Want to know what the GOP stands for? Read the next sentence.
The Republicans in the U.S. Senate just stopped the legislation that would have kept student loans at the lower interest rate – stopped it in its tracks.
The same Senators who will make a huge case for increased government spending on the U.S. military and the DOD just made sure your sons and daughters’ college bill will be astronomically expensive. And their leader says, “just borrow the money from your folks!”
But they are not done. The Republicans are going to ask for as much as 17% increase in defense spending– only the second highest since Reagan ran up a huge national debt by raising military spending by a whopping 20% in one 12 month period. And all done during a time of peace because Reagan kept yelling, “the sky is falling” about the so-called Soviet arms build-up which proved to be a fabrication of the first order. (Almost as good as Weapons of Mass Destruction, which still takes the cake.)
These same Republicans are going to try and gut the national healthcare program that is offering some families, for the first time in generations, health insurance that is complete and affordable. They are going to try and gut Social Security and Medicare which they claim to be ‘entitlements”, even though you and I paid for them. Their use of the word entitlement is supposed to be a pejorative – something horrible we should all avoid. It is right up there with un-American and traitor and liberal.
These GOP Elephants will cut spending on health care to single moms, head-start programs and even school lunch programs. They will cut out research grants at universities (except those related to arms and weaponry) and they will work to decrease most social programs across the board while trying to rid the country of things like the FDA, FCC and SEC. (They would rather have Wall Street de-regulated and have education regulated… after all, they want to pass laws that exclude schools from teaching certain things under the heading of science – like science.) They have already gutted NASA and they will try and cut every ounce out of federal home mortgage insurance and assistance programs. Don’t sit there and looked surprised. It has been espoused all through their primaries. They haven’t been shy about it.
The GOP doesn’t give a damn about you.
Not now. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. It cares about three things and only three things. It’s own hold on power. It’s capturing of more wealth for the upper 1%. And finally, the building and deepening of the military’s pockets at all costs. And that includes foregoing the balancing of our budget and dealing with our deficit.
It took Reagan lying to us about the Soviet build-up to get his budgets passed. Bush (the W one) lied about WMD to get his way. What will this new generation of greed mongers do to get their selfish system implemented in the American will?
I hate to guess, but I bet you it will have to do with finding a new enemy to go to war with or a new cause to uproot and stamp out. And it will all be done on the back of domestic programs that real Americans need and want.
They claim they are trying to return America to its values. That is their celebrated cause du jour. Lets look at what my values are. I love my country. I love my family. I love my liberty. I believe in hard work and honesty got me where I am and I believe in sharing with others. I think that is very American. I do not believe in the demagoguery of a ruling, rich class that oversees us for our own good and excludes but a few from upward mobility. I do not believe in a military-industrial complex that has no control on its actions. I do not believe in one sect of the population having any more virtue because of its religion or political affiliation.
I know some awfully good Americans who are gay and atheist. Some are black and Asian and Hispanic. Others fought in wars, still others marched for peace. Many did both. Some believe in evolution and others are creationists. But they wave the flag as strongly as Dick Chaney and Rush Limbaugh ever did, and they never lied to the American people. So where is this strangle hold on American Value? It is not with the GOP. It is in each American’s heart.
The GOP is a sick operation right now. And they are spreading their disease. I hope there is a cure before it is too late.
The old saying is you’ve got to pay the piper. Well, if we let the GOP control the song, the price tag will be enormous. It could take generations to correct their mistakes.
Want a college education? It’s going to cost a whole lot more because of the GOP. And this rise in interest rates on student loans is going to exclude a lot of people who just can’t afford it. (There may be entire segments of our society that have just been priced out of higher education by the GOP.) But that’s okay. They can get jobs making army tanks, bombs and rifles.
God knows were going to need them.
No comments:
Post a Comment