QUESTIONS EVERY TEA-PARTY AND REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE MUST ANSWER!

OK, conservative Republicans and Tea Party activists who march lock-step with you: you are licking your chops in anticipation of taking control of the House and Senate in this year's mid-term elections. As of this writing, though, you have provided no specific answers or suggestions as to why you, and not the other party, are the ones best suited to shape the nation's policy and solve its many problems, especially those concerning the high number of unemployed we still have. If you really think you are capable of solving the great many problems we face, please PROVE this to us by answering, in specific detail, the questions posed to you below:

WHY DO YOU PRACTICE OBSTRUCTION AND COMPLETE NON-COOPERATION WITH THE PRESIDENT AND HIS PARTY? No person or group is right or wrong ALL the time. Why, then, do you persist in blocking or stalling virtually everything this President or his party has put forth for consideration? Why do you hate the President so much? He has extended himself to you far more than did his predecessor toward the Democrats. Why must everything be "my way or the highway" with you? Why do you choose to block legislation, or even shut the government down, rather than openly and HONESTLY discuss and give real consideration to proposals? Why won't you try to compromise and collectively forge new legislation? Is it because you are rigid, too doctrinaire, and put your own desires far in front of the overall public good, or what?

WHY DO YOU EXAGGERATE AND LIE SO MUCH? Why do you and your spokespersons (your party leaders, your PACS, your talk radio and Fox "News" hosts) make ridiculous statements such as the President is a socialist whose programs like the auto bailout are designed to have the government take over American business? GM, for example, is now free of government control and is once again issuing stock. At NO point did the government take control of GM's bank account, or put its board of directors on a controlled public payroll. How do you explain that? Why did you say the Obama health care plan is a government-run plan, when it isn't, and why did you say it would put the elderly in front of "death panels" that would encourage euthanasia? None of this was true. WHY DO YOU LIE SO MUCH?

WHY DO YOU PORTRAY YOURSELF AS THE PARTY OF RELIGION AND MORALITY? You hold no monopoly on morality, and some of your biggest advocates of "Christian values" are poor moral examples like "conservative" office holders David Vitter, John Ensign, or Mark Sanford, who either frequent prostitutes or conduct sordid extramarital affairs (sometimes even at taxpayer expense). Or former Representative Mark Foley, who sent repeated sexual emails to teenage pages? Jesus preached love and taking care of the poor. Why, then, do you preach hate (against immigrants, gays, and Muslims), and try to use the government to deny them certain rights? Why do you oppose and even cut funding for programs fwhich help the weak, poor, and needy? Are you Pharisee hypocrites, or do you simply think it is more important to aid only the rich and powerful with huge subsidies and unneeded tax cuts? What's that, you say? Churches and charities should be the ones tending to the needy, and not the government? Nice idea, but only the government has the scope or resources to properly do THAT job. And, since you have supported the export of American jobs and economic policies that favor only the rich, we have now reached the point where the middle class (the major supplier of funds for churches and charities) can no longer afford to fund these groups as they have in the past. Most importantly, though, God the Father and Jesus laid down voluntary-compliance laws for humans to live by. They never appointed ANYONE to be Moral Police to force others to comply. Why, then, have you taken this role on yourselves? Who do you think you are, anyway?

WHY DO YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT DEFICIT SPENDING ONLY WHEN THE DEMOCRATS ARE IN POWER? We hear you screaming about the national debt and our budget deficit non-stop these days, but only 5-8 years ago, when YOU had total control of the White House and Congress, you and President George W. Bush turned a $127 billion SURPLUS into a $455 billion DEFICIT. You did this by cutting taxes for billionaires who didn't need the extra money and by conducting an unnecessary and fraudulent unfunded war in Iraq using private, non-bid military contractors. Your own Vice President, Dick Cheney, said "deficits don't matter." If deficits didn't matter to you then when YOU were in power, why do they matter to you now when you're not in power? Is it because much of today's deficit is money being spent on people and jobs instead of going almost exclusively to millionaires and the military/industrial complex? Who do you think you're kidding?

