What one retired educator has to say to Ohio educators (and others) who vote Republican......
Educators--Are you still A Republican? Then read this list and consider what you are voting for today. If you disagree with the current GOP positions on even a few of these, then why are you voting for any Republican? This list was compiled by a former Republican, now an independent, from the words and actions of today’s Republican leaders. The figures come from the Congressional Budget Office.
1. Workers have no right to bargain for working conditions or wages.
2. Medicare and Social Security were a mistake and should be ended or at least privatized.
3. Government should have no role in our lives other than supporting big business and fighting wars.
4. Teachers, police, firefighters, and in fact all public workers are the cause of Ohio’s budget problems. Even in view of the fact that Bush crashed the economy and created no net private sector jobs in eight years, and tax revenues tanked along with the U.S. economy.
5. Medicaid helps the lazy and should be ended or greatly reduced. Destitute seniors have just lived too long, and should be taken care of by family members. Those without families are just out of luck. We can just go back to the way it was in the 1920’s. You want your country back--back to the turn of century.
6. The government should control a women’s reproductive life.
7. Women should not earn equal pay with men.
8. You love the fetus, but hate the child.
9. Government supported food and healthcare programs for children like CHIPS are a waste of our tax money. Kids are not the future of our country, corporations are.
10. Child labor laws are not needed today and should be reduced to allow for under-aged workers to work longer hours. Missouri and Maine have already done this, and other red states are thinking about doing the same. Will Ohio be next?
11. Our wars and military actions should be fought by kids from the lower and middle class because they need the jobs. The draft is unfair because wealthy families may lose their sons and daughters in combat.
12. Returning Veterans benefits need to be cut. They are just a drag on our economy and military pension should be switched to a defined contribution plan. Homeless veterans are just a myth—Bill O’Reilley.
13. Stealing wealth from the poor and giving it to the top 10% is a good American virtue. The last decade has seen the greatest shift in wealth to the top in our nation’s history, which is just great for the economy. Corporations are “people”--really wealthy ones, to say the least.
14. Corporate money should control our elections. After all, they have your best interest at heart even if you are in the middle class or poor. “Corporate takeover of our Democracy is good for America”, Steven Moore -- the Wall Street Journal.
15. The middle class did not create the economic boom in the 1950s, it was the wealthy. They were paying a top tax rate of 91% then and were fine with it.
16. The top 10% are the job creators in spite of the fact that there is no evidence to support this claim. Remember the Bush years?
17. The Bush years never happened, and all the debt that came due under Obama is his entire fault. Just like the depression was Roosevelt’s fault.
18. All government services should be privatized thereby draining public treasuries into profit for political cronies and CEO’s because they care about all of us. A totally free market would work like it did during the Robber Baron era.
19. We don’t need Nixon’s EPA or the Clean Water Act because Corporations will police themselves.
20. Rivers have never caught on fire in the U.S.
21. Republicans don’t drink the water or breathe the same air like the rest of us.
22. It’s OK that the U.S. healthcare system is ranked 41st. in the world, and at the bottom of western countries in terms of outcomes and coverage for its citizens. Yet we spend 10x more on healthcare than other nations ranked above us. It is OK with you that our for-profit healthcare system puts U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage and kills thousands of Americans every year.
23. Only the wealthy should have healthcare. It is just the natural order of things. Healthcare is not a human necessity, certainly not a right.
24. You think Healthcare Insurance Companies should decide your treatment and not your doctor.
25. You like the Insurance Companies’ death panels. Remember pre-existing conditions, which the new healthcare act eliminates, but you want to go back to those days. It is OK with you if the pre-existing conditions clause in your policy is brought back. Obamacare eliminated it.
26. It is OK with you that in the U.S., the richest country in the world, you can lose your home if you or a family member gets truly sick. This happens in no other country in the western world.
27. It is OK with you if we have the highest infant mortality rate of any western country and on a par with some third world countries.
28. The eight years of Bush never happened.
29. Iraq was responsible for 9/11.
30. We should get away from support of public education and go to a charter school system run for profit. Schools are a business and kids are a product.
31. Only the rich should be able to send their kids to college.
32. There is no need for the minimum wage. Lower wages mean there will be more jobs. After all Bush said, “working three jobs is typically American.”
33. It is good for workers to give tax breaks to Corporations that ship jobs overseas. You are fine that your taxes were used to end your job.
34. You are fine with paying more taxes than GE. You think the corporate tax rate is too high even though most pay far less and the rate is at a 30 year or more low.
35. The defense budget has doubled since 1997, but we can’t cut it even though we pay more for defense than all the next 12 highest countries added together. US tax payers should keep paying to defend European Countries and support the 800+ military bases we have around the world.
