Do something. If it doesn’t work, do something else. No idea is too crazy.
Jim Hightower
There are social conservatives. There are national security conservatives. There are fiscal conservatives. There are ideologues who call themselves conservative but are really either lemmings or traitors.
For those who might not remember everything they learned in their ninth-grade biology class, or grew up where science was declared to be the exclusive bailiwick of Lucifer, the HMS Beagle was the boat that bore Charles Darwin on his famous voyage to the Galapagos Islands.
Those who figuratively missed that boat can be identified by their lemming-like behavior. Lemmings are small rodents that will follow a predetermined path to destruction rather than change direction or think. It’s easy to understand how GOP Congressmen could be mistaken for lemmings.
It was the nonsense of conservative economics that brought us both the Great Depression and our present debacle, whatever the name by which it comes to be known. Once the Great Depression started, the strict application of those policies that caused it ensured that it would be deeper and longer than necessary. Once again the lemmings in Congress are calling for adherence to the policies that gave us the present global, economic meltdown.
We have been bad little boys and girls. We have been living on credit, debt, since the early Eighties. The government is guilty of it. Business is guilty of it. Consumers are guilty of it.
So, how do we discipline these bad little boys and girls? Give them a tax break, of course. At least that is the prescription of the people who authored this mess. Just borrow some more money from China to help the economy. Actually, the purposes are to stay in accord with the dogma and to buy votes.
No method of stimulating the economy is less efficient than tax cuts. One person pays down his credit card, creating no jobs. Another spends it at Wal-Mart, creating jobs in China. We have bridges falling down, pipes bursting, seven billion gallons of clean water leaking every day, sewers collapsing. It’s called infrastructure. Tax cuts take money away from the repairs required to keep all systems, our society, operational.
Listening to the regressives is listening to the very ones who caused these problems. They say the market is the best way of determining what is economically best. But, didn’t they take our tax money to help solve their economic problems? They say regulation is an unnecessary burden. Didn’t the lack of regulation allow them to create this mess?
Our esteemed federal legislature failed to include regulations in the bailout funding. That oversight funded $18.4 billion in bonuses, private jets, $1.22 million office redecoration, Wall Street lobbyists working against their benefactors’ interest, auto manufacturers lobbying against laws requiring higher mileage standards and buying other financial institutions, rather than making loans. Are the ones who benefited from the lack of regulations correct that they are unneeded? Or, is it the recipients that are unneeded?
The lemmings tell us that tax cuts are the best stimulative policy. All of the tax cuts since Reagonomics came into the ascendancy were paid for with borrowed money. While borrowing in an economic downturn is a necessary evil, borrowing in good times only makes our situation worse.
While the public may not be well informed on the topic of economics, they are not complete do-dos, as are a large number of Members of Congress. The public had some suspicion that W and his policies were culpable in bringing on their difficulties. They voted for a different direction. They replaced many of the lemmings. The result? As seen by the remaining lemmings, the people want more of the same snake oil the regressives have been selling for the past 28 years.
According to that sage known to us as anonymous, “The more you do of what you’ve done, the more you’ll have of what you’ve got.” Do we really want more of the same?
Lemming graphic by Josh Neuman
Elephant graphic by Barry Blitt
{ 2 comments }
You accidentally said GOP in your title. It is our new Democratic President and Democrat controlled Congress who are getting ready to pass a nearly $1 Trillion Stimulus package that emphasizes tax cuts and does little to rebuild infrastructure. Other than that typo in your title, I agree with you completely.
I am just tired of hearing Republican Congressmen on TV claiming that we need more tax cuts. Obama’s advisors also buy into that nonsense but to a lesser extent. They have put more into the package than they consider necessary in an attempt to secure a bi-partisan vote.
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