Monday, May 8, 2023

Ransom II - Gimme Back My Tax Cuts!

The Democrats have to take the gloves off over this debt ceiling thing. This is what, the third time they’ve pulled this shit in the last 15 years? They don’t give a rip about the deficit when they’re in charge… they raised the debt ceiling three times during TFG’s administration. Any bleating about fiscal responsibility is a mirage. By this point, we know that Republicans only use the debt ceiling as a lever to pry hard-won accomplishments away from Democrats. They Do Not Care about it, not until it’s time for the political theater of the debt ceiling being raised during a Democratic administration. In fact, if the ransom demanded by Republicans were to be paid, it would add hundreds of billions to the deficit.

This time around, they’re taking their marching orders from the fossil fuel industry, and fossil fuel Senators like Joe Manchin, who wants to get rid of all those pesky climate change provisions included in previous legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Biden. And, of course, they want to preserve all the tax cuts for the rich, which passed under TFG.

This is what President Biden proposes to address the deficit:

Now tell me, are there any relevant reasons why these changes shouldn’t be made? And don’t even start with the “job creators” bullshit. We all know what happens when business owners receive a tax windfall; they pocket it. We need to tell these Trickle-Down assholes to Piss up a Rope.

These look like common sense steps designed to benefit 98% of the country. So naturally, you’ll see arguments from Republicans addressing “tax and spend Democrats” and fearmongering that the IRS is coming for YOU. They won’t address the actual proposals because the only thing they can fall back on is that their donors want it, and it is the very reason why they are donors in the first place… to make sure their wealth and projected wealth stay intact. Everything else you hear is designed to deflect you from that point. They have to make you think that things that will help you actually hurt you. And that's why Republicans are so "truth-challenged" in the 21st century, they can't sell the truth.

If only someone could come up with a way to enforce an anti-price-gouging law, then this economy could really hum. But since suppliers and retailers are using the post-COVID supply chain problems to jack up their prices by far more than the amount needed to balance out the issues. You can’t claim that your business is getting hit hard when corporate profits are setting records. But they know most people don’t read the fine print.

But the point remains that the only way to create a solid economy is from the bottom up and not the top down. Seeding the top of the wealth brackets is merely taking “Lucy holding the ball for Charlie Brown” and making it national. We’re still waiting for our benefits from the Republican tax cuts for the rich to reach the rest of us and it will never come.

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And now this, just because I thought it was funny:

Who’da thought that the Nuge would be canceled in Birmingham, Alabama, of all places? I always thought liberals were strewn across the state like so many raisins in a box of Raisin Bran, but I guess they clumped in Birmingham. 

I bet the people that got this show killed were like, “When Ted hears about this, he’s gonna shit his pants. Again.

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