"WASHINGTON (AP) — Most future retirees would pay more for health care under a new House Republican budget proposal, according to an analysis by nonpartisan experts for Congress that could be an obstacle to GOP ambitions to tame federal deficits."
this characterization of the GOP as dedicated deficit-tamers is so full of jumbo dumbo that one hardly knows where to commence picking it apart.
let us simply reflect on the last 30 years of federal spending for a start, however, roughly corresponding to the beginning of the "reagan revolution" to wreck the republic to benefit the few.
as is common knowledge, reagan during his terms in office, after taking the ax to welfare queens and the air-traffic controllers, actually tripled the federal debt. a good portion of the increase was in a military buildup against the "evil empire" -- our enemy of choice in those days -- as well as the sweetheart deals given to corporate interests. with all the genuflecting about fiscal responsibility, there was none shown in the reagan era.
after a dozen years, we got son of reagan in the form of son of a bush: dubya.
once again, with our new enemy of choice, the terrorist, fueling the profligate GOP congress to new heights of irresponsibility, we again witness double-down deficits. this go-round, the government's debt only doubled in eight years, as iraq and afghanistan drained the nation's coffers at a clip never seen before. simultaneously, the business of government was enacting laws written by corporations, which simply served to enrich the rich at the expense of working slobs.
the gathering clusterfuck of the bush years finally came to a head during the home stretch of the 2008 presidential campaign, where the dark horse candidate from chicago, barack obama, was elected supreme corporate pitchman, as the corporate oligarchy distanced itself from the trainwreck it dictated under the GOP's watch.
we now live under a deficits regime that's unlike any seen at any time in the nation's history. now that the GOP sits in opposition to obama as the ruling faction in the US house, the boner team is positioning itself as guardian of fiscal sanity, and threatening to shut down the government unless a relatively piddly chunk of social welfare programs is excised from the budget. the party of dick "deficits don't matter" cheney has now decided to play the heavy in a battle of wills against the most pliable president in history -- whose opening gambit in almost any face-off is to fold.
if not for the opportunity to score political points against the GOP, obama would surely have negotiated away the social programs by now, except to make a point to senior citizen voters that the GOP is a bunch of meanies that want to cut their medicare. that is all that prevents the deficit cutters from leading the cavalry charge against "gummint" and other nonsensical tea-party lore.
meanwhile, you will hear nary a word about the morbidly obese "defense" establishment, which can not endure even the mention of the word "cuts," unless in reference to an adversary. nor do the GOP financial whizzes ever have anything to say about the revenue side of the equation -- such as why corporations like GE pay no taxes on billions of dollars in income. the accelerating income and wealth disparities in the US are seen as sign of robust health, not a system that is teetering on the verge of collapse, so under the cutting regime of the GOP, those least able to withstand the withering assault of crony capitalism on their standard of living are precisely those who will be the victims of the new, responsible GOP.
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