Sunday, November 11, 2012

Wile E. Coyote Must Be A Republican

One thing you can say for Republicans - they stick to their guns, even when those guns blow up in their face.

Now they're blathering on about the "Fiscal Cliff".

Child please.

We don't have a spending problem. We don't have a debt problem. We have a revenue problem. We had a surplus in 2000 until it was burnt up by tax cuts for the wealthy and two un-paid-for wars. Never in the history of our country have we cut taxes in time of war. It's fiscally irresponsible. We have had a redistribution of wealth, all right - but it has been from the bottom to the top.

Let's call these tax cuts what they really are: spending.

Corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthiest are the lowest they've been in 40 years - and yet that did not magically lead to jobs and prosperity; in fact, the result was the exact opposite. Regulations did not 'strangle growth' - instead it was the lack of regulation that led to the banks and Wall Street's horrific gambling with Other People's Money which led to the tanking of the American economy - and the price has been paid by the taxpayers who did NOT cause the problem.

"Privatize the Profits and Socialize the Losses" is the modus operandi that led to this debacle. So more of the same is going to fix it? Cut taxes and regulation and "Happy Days Are Here Again"? Really? If that was so magical, why didn't it work before?

We got out of the Great Depression by A. shared sacrifice during a time of war - which we did not do; instead, we got tax cuts (which means spending) and B. government investment in jobs which put money in people's hands (for working) which they were able to then spend to stimulate the economy.

Austerity is not gonna cut it, I'm afraid. We need to invest in America and Americans if we want to have a snowball's chance in hell to get a middle class again. This is a time of crisis when borrowing is necessary. It's triage - stem the bleeding first. When we're back on our feet we can talk about deficit reduction and the like.

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