General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLet me make this pellucidly clear
The architect of this entire mess is their beloved Ronald Reagan.
Government is not the problem.
Disciples like Joescum dont even understand their own contradictions.
There is no society without proper education, healthcare (healthcare is a social good not a for profit industry), open spaces and safe infrastructure.
The rich must pay their taxes not use some of their gross wealth to buy politicians.
Fuck all ReTHUGs. They own this mess.
bucolic_frolic
(43,345 posts)Cheezoholic
(2,041 posts)KarenS
(4,089 posts)Reagan, for sure!
I would like to add one thing to your list tho,,,, Food. Without food, there is no education and healthcare gets bigger.
malaise
(269,202 posts)Food, environment, housing, and more.
BOSSHOG
(37,122 posts)He declared ketchup a vegetable. And lo there was ketchup in School lunchrooms.
The Wizard
(12,551 posts)Just another lying Repubic.
gab13by13
(21,421 posts)Thom Hartmann has been saying the same thing for decades.
malaise
(269,202 posts)burrowowl
(17,653 posts)KS Toronado
(17,355 posts)Even if new campaign finance laws took money out of politics.
malaise
(269,202 posts)😀
Augiedog
(2,548 posts)Until the wealthy .individuals and corps start paying their fair share for the society that provides them with the security and life style they desire there will be no resolution that actually works.
A New Deal is urgently needed
Bluethroughu
(5,202 posts)Roy Rolling
(6,941 posts)Government is not a for-profit enterprise. Same with education, medicine, policing/military, and religion.
malaise
(269,202 posts)JHB
(37,163 posts)This is the YouTube version (no video, just audio) because it's easiest to post here. Search for "The Professional Left podcast" on your podcast app of choice for other formats.
malaise
(269,202 posts)and Mikamouse
Thanks.almost finished watching.
IronLionZion
(45,547 posts)every time they get elected, they prove it.
Mister Ed
(5,944 posts)If government really were the problem, then the solution would be...what, anarchy?
And anarchy is s what the GQP is showing us.
multigraincracker
(32,729 posts)paradise, Somalia, Low taxes and no evil government interference.
gab13by13
(21,421 posts)I have also used the Somalia reference.
The Jungle 1
(4,552 posts)He ran on the promise to cut taxes, increase defense spending and balance the budget. The fools voted for a promise we knew he would not keep. Trickle down economics was a failure and it still is.
HE TRIPLED THE DEFICIT.
Eventually he did raise taxes when it was clear the budget was out of control. Any president can have a great economy when you spend the amount of money he did.
What sucks is the republicans still operate on his same lies. They promise to fix everything and not raise taxes. Then they raise taxes anyway. It is a lie that has been going on for decades. In Pa we have the highest fuel tax in the nation and it just went up again. Thanks to a republican congress and a republican governor. We also have the most expensive toll road in the world. However the schools in Philadelphia and Reading are underfunded and failing. We have however just won control of the House and have another Democrat governor.
Joinfortmill
(14,474 posts)YoshidaYui
(41,867 posts)Republicans are in it to Grift off the US government.
Warpy
(111,367 posts)which had begun to work better with non profit insurance companies regulated like public utilities (they were). Nixon introduced for profit insurance as a personal favor to his good buddy Henry Kaiser. The whole thing metastasized into the malignant monstrosity we have now. That's one part of the mess Nixon owns outright.
Reagan did the rest, that sack of shit, pandering to the pompadoured frauds on "Christian" television because he knew their followers would be obedient and follow any crock of horseshit he came up with, all to ruin the progressive tax structure so his rich buddies could get obscenely richer, quicker, without having to pay much attention to what was happening.
Republicans are evil, just pure, fulminating evil. Anyone who votes for them is a pig ignorant fool--even the richest, since they're sowing the seeds of their own destruction as they attempt to own everything else. They can't or won't govern, they have no desire to administer anything that will cost a rich man a few pennies. They were bad enough when they waddled around with unread copies of "The Wealth of Nations" up their butts. Now that they've shoved the unread bible up after it, they are utterly insufferable.
Seeing all their petty tyrants battle it out in the House is doing me a world of good. I'm beginning to think I might see that Donnybrook at their next convention, after all. I just hope Muddle America (not a typo) is paying close attention to this mess. I want their stupid, piggy noses rubbed in what their votes for mealy mouthed incompetence have done to this country. I want them too ashamed ever to cast a vote again. Maybe their grandchildren will be a little smarter, a little less willing to vote for plonkers.
jaxexpat
(6,860 posts)Why all the prevarication.
FakeNoose
(32,791 posts)Instead of doing that (well some did) but most of them followed Chump around like he's the Republican Jesus. That's exactly what they did to Ronald Reagan - they made him the Republican Jesus! Reagan never created one thing, all he did was try to destroy it all. When his eight years were over, the New Deal was dead by Reagan's hand. America has never been the same since.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Model35mech
(1,561 posts)The California Prop 13 that started that was 1978
And in that the R's learned the lesson that American's really loves rhetoric of cutting taxes.
Even the simple things require a supportive ambiance.
Wounded Bear
(58,726 posts)Samrob
(4,298 posts)One small message at a time to the public. Educate as we demonstrate. Your message is right on target, clear and can be understood by all citizens. We won't change all their minds, but give it a chance to enlighten a few. Many have never heard that message.
malaise
(269,202 posts)He really is JoeScum
onecaliberal
(32,916 posts)This is 100% their own doing.
