Republicans are using spending cuts as a weapon and condition for extending unemployment benefits to millions of Americans who have lost their jobs. Republicans claim they want to cut spending by $5 billion to $6 billion each month, and on the surface it sounds like a good idea to reduce the national deficit.
At the same time though, Republicans are fighting to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that helped create the record debt we are drowning in. When Republicans gave tax cuts to rich people, they knew they were not funded, and had to let them expire after 10 years.
Republicans campaigned on fiscal responsibility and smaller government, and used the poor teabaggers to garner votes and take control of the House. But they belie their belief in fiscal responsibility when they insist on giving unfunded tax cuts to the wealthy.
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Enter the poor, unemployed, and working-class Americans. Republicans and teabags label unemployment benefits an entitlement just like they call Social Security and Medicare welfare. Their goal is to privatize Social programs so Wall Street can prosper, and take away unemployment benefits to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
If the Bush tax cuts expire, the wealthiest 2% of Americans will see their tax liability increase by 3%, and their net worth would not decrease. Republicans are terrified that the wealthy will stop contributing to conservatives if they don’t give them something in return. Unfortunately, now that Republicans control the House, they can sacrifice unemployed Americans in return for favors from the rich.
The outrage is that so many Americans are unemployed because corporations are allowed to outsource jobs so their profits can soar, and since the multi-national corporations get tax breaks, it is a double insult. Add in the fact that under Republican rule, owners of those corporations will continue getting tax cuts, and the outrage is blinding.
Republicans deserve credit for fooling Americans with their fiscal responsibility meme, and for convincing Americans to elect them so they can increase their donors’ corporate wealth. It is still mind-numbing to see poor, lower middle-class, and retired Americans supporting Republicans who are burying them in poverty.
Republicans obviously really don’t care about Americans or America. They pander to the rich and persecute the rest of America and feel no remorse whatsoever. They tried to block financial reforms that protect working-class Americans, and tricked teabaggers into doing the dirty work of protesting that government regulations were an intrusion into their private lives.
Now they are holding unemployed workers hostage to get more benefits for the wealthiest Americans who received unfunded tax cuts for the past ten years, and many poor people support their efforts. There is a point where it looks like Americans’ intelligence is declining faster than corporate profits are rising.
Unemployed Americans will be destitute without their unemployment benefits, and for Republicans to use them as leverage is unconscionable. Republicans though, have never been accused of having a conscience, and it is a travesty that they sacrifice unemployed people to enrich the wealthy. It is especially evil that the lost jobs were sent overseas with Republican’s blessings. President Obama tried to eliminate benefits for corporations who shipped jobs out of the country, but Republicans blocked that legislation.
It is worth watching to see how America responds to Republican destruction of the middle-class and the poor. Many wonder how long till the poor and unemployed wake up and stop supporting Republicans who are bent on the destroying them. While it is happening though, the wealthy will prosper and the poor and unemployed will be relegated to abject poverty, and eventually, living on the street.
By then though, Republicans won’t have to worry about voters because they will have killed off the people they’ve been raping and corporations will control the government. For Republicans, paying for the Bush tax cuts with unemployment benefits is a wise business strategy that suits their masters; corporations and the wealthy.
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.
