Republicans are the Problem, They Are Sabotaging The Economy for Political Gain

A new Daily Kos/SEIU poll released today found that nearly half of voters believe that Republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jump start the economy to ensure that President Barack Obama is not re-elected. 49 percent of respondents to the poll say that Republicans are intentionally stalling the economy, compared to 40 percent who say they are not. 11 percent replied “not sure.”

Among independents, 50 percent said that Republicans are stalling the recovery compared to 40 percent who said they are not, and 61 percent of self-described moderates said they are compared to just 40 percent who said they are not.

Recently, news analysts from major networks (not Fox) have began to question whether Republicans really are deliberately tanking the economy to defeat Obama. The behavior of Republicans in Congress is beginning to give credibility to that charge. The poll shows that a very large number of Americans including half of Independent voters agree.

Take the Highway Bill for example, we have been ignoring our infrastructural needs for decades. Not only about roads and bridges, but also water, sewage, power, and communication lines to name a few. In the senate, the highway bill was written with bi-partisan support, however the house refuses to pass it. Why? Probably because of the estimated 1 MILLION jobs it will create....

The GOP's "Job Creators" Don't Create Jobs

 From www.dailykos.com

For years, Republicans have warned that President Obama's proposal to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the top two percent of taxpayers would crush "job creators."  As Speaker Boehner protested:

"The top one percent of wage earners in the United States...pay forty percent of the income taxes...The people he's [President Obama] is talking about taxing are the very people that we expect to reinvest in our economy."

If so, those expectations were sadly unmet under George W. Bush. After all, the last time the top tax rate was 39.6 percent during the Clinton administration, the United States enjoyed rising incomes, 23 million new jobs and budget surpluses. Under Bush? Not so much. On January 9, 2009, the Republican-friendly Wall Street Journal summed it up with an article titled simply, "Bush on Jobs: the Worst Track Record on Record." (The Journal's interactive table quantifies his staggering failure relative to every post-World War II president.) The meager one million jobs created under President Bush didn't merely pale in comparison to the 23 million produced during Bill Clinton's tenure. In September 2009, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee charted Bush's job creation disaster, the worst since Hoover.
That dismal performance prompted David Leonhardt of the New York Times to ask last fall, "Why should we believe that extending the Bush tax cuts will provide a big lift to growth?" His answer was unambiguous:

Those tax cuts passed in 2001 amid big promises about what they would do for the economy. What followed? The decade with the slowest average annual growth since World War II. Amazingly, that statement is true even if you forget about the Great Recession and simply look at 2001-7...
Is there good evidence the tax cuts persuaded more people to join the work force (because they would be able to keep more of their income)? Not really. The labor-force participation rate fell in the years after 2001 and has never again approached its record in the year 2000.
Is there evidence that the tax cuts led to a lot of entrepreneurship and innovation? Again, no. The rate at which start-up businesses created jobs fell during the past decade.

The data are clear: lower taxes for America's so called job-creators don't mean either faster economic growth or more jobs for Americans.

It's no wonder Leonhardt followed his first question with another.  "I mean this as a serious question, not a rhetorical one," he asked, "Given this history, why should we believe that the Bush tax cuts were pro-growth?"  Or as Mark Shields asked and answered in April:

"Do tax cuts help 'job creators' or 'robber barons'?"

Just days after the Washington Post documented that George W. Bush presided over the worst eight-year economic performance in the modern American presidency, the New York Times in January 2009 featured an analysis comparing presidential performance going back to Eisenhower. As the Times showed, George W. Bush, the first MBA president, was a historic failure when it came to expanding GDP, producing jobs and even fueling stock market growth.  Apparently, America's job creators can create a lot more jobs when their taxes are higher - even much higher - than they are today.

(It's worth noting that the changing landscape of loopholes, deductions and credits, especially after the 1986 tax reform signed by President Reagan, makes apples-to-apples comparisons of effective tax rates over time very difficult. For more background, see the CBO data on effective tax rates by income quintile.)

Why I am no longer a Republican

In my youth, I would proudly proclaim being republican. I used to think they were the party of the people, I used to think that they were for letting us live our lives; but now I have grown up.... Well that is no longer the case.

In no particular order....