Bluethroughu
(5,202 posts)Fighting Bob Lafollette, fought against this corruption in the early 1900's along with unions(workers), socialists and communists. They pressured FDR to work for the people and they(rich) hated him for it. They even had a plot to take over during his administration. They greedy rich never have enough and never give up trying to take more.
FDR did save capitalism, but that was not good enough.
The rich hate FREEDOM, they want monopolies, no taxes, slave labor and less interference in control of the country, it's people and their assets. The rich want autocratic dictatorships.
malaise
(269,202 posts)Bluethroughu
(5,202 posts)There are more of us then there are of them.
The ones that were easily distracted by Shiny things are finding out they bought fools' gold.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,468 posts)We form a government to protect us -- from enemies within and without. When one group gains too much influence, the protections break down and we have to fight to regain equalities and protections lost, rather than working to get closer to the ideal.
Since the Powell memo, Reaganism, Fox, and Kochs, the one group with too much influence has been the ultra-rich. Piece by piece it has bent government to aid its takeover of government.
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/meet-the-economist-behind-the-one-percents-stealth-takeover-of-america
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/26/koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-rightwing-political-group
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216877108
https://theintercept.com/2022/06/30/supreme-court-epa-climate-charles-koch/
https://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/
https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/16/fcc-repeals-decades-old-rules-on-media-monopolies/
malaise
(269,202 posts)Thanks😀
TigressDem
(5,125 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 5, 2023, 03:01 PM - Edit history (2)
WHICH IS WHY the reich Rich fear the IRS being "weaponized" by hiring enough people to handle the ENORMOUS returns and DOCs needed to audit those with money to burn and shadow companies to hide profits, bodies etc...
https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/the-case-for-a-robust-attack-on-the-tax-gap
The tax gap can be a major source of inequity. Todays tax code contains two sets of rules: one for regular wage and salary workers who report virtually all the income they earn; and another for wealthy taxpayers, who are often able to avoid a large share of the taxes they owe. As Table 1 demonstrates, estimates from academic researchers suggest that more than $160 billion lost annually is from taxes that top 1 percent choose not to pay
ADD: 374 BILLION to that if we include the 9% below the top 1% or a total of 537 BILLION in reclaimed taxes from those profiting MOST off the rest of US.
$537,000,000,000 could PUNCH the National Debt right in the face..... approx.... $31,486,734,769,000
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
EVEN IF YOU BUY THE MEME that the top HALF or top 50% pay 97% of taxes....
That is BECAUSE the bottom 50% HAS ONLY 3% of the income.
SO THEY PAY TAXES on their 3% and the top 50% pays taxes on the 97% they collectively have.
BITCHING AT THE POOR gives you ZERO Cents. BUT the RICH gained $4 Trillion off the rest of US from 2000 to 2020.
Bottom 50% is PAYING THEIR SHARE. Top 1% is raking in TRILLIONS and sheltering their wealth from paying taxes.
malaise
(269,202 posts)Thanks
Duppers
(28,127 posts)malaise
(269,202 posts)charts , graphs, figures and links 😀
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Many thanks for the OP.
Martin68
(22,900 posts)take no prisoners, never give an inch, and demonize your opponents approach is a more direct ancestor of what we're seeing now. Nixon weaponized dirty tricks and Reagan tried to dismantle government and normalized an extreme right wing view that blamed government for everything that goes wrong - but Newt weaponized hatred, chaos and dysfunction.
malaise
(269,202 posts)Who shattered their myths about the African-American President
Martin68
(22,900 posts)racism for all to see. Ever since Nixon, and heightened by Reagan, the GOP has depended on racism to get votes.
republianmushroom
(13,722 posts)GreenWave
(6,773 posts)diva77
(7,663 posts)I love your "Let me make this pellucidly clear" posts -- just trying to understand every last detail in this one!
malaise
(269,202 posts)See #13 for why
mwb970
(11,367 posts)I can see that I'm the only one, but I can't help it. Calling them as I see them here.
diva77
(7,663 posts)I regard the repeated headline as a sort of whimsical hook (not pretentious) to catch your eye so you'll be sure to read the content within which is usually a matter of great import.
But...as always, you're entitled to your opinion.
mwb970
(11,367 posts)nightwing1240
(1,996 posts)You had me when you said that!
Their chickens have come home to roost. Screw em all indeed!
calimary
(81,523 posts)That bastard really turned the tide - ALL in the wrong direction.
nightwing1240
(1,996 posts)Well said calimary!
malaise
(269,202 posts)The Reagan/Thatcher doctrine effed up the entire planet
nightwing1240
(1,996 posts)World wide really!
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)I've believed this since before I was old enough to vote and I have seen no reason to change my mind: never, ever vote for a Republican.
malaise
(269,202 posts)I agree
Initech
(100,107 posts)The one-siderism of Fox News, Limbaugh, Alex Jones, and all that shit is how we got to this point. Fox is playing a systematic part in the destruction of our education system and they're 100% responsible for getting fucking idiots like Boebert, Greene, Gaetz, Abbott, Desantis and Trump into office. It's hilarious watching Hannity and Pirro attempt to backtrack what they've created. Sorry guys, the cat's out of the bag.
tosh
(4,424 posts)That is all.
Id be a terrible leader - unqualified for starters and way too old. s😀😀
tosh
(4,424 posts)put you in charge of messaging! I'm serious!
malaise
(269,202 posts)Beartracks
(12,821 posts)... are most definitely THE problem.
=========
RocRizzo55
(980 posts)May he rot in hell.
The Wizard
(12,551 posts)writes the tax code.
but they are way past the bribing class these days- they own them now