The Cliff's Notes GOP Budget Alternative
The GOP just released their 19-page "The Republican Road to Recovery" budget alternative to that which was produced by the Obama administration. Page 1 of the entire 19 is the pastel-blue cover featuring the above noted title and the Star of David that is elevated just above the eagle. The last page, Page 19, is the solid pastel blue back cover. The only text on that page is "GOP.gov".
Page 2, the first real page, begins with a lie: "Our economy continues to weather the worst storm since the 1970s." (Ahem, Mr. Boehner, I don't want to appear impertinent, but, that "worst storm" actually was the cartwheel catapulting over the cliff the nation suffered midway into the first term of the Reagan presidency.)
From that sentence onward, the Cliff's Notes document is one visit into the Twilight Zone after another. The link has been inserted above. Check it out.
Page 5 (Again, really only Page 4, unless a blue cover with the title genuinely composes an entire page of literature.), is captioned, "Provides Universal Access to Health Care and Secures Entitlements." Missing are even thumbnail hints as to how they or their plan will accomplish those objectives. They do propose, however, that, unlike how well the Bush tax cuts did not work for average Americans, this time, by dropping the already record low 33% upper tax rate to 25%, the horrific deficit will magically disappear, the miracle that is an unfettered market will bounce back like Popeye on a can of spinach, everyone will secure everything they ever wanted, and golly, life will be just so incredibly wonderful that even Ronald Reagan will rise again from the dead, to escort everyone to the promised land. Evidently, the American public are to put full faith and hopes in the very same "trust us - we know what we're doin'" - folks who tossed the country off the cliff twice in the 80s, once in the early 90s, and now, but don't look at that shell, look at this one over here.
I can't determine what the Grand Old Party was attempting with their effort: a fling with a sort of Henny Youngman "Take my wife - please" stand-up comedy routine, to slip one by the American electorate a la some date-rape pill, or whether they're just so beyond the fringe they simply can't recognize how pathetically vapid they have come off.
Seriously, read the document. Not, read the document seriously, because that's just not something a human is capable of doing. But do read it. It's so brief and so bereft of anything that might by even the most delusional ideologue be construed as detail that you can manage the task in less time than it takes to read the directions on a can of Campbell's tomato soup. Read the "budget" so you can then inquire of any Republicans you may have the misfortune of knowing precisely what it takes to humiliate them. On that perfidy, obviously they've an incredible threshold.
- Ed Tubbs
