Democrats Build Bridges; Republicans Build Riches (For Themselves)

We really need some marketing in the Democratic Party.
The Republicans are so good at this: They turn Estate Taxes into Death Taxes.
They turn a recession into an Obama Recession.
They turn Affordable Healthcare Act into Obamacare.

Well, you get the drift.

And then, in the best tradition of advertising and Mad Men, they all pick up the chant and keep hammering it home so whatever they say becomes received wisdom.

They could decide the earth is flat, and the world was created in 7 days and sell that.
But wait, they already did that.

And evolution is just a theory like creationism and everyone deserves to carry a concealed weapon and if it weren't for government regulation and taxes on the rich, the Job Creators would make a new world in six days and rest on the seventh and create all the jobs in the universe and all the creatures and Sarah Palin would be President and Michele Bachmann the Secretary of the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and State; but wait, there would be no Department of Education and no EPA either. And Rick Perry would be Secretary of Defense because he looks so good with that six shooter.


And Mitch McConnell would be Senate Leader and John Boehner would be Speaker of the House and President of Congressional Country Club.

What a world we would have then.

It just makes me so excited and rapturous to think on it.

So there's a bridge between Kentucky and Ohio which carries 3% of all the nation's GNP, and it connects all the truck traffic from Michigan to New Orleans and it backs up for miles every day and we just cannot fix it because, Doncha Know? The Deficit! We cannot spend money to do this because we have to live within our means, and we cannot and will not raise taxes and it's all these government regulations which keep us from doing anything at all.

We are just paralyzed.

And we are just helpless, helpless, helpless because we are under control of the Republicans.

Rapacious Republicans. Selfish Republicans. Tea Party Republicans. Tax anyone but the rich Republicans. Medicare killers. Social Security killers. The party of hate and fear.

And just when you began to think, well, they're not all so bad--Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, after all. But look at them. Those two women vote just as John Boehner and Mitch McConnell tell them to vote and they will campaign for Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann.

And nary a one of them is loyal to the United States of America. They are only loyal to the Republican Party.

Congressman Paul Ryan Instructs

Some times you got to love National Public Radio. Today Michele Norris asked Congressman Paul Ryan why he so opposed increasing taxes on the rich and he said, as Republicans now all say whenever they get the chance, the rich people are not rich people, they are "Job creators," and if we annoy them with taxes and hamstring them with "Regulations" they will simply stamp their feet and refuse to hire any of the poor people who need jobs and who the government should definitely not hire to do any sort of work (because that would drive up the dreaded deficit.)

And here's where it got good: Ms. Norris asked him, very politely, well, if keeping taxes low on the rich "Job Creators" is the secret to getting the Job Creators to hire, why had they not been hiring after years of some of the lowest tax rates we have ever set for the rich--currently at 32% for the top incomes. We have had eras when tax rates were much higher and unemployment was much lower, so why were those rich Job Creators willing to hire when they were paying higher taxes then, but not now?

Representative Ryan responded that actually the tax rates for the richest Job Creators once reached a low of 28%, a non sequitur about which, sadly, Ms. Norris did not press him.

He went on to recite the usual cant about how those magical, unspecified "Government Regulations" were keeping rich Job Creators from feeling secure about the future, and how the deficit, (which Republicans created with low taxes and high war expenditures) was making the JC's unwilling to risk hiring. It was all the fault of misguided Democratic Party policies.

He described himself as a policy man.

We all remember his most famous policy: Replace Medicare with a coupon system. You get an $8,000 coupon every year to put toward your medical expenses. That ought to just about cover the anesthesiologist's bill for your by pass. So they can put you to sleep but not fix your heart, because the surgeon has a bill and the hospital, too. But that coupon system sure would save the government a lot of money.

So now this is the best the Republican party's best policy man, their chairman of the House committee on budgets, monetary policy and all things financial, can come up with.

I couldn't help thinking, as I was listening, who exactly are these Job Creators? I mean, is there a directory of Job Creators? Do they have a convention? Do they all belong to the same country club? Do they have a Face Book page? Does Paul Ryan have them over for a prayer breakfast every Monday?

And what, specifically, are those frightening, stultifying "Regulations" which have so paralyzed these Job Creators they have simply refused to hire their fellow citizens?

I had some very good friends in Washington, DC who ran a real estate development company with about thirty employees. They bought up parcels of land in Silver Spring, Maryland, intending to develop it but then a huge corporation made them an offer for this land they simply could not refused. Every one of the three partners became a multi milloinaire overnight. One of them cashed in and moved to horse country, Virginia, retiring at the age of 45. But two others kept the company going. And when I asked one of them why he hadn't simply bought himself a country estate and started traveling and riding horses in hunt club events, he looked at me, a little surprised. "Well," he said. "We've got thirty people depending on this company for their jobs. And they like developing projects, building homes and offices and shaping the future. This is a company, well, I'm not running it for me. I'm running it for them, for the people who work in it and for the people they are going to put in homes and in communities."