Reason Number 1: No Logic

How is it logical to be so staunch against gay marriage? 
It is not logical to be so hardcore against gay marriage, in fact, supporting the unions that gay couple want could serve to strengthen our country by removing a cultural wedge.


How does coddling the rich help the rest of us?
IT DOESN'T!!! The notion of "trickle down" economics is absurd; anyone with two eyes can see that an economy is built up, not trickled around.

These illogical notions have driven me so far away from the party that it is impossible for me to even consider going back. 

Reason Number 2: The party belongs to the Top 1 (Economics)

There is a direct relationship between Political Polarization and Income Inequality, this is because the 1% has effectively bought out the Republican Party. The Polarization has come from the endless measures taken to coddle the rich and the fact that party members have been tricked into believing that they (the rich) have their (The American Worker) best interest in mind.
We are becoming The Working Poor as the Rich become Richer.

Rather than spend money on things like infrastructure and education, The GOP would rather spend that money on our military. Unfortunately, they are not spending money to protect us, rather they are spending money on Military contracts where the rich profiteer our tax dollars.
see THE TRUTH ABOUT HALLIBURTON

Example: When the financial crisis struck, Wall street got a bail out, Main Street got a boot out.

Keep Vilifying the Occupy movement, the majority of them are FORMER tea-party members and Libertarians. 
 

Reason Number 3: They ARE the party of NO!

Republicans on capitol hill shoot down EVERY measure that is brought to the house floor that could help the American Economy.
Google Republican Filibusters and you will see just how bad they are when it comes to saying "NO".
see: Dems warn: McConnell will regret these filibusters

Reason Number 4: The HYPOCRISY!

Payroll Tax Cut: Republican idea shot down by Republicans on Capitol Hill after being proposed by Democrats
The Individual Mandate: Several years ago, the Heritage Foundation, and several prominent Republicans, were among those that pushed the idea of requiring people to buy health insurance.
Cap-and-trade: originally proposed by conservatives and Republicans as a market-based solution to solving environmental problems.

That's just the past couple years... and that's not all of them.... 

Reason Number 5: The Environment

Sadly the Republicans seem to think it is okay to waste away our environment, to strip the land of the natural resources and then leave it barren and unusable. Well maybe not to that extreme, but they have no problem with ignoring the repercussions to their actions. Take the Keystone Pipeline for example, Republicans are more than willing to risk our water supply in the name helping Big Oil.
This in theory could be attributed to Republicans belonging to the top 1%.

How I used to see things... 

When I would hear that republicans were for the rich, I would laugh and talk about how they are letting us live our lives and not forcing things down our throat, that they were letting businesses do there thing and thus creating jobs; that was in my youth and naivety.
I used to think DRILL BABY DRILL!! But never about the consequences.
I used to think we needed to spend more on our military, but now I want to cut that in about half.
I used to think we should get rid of the social programs like welfare and food stamps, but then I learned how people do not stay on them permanently.

I used to think a lot of things, but now I think a lot different. I wonder how I will think in 10 years.  

To answer what you may be thinking, no I am not a Democrat, I am a Libertarian. 

The Buffet Rule

The Buffett Rule

Many People on the right seem to HATE the idea of The Buffett Rule, often citing that there is no need because the rich pay more... They could not be more wrong.

If you think that the current tax system is fair, then get the hell out of here.

If you think the rich are "Job Creators" then get real! They are businessmen and women, NOT "Job Creators", they are rich because they have a good job or business. The only reason they will open a business is to make more money, taxing them less will not make them more willing to open a business.

The White House is pushing for The Buffett rule, and for good reason. As the rich get richer, the poor have been getting poorer; too much money is concentrated among the top .1%. If you are wondering why our economy is doing bad, it is because the middle class has shrunk so much, the people at the top are hoarding the money, and we are doing nothing to combat this oppression.

Both sides of the political isle need to get on the ball. There is a reason Taft drafted Anti-Trust legislation, they did not want too few companies having too much power. However, too few people now have too much power. Decades of low taxes gave the top earners the opportunity to stockpile their earnings and slow the flow of money throughout the economy culminating in a recession.

If we are going to fix this economy, then were are going to have to take some drastic steps, and yes that includes tax increases, minimum wage increases, and fair tax laws.