Last updated on March 24th, 2013 at 06:57 pm
John Boehner’s one trick pony show got old along time ago. Anytime there is any discussion about finances, Republicans always chant the same mantra. Unless we get savage cuts, we’re going to hold our breath and stomp our feet. It’s an act that has been brought back over and over again, despite bad reviews and audiences walking out of the show.
This time Boehner wants to hold our credit rating hostage in the name of destroying programs that a majority of Americans, including Republicans, hold dear. It shouldn’t come as any surprise considering that Republicans did the exact same thing during previous debt ceiling debates. The tactic remains the same. The only difference is the increasingly draconian demands. In Boehner’s words, “Dollar for dollar is the plan,”
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In other words, for each dollar it takes to service the debt that Republicans built with unpaid wars and relieving the privileged from their civic responsibility of paying their fair share of taxes, Boehner wants cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Since abandoning the lie about a “debt crisis” Boehner has latched on to the new/old right wing catch phrase, “entitlement crisis,” like the good corporate dummy that he is.
Boehner went on to say,
“The president has been clear that he’s not going to address our entitlement crisis unless we’re willing to raise taxes. I think the tax issue has been resolved,” said Boehner. “So at this point then, I don’t know how we’re going to go forward.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Boehner and his corporate ventriloquists fail to understand that the tax issue was not resolved to the satisfaction of the American people. The November election, along with subsequent polls show that most Americans favor the sort of balanced approach to the debt proposed by President Obama. In other words, the people that Boehner is supposed to work for want the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. Moreover, his continued demands to gut Social Security, block grant Medicaid and couponize Medicare were resolved – in November 2012. America said no. It isn’t as if Boehner doesn’t care about that. However, it illustrates that Boehner remains unclear on the concept that Republicans should disregard voters at their own peril.
They also fail to understand the story about the boy who cried wolf. First, Boehner trotted out the fictional debt crisis and tried to blame Obama for the sequester that Republicans wanted. It took some time, but truth did triumph and force Boehner to admit in various interviews that he lied. It isn’t as if his corporate ventriloquists worry about things like credibility because their credibility isn’t at stake. As soon as their dummy’s credibility is compromised to the point of laughability, they’ll simply buy a new puppet, and they’ll keep buying as many new puppets as it takes.
That explains why Boehner continues to belabor the idea that we are in some sort of crisis to justify continued attacks on government programs that benefit most of America. At the same time, the manufactured crisis isn’t severe enough for the privileged to share in the sacrifice.
This time, as was the case the last time Republicans stomped their feet, lied and tried to blackmail the President into submission to their rejected and failed ideas, our credit rating is at stake. But don’t you worry. John Boehner would never put our credit rating at risk. It’s the same thing that he and other House Republicans said last year and the year before that. They hope you won’t remember that the debt in question is money already spent and more precisely already spent by Republicans.
Chances are international creditors recognize that Boehner is crying wolf, but that’s not the point.
Republican antics do little to instill confidence that we are capable of governing ourselves. But then, that plays into their overall theme that corporations should run America because government is so hopelessly dysfunctional.
This is reinforced by the fact that Republican lawmakers are corporate dummies masquerading as political leaders. In reality, Boehner and McConnell are corporate ventriloquist dummies in the same vein as Wayne Lapierre. They appear, for all the world to see, as buffoons far removed from the Americans they pretend to represent. More so, when they stand for a given position one minute and completely reverse themselves minutes or hours later.
In reality, they are nothing more than dummies mouthing the message their corporate ventriloquists tell them to say. They dare not think for themselves, or adopt policies that are more in tune with America’s mainstream because they fear what happens to dummies that fail to perform to their corporate owner’s whims.
This far from absolves Republican lawmakers. Rather it reinforces the idea that the GOP’s problems are far more than outreach deep. Just as Americans reject the idea that corporations are people, we don’t want puppets masquerading as lawmakers.
Image: The Phoenix
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