We've been having this debate in this country for as long as I've been alive (1978, for those of you keeping track). And I can't see this ending anytime soon. These guys just keep rehashing the same crap they've been throwing around for at least thirty years. But what they say and what they do are two completely different animals...
...just for starters, let's go with this:
"Tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires create jobs."Everyone reading this all ready knows what a complete heap of crap this argument is. When millionaires and billionaires get more money, what do they do with it? Invest the extra cash in expanding their business? Infrastructure? Equipment? No! The answer is no. Definitively, irreconcilably no. They sink it into off shore accounts in the Cayman Islands. That is where they put their money. So really, tax cuts for the wealthy benefit bankers in foreign countries. Real patriotic. Way to create jobs.
But lets continue, shall we?
"If we ended the subsidies for the oil companies, they'd move their operations elsewhere!"Again, this is complete bullshit. Oil companies are all ready multi-national corporations that operate refineries in virtually every market that they serve- it's cheaper to refine crude and ship it closer than it is to put it on a tanker and ship it across the ocean. If we ended oil company subsidies today, Texaco is not going to shutter their operations in the United States. Not going to happen.
Then we've got the ridiculous foreign policy issues. These, of course go a long way back, but lets just start with the latest Republican Party blunder- the Iraq war! Anymore, all you hear these blowhard assholes talking about is that
"We've got a spending problem in Washington! We have got to get our National Debt under control!"This is not only rubbish, but bald-faced hypocrisy. For real. The debt? The deficit? From Republicans?! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't been paying attention. The same group of war-mongering shitheads that robbed our nation's treasury to get us into a ground war in the middle east are now complaining about the debt?! And trying to pin it on Obama? Complaining that stopping health insurance companies from denying care to sick people is bankrupting our country?! This is just a disgusting tact and they need to own their own actions. They racked up the debt. Not us.
Which brings me to yet another point why the GOP should be banned from talking about economics. Remember back in the waning years of the Bush administration? They knew something nasty was coming around the bend, economically. They just didn't know exactly what, but they knew it wasn't gonna be good. They'd been cooking the books with the wars for years. They had to do something to keep the national economy chugging along. Their plan?
"We're gonna give every tax-payin' 'Murican $300!"Remember that? $300. To every tax payer. That was their plan. The incredible stupidity of that one is staggering. That's the proverbial band-aid on a stab wound. What the hell are you gonna do with $300? Not a whole hell of a lot. Fill up your tank? Buy some groceries? Pay your cable bill? $30,000 to everyone might have done something, but then oh yeah- the debt and deficit!
These guys don't know a damn thing about economics. Or, more likely, they do and just don't give a rat's ass. That's what I think is going on at least. They talk this ridiculous game, but are perfectly willing to torpedo the nation's- the world's (!)- economies for perceived short term political gains. This is, in my eyes, unpatriotic and damn near treasonous.
Many diarists here have written on these topics everyday for years now. I can shoot down just about every Republican talking point related to economics that's thrown my way, yet, 47% of Americans still are not getting the point. Republicans are not allowed to talk about the economy anymore. They aren't adult enough to handle the responsibility.