Thursday, March 6, 2014

Right Wing Lies and Hypocrisy

Between the time I became voting age until 2004 I voted mostly republican, that’s 10 years of my life that I now regret. I was bamboozled and hoodwinked into believing their “small government, less debt, personal freedoms” was more than a slogan then I looked at the facts about how they actually govern.

In my lifetime there have only been 2 presidents who lowered the deficit and who have actually cut the size of government and their names are NOT Ronald Reagan or Bush but are in fact named Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  Now lets look at a couple argument that they would make

1. Congress was led by republicans during those debt reduction years.

Answer - this is true but they also were led by republicans in years when massive debt was added. In fact “fiscal” conservative Paul Ryan has voted for adding more to our national debt than President Obama and Clinton combined. After being elected and before a democrat took over the white house Mr. Ryan never voted against a spending bill, debt increase or tax cut. It wasn’t until a democrat was in the white house that the debt all of a sudden started to matter.  So yes republicans were in congress during deficit reduction but they also were in charge of congress when over 10 trillion in debt was added.


2. Republicans are best for business and the economy

Answer - Facts prove this one wrong again, yes there were jobs added during the Ronald Reagan era but in fact his jobs record was worse than Jimmy Carter who averaged more jobs created a month than President Reagan.  If you only invested in the stock market during democratic presidents you are doing very well, if you only invested during republican presidents you are not doing well at all.  Yes republicans are good for the CEO and business owners but not as good as democratic presidents and they have a horrible record on workers rights and income equality.


3. Lower taxes and less regulation help economy and create jobs

Answer - lower taxes create jobs was proven wrong when it too President Bush almost 4 years to get out of a tiny recession while President Obama turned around an economy that was losing 800,000 jobs a month in less that a year. Bush tried tax cuts which did nothing to improve the jobs market but helped make the rich richer while Obama tried stimulus which helped end the recession 3x quicker.

As for less regulation there have been 2 banking crisis in my life time and both were under 2 term republican presidents. Ronald Reagan had the savings and loan scandal and had to bail them out while Bush had a complete collapse of the economy. There is a reason we have a recession on average every 2 years and it’s the greed and deregulation of American business.

4. Republicans are party of “Freedom and choice”

Answer - Again their record proves the exact opposite, they regulate women, our wallet, sexuality in fact seems they are only anti-regulation on business. They immediately pass laws removing a women’s right to an abortion and homosexual people the right to marry. They always have a reason for limiting or restricting peoples freedoms and it’s usually “religion” but the fact is they do to keep their own jobs and make themselves richer. They cry about “government getting between you and your doctor” even if that was true the only time I can remember it was the republicans trying to overrule a doctor on Terri Shivo.  People used to enjoy online poker but the GOP tried to kill it and after they were unable they attached it to a military spending bill so they could scream “you hate the troops” if anyone voted against it and they restricted my freedom to spend my money as I choose.

5. Republicans are the party of the military

Answer - If by that you mean exploiting than yes the GOP is all for it. They are all for sending other peoples kids to die but won’t make the sacrifice themselves and when most had the chance to serve they had “better things to do”. Then when soldiers come home wounded or in a box they republicans cut their benefits, exploited their deaths for political gains and all but left them homeless. When bills were introduced to give 9/11 first responder or recently war veterans health insurance they voted NO. They are the party of the military when it benefits them as long as you don’t get injured, die or need any assistance after you are no longer able to die for their cause.

The fact is in 2004 I woke up and realized that if you like talk you vote for republicans but if you want a stronger middle class, less debt and a smaller government you vote democrat.