Note: I write this not to my wealthy Republican friends nor to all those corporate execs with whom I toiled for so many years. I disapprove of your politics, but I understand them and still admire and, in some cases, love you. But you've got wealth. This screed is for those in the middle class, such as it is, the working class, and the classless who still proudly wave the GOP flag.
A well-known neurologist whose name I forget once said, "People hear what they believe." In other words, it's tough for an old 60s liberal such as moi to be sure I clearly understand what's happening within the GOP. Of course, a Republican has similar problems understand Democrats and especially liberals.
It's true, we liberals do want to introduce your daughters to the infinite joys of Tantric Sex...at
least I did thirty years ago. Other than that, we're pretty decent people. Ask my mother.
But I digress. My intent here is not to attack the Republican Party, those lying, thieving, thugs who subsist on the largess of big business and big banks, and lust after big-breasted women. Reminds me of Brutus, "I come not to praise Ceasar, but to bury him." Anyway, I'm more interested in the average Republican conservative outside the magic Beltway.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are getting royally screwed. There, I've said it and I'm proud.
Take Medicare Reform. When I became a consultant, my bride & I had to get private insurance. Everyone turned us down except Blue Cross which has to take anyone, even Lithuanians. The premium per person: $1350/month or $16,000 a year with a $5,000 deductible. No dental. In a year health costs for one person average around $25,000. But Representative Ryan says he'll toss $7,500 to the elderly to help them get insurance.
My dear Republican readers...or reader...isn't this alone enough to make you tear up your GOP membership card and at least become an independent?
Big Oil is flooding the airways with ads claiming that tax increases on energy companies is a bad thing. No one's talking about that; the goal is to reduce the tax breaks they're already getting.
Doesn't that piss you off? They pay less taxes than you do. At least here in the U.S. They pay lots of taxes overseas.
And the fact that the too-big-to-fail banks that nearly drove us into a depression are now too-bigger-to fail banks. Your party leaders fight any attempt to control the Wild West that has returned to Wall Street. Come on! Hedge fund managers who can make one billion dollars a year pay 15% in taxes because they claim it's capital gains rather than income. Forget the details...these crooks are robbing us blind.
I don't understand how someone making $50,000 a year can object to eliminating tax breaks (not raising taxes but eliminating a Bush break) for those making over $250,000 a year? Do you really believe that someday you'll be there? Have you read recently that the good old U.S. of A. has lower upward mobility than most of those socialist western European countries we sneer at?
Do you believe the party line that getting rid of those tax breaks would hurt small business? If so, I've got a bridge...oh never mind, a stupid, overused line. Where was I? Oh yeah, they fail to differentiate between gross earnings and net income. If a business brings in $1,000,000 a year but expenses--employees, building, utilities, making & selling things, etc. -- costs $800,000, and the owner takes the rest as income, guess what? Her income ain't over $250,000 and therefore doesn't lose the tax breaks Bush used to drive our debt to record levels.
Now, however, we must leave the simple realm of economics and walk warily into the world of ethics and morality. Nah...I'll save that for later.
But for now, just at least consider that the Republican Party may not be looking after your interests. I'm not saying join us liberals in wanton pleasure fests. Probably best to begin by turning off Fox "All the News That's Fit to Invent" News and start watching reruns of Lassie.
And remember, when all else fails,
In Jameson Veritas
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