I was watching Keith Olbermann last night, and I was fascinated by the segment that he did on "small businesses."
Now I am going to err on the side that Olbermann's reporting is correct. If that is the case, and "small business" has indeed been transmogrified into a simple brand that would include the likes of Bechtel and hedge fund groups, then Americans are being played for chumps. The GOP is just pretending to offer support to "mom & pop" shops. It seems, and this is never a stretch, that the party's real goal is to provide yet more tax relief for millionaires and billionaires at the expense of our national deficit, and all in the hopes that this lot may decide to expand their businesses here in the United States.
Again, I will give the GOP branding credit. Republicans have convinced millions of middle and lower income Americans that they are looking out for them economically, but when you look more closely at aspects of their agenda, it is one that seeks only to help the wealthiest among us. Sadly, Democrats are getting just as bad (which isn't good for regular Americans of any political philosophy), but that GOP branding has made it so that "Democrat" is almost an obscenity. The combination of making all taxation seem bad, making government as a whole seem evil, and pretending that class warfare is something that comes from the bottom up, as opposed to the top down, continues to drive millions of Americans to vote directly against their actual (as opposed to aspirational) economic circumstances. And that's fine. Vote your aspirations, but don't try to perpetrate the fraud that GOP economic policies, particularly the long term policies, will actually help the middle and lower classes fulfill those aspirations.
So with that said, I plan to read the new GOP pamphlet "A Pledge to America," and I urge others to do the same. Apparently, the reviews already appear mixed, particularly from fiscal conservatives. And I admit that I will be reading it with total skepticism. The bits I've heard about include maintaining all of the Bush tax cuts, which we really can't afford, and tired retreads of the "cut taxes, purchasing health insurance across state lines, and tort reform" line for health care. There also has been no specificity on spending cuts, but definite expansion of say the Defense budget. And it's all wrapped in jingoistic language (I noticed that while I was reading the opening paragraphs).
So if Olbermann is correct in pointing out the "small business" fraud being perpetrated by the GOP, I would hazard a guess that other aspects of the GOP economic agenda are similarly fraudulent, particularly as it relates to the middle and lower classes.
Caveat Emptor
GOP Pledge to America Final
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