Why Should We Give The Republicans Another Chance In The White House?

It was the failed economic policies of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, all Republicans, that caused the the Great Depression. It took Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, who employed drastic measures, to get people working and the U.S. economy growing, to bring the U.S. back from the brink of complete collapse.

It was Richard Nixon, another Republican, who took the U.S. off the gold standard in order to pay for the Vietnam War. This caused several years of high inflation and the weakening of the U.S. dollar in overseas markets. Nixon started a 28 yr. history of budget deficits, only the 4 yr. term of President Jimmy Carter had a Democrat in the White House. That is 24 yrs. of Republican budget deficit rule.

Because of Ronald Reagan, a Republican 'god', we first heard the term, 'trickle-down economics'. The wealthy received tax cuts and big corporations got tax benefits because that 'extra' money of theirs was supposed to filter down to the average 'Joe Taxpayer' on the street. Wealth and greed, attributed to 'trickle down', caused the 1987 crash of the stock market. Reagan showed no concern for budget deficits and, in fact, the deficit hovered around $400-450 billion dollars through both the Reagan and Republican George H. W. Bush's presidency. It wasn't until 1998, during the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton that our budget recorded a surplus for four years.

Republican George W. Bush came into office, with an economic surplus, in 2000 and all economic hell broke loose. He proceeded to go back to Reagan's farcical 'trickle down' economics giving further tax cuts and subsidies to the wealthy and big corporations. It was another era of heady greed and fiscal irresponsibility. Republican President George W. Bush, practically single-handedly brought the U.S. Economy to it's knees. Aside from his tax cuts for the wealthy, President Bush involved our country in two failed wars. For the entirety of his presidency, he did not enter the cost of these wars in his budgets. Democratic President Barack Obama came into office and has worked tirelessly to bring the deficit budget down by almost 70% since he took office.

In the last 100 yrs. of the United States, only one Republican president has brought prosperity and economic responsibility to the U.S. and that was Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Eisenhower had several years of budget deficit spending and the same of budgetary surpluses but, there was prosperity for all, not just the wealthy.

So, while the Republicans are great at preaching fiscal responsibility, they rather suck at following their own advice. I liken this to owning a nice family car. Something along the lines of an Escalade or a Land Rover. I have a son/daughter who just got their license and they ask to borrow the family car. I allow it. Before the night is through, I get the phone call that my new driver has had a fender bender. Not a problem, we all have to have that first accident, no one was injured and I have insurance to cover it. I get the car back from the repair shop and, again, my kid would like the keys. After going through some basic safety reminders, I hand over the keys. As before, I get the phone call that there has been another accident. As before, no injuries and insurance will pay for repairs but, I can expect higher auto insurance premiums. The car is returned from the repair shop and I cannot believe it, this kid asks for the keys, again!! There is no way that I'm handing over car keys to this kid. I don't even know how he/she got her license but, if they want to borrow the family car, they need to find another family to borrow from or, save their money to buy their own car. I'm finished being foolish, careless and flat-out stupid. I view the family car as the U.S. Economy, I am a U.S. registered voter and the novice driver is the Republican Party. Why, oh why, would I allow irresponsible people who have not proved themselves to be fiscally responsible, in well over 50 yrs., the keys to the White House. I have no idea how they managed to be in control of Congress but, they need to GO!!

(I apologize for the gap in blog posts. I was one of those unlucky few who got the flu even though I had gotten my flu shot in September. It took a while to recuperate.)

#economy #deficit #surplus #budget