WHY DO YOU KEEP CLAIMING TO BE "PRO-LIFE"? Opposing abortion but supporting the death penalty, as most of you do, is certainly not "pro-life". Supporting a pre-emptive war where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are killed (some even by mercenary contractors you funded) is not "pro-life." Forming and joining armed militias, as some of you have, for the sole purpose of someday killing agents of the government to "protect freedom", is hardly "pro-life." Supporting protection of an infant in the womb but opposing government aid for it once it is born is not a "pro-life" action; certainly not a pro-quality-of-life action! And, most of all, if you're REALLY opposed to abortion, why did you not outlaw it altogether during the early and mid-Bush years, we you had complete control of the legislative and executive branches of government, and de facto control of the Supreme Court and judicial branch? Could it be that you really don't care about abortion at all, and only want to use it as a political tool against Democrats?

WHY ARE YOU SO PARANOID? Why do you fear and distrust Muslims, African-Americans, Hispanics, Europeans, intellectuals, the poor - anybody who might be a bit different than you, or who may disagree with you on something? Why do you feel that members of the aforementioned groups must be kept "in check" and under control? Why don't you accept them or get to better know and understand them? Why do you lash out at those who disagree with you by calling them inflammatory names like "socialist", "communist", or "terrorist"? And why do you infer that your opponents aren't patriotic? Why is your party almost overwhelmingly white and affluent? Why are you so cynical about humankind? You trust the abstract "market" to always do the right thing and correct itself by itself, yet you don't trust government of the people and instead want to keep that government tiny, impotent, and ineffectual. Why? Is it because you, yourselves are untrustworthy? Why do you support pre-emptive, aggressive war, and want to dominate the entire world? Are you afraid of EVERYBODY?

WHY DO YOU INSIST THAT FURTHER TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY WILL CREATE JOBS, GROW OUR ECONOMY, AND BALANCE OUR BUDGET?You claim you want to balance the budget, but you paradoxically support continuation of huge tax cuts for the very, very rich. You claim these tax cuts will lead to the creation of new industries and new high-paying jobs here. But such was not the case when you cut taxes for the rich last time under George W. Bush. Instead, millions of jobs were sent outside our borders (along with entire plants), and working wages here were frozen or CUT. Those were the biggest tax cuts in history, yet the Bush administration produced the LEAST number of jobs of any Presidency since Herbert Hoover! Where are the jobs THOSE tax cuts were going to produce? Why will it be different THIS time, and why should we believe you on THIS?

WHY DO YOU INSIST THAT THERE MUST BE LESS REGULATION OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE?Why, after lax mortgage, stock market, and finance regulation led to the Great Depression, $4 per gallon gasoline, and the mortgage banking collapse which plunged us into our current Great Recession, do you insist we need less regulation? Regulation did not cause these disasters, nor did it cause the recent devastating BP oil spill. Rather, it was LACK of enough or proper regulation that caused these tragedies! Much the same with the increasing incidences of lethal e-coli and salmonella outbreaks occurring in our beef, pork, poultry, and vegetables. You love to say government is the problem and not the solution, and that the free market will correct itself and correct its mistakes. But the government didn't cause these bad occurrences---greed (i.e. the "free market") did. So why do you keep calling for l;ess, rather than more, or better, government oversight for public safety?

WHY DO YOU KEEP SAYING YOU WANT TO "TAKE THIS COUNTRY BACK"? Take it back from WHOM? The government of, by, and for the people? And who will you give it TO? The wealthy, powerful, and privileged? To Sharron Angle, who mistakenly thinks people have a right, guaranteed them by the Constitution, to shoot agents of our government when they aren't doing exactly what we want? To Sarah Palin, who doesn't even know past history, current events, or what a Vice President's job is? To Michele Bachmann, who thinks there are anti-American elements in Congress, and who believes the wealthy should be protected from the people instead of the other way around? To Rand Paul, who thinks that private busuinesses and organizations ought to be able to exclude whomever they want without outside interference? To multinational corporations, who care only for their own profit and nothing for this country or its inhabitants? Sorry, teabaggers and Republicans - it was YOU who stole this country away from the majority of the population, who are average working people.YOU stole it away and turned it over to big business and the military/industrial complex. Government regulation directed at those entities is the only recourse and protection from them the average person, the MAJORITY, has. To insist otherwise is CRAZY!

