BY GARY EDMONDSON
Times could not be better for fat cat Republicans. Their man in charge has shut down the government, forcing nearly a million more workers into desperate economic straits just ripe for predatory picking and effectively curtailed those troublesome rules that eat into their profits – since no one remains to enforce them.
Don’t be fooled by the Bigot-in-Chief’s continued prating about building a wall.
If the wall truly mattered, Putin’s Pawn would have struck forcefully when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.
Republican lawmakers faced continued threats from their president that he would unleash his bigots upon them in the primaries if they crossed him.
Yet, this self-promoted dealmaker couldn’t get a deal on a wall with his own party in charge.
He has no such leverage over Democrats, and November’s election showed that many in this country are tired of the disgrace that is his presidency.
No sane person could think he had a better chance to bully Democrats into agreeing to a wall. So, the wall is a smoke-screen issue to allow the greater Republican goal of destroying any possibility to protect this country and its people from robber barons.
Republican governments are instituted as agents of fair play. Republicans despise fair play. Their trickledown economics perfectly exemplifies their mindset: “trickle” down – oh, so slowly, preferably never.
We have 800,000 federal workers furloughed, not being paid so they can pay their own bills or being forced to work without pay. That’s the Greed’s Own Party ideal work force model.
The House of Representatives keeps sending legislation to the Senate to refund and re-open the government. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeatedly refused to bring bills up for a vote – concentrating on lifting sanctions to make Russian oligarchs richer and trying to subvert our First Amendment rights on free speech.
Of course, Oklahoma’s senators are in goose-step lock-step with the haters, Sen. James Lankford devoting much of his energy to trying to keep poor women away from health care.
They’re all getting paid, of course, another Republican ideal: those in charge get paid for not working while those working don’t get paid.
So, we have: Transportation Security Administration workers calling in sick at nearly triple the normal rate – because they can’t afford the expense of getting to work without pay; volunteers setting up food kitchens in Washington, DC to provide emergency food to government employees; the president’s top economic adviser telling said workers to “get a loan;” federal employees descending on pawn shops to try to raise cash; workers’ children trying bake sales and the like to put food on the family table, and the destruction of our national land heritage by Trumpista hooligans.
We don’t want to forget, either, that the Coast Guard is working without pay and that next month its retirees will be missing their retirement checks.
According to the Huffington Post’s Hayley Miller, “GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon said in a statement Saturday [that] ‘employees of the most powerful nation in the world are being forced to work without pay and line up at diaper or food banks. It makes no sense.’”
But it makes perfect sense to Trumpublicans. They don’t care.
And while you might be sitting fat and happy because the problems of others don’t affect you or what little is left of your sense of empathy, just remember that, had Republicans maintained control of the House, they would be coming right at you right now to cut your Social Security, Medicare and any other safety net programs so they can pay for their tax-cut for the rich.
– Duncan resident Gary Edmondson is chair of the Stephens County Democratic Party; scdpok.us
