In the week after the President was elected, the comedic newspaper, “The Onion”, ran this headline: “Black Man Given Worst Job in America”. Subsequent events have proven that tongue-in-cheek assessment to be all too true.
The current bevy of candidates for the republican nomination would like us to forget what a mess George W. left the country in. They talk as if Obama is the source of all the country’s problems. They are confident that America has already forgotten that George W. inherited a budget surplus from Bill Clinton. In fact, it was that budget surplus that W. used to sell the country on the “temporary” tax break for America’s richest citizens and its corporations that do business internationally. They conveniently sidestep the fact that their colleagues in Congress consistently vote against initiatives they formerly supported just in order to thwart Obama.
Republicans seem to have difficulty telling the difference between the truth and a lie. W spoke of a “temporary” tax break, but now that the “temporary” period has expired; republicans want to use the term “class warfare” for those who want to let the breaks expire, as originally intended.
These would be presidential candidates speak of keeping corporate taxes low so that jobs will be created; when it’s the same corporations that shipped as many jobs overseas as they could.
Gov. Dayton finds himself fighting the same battle. He has proposed a budget that would give tax credits to companies that hire returning veterans, the unemployed and youth. Republicans in our Legislature want to preserve tax breaks for those now enjoying them without regard for what jobs they ship overseas.
Wherever you turn, republicans are lining up with big corporate spending and ignoring the issues of “the American people” they reference at every opportunity. They seem to be betting that massive television advertising, as the races heat up, will confuse a lazy, forgetful electorate. The saddest thing is that their core, base constituency consists of folk who are called “the religious right”.
I have read that “book” they hold in the hand that isn’t holding their gun. They support “right to life” unless you’re already born. They would repeal “Obamacare” and privatize Social Security, which means raiding it. How do they skip over the part in the “book” which says “inasmuch as ye have done it unto these, the least of my children; ye have done it unto me.”