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO SPECIFICALLY TO HELP PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP THE MOST? Will privatizing Medicare and Social Security make life better or more comfortable for our elderly? Of course not---life will become WORSE for most, and better only for the wealthy. Will ending welfare clean up our decaying cities, build and repair bridges, and raise the nation's standard of living? DEFINITELY not! We already know that more tax cuts for the wealthy does not lead to job creation. So what specifically will you do, that President Obama and the Democratic Congress have not already done, to create jobs and raise the country's standard of living? Will you involve us in a costly new war? Is THAT your plan? Do you REALLY have a new set of practical solutions to solve our many problems, or...




...will you just be feeding us your same old _ _ _ _ ?




I'm pretty sure I already know the answer.

LACKLUSTER 2012 SUPPORT FOR A LACKLUSTER GOVERNOR

"Any level of government will work better than 'enterprise.' All we have to do is get Republicans out of it."
- Old Scout of Scouts' Honor -



I warned you about this guy some months back. He is Tim Pawlenty, current Minnesota Governor, who mistakenly believes he has what it takes to be President. Media pundits are hinting at a run by him for the GOP nomination, and they are also incorrectly touting him as a moderate Republican. Consider this your second warning about him. He is now galavanting all across the country making speeches and appearing in support of conservative Republican candidates everywhere in a Nixonesque attempt to build party support for his own 2012 presidential candidacy. In the process, he has abandoned his responsibilites as Chief Executive of his own state in the best Sarah Palin tradition, the only difference being he has not officially resigned his post.

The man is not to be trusted. He is a conservative Republican wolf in moderate Republican sheep's clothing.

No, he doesn't use inflammatory rhetoric, refer to President Obama as a socialist, or brandish posters with swastikas. His tone and demeanor are far more sedate and civil than that. But he is a bedrock social conservative in the best Bush/Cheney/Palin tradition. He is one of your typical "tax-cuts-for-the-rich-and-big-business-will-solve-everything" Republicans who opposes social spending and who doesn't care at all about ur ubderstand the struggles of the poor, working, and middle classes in this country. His supply-side brand of economics was rejected nationally by voters in 2008 and should be rejected again three years from now.

But who is Tim Pawlenty, what is his vision, and what has he done to deserve the presidency? There is nothing remarkable, original, or inspiring about him. He is, lock, stock, and barrel, your typical Republican. Son of a milk truck driver, Pawlenty grew up in suburban St. Paul. He earned a law degree and entered public office first as an appointee to a city planning commission and later as a city council member and state representative. He, like all his GOP cohorts, despises taxes and pledged no new income taxes during his terms as Governor. But just like most modern Republicans, he then engaged in doublespeak, as when he raised the tax on cigarettes but called it a "health impact fee." Other "fees" he raised (or caused to raise) were property taxes and state college tuitions. He has relied heavily on budget-cutting over the years. Columnist Robert Novak once correctly pegged him as Minnesota's most conservative Governor since the 1920s. His budget cuts to higher education have resulted in double digit increases in tuition paid by individual students for several years running. Other non-education "fees" rose well over $300 million during his tenure. Hos major budget cutting occurred in the areas of transportation, social services, and welfare. He used or threatened vetoes in 2005, 2007, and 2008 on highway expansion, maintenance, and infrastructure repair, good little belt-tightening Republican boy he was. After the collapse of the I-35 Mississippi River bridge on August 1, 2008 due to inadequate inspection, he ihdicated he might rethink his position on an increase in the gas tax to fund more road and bridge repair. But what did he do? Why, he vetoed that, too! The state's Department of Management and Budget estimates that, due to declining revenues caused by high unemployment (and his failure to have had enough tax revenue due to steady refusal to raise such revenue), his successor will have to deal with a massive $4.4 BILLION shortfall in the state budget beginning July, 2011. Rather than levy a temporary tax or staying at home to help devise an alternate funding mechanism, Pawlenty has decided instead to call it quits to run for President. Now THAT'S responsible leadership you can believe in!

