Welcome friends!
So how about them budget talks, huh? I read a couple of weeks ago about some Republican bigwigs actually walking out because they felt the Democrats failed to appreciate that any steps to increase revenue are simply not on the table as far as Congressional Republicans are concerned. Now, if you’re like me, the sheer dishonesty and hypocrisy of the Republican Party is becoming truly astounding at this point. You have to remember that the main reason the budget is in such sorry shape right now are three steps the Republicans took not so long ago to make it that way. First, they passed those ... ahem ... “temporary” tax cuts, mostly for the benefit of the wealthiest taxpayers, under former President Bush. Second, they managed to get us involved in some rather costly overseas adventures. Third, they engineered a recession and the near collapse of our entire economic system through their anti-regulatory zeal and general lack of oversight of the financial and housing industries. Now they’re sitting back and lecturing everyone else on budget restraint. That’s funny. So what caused them to suddenly find religion? (Metaphorically, I mean; they found religion as a way to pick up some votes a long time ago.) Well, I suppose it’s because we’re now talking about cutting programs that the Republicans and their conservative supporters don’t really care too much about anyway, you know, the social safety net: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, job training, educational programs, that type of thing. And you know that the Republicans and their wealthy patrons have never gone in much for that type of thing. They’ve been fighting them every step of the way. According to their free market every-man-for-himself ideology, if you can’t get your act together sufficiently to accumulate a few million bucks then you basically deserve to be on the street with no job, no house, and no medical care.
Well, OK, maybe I’m being too hard on at a least some conservatives... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website. All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee. Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right? If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then. Thank you my friends!
