him who would sell out the American people for a few dollars. I have a greater problem with a congressman who would sign such a pledge. Are they nuts? Who do they think they serve? Aren’t they elected to enact responsible legislation?
Republicans want two things: To regain the White House and to enrich themselves in the process. As they do this they intend to ride on the backs of the poor and the elderly.
They have no interest in fixing problems. Their primary interest is to get re-elected and to blame problems they created on those who did not create them.
Who ran up the public debt anyway? To the best of my knowledge, it was the Bush tax cuts and the Bush wars that went unfunded. Of course, Congress rubber-stamped these irresponsible actions and now they are screaming ad nauseam about it.
Republicans want the President to take ownership of the economic recession and the recovery from it while they focus on frustrating every single initiative to recover. They insist that the President has overspent.
Maybe so, but it was money spent to stimulate economic recovery. That is not a waste. That is an earnest attempt to improve the economy and create jobs. At least his stimulus is aimed at helping Main Street and not Wall Street.
So far, thanks to Republican efforts, the only sector that has recovered at all is Wall Street. Proof positive that Republicans care nothing for Main Street despite what they say publicly.
What they are really about is improving their position going into the next election. If and when they are elected we will see a continued effort to discredit and destroy the executive branch. The worse things are now the better their chances of regaining the White House.
Has anyone out there read Thomas Frank’s “The Wrecking Crew”? Republicans actually want to make things worse so they can come charging in and fix things just like they did when the last Republican was elected.
Day after day, night after night we watch the minions of the rich, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, presume to tell the American people what they want and don’t want. They want to reduce government by cutting and, if possible eliminating, social welfare programs while leaving untouched a military spending budget that is bigger than all the other military budgets in the world combined.
Our military spending is what is out of control, not our entitlement spending. They will not talk about reducing military spending. They will not talk about increasing taxes. They will not talk about eliminating corporate subsidies even when they amount to nothing but taxpayer handouts to the wealthy. They will not talk about eliminating loopholes for the wealthy in the tax code. They will not talk about extending unemployment benefits to the jobless.
All they will talk about is balancing the budget and reducing spending at the expense of low and middle income earners.
The Democrats meanwhile are complete losers. Even when they claim victory they are going down in defeat. The healthcare debacle. The bailout of Wall Street and not Main Street. The economic stimulus package that turns out to be too little too late. They look and act like Chicken Little. Have they won one battle? I don’t think so. Republicans have made them look silly.
The American people want, and are entitled to, good government. We would not be watching our economy slide into the second dip of recession if our government had come up with any credible plan to deal with out of control government spending. That’s all they had to do, and they couldn’t do it.
Republicans, as usual, did everything they could to frustrate and Democrats, as usual, cried in their beer and the American people, as usual, take it on the chin. Has anybody been watching the stock market?
I have an idea: Get rid of Congress. They are expensive, incompetent and corrupt, Democrats and Republicans alike. It sticks in my craw that congressmen and -women strut around like barnyard roosters making nothing but big noise and all the while getting paid for it.
The problem is Congress, not the government. Are they aware of the contempt in which Americans hold them. The have a 14 percent approval rate. If we can’t actually get rid of them, maybe we can just vote incumbents out.
One of these days the American people will have had enough of incompetent, corrupt legislators and get radical. Look what is happening all over Europe right now as the people let their government know what they think of them.
Perhaps one day Americans will get radical. I look forward to that. Until that day comes we will continue to be plagued by the corrupt and incompetent who seek riches and self aggrandizement from government service.
David Browning
Peachtree City, Ga.
