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.
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.
Nicely put.
How long do you think it will take to kill of the middle class that supports republicans?
Pro life that is a joke!
The GOP took your IRA, job, home. Now they want your Social Security, minimum wage, and unemployment benefits when you are out of work. Don’t give them your vote, it’s all you have left.
Get ready to get what you asked for you dingy tbaggers who have absolutely no clue! They didn’t win. They just had more corporate money to push around and scare them into changing votes or not voting at all. They had more tbagger thugs out scaring voters..especially minorities! It was planned from the inception of ms bigoted arizona calling for more border patrol and the barbaric handling of immigrants. The latinos all ran away. They got frightend with Govr KKK of Arizona. Black people were harassed as well by bringing up fake black pathers! The right has vicious and stealing down to a science. THEY HAVE NEVER WON ANYTHING HONORABLY! and now their people will pay the price. I just can’t imagine all republican constituents are well off and not unemployed. Well, here you go. GET READY TO SUFFER YOUR DREAMS AWAY WITH YOUR WONDERFUL NEW GOP LEADERS! YOU ASKED FOR IT. YOU’RE GONNA GET A TASTE OF THE HATE AND DIVISION YOU VOTED FOR NOW!
Good post! Since I’m the only liberal among my family and friends, every chance I got, I worked hard to point out that to vote for teaparty /GOP candidates on 11/2 would be voting against themselves or at least voting against members of their families who got Social Security, Medicare, etc. It fell on deaf ears. They only listen to Sean, Rush, Glenn or Sarah. Everybody else is either lying or stupid. When Keith Olbermann ran down the list of teaparty candidates and what they stood for, I thought it would be a good idea to forward the link to my friends and family before they went to vote. I was still laboring under the assumption that “they just don’t know what they’re voting for”. Here’s one of the responses that I got back. It’s from one of my family, a college graduate, a teacher who loves Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin. I didn’t edit the spelling or punctuation.
“Thanks but I’m straight ticket….His (meaning Pres. Obama) health care will kill medicare, His highest tax increase in history will destroy the economy even more.Â
As they say on Bill Maher the American people are stupid,they need the goverment to lead them….Sorry only the Joyless Bayharts, the people that don’t want to work,and the people that need the goverment t babysit them will vote Democrate
…It’s my duty to vote the way I was raised to believe this country should be run. I work hard for my money I don’t believe in Barrak Hussen Obamas socialist beliefs…”
That person and her husband, do NOT make over $250K per year although they make almost that much. They do work hard for their money, they don’t waste a dime of it. One of their children broke her arm. On the way to the hospital, the child was crying. Mommy said, “We’ll be at the hospital in a few minutes, try to stop crying”. The 11 year old child said, “I’m not crying because it hurts, I’m crying because I’m going to waste your money”. The family has excellent insurance. They resent having to “waste their money on the poor”. Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment benefits are all considered “welfare” by them. And food stamps! Oh my gawd, that’s really an outrage.
Having a family member who’s unemployed and living on Social Security is a big embarrassment.
They live in a large $200K house that’s completely paid for. Drive a SUV and a big pick-up that are paid for. Don’t owe anybody anything. (All of which is good – and I mean that). Among their closest friends, there are 3 families who get big – BIG – farm subsidies. Another is a mid-level executive with an oil company. They all live in TX in a very RED county. It will be a long, long road for any of those people to turn away from the GOP and/or teaparty thinking. Well, unless Sean, Glenn, Rush or Sarah tell them they should.
