Author: Sam Byrne
With America’s economic decline and rising federal deficit, fiscal Republicans are using this national downturn to justify eliminating funds for organizations that benefit the poor and working class. Masking their personal motives, conservatives hypocritically attack Democrats for spending money on superfluous amenities that do not benefit the whole country.
Ironically, Republicans have slandered their political opponents with the intent of gaining support to preserve money for foolish spending on military expansion and to maintain upper class wealth. America’s faltering economy is not a result of unnecessary spending. The problem is that fiscal conservatives prioritize spending in a manner that reaps personal benefit and not national betterment. They spend money sparingly, selecting funds for particular causes that often do not aid the struggling citizens of America — the people who need government aid the most.
Fiscal Republicans criticize the national debt, assuring the country of their concern for the well-being of America and insist that Democrats are approaching the issue the wrong way. The logical way to lower the deficit is simple: reduce spending and raise taxes. This would be an ideal solution if conservatives truly cared about the greater good of the country and were therefore willing to contribute a portion of their wealth and assume a greater tax burden. Instead, Republicans have implemented a different plan: take from the poor. Programs that would benefit the country’s financially struggling citizens, such as Planned Parenthood and Headstart, have fallen victim to the Republican cut-backs. Culturally enriching programs such as National Public Radio (NPR) have also been denied federal funding.
With this underfunding of select programs, more spending has been allotted to military expansion and homeland security. The U.S. military budget is currently larger than that of all of European countries combined, including a 900 billion dollar expenditure since 2001, according to Globalissues.org. Fiscal conservatives are shameless when it comes to cutting educational spending and other safety nets for the poor and middle class. It is illogical that Planned Parenthood has been deemed unnecessary, yet the U.S. possesses enough nuclear arms to destroy the world several times over.
This is not just happening on a federal level. State legislators are also preserving the revenues of big businesses, spending unnecessary money and neglecting the lower class. Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was elected to office in January, 2011, and in his first two weeks as governor, Walker spearheaded legislation that gave Wisconsin businesses 117 million dollars in corporate tax breaks, according to reporter Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post. Walker also cut salaries and union rates for state jobs, arguing that the state could no longer afford the high salaries of state workers. What Walker should have done was tax the wealthy and raise state wages to seek out economic equality. Wisconsin has an economically diverse population, ranging from financially struggling farmers to prominent Milwaukee businesspeople. By providing tax cuts to the larger corporations, Walker is increasing the income disparity, while leaving the state’s poorer constituents to find their own means of support. Now that the state jobs are paid less, more people will find themselves falling towards the bottom of the economic ladder, while the businesspeople continue to climb.
Eric Cantor, a Republican House leader, has accused Democrats of spending money irresponsibly. “Once again we see the Democrats asking to incur more debt at the same time they are claiming to be fiscally responsible; another day where it is more of, ‘Do as I say, not as I do,'” Cantor said on Thedailybail.com. Ironically, Cantor was a main supporter of the Medicare bill, a 400 billion dollar entitlement expansion. This bill benefits primarily lower to middle class individuals, which is a demographic that most Democrats strive to accommodate. While Cantor’s efforts are commendable in attempting to aid America’s less financially privileged citizens, it is unfair that Cantor would criticize Democrats for fiscal irresponsibility when his health care efforts mirror liberal policies.
Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana responded to President Obama’s first congressional address in February of 2009, stating, “In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. We oppose the national Democratic view that says the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government,” as cited in the transcript recorded in the February 24 issue of the New York Times. Jindal refused to take federal stimulus dollars as he thought the money was unnecessary and an inappropriate use of government spending.
In April 2010, however, Jindal had a change of heart following the BP Oil Spill off the coast of Louisiana. Now that Louisiana was in a state of emergency, the Governor mobilized the National Guard to participate in response efforts and requested federal assistance from the Secretary of Commerce, declaring a commercial fisheries failure, according to New York Times reporters Campbell Robertson and Eric Lipton. So according to the reasoning of Governor Jindal, government intervention is an improper use of federal power, unless it benefits the state of Louisiana.
Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida is another example of a conservative politician who manages money in a hypocritical manner. Ros-Lehtinen rejected President Obama’s health care plan, which would ensure accessible and affordable health care for every citizen in America, because the Congresswoman believes that raising taxes to fund this universal health care would place a burden on the American people.
On her website, Ros-lehtinen.house.gov, the congresswoman argues, “The only way to coerce passage of this bill was through special deals for special interests,” suggesting that health care should be individualized and mandated on a case-by-case basis as opposed to offering health care nationally. Ros-Lehtinen, like Cantor, supports Medicare as an alternative. It would be interesting to know how congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen justifies a 400 billion dollar health care plan as an affordable and burden-free option.
Also from Florida, Republican Governor Rick Scott has openly blamed President Obama for America’s financial problems. Under the pretense that he would fix these problems, Rick Scott offered a budget proposal to cut 1.75 billion dollars from educational programs in Florida. Additionally, a total of 1.6 billion dollars will be provided in tax cuts, primarily for the state’s top earners, according to the Palm Beach Post. Walker happens to fall under that category of Florida’s “top earners.”
Television host and political activist Rachel Maddow explained the controversy on “The Rachel Maddow Show” pointing out that the Scott’s plan does not aid any of the financial problems he credits the president with causing.
“So K through 12 education gets absolutely eviscerated in the state of Florida, and the money that is saved by the state no longer spending the money on the schools doesn’t close the state budget gap at all,” Maddow said. “It leaves it roughly exactly as is and instead gives the saved money away in the form of tax cuts. So, you get all of the pain and none of the gain.”
Blaming Democrats for America’s financial problems is unjustified when conservatives are adding the same amount of debt, if not more, to the national deficit and are spending money in a more irresponsible manner. If fiscal Republicans truly wanted to help the country, they would recognize that taxes are not the enemy but rather they are the solution.
Instead, fiscal conservatives have used every opportunity to avoid paying taxes and to spend money that benefits their personal affairs, excessive military power and unaccommodating health care policies. Once th
ey pay their taxes, conservatives will be entitled to spend more money but taking resources away from the poor to fund unproductive billion dollar projects is unacceptable and detrimental to America’s financial state.
Sam Byrne is an undeclared first-year. She can reached at sbyrne@oxy.edu.
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