Economy Section
Despite what you might think based on my relentless bashing of the GOP & conservatism, I really am a center-right conservative & lifelong GOP supporter, although the progressive bloggers agree with me more often. But the echo has dragged the party’s agenda & mindset so far to the extreme right in recent years, there is no salvaging the GOP without a dramatic shift back towards real conservatism that regains a firm grip on reality & sanity. The echo has been lying to their audiences for so long, the base is believing the lies. Their deceptive misinformation campaign has fostered an ideology that is entirely fanatical, counterproductive, unworkable & dumb. It encourages more of what the whole problem has become in DC, a suffocating polarization that demolishes bipartisanship & guarantees gridlock. The new GOP, which has been sickened by the echo like a cancer, is the primary factor in why America has become so feckless in tackling economic problems & the struggles of the working middle class. With both parties being utterly incompetent in promoting viable ideas, we’re drifting aimlessly against the waves like a ship without a captain.
Besides being led around by echo distortions & false conspiracies, the GOP base are largely motivated based on cultural issues. I’m also a social conservative, but that’s not how I primarily decide my vote. Our DC leaders have enough on their plates dealing mainly with the economy & national security. And I’ve always doubted the influence politicians really have on social issues anyway. Sure, a president can pack the courts, but the direction a nation takes on such social issues are more shaped by the prevailing cultural norms. So if we really want a more conservative vision, it’s more up to Christians to set the example & moral standards which can attract others to their church, plus their conservative points of view. But unfortunately we’ve recently seen the moral ethics of many evangelicals called into question, with the obvious hypocrisy repelling others & serving to actually drive them away from the faith. Without a revival to return the church to its core mission, many in the current evangelical leadership & flock have sacrificed the moral authority to have influence over much of anything. Do we want to be witnesses for The Lord or support leaders with a history of sexual assault? I don’t see how it’s possible to do both.
There’s another fundamental shift in the sands beneath our feet that has me seriously questioning the validity & direction of the GOP. The global economy has seen the rise of mammoth international companies & wealthy elite who are increasingly gaining power over governments & amassing the income gains which are eluding the rest of the population. We see that played out in rising income inequality & widening wealth gaps. We see it in dirty money influencing the policies & time politicians devote to appeasing their large donors. We see it played out in the mountains of info contained in the Paradise Papers, where the ultra-wealthy are hoarding huge sums of money into the trillions, which are being stashed away in offshore tax havens & not circulating throughout the economy (no wonder trickle down has lost its impact). After WWII our free-market capitalism offered shared opportunity & prosperity for those who worked towards those ends, which has steadily eroded into dead-end jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the bills. Changes need made if we could find the right leadership offering sensible proactive policies.
Both sides are now so beholden to their big-moneyed donors, it’s sickening & a pox on democracy. The voice of the people is increasingly being shunted aside. But my disgust with the GOP is further ingrained by my former party being more in bed with big corporate $’s than the Dems seem to be. That’s played out with their support of Citizens United fueling the dark money. It’s in their unrelenting support of unfettered free markets at a time government leadership is needed to make important adjustments. The GOP remains the party bucking antitrust & banking regulations. The party hopes to remove millions from the healthcare insurance rolls, especially those in ill health needing it the most. They’ve also managed to practically stamp out labor unions in the private sector. Plus with the echo controlling much of their base, they govern based on falsehoods. It’s also obvious from their fiscal policies, they still operate out of an old playbook that fuels the growing inequities. Their tax proposal is a glaring example of their large donors & corporate elite stashing money overseas as exposed in the Paradise Papers, so those wealthy elite not only love such GOP policies, but demand it! And GOP reps capitulate. As the evidence makes it clear, the GOP no longer prioritizes the people, especially when it comes to the working class.
With the private sector, through technology, automation & globalism actually serving to remove middle class jobs, we may be entering a unique time in history where government will be called upon to be our primary job creator, or at the very least become very aggressive in creating the environment that fosters the formation of better jobs (& we’re talking about good jobs that can pay a livable wage). The GOP ideas have gotten so stale, inadequate & misbegotten, the Dems actually have better ideas as of now, even though I’ve never liked their passing-out-handouts attitude. And the GOP holds the keys to power temporarily, so they either figure out something soon much better than their tax & Trumpcare plans, or otherwise the Dems will soon have their turn & could march us straight into socialism. So capitalism either starts working for workers again or will be replaced. We need dramatically big ideas from both or either party that can effectively swing the pendulum back in favor of the middle class, while pushing back against the wealthy elite from rigging the whole economic system in their favor. The Dems do seem better positioned at this point to buck this emerging crony capitalism that has enveloped our government & corporate entities, but we should be open to any big ideas no matter which party can figure it out.
In the related articles, the top links explain yet more economic distress, with more than half the population falling through the cracks & household debt is spiking. And then there are plenty of articles on tax reform. Among the various articles debunking trickle down, see the link titled, Time for Republicans in Congress to dump Trickle Down Economics. Another important article from The Hill explains how the Tax Plan gives Big Business a big handout at the expense of small firms, which if that’s true it is the exact opposite of what needs done. The most important thing in the new tax bill should be all about giving small business a tax break, even if there’s nothing else in the bill. When we read the points made in the article, this bill really sounds like a clunker. That’s why Sen. Ron Johnson came clean on how it benefits big biz more than the small ones, which is why he’s voting thumbs down. And also by including the repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate as part of the tax plan, it would destabilize the healthcare markets & really throws another fly in the ointment.
The public doesn’t like this tax bill, which suggests it’s a flawed bill or the GOP is doing a poor job of selling it. From all outward appearances, all this bluster about the tax cuts helping the middle class doesn’t match up with the realities of what’s really in the bill. Just because the House passed something today, this plan still has some very tough sledding ahead. Yes, GDP & wages have been flat for far too long, but I just don’t see this plan as a panacea. Granted there are some good ideas in there. But this new high-tech global economy is totally different from the 1980’s, so we need bold new thinking to match the challenges of today. I saw Orrin Hatch blowing up at Sherrod Brown tonight in the Senate cause he’s sick of Dems portraying the bill as only a tax cut for the wealthy. But is that true? Both sides are so locked into their talking points, who knows what to really believe? Meanwhile, our clueless President doesn’t know anything about any of this going on. His claim it will raise average household incomes by $4000 is preposterous. And the growth projections from the GOP about how much those tax cuts can stimulate the economy are just as preposterous.
In the final group of links, the NRA be damned! Why do we have such weak gun laws? The latest random shooter from northern California was a complete nut job, & was actually known to authorities by his whacked-out criminal record as a nut job, recently released on bail after stabbing a neighbor. So when various neighbors just days before the mass shooting complained to law enforcement about this crazy man shooting off his guns day & night, why couldn’t the authorities have the wherewithal to remove his guns? And this was after a court order required he give up his guns. Those guns included a semi-automatic rifle. Even his relatives commented if there’s anyone in the whole world who shouldn’t have guns, he was the one. This is crazy! Our gun laws are failing us, especially with regards to automatic weapons, background checks & mental health. In this age of terrorism, maybe we need to start viewing the NRA as a terrorist organization, or at least terrorist enablers. They will stop at nothing to put such high-powered automatic weapons in the hands of various madmen & terrorists.
Lots of people, based on the recent headlines. Moore, Franken & most anyone associated with the Trump campaign. They’re all in trouble….
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