Hey Big Spenders !!
In his first inaugural address in January of 2001, George W. Bush said, "America, at its best, is a place where personal responsibility is valued and expected." The quote came at the section of the address where Bush was talking about poor people. Republicans love to quote that old Puritan doctrine of "personal responsibility," and use it as a way to cut welfare programs. After all, if you are "personally responsible" you can do just about anything you want. G.W should know, he struggled through life as the son of a multi-millionaire ex-US President.
For years the conservative base of the Republican Party have attacked the liberal "tax and spend" Democrats. They claimed that when the government lowers taxes on the wealthiest Americans and businesses are deregulated then the economy would work better. Some people actually still believe them even though the money we pay in gasoline taxes has offset any cuts in income tax.
It is funny that Republicans have been able to play the "personal responsibility" card for so long. Are they not the party that has handed over billions of US taxpayer dollars to rebuild Iraq, in spite of the fact that Iraq's oil revenues alone would suffice? If you do not believe me then look at what Dubai has done without any help from the US. As if that were not enough to turn your taxpaying stomach, now the Feds under Bush want to hand over fistfuls of dollars to save a financial industry that has been completely irresponsible.
Where is the "personal responsibility" in business management when CEOs know that if they come close to going bankrupt that the Feds will come running with the money to keep them afloat. As if that were not bad enough, many of these same CEOs that have driven companies to the brink of bankruptcy get huge bonuses just to quit. Then they keep the extra money that Bush gave them via tax cuts on the wealthy while we are stuck paying their former companies losses.
The mortgage crisis underscores how corporate Republican welfare works. The Feds take the regulations off the mortgage industry and allow them to write more risky sub-prime loans to help the housing industry and make mortgage companies look a lot better on paper. The mortgage companies know that even if the sub-prime mortgages tank, that the Feds will not let them go bankrupt, and sure enough, they did not.
Of course, nobody wants to call what the mortgage industry did "predatory lending," even though that is exactly what sub-prime lending is. Unfortunately for us, instead of criminal charges against lenders, they are in line to get a $700 billion dollar handout from the same Republicans who claim that Americans should be more responsible. Just to put the number into perspective, in the last ten years the Feds have spent about $200 billion dollars on Veterans benefits. I guess that means that if you put your life on the line for your country you are worth a whole lot less than if you can't manage a bank.
After this banking crisis, I hope that Republicans go back to their gay bashing and gun toting platforms and stop lying to the rest of us about their call for "personal responsibility." Democrats aren't the tax and spenders, we just don't believe that the welfare office should be located in a big White House in Washington D.C.
For years the conservative base of the Republican Party have attacked the liberal "tax and spend" Democrats. They claimed that when the government lowers taxes on the wealthiest Americans and businesses are deregulated then the economy would work better. Some people actually still believe them even though the money we pay in gasoline taxes has offset any cuts in income tax.
It is funny that Republicans have been able to play the "personal responsibility" card for so long. Are they not the party that has handed over billions of US taxpayer dollars to rebuild Iraq, in spite of the fact that Iraq's oil revenues alone would suffice? If you do not believe me then look at what Dubai has done without any help from the US. As if that were not enough to turn your taxpaying stomach, now the Feds under Bush want to hand over fistfuls of dollars to save a financial industry that has been completely irresponsible.
Where is the "personal responsibility" in business management when CEOs know that if they come close to going bankrupt that the Feds will come running with the money to keep them afloat. As if that were not bad enough, many of these same CEOs that have driven companies to the brink of bankruptcy get huge bonuses just to quit. Then they keep the extra money that Bush gave them via tax cuts on the wealthy while we are stuck paying their former companies losses.
The mortgage crisis underscores how corporate Republican welfare works. The Feds take the regulations off the mortgage industry and allow them to write more risky sub-prime loans to help the housing industry and make mortgage companies look a lot better on paper. The mortgage companies know that even if the sub-prime mortgages tank, that the Feds will not let them go bankrupt, and sure enough, they did not.
Of course, nobody wants to call what the mortgage industry did "predatory lending," even though that is exactly what sub-prime lending is. Unfortunately for us, instead of criminal charges against lenders, they are in line to get a $700 billion dollar handout from the same Republicans who claim that Americans should be more responsible. Just to put the number into perspective, in the last ten years the Feds have spent about $200 billion dollars on Veterans benefits. I guess that means that if you put your life on the line for your country you are worth a whole lot less than if you can't manage a bank.
After this banking crisis, I hope that Republicans go back to their gay bashing and gun toting platforms and stop lying to the rest of us about their call for "personal responsibility." Democrats aren't the tax and spenders, we just don't believe that the welfare office should be located in a big White House in Washington D.C.
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