It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.
That’s pretty much where we are on tax cuts for the rich.
Ronald Reagan cut taxes on the rich. Reagan added $1 trillion to the federal debt, and turned America from the largest creditor nation into the largest debtor nation.
George W. Bush cut taxes on the rich. Bush Jr. added $4 trillion to the federal debt, and vaporized 20% of our national wealth in the last 18 months of his administration.
Yet in December, the Republicans in Congress forced us to extend tax cuts for the rich for two more years, at the cost of $70 billion a year. And now, they want to cut social services by . . . $70 billion a year. Here are some of their cuts, to pay for more tax cuts for the rich:
They want to cut Community Health Centers, which provide care to 3 million patients, by 46%.
They want to lay off all food inspectors for 30 to 45 days.
They want to eliminate the COPS program, and lay off over 1000 police officers.
They want to cut Title 1 education funds, laying off 17,000 teachers and aides.
They want to cut 200,000 children from the Head Start preschool program.
So there it is: tax cuts mean school cuts. And health cuts. And safety cuts. This is the Republicans’ jobs program: lay off thousands and thousands of workers.
And in Florida, Rick Scott, our teabag Governor, our Thief in Chief, announced yesterday that he wants to cut taxes on the rich and corporations by $1.7 billion, and (coincidence, of course), cut school funding by $1.7 billion.
Rick Scott’s personal net worth is hundreds of millions of dollars. Rick Scott wants a tax cut for the rich because he wants a tax cut for himself. As for the rest of us, the other 20 million people who live in Florida, all he wants from us is cheap labor.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? We live in the richest country the world has ever seen, but thanks to rampant greed on the part of people like Rick Scott, we have to fight for our health and safety, and the education of our children. As Cardinal Spellman said 45 years ago, “it is a war thrust upon us, and we cannot yield to tyranny.”
I’m ready to fight for what’s right. What about you?
Courage,
Alan Grayson
