Why the Republicans Are Destroying America

" For me, the most disturbing aspect of the Republican political culture is how it puts its unquenchable thirst for power, domination and a radical ideology above facts, reason and the truth "

Al Gore

"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it. "

P. J. O'Rourke

Throughout history, one party helped the rich get richer, helped big business, stood against the middle class, showed lack of empathy to the poor, the sick, the veterans and anyone who is not rich. Throughout history that same party was against a better education for our youth, better health care, and a better environment. Throughout history one party started unnecessary wars (Vietnam1955, Grenada1983, Iraq 1991 and 2003) that cost hundreds of thousands of American lives and an insane amount of money. Throughout history one party showed time and again that it is destructive to the American economy and the American people. That party is the Republican Party and this article shows just a few examples of how the Republican are destroying America.

1) They do not care about the economy:

Oh where do I start? Here are the facts: The Republicans claim they want to reduce the deficit and limit spending yet for the last 30 years that is the opposite of what they do! When Carter became president he spent $994 billion dollar and lowered the federal debt by a 0.4 %. When Reagan followed Carter he spend $1,817 billion (so $1.8 trillion), which is an increase of a 49% in the Federal debt. Then in his next term he spent $2.8 trillion, which is an increase of another 40%. According to Slavin, in 1986 the national debt has broken the $2 trillion mark which meant that the federal government, from 1981 - 1986, took five years to generate as much debt as it took the federal government from 1776 - 1981, (105 years). This means that if five years, from 1981 - 1986, the national debt grew 21 times as fast as it took the federal government from 1776 - 1981. When Bush Sr. came to office he spent $4.3 trillion, which is an increase of another 32.7 % of the federal debt. Then, when Clinton came to office he lowered that increase to a 13.2 % in his first term and finally lowered the federal debt by a 0.2%, which is how we got our budget surplus. Yet, the Republicans claim that the Democrats are reckless about the way they spend money. But let us not forget Bush Jr who took that surplus and turned it into another 22.8% increase in the federal debt again. And these are facts. These are numbers that are recorded by the Congressional Budget Office. Now it is 2010 and the Republicans are crying since Obama took office about how much he is spending. Why do they do that? They lie because they are filthy liars who only care about their own agenda.

When it comes to taxes the Republicans are screaming about Obama's plan to tax the rich. But if we look at the history of the United States, we will see that from the 1940s until 1963 the top 2% were paying 90% tax. And they continued to prosper and the country was prospering with it. However, that tax continued to decrease since 1964 from 91 % to 77 % to the current 35%. That is a 55 % decrease. Now who is paying for that decrease? The middle class who has to pay for that decrease and that is why the middle class continued to decrease and the top 2 % continued to get richer. So now we are talking about an eradication of the working man and woman and the Republicans keep screaming that this is for the benefit of the country and that is what the people want! That is completely false. We cannot lower the tax and expect that the deficit will increase. One plus one does not equal three. The Republicans know this and any economist knows this as well.

Allow me to simplify the issue. If you own of a house that you are renting out and the tenant pays you $1000 a month and that is your only source of income. Your expenses come to $900 a month so you come to a net income of a $100 that you put into your savings account. However, you become sick and your expenses start to rise slowly and now they come to $1200 a month. So now you are losing $200 a month and your savings account will deplete. Can you expect to fix this depletion by lowering the rent you receive from the tenant? The answer is simply impossible. The only way to save yourself is by increasing the rent to a minimum of $1200. That is what the Government is facing. For them to lower the deficit they must increase the taxes. Because the middle class has been suffering then the only way is to increase the taxes on the rich because they make more money and they can afford the tax hike. But the Republicans just try to avoid that at all costs. They just chose to run on the message of cutting spending. Jeb Hensarling, Republican congressman from Texas' 5th congressional district proposed in the 2010 elections to cut spending. During an interview on CNN when he was asked what exactly would he cut in the budget he did not have an answer. This is the same behavior as every Republican out there. They just bark like dogs but have no solution to the problem.