Tim Pawlenty is not the great red hope the GOP might think may help them turn blue Minnesota red in 2012. He eked out narrow election victories in his races for Governor. Both times he was in three-candidate races, and both times his vote total was below 50% (at 44.4% and 46.7% respectively). A just-released Minneapolis Star Tribune "Minnesota Poll" has indicated very soft support for his presidential run. When asked "Would you like to see Tim Pawlenty run for President in 2012, or not?", only 30% of state respondents said yes. 55% said no. Among Independents, the total was only 34% yes and 51% no. (Of course, among Republicans, the figure was 75% yes, but let's face it: they are so blindly faithful, a huge majority of them would vote for Daffy Duck if he were the designated Republican candidate). When asked if Pawlenty did indeed get the GOP nomination, only 25% of state respondents said there was a "good chance" they would vote for him, with only 25% saying "some chance." A sizable 43% said there was "no chance" Pawlenty would get their vote. His job approval rating currently stands at 49%, with his disapproval rating at 38%. These are hardly rousing numbers of support. They are as lackluster as he is and as mediocre as his performance has been.

So don't be fooled by Tim Pawlenty's "new face" or seemingly moderate tone, national Republicans and Independents. We Minnesotans have had paw-lenty of Mr. Pawlenty, and with good reason. This guy is a total dud, with nothing new or of substance to offer this country. He is Mr. "Same old, same old", and a waste of our time. His is not fresh new leadership but warmed-over Reaganomics. Look elsewhere if you must have an alternative to President Obama.

TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY

Superman, where are you? Aren't you the one who fought for Truth, Justice, and the American Way? After fleeing the exploding planet Krypton, wasn't it here you chose to stay because we were a fair-minded nation of opportunity and equality for all? We could sure use some of your super-powered aid right now, Superman. We seem to have lost our way, or to have become confused about the true and noble meaning of those important words.

Take Truth, for example. Superman, it seems to be in preciously short supply nowadays. We just left a presidential administration (that of George W. Bush) who apparently didn't know the meaning of the word. They lied to us about their economic agenda, saying that huge tax cuts for the rich would guarantee the creation of millions of good paying jobs and prosperity for average Americans. They told us that deregulating businesses would help grow them and make them healthier. But what happened instead was that good paying jobs here were sent overseas to cheap foreign labor markets, while corporate CEOs stuffed their pockets with giant wads of cash. And our product quality and safety declined and our economy collapsed. That administration also told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, when they didn't. They lied us into war there, a bloody and costly and unnecessary war for plunder and profit. They lied about many other things too, Superman. Their former Vice President, Dick Cheney, is STILL going around lying. And a TV news network lied for them every day, and still does now. A widely-heard radio commentator named Rush Limbaugh has been constantly lying on the air for years. So much for Truth. All of these people have been getting away with big lies for decades now. Haven't you noticed, Superman? What IS Truth nowadays, anyway? It's getting harder and harder to tell all the time!

And Justice. That is also in extremely short supply today, Superman. Scooter Libby, one of the former Vice President's top aides, was convicted of perjury but never served any time because the former President commuted his sentence. Meanwhile, hundreds of other poor and minority people get wrongly convicted all the time and spend long sentences in jail for lesser crimes. Sure doesn't seem like Justice to me. That administration also began an illegal war overseas, began kidnapping and holding without trial persons they thought were suspicious, and instituted the use of torture in direct violation of American and international law. TORTURE, Superman! The very same acts we prosecuted Nazis and Imperial Japanese for in 1946! That administration even redefined it to make it look like it wasn't torture, even though it still was. And now the current administration is apparently letting the former administration get away with it! Where is the Justice in that, Superman? I don't see it---maybe with your x-ray, microscopic, or telescopic vision you can find it for me. And wealthy corporate CEOs export jobs, set up dummy companies offshore to avoid paying taxes, freeze their workers' pay rates, make health care and prescriptions so expensive that 1 in every 6.5 of us can no longer afford health insurance (while some even have to choose between buying food or prescriptions), and then these same already wealthy CEOs reward themselves with exorbitant, ever-rising salaries and bonuses. Congress turns a blind eye to all of this. Superman, would you please use some of your super strength on all of these scoundrels and squeeze a little more fairness, decency, and responsibility out of them? They're getting away with economic murder, and that sure ain't Justice!

