Thom Hartmann: How The GOP Could Spend $50 Million vs. Repealing Obamacare

[thomhartmann]

I wonder if Republicans realize that the fifty million dollars they just spent trying to repeal Obamacare is equal to how much it costs to provide food stamp benefits to more than 31,000 people for a full year? Or if they realize that the fifty million is also equal to more than 3,000 Americans collecting unemployment benefits for a full year. Or if they realize that fifty million could have been used to send more than 6,000 students to a public college for four years for free. Most likely no - they don't realize it because right after voting to repeal Obamacare for the 33rd time - they went ahead and wasted even more taxpayer money talking about golf. The second Democrats want to spend more money to help Americans - Republicans say no way.

So maybe if we speak in their terms - if we tell them how that fifty million could have been better spent on things they care about - then they can really understand how much money they just wasted on their Obamacare crusade. For example - fifty million dollars could have bought ten new Mitt Romney McMansions - each complete with its own $55,000 car elevator. Or - it could have purchased more than 33,000 semi-automatic rifles for Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Southern border goon squad. It could have funded 80 more hours of witchhunts - 80 hours of Congressional hearings into Fast and Furious - or Planned Parenthood - or Islamophobia. Or it could have funded 416,000 rounds of golf at St. Andrews - where the annual Congressional Golf Tournament can now be played for the next 50,000 years.

The point is - for a party that talks a lot about how we need to tighten our belts - and cut every nickel of waste in government spending - and even begin dismantling programs like Medicare and Social Security to reduce the deficit - it really doesn't help if fifty million bucks are being wasted on political stunts in the House of Representatives. Over the next four months - Republicans will go in front of voters and make the argument that they deserve another two years of controlling the House of Representatives. They'll talk about how many times they voted to repeal Obamacare. How many times they voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. How many Congressional investigations they've launched into Planned Parenthood. What they won't mention is how much taxpayer money they've wasted doing all of this stuff - and how not one of these so-called accomplishments will create a single job for a single unemployed America. So I say if Republicans are really serious about deficit reduction - then they should start with reducing themselves - and their frivolous pursuits in Congress.

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