The Republican Theory and the Sad Truth They Wish to Kill American Government…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:14 PM Permalink

…as succinctly restated by Bob Robinson of the NYT:

America used to be better than this.

The seeds of today’s disaster were sown some 30 years ago. Looking at income patterns during that period, my former colleague at The Times, David Cay Johnston, noted that from 1980 (the year Ronald Reagan was elected) to 2005, the national economy, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. (Because of population growth, the actual increase per capita was about 66 percent.)

But the average income for the vast majority of Americans actually declined during those years. The standard of living for the average family improved not because incomes grew but because women entered the workplace in droves.

As hard as it may be to believe, the peak income year for the bottom 90 percent of Americans was way back in 1973, when the average income per taxpayer, adjusted for inflation, was $33,000. That was nearly $4,000 higher, Mr. Johnston pointed out, than in 2005.

Men have done particularly poorly. Men who are now in their 30s — the prime age for raising families — earn less money than members of their fathers’ generation did at the same age.

America has not only gotten worse off since Reagan was elected - it damned near died under the GOP and their outrageous "big lie" that small government and low, low, low cut-rate taxes was the best way to run the country.

The right-wingers were crafty: You smother the dream by crippling the programs that support it, by starving the government of money to pay for them, by funneling the government’s revenues to the rich through tax cuts and other benefits, by looting the government the way gangsters loot legitimate businesses and then pleading poverty when it comes time to fund the services required by the people.

The anti-tax fanatic Grover Norquist summed the matter up nicely when he famously said, “Our goal is to shrink the government to the size where you can drown it in a bathtub.” Only they didn’t shrink the government, they enlarged it and turned its bounty over to the rich.

Now, with the economy in free fall and likely to get worse, Americans — despite their suffering — have an opportunity to reshape the society, and then to move it in a fairer, smarter and ultimately more productive direction. That is the only way to revive the dream, but it will take a long time and require great courage and sacrifice.

The right-wingers do not want that to happen, which is why they are rooting so hard for President Obama’s initiatives to fail. They like the direction that the country took over the past 30 years. They’d love to do it all again.

Way to go, GOP! Your hand -sock puppet gw bush almost succeeded, and your current tactic of obstruct, obstruct, and obstruct might still yet.

No shame, no contrition, no love of country exhibited, tell me: Just why in the hell do you hate this country and love the turmoil you have wrought?

My guess is the GOP thinks government is their private, personal ATM machine for the exclusive use of the antiquated party of old rich white men.

Labels: bad laws, banks, bush hypocrisy, GOP