MORE POST CARDS OF DECEPTION FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

This week I received two post cards in the mail from the Republican party about Scott McAdams. They both tout lies (In red):
-McAdams supports higher Social Security taxes.

"I have proposed lifting the artificial tax cap that benefits the wealthy and results in millionaires paying the same exact amount in Social Security tax as workers on the North Slope who make $106,000. This will extend solvency out into the foreseeable future." Tacoma News Tribune

-McAdams supports an income tax increase.


 "Congress should extend the tax cuts for everyone but millionaires. It is important, especially in times of fiscal crisis like now, that everyone pays his or her fair share of the cost of government. The tax cuts we have provided the very, very rich are unsustainable and must be rolled back to the levels of the prosperous 1990s to put our fiscal house back in order. Extending the tax cuts for the middle is a critical step to spurring economic growth and creating new jobs." Tacoma News Tribune

-McAdams supported the $787 billion failed stimulus package.

"We should always strive to have a balanced budget and a low national debt. In times of war or economic crisis, it may be necessary for the federal government to step in and spend significant resources to prevent catastrophe. When the crisis ends, however, it is important to put our fiscal situation in order, balance the budget, and pay down the debt." Tacoma News Tribune

The Tacoma Tribune has a long list of questions McAdams has answered which gives a good picture of where he stands on a lot of issues.

We all know the wealthy have not been paying their share of income taxes and that needs to be changed. The Bush tax cuts have contributed to our deficit. The wealthy use our resources to make money, this requires the use of government regulatory agencies and causes pollution just to name two costs the public pays for. They use our country, our economic system and our people to make themselves wealthy, they should be paying something back for that privilege. Social Security can be intact past 2037 if those with very high incomes pay more into the program. This program provides a guaranteed retirement for those who work and pay into it because people don't have the option of not investing for retirement or making risky investments. It is screw up proof. These post cards are designed to make it look like Scott McAdams wants to have a general increase in these taxes for working class and middle class people, that is a lie.

In my research about the current economic situation I realized it was impossible to really understand the current economic situation without looking at the Great Depression. The very interesting thing I found is the situation was very similar to what lead to the current "Great Recession", corrupt banking, corrupt economic practices, and post war (WWI). This all lead to deficits, collapse of banks, collapse of Wall Street, and loss of jobs. The Great Depression also involved the rest of the world, especially Europe, just like now. It was a huge part of the cause of WWII. Germany after WWI was bankrupt and forced to pay large reparations when they couldn't even pay to run their government and their people were starving. Their country was a shambles. The people were angry, hungry and in despair. They became filled with fear, had paranoid ideas, hated, found scapegoats to blame and went radically to the right. Large numbers of them supported a mad man. This is also very similar to what is going on in this country, but we have a mad woman instead of a mad man. We have history to teach us what to avoid in our current situation, but so many on the right have rejected anything intellectual or educational.

We had controls to prevent economic disaster from happening again after the Great Depression. The corporations, interests groups, particular presidential administrations and corrupt legislators over a period of decades with a concerted effort removed them. This has allowed most of the money to go to the top 2% of the wealthy. Even if they spend a lot of money, relatively they spend only a small fraction of it. If that money was distributed among the middle class/working people who have smaller incomes they would spend it, fueling the economy. This is essentially what is needed for capitalism to work. Without most of the money being circulated in the economy rather than just being hoarded and sitting static capitalism is dysfunctional. When money in the private sector is not keeping capitalism thriving the government can stimulate the economy by adding money in some way that gets into the hands of those who will use it to buy things. This gives the economy a boost. The stimulus was not failed. From what I have researched it is clear to me it did keep us from having a second Great Depression. We need a second stimulus, but the White House is reluctant to try this due to those on the right who hysterically criticize and lie about a tool which has helped keep our economy from completely collapsing.