Over the past several years the Republicans have done nothing to help the economy. In fact they have done almost everything to ruin it. Since the 1980s the government have decreased labor, consumer and environmental rules due to Republican's argument that such deregulations would help the economy. Such nonsense gave corporations a lot of power to increase illegal, immoral and destructive activities, which contributed to the economic crash since 2007, which many economists have been warning about since 2004. Therefore, we have the huge outsourcing of jobs in America to other countries in South America and Asia. We have the deregulation of the housing market, which was the main reason behind the housing market crash that occurred since 2008. We have the catastrophes such as the bailout of the banks and the auto industry, the BP oil crisis, the mining disaster in West Virginia in 2010, the Crandall Canyon mine disaster in Utah and the other mining disaster in West Virginia in the Sago mine in 2006.

All the facts points to this: Republicans do not care about the Middle Class or the poor. They only care about the prosperity of the rich and that is because they are rich themselves and do not see the problems that the regular citizen faces everyday. They do not care about the economy as long as they are making money and getting richer. In a town hall meeting during the 2004 elections, a woman told former President Bush that she is working three jobs just to be able to put food on the table. His simple reply was "How American of you." So, according to him, to be poor and working three jobs just to be able to survive is American. Does that make him un-American then? Or does it make him completely ignorant of the problem? You decide.

2) They do not care about the environment:

There are many ways to show how the Republicans do not care about the environment. Before I start let me give you just a quick example of Republican indifference toward the environment. When Jimmy Carter came to office he installed solar panels in the White House to save on electricity and to be a guide to those who want to help the environment. When Reagan followed him, he took them down. He said the American people do not need to conserve energy! That is just a simple example of the arrogance Republicans have toward the environment.

Now, let me share with you more facts. First, the Republicans do not believe in Global Warming, which is something that the world Scientific Society agrees on without any doubt. In fact during the 2010 elections many Republicans came out and said that Global Warming is a hoax. Michelle Bachmann who is a U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 6th Congressional district claimed several times that global warming is a hoax. In fact, in a study done by Yale University showed that only 47% of Republicans think that Global Warming is happening! Same study shows 81 % of Democrats think Global Warming is happening.

Secondly, we have Oil drilling which the Republicans are very fond of. They would like to drill anywhere and everywhere there is a hint of oil. In fact, even after the BP oil crisis occurred in the Gulf Coast in the summer of 2010, the Republicans were mad at President Obama for imposing a moratorium on offshore drilling! They were mad that Obama was being harsh on BP. On May 21, 2010 Mr. Rand Paul, Republican Senator from Kentucky said the following :

"What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.' I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I've heard nothing from BP about not paying for the Spill. And I think it's part of this sort of the blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be someone's fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen."

Yes, Senator accidents do happen but it is almost always someone's fault and in this case it BP's fault and it is out fault for letting them drill offshore. Not only that but other Republican senators asked that we should keep on drilling. Hence, the joke slogan that came out from the Republican Chairman of the RNC, Mr. Michael Steele who became famous for saying « Drill, baby drill ».

That is why Environmental agencies are not big fans of Republicans for their lack of understanding. In fact, after the 2010 elections results and the sweeping success of the Republicans, the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) is being put at the top of a Republicans hit-list that seeks to limit the authority of the agency. Already Joe Barton, Congressman from the 6th District of Texas, wrote a letter to the agency demanding a review of the regulations enforced by the EPA. So, they are questioning the agency that is implemented to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe. I mean these people would just do anything to please the corporations, which bought them! Because let us face it, corporations do not like the EPA with all their regulations. I mean who wants rules? The Republicans certainly do not. They do not want rules. They do not care for them and they do not care for our environment and they are destroying America!

3) They do not care about Americans:

To illustrate how the Republicans do not give a damn about the American people I will show you a list of everything they blocked or attempted to block :

1-Fair Pay Act of 2009, which requires that women receive equal compensation to men for doing the same work.

