The Most Important Thing Is That We Cut Taxes

 by Dick Mac

People who tell you that the notions I put forward here are just as much the fault of Democrats as Republicans are lying.  It is not true.  Like much of what the right-wing believes, it is a myth.

As we cut-off our noses to spite our faces, our nation is going right down the economic shitter.

The post-Reagan Republicans (even the socially liberal ones) with their fairy-tales about small government (that has never existed) and low taxes (which have never existed) and unregulated corporate avarice (which has always led to economic failure), sit smugly and rant on about some foolish notions they call Libertarianism (which has ever existed).  These fairy tale notions that are being developed into governmental policy are leading us to ruin.


There is allegedly some good reason why we must cut taxes everywhere at all times. This notion is based on a lie that our government is too big.  Of course, the right-wing doesn't want to shrink the parts of the government from which they benefit.  You see, the stuff they think is important is necessary and protected by the Constitution, while the stuff niggers and queers and socialists think is important is frivolity.  


Every benefit "conservatives" enjoys is a necessity, and every benefit they do not use is socialism.

There is nothing more absurd than someone who works for a bank or other financial institution complaining about "welfare" or "government interference" or "socialism"!

Line-up a thousand bankers and a huge percentage of them are "conservative" or "anti-big-government" or "libertarians" and don't forget the best:  "socially liberal but fiscally conservative"!  What that really means is:  "I want the right to indulge in every self-satisfying pleasure at every whim without repercussion, and you can have that to; but I don't want to pay for a government that would protect that right."


After thirty years of treating this mythical Reagantopia as reality, I can't believe there are working people who still think it can work and that it's a good idea!  I know why gazillionaires believe in this stuff:  they really do save huge, massive sums of money that can then be horded.  But why anyone earning less than a half-million dollars a year would subscribe to this stuff remains mind-boggling.


I do understand that we Americans all consider ourselves millionaires-in-waiting who are just a breath, one hair away from the good fortune that will bring the windfall we know we deserve.  Then all these absurd laws that define our fiscal fairy-tale will be in place for us.  So, we need to support the right-wing now, because their insane demands of today will protect us tomorrow.


In Reagantopia, the bankers are unicorns and the clerks are leprechauns!  


You can't have both Reaganomics and a successful economy with which to build a civilization.  


You can have:

1. Reaganomics, which leads to the Reagantopia where the economy is in free-fall, and working people use their taxes to prop up the myth; or,
   
2. you can have an actual civilization with real fiscal policies based on sound mathematical equations.  

The former is really inexpensive and fast-moving, the latter is expensive and its wheels turn slowly and deliberately.  


You can't have both.


In Scranton, Pennsylvania, (the heartland of Reagantopia) it has come to this:  the firefighters and cops are being paid minimum wage. Their contracts have been nullified and guys with families who earned $900 a week are now paid $300 a week.  This is great for the wealthy people whose taxes have been reduced and reduced and reduced over the past thirty years.  That tiny group of people is quite happy about this arrangement.  It's not good for the cops and firefighters.


I really want to take the side of the the firefighters and be outraged by this.  


Sadly, firefighters so often vote Republican -- vote against their own best interests -- that I actually think it's kind of funny that they are upset.  This is what Reaganomis promised them!  Now, they're all upset because they discover they will not benefit one iota from these fairy-tale tax policies promoted in Reagantopia.  


Odder still, is that as as these firefighters sit fuming about their horrible situation, they have Fox News blaring in the background telling them it's Barack Obama's fault because he's a socialist who wants to destroy America.  They will listen to their lords and masters at Fox News and vote for Republicans (they'll even vote for Mitt Romney) this Autumn.  They will sigh a sigh of relief when the socialists are voted out, and they will actually believe that Republican lawmakers will cut spending, reduce overhead, solidify the economy, and protect Constitutional freedom (as if they actually know what that means).


I support workers' rights to collective bargaining, and I support unions, and I believe that the working man in America needs to be protected from management's whims.  But when you look at a group of workers who consistently vote against their own best interests, it's hard to feel sorry when they get what they've been promised.


If you support the notion of small-government, and you are a government employee, then you believe your job should be eliminated.


HELLO!


You can't have it both ways!


The plan of the Republican party is to completely gut all government services, privatize what they must retain,  and eliminate anything they don't like.


Any firefighter who votes (or ever voted) Republican is voting against his own existence.  They don't want firefighters on the government payroll.  They want that service privatized.  


You think it sucks to make only $7.25 an hour?  Wait until you are earning $7.25 an hour with no benefits; because that's what our privatized governments services will pay their workers.  That's what the Republicans will bring you.


I promise!

Scranton mayor slashes pay for all city workers—including police and firefighters—to minimum