America For Purchase

Republicans would have Americans believe there is a socialistic war in American politics as if the social programs of public schools, police and fire departments, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and programs for the less fortunate are anti-American and anti-Christian.  On the other hand Republicans and their fellow teabaggers lack the principles or any constructive ideas to move America forward.  Their political arrogance of ‘NO’ is couched as “We’re doing this for you” and is the bastion of hypocrisy as the Republican Party was the genesis for the economic collapse in the U.S.Cases in Point:

1. President Obama proposed a bipartisan fiscal commission, a panel of Democrats and Republicans who would hammer out concrete deficit reduction proposals over the medium and long-term, an idea that had strong bipartisan support and was initially co-sponsored by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-ND, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH, the committee’s top-ranking Republican and had a lot of Republican cosponsors.

After the President endorsed this idea, all of a sudden, Republicans started to think of it as a bad idea.  Six Republican senators who originally cosponsored forming a deficit commission voted against it once President Obama signed up for the idea.  Sam Brownback, Mike Crapo, John Ensign, Kay Bailey Hutchison, James Inhofe, and John McCain, profiles in courage against their own policies.

2. President Obama introduced PAYGO (pay-as-you-go), a simple rule that says Congress cannot spend a dime without cutting a dime elsewhere.  PAYGO was a big reason why America had balanced budgets and record surpluses in the 1990’s in which President Bill Clinton left to the Republican Controlled Congress and White House.  Republican Senators John McCain, George Voinovich, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe all endorsed PAYGO in recent years.  But then, President Obama endorsed it.

Despite supporting PAYGO before John McCain, George Voinovich, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe all voted against it when it came up for a vote last week. McCain, Three Other GOPers, Reverse Support For Pay-Go

3.  President Obama supports Cap and Trade in an effort to fight global warming and Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, once sponsors and major supporters of cap-and-trade climate legislation, now say they oppose it.  McCain Pushes ‘Cap-And-Trade’ Plan to Fight Global Warming.

4. On national security, Republicans had no problem with the Bush/Cheney Administration trying terrorism suspects in federal courts.  Now that President Obama is doing that same thing, they‘ve decided they‘re against that too.  Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “We now know that was a mistake, we didn‘t say it was at the time, or even think it was at the time when President Bush did it, but now that President Obama‘s doing it—even on taxes, Republicans are now opposed to the one thing we fought for sure they were definitely for.”

5. President Obama during his State of the Union Address “We cut taxes.  We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families.  We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time home buyers.  We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children.  We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.” Republicans are no longer in favor of tax cuts especially if they are not for the rich. While President Obama is supporting typical Republican policies, Republicans are voting NO against their own ideas.

Republicans are voting NO, against their own ideas, just to stick it to President Obama. Americans be damned!  GOP ducking budget blame, Republicans left time bomb that Obama must defuse.

6. President Obama’s plan to enact Health Care Legislation to protect Americans and stop greed and Health Insurance from denying coverage and reported by the CBO: Senate Health Bill Would Reduce Deficit $130 Billion over a Decade.  Republicans deliberately ignore the 45,000 who die from lack of health insurance each year, had no plan of their own and went on a lying rampage to scare Americans with terms like ‘death panels’ and ‘government take over’.

7.  President Obama is initiating financial reform to protect Americans from greedy Wall Street and financial polices which lead America into the greatest financial recession since the 1930s. President Obama want to add a “Fee on big banks to pay back taxpayers for unpaid bailout money, if banks can afford huge multi-million dollar bonuses then they can afford to pay back taxpayers who bailed them out In their  time of need.”  Republicans are against any type of Wall Street reform or regulations.  Republican Strategist, Frank Luntz Pens Memo To Kill Financial Regulatory Reformreported by the Wall Street Journal) notes, “The single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the big bank bailout.”  Thus, Republicans should rename Wall Street reform the big bank bailout bill (which Republicans enacted). Should Wall Street pay back taxpayers for the bailout?  Democrats say Yes, Republicans side with Wall Street against paying back the bailout money, saying NO.  In fact on Feb 4, 2010, Republican Minority Leader John Boehner made the case with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, that Republicans better represent the industry’s interests.