This guy, remember is very rich. Doesn't have to work. And he's a freaking Communist! Warren Buffet if not the only rich dude out there with a conscience and a sense of doing socially responsible work.

I would venture to say, this guy is the real patriot in the house.

You may be wondering who those kids in the picture are. They are kids from a middle school in 1927, and most of them lived in tiny apartments with their parents and didn't know they were living in poverty because everyone around them lived about the same way. And some of them, probably most, grew up to own big houses and cars and send their kids to college because a rising tide raised their boats, as the country went through the Depression and the World War and they were part of that community which hung on together and got the country through it all and built a future for themselves and their cohort. They paid their taxes and never complained.

Michele Norris asked Mr. Ryan about his claim hat President Obama was engaging in Class Warfare by suggesting we increase taxes on the rich. She said, actually aren't you the one who is engaging in class warfare by asking the question, by making the issue of spreading the tax burden more evenly into a class question?

He just laughed and said he didn't see that at all.

Check out Congressman Ryan's hairline. That simian look may tell you something about him, and about those who travel with him in that right wing party on Capitol Hill.

Let's All Kill Grandma

So let's talk about Medicare and Social Security.

These are things we call "Entitlements," or as the Republican Party says, "Government sponsored Ponzi Schemes."

We really cannot afford to pay for either, because we insist on government living within its means.

And we cannot live within our means, especially if we have no means because means means taxes, and as Republicans WE ARE AGAINST TAXES.

So when Grandma gets to the hospital, unable to breathe and we are told she needs a heart bypass procedure, which costs somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000, we would have to sell her house and get a second mortgage on our house and would grandma really want that?

We can't ask her because she so short of breath she can't answer.

But, we can use the coupon for $8,000 which Paul Ryan gave us and that will bring the cost down to well, $192,000, so that will help.

Well, maybe she can make it without the surgery.

But there's another problem. If we take her home and she does survive, that Social Security check isn't coming any more, because you know, we had this problem with the deficit.

And I know that was a big problem because my brother is over in Iraq and he tells me he can see where all the money is going. And he says his buddies in Afghanistan say it's even worse over there--they are just exploding money over there, literally.

But Kelly Ayotte is all for spending over there, because, well she's a patriot. And she looks so sweet.

Now Mr. Guinta is on the same page as Senator Ayotte. She got to vote against Medicare and he's just sorry he didn't have the same chance.

He is pretty happy though, because he's now a finalist in the Joseph McCarthy look alike contest.

Frank wasn't really sure who Joe McCarthy was, but when he was told Joe was a Republican, he liked him immediately. Joe was one of the best Republicans at finding bad people in the federal government. He had lists of bad people, and he kept changing them and updating them. He hated government spending, too. So he and Frank are sort of soul mates. Actually, they all are, Joe and Kelly and Frank and Mitch, all separated at birth, but now reunited under that great big Republican circus tent.

Makes you sort of proud to be an American.

The Bridge to Somewhere

The Brent Spence Bridge connects Mitch McConnell's state of Kentucky to John Boehner's state of Ohio and both connect to our state of New Hampshire in one very important way, and that is through the great state of mind of Herbert Hoover: Government cannot be the solution.

The bridge carries a stunning percentage of the load of truck traffic from the upper midwest but there are back ups lasting hours as the huge volume of traffic in trucks and passenger vehicles try to squeeze through a structure meant to carry less than an half the traffic it now bears.

Now you would think, well this is a no brainer, build a new bridge or at least expand this one.

Then again, consider the brains of the Republican senator from Kentucky and the Republican Representative, and Speaker of the House, from Ohio.

The people on both sides of the bridge cry out: "Build a bridge," and the Boehner/ McConnell braintrust says, "No taxes."

The people upstream from the bridge, in Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana say, "We are strangling, build a bridge!" And McConnell/Boehner say, "Government is the problem, not the solution."

"Our businesses are withering on the vine because we cannot get our goods to market," cry the small business people who want the bridge. "We must make government live within its means," say the Republicans.

Now, I suppose you might argue, okay build the damn bridge, without taxes, let the private sector build it.

That's been suggested for roads. Sort of like the railroads--sell the private companies land cheap an let the barons of industry profit. Trouble is bridges for profit mean tolls and the whole idea is to keep traffic flowing, not holding it up, so, in general, bridges tend to be non toll structures. They are things which connect us, and so Democrats like them on an existential basis and Republicans, who are more fond of moats and walled communities and country clubs where the rich can hide from the hoi polloi and not sully their manicured fingernails with the dirt of the land, well, Republicans really don't like bridges much, existentially speaking. They are not bridge builders.

