Thursday, May 26, 2011

Making Republicans Vote

Word has it that Senate democrats are not playing fair. “They are trying to scare seniors” suggests a prominent Republican.  How? Well by forcing republicans to vote on their own plan to eliminate Medicare. Imagine that—forcing republicans to vote or shut up is unfair, if not downright un-American.  Voting . . . how awful.
Rep. Ryan, much beloved by republicans because of his plan to eventually eliminate the deficit by eliminating Medicare and Medicaid, is aghast at this turn of events, wherein he might be held accountable for his proposal. He loves speaking about it, especially for a large fee. He just isn’t too keen on having anyone actually vote for it. All those touchy old people, who may be paying attention.
Someday, when China decides that it has bought enough of our debt—and that could happen sooner rather than later should republicans live up to their promises by refusing to vote on the debt ceiling extension—they may decide that German, or Irish debt looks more appealing. Then, we would have no way of financing purchases by the Treasury—you know, stuff like the military, Social Security, Medicare. Rep. Ryan thinks we can escape our debt by reducing cost. Most sane people believe the representative is a doofus, and probably flunked third grade math.
I really hate writing checks to the US Treasury. I really do. However, I actually believe that revenue is the main source of our current debt crisis (thank you George Bush), and that both companies and the middle to upper income classes in America have enough money to float our collective boats.  We desperately need to increase income taxes. That’s the long and the short of it. I know, republicans will insist that our economy will stop functioning if we raise taxes. But they always say that. For republicans, the sky will always fall with a tax increase, and companies will cease being able to function if they are regulated and taxed both.  But they have proven themselves incapable of rational thought on these issues.  The entire republican establishment apparently believes the moon is made of green cheese, the rapture is just around the corner, and the earth really is flat.  After they created the greatest economic debacle since the 1929 crash and the following 1930’s depression, we should not take republican commentary seriously on any economic issue.  They are not believable. More, they are a joke on most serious issues.
And on republican planet McHenry’s Hell, Elizabeth Warren was treated to the republican version of The Big Bang. She was treated as a serf by Mr. McHenry, accused of lying, and then reassured that he really, really, thinks she is a worthy citizen. Mr. McHenry is not known for subtlety . . . or truth-telling.

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