Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
The Republican vision for America is coming to fruition. After Congressional Republicans lovingly rubber-stamped George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in starting two failed wars, doling out Corporate Welfare and no-bid contracts, starving out the middle-class and crashing the economy they have begun to try to make working-class America pay once more for their irresponsible and unethical behavior. Yes, after taxpayers have already bailed out the bankers now we must pay for the debt Republicans ran up on our backs at the behest of Corporate America the last thirty years also.
They let everyone know early in the process that they themselves will not be sacrificing one red penny to the problems they caused. They let everyone know their handlers in Corporate America would not pay one red penny either. The extension of the Bush Tax Cuts, rubber stamped by Obama after the Republican/Bush banking bailout erased any hope that the folks who caused the debt and crashed economy would have to pay for it.
Instead Republicans are showing their real vision for America. It includes the stagnated wages, outsourcing of middle-class jobs to slave markets that has been in high gear for decades and now the starving of essential programs that our children, the elderly, the handicapped and millions of other Americans have paid for, earned and now expect to use.
You never hear these Republicans stating what responsibility they have to their country and what sacrifices they and their enablers in Corporate America will make. Yes, their sorry asses were covered with their tax cut extension. Their vision as always calls for all of us to sacrifice even more when we have nothing left to give:
Even as the two parties struggled over the weekend to reach a deal on federal spending for the next six months and avert a government shutdown at the end of the week, House Republicans were completing a budget proposal for next year and beyond. It is likely to spur an ideological showdown over the size of government and the role of entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
And sadly for America Republicans repeatedly display either complete ignorance or just an uncaring selfishness about what has really ran up this country's debt and destroyed our economy:
“We want to get spending and debt under control, and we want to get the economy growing, and we want to address the big drivers of our debt, and that is the entitlement programs,” Mr. Ryan, chairman of the Budget Committee, said in an interview. “We have a moral obligation to the country to do this.”
No, the real drivers of our debt is not the programs Americans have funded and expect to use. The real drivers of our debt has been things like failed wars Republicans started, Corporate Welfare Republicans love, huge tax breaks for those who do not need them Republicans shoved down our throats and a banking bailout that was neccessitated by Republican policies designed to enrich the very few.
And even worse than that is that the Republicans keep insulting America, trying to convince you that you are the problem and that they should be allowed to steal your Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and give it to Corporate America, of course after pocketing their own little chunk:
In that plan, Ms. Rivlin and Mr. Ryan proposed that Medicaid financing be converted into a block grant program, with states given a set allotment of money and new discretion to shape health coverage programs for the poor. Their Medicare proposal would allow those nearing eligibility to remain with the current system, and it would create a program that would provide payments to Medicare enrollees to buy private health insurance.
Top Republicans have been divided on how much to tinker with Social Security, given strong Democratic opposition, its less significant contribution to the budget deficit and the political explosiveness of making any changes to the program. Officials say the budget will probably provide guidance on how to shape Social Security based on recommendations from last year’s presidential deficit-reduction committee.
With the current Democratic habit capitulating in complicity to every Republican idiocy at least someone was calling it like it is. Kentucky's Congressman Awesome John Yarmuth, the sole consistent voice of sanity in our delegation was not buying any of it:
“The idea of block-granting and flexibility kind of sounds good, but it is actually code for cutting,” said Representative John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat on the Budget Committee. “It is a license to cut.”
In fact, John Yarmuth should make all Progressives proud for summing things up nicely on the House floor just a few days ago:
All of America should listen to Congressman Yarmuth. The "life or death" debate over our country's priorities and direction has begun in earnest and indeed will determine if our country will continue to be great or fall into decline and obscurity. If America is to continue to be the land of the free and home of the brave and a shining light of opportunity for everyone we must defeat the Conservative mindset of social Darwinism when the strong are allowed to prey upon the weak and starve them out.
The Republican plans for the future of our country are not only anti-American but they are heartless, selfish and cruel and would make our country into a sickened version of Old World Europe where the very few dominate the masses.
Lets just hope our fellow Americans think about what they will soon wish for.