2- Unemployment extension bill which would provide additional aid to the millions of Americans still on unemployment and who are trying to support their families. They blocked this for 8 weeks. That is two months of no pay to these poor people whose only fault was that they lost their job.

3- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or the Stimulus bill which gave billions of dollars to state and local Governments to prevent total chaos. This would have saved thousands of jobs.

4- Wall Street Reform Bill which puts more strict regulations on the banks and lowers reckless spending (something Republicans moan about).

5- The Jobs Bill - Offsets the payroll tax for 1 year for companies that hire new employees. It also gives other tax incentives to companies hiring new employees.

6- Benefits for Homeless Veterans which would expand the benefits to the homeless veterans or homeless veterans with children.

7- Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which repeals the law that forces gay and lesbian members to lie about their sexuality. By the way, Robert Gates, the secretary of Defense is in favor of it. The military is in favor of it. The president is in favor of it. A Pentagon study found that the repeal would not harm the military in any way. John Mc Cain used to be in favor of it but he changed his mind as usual. In fact he stated that "DADT" is working just fine and criticized the Obama administration for trying to repeal it. Every military in the Western world has gays and lesbians serving without any problems. Basically, almost everyone is in favor of it except the Republicans.

8- The Small Business Jobs Act: This bill would give local and community banks access to billions of dollars to loan to small business.

9- Political Ad disclosure Bill which would have required all donors to political campaigns to reveal their identity. That way we know who is or what company is supporting who.

10- Tax on companies that ship jobs overseas : This bill would eliminate a tax break that these companies receive when they ship American jobs overseas!!!

11- The Anti- Rape Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill which give the right to women who are raped overseas to have their case heard in an American court.

12- Health Care for the 9/11 First Responders who got sick from being at Ground Zero. This bill would have provided money in health care to help those people who helped at Ground Zero and are now sick because of it.

So basically the Republicans do not give a damn about women, people who serve or served in the military, the unemployed, small business, local & state governments, gays & lesbians, American women who were raped overseas, people who helped at Ground Zero, Americans who are losing their jobs to foreign citizens. Basically, Republicans do not care about Americans. And do not let them lie to you that they are worried about spending! Because, as I have shown above, they love to spend money just not where it matters.

4) They do not care about our national security:

Republicans are big on words that people like to hear. Words like freedom, liberty, patriotism, small government, etc. But when it comes to actual substance, they do not have any. After President Obama signed the START treaty with the Russians so we can examine the Russian nuclear facilities and they can examine ours. It also lowers the number of nuclear warheads in both countries so the world can be safer. Now please bare in mind this is the same treaty that Reagan (A Republican) signed with the Russians in the 80s. Now this new START treaty is favored by the military, six former Secretaries of State from both parties and 5 former secretaries of the Defense from both parties yet the Republicans all of a sudden are saying they do not like it! Why? No reason. They are just playing politics as usual. Russia right now can be selling nuclear warheads to North Korea, Iran or even Osama Bin Laden and we have no idea and this treaty would allow us to get a closer look at the Russians. But, the Republicans do not seem to care. They rather harm our national security than allow the President to sign a very crucial treaty. Not only that, but now not one country would want to sign a treaty with us because they know that the Senate will not allow it to pass. I mean how can these Republicans call themselves people who care about their country when they are playing such childish destructive games?

And then lately we saw the attack on the T.S.A which started by the Drudge Report, a conservative website, and now is everywhere on the media. That is because in November of 2010 the T.S.A enforced new screening including a full-body pat down or an X-ray scan. The Republicans are attacking the T.S.A constantly because of these screenings. They are attacking it as if the T.S.A was a terrorist group who was trying to hijack planes and not actually make flying safer! Now, I am highly aware that the T.S.A is not the best of most efficient organization that made previous mistakes. However, the T.S.A is trying to make flying safer and that is all there is to it. It is not their fault that terrorists are trying to cheat the system. All the T.S.A does it to adapt and try to make it safer for all of us. Therefore, I do not see any reason for all these attacks on them. What would the Republicans like? Would they like the T.S.A not to do any screening and then have someone hijack a plane? Was it not just last year that we had the Christmas bomber who was stopped in-flight? Was it not the Republicans who attacked the administration for being too soft? Now, that there are necessary precautions they are not happy and complaining again. Which shows that the Republicans do not really care. They just want to complain about anything and everything while according to a poll by ABC 64% of the people actually support it