The Party of No appeals to selfishness and short-sighted thinking of many Americans, who obviously don’t see themselves as being connected in any way to the Americans they see as unworthy. Those are the kinds of people who have to face a major economic catastrophe in order for reality to set in for them. They have no problem with corporate welfare, or with Congress members who do nothing but obstruct helpful legislation and earn big salaries while doing that. If that’s not welfare, I don’t know what is. Yet, they squawk at the comparatively miniscule amount of expenditures for extending unemployment benefits or public assistance for people temporarily down on their luck. Apparently, they are happy with the outsourcing of American jobs, as well as the fact that some countries the jobs were outsourced to also influenced the elections a few days ago. And they bleat about the “greatest country on earth,” while other countries with fewer resources do a much better job that this one in terms of education, health care, providing jobs, and giving support to families undergoing major upheavals like illness of family members. Since the Party of No, along with their Tea Party sidekicks, have been clear about the harm they intend to do, why would anyone think they would suddenly get a rush of empathy once elected?
Those who voted for them will get more than they ever bargained for, and the rest of us will have to suffer with them.
now that the corporate world has gone global, and the Republicans are getting money from outside this country, they don’t really have to be any longer worried that they are beholding to we the people. I shouldn’t have said that, because the tea party has damaged the term we the people heavily.
I wonder who they are going to populate the country with? People from India? Mexicans who will work for pesos? I seriously doubt it’s going to be with American middle and lower class
you voted them in America. Good luck with them
….the Republicans kill and rape people and corporations will take over the government? Are you Libs really eating this crap up?
Man, Jon Stewart failed to accomplish anything with that rally…
Oh man! Americans are so dumb. Don’t even know that you’ve been fooled by them!
I completely support the idea of freedom of speech… however, to completely spread baseless accusations and crude words (like teabags for members of the tea party) to achieve your message is to take away from the heart of your message. If your message is valid, you don’t need to stretch and make your claim appear to be more than it is. It is simply your opinion. You can’t class all Republicans nor all Democrats in one giant category. However, if you do you especially can’t use the ideas of one person who is of that party and state that the entire party supports this belief.
If outsourcing is such a huge problem (and it is, I agree), then explain to me how no bill was passed by the super majority Democrats these past two years to discourage or prohibit this? The Democratic party had plenty of opportunity to pass a bill and did not. The Republicans don’t even have a majority to pass any bill.
Unemployment is a necessary evil for those laid off from work. But many (not all) become used to the government supporting them without needing to give anything in return. The government should not remove the program, but ensure those who are receiving it truly need it. Many abuse Medicare. A little while ago, Armenian mobsters were convicted of siphoning 17 million dollars by sending in false claims to Medicare that were approved for Hospitals that don’t even exist. And this is just one that the FBI caught, many more go undetected. Social programs are needed but as government expands it loses the power to efficiently regulate the programs and this leaves them available for abuse. This is why government should be more limited so it can focus on actually helping those who need it, and not those who want to take advantage that the rest of us have to pay for.
If you have ever been on unemployment, you don’t buy into the silliness that you get used to it and want to stay on it.
any legislation by the dems to stop outsourcing, or indeed just regulate big business would have been filibustered by the G.O.P. “The party of No” should say “No” to corporations who are doing just fine, and “Yes” to the out of work and downtrodden.
Once again, the repugs demonstrate that there are no depths to which they will not sink, no lie they will not tell, no dollar they will not steal. For years I’ve wondered at the people who vote against their own interests and how bad things would have to get before they woke up. Now I see that they never will.
No matter how bad it gets, there will always be a liberal somewhere for them to blame. There will always be cable and radio pundits making millions providing them with ready-made belief systems, talking points, lies and rationalizations. They will simply assume that anything that contradicts their beliefs is wrong and unworthy of consideration. As “TimeOut” shows above, such people are impervious to facts and incapable of reason.
Some people claim that shifting demographics from immigration and minorities will someday doom the rich-white-man party, but there will always be greedy rich people and politicians for sale. In a nation where people routinely shoot themselves in the foot every election day, and then proudly announce that they’re going to do it again and again and again, I don’t know if America has much of a future ahead. Anyway, it certainly doesn’t look like a happy one.
Actually the record debt we are drowning in was created by liberal lending policies and selfish low and middle income people that knowingly borrowed more than they could afford, then skipped out when it came time to pay the bill.
