Last updated on March 6th, 2013 at 09:17 am
It is customary to give one’s good wishes, or praise, when something special or pleasant has happened to someone, or for a particular achievement they persevered and worked hard to accomplish. For eight long years, Bush Republicans ran up the deficit with two unfunded wars, an unfunded Medicare prescription plan, and then bailed out banks as the economy tanked, and witnessed their handiwork eviscerate millions upon millions of Americans’ jobs and had the temerity to run against Barack Obama promising more of the same economic malfeasance. Apparently, they wanted the nation to give them a hearty “job well done” and “please continue” taking the economic life out of the people in 2008. After President Obama bailed the country out of the Bush Republican economic disaster, they swept into power in the House and directly proceeded attempting to return to their old ways of killing jobs and retarding growth, and yesterday they finally accomplished their goal.
Doubtless, Republicans are congratulating themselves for allowing the dreaded sequester to take effect knowing full well that in the first year of a ten year plan, about a million Americans will lose their jobs, the economy will contract, and hundreds-of-thousands of children, seniors, and the poor will be kicked off safety nets, because that has been their goal for four years. However, Republicans cannot expect many Americans not in the upper 1% of income earners to congratulate them for finally imposing their precious Draconian austerity on America, and with little options to avoid the certain economic hardship most American families are going to feel, it safe to say Republicans will be cursed from one end of the nation to the other and they deserve much worse. If they had a conscience, or morality, Republicans might be bothered that the people are going to pay for GOP’s austerity economic strategy, but they will collect their bloated salaries, and corporate contributions, and hit the talk shows to tell Americans that killing jobs and retarding GDP growth was the best way to build a vibrant economy; for the wealthy and their corporations.
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One might be inclined to excuse the feckless Republican drive to send the nation back into a recession if there were no living examples of the devastation austerity wreaks on a recovering economy, but after most European nations suffered slow or no growth and double dip recessions as a result of severe austerity measures, and reduced GDP growth in the fourth quarter in America on account of spending cuts, they cannot be excused. Their austerity measures served one purpose and one purpose only; damage the economy and make the people suffer to protect the rich and for re-electing President Obama.
Republicans did pass a bill in the House to replace the sequester in the last session of Congress, but it would have kept all the domestic cuts and replaced the defense cuts with yet more domestic cuts to anti-poverty programs. Republicans hate programs that combat poverty, so they must be celebrating the sequester cuts to WIC, food stamps, meals on wheels, Head Start, and reduced school lunch programs, but they will not be getting kudos from half-a-million working-poor families deciding how to provide their hungry children with at least one daily meal. Seniors too, will not be singing the GOP’s praises as their food stamps dry up and those luxuries like Meals on Wheels stop bringing food to shut-ins, but they can rest assured Republicans fought diligently to continue big oil subsidies, corporate tax breaks, and tax loopholes for the richest 1% of Americans while complaining America’s broke and cannot afford to assist the generation that built the infrastructure the wealthy depend on to post record profits as middle class families face declining wages and job losses.
While most Americans are desperately looking for ways to survive another Republican economic onslaught, a million workers nervously await notice their job was eliminated due to spending cuts, and as 11,000 special education teachers await pink slips, and tens-of-thousands of others began receiving notices their jobs face elimination, it is safe to say educators and students will not be sending congratulatory notes to Republicans. The list of affected Americans includes 99% of the population in some way or another, and any American can peruse a comprehensive list to see precisely how they will be affected by austerity-drunk Republicans responsible for reductions in law enforcement, healthcare, disaster relief, aviation safety, and regulators keeping the food and medicine supply safe. One thing is assured, Republicans succeeded in adversely affecting every American negatively and they are quite pleased with themselves, but if they expect to be congratulated for deliberately and with malice aforethought damning Americans to unnecessary harm, they will be disappointed at the silence.
Republicans know, and promised faithfully in 2010, that creating jobs was the surest way to maintain President Obama’s economic recovery, and yet over two full years later, they have not created one job and deliberately attempted to kill millions, and on Friday they succeeded with the sequester. They may be congratulating each other, but they owe their success, in part, to EmoProgs and whiny Liberals who sat home during the 2010 midterm elections to punish the President for not exceeding the authority of his office and not waving a magic wand to repeal DADT, DOMA, or close Guantanamo without Congressional approval, and although many liberal and professional left pundits took pride in “teaching Obama a lesson,” they are to be congratulated for handing the House to teabaggers and Republicans running on a pro-poverty platform. Good job!
Yesterday President Obama said, “At a time when our businesses have finally begun to get some traction, hiring new workers, and bringing jobs back to America, we shouldn’t be making a series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things that businesses depend on and workers depend on like education and research and infrastructure and defense,” but the President was not being honest. “We” didn’t make dumb arbitrary cuts, Republicans did, and in all honesty, they were not “dumb” or “arbitrary.” They were calculated cuts Republicans yearned, and fought, for from the day the President took office and they were imposed because Republicans love poverty and hate the poor, thrive on ignorance and hate education, love the rich and hate taxing them, but most of all, they hate America and only traitors congratulate America’s enemies, but a Secular Humanist damns them to their proverbial Hell, and may they rot there for eternity.
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.
