Letter to the Talking Heads of MSNBC

It is about time that you stop talking about debt. It is time to understand that when the Republicans talk about debt, they are really talking about profit. They have told us so.

If Republicans were serious about reducing the national debt, they would be embracing revenues. It’s a no-brainer. But Republicans have steadfastly rejected revenues. They care so little about the debt that many of the measures they have proposed, including most shamelessly Paul Ryan's budget, have the effect of increasing the debt. The $32 million of lost revenue resulting from the defunding of the FAA also comes to mind not to mention the increased danger to American lives.

Republicans have told us in no uncertain terms that they want to bring the federal government down. For example, with a House majority and control of the purse strings, they have withheld funds from regulators to disable their regulatory function. They want business to do what they want for profits with no restrictions regardless of how it will hurt Americans. Even if it brings the economy down such as banks did with mortgages and Wall Street did with unregulated securities. The middle class lost trillions of dollars in the resulting crash, while banks and Wall Street pocketed millions in profits. We are still trying to recover while Republicans attempt to dig us deeper and deeper into the hole.

By starving the federal government by cutting expenditures, Republicans plan to privatize the many functions which the government will no longer be able to perform. They have told us all of this, although they mask it with the spurious purpose of reducing the debt without mentioning the trillions of dollars which they are really after for their bosses.

The ultimate prizes, of course, are Social Security and Medicare. The hundreds of trillions of dollars which fund these programs and which are taken in yearly by the government in taxes and premiums will all go to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies. That will result in trillions upon trillions of dollars of profit to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies.

Forget the talk about the budget and the debt. The government should be extending a New Deal to the American people, including hundreds of thousands of jobs essential to our infrastructure and to our future. It worked for FDR who also told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. It is time to listen to FDR. Ronald Reagan only stands in his shadow.

To Republicans, the debt is a subterfuge. They have shown that they don’t care about debt. While Democrats, particularly the President, are trying to out do them on debt, they are totally missing the point. Republicans are after the enormous profit that they and their corporate overlords see will be theirs as they sell off America piece by piece. This will all be at the overwhelming expense to the American people, to you and to me. That is what this discussion is all about, and it is time for you to frame it that way. Tom