If the Republicans and the Tea Party Patriots ruled America, could
they really "shut it down" and "take our country back"?
If the Republicans achieved everything they set out to do, to become a
country with only one political party, populated primarily with good Christian
Southern evangelicals, and eliminated the liberal Democratic party completely, what kind
of nation would this be?
If the Republicans could eliminate public education and privatize all the
schools (who charges tuition fees), would the children of America become
better skilled, better educated, and better able to compete in the global market?
If the Republicans built a 50-foot-high electrified fence (with a moat)
across our entire southern border, would we be safe from drug dealers, murderers,
rapists, and thieves? Would we be safe from all the rouge gardeners, housemaids,
and migrant farm workers too? Would we be safe to go to the local car wash again?
Could the problem
with "illegals" finally be resolved?
If the Republicans had their way, would they increase "defense"
spending?
Would they fund more fancy defense programs by giving generous no-bid government
contracts to corporate military contractors who'll outsource more jobs overseas to
generate even higher profits? And then use the U.S. Army to protect their corporate
assets our "vital national interests" on the ground?
If the Republicans had their way, could they really reduce our BIG
GOVERNMENT (that grew from 200 million people in 1970 to over 300 million by
2011) by slashing our annual budget by 50%, but still allow for the biggest
waste, fraud, and corruption in the defense
industry? (After all, America already has half
its population living near the poverty line and we must protect them
from any possible Russian or Chinese invasion before they all become homeless!)
If the Republicans got all their wishes, and eliminated all corporate taxes,
lowered the highest income tax bracket to 9% (as with Herman
Cain's 9-9-9 Plan), and ended the capital gains tax completely (as Newt Gingrich
wants to do with his tax plan), what could we ever fund? Could we keep the
DMV open? Even if the Republicans completely dismembered Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, National Public Radio, Planned
Parenthood, welfare, and food stamps...could we still fix a road or bridge
once in a while? Could this country survive without sanitation workers, firefighters,
and social workers? Or airports and public libraries (except for those named after Republican
presidents)?
If the Republicans and multi-national corporations had everything they wanted,
and closed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and the National Labor Relations Board, would that make
them happy? If they outlawed
labor unions, and rolled back all the
safety and child labor laws, and lowered the federal
minimum wage to $1 an
hour, would they finally be satisfied?
If the Republicans insisted that everyone invest in the stock market all
their life (after eliminating the Securities and Exchange Commission and
depleting the Social Security Trust Fund for defense spending) and they convinced everyone to save every dime they
ever earned (after first paying for food,
healthcare, clothing, and housing), would they ever be able to afford to finally
retire after 50 years after breaking their backs for $1 an hour?
If the Republicans did away with the Environmental Protection Agency,
the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Aviation
Administration (and all those other "burdensome" regulatory agencies),
would that be their vision of success in obtaining a "business friendly
climate" for huge multi-national corporate conglomerates?
If the Republicans had their way, and got "tort reform" (so injured
people
couldn't sue for unsafe and defective products with their "frivolous"
lawsuits), would this country be a much "kinder and gentler nation"?
Would Ralph Nader be branded an enemy
of the state? Wouldn't that leave a lot of high-priced trial layers
unemployed if they had no one to sue?
If the Republicans ruled the nation, and if they didn't dismantle the Federal Communication
Commission, but instead had them ban CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS, would we all be much better
off if all we had was Fox News and conservative talk radio as our only sources for news? Would it
also be
more informative if we could just watch old re-runs of Red Eye three or four
times a day?
If the Republicans ran the Supreme Court, Congress and the Oval Office,
couldn't they also pass laws to have all Liberals and Progressives
labeled as "enemies of the state", and then have them all sent to prison
(or FEMA camps) for crimes against democracy? (After all, they're all Communists
and Socialists, right?)
If the Republicans got everything they wanted, less taxes, less regulation,
and less government, would that catapult the nation into the greatness it once
was back in America's heyday during the Fabulous
Fifties? Could millions of Americans then be able to pursue life,
liberty, happiness, and the great American Dream?
If the Republicans outlawed abortions and the teachings of
evolution, deported all non-believers, and banned
all religious beliefs (with the exception of Southern Baptists), would America once again
have a morally superior and almighty righteous nation? Would that save the Ten
Commandments, the Pledge of Allegiance, our national motto, and
Christmas?