Actually, as in most things, there is symbolism and there is nuance.

When it comes to bridges, even Republicans can sometimes see that government spending may not always be bad. In fact--I cannot believe this story, but it was on the internet so it must be true--Rand Paul is flying to Kentucky on Air Force One with the President, (despite the cost to the Treasury of the airplane feul, )and he says he's doing this to lobby the President to spend some money on building a new bridge.

Imagine that! He says if the President can lobby the "Democrat party" for the funds, he'll lobby the Republicans.

Of course, if I were at the President's elbow I'd whisper into his ear: "Tell him you'll lobby for the bridge if he can say 'The Democratic Party' three times." I mean, the man is asking for help and he still can't bring himself to say Democratic.

These Republicans, once upon a time they could not pronounce "Negro" and said "Nigrah" instead. Now they take great glee in referring to their opponents as "The Democrat Party" rather than the name the Democrats use. These are the same guys who kept calling Muhammed Ali Cassius Clay. They never understood Howard Cosell, when he said, "In this country a man has a right to be called by whatever name he chooses for himself."

But back to the bridge: When Republicans want something, well maybe there is a place for government. But for jobs, the environment, the middle class, healthcare, Social Security: We have to live within our means; No taxes; cut spending is the only answer to jobs, the economy and the deficit.

We are for the private sector, the Republicans say. Let the private sector do it.

But the reality is, when the public sector builds a beltway around Washington, DC, the private sector booms. When the public sector builds a subway and light rail system, wherever a subway station pokes its nose through to the street above, the small business spring up.

If you build it, they will come.

But the Republicans have decided we cannot do anything here in Congress, other than cross our arms and stamp our feet and shout "No!" (Except for bridges in Kentucky.)

No to Medicare, Kelly Ayotte says. It costs too much. No to bridges, if that means spending money.

What ever happened to, "It takes money to make money?"

I guess that's a concept which is a bridge to nowhere.

The Bully Pulpit: The Playground Bullies

Mitch McConnell, Rush Limbaugh, Rick Perry, are the classic playground bullies. They are, for personal reasons, not entirely sure of their own manhood, so they puff themselves up and spout out the sort of tough sounding stuff which attempts to substitute braggadocio and in your face for real courage. Theirs is a sort of substitute courage, the loud mouth.

And of course, from the time we first got to know him, Barack Obama is the perfect target for the playground bully, who looks for the kid they can wale on,--he so obviously will not hit back.

So, President Obama proposes a jobs bill and McConnell says it's a poor substitute for leadership.

Rick Perry says he never lost sleep over any of the record number of prisoners he's sent to the Texas death house. Why should he? He's a tough guy. Of course, the governor of Illinois stopped executions in his state once he realized through the efforts of the Innocence Project, which revealed, using DNA evidence, the innocence of so many people on death row the governor had to admit, our jury system is so flawed we should not be killing people if there is any doubt at all.

Today a prisoner will be executed even though the witnesses against him have recanted their testimony.

You see a movie like "Conviction" and you see how courts and police make mistakes and would rather than admit it, they'd put an innocent man to death.
Then there's the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, who parades prisoners in pink underwear through the streets and some of these guys have not even had their day in court. But the sheriff is a real tough guy. He's real tough when he's surrounded by armed deputies, you understand.
But then, that's the essence of the bully. He is never going to stand across the mat and face off against another man, who could take him down. He's only tough when he's safe, rich and Republican.

Talking Past the GOP: Memo to the WhiteHouse

Okay, I realize the President gets a lot of advice, but this is coming from the state of New Hampshire, so I just know he's going to listen.

Up here, if we don't have a Presidential contender over for coffee more than once, he can forget about getting our vote. What we got up here is retail politics.

So, what can we expect in the way of conversation as the election year begins?

Of course, we will, as Democrats have to point out that the Republicans pushed us over the precipice just before they left office and Obama and the Democrats caught us just before we hit the rocks and splattered all over the bottom in a real honest to goodness Depression.

They got us there through a combination of wars they had no plan for paying for (which they now call Obama's wars) and dismantling regulations and laws which had protected us from the kinds of shenanigans on Wall Street which got us into the last Great Depression, and they saddled us with a huge deficit caused by those wars and by Republican laws to cut taxes for billionaires, which meant we could no longer collect taxes to keep the government running and just for good measure they tried to kill Medicare and Social Security and damn near, well virtually did, kill health care reform.

When we bring all this up, they will say, "I'm for allowing concealed weapons so every citizen can defend himself at school, in the restaurants and bars of his home town, and in his home."

And what can we say to this?

And when the Republican, in the candidate's debate asks the President how he feels about forcing sweet innocent twelve year old girls, who have never had a thought about sex or boys or rock and roll music to have an injection of a vaccine to protect her against HPV virus, and what do you think about that, Mr. President? How do you feel about government mandated injections of twelve year old virgins?

