The Bleak Future Of The US As Envisioned By Today’s GOP.

Forget for a moment, if you can, the man currently occupying the White House. As bad as he and his cartel of corrupt officials are, in many ways, Trump is merely an aberration – a con man running a scam to enrich himself with taxpayer money at the expense of decency and world peace.

The real threat is taking place in Congress and behind the scenes, perpetuated by GOP leaders and their sponsors. For example, outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan is a devotee of Ayn Rand, the “philosopher” who rejected religion, morality, ethics, altruism and, most of all, any government actions for the common good. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell skillfully blocked virtually every initiative of the previous president, stole a Supreme Court seat for the GOP and evangelicals, and as one of the largest recipients of campaign funds from the NRA, staunchly supports guns as a replacement for law and civility.

Charles Koch, the oily ideologue who has poured hundreds of millions into GOP campaigns in order to change local, state and federal governments by electing those who embrace his libertarian beliefs, is a disciple of renegade “economist” F.A. “Baldy” Harper who vehemently argued against labor unions, the five-day work week, child labor laws, employer benefits such as health insurance and pensions, the minimum wage and mandatory public education.

Casino owner Sheldon Adelson has donated hundreds of millions to GOP candidates who will remake the US government in the mold of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli administration – an administration whose vision of peace is imprisoning and murdering Palestinians, threatening its neighbors with pre-emptive military strikes and launching disproportionate military responses to any provocation. Adelson’s most recent contributions resulted in Trump replacing the few moderates in his administration with war-hawks such as Mike Pompeo and John Bolton. His donations are also the primary motivation behind Trump’s decision to abandon the Iran nuclear agreement and, along with it, our allies.

Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah, bankrolled Trump’s campaign for office. Together with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and the Sinclair Broadcast Group, they have changed the national dialogue about news media and factual reporting by attacking the free press and creating a multimillion dollar propaganda network. They, or more precisely, their millions in donations have given us Trump, Breitbart, Cambridge Analytica, Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, and Nigel Farage.

So what is their end game?

They all seem to have visions of returning the US to the “Gilded Age” when it was controlled by a few oligarchs and large corporations. They prioritize property above people, viewing workers as mere commodities to be used as needed and discarded when they are no longer of value. They want to be free to extract natural resources, and therefore wealth, without fear of regulation or repercussions. They want complete control of their billions – all of their billions – without being obligated to pay taxes. They want to eliminate social welfare programs and safety nets, such as SNAP, CHIP, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. They even want to eliminate public education in order to control thought.

Of course, ordinary taxpayers and voters would be repulsed by their plans if they were openly stated. So, in order to accomplish their objectives, the oligarchs have chosen to disguise their intent. Instead of presenting their vision to the public, they have used their billions to commandeer an entire political party. They have persistently proposed balanced budget amendments to the Constitution which, combined with a growing defense budget, would end many social programs. Failing that, they are electing those who will pass a never-ending series of tax cuts designed to starve the government of the funds needed to enforce regulations; to pay for welfare programs; to pay for safety nets.

In doing so, they hope that, by expanding the national debt to a crisis level, the voting public will have no choice but to accept such draconian cuts.

What’s At Stake With Tax “Reform.”

For decades, taxation in the US has been based on a progressive tax structure, which means those who earn the most money pay the highest taxes. And those less fortunate pay the least. Similarly, corporations were taxed to help pay for the government-provided infrastructure they needed to operate. When the nation incurred substantial debt, the Congress raised taxes to reduce that debt. For example, following World War II, tax rates were raised to pay down the debt. Through the Eisenhower administration, the nation’s highest tax rate exceeded 90 percent. Yet, despite such high tax rates, the economy boomed.

Then, in the 1980’s everything changed. Based on a discredited economic theory known as trickle-down economics, Republicans began to cut taxes (and revenue) under the guise of “tax reform.” They cut the top income tax rate, as well as estate taxes and capital gain taxes – all for the benefit of the wealthy. At the same time, they repealed usury laws and eliminated the tax deductions for interest on all loans except home mortgages. All the while promising that the cuts would benefit middle Americans.

They didn’t.

Not only did they transfer much of the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class. The national debt soared. As a result, even those who originated the idea of Reagan’s trickle-down economics were forced to admit that the plan failed.

Unfortunately, Republicans have never abandoned the theory. For years, they have continued to promote the trickle-down fairy tale. They not only signed Grover Norquist’s misguided “No New Taxes” pledge. They continue to promote tax cuts as the elixir for any economic ailment. Is the economy suffering? Tax cuts will help. Is unemployment too high? Tax cuts are the answer. Is the economy booming? Tax cuts will make it even better. As a result of all this tax cutting, our national debt has continued to climb – slowing only when Democrats are in power.

Fast-forward to today. Republicans are proposing yet another tax “reform.” And just like the “reforms” of the past, it looks a lot like another round of tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy. Indeed, if this tax plan passes and is signed into law, the deficits will, once again, soar. And the national debt will be increased by trillions. According to a report from the Urban Tax Policy Center, “Over the first 10 years, the individual income tax provisions — excluding those related to the taxation of corporations, pass-throughs, and estates — would raise $470 billion, the business provisions would reduce revenues by $2.6 trillion, and repealing the estate tax would cost another $240 billion.”

