The era of the big middle class is over
Mitt Romney is now delving into science fiction. After a successful hostile takeover of the tea party and what remains of the Republican Party, he’s convinced he is ready for his greatest illusion: convincing America that what we need is George W. Bush on Steroids.
He’s so confident he made an ad in which he calls himself President Romney over and over. He also describes what he’d do on day one of the Romney administration, presumably after he marks his territory in the Oval Office.
Based on his Day One promises, Mitt’s first day would be a nightmare for the middle class.
MaddowBlog’s Steve Benen explains:
But his “day one” agenda isn’t exactly compelling. Romney wants an environmentally-risky oil pipeline that won’t lower gas prices and will create far fewer jobs than Republicans believe. He wants tax cuts for “job creators” — i.e., Romney’s very wealthy friends — that won’t help the economy and would make the deficit much worse.
And Romney intends to kill the Affordable Care Act on his first day, taking health care away from millions of Americans, raising prescription drug prices for seniors, and even raising taxes on small businesses that are currently taking advantage of Obamacare’s tax breaks.
As usual, Benen is accurate and kind.
The reality of these proposals–without the rustic imagery and calm voice–are so grim and vile that to claim you would enact them on television should be enough to shame you into hiding.
What Romney is promising is to supersize the Bush tax breaks. This will accelerate that massive redistribution of wealth to the richest 1 percent that has taken place since 1979. What is wrong in America is that the rich are getting richer way to fast while the middle class becomes and more unstable. Romney would make that exponentially worse on day one.
More tax breaks may buy you a months worth of Starbucks but it would buy Mitt Romney and the richest American the actual Starbucks corporation over and over again. For a few hundred dollars a year, we are going to bankrupt a country that had a surplus a decade ago.
So here’s a small sampler of what else will start to happen on Mitt’s Day One:
- Medicare will be gutted and replaced with a untested voucher program that will replace the Medicare guarantee with private insurer costs and hassles.
- Defense spending, which has exploded since 9/11, will eat up more of the budget and soon exceed $1 trillion a year.
- If Israel has not yet attacked Iran, Iran will assume the attack is imminent and look toward igniting a war that engulfs the entire Middle East.
- College aid will be slashed if not eliminated.
- Kids with preexisting conditions will not be able to get insurance.
- Planned Parenthood funding will be eliminated, costing taxpayers $3 for every $1 that’s cut.
- Rush Limbaugh will be named Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Okay, I’m veering into my own science fiction. But it’s not a bad analogy. Appointing John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nation, an organization he loathes, as George W. Bush did, was close.
Imagine the ineptitude and blind aggression of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy with a Bain Capital approach to the economy. In every instance, the people who own and invest will be protected and left alone as workers are driven toward isolation and servitude.
The Romney future won’t be like 1984 or Brave New World. It will be closer to the 1890s when robber barons reigned. But instead of uneducated masses we’ll be overeducated drones jacked into the net for the five hours a day we don’t spend at work or in bed.
Romney’s Trickle Down Economics is actually Suck Up Economics. The benefits of society are continually sucked to a tiny group at the top so oblivious to the struggles of others that they feel victimized when they’re asked to contribute anything.
And if Suck Up Economics wins, Mitt Romney’s Day One will the be the day when we’ll wake up from the American Dream.
[CC image by DonkeyHotey | Flickr]
