Once again Tom Toles proves smarter than elected officials.
Have these people no shame whatsoever? In the midst of an acrimonious Congressional debate over whether the George W. Bush tax giveaway to the rich should be continued comes the news that arrogant Republicans have killed a proposal to give Social Security recipients $250 checks to make up for part of the cost of living adjustment (COLA) they didn’t get this year. (And they won’t get one next year either.) The Republicans say that the $14 billion price tax is “too expensive.”
Let’s see if we have this straight—the poor bastards making over $200,000 a year can’t afford a tax increase, but SSI recipients don’t need a COLA? Are you freakin’ kidding me? Have Republicans, at last, no shame whatsoever? And now we have President Obama—aka/ Kid Spineless—saying we “must” pass the GOP bill that extends tax cuts or they’ll not allow middle-class cuts to continue or extend unemployment benefits. What kind of a patsy is Obama, and does he think we’re all that stupid? Here’s our message—let all the tax cuts die and let the benefits run out. And then let the GOP explain why the economy is still in recession.
As for Mr. Obama, its’ time to give up on that sinking ship. He has proven to be the rank amateur his critics charged in 2008. We, like many, were duped. But as The Who sang, “We won’t be fooled again.” If he won’t fight the class war, let him take his sorry act back to Chicago and let’s get someone with more cojones—Hillary Clinton anyone?—to take charge. We’re fed up with all the talk about the need to move to the center. A message needs to be sent to Democrats—if you won’t protect the American masses, we’re not voting for you. And, to paraphrase a Marxist (Groucho), anyone who thinks the Republicans care about anyone except fat cats and robber barons has the brain of a six-year-old child and we bet he was glad to get rid of it.
We’d welcome a tax increase on everyone and some distribution of real pain to the pampered middle class. (Never have so many privileged people whined so much about so little.) If the middle class experienced some real grief—the sort felt by stretched seniors and the jobless working class—maybe they’d turn off Fox News, get off their soft duffs, and get on board the social justice train. The first station is tax equity. Here’s one from the New Testament you won’t hear from the Cadillac evangelicals: “To whomever much is given, of him will much be required…”