As far as I can tell, this is all part of the GOP long-range plan.

The Republicans seem concerned with deficits and debt only if they can be used as a hammer to bludgeon Democrats when they are in control. (Remember the outrage when President Obama used TARP funds to save the US auto industry? Though the impact of the bail-out on our national debt was negligible, Republicans howled that it would be a burden to future generations.) In reality, I believe the GOP plan is to push our nation more deeply into debt. Then, and only then, will they be able to reach their long-term goal of reducing the government to a size small enough that, in Grover Norquist’s words, “it can be drowned in a bathtub.” Only when the debt has reached an unsustainable level will the GOP have the ammunition needed to slash government programs regardless of their popularity or need. That is when they will be able to argue the necessity of ridding the nation of safety nets such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and all the varieties of welfare.

If you doubt this is the Republican goal, consider the Ayn Rand-like philosophy of the billionaires who finance the Republican Party. As mentioned in a previous post, the Koch brothers believe that government is unnecessary for anything but national defense, law and order, and social stability. And, by some counts, there are 16 people in the White House with ties to the Koch brothers. In addition, there are many more in the Republican congressional delegation who are beholding to the brothers grim of oil refining.

You must also consider that Trump’s presidential campaign was heavily funded by Robert Mercer, a man who has stated that he wants to shrink the government to the “size of a pinhead.” Worse, he apparently thinks that human beings have no intrinsic value – believing that an individual’s value should be based solely on income. In other words, someone who earns $2 million per year is 20 times more valuable than someone earning $100,000 per year. And he believes that anyone on welfare is worth less than nothing.

Obviously, the Kochs and Mercers spent hundreds of millions to elect today’s Republicans with the expectation that the Republicans would do their bidding – that they would reshape government to fit their ideas and to lower their taxes. If you think that means the Republican tax proposal will benefit you, think again.

The Unholy Marriage Between Evangelicals, Billionaires And Trump.

There’s a long history between the GOP and evangelicals dating back to the late 1800’s. In the book The Family, you’ll read about wealthy industrialists and evangelicals joining forces to keep labor unions from gaining power. In the 1950’s, Eisenhower was put in office with the help of evangelicals. He rewarded them by agreeing to create the National Prayer Breakfast, by agreeing to the addition of “Under God” to our Pledge of Allegiance and by changing the national motto from “E Pluribus Unum” (Out of many, one) to “In God We Trust.”

It was evangelicals who supported Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s abuses in the blacklisting of virtually anyone accused of socialist or communist leanings. It was evangelicals who became an integral part of the GOP’s Southern Strategy after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. And it was evangelicals and Jerry Falwell’s “Moral Majority” who used the anti-abortion movement to help Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush gain office.

All of that is reason enough to question the beliefs of most evangelicals. But, in 2016, these same evangelicals…the purported followers of Jesus…helped a greedy, narcissistic, unqualified billionaire who bragged about his sexual assaults to gain the White House. Why? They were willing to compromise every tenet of their supposed faith based on the promise that Trump would appoint federal judges and Supreme Court justices willing to overturn Roe v Wade to ban abortion.

And that’s only the beginning.

In a number of radio interviews, Jane Mayer has spoken about the wedding of evangelicals and anti-government libertarian billionaires with failed congressman, failed governor and current vice-president, Mike Pence, as the ring bearer.

The billionaires in question are the Koch brothers who have created a large network of dark money groups to fund candidates who support their anti-government philosophies, the Robert Mercer family who bankrolled Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News and the Trump campaign, and the combined families of Erik Prince and Betsy Devos who have used their combined fortunes to fund attempts to privatize our military and our education system.

As Jane Mayer points out, these billionaires essentially share the same belief – that the federal government should do only three things: Provide for the national defense, maintain stability, and provide for law and order. They view social issues, such as abortion and immigration, as mere tools that can be used to divide and influence voters to support their candidates. Focused on such issues, people vote for their candidates unaware of the billionaires’ plans to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other social safety nets.

Similarly, many voters are oblivious to billionaires’ plans to rewrite the US Constitution to incorporate their narrow-minded beliefs. Indeed, they are just a few states short of the required two-thirds needed to hold a Constitutional Convention.

Having been placed in office as a result of dark money donations from the billionaires, Trump and the GOP congressional leaders are well on their way to cutting taxes for corporations and billionaires. If they succeed, the government will run large deficits until the resulting debt will generate draconian cuts to the safety nets that the billionaires despise. And should Trump be removed from office leaving Pence to replace him, be afraid…very afraid. Though Trump is a willing participant in the billionaires’ plans, his oversized ego makes him highly unpredictable.

The evangelical Pence, on the other hand, is a willing puppet guided as much by his billionaire sponsers as he is by his narrow and hateful interpretation of the Bible.