THE GIFT FROM AFAR

Santa's FINALLY laughing. "HO! Ho! Ho!", he bellowed. "Can you BELIEVE these guys?" The Republicans had sent me a GIFT!




OK, now that you've fallen off your chairs at the thought of conservative Republicans sending ME, of all people, a GIFT, pick yourself up. What they really sent me was a little yellow envelope that contained their gift of tdistortion and spin, which caused Santa and I to laugh heartily. The yellow (?) envelope contained at top left the return address of "2010 Obama Agenda Survey / Republican National Committee / 310 First Street, SE / Washington, DC 20003". (Not too tough a zip code to figure out: they're now a 2nd rate party, are full of zeroes, and are 3rd in popularity behind Democrats and Independents. I'll remember that one pretty easily). Below their return address was a box containing my congressional district, and, at bottom left, in bold capital letters, was printed the command "DO NOT DESTROY." I thought, "THIS oughta be rich!", so I opened up the envelope.


Inside, I was met with a 15 question survey with questions so skewed in the way they were framed, it almost looked like Lou Dobbs or Glenn Beck had designed the questionnaire. There were circles of YES, NO, or NO OPINION for the respondent to fill in. (Naturally, being a thorough person, I not only filled in the circles, but wrote in comments as well). Here is how the questions read:

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1. Do you agree with Barack Obama and the Democrats that taxes should be raised for the sake of "fairness," regardless of the negative impact it is likely to have on the economy?

2. Do you believe the federal government has gone too far in bailing out banks, insurance companies, and the auto industry?

3. Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?

4. Should English be the official language of the United States?

5. Are you in favor of granting retroactive Social Security eligibility to illegal immigrants who gain U.S. citizenship through an amnesty program?

6. Are you in favor of expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility (no time, education, or work requirements) that Democrats in Congress are pushing to pass?

7. Do you believe that Barack Obama's nominees for federal courts should be immediately and unquestioningly approved for their lifetime appointments by the U.S. Senate?

8. Do you believe that the best way to increase the quality and effectiveness of public education in the U.S. is to raidly expand federal funding while eliminating performance standards and accountability?

9. Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.? (I added these italics for emphasis)--JJ

10. Do you believe that the quality and availability of health care will increase if the federal government dictates pricing to doctors and hospitals? (I added these italics for emphasis)---JJ

11. Are you confident that new medicines and medical treatments will continue to be developed if the federal government controls prescription drug prices and sets profit margins for research and pharmaceutical companies? (I added these italics for emphasis)---JJ

12. Are you in favor of creating a government-funded "Citizen Volunteer Corps" that would pay young people to do work now done by churches and charities, earning Corps Members the same pay and benefits given to military veterans?

13. Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?

14. Do you believe that the federal government should allow the unionization of Department of Homeland Security employees who serve in positions critical to the safety and security of the nation?

15. Do you support Democrats' drive to eliminate workers' right to a private ballot when considering unionization of their place of employment?

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For those of us who closely follow the issues of the day, it was quite easy to see this was a blatantly transparent effort by the ultra-conservative Republican Party to scare the uninformed and independents into thinking the President and his party are off their rockers, are putting the country in jeopardy, are trying to control business, are encouraging a flood of new illegal immigrants, and are trying to force all workers into joining labor unions. (Geez---I thought sending obscenity like this through the mail was illegal)! It was another in a long and growing list of examples of how the GOP is trying to use fear and insinuation to undermine confidence in the President while offering nothing of substantive value themselves to help the country get past its very pressing problems of the moment. This sneaky and underhanded ploy, of course, is to sow such uncertainty around the President and Democrats in general that voters will fearfully turn to Republican candidates in 2010 and 2012.

This Republican technique of deliberate exaggeration, distortion, insinuation, and outright lie is disgraceful. Party Chairman Michael Steele, who authored an accompanying four page letter of appeal for funds, echoed in his appeal a lot of the same nonsensical charges which comprised the questionnaire. He should be ashamed of himself. No wonder Santa exclaimed, "can you BELIEVE these guys?" I sure can't!

After filling in my caustic comments and completing the survey, I dutifully mailed it back to the RNC. I rather doubt they'll ever bother sending ME another such "gift from afar." Happy holidays, everybody!

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME!

(THEN): "The fundamental business of the economy...is on a sound and prosperous basis."
- Former GOP President Herbert Hoover -
(NOW): " Our economy, I think, still - the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
- GOP Senator John McCain (AZ) -
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(THEN): "Every time the government is forced to act, we lose something in self-reliance, character, and initiative."
- Former GOP President Herbert Hoover -
(NOW): "Government can't fix this."
- GOP House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (OH) -
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(THEN): "Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves."
- Former GOP President Herbert Hoover -
(NOW): "Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job."
- GOP Chair Michael Steele -
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(THEN): [On FDR] - "...amiable, pleasant, anxious to be of service, very badly informed, and of comparatively little vision."
- Former GOP President Herbert Hoover -
(NOW): [On Obama] - "he is the world's greatest salesman of socialism."
- GOP Senator Jim DeMint (SC) -
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Just as during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the nation is once again in the grip of a baffling and worrisome severe economic downturn. Fear and unemployment are rising, consumer spending is tightening, and banks aren't lending. Once more, we have two differing views as to how to overcome this crisis: Pro-government progressives and most Democrats, and anti-government conservatives and most Republicans.

