Is this the New Republican Deal? If so, what does it mean for America? Let’s take a look:
1) Paul Ryan’s bill would end the guarantee provided by Medicare and Medicaid to the elderly and the poor. Americans now under 55 would likely have to pay an additional $6,400 or more a year for their healthcare once they qualify for Medicare under the proposed voucher system according to the Congressional Budget Office. They would be responsible for any premium increases by the insurance industry over and above what the government would pay with its set voucher. This would be a nightmare for elderly Americans on fixed incomes, but save the government billions.
2) According to this New York Times editorial, two-thirds of Ryan’s $4.3 trillion in budget cuts would come from low-income programs.
a. Ryan’s plan would cut food stamps by $127 billion, or 20 percent over the next 10 years increasing hunger among the poor.
b. It would cut Pell grants for all 9.4 million students next year, removing as many as one million from the program.
c. 100,000 low-income children would be removed from the Head Start Program.
d. It would also slash job-training programs for the unemployed needing to learn new skills in a post recession America that sees jobs being sent overseas to exploit cheap labor.
3) Bush era tax cuts would be preserved and even expanded under Ryan’s legislation.
4) Finally, this bill would reduce regulation on business and the environment.
This new Republican Deal is expanding out to statehouses across America with new Republican governors and Republican controlled state legislatures. They have made it politically difficult to raise taxes and at the same time targeted funding cuts to things like education, mental health and juvenile justice. Several states have cut their unemployment benefits below the standard 26 weeks. Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has proposed removing 138,000 people from Medicaid in her state. According to the Times editorial, several states, like Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Maine and Florida have used the “smokescreen of a poor economy to pursue a long-held conservative goal of destroying public and private unions.” Some states are even adopting Arizona –style anti-immigration laws making life difficult for legal citizens with profiling and detention.
It seems to me that none of this proposed state and federal legislation has anything to do with job creation or tax reform that would do the most to reduce this country’s deficit. Some economists worry that in fact, it could draw America back into a major recession or even a depression. President Obama stated a few weeks ago that their (Republican) vision “is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America.”
There is no doubt that Republicans want change, major change, drastic change. America would be a different place under this New Republican Deal. There is no question that America must get its financial house in order. The old tax and spend mentality and trickledown economics that both parties practiced got us into this mess and now there must be another way out. It will require some tough decisions and sacrifice on the part of all Americans, not just the poor, the elderly and the middle class.
In David DeGraw's report, "The Economic Elite vs. People of the USA,” he states that between 2002 and 2006 an astounding three-quarters of all the economy's growth was captured by the top 1%.in America. That 1% of the population now owns over 70% of all financial assets, an all time record. So why the steadfast refusal by the Republicans to have that top % of America pay a fair share of the taxes in this time of great need? Why should the wealthy in this country feel the least amount of pain and yet weald the greatest influence over our government? The wealthiest Americans among us must be an important part of the solution. Our country cannot be saved on the backs of the poor, the elderly and the middle class when the wealthiest hold the majority of the nation’s assets and influence.
I refuse to believe that over 50% of Americans now embrace this New Republican Deal, this new Republican vision for America. And yet, how do I explain the 2010 mid-term elections that sent Republican and Tea Party candidates to federal and state offices across this land, bent on making such draconian changes to the average American’s life? When did America stop caring for its elderly, the poor, the disadvantaged and about educating its children? When did it decide that hard won rights of unions were obsolete and doomed so that the wealthiest among us could become even richer and more powerful? When did my America get high jacked by Rupert Murdock, FOX News, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh?
Progressives have another chance to vote in the 2012 elections. Don’t waste it. Don’t sit on your cans. Vote!
Food for THOUGHT…
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