So, You Wanna Vote Republican?
So, you’re worried about your job and money worries keep you up at night? Why, then, do you want to vote Republican? Never mind that working folks voting for Republicans is like mice voting for traps because of the cheese.
The GOP budget would more appropriately be called “wealth care” because the benefits of that budget fall, chiefly, to the wealthiest Americans. Nearly 62% of the cuts under the GOP budget would fall on programs designed to help low income individuals and families…SNAP, Pell Grants, AFDC, Head Start, Medicare, Medicaid, and the list goes on (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [CBPP], 2012). All this, while 40% of the benefits of the budget go to those earning $1 million a year or more, a staggeringly tiny fraction of the total number of American citizens…less than 1%.
As for jobs, well, much as the GOP has touted the miraculous benefits tax cuts have for economic and job growth, after more than ten years of Bush Era tax cuts we have yet to see any of these ballyhooed benefits. In fact, the US economy was hemorrhaging more than 700,000 jobs each month by the end of the Bush administration. It wasn’t until President Obama pushed through an anemic economic stimulus package, heavier on tax cuts than stimulus money, that we began to see the picture reverse itself. More than 4 million private sector jobs were added as economic stimulus money began to percolate through the economy. The proposed GOP budget, if enacted, will create a drag on job growth to such an extent that nearly 4.1 million jobs will be lost by the end of 2014 (MediaMatters, 2012). This would very nearly eliminate the jobs gains under the Obama administration.
If you work for a living, live paycheck-to-paycheck or are unemployed, if you think the GOP has your back, you’re wrong. The current vision the GOP has for the budget is simply the trickle-down economics of Ronald Reagan and, later, George W. Bush taken to their logical extremes. Trickle-down economics is nothing more than the GOP and the insanely wealthy few backing them collectively pissing on our backs and telling us the warm feeling trickling down between our shoulder blades is “prosperity”.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2012). Ryan Roundup: Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan’s Budget. Retrieved 08/22/2012, from http://www.offthechartsblog.org/ryan-2/
MediaMatters. (2012). No Matter How Right-Wing Media Spin It, Millions Would Feel “Sharp Effects” Of GOP Budget. Retrieved 08/22/2012, from http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/05/02/no-matter-how-right-wing-media-spin-it-millions/184992
