Let the Rich Pay - For a Change!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


The Republicans thought this was going to be their year.  It started off so well with impressive wins in Congress last fall, but the more experience American's have with this crop of Republicans, the less they seem to like them.

This has been the year that several Republican governors and Republican state legislatures declared war on state workers, their unions, and pension funds.  However, as the public began to see what was really happening, the dynamic is quickly shifting.  Wisconsin is in the process of recalling six Republican state senators and that effort appears to be doing so well that all six may be swept from office.  Minnesota, the land of Tim Puh-lenty and Michele Squawkman, has officially quit paying its bills - although it looks as though the legislators (a majority of whom are Republicans) may have found a way to keep paying themselves!  (Praise Allah for small mercies!)

But it is on the national political stage where things have really gone nuts.  The Republicans in Congress are bowing to the will of the teabaggers and refusing to raise the debt limit - even though their other masters, the rich ones on Wall Street, have told them to quit dicking around with the economy and get that debt ceiling raised.  But the teabaggers don't want to allow the country to borrow any more money - at least not until the national safety net - social security, medicare, and medicaid - has been ripped to shreds.

The Obama administration is resisting efforts to destroy the remnants of the New Deal and the Great Society.  They believe that America's finances should be brought under control through generating more revenue - i.e. by getting rid of the Bush tax cuts for the richest people and corporations.

But the Republicans don't want no stinking taxes - especially taxes on the rich.

And then there is one other special interest group which is also pitching out some ideas - the people, or at least the people who aren't wearing tin-foil hats or head gear with dangling tea bags.  These ordinary people have come up with some extreme measures like ending Congressional junkets, and winding down the wars - that, plus taxing the rich.

Today John Boehner, who really does not want to piss off the teabaggers or Wall Street, was talking about an idea where the Republicans would not vote to raise the debt limit, but would somehow force President Obama to do it by himself.  That way Boehner's band of dunderheads could say that there hands were clean and that evil Obama did it all by himself - and Wall Street would rest easy also, not really giving a crap who did it - just as long as it was done.

Sweet, John.  You are such a man among men.

Obama's hands are not clean either.  He has been trying to lure Republicans into a deal by making noises that he would be agreeable to some cuts in the social safety net.  That, of course, is shameful - and Pelosi says it ain't a-gonna happen.

The bills come due August 2nd, and as a federal employee I have more than a passing interest in whether the government will choose to shut itself down, keep running through some political chicanery, or begin the serious task of bringing the nation's economic house back into order.  Clinton left our national economy in relatively good order, Bush ran it into the ground, and now we all stand by eagerly to see what actions this President and Congress will take in order to turn things around.

Will it be government run on the backs of the poor - with no millionaires left behind, or will we finally do as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and other American billionaires have suggested and let the rich begin paying their own way for a change.  Trickle down doesn't work, and trickle up isn't fair.

(A CNN Quick Poll on that network's homepage today asked which party did people trust most in talks over the debt ceiling, and with almost 200,000 votes cast - 60% of respondents trusted the Democrats more than they did Republicans.)

Barack, if you give one inch on social security, medicare, or medicaid, I will contribute more to my own future by not contributing to yours.  You have my word on that.