Let us face it, we are living in a crazy world and precautions are necessary. Such pat-downs are standard in the United Kingdom and all across Europe. This is not new in the world. It is just new in the U.S. and people need to get used to it and not attack the people who are trying to make us safe!

5) They do not care about educating the youth of America

Since 1994 Republicans have done everything to attack the education system. In 1994 Republicans decided to slash funds from various education programs to help the deficit! They argued that the government should not intervene in the local control of schools. However, if we look at Texas, a heavily Republican state, we will see that they are dramatically changing what kids are learning in schools. They watered down the separation of church and state (which is in the constitution), took out the fact that Thomas Jefferson was an en example of an influential political philosopher. They required that the US government should be called a "constitutional Republic and not a "Democratic" state. So, Republicans are not happy with the word "Democracy" which invokes the Democratic Party but they are okay with the word "Republic". This is clearly a political argument that is being played and the students are not learning anything from it! Yet, these are the same Republicans who say government should not be part of education yet here they are playing political games with the future of our country.

Republicans keep pushing for budget cuts when it comes to the Department of Education. In fact, many Republican Senators and Congressmen are now pushing for the elimination of the Department of Education all together! Michelle Bachmann voted against a bill that would raise the maximum Pell grant for college students, lower interest rates on subsidized student loans and raise federal student loan limits. Rand Paul, the new senator from Kentucky supports the elimination of the federal Department of Education. Martha Roby, U.S. Representative from Alabama also would like to see the elimination of the federal Department of Education. They want to get rid of the smallest department in the US to save money. I mean what kind of nonsense is that? Even if they did close it, which would be horrible, it would only save a few billions of dollars, which is nothing in the country's budget.

The issue is they fail to see the consequences of their decisions. They fail to see that they are changing the history of this nation by playing with the textbook of young students. They fail to see that without an education, the future of this country would be bleak at best. They fail to see that they are destroying America.

6) They do not care about our health care

Ever since 1960 Republicans have been refusing attempts to pass social health programs. It was not until 1965 when Democrats controlled the House and a Democratic President (Lyndon Johnson) were able to create Medicare. Since then Republicans have been attacking it as if it was a plague. George H.W. Bush described in 1964 as "socialized medicine". Barry Goldwater stated " Having given our pensioners their medical care in kind, why not food baskets, why not public housing accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink " and then we have the famous Bob Dole who voted against Medicare in 1965 said he knew that the system would not work.

Then we have the highly unsuccessful attempt by former President Bill Clinton in the 90s to provide universal health care for all Americans. The plan was attacked of course by Republicans. There was massive advertising against it calling it "too bureaucratic", "restrictive of patient choice", and of course " socialist". In an article in the "The New York Review of Books", Paul Krugman and Robins Wells explain that since Clinton there was not any movement to improve health care due to a conservative Republican majority in Congress or a conservative Republican President in office. Thus, Republicans do not want to deal with health care. They do not care if Americans have a good health care or not.

Finally, when President Obama came to office he took on the massive task of fixing health care. The law, which was signed on March 30, 2010, took about a year to pass after a massive battle with Republicans. All Republicans blocked the bill when it came to voting and not one of them voted yes. The law prohibits health insurers from refusing coverage based on patients' medical histories. It also prohibits health insurers from charging different rates based on patients' medical histories or gender. It expands Medicaid to include more low-income Americans and gives a subsidy to low and middle-income Americans to help buy insurance. It also covered an additional 31 millions Americans who are uninsured. All the Republicans said no to all of that because they do not care about the health of the American people. They believe that health is something to be bought and paid for. They believe that it is okay for a woman to lose her husband or her father or man to lose his wife or child because they could not afford to pay for their health care. They believe that people's pain and suffering is a market to buy and sell.

