Message for Republicans

Formerly, you worried about the deficit because it has become very large.

When you were not in office, the deficit was a main complaint, country club Republicans favorite sport continues to be evading taxes. Their accountants and lawyers rely on that to make their living, but as in other corrupt countries, that is a large part of the problem with deficits. A stiff graduated tax would solve many problems: It would take care of those obscene bonuses that bankers gave themselves after the taxpayer bailouts, it would damp down hedge fund speculation, and it would make means-testing Social Security unnecessary. When Ike was President the top marginal tax rate was around 90%, highly respected executives worked for a dollar a year. But things have changed since Republicans took the Grover Norquist pledge.

Instead, you cut taxes, mostly for yourself.

As many economists have warned, austerity is a bad idea when the economy is weak. Republicans have effectively been working to see that the economy fails. The better to win elections.

Instead of trying to cut Social Security, give up the tax reductions for the wealthy. We have reached a new gilded age, and you are exacerbating the pathological problems that go with extreme income inequality. It speaks volumes about your character that you always have plenty of money for war, but never for your own people. That is a true symptom of a failed state.

Stop opposing changes to healthcare. As you yourself have reminded us, our system is not a good enough to take care of everybody. It is probably the most expensive in the world, the outcomes are not very good, and pretty much everyone agrees that costs are going to spiral out of control. It is despicable to substitute vouchers for Medicare.

To really save money, stop invading foreign countries. Many Republicans (including our former Senator Lieberman) think it is a great idea to invade Iran. Foregoing that alone could be money enough to balance the budget. It is difficult to break the impulse to endless war, but if you stop you will no longer need the world’s largest military. Anyway, if the only enemies you can find are poor people living in caves, that hardly justifies the kind of expense you advocate. I know, you will find more enemies. (You could also save another $125 billion by not expanding the war in Afghanistan. After all these years, how is that going ?)

Although you want to block the new arms reduction treaty with Russia, you could save another $80 Billion dollars by not buying more nuclear weapons. Stop the F-35 and the 'Star Wars' program also. The world would be a little safer, but that doesn’t seem to interest you. Just remember your history lessons: empires always fail and civil liberties for their people disappear.

The ‘war on drugs’ has made the US a leader in incarcerations in the world. Apparently you learned nothing from the lessons of Prohibition. Just as in Arizona the prison lobby wanted arrests of aliens, the ‘war on drugs’ is an excuse for asset forfeiture, war on Latin American countries, and disgusting political greed. Decriminalize drugs and free up some prisons. That would save a lot.

There is more than the budget problem: Republicans have condoned torture, renditions, wiretaps, revoked Constitutional rights (especially at airports), polluted media, created a toxic political dialog, engaged in brinksmanship …continued