Then you say, "I am not your daughter's physician, and that question is meant to distract everyone from the real issue of jobs, which your party is killing."

And when they reply, "Well, how about gay marriage, how do you feel about that?"

Then the President says, "Gay marriage questions are not about jobs and the only reason you raise the issue is to hide behind it so you don't have to talk about how Republican trickle down economics has killed off jobs."

And when they say, "Well, how do you feel about job killing taxes which shackle job creators and how about regulations which stifle innovation and investment?"

Then the President says, "No taxes ever killed job creation and regulations do not stifle innovation half as much as unfair taxes which make the millionaire's secretary pay more tax, proportionately than the millionaire. What we need is more jobs not richer millionaires. We need to turn unemployed workers into taxpayers; We do not need to turn millionaires into billionaires."

And when they say, "Well, how do you feel about the Death Tax?"

Then you say, Mr. President, "I think families who receive five million dollars are well taken care of, and for estates more than that, well those estates got that big because this country helped create that kind of success and it's time for give back. And we can exempt farmers, by the way."

And when they say, "Your talk about taxing the rich is just class warfare."

Then you say, "The only class warfare I've seen over the past three years has been against the middle class and it's been waged by Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Paul Ryan and Lindsay Graham leading the charge and every other Republican politician charging behind them."

And when they say, "We've got to get government to live within its means," then you say, "If that means we cannot do anything to get this country moving again, then I'd say, we can acquire the means now and live within them once we have people back to work."

And when they say, "You are part of Washington, and the federal government and that's what's keeping this country and this economy down."

Then you say, "It's not government, or even big government that is the problem. It's bad government that is the problem. And every time the Republicans win an election, which is easier to do if all you have to do is point to the problems rather than to the solutions, every time the Republicans get into office, they drive this country to near ruin. They turn government surpluses into deficits and then blame the Democrats for letting them do it. They are the classic case of the son who kills both his parents and then complains he's been made an orphan."

And when they say, "What about a Mosque at Ground Zero? What about bringing terrorists here to the homeland to have dangerous trials? What about protecting our borders against all those illegal immigrants?"

Then you say, Mr. President: "You're just dodging the real issues, trying to hide behind these social smokescreens, those hot button burn down the barn questions so you can be all self righteous and sanctimonious so you don't have to talk about how we got into this horrible economy and how we can get out."

You can, in fact, say, "You know, for three years, seems like thirty, I've responded to your phony party line talking points, but now I've realized you never had any intention of having a real conversation. All you want to do is to insult, deride, and pose as some sort of savior of the real America. But in fact, you have no idea what the real America is. You live in that part of America only 1 percent of the population knows. And you are bound and determined to protect that 1 percent from the other 99 percent, and that's all you really care about."

And if the Republicans win after that debate, well, at least you can feel better because you know at least everyone has seen them, however briefly for what they really are.

The Dismal Science

When John Boehner gave his speech the the Economic Club of Washington, DC, he distilled the Republican dogma of the last 80 years into the catechism: 1/ The problem is the government 2/ The people, that is the businessmen will lead us out of our economic miseries by creating jobs, innovating and riding on on horseback.

The problem with his economic analysis is the problem with economics, which has been called "The Dismal Science" as a proposition: Economics is not a science at all.

In science, you propose a hypothesis: e.g., Government cannot create jobs. And then you test that hypothesis with an experiment. And then you publish your results so everyone can see how exactly you did your experiment and everyone argues about it until the next trial.

But economics does not have laboratories; about the only things economics has is history (which is one long argument) and mathematical models, which stupefy most people and which lend some credibility to economics as a learned profession, because, after all, they have all those numbers.


The closest thing we've got to a laboratory in economics is an individual state, like say, Michigan, where they can try ideas out and see how they work. Of course, if the idea doesn't work in Michigan, you can say, well that's just an isolated state with all sorts of problems peculiar to Michigan, and just because the idea didn't work there doesn't mean it won't work in say, Texas.

But it's the closest thing we've got to a laboratory.

Now Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan has published her report on how she responded to the economic crisis in that state when she was governor: She cut taxes, cut spending, cut government jobs. And what were the results of her experiment? "We did everything that people would want us to do, and yet it didn't work. Laissez-faire, passivity, tax cuts, hands-off does not work. And, really that's the lesson from this laboratory of democracy which is Michigan."

About the only thing that helped was when the federal government stepped in and bailed out General Motors--which the Republicans in their typically snide, cynical way, immediately dubbed, "Government Motors."

Of course, the Republicans say the reason cutting taxes didn't work was she didn't cut them enough.

Dismal science indeed. Not much science. But pretty dismal.