Moi: “"The mastery of the political right over the past thirty years has been primarily to better understand the irrational factors in politics. Conservatives have always understood that when it comes to politics, people rarely act in their rational self-interest but instead on emotion, fears and the perception of their interests.” ~Joe Bageant http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/1
demwits: [that's really their handle] “So explain why the vote for Obama stash, or he will pay my mortgage vote, keep my cheese coming vote, "free" to me, via big govi' liberal programs vote ect?? I think that the word conservative should say liberal, what does the dictonary say? think about it.”
Moi: “Early today a friend wailed "our once charismatic leader has been replaced by some pod person doppleganger sopping milquetoast"
I replied, "No, he never existed in the first place. Even a casual examination of 'Senator' Obama's record will show that he was always a Center/Right Corporatist. His presidential campaign was a 'political act' from start to finish."
And it is that presidential campaign that many Right Wingers believe too. But we were all lied to. Me, I never Believed In Hope because I do my homework. I boycotted the whole damn '08 election.
Taking care of the poor and unemployed and the sick, elderly and disabled is more than merely 'morally correct' [which Christ taught us to do btw], it is also good economics. Those groups tend to spend every penny of their benefits.
Here in California, SSI has been cut from $907 per month in Jan '09 to $830 now. [you try to live on that amount] That's roughly a $1000 annual cut, which means that tens of thousands now spend that much less, which means that much is now taken out of the economy.
You'll say "Well, it goes back to the taxpayers". Yes, some does. And much of that will then go to paying off their endless debt aka it goes to Wall Street, not to Main Street.
Our economy is not only stagnant, it is contracting. Taking all of this money out the economy is only going to make that worse. Conservative 'free market' economics have dominated since Reagan's first term. So why then are we in the deepest hole since the Great Depression? Every Conservative answer I ever get to that question has been a false Corporatist Talking Point, though most who reply believe them.
Like I said above, we've all been lied to....
Here, this is Specific and Practical, though of course politically futile as it runs counter to the interests of The Corporate State:
Simple Solutions To The Budget Crisis:
End two wars of occupation. Leave the Middle East and Central Asia.
Stop fighting the Cold War. Leave Europe.
Start closing down America's world wide 'empire of bases'.
Stop funding the military power of other nations.
End all military contracts, and return all of those duties to the military itself.
Close Guantanamo and return Cuba's sovereign territory.
Abrogate NAFTA completely.
[I'd also say withdraw from the IMF and WTO, but we own the damned things!]
Stop subsidizing the already highly profitable oil industry.
Stop subsidizing the highly unprofitable corn industry.
Nationalize the private prison industry.
Release all minor, non-violent drug offenders and stop paying a fortune to incarcerate them.
End the War on Drugs, dismantle the DEA, legalize all drugs, then regulate and tax them.
Establish a State Bank for each of the fifty states and have each state treasury deposit ALL state revenues, pension funds, etc 'exclusively' in their own State Bank.
Establish a national Single Payer 'buy in' program for Medicare with no age restrictions.
Extend a fully funded Medicaid to everyone below the poverty line.
Rebuild all of America's infrastructure from the ground up.
Rebuild American industry here in America itself, by government fiat if necessary.
...and the biggest one, return to the sensible Eisenhower era taxation rate."
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