The Stimulus

I have to say I admire President Obama. He has stunning political skills. I am not surprised, just in awe. So while he has to make nice with Republicans, I can offer this critique of our dear Republican party.

Now that our country is a wreck and is falling off of the economic cliff, the Republicans want to critique government spending and tax cuts. None of this is new, but from where have these new balls been found? Where were they when President Bush invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11? Where were they when these supplemental budgets for massive amounts of money with absolutely no information detailing what for, in the name of national security, were being passed? Did they have any questions about the effect of tax cuts and how it actually cut revenue to the federal government while we were fighting two wars? Nowhere. Nowhere to be seen or heard. So now we have to spend like the wind to get people employed again, ironically, to collect further tax income needed desperately for the government to continue to function.

Tax cuts? Are they serious? Weren't tax cuts responsible for making sure we are in this deficit in the first place? If I recall correctly, it was President Clinton (remember, way back when) who put the country back in a budget surplus? Remember that it was Republicans who gave that surplus money away in tax cuts and then started spending more than they took in because of a war that had nothing to do with the attack on this country? If I recall correctly, while the wealthy were getting tax cuts, none of this trickled down to anyone else because pay was stagnant and working poor and poor people actually had to take multiple jobs to make ends meet. And we want to prescribe TAX CUTS for the solution to this problem? Where have they been for the past eight years?

I honestly think that Michael Steele and the rest of his brigands need to really rethink their orthodoxies. It makes no sense to have them if they do not correspond to what the country needs. Frankly, I would be willing to pay much more in taxes if I could have non-employer dependent health insurance, decent schooling for my son, and a security net so that if I lose my job in May, I would be alright. They can take their tax cuts and stuff it for all I care.

But then again, it's not my political life on the line.