These days, Republicans are trying to abuse the current economic crisis and the huge budget deficits/national debt that go with it, to ram through their ideologically tainted proposals that have absolutely nothing to do with solving these issues, but instead, will only make them worse. They know their proposals (the Ryan plan to cut Social Security, end Medicare, cut foodstamps while continuing the tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%) will bankrupt the middle class and bankrupt the country. Yet, they persist, because it fits their ideological agenda.
They keep saying: don't raise taxes on the 'job-creators', because it will wreck the economy. They say: if you give the wealthiest 1% more money, they'll spend and invest it and that will lead to new jobs. They reason that the money will trickle down to the rest of the people and get the economy going again. Of course, it would be stupid to just give tax breaks to the working people and not the richest people, so the common people could buy more and get the economy going, and the rich would pay more to the treasury. No, that makes no sense according to Republicans. They say working people can get tax breaks *only* if multibillion dollar corporations get them too.
Fact is: this has been done before. In the 1980's. What the Republicans are suggesting, is 'Reaganomics'. It's a kind of economic policy that has failed miserably in the past, and was recognized as such in the decade it was actually in place. Sadly, ever since, politicians of both parties and the mainstream media have treated it like the best thing since sliced bread and have been applauding Reagan ever since.
Luckily, there has *finally* been someone in the national mainstream media who adressed how DISASTROUS Reagan's economic policies were. How they increased wages & salaries for the wealthies 1% ENORMOUSLY, while doing next to NOTHING for the bottom 90%. How they didn't create any new jobs, but how instead 5 MILLION jobs had been lost. How the richest people saw their income INCREASE with 75%, while the poorest people saw their income DECLINE 5%. How they made the national debt SKYROCKET. How they created the LARGEST income inequality gap since 1947!
Watch for yourself and be convinced:
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(The only 'minor' mistake made was that in the graph showing Reagan's national debts, it should read 'billions' and 'trillions', instead of 'millions' and 'billions'. Luckily, that was corrected in the next video.)
After this, a segment followed on the myth that "tax cuts pay for themselves", an argument introduced by Reagan and eagerly followed by George W. Bush, resulting in EXPLODING deficits --which, of course, the working people have to pay for in cuts in Social Security. Make sure to catch the graph about 'national debt increase', which shows how debt increased with 189% under Reagan and 89% under George W. Bush, in large part due to the tax cuts (and, of course, illegal wars).
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Still, the Republicans want to make the presidential elections about spending and deficit reduction. How they think they'll win that, based on the overwhelming evidence against their economic policies presented above? Because they can count on the short attention-span and non-existing long-term memory of the average voter (which is probably as bad in the US as it is in Holland). "Perception is reality" is an important law in politics. The perception is that Democrats are big spenders who let the deficit and debt grow out of control. The facts, as shown above, are entirely different. But, "perception is reality".
