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The No-Plan Plan
By Nancy Greggs
The Democrats have no plan.
If I had a nickel for every time that well-worn phrase has been trotted out by the GOP, I would be lolling on my yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean right now, celebrating my latest tax cut.
What the Republicans seem to be missing of late is the obvious point that the citizenry have had a snoot-full of THEIR plan – and from the looks of the latest poll numbers, the populace doesn’t seem to be all that happy with it.
But I don’t want to be accused of jumping to conclusions, so let’s take a moment to reflect on the consequences of the Republican Plan, and see how that’s panned out.
The country is in debt up to its proverbial eyeballs (and then some), thanks to that fiscal responsibility the GOP is so fond of pointing to as the very foundation of their party. And you’ve got to hand it to them; they still have the chutzpah to extol that virtue, in spite of the fact that that foundation is apparently more leaky than a White House insider.
To give credit where it’s due, you can’t ignore the incredible successes of the currently GOP-controlled government: the chaos in Iraq, the outsourcing of American jobs, inflation, rising gas prices, unemployment – you know, all of those circumstances that are being hailed as the best thing to hit the country since the Great Depression.
The right-wing pundits just love reminding those who are still listening (approximately fifty-two people as of this writing) that the Democrats have no backbone, no willingness to stand up and fight for what they believe in. Well, being as my area of expertise is the bleedin’ obvious, I would point out the inconvenient fact that our current crop of GOP senators and congressmen (a.k.a the guys in control) have rolled over so often, it’s hard to resist the temptation to scratch them behind the ears and throw them a rawhide bone.
Their response to everything this administration has done, from illegal wire-tapping to riding roughshod over Congressional oversight, has been to hide behind the couch and whimper as though they’d just collectively peed on the Oval Office carpet.
If there’s been any spine displayed by our dear elected Republicans in the last five years, I hope someone captured it on their TiVO, because unless you have the ability to rewind and pause, you’re bound to have missed it.
For people who insist that the Democrats have no plan, it’s amazing how quickly the Republicans are now attempting to combat that non-plan, right down to the last non-detail.
We now have the ‘threats’ to would-be turncoat voters who are thinking about voting Democrat in the upcoming mid-terms, a recitation of the dastardly things the Democrats will do if they win back power this fall.
The biggest bugaboo is raising taxes. And yes, there’s no doubt about where those taxes will be raised. The Democrats have been quite vocal about the idea of rolling back the tax-cuts the Republicans have so generously handed out to the wealthiest individuals, and the corporations whose profits could wipe out the national debt with money to spare.
And if the Democrats dare to implement that part of their non-plan, you just know there’s going to be a backlash. The average voter will be crying in his beer (assuming he’s in the small minority that can still afford one) at the thought of Dick Cheney having to pay a dime in taxes on his Halliburton dividends.
Reverse the current tax relief to the oil companies? Well, you don’t want to go there. One can imagine the rioting in the streets if the people who are presently choosing between gassing-up the car and buying groceries find out that Exxon might lose the taxpayer-funded subsidies that have put their profits in the Guinness Book of Records (Pig-at-the-Trough category).
Of course, the Republicans can always play the Moral Values card. They can spring Duke Cunningham from prison for a weekend to do a few lectures on the Importance of Integrity in Elected Officials, or maybe get Bill Frist to talk at fundraisers about how charity literally begins (and ends) at home. Let’s face it, folks, when it comes to bringing decorum back to politics, the Republicans have shown in recent years that they know no peer.
And then there’s that ‘Keeping America Safe’ thing. If we have another Katrina-type disaster between now and November, we can count on the Republicans to play it for all its worth. The GOP will be the first to remind us that while yet another American city may go down, no flag-burning will be tolerated and not a single gay marriage will take place in the midst of the destruction. Now THAT’S going to be hard to combat.
So let’s not kid ourselves; it’s going to be an uphill battle for the No-Plan Democrats to win the hearts and minds of the American people away from those crowd-pleasing GOP policies. We all know how thrilled their constituents are with the Bankruptcy Bill that puts even more of the average financially-strapped citizen’s money into the pockets of those hard-done-by credit card companies. And pity the poor deluded Democrat who suggests that the billions of dollars that have gone missing in Iraq should be accounted for.
Is there even one hard-working American who is going to stand for things like transparency of government, a fair election process, equitable tax distribution – good heavens, the more you delve into this Democratic non-Plan, the crazier it sounds!
The bottom line here is that when Republicans say that the Democrats have no plan, American voters heave a collective sigh of relief. Because faced with the prospect of continuing with the GOP Plan, the Democrat’s No-Plan Plan is a an incredibly welcome alternative.
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