starve the beast

i think most of you reading here have heard of Lemon Pledge.  It's a furniture wax that contains no wax.  You probably also know that recently the Republicans came out with a "Pledge to America."

Most of us regard a pledge as given by someone you hope you can trust,  someone that will keep your children and my children safe.

Well when people are confused about evolution or global climate change, they endanger your children and my children, by weakening science, by weakening education, by making it harder to deal with problems like cancer and floods that kill people and wreak economic havoc when they're not handled right.

When politicians allow crazy, nasty talk to be part of their "contribution" to American democracy, when they allow crazy, nasty talk to be part of how they participate in self-government of our country, they hurt everybody because when government doesn't work well-- when our justice system doesn't have enough judges to function, when our state budgets can't withstand a recession, when we can't even talk about health care or the deficit or tax relief for the middle class without going crazy ... we end up with a country that doesn't work so well.

There's a reason most people don't want to live in places without a working government -- Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, the Wild West just to name a few. 

Because it's not safe for you, for me, for our children.

Poverty, bad education, unaffordable health care, crumbling roads and bridges, pollution in our air and water, contaminated food ...

... they don't magically take care of themselves.  We all need to be involved in making these things better for everyone in the country.

So when we can't govern ourselves because of the screaming or the misinformation or the dishonesty, people suffer, people die.  Needlessly.

That's what happens when anyone lies about the facts.  Or get them wrong.  Or get all crazy and can't have a constructive conversation about it because they are focused on some personal failing.

This new pledge is the same old pledge we have seen for the past 30 years.  Nothing has changed.
They want to drown the government in a bathtub.  They want to starve the beast.  If you want more of the same put them back in so they can continue to run this country into the ground.  This new pledge is like Lemon Pledge, it's a fake, it has no wax, nothing that will make this country run more smoothly. 

Starving the Beast(cutting taxes) means taking your Social Security and Medicare, it means roads, bridges and infrastructure will continue to deteriorate.  It's a buzz word you should recognize.  The Republicans started this a long time ago, running up the deficits, knowing that if they wrecked the economy eventually they would have to go after Social Security and Medicare.

Here's the findings on cutting Social Security and Medicare: "On Social Security, 73 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independent voters are opposed to cutting it in any way. On Medicare, 75 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of independents are opposed to eliminating it."  We do agree on the most important things.

The new Pledge to American was drafted by a lobbyist.  One who represented pharmacetical compaines, oil companies and insurance companies.  If you want backward and regressive offshoring of jobs etc. then vote to see your taxes go down and your country rot. 

The job situation is not going to change with tax cuts.  High unemployment will continue even with Republicans in charge and may last even longer because they want to cut instead of stimulate the economy. 

Unemployment is a function of lack of demand; there is no other reason for it. 

If we were a country with political clarity our problems could be attacked positively.  The right claims that there are jobs just no one to fill them.  So where are the big labor shortages, have you seen any in your community, ads for all those jobs in the paper?  I haven't seen any in mine.

"Job openings have plunged in every major sector, while the number of workers forced into part-time employment in almost all industries has soared. Unemployment has surged in every major occupational category. Only three states, with a combined population not much larger than that of Brooklyn, have unemployment rates below 5 percent."  Paul Krugman

Even highly skilled people who are willing to move can't find jobs.   So where are these jobs the right says are available?

"I've been looking at what self-proclaimed experts were saying about unemployment during the Great Depression; it was almost identical to what Very Serious People are saying now. Unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly, declared one 1935 analysis, because the work force is "unadaptable and untrained. It cannot respond to the opportunities which industry may offer." A few years later, a large defense buildup finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy's needs — and suddenly industry was eager to employ those "unadaptable and untrained" workers."  Paul Krugman

When demand increases workers will find jobs and not until then.  We need to invest in America and if you keep voting Republicans in this will not happen.  Think about your children next time you vote, do you want them living in a third world country or at least having a fighting chance that they might get to live like you did.