36. The Military should be privatized whenever possible. Hallibuton etc. have done such a wonderful job. Sure it cost us ten times as much and soldiers were electrocuted in their showers (collateral damage).
37. The banks and Wall Street do not need to be regulated. They are all honest, and have the country’s welfare at heart, and should be able to do whatever they want. Remember the 1920’s or even 2008.
38. The new Consumer Commission is not needed. Are you in foreclosure yet? How is your 401k doing? Do you have credit cards and have you used a hand lens to read the fine print yet?
39. You believe the lie that the so called “Obamacare” is a government take of healthcare, and cost us too much money when in fact it turns even more healthcare over to Corporations and it actually saves us money and extends the life of Medicare 10 years.
40. You believe that there are death panels in the new Affordable Healthcare Bill.
41. You realize that Republicans wrote most of the Healthcare bill.
42. We don’t need a strong middle class.
43. Not all citizens should have the right to vote. Voter suppression is fine with you. Do you and all family members have a government ID? Passports only cost a little over $200. The founder of the Tea Party Nation believes that only property owners have the right to vote. What about women or minorities? I remember Jim Crow, do you?
44. Our food, medicines, and planes etc. don’t need to be inspected.
45. High-speed rail is a waste of money even though it is the most economic way to move people and goods. It’s also more environmentally friendly than your car. California thanked Kasich for all the money we sent their way when our Governor turned down the High Speed Rail funds.
46. Kasich thinks about the middle class and the poor before Corporations and his Wall Street cronies. Why are so many former Regan administration advisors and leaders speaking out against the current GOP lies that tax breaks and spending cuts will solve all our problems? Could it be that just maybe they feel that it is time to start to think what is best for the country and not just wealthy donors? Yes, there are some Blue Dog Democrats who are the problem also, but every single Republican thinks about their wealthy 1% handlers first. You know.... Wall Street, and Banks.
47. Medicare Part D should not be allowed to bargain with drug companies like the western European countries and our Veterans Administration does. It is fair that we pay the highest drug costs in the world. After all, we have to keep the big money going to Congress.
48. The US is now ranked 45th in income equity. Are you in the top 10% or 2%? Then maybe you should start to vote in your best economic interests.
49. The top 2% has more wealth than 50% of the rest of us. 30 years of conservative economics has driven us into a two class society.
50. You earn more than $250,000 a year. If not, you are voting against you own best economic reason.
51. You believe that the GOP is the Christian party. I mean, Christ taught us to steal from the poor and give to the rich, and to have charity and compassion for none.
52. Wages for the lower and middle class have flat-lined over the last 30 years while the curve for the increased wealth of the top 10% looks like the slope of Mt. Everest. This is Reaganomics at its best. David Stockton, the father of the trickle down theory, is now going around the country telling anyone who will listen that he was wrong.
53. The CBO credits the stimulus package, passed by Congress, with saving over 1 million jobs, yet you believe this is a lie even though you may be one of the teachers who were not laid off. You also did not notice all the road repairs that were done with the stimulus fund and the state budgets that were saved like those in Texas and Ohio. You don’t work in the American auto industry.
54. Obama has deported more illegals in three years than Bush did in eight. Yet you think he is soft on illegal immigration.
55. A family with an annual income of $22,350 or less is considered at or below the poverty level. Fox news and the Heritage Foundation were outraged that 99.6% of these families had a refrigerator. You don’t see this outrage as morally wrong or just perhaps the real class warfare.
56. Thanks to Obama you are paying the lowest taxes in 50 years. Yet you believe the lie that Obama raised and wants to raise your taxes raised even more.
57.47 million Americans can’t feed their families and 1 in 4 children live in poverty and 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty. Yet you voted for the people who want to do away with the free school lunch program which provides the only hot meal a child may get 5 days out of 7. As an educator I and I assume you have seen this, yet you support those who want to end the program. If so, I have to ask how do you sleep at night and why are you teaching?
58. For every dollar the U.S. spends on the food stamp program, the economy gets $1.08 back. Yet you want to cut or end the program--after all the poor are just lazy.
59. 54 million Americans are without healthcare insurance. 71% of private sector workers and 26% of all Texans are without healthcare--you know, the Texas miracle?
60. The problem with U.S. education today is there are so many bad teachers and administrators. Wake up, as they are coming after you. Experienced or tenured teachers are lazy and just too expensive.
The list could go on and on. When you vote Republican today you are aiding the people who want to do you harm if you are not in even the top 10% in terms of wealth. Stop and realize what has happened to the party I once belonged to and that you still think exists. If you earn over $250,000, you may have some reason to vote for the GOP in Ohio after all… the GOP now stands for Greed Over Principle.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 10:12 PM
