Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. That is the word that you hear over and over and rightfully so in today's economy. As President Obama is about to unveil his new jobs plan, Republican presidential candidates are already coming out with theirs. The problem with the Republican plans are that they are more of the same. Mitt Romney released his 150 page, "59 Point Plan" yesterday adding to Jon Huntsmans plan from last week. We have heard the thoughts of other candidates like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann and it might as well all get rolled into one plan. What these plans have in common are the usual conservative rhetoric, tax cuts, less regulation and more oil drilling.
It’s expected that we hear this from the Republican politicians, but the problem is not from the elected officials, it's from the registered Republican voter. It is clearly understandable how someone in the top 1% of income earners would like the jobs plan from the Republicans. Someone making deep in the 6 figures and beyond would benefit from less regulation for his business or on Wall Street where they have a lot of money invested. A member of the "top 1%" crowd loves to hear that the already too low Capital Gains tax could be lowered from 15% to 5% or possibly eliminated completely. If the Capital Gains tax is eliminated, the Republicans claim it will create jobs when in reality all it will do would give the wealthy more of an incentive to put their money in real estate, stocks or bonds and pay no tax on it. The Republicans and their supporters seem to always forget what caused the financial collapse of 2008. The deregulation of the markets and the manipulation of the "game", which is what you will get again if the Republicans continue to deregulate across the board.
The Mitt Romney plan is an interesting one. Mitt Romney calls for the full repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act, tackling China's unfair trade habits and deregulating business. Now, we all could agree that China treats their workers horribly and our trade practices with them are awful. While China taxes the US nearly 25% on our exports, the US only taxes China at 2.5% for the products they send into the US. This is just one example of how damaging "free trade" and the open market can be. While companies love the idea of sending jobs overseas and paying workers bare bone salaries, the United States takes a major hit in situations like these. In addition to the country as a whole taking a hit, millions of workers lose their jobs as the greedy, cheap corporations continue to add money into their bank account instead of paying a US worker a fair wage.
Mitt Romney, like Jon Huntsman and the rest of the GOP field have called for a full repeal of what they call "Obamacare". If this were to take effect, all of those people under the age of 26 who are now on their parents health insurance, would be uninsured. Back would be the days where "pre-existing" conditions ruled the market place. Romney is stuck between a rock and hard place because President Obama molded his health care plan on a lot of what Mitt Romney did as Governor of Massachusetts. Romney was very successful with his health care plan, but because of the utter disdain of universal health care from the Republican base, Romney can’t hold up his achievement. Conservatives scream that the price of insurance will go up because of the uncertainty in the market place. President Obama, for all his great communication skills, never really communicated as well he should have about his Health Care plan. The major parts of the plan don't go into effect into January 2014. Until then we won't see "Obamacare" in its true form. As the Republicans talk about the potential rise costs to health care and a "socialist" take over, it’s hard not to counter those remarks with a few questions. If a business can't afford to provide its workers with a living wage, health care and some benefits, maybe that business should reconsider their professional plans and not stay in business. If the owner is able to have benefits for himself and make a good living, it shouldn't be at the expense of paying his workers less and leaving them out in the cold when they fall ill. The other question one may ask, is what kind of society can you live in when certain people make a profit off the life or death of someone just because they didn't have enough money to pay for an insurance policy?
The Republican plans are all the same, give to the rich and step on everyone else. As the Republican voters get tricked year after year into voting for them with the dream of one day being a Wall Street millionaire, someone needs to "snap them out of it". We can't continue to let people we see everyday, vote against their best interest. Encourage respectful debate, educate your friends and family on what is going on around them, and even if their ego has to take a hit, in the long run they will be better off for it.
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