HA! Tricked you. I bet you thought you would read this post and think to yourself, wow, we can do it. Rich people can pay less and we as a country can still get more.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but this is a fantasy, not unlike unicorns, yetis and the Smurfs. In a more in depth analysis of the Paul Ryan plan, it has come to my attention that that all of the budget cutting that Ryan would do would be offset by lowering taxes for rich people. In effect, the rich would get more money and the middle class and poor people would lose benefits. This is the path to prosperity? It's been more than two decades since Reagan and we're still trying to practice his economic theory. I got bad news Paul, the jury is in and judgement has been passed. It's the economy, stupid. Reaganomics set the stage for poor HW Bush to get ousted by Bill Clinton because the economy stunk. We know that there is no trickle down in trickle down economics!
So Paul Ryan has given us a budget that cuts benefits for almost all Americans and still doesn't save money! It's almost incomprehensible. Check that, it is completely incomprehensible.
Today, President Obama will outline his plan for a budget which will include tax increases for the wealthiest Americans. There is an article on Foxnews.com titled, "Obama Eyes Tax Increases in Debt Plan, Faces GOP Opposition." Yes, the GOP is still convinced that we can fix our debt problem - a problem created by HW's son, Dubya - by destroying the middle class and letting rich people pay less. Mathematically this doesn't work, but math is too real for the GOP. They prefer unicorns and Smurfs.
Consider this quote in all its stupidity from none other than the leader of the fools, John Boehner, "We don't have deficits because Americans are taxed too little, we have deficits because Washington spends too much," House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday. "And at a time when the American people face skyrocketing prices at the pump, energy tax hikes are a particularly bad idea."
A brief analysis of just those two sentences can tell you everything you need to know about the hypocrisy and foolishness of the Republican Party. For starters, we have deficits both because Washington spends too much AND because Americans are taxed too little. We don't have to go back far to remember how Republicans led by Dubya took the unbelievable and unprecedented step of lowering taxes during wartime, and not just one war, two wars. Never before in American history had this been the case. We should also keep in mind that the Medicare Part D was passed in 2003 by a Republican Congress and signed into law by President Bush.
So sure, Washington spends a lot, and Obama is certainly not exempt, although the stimulus package undoubtedly helped save jobs and Obamacare will ultimately save the government money. But to say that Americans aren't taxed too little and worse that we can fix our deficit problems while lowering taxes for billionaires is equivalent to saying that you caught leprechaun riding a chinese dragon.
Boehner goes on to explain how energy taxes would be a bad idea. This isn't just shortsighted, this is a complete inability to see what is in front of you. Oil is dirty and it's limited. When Winston Churchill modernized the Royal Navy nearly a century ago, he made the switch from coal-fired ships to oil-powered ships. That should clue you in on oil as an energy source, it's glory days are over. The future of energy is not oil. True, a gas tax would certainly cause temporary pain, but the revenue would help pay off the deficit and it would spur investment and innovation in alternative energy, the future of the American and global economy. If we really want to talk about shared sacrifice, job creation and budget reduction we should tax gas incrementally starting yesterday.
But these things aren't on the radar of the Goofy Out-of-Touch Politicians, no, the GOP would rather spend its time saddling the shrinking middle class with higher costs for less benefits while funneling money to the rich, some of which of course would "trickle down" to the rest of us thereby setting America on the "Path to Prosperity." Sure thing, and after that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
Where are all the republicans, who just a year ago, stood so bravely in defense of the vulnerable seniors of this country when they criticized obamacare for raising cost of medicaid and enacting "death panels" for the terminally ill? Where are they now? Now that Ryan is proposing a plan that would privatize medicare based on the assumption that competition will drive prices down, Republicans should be asking - well, why would one assume such a thing? After all, now there are several insurance companies and health care is too expensive for way too many Americans. ESPECIALLY seniors, of whom many insurance companies won't insure at all because of the risk to profit ratio. Ryan also stated that the vouchers used will adjust for inflation. Of course inflation in the health care industry is always at least a half percent higher than anywhere else. So now mr. Ryan, why do you think prices will be lower when you privatize insurance for the elderly? It won't - it will cost more. Thousands more per year probably. One should be astounded by the hypocrisy but, given the routine nature of such on capitol hill, no one blinks. Everyone agrees the deficit is a problem, but why is all the blame on Obama and why are the priorities of the GOP are so fucked up? The costs of Bush's two wars in the middle east and his subsequent decision to lower taxes at the same time was unprecedented... and expensive - Around 3 trillion dollars including continued costs and benefits for veterans as well as the bush tax cuts. Ouch. That's like almost a fourth of the total deficit in 8 years. So let's first assess blame fairly. The GOP now wants to increase defense spending, which is already as high as the rest of the world combined (that's right), and leave the bush tax cuts alone. In fact they don't want to raise any taxes. So how do they reduce the deficit. By ceasing spending on crucial social programs on which, at least for now, millions of people depend. On ceasing to spend on education and environmental protection. By ceasing to spend on energy and infrastructure. By killing programs for public health and protection from diseases. Let's get our priorities in order, America. If we want to keep these programs on which we depend, we have to pay the taxes.
ReplyDeleteall true except for one thing, we spend MORE than the rest of the world combined on our military, it's why we were able to kick Al-Qaeda's ass and find Osama bin Laden so quickly...
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