8. President Obama just put forth his 2011 budget wrestling with priorities in a country facing double digit unemployment and record deficits while waging two wars. The president seeks a small jobs program in the short term, while committing to deficit reduction beginning next year. He would raise top end taxes, crack down on multinational tax havens, force equity fund managers to pay income taxes like the rest of us, while putting a freeze on domestic discretionary spending for three years, embracing “pay-go” budget discipline on any increase in entitlements or cuts in taxes, and pushing for health care reform which addresses the source of long term deficits and out of control health care costs. This budget will help stabilize in the range of 3.9 percent of GDP.

While the Administration acknowledges the budget’s red ink, a New York Times editorial noted that “it is not too much at a time of economic weakness, when deficit spending is needed to boost growth. Congress also cannot waste any more time posturing about the deficit rather than doing what is needed to get Americans back to work.” Republicans are already saying NO.

Robert L. Borosage recently wrote The GOP: Grand, Old and Preposterous “The GOP is unable and unwilling to have a serious conversation with Americans about the fix we are in. Republicans don’t have a plan for deficit reduction — they just have different priorities. They want tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that they would pay for with deep cuts for working and poor families and the elderly in Medicare and Medicaid. They’d spend more on the military and even less on domestic investments. Republicans don’t have a policy, they have a posture.

The Republican budget would repeal any spending remaining in the recovery act and oppose any new spending for jobs. This includes repealing the “Make Work Pay” tax credit that gives most Americans a small tax break, and presumably the support for food stamps, aid to states to avoid layoffs of teachers and police, and the infrastructure construction projects that remain.  But the Republican budget would abolish Medicare for everyone under 55, replacing it with a voucher program that would be outpaced by inflation over time. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that means about $600 billion in cuts over 10 years would come from Medicare spending.

It would similarly end the guarantee that Medicaid provides to low income children, seniors and the disabled, turning it into a block grant to states that would create over $600 billion in cuts below projected expenditures.”

Let us recap the Republican record of the past 10 years and how they helped hardworking, taxpaying American families:

A. Republicans and Bush finished his term with the worst track record ever on jobs since the government began keeping records in 1939.

In fact, there’s been zero net job creation since December 1999. “The nation has lost jobs in 25 of the 31 months that Bush has been in office, making for the worst jobs record at this point in a presidency of any administration since Herbert Hoover.  Republicans authorized the government tapping our phones, reading our mail and accessing our Internet and bank accounts. Republicans oversaw the greatest pillaging of our treasury by Republicans in pork spending in America’s history.

B. Bush and Republicans gave close to $1 trillion in tax cuts to oil companies, big pharma, and Wall Street and allowed companies to ship jobs overseas and allowed these companies not to pay taxes in America;

C. Bush and Republicans gave Wall Street $350 billion with no strings attached and lifted oversight of banks and Wall Street;

D. Bush and Republicans spent no money building America’s infrastructure, they opposed health care for children and certainly had no plans to help hardworking, taxpaying Americans on health care.

E. Bush and Republicans implemented torture and illegal prisons; and completely ignored American Law, the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention.

F. The greatest act of terrorism on U.S. soil occurred under the Bush and Republican Administration.

Republicans and teabaggers typically vote for pro-business Republicans even when their own economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies. They seem to have a misconception that Republicans offer “moral clarity” and are adept at activating deep seated fears in as many of America’s uneducated as possible. They want Americans to be afraid of change and throw out every adjective that stirs up hate – communism, Nazi, Socialism, Death, Government take-over, etc.

It’s difficult and beyond my rationale why anyone would oppose holding Wall Street, Health Insurance Companies accountable; support giving tax breaks to the richest Americans, Oil Companies and support tax breaks for companies who ship American jobs overseas. There is nothing ‘moral’ about Republicans wanting to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security or opposing health care for America’s children, much less conducting immoral adultery and given a pass by Republicans and teabaggers.

During the worst national economic collapse, high unemployment, rising health care costs, Republicans have no plans to address any of the issues facing Americans. They only want tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations while supporting deep cuts for working and poor families and the elderly by cutting Medicare, Medicaid and investing Social Security in the stock market.  They oppose any investment on domestic issues and infrastructure or people.

Republicans don’t have policies, they have a posture. They don’t have any programs to help solve American’s problems, they simply offer a message, “Be afraid, be very afraid!”

(Photo provided by http://RepublicanDirtyTricks.com)

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