Have We Had Enough of This Nonsense?

What an Unfortunate Waste of Time

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-1969.

The three-ring circus currently playing in the House of Representatives, on Faux News, and on all those clear-channel radio stations that carry Rush Limbaugh and his clones isn’t just annoying and reprehensible, it’s keeping our country from its true destiny as the exemplar of liberty and the leader of human progress.

The United States of America has a dark history of ethnic, sexual, religious, and economic inequality, but we have made great progress in righting those wrongs over the 234 years of our existence. The Ranting Right would like to reverse that progress.

We have built our economic stability by creating a large middle class through universal education and protections for those who work. The Party of No and its new fringe group, the Party of Hell No, are doing what they can to “dumb down” the populace and stifle the demands of labor.

We have made astonishing advances in science and technology that have made our country wealthy while improving every aspect of our daily lives, including the purity of our air, water, food, and medicine. All these improvements are at risk in the hands of the Backlash Boys of the radical right.

We have created a regulated capitalist economic system that encourages entrepreneurship while restricting the fraud and abuse to which unfettered economies are prone. Several decades of Grand Old Party initiatives gradually dismantled the protections put in place after the Great Depression, the inevitable fraud and abuse occurred and almost caused Great Depression II, and now the Republicans are doing all they can to convince the electorate that it was the fault of the Democrats.

But what’s worse than any of the errors in this catalogue is the current GOP message that the United States is bankrupt, financially and morally, and that it has lost its pre-eminence in the world.

This is not true. Over the course of our history we have come together to fight a revolution, survive an incredibly bloody civil war, and make the sacrifices necessary to win two world wars. Meanwhile we have continued to make things better for each new generation despite booms and busts and social strife. We have two and a half centuries of “can do” tradition and indomitable spirit. Our inventions and innovations have been the envy of the planet, as has been the liberty enjoyed by our people.

Yes, we’re having a hard time – a very hard time. The people on the bottom are the ones feeling it the most. Increasing gas prices, for example, may be a nuisance to the wealthy, but they are disastrous to the poor and much of the working class. The last gas price increase was the trigger that ignited the collapse in 2008, and most people haven’t yet recovered. Now the price is rising again, not because of reduced supply, but because of speculation – again.

Meanwhile, the new majority in the House is passing cuts that hurt these same people in other ways. We’re in dire straits, they say, and we have to cut unemployment compensation, Pell grants, Head Start, homeless veteran programs, and on and on.

It’s as if Dad, who had maxed out the family credit cards by purchasing a new Cadillac SUV, a wide-screen TV, and season tickets to the Cardinal games, were to call a family meeting and suggest that the kids needed to cut out their school lunches. It’s upside-down thinking and it’s unconscionable.

Even if we were to cut out the entire discretionary budget we wouldn’t be able to get out of this hole. We have to increase our revenue. The Republicans got a lot of votes last November by promising to create more jobs, but what have they done? Well, they’ve tried to repeal the health care act and cut funding for research and development, and they’ve taken pot-shots at some of their favorite targets such as National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood. In Wisconsin they’re targeting teachers and other public employees. In Georgia they’re trying to tax Girl Scout cookies.

Where are the jobs?

Well, they’re not where they used to be. New jobs are going to have to come from new industries. The federal government can help create those industries in two major ways: by educating the workforce and supporting research and development. If we cut spending in those areas, we’ll be cutting our collective throat.

We also need to help those who already have jobs. The best way we can do that is to reform the tax code, to reduce the tax burden on those who are struggling and cut out the tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.

And, yes, we need to cut duplicative and inefficient spending. That may well include welfare and housing and employment programs that overlap each other, but it should also include the many wasteful corners of the unaudited military budget and some of the corporate welfare in the farm budget.

I don’t usually agree with Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican, but thanks to his efforts we now have a partial list of government programs, and it is revealing a lot of waste and duplicate effort. Consolidating such programs could reduce administrative costs without hurting those they are intended to help. But this won’t be enough to do the job.

One nice result of helping those who are unemployed get jobs and those who are employed increase their financial security is a reduction in welfare, Food Stamps, utility assistance, health care and rental subsidies, and unemployment expenses. And gainful employment is the only way we can increase revenue and begin chipping away at the debt and its concomitant interest expense.

So should we freak out, give up, throw in the towel, admit defeat? Certainly not. We were making good progress ten years ago when Bush, Jr. took over. With a little luck and a lot of common sense, we’ll start making progress again.

The United States is not broke. The United States has not lost its place in the world. All of our problems are temporary and can be remedied, not by draconian cuts that hurt the working class but by confidence and investment in our people.

Republicans, Teabags, and corporate media hacks: Stop wasting our time!