C'mon GOP, urge your flock to REFUSE their stimulus benefits.

[RBInMaine]

Hi folks. Here is a letter I just sent to some Republicans. I hope all Dems will write letters to the editor and letters to Republican officials in the same vein. We should start a national movement with this message. ENJOY !! : "Hello Republicans. Tell me now, just how many of your Republican governors, Republican mayors, Republican town and city council members, Republican school board members, Republican business owners, and Republican individuals are going to REFUSE their stimulus bill benefits? Come on now right wingers, the stimulus bill is terrible, right? It is "socialism," right? It is horrible, and awful, and won't work, right? So therefore, I expect every single one of you to REFUSE your stimulus bill tax cuts. Yes, I expect you to send them back to the U.S. Treasury. Also, I expect every single Republican congressional member who voted against it to send a letter to every one of his or her Republican constituents urging them to return their tax cuts to the Treasury in protest. Also, I expect the Republicans to tell all their laid-off Republican constituents to refuse to accept their extended unemployment benefits and any other benefit they receive under the plan immediately. Every Republican governor, mayor, city council member, and school board member must REFUSE to accept any aid for their states and local communities and school systems included in this bill. Yes, they must refuse it and send letters to every one of their Republican residents insisting that they do the same. Yes, you Republicans must all write letters to the editors of your local papers urging all Republicans to refuse their benefits and for all Republican officials to refuse them. You must also NOT vote for any Republican office-holder or candidate who accepts the benefits. You must start a national campaign urging every Republican in the country to completely refuse these benefits and return them to the U.S. Treasury. Rush and his dittoheads must all send back their tax cuts, and Rush must go national with a radio campaign ordering his flock and all other Republicans to do so. Every right wing organization in the country, and every Republican Party organization from the local to national level must do the same. They must start "The Great National Refuse Your Stimulus Bill Benefits Campaign." Go ahead right wingers. Put your money, literally, where your mouths are. I dare you. Yeah, go ahead, and even your own rank and fill will run you out of office on a rail. Go ahead. Make my day. Prove to all of us Democrats and Independents just how "principled" you really are."

[drm604]

1. K&R

:kick:

[samplegirl]

2. Right On!!!

K&R

[spartan61]

3. WOW!!! Love this!!! Great idea.

[RBInMaine]

4. I just sent it to the Maine GOP and as a letter to the editor of a big Maine paper.

[spartan61]

5. That's great!!!

Which Maine paper? I live in Maine (Belgrade Lakes area) in the summertime and I was going to send this to the Waterville Sentinel and also to the local Florida paper that is a repuke rag.

[RBInMaine]

8. I sent it to the Kennebec Journal, the Sentinal's twin right wing rag.

[dansolo]

17. Didn't Collins and Snowe vote for it?

Unfortunately, they were on our side on this one, so the argument wouldn't work on them.

[sampsonblk]

6. RB, this argument was dumb when THEY used it in 2001...

and it has not improved in the intervening years.

[RBInMaine]

7. Nope. Apples and oranges. Here's why:

1) In '01 there was not nearly the sort of crisis and urgency we have now. 2) The '01 bill was all tax cuts (over a ten-year period), no investment money stimulus for state and local governments, no effort toward re-structuring the economy for the future, shoring up unemployment benefits, working on healthcare and home foreclosure, etc. Dynamics and circumstances now are very, very different as are the nature of the two bills. 3) Most Democrats voted against it in '01, but there was still significantly more bi-partisan support than what we just got with Obama's bill, and nowhere near the kind of rancor and lockstep opposition we just saw out of the R's. D's wanted tax cuts too, just more weighted to the middle class and not as big a bill.

VERY, VERY different situation. Sorry friend, but that was then and this is now. A very different scenario.

[sampsonblk]

12. NO, that doesnt do it

The issue is not the nature of the crisis.

The bill for Bush's tax cuts is still going to be paid by my grandchildren whether I give it back or not. So giving it back was never an option - even though I opposed the tax cuts because they were dumb. I could opt out of the $600 check, but I couldn't not opt out of the bill for it, which will be paid by future generations. Same goes for this stimulus. It belongs to all of us now, whether we were for it or against it. So giving back some of it is foolish.

I also suspect that in both cases, if some people could actually opt out of the whole thing, they would.

[RBInMaine]

14. What you say doesn't change the FACT that the two situations are very, very different.

I say again, most Dems (maybe not you) were in favor of a large tax cut bill in '01. The haggle was over the overall size and how progressive the final package would be. Dems did not glue themselves together in Nazi-like lockstep and go in front of the cameras and the country spewing out the Republican brand of gutter talk about how "awful" the tax cut bill was, how it "stinks," how it "won't work," how it will be a "national disaster," .... In '01, 12 Dems voted for the tax cut bill in the Senate. 28 Dems voted for it in the House. That's 40 congressional Democrats voting yes in '01 when we were in the minority in both chambers. We got just 3 Republicans on our stimulus bill. This is a very different bill with many economic stimulus investments included with future dividends, infrastucture projects and restructuring, etc. A very, very different bill and at a very, very different time. Yes, it adds to the deficit now, but pays much more of a social and economic dividend than a mere tax cut in the future. Also, President Obama and Dems will be taking up significant budget discipline work a little later down the road, so we'll see where that goes. In this economic crisis situation, R's should be held highly accontable for their naysaying. If they think this bill is so awful, let them refuse the money. The have every right and ability to refuse it.

[Hello_Kitty]

18. You do know that hardly anyone benefitted from the Bush tax cuts, don't you? eom

[RBInMaine]

19. The RICH benefitted from them, primarily.

[Triana]

9. Yea good luck getting them to walk their talk (ie: their partisan propaganda)

Won't happen. But - NICE letter. We should definitely turn this into a high-profile national movement just to embarrass sh*t out of them.

[bdamomma]

10. well it seems more are jumping on the wagon.

Bobby Jindal and Rick Perry.

[RBInMaine]

16. Good ! And look what will happen to them when their mayors and school boards SCREAM !!

[firedupdem]

11. Excellent! I have forwarded it to the repuke from Nebraska. I'm

sure he has me on some sort of block so I'm faxing it too!

[Vinca]

13. It's genetically impossible for a Republican to refuse money.

Nice letter, though.

[RBInMaine]

15. Of course. That's the beauty of it. Make them look like the HYPOCRITES that they are !