Bad Deeds for 2-4-2011

 

Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan, but Not for Us – Ronald Reagan made big government bigger; he never submitted a balanced budget; and his deficits piled up more government debt than in all the United States’ prior history, due precisely to low taxes and the bloated defense budgets. “Low taxes” and “strong defense” during the Reagan and Bush II administrations produced huge fiscal deficits to be passed on to future generations.

All those Reaganomics tax cuts were, in fact, future tax increases on them. To add insult to injury, the revenue hole left by the Reagan tax cuts was filled by loans from Asia and OPEC, suddenly prosperous thanks to huge trade surpluses. During Reagan’s watch, therefore, the United States swung from being the world’s largest creditor to the world’s largest debtor nation, undermining America’s financial sovereignty.

 

Conservatives Ruined the Economy – Look what conservative economic policies have done to us:

The rich have gotten superrich, the poor have become poorer and the middle classes have marked time, pursuing the American dream by piling up mountains of debt. The ‘rising tide’ that was supposed to ‘lift all boats’ has succeeded only in lifting the yachts of the wealthy. The middle classes are bailing out their leaking sloops while the poor are stranded in sinking dinghies.

The U.S. now has the greatest inequality of wealth among major advanced nations.

The collapse of the house of cards built with debt during the conservative era created a financial meltdown in the final days of Junior Bush’s watch, requiring hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in bank bailouts (signed by Bush, lest we forget). The financial meltdown, in turn, created a deep recession causing soaring unemployment, plunging housing and stock prices, skyrocketing bankruptcies and foreclosures.

 

John Boehner’s Best Friends are Corporate Lobbyists and CEOs – Throughout his two decades in Congress, John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House, has been a reliable ally of corporate interests. In recent years, he has formed unusually tight legislative, political and even social ties with a group of lobbyists for such giants as Citigroup, Coors, Goldman Sachs, Google and R.J. Reynolds.

Of course, most congressional leaders work with lobbyists, so that’s not odd, but to have them also be his closest friends and social chums — well, you just want to say, “For heaven’s sake, Johnnie, get a life!”

These influence peddlers are now the speaker’s inner circle, guiding his legislative decisions. Even before last November’s election, Boehner had a private meeting with a flock of top corporate lobbyists to help shape “a new GOP agenda.” Forget the tea party. No tea party operative is a Boehner insider. It’s the corporate agenda that Republican leaders will be pushing, and to make sure that it stays on track, Boehner has hired a top corporate lobbyist to be his policy director.

On opening day of the 112th Congress, beaming members of the new Republican majority entered the House chamber, accompanied by their proud families. But the moment did not belong to members alone. Also entering the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremonies was David Koch, the multibillionaire industrialist and laissez-faire extremist who bankrolled much of the tea party/GOP victory last fall. What symbolism! The members were taking office, but Koch and his corporate agenda were taking power. Under the guise of giving government back to the people, the House majority is giving it to the corporate powers who finance their campaigns.

 

An Insight Into the Conservative Mind: Without Fear of Punishment, You Have No Reason to Be Good – WallBuilders, a Conservative organization, argues that everyone shouldn’t be equal under the Constitution:

“It is one thing to allow freedom of conscience to all. It is another to trust atheists to testify at trial or hold office. This is so because, if one does not believe in God and in an eternal state of punishment or reward, one has no reason to fear that punishment and thus, the theory goes, will be more likely to engage in immoral or unethical behavior, to the determent of one’s fellow citizens and of society.”

This line of thinking could evolve into a long string of one-liners:

If you think you need to be punished, you might be a Conservative.

If you think that being elite (being among the best) is a bad thing, you might be a Conservative.

If you cherry pick your science, you might be a Conservative.

If you think that force is a good way to solve most problems, you might be a Conservative.

….

(Send me your Conservative one-liners, and I’ll distribute the best ones. – Jim)

REMINDER: Chinese New Year was yesterday, and its now the year of the rabbit. So remember to stopping writing “Year of the Tiger” on your checks.

Regards,

Jim