If you haven’t figured out that one by now you must be: a)part of the 1%, b) Evangelical-Christianist, c) terribly naïve d) misinformed and ignorant or e) all of the above.
It’s BS. As Congressman Barney Frank recently said, “I’ve never seen a tax cut put out a fire. I’ve never seen a tax cut build a bridge.” Or the now famous speech given by Elizabeth Warren in a very eloquent video that went viral: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. You built a factory? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”Other than the obvious efforts from the very wealthy and the powerful corporations to minimize any interference from government in order to maximize profits…and this to them means elimination of any and all regulations; there is also the concept that because government is too big and intrusive it is conspiring to take away the rights of American citizens.
But the most odious reason of all to me seems to be the motivation of Evangelical Christianists, which is to eliminate all social programs and have government serve as an instrument to promote their brand of religion. With this in mind, the ultimate result is a repressive theocracy which is one of the things we would despise the most as Americans used to having a distinct separation of church and state, freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Hell, we are one of Iran’s greatest critics because they are precisely that: a theocracy…and what do these assholes want us to become? You guess it, just like them.
With the exception of defense which has a great deal of influence in government because of all the profitable businesses from the military industrial complex which President Eisenhower warned us about…all other activities are off the table.
The reason to eliminate social programs is so that government has no need to originate revenue and that would free all the super wealthy and the corporations from having any tax obligations…what a panacea that would be, wouldn’t it?
Republicans think in long terms, they put into practice some askew concept of theirs over thirty years ago that the country had to veer to the extreme right in order to satisfy the needs of those who pull all the strings…like the Koch brothers.
If you hear Republicans talk you would think that the end-all, solution and magical notion that by shrinking government you would end recession, economic uncertainty, bring back prosperity and make America the envy of the world once again.
They have been very successful in convincing, misguiding and gaining the support of a very obtuse and ignorant base and they have them believing all this crap even though at a time when we are in need for more government spending to revitalize the economy and end the unemployment crisis the Republicans are hell bent on sabotaging the economy in order to defeat President Obama and to somehow vindicate the failure of Bush and the Republican policies that caused our problems in the first place.
“Republican presidential candidates are tripping all over one another trying to prove who will take the biggest axe to government the quickest. So Mitt Romney labels regulations “the invisible boot of government to bring us all down” and argues that “we need to get the federal government out of education.” Rick Santorum fearmongers about “the narcotic of government dependency,” and Gingrich plays to old myths and racial stereotypes as he spreads lies about food stamps—one of the bright spots of the safety net in terms of responding to the needs of the Great Recession.” Katrina vanden Heuvel on March 2, 2012
The Republicans constantly accuse the President of being “anti-business, anti-religion” among other things. Candidate Romney even suggested that the motivation for opposing the rich is pure envy. I ask you, what's so anti-business about insisting that there is ethical and fair play, that there is no unfair competition or corruption because for business to even exist, laws must be enforced, there have to be regulations or greed will take over and we all know that greed has no conscience. (are there any reputable big businesses thriving in Somalia?) For business to move their goods, roads, railroads, airports, and ocean ports must be built and functioning as well as having an educated and competent work force that we are responsible for their education…all of these things don’t come cheap and all of those things are built and supported by tax dollars.
Ironically, we have a terrible unemployment problem in our country – four unemployed workers for every job opening and nearly one in six of us Americans are living in dire poverty. This is hard to believe is happening in the land of plenty.
What would an America without government look like? Are we going to be more like Somalia?
“Republican presidential candidates are tripping all over one another trying to prove who will take the biggest axe to government the quickest. So Mitt Romney labels regulations “the invisible boot of government to bring us all down” and argues that “we need to get the federal government out of education.” Rick Santorum fearmongers about “the narcotic of government dependency,” and Gingrich plays to old myths and racial stereotypes as he spreads lies about food stamps—one of the bright spots of the safety net in terms of responding to the needs of the Great Recession.” Katrina vanden Heuvel on March 2, 2012
*Elizabeth Warren speaks during the AARP Magazine's 2011 Inspire Awards at Ronald Reagan Building on December 9, 2010 in Washington, DC.
(December 8, 2010 - Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images North America)
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