Recently, the Republican-controlled House voted for an agriculture bill that appears to be the template for all future bills that we can expect to come out of this dysfunctional, mean-spirited and parsimonious Republican-Tea Party body of risible and odious lawmakers. To their glee and characteristically malignant mien, they discovered that those issues that serve the most vulnerable American citizens, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), could be totally eliminated.
Voilá! Just like 5 right-wing, partisans on the U.S. Supreme Court who decreed that discrimination and prejudice are a thing of the past when they gutted the Voting Rights Act, so too has the Boehner-led Congress decided with the swift swing of an axe, they could ignore poverty by excising the food stamp program from the agriculture bill that serves the American men, women and children who need that help more than ever.
But when it comes to larding up the mega farm and agri-business with all the freebies they know will please their constituents back in their home districts, the bill is a virtual cornucopia loaded with subsidies for cotton, sugar, corn ethanol (an extremely inefficient fuel), tobacco and other handouts that are in their bottomless bag of goodies to shake down the taxpayers in order to feed their lobbyists and political campaign contributors.
The Republican demagoguery is hitting its stride as they trot out some of their most obstreperous luminaries like Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee (this is their future?) and other Ayn Rand enlightened self-interest types. Their hope is that they can convince enough of their Pied Piper following to join them in a collective contempt for those millions of American workers who have fallen on hard times.
Their attitude reminds me of a comment made by former Attorney General Ed Meese who remarked, "People are poor because they deserve to be poor." But, as a result of the 2008 economic implosion their efforts to punish the American people have accelerated and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
The fictional character Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street put it this way: “We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it. You've got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you.” He added, “The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”...
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