The right thing to do is to nail these deadbeats to the wall until they pay back their ENTIRE debt that they signed the bottom line for. If they spent their entire lives working it off, tough, perhaps their children will learn not to steal what isn’t theirs.
Nice (sic) Anonymous– just who created those “liberal” (read: literally unregulated), predatory lending policies? Hint: it wasn’t the Democrats.
I went to the farm subsidy database and looked up the folks I’m talking about in my above. Wanted to make sure I was correct. Of the five people who are the nearest & dearest friends of my family member that I mentioned in the comment just above: the poorest one has only made an average of $5500 each and every month for the last 15 years; 3 each have made between $7,000 – 8,000 each month and one has made $9,000 each month. That’s average earnings from their farm subsidies each and every month for the last 15 years. To a person, they are GOP/teaparty and hate people who are on Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment. And I mean HATE.
Are farm subsidies tax free? I’m thinking they probably are.
FAIL.
Bush entered with surplus which he drove into deficit with increased spending and reduced intake via tax cuts he didn’t pay for. Oh, and a war he left off of the budget all together. then when he ran for re-election he told you he was going to reduce the deficit but he never said that he created it.
Nice work if you can get it.
1) I think that the division between the GOP and the tea party will become more apparent in the new session of congress. The tea party does not share the same level of ideals that the GOP shares. This can be exemplified by the Rush v. Palin debates. It will only grow worse and help divide the ‘conservative’ message.
2) The remaining democrats must see this and both expand on this division and use that as leverage for their legislative battles.
3) Lastly, if the democrats fail to recognize this, then this will give corporations the chance to finally jump in and take some of the power away from government in the form of Social Security privatization.
To the point of ” nail these deadbeats to the wall until they pay back their ENTIRE debt that they signed the bottom line for..” That will actually do nothing to help with the crisis created by Wall St.
You see, the real problem was making all these mortgages into commodities which were then split up and traded in the open market. This is why there is a halt on all foreclosures; nobody knows where all the mortgages went. What I think you mean to say is that we should nail all these Wall St. ‘investment bankers’ to the wall until they pay back their debt to society….but since we are voting for people to lower the regulation against the ‘free market’ then this will never happen. And if anyone ever does try to go after the Wall St. insiders, they become road kill (see Elliot Spitzer).
The Earth is 6000 years old, Obama is a Nazi Muslim and the earth is flat, People still believe all of that. The fact is, with a 10% unemployment rate, being unemployed for the last 18 months and having to pay an additional fee to talk to tech support in English, I wish we could keep SOME of our workforce in America. We could, of course, take a note from the Jefferson trade embargo and begin to force America to produce it’s own goods again, but since we have such a high population and people feel too entitled to work, it may actually create a greater problem.
Please do not assume that “liberals” are eating crap, we’ve venting, just like the GOP, and you can’t tell me that you read the whole article and didn’t find anything you agree with. And as For Stewart, he gave people a realistic hope, something that we poor need to keep making our ‘little sacrifices’ everyday to get by, like selling plasma to pay rent. When you are comfortably sitting at the top, it’s easy to look down on those around you.
The super majority cannot do anything on it’s own, they know it will only gridlock the country if they force a bill through. Obama is still acting like we can work together, and yes, the republicans have dug in their heels to try to stop any major political move to make the administrations look impotent, which they achieved. As to the abuse of medicare; Generally it’s hospitals and nursing homes that double bill the government and create the most wasteful spending, which is part of why they passed the heathcare reform. Ideally, you want a traditional form of republicanism, and by traditional I mean 1880’s republicanism, but you should remember there is a reason we evolved past that. The last thing we need to do right now with a failing economy and all-too-slow to recover market is cut unemployment; remember many people pay into it over years and are right to claim what they need when they need it. If we do send these people into the streets, we will need to be prepared for higher medical costs all around, since the sick will need treatment anyway and will have no way to pay for it, their bills will go unpaid causing hospitals to raise rates, insurance premiums to go up, ect. We will have to spend more taxpayer money on shelters and goods, more on an already thinly-stretched police force, ect.
