That's pretty scary huh? The next generation of Americans being morons, our cities and homes reduced to ashes, and killers and rapists roaming our neighborhoods at will. Chaos, the end of days.
These are the government services that the GOP usually says are the first to go because of government debt. They paint a horrific picture of Armageddon. I can almost see the Fox News commentators carrying signs proclaiming, "THE END IS NEAR!"
Teachers, firefighters and police...these are government services that both the poor and the rich can equally benefit from. There's little mention of museums, zoos, parks, fountains, bike trails, information centers, fancy (little used) inner-city mono-rails, or other non-essential governmental maintained facilities.
If Fox News would have threaten to cut services at the Department of Motor Vehicles, THEN I might have REALLY panicked!
There's so little mention of the much larger programs that aren't usually threatened with a blood thirsty budget axe - such as the space programs and other taxpayer-paid scientific research, the military industrial complex and its related research and development (Area 51), the nation building we do in foreign countries such as the building of roads, bridges, and schools in Afghanistan and Iraq - infrastructure that our country has that is in dire need of repair - and upgrading our power grid as well.
The GOP says if the debt isn't cut, teachers, firefighters and police will have to be reduced, thereby threatening our way of life as we know it. But the U.S. seems capable of affording the build up of a massive police force in Iraq where there's oil; and the U.S. seems capable of building an infrastructure in Afghanistan where huge deposits of emeralds, ores, chemicals, and minerals have been discovered. (Do I detect a new "emerging market" here?)
Why is there so little criticism by the GOP and Fox News of congressional salaries, tax breaks for the rich, massive bank bonuses, CEO's outsourcing, a growing disparity in wages, favorable financial regulations for larger corporations and banks, but so little reform for the consumers in home foreclosures or small businesses?
Why is it always the working-class that has to sacrifice, to do without, or lose benefits whenever the budget is in jeopardy? Teacher's, firefighter's and the policemen's jobs are always threatened first - as a scare tactic. Why don't we lose one aircraft carrier instead? Our military might already far exceeds the rest of the world's. And do we really need to know (this year) if intelligent life exists on Mars?
What about all the congressional "pet projects" like those bridges to nowhere, or the newest and biggest presidential libraries that always have to out-do the previous one? Has anybody noticed how extravagant and expensive all the new federal buildings are?
Why do members of congress have and maintain such elaborate "offices" all over the country from San Francisco to Washington DC? Who are they trying to impress, the CEO of Exxon-Mobile or the president of Liberia? These "offices" are nicer than penthouse suites at 5-star hotels!
Instead of paying for Japan's and Europe's military budgets (and sustaining U.S. bases there), why can't they pay for their own defense?
If we can't even afford to take care of our own people anymore, why do we insist on sending aid to everyone else whenever they have a disaster? That's great if we can afford to do so, but that's only if we have a growing economy - but why now? We're having our own disaster. Haven't we helped others long enough? Let's help ourselves now!
All the "corporate philanthropists" help poor people in foreign countries as a marketing tool to make nice-nice with their governments to open emerging markets...not because they just want to help poor people. America has lots of poor people, why not help them first?
Because with 30 million under and unemployed (approximately 10% of Current U.S. Population and 20% of the labor force), we can buy enough of their widgets anymore? But instead, with China's ballooning middle-class (thanks in part to American CEOs, China now has a labor force of 800,000 million people), American corporations are more concerned about THAT "emerging market".
Americans helped Mister Bill Gates to become a billionaire by buying his Windows 98, but his most favorable charity work is done in India (I saw all his posts regarding this on his Twitter page last year).
The GOP (Fox News) wants us all to think that it always has to be teachers, firefighters and police who will always have to be the first let go if we don't cut the budget. And guess where they want to cut the budget? Not with NASA, the military, pet projects, or the presidential libraries...things that rich people like. They start with food stamps for the poor and unemployment insurance benefits for the jobless (because their jobs went to China).
This was recently well high-lighted with the supposed "Obama Comprise" - when the GOP held hostage unemployment benefits for 2.5 million people so that the richest 500 hundred thousand people could have more tax relief. The "compromise" gave the poor people 13 more months of funding for said "benefits" (if they still qualified), while the richest got 24 more months of continued tax breaks.
Why? Even Warren Buffet said [paraphrased], "We don't need more tax breaks and we won't create more jobs." Even www.rightwingnews.com acknowledges this admission.
The rich have had the tax cuts all along for the past 10 years: when the housing market tanked, when congress was asleep at the wheel, when Fannie Mae became a money pit, when Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns went bankrupt, when AIG and Goldman Sachs sold toxic assets, when Bernie Madoff ran his pyramid scheme, when the SEC was watching pornography at work, when jobs were leaving the country, when the stock market crashed, when we became $14 trillion in debt, when our economy collapsed, and when we saw 30 million under and unemployed Americans struggling just to survive.
How did those tax cuts for the rich help when 8.5 million people lost their jobs just since 2007? Glenn Beck asks,"When was the last time a poor man hired you?" And I'll ask Glenn Beck, "When was the last time a rich man has hired you?"
Fox News (the GOP) always fear-mongers with the threat of teachers, firefighters and police because these are ESSENTIAL services to a modern and civilized society; but to pay for these services Fox News (and the GOP) is saying that the only way is to cut services that only the poor need, not the services that the rich enjoy. So they threaten just those services that everybody else needs.
After food stamps and other assistance for the poor is cut, and after jobless benefits are reduced or eliminated, the next target for the GOP (Fox News) will be Social Security, Medicaid, and healthcare. After being bent over an assembly line or lifting heavy objects in a factory for almost 50 years (67 years old minus 18 years old), they want to raise the age to qualify for Social Security again! They want the working-class to bust their backs harder and longer, and to eventually drop dead at work with NO "golden years" at all!
Most of THOSE people who advocate this might wear nice suits to work and sit at desks when THEY work...no sweat on THEIR brows! They haven't a clue as to what actual "manual labor" is - that, or it's just a distant memory for them when they were once 18 years old.
The rich, the GOP (and Fox News) only want to cut the budget for services that only the poor need.
If jobs hadn't first went to Mexico, and then went to China and India - if there were less congressional pet projects (congressional corruption) - if the rich weren't allowed to have extended tax breaks - and if corporation couldn't bribe our political leaders with "political contributions", we'd have a healthy economy and a robust U.S. Treasury. And we could easily help the jobless, pay old people an income to live on in their "retirement" years, and provide them all with reasonable and affordable healthcare.
We could also keep all our teachers, firefighters and police as well; and the GOP (And Fox News) could then rest easy. It wouldn't have to be the end of the world (or the demise of America) at all.
Social Security does NOT contribute to the deficit in any way! It is PAID FOR and has a surplus because of the large number of "baby boomers" who have been working for years and paying into it, vs the smaller amount of people who are currently collecting it. And the space program HAS taken cuts. My friend's son who works at the Johnson Space Center in TX is already looking for another job because they all have been informed that there will be massive lay-offs the first of this year. He's only 31 and is still having trouble finding another job!
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