Bill Maher: Why Would You Vote Republican?

All polls overwhelming show that any effort to dismantle Medicare as we know it to give extra tax cuts to millionaires is a non-starter. As a matter-of-fact, most Americans want to tax the rich to pay for programs such as Medicare. And why not? After all, they won't pay you a fair "living wage".) Take the poll here.

The myth of taxing the rich - When taxes go up on the rich, they do report lower incomes...but that's mostly because they're fiddling with the tax code to report lower incomes, not because they're actually earning any less.

Within the GOP there is an irreconcilable conflict between the "Tea Party" class of GOP "young turks" - who want to go for broke to destroy FDR's New Deal and impose their social agenda - and those within the "moderate" element of the Republican Party whose highest concern is only winning general elections...they only represent the rich. The rich have had tax breaks for the last 10 years, but instead of hiring Americans, they have only continued to outsource more jobs overseas.

President Obama, in his 2011 State of the Union address, talked about how most people could remember the good old days, when getting a job meant showing up at a factory after finishing high school. 

"If you worked hard, chances are you'd have a job for life, with a decent paycheck and good benefits and the occasional promotion," the president said, adding that he understood "the frustrations of Americans who've seen their paychecks dwindle or their jobs disappear - proud men and women who feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game." 

Here are the new rules: 1) Don't be old. 2) Don't be unemployed. 3) Don't pin your hopes on college. 4) Don't expect to make more money at your next job. 

When the Republicans took the House last year, instead of focusing on jobs, they went after jobless benefits, Medicare, abortion, union rights, and National Public Radio...and they also insisted on extending tax subsidies for big oil companies and tax breaks for the rich; even though the tax code has become dramatically less progressive since the 1960s, as tax cuts and loopholes have reduced a wide variety of taxes paid by the rich. 

Paul Ryan would surely protest that the GOP's stingy public policy is not motivated by greed, but by necessity — that it is indispensable to sustaining robust economic growth. High taxes and big government, in this view, will encourage sloth among the undeserving and discourage productive citizens from giving all in the workplace. 

Like Bill Maher asks, "30% of this country will always vote Republican...I'm just asking...why?"