Republicans Are Trying Like Heck To Speed America’s Race To The Bottom
Oct 4th, 2011 | 22 responses
If you’re of a certain age you might remember a time when the U.S. was preeminent among wealthy nation s in a number of respects,including providing educational opportunities for all of its citizens regardless of their ability to pay.
The U.S. has already fallen from the top in other respects. It now incarcerates more people on a per capita basis than any country other than China. It has the highest infant mortality rate among industrialized nations. It has ceded leadership in alternative energy research, development and manufacture to China and Germany, and 45 million of its citizens still lack health insurance.
As Congress returned yesterday from a well undeserved recess, President Obama talked up jobs creation, but as is now abundantly clear, the Republicans want to play no part in trying to pull the U.S. out of a lingering economic downturn because that would be a big win for Americans . . . er, Obama. Instead they will be focusing on deregulation of their favorite industries, defanging the Environmental Protection Agency because they belief dirtier air and water mean more jobs, and coming up with new ways to screw the middle class and poor while pondering whether to again try to shut down government.
As a symbol of mean-spiritedness, it would be hard to top the Republicans’ $153 billion spending bill for the fiscal year that began on Saturday.
Under the bill, those uninsured Americans will remain so and funding for the federal family planning clinics that can mean the difference between a healthy and a sickly infant would be curtailed. Planned Parenthood clinics would be denied funding unless they certify that they will not perform abortions although they are only a small part of the services that the organization provides to women with health issues, and the Pell Grant program that can mean the difference between college or working at a McDonald’s would bar grants to students who through no fault of their own are unable to attend college less than half-time.
There are other regressive gems, as well. These include neutering the Occupational Health and Safety Agency, defunding the Race to the Top school improvement program and cutting National Public Radio off at the knees while sounding the death knell for a program to retrain workers for energy-efficient industries in communities hurt by the downturn in the auto industry.
There is, of course, nothing in the bill that would adversely affect the targets of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement and the affluent, let alone the super rich, while there is a provision curtailing federally-funded research comparing the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness or injury in an effort to improve care. This is because many Republicans fear the results will be used to deny coverage of expensive treatments.
Opposition to the bill within the party is limited to utterly conscience-free congressfolk who are demanding even deeper cuts.
22 Responses to “Republicans Are Trying Like Heck To Speed America’s Race To The Bottom”
The stimulus worked but was counter-acted by austerity. Austerity took away jobs (and is still taking away jobs – look at Wisconsin, idiots). But more austerity has to work this time.
This is the general idea – republicans, Hayekians and Laffers get endless mulligans and Friedman units, democrats need to go stand with a dunce cap for 1000 years and publically flog themselves every time one of their policies either fail to succeed completely or fail to generate positive media coverage.
Don’t you understand, they are trying to teach people to live with the consequences of their actions.
Had all those pre-born done their due diligence they would have picked the appropriate birth canal, and would not need any help from Uncle Sam.
Roseanne Barr’s take on Wall Street banksters:
“I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount of that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded.”
Yeah, sure Shaun. After a few trillion failed to fix our economy, I’m sure a tiny fraction is going to take care of the whole mess permanently. How could anyone think otherwise?
Everyone just calm down, I’m sure the solutions will be forthcoming once the Obama-is-Hitler-science-is bad-to-hell-with-the-middle-class crowd manages to find their next champion. Apparently Perry was too liberal for em. How about Hank Williams Jr.? He seems to have the right stuff:
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/obama-is-hitler-hank-williamsmanages
Btw, I enjoyed the Roseanne Barr quote, but we all know there is no accountability for the rich and/or connected anymore. If you’re not either of those two things then too bad for you bucko! Still don’t get it? Still want to make waves? Hang on while I get my taser and pepper spray, I’ll be right back. We’ll make a good American of you yet!
Btw, I enjoyed the Roseanne Barr quote, but we all know there is no accountability for the rich and/or connected anymore.
