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Sunday, January 5, 2014

Repugs: The Goal - How to Keep Poor People Poor


It's amazing to me - after decades of programs that have contributed greatly to our standard of living and to the standard of living of others - now the Repugs and RepubliCONS want to get rid of them.

So be it - they have hated these programs and policies for decades - but in the past, they haven't been as adamant about destroying them - and thereby destroying our way of life in the United States.

If you stop for a minute and think about it - we are currently in a time of  
    Corporatocracy
    dollarocracy
    plutocracy, or 
    fascism.  
Therefore anything that is currently pushed by the Repugs
- which is against the policies that have been successful for decades 
- at this point in history 
- are policies meant to benefit only the rich and only the corporations.

Unfortunately the right-wing propaganda documented below is repeated over and over and over and over and over again by the right-wing - - - so most Repugs are too ignorant or lazy - or both to question the validity of the information supplied by their party.

Unfortunately many on the left are not aware of the arguments being published by the Repugs. 
Or even worse do not know how to counter the arguments.
 
An Article Published:
January 02, 2014

Brian Balfour is policy director with the Civitas Institute in Raleigh.

Brian Balfour 

Important to note
2007
Brian Balfour is a policy analyst for the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in Washington, D.C. 
2007
Brian Balfour is a Washington, D.C.-based tax policy analyst and an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland,
Civitas Institute
is funded by Art Pope - an ALECer
who bought the current vile government that has overtaken North Carolina, resulting in cuts to  unemployment benefits, denied Medicaid expansion, the Redistricting Majority Project, or “Redmap, and has worked to drastically restrict voting rights.

An Institute for Southern Studies investigation revealed that the John William Pope Foundation, which Art Pope chairs, supplies more than 85 percent of the income of the leading right-wing groups in North Carolina.

Art Pope is a close ally of billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch, and is a regular invitee of the Koch's secretive gatherings of wealthy political operatives.

three groups backed by Pope -- Americans for Prosperity, Civitas Action and Real Jobs NC -- spent 75% of the outside money that flooded into two dozen North Carolina legislative races
In addition - in response to the hugely successful Moral Monday protests in North Carolina, the Civatis Institute

Progress NC reports that Civitas is using mug shots of individuals arrested during the Moral Monday protests as a "game" on their website.

In their "pick a protestor" game you're presented with mugshots and asked to identify if they're unemployed, where they're from, their profession, etc.

It's a not-so-subtle way to intimidate the protestors that have been arrested and dehumanize them. 
Now that you have the appropriate background - let's go onto the the article published by Brian Balfour of the Civatis Institute.

The article is written by a member of the extreme right wing of the Republican party.  
There is no way they could claim that moderate Republicans agree with most of this article.
Moderate Republicans see this article for the crap it is.

But because the extremist RepubliCONs voices are the loudest right now - we need to pay attention.

The snips below are less than a 150 words of the article - if you want to read the whole thing and get sick - you can follow the link above.

How to Keep Poor People Poor
by: Brian Balfour 
If I wanted to keep poor people poor, there are several government policies I would favor. 
Programs like Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance, etc.
Perfect poverty traps. 
that prevent them from climbing out of poverty.
You deserve to live in the street, under a bridge - and starve.
Let 'em starve
Let 'em die.
It's 100% their fault that they need these programs.
Off with their damn heads.  (A tribute to Grover Norquist)

The Repugs in Congress right now are attacking each of these.
I just can't imagine that every person in their family is wealthy
  - therefore, they are telling their own relatives
  - you're worthless, you're a piece of crap.
You deserve to live in the street, under a bridge - - and starve.
If I wanted to keep poor people poor, I also would finance the welfare state poverty trap through punitive taxes on the job and wealth creators of society.

Evidently that's not good enough.

Since Republicans rededicated themselves to slashing taxes for the wealthy in 1997, the average annual income of the 400 richest Americans has more than tripled, to $345 million – while their share of the tax burden has plunged by 40 percent.

Evidently they don't want to have to pay any taxes for the commons that they use also.
Being privileged like they are 
  - they want the 99% to provide the commons for them 
  - they want the 99% to provide the infrastructure they make their millions and billions on.
Not only are our bodies suppose to be used to make them money 
   more of our money is to be used so that the 1% can make more money.

If I wanted to keep poor people poor, I would advocate for higher minimum wages.

A review of the minimum wage literature commonly cited by minimum wage opponents is flawed because it is subjective, relies in large part on studies of wage increases in foreign countries, and fails to consider the most sophisticated and recent minimum wage studies.

If I wanted to keep poor people poor, I would support government “green energy” initiatives that make energy more expensive.

Over the long term - green isn't more expensive - that's just a damn lie by the Repugs.
Remember when computers came out - they were expensive - not so much anymore.
Remember when HD TVs came out - they were expensive - now, not so much.
These fools have no idea how the market works!

What are they afraid of - that dirty fossil fuel will lose all their welfare subsidies?
Why are they afraid of alternatives to dirty fossil fuel?
   Maybe because they know the alternatives are better?
If they were smart - they would invest in "green energy" and make more money 
- but they don't cause they are committed to dirty fossil fuel.

If I wanted to keep poor people poor, I would see to it that government imposes many costly regulations on businesses.

Oh, my god.
Whining for the corporations.
They are always whining about the corporations.
The corporations spend more money controlling our government today than at any time in history.
And yet, the Repugs keep whining about the corporations.

God forbid we should have regulations that give you and me and your children and grandchildren, 
clean air
clean water
safe food
safe pharmaceuticals

God forbid that corporations should be required - to not kill people.

He should of written
If I wanted to keep poor people poor, I would see to it that government imposes many costly welfare programs - subsidies for businesses. 
Corporations, taking away more money - paid by the public - to be used for the good of the people, the good of the commons - the good of the country.

But the Repugs aren't worried about the good of the country.
The Repugs are worried about the good of the 1% and 
The Repugs are worried about the profits of the corporations.

In short, if I wanted to keep poor people poor, I would fully support the liberal “progressive” agenda that has been carried out for decades
 Up until now - our country has done okay -
under many items found in the liberal “progressive” agenda

liberal “progressive” agenda

- and that pisses off RepubliCONS.
They don't want "us" to do okay.
They only want the rich and the corporations to do okay.

And RepubliCONS want to destroy everything that has worked in the past
and they use arguments that are historically fallacious at best to try and get it done.

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