Progressives view government aid to shore up faltering banks and provide work programs as absolutely essential to jump-start the stalled economy and prevent widespread, unnecessary human deprivation and suffering. They, together with President Obama, have fashioned and are implementing a Stimulus Plan which they believe will do just that. It resembles Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in certain respects. I believe it will successfully ease burdens much as did FDR's revolutionary new plan of yesteryear.

Conservatives oppose this plan. They wish to see minimal government involvement in the economy. They believe government is too large and too influential already, and their belief is that additional tax cuts for the wealthy and big business, coupled with further easing of government regulation over business, are the only actions that will expand the economy and create jobs. I disagree with that premise.

Republicans have long favored business needs and rights over individual, human ones. They continually try, through deregulation, to get government off the backs of business, even as business climbs all over the backs of ordinary citizens with ever-rising prices, frozen workers' wages, environmental contamination, and unsafe products. The conservative Republican business community has long believed that a minimally or self-regulated free market will solve its own problems and correct itself. This group also believes that lowered taxes on business and the rich will spur investment and economic growth as well as create jobs. These are positions they have advanced repeatedly over the years, but time and again they have been proven inadequate or downright wrong. Free market speculation brought on the stock market crash of 1929 which led to the Great Depression. Last summer, free market speculation robbed and strangled us with $4.00 per gallon gasoline. It has also led to skyrocketing pharmaceutical and health care costs. Deregulation enabled irresponsible bank mortgage lending and ridiculously high credit card interest rates, and brought about record foreclosures, bankruptcies, bank failures, and increased incidences of food poisoning and even death. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy and big business since 2001 have NOT created new industry or high paying jobs in this country as had been promised. Yet conservative Republicans continue to push for even more of this nonsense, even though it is exactly what got us into the current mess in the first place.

Conservative Republicans love to falsely claim that "the New Deal didn't work" or that it was really World War II, and not government New Deal work programs, which ended the Great Deperession. Like most claims made by right-wing GOP spokespersons these days, those are misleading distortions and not entirely true. World War II DID vastly increase employment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but New Deal work programs like the WPA and CCC were major economic stimuli which helped get the economy moving again beforehand and eased the suffering of millions of Americans in the process. GDP rose slowly but steadily from mid-1933, when the economy had completely bottomed out and the first New Deal programs began, and continued until the recession of 1937-1938, which occurred when FDR heeded the cries of conservative deficit foes of both parties and and reduced government spending. But, with renewed stimulus from the second phase of the New Deal, GDP once more began climbing and never looked back after 1938. Of course, once war began to loom and American factories began pumping out armaments to China, Britain, and Russia, GDP was greatly accelerated, creating the conservative delusion that World War II was solely responsible for ending the Great Depression. Indeed, economic recovery had begun prior to World War II.

Consider this: At the pre-crash beginning of 1929, employment in America had peaked at roughly 31,500,000. Post-crash it dropped to about 30,000,000 and kept dropping for the next 3 years. At its lowest point in late 1932-early 1933, it had plunged to only 24,700,000. Then the New Deal kicked in. By 1937, employment had climbed back up to 31,000,000, a noticeable improvement. The 1937-1938 recession scaled the figure down to just over 29,000,000, before it rose again to 37,000,000 at the beginning of 1941. Conservatives often point to the recession of 1937-1938 as evidence of the New Deal's failure. but statistics do not bear this out. Below is a year-by-year listing of the percentage of the total work force unemployed from 1933-1943. It is comprehensive in that it includes those employed in New Deal work programs, which some studies omit.

1933 - 20.6%
1934 - 16.0%
1935 - 14.2%
1936 - 9.9%
1937 - 9.1%
1938 - 12.5%
1939 - 11.3%
1940 - 9.6%
1941 - 8.0%
1942 - 4.7%
1943 - 1.9%
(SOURCES: US Dept. of Commerce National Income and Product Accounts, Real GDP and GNP, and Consumer Price Index and Money Supply, 1800-2003; and Siley, Gene, "Recent Unemployment Estimates for the 1920s and 1930s, in the Journal of Economic History, June, 1983).

Those conservative Republicans who state that the New Deal didn't work or that government has never created a job are crazy. New Deal work programs helped two of my uncles put bread on their family's table and prevented my very own mother from starving. Also, they fail to notice our world's best postal system, our interstate highway system, many of our parks, bridges, schools, dams, public buildings, and even our space program are all government-created jobs. They also cannot deny the data posted above. No doubt, the economy REALLY started taking off as a result of our war production for World War II, but prior to that, the New Deal played a signifigant role in providing sorely needed ignition to jump-start a very stalled economy! AND, had Roosevelt REALLY gone full throttle with New Deal government spending, our economy may have very well sprung back without having had to resort to war production at all.

So too will it be with President Obama's Stimulus Plan. Our economy will definitely improve as a result of his and other progressives' sensible and timely action. But again, Republicans will try to keep the federal government from going full throttle, so once again, full recovery will be impeded and much slower than it should be. Once again, Republicans are being naysayers standing stubbornly in the way of something progressive and good for the public. Their inherent fear (see my May 31, 2008 blog: "American Conservatives' Paranoia") will freeze them in place and cause them to wrongly accuse the President and their opponents of socialism or communism and thereby try to scare the public away from new approaches they do not understand. This stodgy attitude cost Republicans dearly in the elections of 1934 and 1936, and so it will again, deservedly, in 2010 and 2012. These people just never learn and they are hopelessly out of touch with the majority of Americans. I guess it's true in this case: The more things change, the more they stay the same!