What are you suggesting the rich be held accountable for?
So basically, you’re willing to sacrifice an entire generation to the gods of Austerity, rather than raise taxes on the top10% of earners and spend that cash fixing infrastructure and building new infrastructure.
Under 30? Looking for a job? You’re not alone
There is nothing more stabilizing for a society than having a few million twenty year old in hock up to their neck and no employment in sight.
No stimulus could have kept unemployment from soaring to high levels, but since Obama allowed non-democrats to make it worse, it hardly helped aggregate demand.
As to the deficit, democrats are the only ones trying to lower it without harming those who work hard and are economically vulnerable. Republicans only care about unemployment and the deficit as excuses to give the “job creators” tailor-made legislation.
The problem is the GOP has lost site of what a country, a nation, really is. It is its people.
There is no other definition. Ignore the people and you ignore the country
Barky:
You have articulated something huge in a very few words. Beautifully said.
Thank you Barky.
Yes, yes, of course it all the Republicans fault, because the Democrats are so diligently trying to fix the core problems. NOT!
And no, QF, just because I’m against the status quo doesn’t mean I’m pushing for “austerity”, whatever that means. I have been pushing for fixing the financial sector. The whole process up to this point has been centered around creating large sums of money to preserve the illusions of wealth in the major financial giants.
There comes a point (years ago, in fact) when it’s far better to face reality, mark down the assets to their true values, reorganize the institutions, and deal with the pain short term, so that real growth can start again.
“Yes, yes, of course it all the Republicans fault, because the Democrats are so diligently trying to fix the core problems.”
Privatizing Soc. Sec. and ruining social programs to preserve very low taxes for the comfortable and non-job creating capital owners is not solving anything ever.
Businesses are clamoring for aggregate demand, not the destruction of the FDA or lower taxes.
“I have been pushing for fixing the financial sector.”
Not going to happen. According to your party, Wall Street, the banks and the speculators are fine as they are.
Let us not forget that hidden in the Ryan Reverse Robin Hood deficit reduction plan was a provision to remove all regulation on Wall Street.
@Absalon
My party is Libertarian. As in, I run for office as a Libertarian, and campaign for Libertarians, and recruit new libertarians. Either you’re confused about which party is mine, or what my party stands for.
@ DaGoat
Seriously? Need a cup of coffee or something? Get out much? Take a look around dude.
Libertarians stand for sociopaths and the right to completely ignore everything about human nature, history and current affairs while pretending that there is something real to their beliefs, so far as I can tell. They claim that they stand for freedom. The people who took power claiming to be Communists did pretty much the same thing while claiming that they did it for economic justice.
Jim Satterfield wrote:
It’s funny to hear non-libertarians tell libertarians what they do and do not believe in.
Libertarians believe that individuals should be able to live life as they wish so long as they do not infringe upon the lives, liberties or properties of others.
Libertarians are the ones agitating for your freedoms while Democrats and Republicans are too busy bombing the Middle East, imprisoning people for victimless crimes, and bailing out Wall Street.
ProfElwood wrote:
A majority of Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of the Wall Street bailouts in 2008 (see here for a list of all the banks bailed out by American taxpayers).
So naturally, libertarians are responsible for the mischief on Wall Street.
Here’s a partial list of the many corporations and big banks that Democrats and Republicans having been bailing out for the last 40 years.
Obviously, libertarians are reponsible for those too.
Bailouts are one thing, excessive dergulation is another. Libertarians are with republicans on this – financial speculators, banks and the other maniacs are JUST FINE as they are, and regulation is evil.
@Absalon
If by deregulation you mean things like ending the Fed, or at least drastically shunting its power to create money at will, then I suppose you’re right. I think you might find just a few other tiny little differences, if you took even the most cursory look at the movement.
@JSpencer
Seriously? Need a cup of coffee or something? Get out much? Take a look around dude.
Yes, seriously. You dodged the question.