If the Republicans allowed all the
big corporations and all
the big banks to have free reign, and permitted
them to do whatever they wanted (while claiming these "job creators"
would create
millions of great jobs that pay a "living wage"), would it really
promote the rebirth of a healthy and vibrant middle-class society, chalk-full of prosperity for
everyone? Would the trickle
down theory finally come true, lifting all boats on a rising tide in a free-market
economic system?
If the Republicans ruled the nation, would all Americans be living an
American Utopian
Dream?
If the Republicans nominated someone like Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich or
Herman Cain for President of the United States (and if they were
elected), would the people of the world respect America? Or would they hate us
as they did under George W. Bush and Halliburton Dick Cheney?
If the Republicans could somehow manage to eliminate all taxes, all
regulations, all immigrants, all poor people, all sick people, all gay people,
all liberals, and all people like me, could multi-millionaires
such as Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck finally stop
whining and start sleeping peacefully at night without worrying about someone
trying to live off their wallets? (But then, who could they hate? The Canadians?
Their Chinese employees?)
If the Republicans succeeded in accomplishing everything they set out to do
for the last 40 years, and acquired an all-white nation with "smaller
government" (less people), who all lived in beach-front mansions, and wore
pin-strip suits to work at one big massive mega-corporation that did nothing at
all but manage their factories overseas that built weapons to sell to foreign
countries, so that they too could kill all their
poor people, would all those good, righteous, and God-fearing Christian
Republicans finally find happiness and contentment in their privileged lives?
(Even if no one were left in America to even shine their shoes?)
If the Republicans repealed ObamaCare® and de-funded
Medicare and Medicaid for the poor, how could the very profitable pharmaceutical
and medical companies remain in business if they can't first practice on the
masses before using their expertise, drugs, and medical devices to comfort and
save the lives of the wealthiest among us? If poor people got sick and couldn't
afford the expense of healthcare, wouldn't that put a lot of very educated
people out of work? Wouldn't many doctors have to relocate to China to practice
their chosen professions, or change careers because they lacked the necessary
skills to be hired in America?
If the Republicans won't legislate major corporations to give Americans
decent jobs that pay a living wage (or tax them to hire government workers) how
can most Americans purchase any of their products or use their services? Would
Americans have to wait until all the markets overseas were finally
over-saturated; and would everyone in China (and elsewhere) have to first buy an
iPhone before Apple
would give them a job so that they might afford to buy one also?
If the Republicans had won the presidential election in 2008, and John
McCain and Sarah Palin had been elected, would America be back to 4%
unemployment today? Would the housing market have recovered? Would there have
been a lot less home foreclosures? Would we still have a "debt
crisis"? Would the banks have self-reformed themselves? Would America be
safer? Would our children and great-grandchildren been left with less debt?
Would the Republicans be patting themselves on the back today for fixing all
problems that the previous administration had left in their wake? And if not,
who would they blame? Bill Clinton, Lyndon B. Johnson, or FDR?
If the Republicans had their way, would the 99% all be living in shantytowns segregated
from the wealthiest 1% who'd be living in their gleaming modern cities, separated
by a high electrified-fence to keep out the poor people crazy criminals?
Would the Republicans even allow the poor to pitch a tent in the middle of a
desert, but yet far enough away so as to not be an eyesore to them? Or would
they send in their police force armed with tasers, pepper spray, and mace to
break up their pathetic encampments?
If the Republicans and Tea Party Patriots ruled America, could they
really "shut it down" and "take our country back"? And if so,
how? By force? And take it back from who? Me? Or for what? A corporation? Or to
when? 1492, when America was once an "emerging market" and only native
American Indians had first populated the continent? When the Pilgrims were the
only people in America with good Christian morals and family values?
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Low Corporate Taxes = Excessive CEO Salaries
It doesn't matter what a corporation pays in taxes as compared to
GDP, or how it's compared to any other index of measure (to skew the
numbers), it's what they actually pay to the U.S. Treasury
after loopholes (aka "deductions") that matters most. And
for the last 25 years corporations have actually paid
historically low taxes.
While today some corporations may have paid the maximum rate of
35% (when it was over 50% in the 1950s), many others paid ZERO, with
the average being only 18%.
The same can be said for their CEOs and other high-income
earners. While although the top bracket is also almost historically
low (at 35%, when it was once over 90%), what they actually pay is
nearer to 15% because the majority
of their income is earned through capital gains.
And because corporations have been paying a
low effective corporate tax rate for decades, that didn't keep
them from outsourcing jobs overseas for cheap labor, but rather, it
did enable them to pay very excessive CEO salaries...who only mostly
pay 15% in federal income taxes on their capital gains. |
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