Last Friday published my article entitled, The Third and Fourth Rails of American Politics, outlining Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott’s plan to decimate Social Security and Medicare.
But that’s just part of the overall plan of ex-president Donald Trump and his Congressional Republican minions to make the rich richer and the working-class and the poor even poorer.
A Reverse Robinhood Operation
Their overall plan is actually a reverse Robinhood operation. As you’ll recall, Robinhood stole from the rich and redistributed the proceeds to the poor. The Make America Great Again Republican politicians want to steal from the poor and working-class and give to the rich.
For decades, Republican political leaders—most notably, President Ronald Reagan – have advanced what became known as the “trickle- down theory.” It was very easy to understand.
Tax rates – especially those on personal income – were far too high. They were a great work disincentive, especially for the rich. Reagan asked why anyone in a high personal income tax bracket would even be willing to work. So, he persuaded Congress t slash the top personal income tax bracket from seventy percent to just twenty-eight percent.
Did the plan work? Actually, the tax cuts were great for the rich, but regretfully, very little of this financial windfall trickled down to poor and working-class Americans.
Today, MAGA Republican politicians argue our taxes and federal government spending are far too high. If we drastically cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending, then we could not only have massive tax cuts, but we could drastically reduce the federal government deficit.
So, let’s sort out the big winners and losers. Since the average rich person pays much more in federal income taxes than the average working-class and poor person, the lion’s share of the tax cut would go to the rich.
And if we sharply cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid spending, this would disproportionately hurt the poor and working-class who depend on these programs just to keep themselves alive.
How, exactly, would the folks in the bottom third of all income earners benefit from these cuts? “Oh Now I can see how well I can get by on a much lower standard of living!”
Bread-And-Butter Issues
How stupid the MAGA voters? On bread-and-butter issues – especially federal government taxing and spending — their stupidity is monumental. They will flock to the polls tomorrow to vote for Republican House and Senate candidates who will continue cutting the taxes of the rich.
While starving the vital government spending programs that provide economic lifelines to the poor and working class. They are so dumb, they actually vote against their own economic interests.
From the massive Reagan tax cuts in the 1980s to the $1.7 trillion Trump tax cut in 2017, working class and poor Republican voters believed these cuts were just fine. And if you cut food stamps, Medicare, Medicare and Social Security benefits, that too would be great!
But there’s more! Donald Trump and his Republican Congressional allies have trotted out two groups of villains for their poor and working-class supporters to hate. These two groups disproportionately occupy the bottom rungs of our nation’s occupational ladder.
The United States is being overrun by millions of undocumented immigrants – most of whom are drug smugglers and violent criminals. These hordes are not limited to Mexicans and Central Americans. They’re also from what Trump termed “shithole countries” of Africa.
But all the violent crimes committed in America could not be pinned on immigrants. Even more are committed by young Black men who were born here. Well, since we can’t deport them, all we can and do lock them up and throw away the key.
Never mind that our “criminal justice” system is so stacked against young Black men that we have become inured to their being murdered in police custody, often while under arrest for such serious crimes as illegally selling cigarettes, trying to pass a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, or “driving while Black.”
As it happens, illegal immigrants and young Black men commit just a small fraction of the violent crimes in America. But we need one to blame, so why not just round up the usual suspects?
Trump’s vast political fan club almost gleefully nurses its resentment of the rich and overeducated Democratic elite. Meanwhile, their dear leader is robbing them blind.
Trump and his political minions tell their dupes that they will solve all our problems — whether real or imagined. But if anyone looked behind the curtain, they’d see a career criminal and con man along with his gutless political followers who will do anything to hang on to their jobs in the House and Senate.
If they succeed in grabbing a monopoly of political power over the next two years, then the only promise they will keep is to utterly destroy our democratic form of government. If they win big tomorrow, they’ll already be halfway there.
