So a little review here of the political happenings of the two major parties. Currently, there are three huge problems that we as a country are facing: 1) high unemployment/a slow economy, 2) the deficit, and 3) health care.
The Republicant strategy to address problem 1 is…well, it doesn’t really exist. What most Republicants would tell you is that they would cut taxes and regulations to allow private businesses to hire more people. Unfortunately there are some glaring gaps in this strategy: A) cutting taxes leads to problem 2, which everyone on the right wants to yell and scream about, B) taxes are the lowest they’ve been since 1950 (as a percentage of the GDP, we pay only 14% in taxes—that is a phenomenally low rate), and so far whatever factor they play in job growth is being dwarfed by other economic conditions, for example: C) the horrifying housing bubble propagated by Wall Street, mortgage lenders, and dumb fucking idiots who thought they could buy a $300,000 house on a $50,000 salary—none of which could have happened had there been government REGULATIONS to prevent such foolish financial speculation. So while cutting taxes and regulations sounds like a really good idea, it is actually very, very dumb. Not only that, it is proven not to work.
HOLD ON A SECOND SLIPPERY SLOPE STEVE—no one is saying that we should tax businesses more, or that we can tax our way out of this recession…the point is that cutting taxes more at this point would simply exacerbate our current problems. The whole slippery slope argument, by the way, is only used by people that don’t have a firm grasp on logic or reality. If they did, they wouldn’t find themselves on slope quite so fucking slick.
On the other hand, Democrats have proposed economic stimulus packages that would pay for people to build and repair things like road, railroads, bridges, dams, the electrical grid, etc. While this would cost some money, it is actually proven to work. It worked recently when Obama was first re-elected (notice that the states are just now running out of money—that’s cause they had stimulus money, which meant they could pay teachers, fire fighters, and other state employees to continue their fine work), and it also worked when FDR got us out of the Great Depression. And even if, batshit crazy conservative, you want to argue that WWII got us out of the Depression, guess who paid for all of those bombs, tanks, guns, etc? That’s right! The government, you stupid fuckwad. So either way, the government spending money during a recession is exactly the right thing to do, especially if it is invested in infrastructure (after all, we all need roads—in fact, if there are roads, you don’t have to walk on a slippery slope, right?).
This brings us to topic #2: the deficit. Republicans are just howling about the deficit, how it is so awful, and why it needs to be fixed immediately, or they won’t extend the debt limit. Their plan? Cut the government. Cut Medicare, Social Security, student loans, the national weather service, planned parenthood, public broadcasting, heating oil assistance to the poor, education—notice a trend here? The happen to be all of the programs the Republicants don’t like. Want to know how much those programs have grown in the past 10 years as a factor of our GDP? Zero percent. Want to know why we have a deficit? Afghanistan, Iraq, Medicare plus, tax cuts for the rich, tax loopholes for oil companies, I can go on, but I think you get the point. We have a deficit primarily because of Republican policies put in place during the W. Bush administration, during which, not one Republican ever said anything about the debt, and the debt limit was extended every time it was necessary.
Still, Democrats are willing to put the past behind them; they simply ask that along with cuts to certain programs, revenue is raised by ending unnecessary tax cuts, subsidies, and write offs for extremely successful industries (read: oil) and extremely successful individuals. Seems pretty fair and reasonable. Unless you want the economy to fail, in which case you go hell bent for everything you want to get out of the Democrats and if you don’t get it, you force the U.S. to default on its debt for the first time in history.
As for problem number 3, it is very simple. The Democrats recognized that something needed to be done about health care, and they did something. Meanwhile, the idiots, oops, I mean Republicants, bitched constantly, loudly, and vehemently about continuing to have the same lousy fucking system that has led U.S. health care to consume around 18% of our GDP (that’s really bad—Canada’s system is around 10%).
So, if you are an irrational person who dislike facts, wants to make things worse for the county, and is comfortable voting for a bunch of liars who might well tank our economy on purpose, vote Republican.
If you’re a rational person who wants to vote for people that are reasonable, and that have good ideas that are proven to work to solve our problems, vote Democrat.
Nothing that I've said here is untrue...if you think the Republicans are right--you're wrong. And dumb.
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