All about the rich people: The top earners are willing to blow up the house rather than have Obama t

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/brian-morton/37448/all-about-the-rich-people-the-top-earners-are-willing-to-blow-up-the-house-rather-than-have-obama-touc

Lately, when I end up in the inevitable political argument, I am often confronted with the phrase, "It's all about the spending!" Like Barack Obama went on some sort of profligate spending spree since he got into office, compared to the previous president, whom everyone seems to have somehow forgotten.

Sure, Obama passed the Affordable Care Act--most of which doesn't even kick in for a few years yet. Sure, there was the stimulus act, which giant swaths of Congressional Republicans voted against, and then promptly went home to their districts to take credit for when the construction projects broke ground and the building checks were handed out. But that, as we can see now, was only a temporary punch of the gas pedal for the economy, and nowhere near enough to really get the car rolling again--remember, because of the GOP, much of the stimulus was tax cuts and credits, which usually do nothing but give more money to rich people.

And that's what this really is all about, this debt crisis: the rich people. The Paul Ryan budget that the House Republicans passed in the spring wouldn't balance the budget for the next 30 years, but would gut Medicare and Medicaid (programs rich people don't use or need) and lock in lower taxes, thus putting the nation's tax burden squarely on the shoulders of the shrinking middle class and the growing poor. And the Republicans have wanted it this way for years.

Don't believe me? Way back in 2002, the house organ of the wealthy, The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, complained that the poor didn't pay enough in taxes, and thus didn't hate the government enough to want to shrink it. "Lucky duckies," the Journal called them. If poor people paid more in taxes, the Journal's rationale went, they'd have more resentment toward the government and then there would be tax reform--which would lower taxes more on the wealthy (who naturally have more say in government, due to lobbyists).

More at the link --

[AnnaLee]

1. Maybe the poor suckers ought to quit dieing in wars for these scumbags

[Donnachaidh]

2. they've set the poor up -- the only jobs are in the army

A choice between being cannon fodder or starve to death -- the american way right now.

[Maccagirl]

3. Didn't JFK say "If we cannot help the many who are poor, we

cannot save the few who are rich." (Maybe not his exact words). Big business hated him-and by extension so would today's Wall Street Journal. BTW, I know it's been eighteen years, but I still hold the editoral writers of the WSJ responsible for Vince Foster's suicide.

[emulatorloo]

4. Good article, thanks.