The GOP engages in
class warfare. misogyny and racism.
Both the tax plans
of Jeb Bush and Donald Trump make this clear. Both tax plans give
huge tax breaks to the affluent by cutting the income tax rates for
top earning Americans to below 30 per cent. Trump's tax rate is 15
per cent, but he says he will eliminate all deductions. Trump goes
further by eliminating the estate tax which only effects the top 0.1
per cent of Americans.
Republicans like to
call the estate tax the death tax and suggest it is double taxation.
A progressive estate tax was instituted by Theodore Roosevelt to
level the playing field. Unfortunately, the estate tax today is
barely functional. The US now has a stratified social system. There
is very little social mobility between classes. If you are born
working class, you will likely die working class.
Trump suggests
families making $50k or less pay no income tax while Bush suggests
$40k or less. In both cases, more than half of the taxpayers in the
US would be exempt from federal income tax. This proposal would
greatly favor the Red states which have lower median incomes than the
Blue.
When the dust clears
from either of these plans a greater tax burden would end up on the
backs of the middle class. Working class Americans would pay little
or no tax and the top earning Americans would get huge tax cuts.
Both Ronald Reagan
and George W. Bush tried similar supply side tax plans and both
presidents greatly increased the annual deficits which added
trillions to the national debt. Not only did the Republicans lower
taxes irresponsibly, they also overspent on the armed services. Bush
never vetoed a single bill while in office his first term and
increased defense spending by 47 per cent.
The tax cuts plus
the runaway spending had bad outcomes. The Bush “ownership society”
was predicated on deregulation. This led to a worldwide economic
meltdown.
Many observers have
suggested the GOP favors defense spending over infrastructure because
most defense facilities are in the Red states while the US
infrastructure is in the Blue
President Obama was
elected overwhelmingly by women voters, black Americans, and
Hispanic Americans. It is not a coincidence that all three have
attacked by Republicans ever since the elections.
In the case of
women, an important institution, Planned Parenthood is being
attacked. Certainly Republicans are “Pro-Life,” but it goes far
beyond that. Republicans are trying to deny birth control pills and
other forms of contraception to women. The real GOP goal appears to
be to stop women from having “sex for mere pleasure. “
The attacks on gay
or LGBT people is similar but also has an Old testament religious
basis. Many evangelical and fundamentalist churches subscribe to the
belief the Christian religion is underpinned by repressing gays. Many
have predicted Christianity will collapse now that gay marriage is
legal.
Much of the GOP
racism was stimulated by the election of Barack Obama. America's
first black president. Republicans were even more agitated when
record number of blacks showed up at the polls and 95 per cent voted
for the president. Since the election , many other Red states have
instituted laws to “reduce voter fraud”vby requiring multiple
forms of identification to vote. Many older and poorer people don't
have birth certificates, so they will be unable to vote.
The worst example is
in Alabama in which voters must register to vote at the Division of
Motor Vehicle (DMV) offices. The state then closed all but 5 DMV
offices and the open ones mainly service white drivers and voters.
Lat but not least,
is the GOP attack on Latino/Hispanic immigrants. The GOP did poorly
in the 2012 election with Romney picking up only 27 per cent of the
Hispanic and Latino vote. Marco Rubio thinks the GOP candidate must
pick up at lease 40 per cent of this vote to win. Another pollster
indicated 42-47 per cent is needed.
Because Obama took
71 per cent of the Latino and Hispanic vote in 2012, Republicans have
become anti-immigrant. The GOP will say that immigrants take jobs but
most compete for jobs with high school dropouts. They take jobs in
construction such as roofing, food service, agriculture, lawn service
and gardening. Posit the real GOP concern is that immigrants from
south of the border overwhelmingly vote Democratic.
The GOP prefers the
Hi-B program that lets in educated workers such as information
technology (IT ) people. Recently Walt Disney World told 250 workers,
most of which were technical, that they were being laid off and
replaced by foreign workers from India. The US workers even had to
train their replacements.
Fortunately, Disney
got plenty of bad press and dropped plans to replace the workers.
The GOP engages in
class warfare in many ways. It uses tax policy to play the middle
calls against the affluent and the working class. Its tax policy and
appropriations also favors the Red states over the Blue.
The GOP attacks
women, black, Latinos/Hispanics and other minorities based on voting
patterns. If any group votes for Democrats, the GOP then tries to
marginalize that group in the US congress and in statehouses
controlled by he GOP.
Thee is one
exception, veterans. Although veterans overwhelmingly vote
Republican, Republicans the US House and senate have voted down
several vet bills since 2008. Apparently the GOP thinks it can take
vets for granted.
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