I don't have time for a big post, and it's frankly a little late for my best work, but in watching TV this evening in a hotel room in Austin Texas I observed two particularly stupid opinion pieces A.K.A. 'news' clips on the local TV that to me highlighted again the shocking gulf between right wing thinking and reality.
The first was regarding a program in Texas that has cost the taxpayer around $26m in the past ten years. The program allows prisoners to receive an education, even a degree while inside. Of course, as part of the latest round of cuts and attacks on 'social programs' and 'government waste' this program is now in jeopardy. It's not enough that we slap petty criminals with a record that relegates them to living on welfare, crime or the worst jobs in society for the rest of their life, we are now looking to cut spending on a program that offers inmates a second chance.
On the surface, which is where all Republican thinking tends to exist, this seems like a reasonable cut. After all there are probably some programs for law abiding citizens that should get priority right? But of course, yet again, this is simply stupid logic. In fact, not logic at all.
You cut programs designed to allow prisoners to rehabilitate, reintegrate, and become productive members of society, and you force them into welfare or re-offending once they have been released. So you cut back on a program that has cost on average $2.6m per year for the last decade, but you lose the tax the law abiding and now educated former con may have paid, and you have to pay for police, lawyers, courts, and prisons once the repeat offender bounces back into the system.
I just don't understand how this is rocket science to some people. They want to cut a program to save money, on the grounds that most people don't object when you talk about cutting benefits of criminals. But they completely ignore all the scarcely hidden costs of making such a cut. Their stupid policies waste money, create more criminal acts, more victims, and raise the likelihood of normal law-abiding people becoming a victim of crime.
The second story was about certain politicians in Texas getting mad that companies like Amazon.com don't collect sales tax on their sales. They were touting stupid figures of money they 'should' have collected if sales tax had been charged just like with B&M store.
They were demanding that justice be done and we force these companies to pay their share. Oh if only this were actually the philosophy of American politicians throughout the country! There are companies making billions of dollars who pay little to no tax because of the giant tax loopholes. We're not 'broke' because we didn't force Amazon.com to charge sales tax. We are 'broke' because we keep giving tax gifts to millionaires, billionaires, and powerful corporations.
If we were taxing companies and millionaires at a reasonable level, there'd be plenty of money to go around. But now Republicans want to tax relatively new companies like Amazon.com who are creating employment, and helping the economy of the United States and many other countries where they have a presence. It's almost like Republicans are mad at Amazon for selling books, which allow people to educate themselves.
As we watch Republicans in action in 2011, I am constantly amazed and re-amazed with their smoke and mirror bullshit they constantly use to vilify legitimate reasonable organizations, while ignoring the big herd of elephants in the room that really affect our economy.
I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. This is the political strategy they have chosen to adopt and they are pursuing it relentlessly. It doesn't make any logical sense, it does not better society. But they are banking on the stupid among us to ignore their actions and support them like a rabid fan supports a sports team.
I just hope that in the next election the intelligent can defeat the stupid who love to vote against their own self interests, and continue to let these assholes fuck our country just for their own personal gain.
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