And the poor old American Way. She sure isn't what she used to be, Superman. You would be ashamed. The NEW American Way is a way of greed; of getting all you can for yourself, and to hell with everybody else. It has given overly profit-hungry, malignant artificial institutions like corporations the legal rights of actual human beings and has enabled them to act legally in a very anti-social manner. It has allowed the former President to attack other countries as he sees fit and to suspend civil liberties here at home. It has allowed he and his former Vice President to reward the former Vice President's company with gigantic non-bid contracts paid for by taxpayers. It has allowed us to become unilateral bullies to the rest of the world. We set up institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and WTO to supposedly aid poor, developing countries, but give them money only if they meet strict criteria for spending it which benefits our own institutions tremendously while doing little for the poorer country. And Superman, pregnancies can be ended before they come to term if a person chooses, and an extremist who belonged to a "pro-life" group has just KILLED, IN A CHURCH, a doctor who performed that type of procedure, and numerous other "pro-lifers" like Ann Coulter have applauded the action, although others have not. That has now become the American Way, Superman, and it's pretty ugly.

So Superman, where have you gone? Were you driven away by neocon or miltary/industrial complex volleys of kryptonite? Or have you left in utter disgust at what this nation has now become? As the old adage goes, "when the cat's away, the mice will play." Well, the mice have certainly been playing, and now we need your help as never before. Please fly back here at super speed and make your presence known, will you? Use your heat vision to make crooked corporate CEOs, their lobbyists, and their bought-out pals in Congress start to sweat. Please sit down with the President and Congress and get them back on track. Blow away corrupting special interest influence with your super breath. And with your invulnerability, protect noble, progressive, for-the-people Congresspersons and our President from attacks by greedy corporations and horribly misguided right wing pundits. Will you, Superman?...Superman...?...

WATCH OUT FOR THIS GUY!

This is Tim Pawlenty, current Minnesota Republican Governor and a man who is being touted in some circles as a possible GOP candidate for President in 2012. Whether he chooses to run for President, or even for Senator that year, he is a Republican to look out for. In the best Norm Coleman style of Republicanism, he is a very smooth, double-talking and ambitious politician. He practiced law for a time after college and also served as Vice President of a software services company before being elected to the Minnesota House in 1992. After serving as Minnesota House Majority Leader beginning in 1998, he initially planned to run for the US Senate in 2002, until Dick Cheney talked him out of it. Cheney urged him to instead throw his support behind Norm Coleman and run for Governor. He dutifully followed Cheney's wishes. And, just like Coleman, Pawlenty portrays himself as a moderate with new ideas, but in reality always votes along and supports the same old tired George W. Bush social and economic conservative line. He is apparently the only Republican Governor who will appear on liberal Rachel Maddow's MSNBC-TV show, so she seems to get little goosebumps every time he agrees to be on it. I would advise her to not get too excited, though. For while Pawlenty isn't as bombastic or unpleasant as Rush Limbaugh, his political outlook doesn't differ greatly from the big blowhard. Just his demeanor.

Conservative columnist Robert Novak (one who would definitely know) referred to Pawlenty as the most conservative Minnesota Governor since the 1920s. Pawlenty has been a consistent supporter of Clinton and Bush-era free trade policies. In fact, he took the largest state trade delegation to China in U.S. history in 2005. I haven't noticed any great upswing in jobs, wages, or quality of life here in Minnesota since, though. Like John McCain, he favors market-driven approaches to our horrific health care problem and is a supporter of Medical Savings Accounts as one method of enabling people to pay for health care. Of course, this approach does nothing to guarantee universal coverage, put pressure on insurance companies to keep costs down, or hold back that industry's rising power and influence concerning the type of care and treatment patients receive.

