I would like to kick off our new rant section with a quick thought. In last night’s debate, John McCain, when asked about why the polls suggest Americans prefer Democrats to handle the economy, responded with a list of Bush’s failures. He topped it all off with a heavy emphasis on spending, saying “We’ve got to get wasteful spending under control.”
I may be pointing out the obvious here, it just really grinds my gears when Republicans talk about spending like it means something. It’s such a ho hum issue. I mean, I believe in the virtues of a balanced budget, but come now, I don’t have trouble sleeping at night thinking about quarterly fiscal reports from the General Accounting Office of Congress.
Don’t get me wrong, good things begin with a tidy financial house. That being said, the guys who talk about controlling spending the most ran the surplus Clinton made into the ground. So if it’s such a problem, repeal Bush’s tax-cuts for the wealthy and end the trillion dollar war. Problem solved. But to say that spending is the biggest problem facing America today? What a crock. It’s just smoke and mirrors.
Other issues, at least to me, seem far more important. Issues like massive layoffs, record foreclosures, rising prescription drug costs, a looming collapse of the health care system, endless war, increasing trade deficits, gas prices, inflation, a weak U.S. dollar a declining education system, the rise of China, India., cheap products that flood our stores built with child labor, you see where I’m going with this?
How can Republicans say that America is losing its way because of spending with a straight face anyway? Sure they can blame Bush now for the Trillion Dollar war, but Reagan was a big spender too, and he’s like Jesus to these neo-con-artist right-wing freaks. He cut taxes but just couldn’t put away his (or I mean our) checkbook.
Since the time of F.D.R., Liberals and Conservatives alike realized the benefits of spending money. It’s not the act of spending that’s ever really in question (despite what righties spout out of their mouths) it’s what you spend it on that counts, like any investment. Take Iraq for instance, a trillion dollars this war is heading for with no end in sight. What do we have to show for it? Our national highway system, on the other hand, which was opposed by Congressional Republicans of the time, revolutionized interstate commerce, and established a national trucking system to transport goods. Republicans finally capitulated because the highway had potential defense uses. See the difference? Iraq = Bad investment. Interstate System = Good investment.
This brings us to the one investment Republicans love to throw money at, defense. Reagan’s SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) or Star Wars proved to be an enormous waste of billions of dollars. Clinton striped the program, Bush later revitalized it and despite fresh billions set on fire we are no closer to zapping nuclear warheads out of the sky with an enormous laser than we were in 1983. Reagan and the two Bushes were big defense spenders, which is quite the coincidence since both Bushes worked high up for the Carlyle Group, the power hungry equity firm with huge holdings in aerospace and defense, such as United Defense, a major supplier of weapons to the U.S. Armed Forces. (a little footnote, Bush Jr. on behalf of the Carlyle Group, managed an airline food catering company until leaving to run for Governor of Texas. Carlyle sold it at a loss [yet another Bush private sector failure], so when you wonder where Bush got his brilliant business sense, now you know).
Shouldn’t we invest in our people, our economy and our infrastructure? Shouldn’t we build and prepare America for the future as we did after WWII? Shouldn’t we care enough about our citizens to invest in their health like the rest of the world does? Isn’t it time for the U.S. to get serious about building a serious rapid transit system like the rest of the world has? Isn’t it time to devote our attention to building top notch schools, like the rest of the world has? We’re #1 huh? Well it seems to me like we’re falling behind fast. Time to kick in that American spirit again and rebuild!
Let’s face facts. Conservatism as a political movement is just cover for a billionaire boys club. They hide their fiscal objectives behind the mask of “returning to normalcy” and family values. These are the same people who pay people so little, the two-income family is a necessity. Conservatism can only hold back change anyway, it cannot actively go backwards. What are we going to do? Return to the days of child labor, a large working lower class and unregulated business that destroys its own self-interest? Absolutely, if we let them, they’ll let their own romantic view of the past destroy our lives. Enough is enough!
The elite could care less about the common folk. Despite all their billions, it just isn’t enough. Why don’t they want to pay for public schools and health care, or helping the homeless? Because they have their kids are in private school and have top notch health care. They made it on their own, so why shouldn’t everyone else just do what they did? Yeah, I mean come on poor people, why can’t you just use your father’s powerful connections and inheritance the way those hard working self-made men did? What’s wrong with you? Why didn’t all those “poor” people figure out that they should have just left New Orleans? Why should we have to pay for rebuilding that damn wicked city?
I suppose it takes greed and selfishness to make it to the top. It is to be expected that they could care less about anyone else. Why do we worship them like idols? Many rich people die isolated, alone and unhappy. They’re certainly not models for living a meaningful life, I’d even go as far to say that they miss the point all together. Wealth and power corrupt the soul and rot it from the inside out.
You gotta love these rich Republican bastards though, in a Mr. Burns sort of way. They spend a trillion dollars destroying a 3rd world country but when it comes to health care for poor kids… SCREW EM! You couldn’t make better cartoon villains if you tried.
Jon Stewart did a funny bit on this.
When your neighbor’s house is on fire, what do you do? Do you help them put the fire out, or do you let it burn and shut yourself in? Common sense dictates that you should help. If you do, you are not only helping someone in need, you are preventing the fire from spreading to your house, as well as enlisting the future help of your neighbor when you may need their help. It’s not only ethical, it’s practical. Doing the right thing often is.
It’s time we stopped seeing ourselves as individuals and remember the fact that in the end we are not only Americans, but human beings as well.