Last updated on February 9th, 2013 at 02:53 pm
Many incumbent politicians go incognito while campaigning by drifting toward a moderate position to conceal their true identities during an election year to garner support from voters. Indeed, it seems counterintuitive to hold extremist positions on any issue if a candidate seeks moderate and independent voter support and yet in 2012, Republicans have discarded their disguises as human beings and are blatantly campaigning to decimate the poor, children, and elderly Americans to enrich the wealthy and begin piling money on the military for Republican’s future wars. Republicans have not only abandoned any pretense of caring for 99% of Americans, they are openly mocking attempts to assist women and showing disgust for the least fortunate segment of the population by referring to programs that feed poor children as waste that necessitates excising to make room for bombs and bullets.
In a short span of five days, two House Republicans demonstrated a complete lack of humanity and they did it in full view of the people as if being callous and cruel was a trait representative of all Americans. The sad aspect is that their heartless contempt for low-income Americans and women is shared by an alarming number of Americans that informs this country is exceptional in its cruelty and inhumane sensibilities that are more closely aligned with vicious beasts than decent human beings. At least vicious beasts innately care for the young and mothers whereas Republicans and their supporters are actively working to drive more Americans into despair and destitution by withholding assistance that could be the difference between going hungry and barely surviving or a life of prosperity. Republicans choose the former for millions of Americans.
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Representative Paul Ryan is renowned in Republican circles for his courage in cutting programs that assist poor and elderly Americans as part of his ideological allegiance to Ayn Rand and the virtue of punishing what Ryan calls the “takers.” In Ryan’s heartless mind, takers are unfortunate (read poor) Americans of all ages who require assistance to survive in an economy his party created by giving the wealthy (makers) more taxpayer dollars because they are already rich. During a question and answer session with constituents in his home district in Wisconsin, Willard Romney’s hero mocked a hypothetical woman in President Obama’s campaign ad called Julia, and called the imaginary character “creepy” and the idea of government services that give women assistance “demeaning.” The campaign ad points out the stark contrast between President Obama’s policies that assist women from cradle to grave and a Romney government that cares only for the wealthy. Ryan used the typical Republican talking points that suggesting “life without Barack Obama’s government-centered society” is demeaning and that the President implies that “she must have him and his big government to depend on to go anywhere in life,” and that it “doesn’t say much about his faith in Julia.”
Ryan’s comments were telling, and strips away any façade of humanitarianism one hopes a representative of the people would strive to exemplify, and informs his true belief that any American, male or female, who is not wealthy is draining resources he believes rightly belong to the rich. Ryan is competing with his soul mate, Willard Romney, who said he does not worry about the poor, except that they are leeching taxpayer dollars better spent on tax cuts for the wealthy and defense spending.
The cruel heartlessness of Ryan and Romney’s budgets is exemplified by their Draconian cuts to food stamps, public education, health insurance, Pell Grants, prenatal care and contraceptives, Medicare, and Head Start that Romney and Ryan consider “demeaning.” Apparently, it is demeaning to desperately need government assistance for survival, but not to go hungry, be sick, or struggle to educate and provide healthcare to children. Ryan’s use of the term “creepy” for a fictional woman who is not wealthy is only matched by his demeaning label of “takers” for low-income and poor Americans. Ryan has never impugned the wealthy as takers despite their “taking” more taxpayer dollars at the expense of the poor and the nation’s economy. However, demeaning the poor is becoming the modus operandi of the Republican Party and they are unapologetic for their cruelty.
On Monday, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) asserted that cutting $261 billion from food stamps, social services, Medicare, and school lunch programs to make room for $554 billion in Pentagon funding was “trimming the fat” from the budget. The $554 billion is $29 billion more than the Department of Defense (DOD) requested. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the bill will push 1.8 million Americans off food stamps, cost 280,000 students school lunch subsidies, and 300,000 children their health insurance coverage as well as eliminating social services block grants for child abuse programs, child care, and Meals on Wheels. Repealing the Social Services Block Grant will also affect 23 million low-income Americans who require disability assistance and eliminates child care assistance for working poor parents.
McCarthy’s comment that those programs are fat worthy of trimming is despicable, especially when eliminating Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would double the amount Republicans claim they need to save to fund useless weapons systems. Republicans are still attempting to prevent $500 billion in military spending cuts triggered by Republican’s rejection of a balanced approach in the Budget Control Act last summer. If Republicans were seriously looking for $500 billion for the Pentagon, the Center for American Progress found “more than $500 billion in cuts that could be implemented over the next decade,” but it will not satisfy heartless Republican’s longing to punish the poor.
It is obvious that Republicans will not take any action whatsoever on budget matters that do not adversely impact the poor. The Draconian cuts Ryan and Romney propose are allegedly to bring the nation’s deficit under control, but they pale in comparison to the gifts to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts they both included in their budgets. The heartless, cold-blooded Republicans have no intention on reining in the deficit, but they have shown their true motives are punishing the poor and middle-class that Ryan labels “takers.” The cruel cuts to social programs to fund more defense spending than the DOD requested proves they are not intended to keep the military equipped, but to create more poverty and starve poor children if they do not die from lack of health care. However, Paul Ryan’s description of a fictional woman who lives a decent life as “creepy” because of a caring government defines Republicans as the cruel, cold-hearted beasts they really are and inclines one to wonder what it says about Americans who support Republicans. What it says is that any American who votes for a Republican after knowing they have no compunction sending children, elderly, and disabled Americans deeper into poverty and certain destitution are as cold-hearted and cruel as any evil monster whether their name is Ryan or Romney, and that they support starving children to enrich the wealthy and build more bombs informs that at least one-half of the American people are as exceptionally inhumane as they are not remotely Christian.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