Like nearly all Republicans, Tim Pawlenty strongly supported George W. Bush's ridiculous tax cuts for the wealthy put forth in 2001 and 2003. The Governor has even advocated that they be made permanent, though they did not create millions of high paying jobs here as was promised, and also added tremendously to our federal deficit. Former Republican Minnesota Governors Arne Carlson, Elmer Anderson, and Al Quie, none of which were flaming liberals, have all criticized Pawlenty's pledge of using no new taxes to balance the state budget as a move too far to the right. It is interesting to note how conservative Republicans like Pawlenty see nothing wrong with giving billions in deductions and refunds to the wealthy and corporations, but can't stand the idea of spending tax dollars on the very needy. Just this past May 14, for example, the Governor vetoed a bill for General Assistance Medical Care which will cut off funding for health care for 34,000 very needy Minnesotans, 70% of them mentally ill or chemically dependent or both, and all with annual incomes less than $7,800. That's what a supposedly fiscally-responsible Governor must do when facing a budget crisis caused partially by his cutting corporate and wealthy taxes, I guess. In fact, it would seem that Pawlenty is quite clueless as to the needs of poor or average, middle income people. He and his wife, a conservative former district judge, have lived quite comfortably for many years and could hardly be termed "wanting" or "struggling." In fact, on the June 22, 2008 CNN show "Late Edition", Pawlenty was quoted as saying, "...but now that they're [Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy] are going to expire, I think they should continue. And keep in mind, when you talk about tax cuts for the wealthy, that involves those reductions in corporate taxes, or increasing the AMT, or the exemptions I had talked about. And when you look at it as a basket, it's the kind of thing we need to do to grow jobs, expand the economy...we can't tax our way out of this. We're going to have to grow our way, in part, out of it." During that same interview he voiced his opposition to an increase in the Social Security tax cap, currently at $97,000 annually, saying, "When you look at $97,000 of income, I think that's people who are clearly middle income or upper middle income..." I guess that's what you get for thinking, Gov. Pawlenty. $97,000 in annual income is far above median income in this country, and it shows how miserably out of touch he is with average Americans! On the question of our energy problem, Pawlenty also endorses the conservative Republican cry of "drill, baby, drill." His view on how to solve the problem is the same as Sarah Palin's and the rest of the GOP: increasing supply of oil will solve all problems, so let's drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge and take care of our immediate pressing needs. He has yet to express strong support for raising mileage standards or developing alternate green energy sources for the future.

So in the months and years ahead, do not be fooled by Tim Pawlenty's kinder, gentler, friendlier Republican approach. It is a facade for the same old conservative economic theory which has greatly enabled cororate America and the rich while hurting everyone else and all but destroying our economy. And beware claims of his reaching across the aisle or having a broad base of support. We in Minnesota have now had Paw-lenty of Pawlenty! The man has never enjoyed overwhelming support here. His highest vote total in his two races for Governor was only 46.7%. In fact, a Fox-Rasmussen Poll released May 19 asked this question: "Generally speaking, do you think things in Minnesota are going in the right direction, or have they gotten off on the wrong track?" Right direction received a meager 19% response. Wrong track came in at a resounding 62%, and Undecided was 19%. Hardly an enthusiastic endorsement of the way Pawlenty has run this state! Still, his smooth talk may fool some down the line. That's why I'm warning you all now to watch out for this guy!

A FAILED, BANKRUPT, AND DANGEROUS PHILOSOPHY

"The expenses of government, having for their object the interest of all, should be borne by everyone, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honored in contributing to those expenses."
- Anne Robert Jacques Turgot -

"I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. -

"Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt -

"The payment of taxes gives a right to protection."
- James M. Wayne

It seems that almost everyone dreads paying taxes. As each April 15 nears, blood pressures rise, sweat starts to flow, the sound of grumbling can be heard, and people all across the country pray for a refund or that they won't have to send money into the government. Conservative Republicans love to capitalize on this to selfishly advance their own anti-government, anti-tax agenda. It's pathetic how these people always want to appeal to the public's baser instincts just so they can gain, maintain, or regain power. Republicans love to manipulate people into thinking only of themselves rather than for the benefit of everyone as a whole.

Don't get me wrong: I am not an advocate of high taxation or resorting to taxation as a means to force economic equality across the board. But, like the wise and thoughtful persons quoted above, I understand the necessity of both government AND taxes. As evidenced by their behavior over most of the past 30 years, "the conservative era," it is obvious that most Republicans do not.

