Neal Starkman


Let’s Hear It for the Republicans!


Sometimes–particularly with political issues–I can tend to be slightly negative. No, no, it’s true. But I want to be positive in this piece; I want to single out the Republicans in the United States Senate for their single-mindedness and persistence.

To summarize: A decade ago President George W. Bush gave tax breaks to the American people; the legislation was enacted with the proviso that it would elapse this year. Now it has elapsed, and Republicans want–really want–the tax breaks to continue. Democrats are okay with tax breaks going to individuals earning under $200,000 and couples earning under $250,000, but they don’t want the breaks going to, well, rich people.

The Republicans say that their legislative priority is giving those tax breaks to rich people (they say “small businesses,” but everyone knows that once businesses start bringing in money like that, they’re really not considered small anymore). In fact, they say–and every single one of them is on record for saying this, in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid–until that happens, nothing else will happen. No piece of legislation will move forward.

Okay, right off the bat you’ve got to recognize their stick-to-itiveness in the face of important bills coming to the Senate floor. Unemployment compensation has elapsed, and so millions of Americans will be left to fend for themselves during the holiday season, in many cases with no money to pay for food, gifts, rent, or mortgage. Then there’s immigration reform. And the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. And the nuclear arms treaty with Russia. And food safety bills. And a myriad of other legislation that many people view as critical.

It would have been easy for Republicans to say, all right, a family going to bed at night cold and hungry and wondering if they’ll be thrown out of their apartment at the beginning of the month is more important than giving more money to millionaires and billionaires. And so is discrimination against members of our armed forces. And the safety of the country from nuclear attack. And so on. But they didn’t say that; they stuck to their principles.

Then there are all the economists who point out that giving money to poor people strengthens the economy, because those people almost immediately spend that money, whereas giving money to rich people doesn’t really do much; they allege that rich people having more money over the past decade didn’t help the economy one bit. Furthermore, giving that much money to rich people tremendously exacerbates the deficit.

It would have been easy for Republicans to say, all right, we’ve been harping about the deficit for a long time now, and it would be hypocritical for us to make matters much worse in order to pay off our benefactors. But they didn’t say that; they stuck to their principles.

And then there are those who assert that Senators are elected to put the country first, not narrow corporate interests. They claim that Republicans are more concerned with making President Obama fail than with compromising to bring about effective legislation.

It would have been easy for Republicans to say, all right, we’ll put aside partisan politics because we’re in an economic emergency now and people are hurting and attitudes about Congress are getting really negative and it’s just morally right to try to move forward. But they didn’t say that; they stuck to their principles.

Look, being rich isn’t all about yachts and vacation homes, or so I hear from rich people. Many of these people made their millions the hard way–by working their way up to positions of responsibility, by sucking up to people even viler than they are, by not pissing off their parents who left them their money, by delivering services and products that people wanted, at least until the bubble burst. Rich people have feelings, too, and just because everyone else is hurting is no reason to punish them. They didn’t cause this recession. Well, even if they did, they can’t be expected to bear the entire burden.

So let’s hear it for the Republicans. They’re sticking to their principles, every single one of them–not like those Democrats who tend to think haphazardly. And they can do all this when they’re not even in the majority! They’re justifying the electorate’s faith in them. They’re not backing down until all millionaires feel safe and secure that the government won’t take any more of their hard-earned–or ill-wrought, whatever the case may be–money. No more Socialist/Fascist government for us.

That’s the Republican way. That’s the American way.

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Neal Starkman