By in Rhode Island’s Future
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you…neglect justice…” Jesus (Luke 11:42) |
The House is in crisis.
Favoring the wealthiest
0.2 percent, House Republicans would eliminate estate taxes, increasing
deficits for a decade by $320 billion.
Do families of mega-rich magnates, who
own more than the bottom 90 percent, need charitable relief?
As for spending,
Republicans’ 2015 House budget chops food stamps by $125 billion; cancels Pell
Grants for many students; and block-grants Medicaid, cutting health care for
the destitute.
Mainstream Republicans
also oppose health coverage for 16 million new insureds; obstruct realistic
laws reducing the annual carnage of 32,000 gun deaths; and reject crucial
infrastructure repairs and jobs.
House Republicans neglect
justice. They eagerly demolish both taxes and spending to benefit the uber-wealthy—at
everyone else’s expense.
The Tea Party believes
these policies are not sufficiently strict. Jim Jordan of Ohio spearheaded the sequester’
s automatic dire cutbacks—too large to execute—but enacted due to right-wing
rigidity.
Jordan organized some 40
iron-fisted Tea Party members into the “Freedom Caucus.” Their Dickensian
proposals make establishment Republicans appear liberal.
Consider Louie Gohmert of
Texas. He introduced a farm bill amendment to cut off food stamps for 47.6
million needing food—including 16 million children. Afflicting America’s most
vulnerable, this survival-of-the-fittest mentality would deliver many diseases
and death sentences.
Kansan Tim Huelskamp and
numerous colleagues promote privatizing Medicare. This would boost premiums and
co-pays considerably, eliminating coverage for millions.
Libertarian David Brat of
Virginia advocates demolishing Social Security and Medicare, cutting benefits
by two-thirds. He also justifies decimating education funds: “Socrates trained
in Plato on a rock. How much did that cost?”
Instead of balancing
national debt interest with the deficit—nearly achieved—Arizonan Matt Salmon
joins many Tea Partyers who claim we must balance the budget. Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner says this would “kill the economy.”
This requires
ripping apart America’s safety net, discarding all discretionary
programs, and significantly reducing Social Security and Medicare. This
crushing austerity also slams the brakes on the economy, substantially
increasing unemployment.
Colorado’s Ken Buck wants
to privatize the VA. After criticism, he denied favoring “fully privatizing”
veterans’ health care. As to Medicare, Medicaid and ‘Obamacare,’ he states, “We
need to let the market work, make people responsible for their own insurance…”
Such free-market fundamentalism is despicable, denying health insurance to
about 100 million seniors and indigents.
Some howled when Florida
Democrat Alan Grayson depicted the Republican health plan for the uninsured who
get sick: “Die quickly.” Actually, about 19,000 lives are saved annually by
Obamacare, yet the Tea Party pushed for more than 50 votes to expunge this
essential health care. They offer no bills to replace it.
Tea Party austerity
neglects justice.
In a 2013 Mother Jones exposé, “Inside the Republican Suicide
Machine,” author Tim Dickinson concludes, “[Tea Party] insurgents are
championed by wealthy ideologues who simply seek to tear down government.”
Mainstream Republicans
inflict austerity measures, but Tea Party austerity is even worse: Slashing
taxes for the wealthy is combined with plundering programs affecting disabled,
jobless, working-class and middle-class Americans. This poisonous plot would
delight Ebenezer Scrooge.
So why don’t voters choose
Democrats? In 2012, they did—by 1.4 million votes. The outcome: Republicans,
234 seats; Democrats, 201. The system is rigged. With gerrymandered districts,
voters don’t choose politicians; politicians choose voters. Analyst Sam Wang
calculated that to control the House, Democrats needed to win by seven, not 1.2, percentage points.
Democracy is defeated.
Austerity adored. Justice neglected—as the Tea Party worships the wealthy.
The House crisis is deeply
rooted. It may require several election cycles but, with passionate resistance,
perhaps our nation will yet overcome Tea Party tyranny.
Rev. Harry Rix is a retired pastor and mental health counselor living in
Providence, RI. He has 50 articles on spirituality
and ethics, stunning photos, and 1200 inspiring quotations available at www.quoflections.org.