As shown throughout the Reagan years, and again through the disastrous George W. Bush era, and even in the current economic stimulus discussions, Republicans seem to think that the only way to create economic growth is by cutting taxes on big business and wealthy individuals. The thought is that these entities will then take that freed capital and invest in new business to produce new jobs and higher wages for their workers. But we have already seen what a fallacy that belief is. Giant oil corporations have been recipients of huge subsidies and tax breaks for years, and they have failed to build even one new domestic refinery in more than 30 years. Giant corporations and wealthy individuals have NOT taken their huge tax breaks and invested in new industry or raised wages here, even though worker productivity has risen steadily over the past decade. Instead, these capital-rich groups have exported jobs and invested in plants outside of our borders. The net effect, of course, has been to vastly increase their wealth and holdings while decreasing those of working America. We have also seen the devastation caused by Republican-led deregulation and smaller government efforts. Our mortgage and banking industries have all but collapsed, energy speculators have raped us, and our products are growing increasingly unsafe and our environment is getting increasingly more polluted. This is not good; it is bad. This is not progress; it is regression. This is not right: it is morally and operationally wrong.

Those who complain loudest about taxes usually fall in the upper income brackets. Most of them are Republicans. Paradoxically, some of them pay NO taxes, having managed to loophole themselves out of taxation altogether. Many others cheat whenever and wherever possible. Yet they do not hesitate to avail themselves of tax-supported highways, police, fire, or defense for their own benefit or security, or demand the most of these. The rest pay a higher percentage of their income than do those in much lower income groups. However, when all the dust has settled, they still have a much higher amount of money left over for investment, creature comforts, luxuries, or just fun than do the poor or middle class, who now end up unable to afford even basic necessities, let alone make inestments, or purchase luxuries or have fun money. In fact, many of the latter groups have now even lost their homes or cannot even afford medicine or health insurance.

We constantly hear John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, John Boehner, Jeff Sessions, Jim DeMint, Mike Pence, John Cornyn, and all the rest of those congressional Republicans pushing for even more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. But these Republicans are completely out of touch with the current pain and struggle of the great majority of the country, the people who DO pay taxes and have little if any money left over afterward in comparison. These Republicans have refused to support a stimulus plan that will put more money in the hands of the poor and middle class. They have chosen to be uncooperative and obstructionist. They prefer to stand resolute, pouting and shouting in support of an abstract principle of smaller government or less taxation, rather than to act on behalf of what their constituents really desperately need. As such, since they are not really representing the best interests of the majority of their constituents, they should be thrown out of office next time they are up for election. We have abundant proof that their belief in deregulation and "trickle down economics" is incorrect and actually harmful to the country, save for all but a few piggish filthy rich. These Republicans, and all who follow them, should be removed from the public payroll since what they advocate is a failed, bankrupt, and dangerous philosophy.

WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises proclaim their neutrality."
- Dante -

Workers, consumers, and voters, unite!

This is indeed a time of great moral and economic crisis. Bankers and large multinational corporations are sitting on their money, doing nothing, and their conservative Republican allies in Congress are aiding and abetting them as growing millions of their fellow citizens are thrown out of work. You can always count on these conservative Republicans to let you down when the chips are down. With their hearts in ice, and their ostritch heads stuck firmly in the sands of unyielding principle, they refuse to budge to meet the crisis at hand. In this case, the principle immobilizing them is the belief that the federal government should not step in with extra and massive emergency spending for people to create work. Instead, they stand as stubborn mules solidly in support of more tax cuts for big business, even though that tired approach has yielded very little for most Americans over the past three decades. Today's conservative Republicans are once more standing in the way of progress for ordinary people, just as they did from 1929-1933 during the Great Depression, and again in the 1950s-1960s when many of them opposed federal enforcement of civil rights legislation. They were out of touch and wrong then, and they are equally out of touch and wrong today.

Many years ago, the conservative Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C. think-tank whose economic ideas heavily influenced Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and, to a lesser degree, Democrat Bill Clinton, strongly advocated the concept of free trade. They predicted it would, "over a fifteen year time span, create the world's largest market, some 360 million people." They also predicted that free trade agreements like NAFTA would guarantee American workers to be the most competitive in the world. The assumption was that, through our purchase of cheaper foreign-made goods, prices here would be much lower and foreign consumers would be able to afford and buy increasing amounts of technologically advanced American-made products, causing further job growth here. But the Heritage Foundation and its adherents were wrong. Dead wrong. Since 2001, when the export of high-paying American manufacturing jobs to cheap foreign labor markets really began to escalate, the Washington Post estimates we have lost 2.5 MILLION factory jobs here, 1 MILLION of them from NAFTA alone! Such a rapid and widespread drain of jobs and even entire plants from within our borders has proven disastrous.

