Question: How Does Making America Go Broke Benefit the GOP?

[renie408]

I have heard this a lot. I have heard it here and I have heard peoplein person say it. I keep hearing it like "Of course, they want to make America go broke." I never want to look stupid, so I just nod and say, "Oh, yeah!"

But the truth is that I am not real clear on how that is good for them. It doesn't make sense to me. That may be because I don't think like them, though.

Thanks!

[WCGreen]

1. Well, if all the government does is pay interest on the debt

and buy stuff from GOP owned companies, the taxes will go down and they will keep more of their money...

At lest that seems to be the rationale....

[renie408]

6. Ok...

Is it just me, or is that really stupid? Not what you said, I mean, that they think that way. Don't they get that even if you don't want a gigunda government, a robust government that supports itself is best to support the people? Even the rich people?

[WCGreen]

12. They firmly believe they have enough money to take care

of their own needs...

That money is the ultimate weapon against anything that comes down the pike...

But they forget that the government, ou government, is really in the business of protecting property....

And if the government goes away, all that protection, the courts, the Uniform Commercial code, the interstate commerce clause, will cease to exist and their money and assets will only be as valuable as the guns they have stashed away....

Read Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe.....

[salin]

21. have to seperate joe normal voters

who fall for rhetoric that appeals to "i wanna pay less taxes" (in the magnitude of a few hundred bucks)

from the powers that be who are implementing the policies that are bankrupting us.

joe normal buys the rhetoric and the confidence that these folks in power know what they are doing and all will be okay - joe normal doesn't see that we are heading into a collapsing economic situation for our govt.

powers that be are just concerned with making as much money as quickly as possible. With a global market - there is no allegiance to the US. Who cares if joe normal has no power in california - we figured out a great angle to extract BILLIONS for our energy companies! WooHoo! Aren't we the bomb! Oh - lets force US companies to manufacture in China - cheaper labor - and as that economy grows - we have our fingers in their markets and make money there, too!

No allegiance to this country.

But joe normal voting for them doesn't see it. Just likes the "save taxes" at a nominal rate rhetoric. And falls for the scare tactics rhetoric - thinks the thief is keeping him safe.

[renie408]

23. Yeah, I had this brain damaging conversation

with a Repuke about two weeks ago about that. They kept saying they were better off now because they paid less tax. I tried to explain inflation and real dollars and lowered median income and gas prices and your dollar not going as far as it did under Clinton. I thought I had done really well and the gooober just said, "Whatever. I know what I pay in taxes and I pay less taxes now." This was right before they told me that Christians are persecuted in this country and they needed a President who stood up for them.

Its like trying to explain this stuff to my German Shephard, Sasha. Except, Sasha is a really smart dog and probably understands a little better.

[NVMojo]

2. THEY WANT TO DESTORY ANY PROGRAM THAT FDR PUT IN

PLACE! AND THIS INCLUDES OVERSIGHT ON CORRUPT MONOPOLY CORPORATIONS! They own big favors to the companies who buttered their campaign bread and leading to the collapse of America is not what they are totally focused on. They believe it will all work out as privatization happens, in spite of any pain they cause. It's not about people in their belief system, it's about power and profit.

[metisnation]

3. Answer: Read Please

Well if they bankrupt the system they know they can cut programs they view as entitlement or what they think is welfare. In addition, they are optimistic that T-Bills will go up and banks will need money so older people can cash in their investments into secure 7 or 8 percent guarantees versus where they are now at 2 or 3.

[NVMojo]

17. what about the handicapped? They always forget those on social

security who have no other options ...these neocons are anti-life and it's time to face it.

[Lindacooks]

34. They don't give a flying eff about the handicapped.

I'm sure somewhere in their tiny little minds they think that being handicapped was 'God's' punishment for something and the handicapped just have to live with it.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Because the wealth of this country is concentrated in a few hands

And they will not lose it no matter what happens to the working people of this country. You look at any poverty stricken 3rd world country and there will always be a small, obscenely wealthy upper class. If (or let's face it - when) we go 3rd world it will be the same here.

The GOP economic vision enable the super-rich to hold on to more of their wealth and they won't even have to pretend to be concerned about their workers or the safety of consumers.

[Atman]

5. It doesn't. It benefits the uber rich and the corporations.

The selfish upper 1% who think all welfare moms are crack whores, and that art is unnecessary, and schools should be private and all services should be privitized. If there is no money left to pay for anything, then they've achieved their goal. Everything will have to be privitized. Once the "New Deal" is torn up, it will be virtually impossible to bring it back. They know this. They are counting on it. They've stuffed their metaphorical mattresses with our cash, the treasury's cash, so they'll be ready for the fall, and it will be painless to them. But to the rest of us, watch out.