I’m just saying, there are alot of effects to this one cause. I don;t have all teh answers, but we, as Americans, should be careful where we step.
I can’t help but feel 2 wars on two different fronts might have had something to do with it too…. but I’m just a liberal hippie.
The truth is not always pretty and false equivalencies are lazy. The Republican Party is the party of corporations and money for the super wealthy (not the people making 250,00 a year; I mean the super wealthy). This is a fact, not an opinion. It’s proven by votes, legislation, and party platforms.
Not sure if farm subsidies are tax free… but they could be considered a form of agri-welfare… I get into similar arguments with friends of mine who take tax deductions for their kids and their house… Sort of funny when you look at “welfare” from different viewpoints…
The most egregious offender in Medicare fraud history was just elected Governor of Florida… ;) Don’t old people live in Florida??? You know… old people who need and use Medicare??? Life is just too funny sometimes!
I was just going to add that, Rick… Good ol’ boy, Phil Gramm got the ball rolling with the dismantling of Glass-Steagall – Clinton signed off and there ya go…!
of course none of that record debt that we are in came from the vast borrowing that Bush did for his little wars and then lowering the amount of money that comes into the Fed by cutting taxes stupidly.
After all of their pillaging and raping of the poor, I suppose the Republicans will expect to be thanked for their sacrifices. After all, as everybody “knows” it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. Thank you for saving my soul Sarah, et.al.
The GOP is going to balance the budget, increase military spending, and increase handouts to the wealthy.
The poor, the elderly and children will pay for it. Nobody can possibly believe that.
Pro life is why the poor tea bagging idiots will always vote republican. They can’t vote for a party [democrats] that allows the murdering of thousands of innocent zygotes, embryos and fetuses (oh my!). Its a rediculous wedge issue that keeps people voting against actual living breathing people. If I were a republican I’d say if the embryo isn’t viable outside of the womb that’s its own d* problem (flush). Just like republicans think of people who have lost their job (whatever! flush).
The thing is, I can agree with farm subsidies—I see NO reason to put our food security to the whims of “the market”, being at the the mercy of the weather is bad enough. Where I disagree with them is in what gets the subsidies—some level of grains is OK, but far more is needed for fruits and vegetables. It’s sad when processed food (i.e. stuff you do extra work to!) costs less than fresh, real food.
I can also agree with child deductions; if you’re going to exempt a certain portion of income for the maintenance of yourself it makes sense to do so for “dependents”.
As for the mortgage interest deduction: I’d be for getting rid of it as I’m not sure it make a whole lot of sense. Hypocrisy point: I make full use of the mortgage interest deduction every year and don’t plan to stop until they tell me I can’t do it any more.
And they are most likely the ones who (ironically) self-identify as Christian.
As to the whole fallacious meme of Democrat rule, I have just one word: Filibuster.
I’m with ya!
Why not? and they won’t balance the budget. They haven’t done that since 1957. Only time it was balanced was under Clinton and other democrats.
Of course you consider them deadbeats. Let’s ignore the predatory lending practices of the banks who gave them those loans. The BANKS who were bailed out with virtually NO OVERSIGHT by your beloved Dubya and whose executives will take home a record 4+BILLION Dollars in bonuses this year. But you think the schmucks who borrowed the money… you think THEIR feet should be held to the fire. Just them. You call low and middle income people selfish? While the rich are demanding their tax breaks that will not produce a single job while the jobless get their unemployment benefits cut off?
That’s a particularly heartless view and I can only hope someday that your privileged self is in need with someone towering over you with such a superior attitude hoping you get “nailed to the wall” for wanting to live indoors and be able to feed your children.
