Tip Of The Hat To The GOP House Freshmen
by Dave Bradley
Let us give a tip of the hat to the Republican House freshmen for what has to be one of the funniest videos of all time. After a fall campaign in which they blatantly lied about the health care bill cutting Medicare, they voted for the Paul Ryan budget bill which does effectively END Medicare in a few years.
So Democrats picked up on this and let the public know. It is not like it was a secret. Pretty much anyone with an eighth grade education could do the math and see that there is no way the voucher plan could keep up with the cost of health care. That is, if you could find an insurance company that would even sell to a senior citizen.
I am really, really feeling sorry for those younger than 35. While everyone is hurting, these folks that are the future are seeing much of what they were taught as truths on succeeding in America to be not true. And most of it is not true because laws and playing fields have been so tilted to ensure those on top stay on top that what used to be the ladder to success has been thrown away. Kids are coming out of college well educated and deeply in debt, but no one who wants their skills. This is a national disgrace. Especially at a time when we have so many truly pressing problems that need to be worked on. Our infrastructure has rotted since Reagan and we have built little really new since then.
To those who say we can’t spend our way out of debt I say B.S. I am not a trained economist, but I doubt that puts me in any less a position than many of those who are.
There is so much work that needs to be done in this country that we could put everyone to work tomorrow. First there are simply repairs to be made throughout the country. Sewer lines, water lines, electrical grids, bridges on and on. These are goods held in common and need to be maintained just to keep society running and to keep diseases and other disasters at bay.
Second, America needs to get away from19th century technologies and move toward the future. Many other countries are way ahead of us in building the infrastructure for the information future. Other countries are also moving ahead of us in tapping renewable resources. Oil is running out. Even if it wasn’t, do we want to continue to be beholden to foreign oil kingdoms, oil corporations and the effects of climate change caused by carbon in the atmosphere? And nuclear is literally huge problems waiting to happen.
These are just a few suggestions to start. Most of you can come up with much more work that needs to be done.
Note that these works would create jobs today, put money into the hands of those who will spend it and be the backbone of economic growth in the future, much like President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway system was. Unlike the bombs and other war materials that Republicans seem to favor that are used for specific purposes and usually only once. And unlike tax cuts, the money would go into the hands of people who will actually spend it and create jobs. We would also need some sensible legislation to put an end to laws that promote creation of jobs overseas.
Finally a word to those who believe George Bush deserves some credit for capturing Bin Laden. To quote Barney Frank from a couple years back, “What world do you live in?” The same goes for those who think that torture has a place in America’s intelligence community. That is comic book and TV stuff. Over and over again it has been shown to simply not work. Whatever information it yields is usually unreliable.
Dave
Bradley
E-mail Dave here
Dave Bradley is a self-described
retired observer of American politics “trying to figure out how we got
so screwed up.” An
Iowa City native currently living in West Liberty, Dave and his wife
Carol have two grown children who “sadly had to leave the state to find
decent paying jobs.“
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