[salin]

15. see my post below - I don't think they care a whit

about welfare moms or welfare or anything else. They have no allegiance to country anymore - with globalization of wealth (eg multinational corporations) they simply care about making as much money as possible - the faster the better. They care no more or less about a welfare mom than they do about the cop on the beat, the fireman, the local butcher. They veiw everything as a potential source to get more wealth.

[MADem]

7. Cheap labor (costly here in the US), depressed prices on property

and that is just for starters. A good investment when you buy low, sell high....

The rich got richer during the Great Depression.

[jobycom]

8. Not for the GOP, but for the neocon ideologues

The neocons believe that government should only help business (the business of government is business, as Coolidge used to say). They want to end the social spending in America, from welfare to state infrastructure assistance. Bankrupt the federal government, and Congress has to cut all spending programs.

The GOP half goes along because they aren't very smart. They want tax cuts, and think that ending social programs will give them all more money to spend (kind of like killing the goose for the golden eggs). Also, they want states' rights to rule, so they can reinstate segregationist policies without government interference, and because it's easier to push around state governments.

One of Reagan's cabinet members, actually slipped up and said this was their plan under Reagan. He got fired for it. But it is their plan.

[texpatriot2004]

36. I agree, not the real, true GOP but the NEOCON PNAC people. nt

[RandomKoolzip]

40. David Stockman?

Was that the guy's name?

[melody]

9. Some suggest the GOP is now controlled by multi-national, anti-US forces

Our downfall seems awfully well-timed to suit the big banking interests of "the US Global Group/European Union" (read that: world totalitarians...this has as little to do with the European people as it does with North Americans). Yes, a little tin foil hat may be entitled here, but one does wonder...

[hansberrym]

32. Seems more than plausible considering the leadership of the GOP

is pushing us into "trade agreements" which are much more than agreements on trade policies, and are more like governmental structures apart from and superior to our own constitutional republic.


Give a listen (real player) to the below Lou Dobbs segment, but it shouldn't come as any surprise given all the new world order crap the Bush's have been spewing.


rtsp://205.178.146.15/283415.287783/Dobbs_SPP.rm

[Totally Committed]

10. It leaves no more money for "Entitlement" like

Medicare and Medicaid and Food Stamps and things they think people shoudln't get from the government anyway. It's called "Starving the Beast". And, yes, Bush is stupid and a dupe, but the people who are around him are not, and know exactly what they're doing, and have from the start.

If the rich have all the money, and they don't even have enough to raise the minimum wage, they also have the power.

TC

[salin]

16. I think it goes far deeper than that. That is just the rhetoric used

to package their politicians by pandering to the basest interests of some voters. The debt they have run up does far more than lead to the likely end of entitlements. It is enough to crash the entire economy (due to the level of debt) - ala the crashing of the old Soviet Union. Funny same folks helped facilitate that crash, too - but forcing a grossly expensive arms race.

[hwmnbn]

11. The rich have money...

the rest do not. The rich can then wield political power on the evergrowing powerless. They have control of the resources: media, military, government, finance. The powerless are reduced to fight for their survival.

They make laws, enforce their edicts on the poor. The haves will exploit the have-nots.

It is in their interest to eliminate the poor and dispossessed. It is ethnic cleansing using the economic gun.

[welshTerrier2]

13. government was the last possible restraining force to corporate power

the goal has never been "smaller" government; the goal has never been a "bankrupt" government; the real goal is a "weaker" government unable to ensure that corporate, special interests act in the best interests of the American people ...

[salin]

14. The truley wealthy and powerful no longer are aligned with a country

but instead with international investments. Thus as long as they are getting more wealthy - it doesn't matter how this country fares - rather irrelevant. When us consumers can no longer fuel the consumption needed to make the really wealthy more money - they will turn to other markets. Due to globalization of markets (and wealth) there is no real concern or allegiance to a country, let alone to our country.

[flordehinojos]

18. does the word supremacy have something to do with it?

A FEW OWN THE RICHES. the majority--the have nots--are owned by them.
Indented Servitude and that sort of thing.
Bush needs to step on people to feel big and powerful. there are a few jackasses who suffer from the same identical malignancy:supremacy!

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hansberrym]

33. Take heart Robodoon1, we the people are waking up

I count more than 5 other people on this thread who get it.

[Ignacio Upton]

19. When China becomes a superpower, will they regret it?

The War on Terror/Republican fiscal recklessness/Iraq, will do to our credit what World War I and World War II did to Britain in terms of economic supremacy.

[salin]

20. No, as they will be making oodles of money in China

they being the current powerstobe in the GOP who are pushing the policies of bankrupting our govt and way of life.

[renie408]

22. Well, shit.

That is all pretty damn scary. And the very scariest part is that to fund all this they have blended the elements of homophobia, religion and gung ho stupidity to appeal to their under-informed base. It is scary because their base are the people least able to afford what they are doing.

