They’re Just Not That Worried About You

Really, they’re not.  You think that super rich republicans are worried about regular people getting tax cuts?  They don’t want to extend the cuts for the rich to do what’s right for America or to create jobs.  They’re doing it for themselves and to cushion the people who already have enough cushioning.   If they really cared about what happened to regular people, they would have voted to extend unemployment benefits and voted for Obama’s stimulus.  That stimulus bill created a very large tax cut for the middle class and guess what?  No republican voted.  You think they’re going to just change their mind now?  Especially now that they won the house, what incentive do they have?  

The tired old republican talking point of ‘tax cuts create jobs’ is just not true.  First, corporations are far more likely to give out bonuses at the top and squeeze the bottom with their profits rather than create jobs.   History shows us that.  Second, individual tax cuts to individuals does not create jobs because those people do not use their own money to hire people.   Small businesses do but Obama is working to cut their taxes, not raise them.

Amanda Terkel from the Huffington Post writes, “Chamber Watch  points to a January report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which identified tax cuts as the least effective of the measures currently on the table to create jobs.”

CTJ (Citizens for Tax Justice) director Robert McIntyre says, "In the case here, where we're looking at executives of big companies, they're not hiring people with their own money, they're hiring people with the companies' money," he told The Huffington Post. "Are they saying that if they don't get paid -- if their after-tax income goes down a little bit -- that their company won't hire people?"

If you voted for a republican this November, you voted against your own interest.  If you’re still not convinced, Warren Buffett put out a call to all other billionaires to sign up to support the rise in taxes.  Out of 300 something billionaires in America, forty signed up.  Forty, that’s it.  You know what that tells me?  They’re greedy, you’re fooling yourself if you think differently, and that’s the bottom line. 

A Brief Look Into My Thought Process

So after a brief moment of self reflection this evening, I decided to write a little bit about why I think the way that I do.  Where did my questioning, critical thinking mind come from?  While I've always questioned authority and never tried to hide that fact, I distinctly remember one instance in college that literally changed the way I think.

Dennis Hoffman was my college professor for three classes.  Criminal Justice 101, Terrorism, and Organized Crime.  My first class with him was obviously 101.  I was very ‘Crime Control’ and you could even say a tad conservative at this time.  I'm not sure why, it was before 9/11 and as I said, I have a problem with authority.  Anyhow, Dr. Hoffman asked this question. “If a grown man who has severe mental illness and has an IQ of an 8 year old commits murder, do we convict him?” 

Out of probably 300 students, he picks me to answer.  I said, “Yes.”   

As if expecting my answer, he immediately answered, “Why?”  

I sheepishly said, “Because he committed the crime?”  

Right on the ball he said, “If we define the crime of murder as the act itself along with malicious intent and the suspect does not hold the capacity to create intent, legally, there is no crime.”  

I felt SO stupid in front of all of those people but that started getting me to look at things in a whole new way.  I started questioning things and not just taking them at face value.  You take that kind of critical thinking to other parts of your life and things just start to make more sense.  Things aren't black and white and there's room for the gray.  You can think of new possibilities and new solutions to problems.  You don't have to shove yourself in a box in order to make other people happy.  And when you use that kind of critical thinking to Religion, all of a sudden this whole, because God said so line wasn’t really enough for me anymore.  Let's just leave it at that.  

I hope the things I say make a little more sense to you now.  And if not, then maybe your eyes haven't been opened wide enough yet.