Right Wing Agenda

The latest Republican / Tea Party sound bite is that they want to have an "adult conversation" about our debt.  They want to reign in our President who they oddly blame for our current financial situation.

So let's have that adult conversation right now.  First off, let's be real about how we ended up in this mess.  We rampaged around the world getting involved in wars in regions we didn't understand, and rather than taxing citizens to pay for these wars, we gave the richest people tax cuts that we claimed were self financing.  Then we borrowed money from China, and at some point they'd like to be paid back with interest.

Obama didn't come to office claiming he wanted to spend a bunch of money, but his first year in office was damage control thanks to all the Bush fuck ups.

Now we hear the clear message from the Republican / Tea Party, that we need small government and lower taxes.  Simple, similar to what the so called Libertarians want.  Except it isn't quite that simple at all.  When asked about health care, they tell us hands off our health care, unless you're a veteran, and then they should get their VA care.  When asked about abortion, they do actually want a large invasive government swooping in and forcing women to have babies they don't want, even though so many of them die because they don't want babies to have free access to health care.

They want low taxes, but seem unwilling to cut military spending from the insane levels we have reached; now over a trillion dollars a year.  Hands off our guns they say, but they still want a police force to show up when one of their friends gets shot.  Prayer in schools?  Sure, why is the government 'interfering' and preventing it?  Illegal immigrants?  We want a nice big government to round up the 12 million illegals and ship them home, and a nice big government patrolling our borders and building massive fences, and lower the taxes!  Gays in the military; let's do a study on it, think about it, ask the soldiers what they think (because we ALWAYS ask soldiers what they think right?).

See the issue I have, since we're having an adult conversation, is the reality that you don't get something for nothing.  If you want a small government, it includes things like the military, border patrol, police force, etc.  You can reduce the size of these organizations to lower tax, but if anything the Right seems to want to increase the size and scope of the military and defense spending, or at least keep the status quo.

It also seems interesting to me that the demands for "small government" are based around every liberal concept of social justice such as social security, health care for seniors or children, tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires based up on the failed principles of trickle down Reaganomics.  Yet when it comes to real issues like our trillion dollar military spending, there is no interest in making necessary cuts.

In fact, as best as I can see it, the concept they are promoting is that they would like to simply de-fund anything they don't like, and fund everything they want.  They are not really talking about small government at all, merely shuffling the same money we don't have into all their pet projects, while simultaneously cutting taxes.  And this is the agenda that makes no sense to a person with a brain.  If you want the government to pay for things, then the government has to collect tax to pay for it.  It's that simple.

So how about we really have an adult conversation about our economic situation rather than a fake one?  Or would that merely uncover the Tea Party for what they are; racist bigots who don't have the balls to join the KKK, and are really just mad that a black man is in the White House.  Shame on the Republicans for so easily getting in bed with these assholes.