Before I even begin here, I'd like to address what my critics will respond with, when they hear what I have to say. They're going to call these ideas "class warfare." You know what? They're right. I am calling on the middle class and the working class and all the other classes that make up over 19 out of every 20 Americans to start fighting back. Note that, please -- fighting back. Because there has indeed been class warfare waged in America in recent decades, and our class is losing -- and losing badly. The wealthiest of the wealthy -- the modern-day robber barons among us -- have been successfully waging class warfare on the rest of us for so long now that I am sick of it and I think it's time the rest of us fought back, rather than meekly submitting to the whims of the moneyed class. So, before my critics even have a chance to respond, I will save them the trouble -- you are damn right that there is class warfare happening in America. By admitting this, I'm urging the people who have borne the brunt of the situation to wake up and begin to stand up for what is right.
Republicans have been quite open about their desire to lower taxes to such a point that government becomes so small (as one taxcutting extremist so eloquently put it) that it can be "drowned in a bathtub." What we are seeing right now -- from Washington, D.C. to Madison, Wisconsin -- is the natural result of this. Republicans sense victory in their decades-long fight to completely dismantle every good thing that government does. They literally don't care that they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as evidenced by their recent deep cuts in aid to pregnant women and new mothers.
That is merely the most abhorrent example, I should point out. Republicans are slashing spending so drastically that we are in danger of becoming more like a Third World country than the largest economy on Earth. Don't believe me? Consider what is being cut, by governments at all levels. We are told that there is no money to keep the streetlights on all night, for instance. That's right -- just like those pathetic countries that can't keep the electricity on 24 hours a day, we can't even afford to light our roads at night anymore. We are told we can't afford to pay for the most basic of services from our governments any more -- things like police on the beat, firefighters who protect us, libraries to educate our young, and the teachers to teach them. So sorry, no money for such frivolities. But we can't even discuss the hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks we are handing out to the people who need it the least, because that would be unseemly, somehow.
House Republicans pledged to cut one hundred billion dollars from this year's federal budget. They aren't going to, because (thankfully) they can't do basic math. Instead, they're only cutting a little over sixty billion dollars this year -- all from basic government services like food safety inspectors, border patrol, nuclear weapons proliferation monitoring, basic disease prevention research, and a whole host of other things. Public television will be cut off entirely. To say nothing of the cuts to the poor, which will be deep and drastic as well. All while the wealthiest among us enjoy the lowest tax burden since Eisenhower was president.
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