Have you ever stopped to think who actually benefits from the Democratic Party's actions while in control of a State, Congress and/or the White House and who pays for them?
Besides the American people who benefits (in the long run) from a tax increase, who benefits from a reform bill such as Medicare, Social Security or health care reform? Who benefits from more money in education or after school programs or even unemployment extensions? The Republican Party of course.
The GOP benefit from tax increases and any new or added on social programs by either complaining about them at election time or by seeing improvements in their own State from the after effects of such action.
Think about it. Let's take the State of Illinois for example. During this past election Democrats lost big time across the State (except for the Governor which I'll explain why in a minute) because Republicans were able to use the 'fear' factor during the 'Depression", as George W Bush called it in his new book that comes out this weekend. They were able to scare people into believing that the Democrats and President Obama were socialists and about to take over the government, even though it was their party that came up with the bailout bill in the first place before Bush left office in 2008. Even though the recession/depression began during the Bush years (late 2007), it didn't really start showing until Obama took office in 2009.
We all know that this, if it wasn't a depression, was the worst recession since the Great Depression. No president or party could have gotten us out of this mess any sooner then we are at present. Tax cuts you say? We got a total of 7 of those between 2002-2009 and look where we ended up and look at the deficit/debt.
The GOP was, as I said, able to take advantage of this mess and scare people into believing they could do a better job. Now, they have control of the House, which still leaves room for them to 'blame the Democrats' when things continue looking bad and take credit if they begin looking good.
We all know the economy, according to experts, is finally coming around although slowly. Who do you suppose will try and take credit in 2012 for the jobs that were created? And, unfortunately, folks will be stupid enough to believe it was the GOP that did the trick when in fact it was the policies that Obama put in place in 2009 and 2010 that allowed us to get better. If not for the Recovery act, our unemployment could have reached 20% or more instead of the 9.6% that we currently have. It would take us another full two years or more to get out of that situation if that 20% had occurred. So, because of the Recovery act and other things put in play, we will be better in 2012, if not sooner.
Meanwhile, not only do Republican Congressional members benefit from a better economy, so does each State. Republican governors have already been using the Recovery stimulus money to keep their states going even though they would have voted no on the bill.
Let's look at current Democrat governors, such as Illinois. I mentioned that a Democrat won the governorship there. I personally believe he was 'assisted' by those in the GOP for a reason. To pass a tax cut.
The GOP knew that more revenue was needed to solve the problem in Illinois. So they helped keep Governor Quinn in office.
Governor Quinn of course, will have to raise taxes to get that state's bills paid and caught up again. He will get it done with very few Republicans helping. Unfortunately, he will most likely lose his job in 2012 because of that tax increase. The winner of course, the Republican, will end up benefiting from that new revenue during his term and will most likely be re-elected in 2016 and given credit for solving the state's problems with so-called spending cuts.
Democrats do the dirty work and Republican's benefit...to a point. At some point the States will once again need new revenue to pay the bills or to have a bill passed that's not liked such as Medicare or health care reform, so once again a Democrat will win control of the State.
That Democrat will either raise taxes or create a new social program that makes voters angry in the short run. However, that program or tax is needed to solve a huge need either financially or physically and ends up being liked but that takes time, meanwhile another Republican takes control using that fear or anger.
It's a vicious circle. Too bad voters can't see beyond 2-4 year spans, all they tend to think about is the current situation.