This is KILLING me!!!

by Rich Miles

OK, look, I have made it unmistakably clear over the past umpty-ump years exactly where I stand politically - I am a bleeding-heart liberal in most regards. Only area in which I could be accused of being reactionary or right-wing is that I want all right-wingers and repugnicans killed. But that's only a fond wish, as it will certainly never happen. Sadly for this world.

But I continue to be confused, confounded and repelled by the right wing's CONSTANT insistence that rich people get tax breaks, and poor people not get those breaks.

(Before I go on, I have to throw in this fact that arose yesterday: the House of Representatives have voted down ObamaCare (you know what I really mean) 33 times!!! They can't take a vote AT ALL on several of Obama's judicial nominees, but they can vote down, and be defeated by the Senate, 33 times!!! on this one issue.)

OK, back to the subject at hand: I continue to be amazed, astounded, and appalled that the repugs actually stand up on their hind legs and say, in essence, "Let's keep these tax breaks for the wealthiest among us - people making over $1,000,000 a year! Let's repeal the breaks for those making less than $250,000 a year. (and since when was THAT figure a cutoff point between rich and poor?)

I mean, HOW DO THEY DO IT? How do they call themselves representatives of the people, and then proceed to do things that represent and benefit only approx. 1% of those people? How do they live with their consciences when they vote FOR tax cuts for people who already have large (often huge!!) amounts of money, and AGAINST tax cuts for those who are struggling with finances, and bills to pay, and TAXES - just because few of those people run their own businesses?

Has anyone ever done research to discover how many of the people who make over $1,000,000 a year actually DO own businesses? And how many are just greedheads who stick all their money in investments of various sorts, but who have never DREAMED of putting their money at such a risk as a business, which could fail or something!

OK, OK, I recognize the connection between investing and a healthy economy. I see that rich people who invest in say, DuPont are keeping that company healthy, and keeping their employees employed, and their retirees funds funded.

But what seems never to have entered into the thinking (you'll pardon the expression) on this matter is this:

If 1% of Americans can invest $1,000,000 (for example), then how would it be if 99% of Americans could invest say, $10,000 in business? Or if successful, $20K? Or $100,000? Maybe never a mil, but hell, there are 99 TIMES as many of these small investors as there are the big'uns.

So why are these people abandoned? And more to the point, why do congressdogs say these outrageously classist and selfish things, and expect conservative voters to vote for them? And why do those conservative voters DO IT??

It's frightening, that people who were raised in that ethos, of taking care of the poor and giving to those in need, and all that, are now voting for people who SAY that's what they espouse, but who BEHAVE exactly the opposite - who root for the rich, since it's the rich who are paying for their re-election campaigns.

Seems simple, doesn't it? So why are repugs winning even elections for dogcatcher, much less higher offices? Why, I ask you?

No answer. But stupidity has NOT been ruled out.

C'mon, mongrels!! Make sure you know what the candidate stands for BEFORE you vote for him or her. You might be surprised to learn that that Republican label does not mean they think just like you. They might just be in opposition to what you think is right. You might even have to vote for (shudder) the Democrat!

And then where would you be? Apart from in a box.

Don't be stupid, people. Think - look - make sure the man is more than the party label. And that applies to Democrats, too!!