I am not a protectionist. Trade with other countries is essential in keeping peace, providing prosperity, and promoting understanding, when done properly. But such trade must be fair and equally beneficial. Post-World War II European history proves this. Before that time, dating back many hundreds of years, Europe had been a group of disunified nation-states often feuding and warring with each other. There were wide variations in standard of living. Over the years, as a result of increased trade fostered through associations like the Common Market and, later, the European Union, Europe has become more multilaterally prosperous and has been largely at peace for nearly 65 years. But this scenario cannot be achieved through the flawed or one-sided trade agreements like our government has negotiated with China or set up with NAFTA and other similar deals over the past decade. For example, according to the Economic Policy Institute, our trade deficit with Mexico and Canada stood at $9 billion in 1993. That figure grew to $112 billion by 2004 and is even higher today. American unemployment has shot up dramatically, and wages have stagnated or fallen. The only real major beneficiaries of these failed trade agreements have been a handful of corporate executives both here and abroad, and some of the foreign governments involved. American workers (and our economy) have been badly hurt, and the lot of foreign workers, most of whom are paid a pittance, has only improved marginally overall. This is not progress; it is regression.

George W. Bush and many rabid Republican free market, free trade advocates like Phil Gramm, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Dick Armey, Mitch McConnell, and many more of that for-the-rich-only squad, also promised us that massive tax cuts for the wealthy and huge corporations would foster tremendous investment in new American industry and lead to the creation of millions of high-paying new jobs here. The current Republican congressional caucus still makes these claims. From John McCain to Mike Pence, from Richard Shelby to John Boehner, we all hear this chorus of nonsense about how cutting taxes is the only way to create new jobs. The Wall Street Journal and Chamber of Commerce crowd all join in harmony. But guess again, boys---it doesn't happen that way anymore. According to an August 4, 2006 CATO Institute report, in 2001 Bush and his Republican cohorts gave American corporations tax cuts ranging from 3-5%. In 2002, corporations were allowed to write off 30% of the cost of new equipment, and this figure was later raised to 50%. In a March, 2007 report issued by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the 2001 and 2003 Bush/neocon Republican income tax cuts gave an after-tax income increase of 6.8% to the upper 1% of income earners, and 4.6% to the top 20% of income earners. (By contrast, the lowest 20% of income earners only got o.5%). With many billions of dollars freed for corporations and for billionaires and millionaires alike, where was the resultant investment and job creation? Easy: In China, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia, Mexico, and other countries. Not here. And we were forced to then BUY products made in those countries as a result of our own manufacturing being shipped there, an added insult to our injury!

I am not at all against good profit, or the honest attainment of individual wealth. I am glad our system has produced great prosperity and millionaires and billionaires over time. But I strongly object to collusion between concentrated capital and our government to vastly increase the wealth of already wealthy individuals while leaving eceryone else to fend for themselves. I detest the fact that concentrated capital and its Republican government stooges have, in effect, misled and lied to voters and economically held down the many for the overwhelming enrichment of only a few.

So, BANKERS, CORPORATE CEOs, REPUBLICANS, BILLIONAIRES, and MILLIONAIRES, it is now 2009 and your country is in grave need. After billions and billions of increased income through corporate tax cuts since 2001, and billions and billions in individual income tax reductions, and billions and billions in increased profit you have obtained by slashing your labor costs through the production of your goods in cheap foreign labor markets, and with millions of American consumers and workers now out of work, WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING ON YOUR MONEY? Where the hell are all the millions of high-paying American jobs you promised would be created here? Were they just part of a big lie you told voters so you could get what you wanted and stuff your wallets at our expense? Will you wait until we once again have long breadlines and soup kitchens and riots in the streets before you act? I repeat, billionaires and millionaires, and especially you free market, free trade Republicans, and I do so for all of us voters, workers, and consumers (and THIS time, we want an HONEST answer): WHERE ARE THE JOBS?