Monday, November 17, 2008

The Governator Gets It Right

"Remember that so many times there's dialogue about, you know, we have to go back to our core values. What is that? What is core? How far does core go back in history in America, the word core? Does it go back 30 years? Does it go back 50 years? Because we know that Teddy Roosevelt talked about universal health care. So they're off the core for a long time ago already. He has talked about protecting our environment. So they've been off for a long time on that. I mean, let's be honest. Ronald Reagan -- let's go to Eisenhower, for instance. Eisenhower has built the highway system in America and he's poured billions of dollars into infrastructure. Where Republicans today say, well, that's spending. We shouldn't spend. That's not spending. That's investing in the future of America.

"So there's a lot of things that they have been off on, if they want to go and talk about the core values. But maybe their definition of core values is maybe different. But I mean, so I think it's all nonsense talk. I think if they just talk about one thing, what do we need now? Now, America needs to be rebuilt, because we haven't really rebuilt America for decades. So we need to rebuild America, fix the bridges, fix the highways, fix the buildings, tunnels and all of those kind of things we need to do. And then we have to go and create great relationships with our partners overseas, with the world, and to build those relationships again. And we have to take care of health care. We have to take care of our environment. And we have to build an energy future. Those are the things that people want right now. And I know in the poll numbers in America -- I mean in California, that's what the people want."

-- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor, California (R)

My comment: Since Nixon and the Southern Strategy the Republican core values have centered around finding a wedge issue to divide the American people. The Southern Strategy played on racism in American and if the wedge issue du jour wasn't racism it was reproductive rights or prayer in schools. Find an emotional hot button and the Republicans were all over it.

A second core value in the Republican platform has been labeling the other side as "tax and spend", forgetting that some spending is a good thing. Some spending represents an investment in the future. But Republicans, over time, evolved to the point of view that ALL spending was bad (because, of course, the world is simple, black and white and without nuance ... and it's so much easier to be against all spending than it is to differentiate).

A third core value in the Republican platform has been that "all tax is bad" ... forgetting that the only other alternative is borrowing ... which is significantly worse. No one likes to pay taxes but we're finding that servicing the debt we've run up under Republican administrations is soaking up huge amounts of our GDP ... and that just pays for the interest on the debt without doing a thing about the principle. The current debt ... the amount of borrowed money ... is $10.6 Trillion. The current estimated population of the United States is 305,110,000 people. Each citizen's share of this debt is $34,716.30 ... so, imagine each of us having $34K on our credit card that we have to pay down and imagine what just the monthly interest on that represents. Let's assume you got a REALLY good credit card rate ... like 7%. It will take you 279 months to be rid of your debt. In that time, you will pay $10,890.80 in interest. And your minimum payment to do that starts at $900 a month! ... to put icing on THAT cake (or lipstick on that pig) ... it only works that way if you NEVER use your credit card again. That's the best of all possible scenarios! Somehow, under THOSE circumstances, paying taxes doesn't sound quite so bad.

A fourth Republican core value has been that "government is not the solution". Of course, it IS the solution when the entire financial industry is circling the bowl. It IS the solution when the auto industry drives itself over a cliff because they weren't paying attention to market realities. It IS the solution when the housing market goes into the tank because we all bought into a bill of goods based on asset inflation being the same as economic growth. It's not ... and we're starting to understand what that really means.

"Cut taxes", "deficits don't matter", wedge issues that divide the people rather than unite them and "government is not the solution" may win elections but they're a piss poor way to run a country.

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