Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
Here at this site and in many Democratic circles we have been known to call the Republicans the Party of No. No to healthcare for children. No to healthcare for the sick. No to American jobs that create a middle-class. No to any kind of compassion for their fellow citizens and any concern for their country's infrastructure. No to anything that seeks to foward the interests of America as a whole over the profits of the very few. Besides all this, they are also the party of no ideas, and no vision at least none that they want you to know beforehand.
Consider this America. The Republicans are running on the justified rage of all the debt our country is running up. However, they want you to ignore or forget why we are so much in debt to begin with:
The parties share blame for the current fiscal situation, but federal budget statistics show that Republican policies over the last decade, and the cost of the two wars, added far more to the deficit than initiatives approved by the Democratic Congress since 2006, giving voters reason to be skeptical of campaign promises.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Remember, the TARP program was initiated at the behest of a Republican President as a remedy for the problems his Administration caused while being rubber-stamped for six years by like-minded Republicans in the Congress. The same Republicans who are now railing against the problems they caused. They crashed the economy into the ground and then insisted that we bail out the banking elites and clean up their mess. They could give a damn less about anyone else and would have much rather we would have languished with the cost of the no-risk investments the wealthy made, lost and were reimbursed for.
Which is what the stimulus that they will rail against was. It was an attempt, admittedly a weak one at giving something to the average American to recover. Why is this the part so many people are against. Because quite simply they do not know it helped them, and because they are so emotional about other issues they consider "Conservative" They just do not care.
And what will the Republicans do if they gain control?? Would-be Speaker Boehner gave a good look into what this Republican Party which is George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on meth would do:
The House Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, has called for immediate cuts in "non-security discretionary" spending to prerecession 2008 levels. Independent analysts say that would require eliminating about $105 billion — or more than 20 percent of spending by departments like Education, Transportation, Interior, Commerce and Energy — a level of reductions that history suggests would be extremely hard to execute. (Since 1982, nonmilitary discretionary spending has never dropped by more than 5.5 percentage points in any given year.)
Not only would this be unprecendented but what would it mean?? Have Americans really sat back and thought what all these cuts would mean to them?? If not them, how would it affect their family members, friends, and others they cared about?? What do you think they will cut first??
While Republican leadership remains mum and does not want you to ask that question, some of their looser cannons on the trail let it slip from time to time:
A small number of Republicans, notably Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, have called for sharp reductions to Social Security and Medicare to change the nation’s fiscal trajectory. But party leaders and candidates on the stump have largely shunned those proposals, which risk alienating core segments of voters.
I mean think about that for a minute. These Republicans have been trying to do away with Social Security, Medicare, and any program that helps the poor or most vunerable of our society for all of my life. Why?? What is so important to the Republican Party that they seek to cut the pay, and access to healthcare for our parents, grandparents, our disabled friend or neighbor or family member, and anyone else who has ever been assisted by a government program?? What is so sacred that it is the only policy initiative or idea the modern Republican Party offers??:
At the same time, most Republicans are calling for the permanent extension of all Bush-era tax cuts, which would add $700 billion more to the deficit over the next 10 years than President Obama and Democratic leaders have proposed by continuing only some of the lower rates.
How can they worry about the deficit and still fight for tax cuts for those who do not need them?? There have been plenty of tax cuts for the rich and Corporations in the last thirty years if my memory serves me right. How can Americans elect the same misled, greedy people that caused the mess to clean up the mess with worse policies than they used to cause it, all while starving out the most helpless in society?? The simple facts are electing Republicans will ADD TO THE DEFICIT:
On the campaign trail, many Republicans are calling for a repeal of the health care law, a step that would actually increase the deficit by more than $100 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by eliminating some cost-saving provisions — a fact that typically goes unmentioned. Republicans counter that the full cost of the health care law will only kick in later, so that repeal would save money in the long run.
Republicans say extending the cuts will spur economic activity, but that is hardly guaranteed. And the cost of either plan is astronomical: Mr. Obama’s plan will add more than $3 trillion to the deficit; the Republicans’ plan will add more than $4 trillion.
So while Democratic rule has been disappointing America should realize that at this point in our history letting Republicans control anything is almost suicidal. Every idea they have has been tried and they all failed. Causing the Great Depression, and causing the Republican crash of 2008. Their whole vision of our country at this point in it's history is to take more money away from average Americans and give it away to the elites, to make up for the money they lost crashing the economy, with the economy they crashed and the debt they caused as an excuse. Average Americans have suffered long enough. It is time they paid for their mistakes for once.
And if the Democrats manage to keep majorities I hope they understand what made these two years so tough. It is time they stood up and really fought for real Progressive ideals and offered the American people a real choice that is something besides a watered-down version of that other party whose use has run it's course in a modern world.