Thursday, June 16, 2011

GET A BRAIN, MORANS!

GET A BRAIN, MORANS! or Doubling Down on Crazy


Those of you who frequent progressive websites like commondreams.org, dailykos.com, truthdig.com, alternet.org are familiar with the former statement which appeared on a sign carried by a smug, smiling young Teapartier. It speaks to the abysmal level of political discourse in America today.


The other seminal statement of regressive moranic politics; ‘Keep the government’s hands off my Medicare’, was shouted out by an old geezer at a town hall meeting held by his congressman.


Considering how well-liked Medicare is even amongst Repuglicans, even amongst idiot wingnuts who don’t even know it’s equivalent to socialized medicine, you’d think Repug leaders in congress would tread lightly when considering changes to the program. But no, they’re so full of themselves and giddy from their victory in the last congressional elections they’ve completely lost touch with reality and so Rep. Paul Ryan, head of the house budget committee, has come up with a grand plan to ‘save’ Medicare and reduce government expenditures by thoroughly gutting the program.


His plan, touted by the mainstream media and conservative punditocracy as a bold move to balance the budget involves replacing government guaranteed benefits with a voucher system in which seniors receive a fixed (inadequate) amount of money and are sent out into the private insurance market to get coverage. The fact that the medical insurance companies are widely despised by the population doesn’t seem to register with the Repugs so they voted en masse, in both the House and Senate, to back Ryan’s Medicare disaster.


The reason why they needed to gut Medicare was so they’d have the money to provide additional tax breaks to the corpses and the wealthy, supposedly to create jobs. Considering the many corporations that are enjoying record profits today that are not only not paying taxes but getting refunds, how much lower can taxes go? Moreover, American corpses are sitting on $1.6 trillion of cash reserves they don’t know what to do with because so many of the people who ordinarily buy things don’t have any money. When they do create jobs they’re mostly in other countries.


The US now has the greatest income disparity of any developed country. The wealthy have so much more than they can productively use, that most of it goes to speculation. Americans can thank tax policy that favors the flush for a large portion of high gas and food prices. Whereas in normal times most commodities futures contracts are purchased by end users, today 70% are bought by speculators.


Oh, I forgot, the reason why the Repugs want to slash any program that has anything to do with helping the people at large is because the budget is out of balance and the deficit needs to be tamed. That’s also why they want to reduce taxes on the wealthy… Aha! You don’t get the connection between lowering taxes and balancing the budget? Don’t worry, it’s called Voodoo Economics and thus a bit complicated for those of us non-morans.


In order for the Repugs to play to their dingbat base they’re getting themselves so far out on a limb, it’ll take a heroic rescue on Obama’s part to save them from electoral disaster. But not to worry, Mr. O is so good at compromising principles he either never had or only pretended to have for the purpose of campaigning, he’ll do a fine job at either saving the Repugs’ asses or giving up so much to wingnut fanaticism it’ll be the same as them winning.


Whereas Ryan’s budget doesn’t even pretend to balance the budget for another 50 years or so, there is a plan put forth by the 81 member congressional progressive caucus that would get the country’s books in order in about ten years. It’s simple really; tax stock transactions, capital gains, corporations and the wealthy; reduce military spending; set up a public option for health care and negotiate better prices for prescription drugs and presto, just like magic, the budget is fixed. Chances are, if you get your news from the corporate media, you’ve never heard of it: It doesn’t fit their worldview so gets no air time.


Seems to me the captains of the ship America must have a strong compulsion to run it aground, not to mention trash the world at large, because they can’t all believe the drivel coming out of their mouths, can they? I mean, true morans aren’t that stupid, are they?

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