December 10, 2015 5:18 AM

7 ways Paul Ryan and the GOP will destroy America

[T]he new Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, summed up his House Republican agenda - vowing to pursue legislation that would frame a stark choice for voters in 2016…. “Our No. 1 goal for the next year is to put together a complete alternative to the left’s agenda,” he said. Despite the speech’s sweeping oratory and careful stagecraft, Ryan clings to seven dumb ideas that are also cropping up among Republican presidential candidates.

Despite the appeals to patriotism and American Exceptionalism, seldom has it been more clear that Republicans, in the words of the late Frank Zappa, “stand for raw, unbridled evil smothered in balloons and ribbons.” Speaker Ryan, who’s always stood for a system that not only celebrates but promotes the growth of income inequality, is using his new position to glibly promote a Republican platform that on the surface seems to some full of great ideas, but in fact represents the party’s latest efforts to cater to the 1%.

What is Ryan proposing…and why are they such spectacularly awful ideas? Well, why would you listen to me when you can listen to an economic luminary like Robert Reich make the argument? Welcome to a vision of a matter of, by, and for the already fortunate. It’s a vision of a dog-eat-dog world in which only the strong survive…because the playing field’s tilted in their direction to begin with. I’m reprinting Reich’s argument verbatim…because it’s that sensible and spot on.

  1. Reduce the top income-tax rate to 25% from the current 39%. A terrible idea. It’s a huge windfall to the rich at a time when the rich already take home a larger share of total income that at any time since the 1920s.

  2. Cut corporate taxes to 25% from the current 35%. Another bad idea. A giant sop to corporations, the largest of which are already socking away $2.1 trillion in foreign tax shelters.

  3. Slash spending on domestic programs like food stamps and education for poor districts. What?! Already 22% of the nation’s children are in poverty; these cuts would only make things worse.

  4. Turn Medicaid and other federal programs for the poor into block grants for the states, and let the states decide how to allocate them. In other words, give Republican state legislatures and governors slush funds to do with as they wish.

  5. Turn Medicare into vouchers that don’t keep up with increases in healthcare costs. In effect cutting Medicare for the elderly. Another awful idea.

  6. Deal with rising Social Security costs by raising the retirement age for Social Security. Bad! This would make Social Security even more regressive, since the poor don’t live nearly as long as the rich.

  7. Finally, let the minimum wage continue to decline as inflation eats it away. Wrong again. Low wage workers need a higher minimum wage.

Of course, if you believe the creation of a two-tier society in which the masses exist only to cater to the interests and bottom line of the already-wealthy, you’re probably going to LOVE Speaker Ryan’s idea. For the rest of us, though, his ideas really do “stand for raw, unbridled evil smothered in balloons and ribbons.” You might think that someone so beholden to oligarchs might, at the very least, attempt to camouflage the fact that he’s carrying their water. Au contraire, mon ami; Ryan is celebrating his corruption and willingness to virtually bankrupt the 99%.

It’s what Ayn Rand would do, no?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 10, 2015 5:18 AM.

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