It amazes me that the GOP and their beloved followers on the right don’t seem to get it. The same Wall Street thieves and banking institutions that sent this country into an economic tailspin are now reporting record profits – and Wall Street is set to pay $144b in salaries/bonuses to its employees.
And what does the GOP want to do? They want to extend tax cuts for the wealthy, they want to eliminate or lower minimum wage, they want to repeal FinReg so that the fraud, greed and corruption of Corporate executives and Wall Street investment bankers can continue to destroy the middle class.
I might add that Michael Bennet’s success in defeating Tea Partier Ken Buck in the Colorado Senate race, along with that of Rep. Ed Pelmutter in defeating
Republican Ryan Frazier, was due to in large part to the grassroots efforts of many groups and thousands of volunteers across the state.
Betsey Markey, on the other hand, wasn’t so fortunate. She voted against UI extensions not only once, but four times. Out of 16 House Dems who voted against UI extensions, 13 of them were voted out – including Markey. I am willing to bet money that she lost, in part, because she voted against extending help for the unemployed. We will continue to keep fighting. The disbelievers and politicians had better take notice: we are fighting to win.
Good job Colorado!
Denver Unemployment Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/unemployment-in-denver/jobs-bad-homelss-bad
Then, of course, there is the mathematical rebuttal:
http://www.wisebread.com/bar-stool-economics-0
Oh, this is funny. You say, “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.” What created the debt is the record-breaking SPENDING of Congress (controlled by Dems) and the current administration. Spending has tripled under the current administration.
Those “rich” and “wealthy” include small business owners — the ones who create jobs. Do you know what happens when the government takes more money away from business owners? They have less money to pay employees, which results in layoffs and hiring freezes. Get your facts straight!
Yep……that’s right…….all those evil Republicans wanting to ‘destroy’ and ‘rape’ poor people, as you put it. All those sweet little old Christian ladies who donate their time and money at homeless shelters and food pantries, who just happen to want our government to be careful with money, are wanting to ‘destroy’ and ‘rape’ the poor. Real mature Rmuse. Not inflammatory or divisive or anything like that, right? Former minister? Bitter?
This kind of stuff is why you lost the House so badly. I hope you do keep writing this childish idiocy, though; conservatives will win the White House for sure. Maybe you should just try to relax a little bit. Sit down and have a cup of tea.
So, let them filibuster. Make them prove that they are fighting ONLY for the multi-national corporations. Steven is right. The Democrats didn’t fight for us much harder than the Republicans.
Farm subsidies are not tax free – nor are they profit – you must plant crops you are probably going to lose money on growing – it is agri- welfare but the year I got $25,000 in ag subs I lost $50,000 in actual money.
I’m going to take a wild guess & say Egg on is going to benifit from this tax cut that affects 2% of Americans. And that’s another thing government of the people but only 2% of the people are the ones that count. I can’t want for all the people who voted republican start crying when they get screwed.
good honest post. I respect you for going against your family and truly seeing and being what an american was always intended to be. At least until the past 20 years when the concept of being an american has been hijacked by the right wing.
Author of this article is a whiny jackass. Just a bunch of dribble with no facts backing anything up. The generalizations of Republican feelings and ambitions are almost offensive until you realize the ignorance and obvious frustration of the author of his own failures at life. The generalizations aren’t offensive then, they are quite humorous. Suck it libs.
Excellent! That’s their entire approach – the whole “personal responsibility” thing, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” Rand Paul said, “People in wheelchairs can just work on the first floor” and thinks it’s okay for a business to put a “whites only” sign in the window. They don’t give a rip about health care because they’ve got theirs. It’s a long, long list. My theory is a simple one, but I really just wonder if Republicans lack the ability to empathize. That simple. They really don’t seem to have any compassion at all for people who are struggling. In fact, they go out of their way to shun the poor and serve the rich. It’s amazing to me that any middle-class person would vote for a Republican.