Have They Forgotten? Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Have They Forgotten

Like most of you, I’ve read the pundits’ predictions that Republicans will make substantial gains in the House and Senate in the mid-term election; some even going so far as predicting, Republicans might regain control of the House.

Recently, I have seen the beginning of a push for Jeb Bush as a possible 2012 presidential candidate, and hear Karl Rove say that many Americans miss George W. Bush.

When I read and hear such comments, I wonder whether some Americans have lost their short term memory or what kind of “Kool Aid” they are drinking. I find it hard to believe that Americans would like to see the Republicans regain control of the government.

I ask myself, have they forgotten the :

* Unfunded Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 that only benefited the rich?
* Unfunded Medicare Part D (drug plan) that benefited Big Pharma and hurt those on Medicare?
* Unnecessary war started on misinformation whose costs were not reflected in the annual budget, but were financed by supplemental funding?

All of the above depleted the budget surplus left over from the Clinton Administration and led to substantially increasing our country’s deficit.

Have they forgotten the deemphasizing of federal regulations during the Bush Administration, that eventually led to the (a) country’s financial crisis? (b) BP oil spill? and ( C ) Upper Big Branch mining disaster in West Virginia?

During the past 18 months since Obama became president, his administration has passed:

* A Stimulus Bill that saved and created jobs for many Americans that included tax cuts, expansion of unemployment benefits, and other social programs.

* A HCR Bill that expanded medical coverage to 32 million Americans, will close the Medicare Part D donut hole by 2020, and will not allow insurance companies, later this year to deny children medical coverage based on preexisting conditions.

* A Financial Reform Bill that will create the Financial Stability Oversight Council that will keep watch over the financial industry; and a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection that will enforce regulations covering mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products.

The Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly voted against these bills, and in fact, want to repeal both the HCR and Financial Reform bills.

I don’t know how a Republican in Congress could look a young child in the eye, let alone him/herself in their own mirror, and say I don’t want you to have medical coverage even though you have a preexisting condition and need health insurance.

Republicans have blocked the extension of unemployment insurance, needed by many Americans to survive (have demonized those who are collecting UI as being lazy), unless it’s paid for by some budget offset. Yet they have no problem extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich without any budget offset; even though it’s known that those previous tax cuts have added to our deficit. Total hypocrisy.

Republicans constantly complain that the Stimulus Bill is a failure as it hasn’t created the jobs needed to get us out of the recession. What they conveniently forget is most economists felt the stimulus should have been at least $ 1 trillion.

Obama, to get Republican support for the bill, reduced the size of the stimulus to about $750 billion and put in extra tax cuts they requested. They have no right to complain.

Republicans continue to believe “trickle down” economics works, even though every time it’s been used, it has been a failure. As President George H.W. Bush has said, it’s “voodoo economics”.

The Republicans have nothing to offer the people other than fear (Obama isn’t making the country safe from terrorists), more tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, less government, and tort reform. They have no new ideas.

For Republicans, ideology, wanting to regain power, and seeing Obama and the country fail is more important to them than what is best for the people.

So I ask those who are thinking of voting for a Republican this November to look at what Republicans were for and against in all the issues I listed above. Everything that would benefit the middle class and the poor they were against, but everything that benefited the rich, Big Pharma, banks, insurance companies, oil companies, big business, and Wall Street they voted for.

It’s quite obvious where Republicans interests lie, and its not with the common man.