Then we have the mentally handicapped Sarah Palin who recently criticized Michelle Obama for her "Let's Move" initiative which is all about getting children active through exercise and eating healthy. Sarah does not like that. She believes that this is too much of government involvement. So obesity rated which have tripled in the last 30 years is not a problem. The fact that one third of all children born after the year 2000 will suffer from diabetes is not a problem. The fact that the average child spends 7.5 hours a day watching TV is not a problem. No, Sarah thinks all that is just simple stuff and all the children are fine. Well, they are not. In fact a recent study by "Readiness" which is a nonprofit organization of retired generals and admirals concluded that 27 % of 18 to 24 year olds are too fat to join the military. And in a testimony before Congress, the former head of the California National Guard, General Paul Monroe stated that "80% of children who were overweight between the ages of 10 to 15 were obese by the age of 25" He and other military leaders want to start a massive child nutrition plan to remove all junk food from school and improve nutrition standards. Palin fails also to realize that a similar plan (the National School Lunch Program) was implemented in 1946. The plan was implemented "to provide nutritionally balanced, low cost or free lunches to children" General Monroe believes this is for national security because as he stated " America is only as healthy as our nation's children"

7) They do not care about bipartisanship:

Republicans never intended to work with Obama since he became President. I don't think they ever will. This is my opinion and the opinion of many others. But this opinion does not come from anywhere. Just look above at all the bills they blocked or tried to block in the last 2 years. As Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times: "The fact is that one of our two great political parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making America governable, unless it's doing the governing. And that party now controls one house of Congress, which means that the country will not, in fact, be governable without that party's cooperation - cooperation that won't be forthcoming" And he is right. Just listen to Mitch McConnell state that his single most important goal is to guarantee that Obama is only a one-term President. In one sentence he showed how much he does not care about the working Americans or bipartisanship. Not only him, but all the Republican leadership refused to meet Obama when he requested a bipartisan summit at the White House on November 18, 2010. The Republicans claimed their schedule was too busy to meet the President. And when they finally met on November 30, 2010, Mitch McConnell again mate it clear that Republicans are not looking to compromise. Their intentional continued disrespect for Obama and for the people of our country is beyond disgusting. It is clear that their only agenda is to make Obama look bad while everything else goes to peril while they sit and watch from their tall towers of doom.

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was a Roman historian who wrote a set of biographies about 12 successive Roman rulers. He states that Nero, the Roman Emperor, sang and played the lyre while Rome burned. To me, the Republicans are doing the same except that Nero was honest about how he felt about the burning while the Republicans are lying about their motives. In my opinion, the Republicans are destroying this country piece by piece. They destroyed the economy, they are destroying the morale of the people, and they are methodically destroying the middle class. They would like to eliminate the educational system and Social Security. They certainly do not care for the environment or the people living in it. I think I have showed the facts to come to the conclusion that the Republican politicians are destroying America, as we know it.

Sources:

Environment

http://solveclimatenews.com/news/20101102/study-only-47-republicans-think-global-warming-happening

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/31/republican-onslaught-obama-environment-agenda

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/11/17/17climatewire-outgoing-rep-inglis-blasts-gop-skepticism-on-51296.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment

Economy:

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11766

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-west-virginia-mining_b_534665.html

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/18/zakaria.deficit.cutting/index.html?hpt=T2

Stephen Slavin, Economics, 9th edition

Pat downs:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/security-pat-downs-stoke-traveler-outrage-but-not-here/1134716

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112205514.html?hpid=topnews

People :

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/28/mccain-says-dont-ask-dont-tell-is-working/

Education:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/21/national/main6506099.shtml

http://www.criticism.com/policy/republicans-education-policy.php

Healthcare :

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/24/martin.michelle.obama.palin/index.html

Bipatisanship :

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/opinion/22krugman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=there%20will%20be%20blood&st=cse