We have seen clearly by now that the Repbulican strategy is to starve government to disable it and privatize it so that corporations and corporate profits can run wild.
It is not to solve the deficit. If it were to solve the deficit, there would have to be revenue increases. If there are no revenue increases, the cuts come nowhere near reducing the debt in any significant way. But they do cut funding for essential programs. The less revenue, the more programs will be cut, continuing on to Social Security and Medicare.
Those two programs are the real goals of Republicans, and they have told us so. Should Republicans succeed, there will follow the greatest transfer of wealth in all of human history, including hundreds of trillions of retirement savings which Americans have placed with the government in good faith. The result: trillions and trillions of dollars of profit for the banks, the insurance companies, and the Wall Street firms who will take over.
Thus the policy of cutting essential, successful programs isn't because Republicans are mean-spirited. It's not even because of ideology. It's profit. You think executive compensation is high? You ain't seen nuthin' yet.
The cost of transferring that enormous wealth to the private sector will of course be borne by the middle class and the poor, who will become so impoverished and depleted that they will not be able to fight back. They will instead fight against each other competing for the meager store of jobs which corporations will offer in this country. Wages will plummet as retirees have less to live on and return to the work force. Lower wages further increase corporate profits. As wealth increases around the world outside the United States, corporations will find new markets for their goods. They will not be hurt by their vicious policies. They will only prosper. They will turn middle class America into a third world country, and the distance between the wealthy few and the rest of us, already at historic proportions, will increase exponentially.
If all this sounds familiar, it is because you have seen it already happening. Republicans are systematically dismembering labor unions across the nation. But most people aren't in a union. Why should they care? Because data since the 1920s show that wages for all Americans have spiraled downwards exactly as the unions have lost power.
There is one remaining hope: the vote. Even as Republicans are finding ways to exclude voters and limit the electorate to those who will vote for them, the vast majority of voters should identify their interests and vote for those who represent them. Republicans have found that Americans are influenced by advertising and have committed millions upon millions of dollars to media influence. Americans need to be critical about what they hear and not accept anything that comes from advertising since it is inevitably slanted and misleading. Also, Americans vote according to their ideology even when, for example, ideology such as making cuts in government programs is in reality a hypocritical cover for real goals such as massive wealth transfer to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies. Americans love to vote against their own best interest. Wisconsin farmers support Republicans even though Republicans support big agriculture which will wipe out the farmers. When Republicans talk about being free to choose your own health plan, they are really talking about the massive transfer of wealth to insurance companies for their profit which would result from ending Medicare.
To vote responsibly for their own interests, Americans need to pay attention and stop buying into the crazy subterfuges which politicians introduce to mask their real purpose. They need to be more interested in informing themselves on the issues than watching football on Sunday and drinking beer the rest of the week. They need to be electing representatives who will save our future and not sell it off piece by piece.
T. Hunter
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