[aion]

24. Break Bank, Cause Depression, Prices Drop, Money Buys More

If you break the bank, and cause a depression, then those people who hold the most cash at the end of the game will be uber-rich when the bottom falls out of pricing.

What does a loaf of bread cost today? A buck? Let's assume that loaf of bread were to drop to $0.10 as a result of depression.

After funneling so much of the nation's wealth into their own coffers, the money grubbing land lubbers will be even more rich after the depression they're so intent upon causing. In the example I gave, they'd be positioned to buy 10x as much bread as they can today.

[0007]

25. The GOP & the Christian Fundies are just a vehicle for

organized crime to operate. Halliburton & the Carlyle Group are good examples.

When this country goes down the tubes do you indeed think you'll find these wealthy criminals living here?

[Disturbed]

26. RW Agenda

Liberal Accomplishments


Social Security;

Medicare-Medicaid;

PeaceCorps;

unemployment insurance;

welfare (for the poor andcorporate);

civil rights;

student grant and loan programs;

safety laws (OSHA);

environmental laws;

prevailing wagelaws;

right to collective bargaining (which brought about

paid medical insurance, paid vacations, pensions, etc.);

workers' compensation;

Marshall Plan;

flood-disasterinsurance;

School Lunch Program;

women's rights.

Fair Labor Standards Act, which
established a minimum wage, instituted child labor laws,
and set up time-and-a-half pay for over a 40-hour week.

FHA-HUD with its public housing, urban
renewal and 44 million residential homes (before WWII
almost 70 percent of our nation were renters; by the 1970s
this had been reversed).

farm-conservation
subsidies -- USDA programs,

Farmers Home Administration (the
bankers didn't want to make rural loans),

small flood-control lakes (more than 3,000 in Oklahoma alone),
rural water districts, rural electricity (REA).

The GI Bill was passed, which the Republicans at the
time bitterly opposed.

FDIC and FSLIC, insuring their deposits, and
saved Wall Street with the establishment of the Securities
Exchange Commission.

*Destoy all of the above.

Bush is not trying to destroy the country - he's trying to destroy the government. The ultimate outcome would be a broad privatization of traditionally government run services, with the end result being that out current tax system would be altered, or abolished. Ever single service, from garbage to water to Education to Health and Human services to well, you get the idea, would become Pay as You Go.

In other words - our capitalist democracy would no longer be suited to support the general welfare. We would become a capitalist fascist corporate state.

[Dr Fate]

27. Because it makes everyone scapegoat people poorer than them.

n/t

[hadrons]

28. gov't has to sell its natural resources for cheap ....

that's how it helps the rich

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Sparkly]

30. "Starve the Beast"

Run up deficits and debt, creating a "need" to cut social programs, creating a permanent underclass.

[nvliberal]

35. All they care about are their corporate and wealthy masters

who believe we should return to the Gilded Age where greed is the highest virtue, and those who are not wealthy are designed to serve their betters.

It's a one-way ticket to the destruction of the United States, but, when people are in thrall with a utopian cult, truth doesn't matter with them.

The only problem is they will take down a lot of people in their insane quest.

[applegrove]

37. If the Dems are so in debt when Bush leaves... there can be no health

care reform. Their hands will be tied.

[jmm]

38. The people at the top of the party only care about themselves

Why should they care about wasting money on levees when upon their breaking Halliburton could get another no bid contract? Why give schools the money they need to run properly, especially in light of the burden No Child Left Behind has put on them, when people could be thrown a few crumbs in the form of another tax cut? Besides I'm sure the people actively gutting programs like Head Start can afford excellent educations for their children.

As Barbara Bush and Tom Delay showed us after Katrina much of the Republican party suffers from a Marie Antoinette syndrome and lacks any true empathy for people who aren't as "well off" as them. But because of lies, deception, media control and slick politicking many don't realize this. Without further rambling the point I'm trying to get to is that making America broke benefits them because it benefits themselves. We're talking about the party of trickle down economics. The people in power have tried to build enough controls into the system that they will always be well off.

[agincourt]

39. Don't assume the rich and powerful are smart,

Many rich people I know are dumber than Burger King employees, they just have gotten damn lucky with financial matters, ie ..inheritance, old boy network, gov't policy etc etc. Many GOP people believe that tax cuts will wipe out deficits eventually , no matter what the Federal budget looks like. There are some Grover Norpig types who literally want high deficits to kill all safety nets. These Nazi literally want the "useless eaters" to die. But more so there are a lot of GOP wealthy who swallow the whole voodoo economics religion, and think we will "grow our way" out of deficits with one tax cut after another. No matter what the federal gov't balance sheet says. They myth of the rich being smart is a legend that has went on for too long.