Fair / 54° F
McCain means four more years
Published 12:00pm Friday, August 29, 2008“My friends, our economy is fundamentally strong.” Just look at me; I have so many houses I can’t keep track of the number, and today actually to be considered “rich” in America, a person has to make “$5 million a year.”
How can anyone seriously believe that average Americans aren’t looking at four more years of Bush trickle-down economics when hearing this sort of prattle coming out of the mouth of John McCain?
During the Republican years of governance, wages for workers stagnated and, realistically, went down because of prolific outsourcing, benefits reduction, retirement plans disappearing, etc.
At the same time, there was the greatest single tax break ever for the richest Americans, who obviously need it the least. It also is the first ever tax cut recommended by any President during a time of war.
When his Republican Congress pressured Eisenhower for a tax cut during the Korean War, Ike told them what they could do with their proposed tax cut, knowing that it would put at risk our fighting men and the materials they needed to fight.
Furthermore, during the same time, from 2000-2006, the Republicans pushed mightily to eliminate the estate tax, losing billions more of revenue for which you, I, and middle-class Americans would eventually have to ante up.
How much money has to be passed down to the kids of the already exorbitantly rich before such an uneven economic playing field results that we may as well be back in the Middle Ages?
I’m all for family farms and small businesses being passed down intact, but that’s not what this proposed bill is about. This legislation would create enormous wealth for the likes of Paris Hilton and generations of her privileged class as far out as the eye can see, favoring many of the same people who each year salt away over a billion dollars worth of unpaid taxes in off-shore tax havens.
How in the world can this be considered a land of equal opportunity with this kind of Feudal favoritism for the wealthiest among us transpiring without any initiative or ambition on their part whatsoever in the future?
During the same Republican Congress, there was also a movement to privatize social security. How would our so-called “private investment accounts” be doing in these days of a plummeting stock market? Make the richest rich for countless generations and put the very successful Social Security program for Mr. and Mrs. Ordinary American at risk. What a deal, my friends.
Do some people have to have it all to be satisfied? Is this actually what private enterprise in a democracy should be? How naive does McCain take us to be?
It was also the same Republican legislators who screamed “deregulate, deregulate, deregulate now!” Well, we can see the results of excessive deregulation: unfettered, unrestrained greed in the housing debacle that has left us with a deepening recession, more job losses, more cuts in benefits, and now inflation. Of course, none of this concerns or hurts the C.E.O. making $85 million a year.
All the while these gratuitous maneuvers transpired, our “friends” the Republicans have built a trillion dollar plus national deficit, borrowing like drunken sailors from the likes of countries such as Communist China. Keeping it out of the national budget like some sort of slippery accountant because it’s supposedly part of the special war budget.
“Special” or not, let’s hope and pray that our lenders don’t decide that their money could be spent better else where. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather pay as we go, more taxes if necessary, rather than saddle future generations with our needlessly entering a bogus war. Paying our fair share is, in fact, a patriotic duty.
Do we actually believe that we can take, take, take from our country without giving back, especially when our courageous soldiers are putting their lives on the line every day?
It’s one thing to spout off about “patriotism” but it’s another to put your money where your mouth is, apparently a prospect which some people don’t want to face.
These are the economic fiascos, my friends, that John McCain backed Bush and cronies on 95 percent of the time. If you want more of the same, vote McCain in November.
If you believe just about any kind of change would be better, then Obama is your candidate.
