5 Republican facts that every American should be pissed about!

 

 

The golden boy and savior of the Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, is often made out to be the best thing this country has had in our history. What you won't hear on right-wing TV and radio like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh is that Reagan nearly tripled the national debt. He lowered the top tax rate from 70% in his first year down to 50% in 1984 and by the time he left office in January of 1989 it was at only 28%. The code name "Reaganomics" was used to describe the idea of "trickle down" or "supply side economics". They told Americans that giving tax breaks to the wealthiest members of our country would create jobs and that the money would simply trickle down. However, the majority of jobs that were created were sent over seas and the so-called job creators put their money in off shore bank accounts. Or simply placed their wealth in stocks, bonds and real estate and paid a capital gains tax rate of only 15%, the same as a greeter at Walmart. Add in selling weapons to terrorists, the busting up of middle class unions, closing psychiatric wards-leaving the mentally ill to walk on the streets, and raising taxes on the middle class 11 times, I think it's safe to say that the "golden boy" was nothing more than fools gold.

 

 

In 1993 health care reform was all the rage. President Bill Clinton placed his wife, the First Lady Hillary Clinton, as the face of the program. Promising all Americans to finally receive the care that many other nations had, Hilary Clinton tried to drive this message home not just to average Americans, but also spent plenty of time in Congress. A noted exchange with Dick Armey showed that the First Lady had the thick skin to stick it out with the "big boys". However, due to her inexperience and lack of support from members of her own party, the bill never even got voted on. The far right screamed socialism and the Democrats were, as usual, too scared to come to her defense. Those on the right struck fear in the hearts of conservatives so much that the First Lady had to wear a bulletproof vest during her Health Care bus tour.

 

 

In 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Social Security Act of 1965 as add-ons to the existing Social Security bill, he had in mind full universal health care for all Americans. Originally, LBJ wanted to lower the Medicare eligibility age every decade by ten years until every American was covered. However, with big time politicians being bought off by the insurance companies, that dream was never lived out. And as middle class Americans struggle to find care, those insurance companies and politicians continue to live their “American Dream”.

 

 

From moderates to extremists, every conservative can agree on one thing. Government is the enemy. From Ronald Reagan's famous quote to the loud mouths on talk radio, the idea of Government in your life has been drilled into people's heads as a negative. What most of these Americans don't realize is how much they use and like a strong government. The seniors and disabled who yell about the supposed "Socialized Takeover" enjoy great "socialized" programs like Social Security and Medicare. The unemployed are happy to collect their checks and the low-income earners who vote conservative will gladly take advantage of Medicaid to help pay for their healthcare bills. I wonder where those people send their kids to school? If it's not to a private school they might want to pipe down. Government isn't there to run people's lives, it is there to help every member in our society when they need it the most. Let's regulate the people at the top to keep them from running away with everything all at the same time and we'll create a fair and safe environment for everyone to live in. If you don't like it, move to Somalia.

 

 

Continuing on with "Reaganomics", George Bush enacted his "Bush Tax Cuts" in 2001 and 2003. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, they estimated a loss in revenue over a 10 year period of just under $3 trillion. If you include the interest that needs to be paid, you can add another $606 billion, for a total of $3.6 trillion. As Republicans forced President Obama's hand in extending these cuts for two more years, the country will see a loss of revenue of $561 billion over the next decade. In addition to the loss in revenue, the people who were promised to benefit from these tax cuts haven't felt it. As with Reagan, under Bush, the wealthiest members of our country took the tax cuts and pocketed the money. While the average middle class American took the few hundred dollars extra they received and paid their electric or cable bill with it. The Bush tax cuts need to be eliminated ASAP or we could be in more trouble than we thought.