It’s been a while, but being sick and sitting on the couch often inspires some really great internal conversations.  The conversation is centered around two GOP Presidential contenders and two separate targets they have chosen to choose as talking points in their respective campaigns.  The first is Former Speaker Gingrich continually attacking President Obama as the food stamp president, the second was a recent Op-Ed written by former Governor Romney regarding cutting the National Endowment for the Arts budget in half.  

First, Mr. Gingrich, the limit for a family of four to earn that is eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is $29,000.  The average person receives less than $5 a day for food costs, and that money cannot be spent on alcohol, hot food, or cigarettes.  Mr. Gingrich called President Obama the food stamp President, and demonized recipients (some of the most hard hit of our population) and yet doesn’t acknowledge that under President Bush in the 12 months before he left office, over 4.4 million people applied for SNAP at the start of the recession.  To use this valuable program as an attack line and to use the lowest earners for political gain is disgusting.  For those of you who are reading and saying, “Well, how can we cut the deficit if we don’t get rid of this” or “They are free-loaders”  Look at the two most important numbers.  First, currently Snap is a little over .5% of our GDP and will shrink over the next several years. To put that in comparison the defense budget is 4.8% of GDP.  The second stat for the free loaders argument is simple, for every dollar that is given to a recipient of the SNAP program $1.84 of economic activity is being created.

The second issue is much more personal, Governor Romney’s recent article in which he vows to “Enact deep reductions in the subsidies for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Legal Services Corporation”  Governor Romney, if only you knew….

  “As a group, the performing arts, sports, and museum industries contributed $70.9 billion to the U.S. economy in 2009”

 ”Data from The College Board show that students who take four years of arts and music classes while in high school score 91 points better on their SATs than students who took only one-half year or less (scores of 1070 vs. 979, respectively).”

“His idea would essentially gut an organzation that has already had their budget cut by 6% this year to total $146.255 million.”

“Liberty University, the evangelical private Christian school founded by dead apartheid-supporting bigot Jerry Falwell, received $445 million in federal financial aid last year.”

“The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use.  This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.” (That is more than the entire NEA budget)

I could go by and break down each stunning fact one at a time, but I think they speak for themselves.  On a personal note, I have been associated with dozens of music, theater, and art companies over the past several years, and I know how hard times are for them.  I also know how much how the arts in all of their forms have meant to me and my development as a human being.  Without all the incredibly talented artists who have shared their respective crafts with me, I would not be as well rounded a person as I am today.  I am forever in all these people and their programs debt forever.  

This leads to the main point I want to make.  Why are you trying to punish us? Why are you trying to ridicule the poor who would like nothing more than to be off of food stamps?  Why do you think the arts are not important?  What is wrong with cutting a defense budget that is bigger than the next 10 countries combined?  Why do WE the people have to suffer?  You can disagree with me all you want about any of the points I have made, but you will never win with argument that supplying the poorest people with food is a bad idea, or that the NEA does nothing to help America. I will argue both, especially the latter till the day I die. 

(Lastly, Go Marriage Equality) 

There are things that make sense in life; if you are scared of heights you stay off roller coasters or really tall buildings, if you don’t like public speaking you don’t become a politician, if you like Oreo’s you dunk them in milk.  To me, there is a striking irony in America that almost never gets pointed out, how do voters continue to vote for people who have a record for voting against their interest.  The often spoken line from the GOP (in fact the phrase of the TEA Party is), we are Taxed Enough Already and we need to lower taxes and cut spending.  The GOP is tied by oath, quite literally, to never raise taxes ever…under any circumstances.  Famed radical lobbyist Grover Norquist has made it a right of passage to take an oath refusing to raise taxes even $1 on anyone.  This, this is a problem. Why? Because it refuses to admit that tax cuts were a key portion of the deficit problem.  

The republican argument has become, we can solve the deficit and boost the economy by cutting taxes and cutting services.  If I wanted to get out of debt, would I get another job to create more revenue, or would I just simply stop paying for anything.  The answer is both! You can’t climb out of a hole financially without creating new revenue.  Lobbies and misinformation has created a propaganda machine that teach today’s middle-income American that the evil government wants to raise their taxes.  This has created an anti-government anti-tax anger that has fueled the TEA-Party to a national level.  However the irony is, the solution and the truth would not affect 98% of the people who are arguing against it. 

As was mentioned in the President’s Speech, Warren Buffet pays less taxes then the workers in his office.  Everyone could remember the report that was released that GE didn’t pay any taxes, but instead received a tax-benefit from the Government.  How is it that average ordinary American’s continue to support members of Congress who refuse to rectify this?  As already mentioned nearly all the members of the GOP have signed the Norquist pledge not to raise taxes on ANYONE. How is that fair that we as Americans must suffer with massive cuts because half of congress is afraid to raise revenue.  If we were to fix the loopholes that allow the major corporations to skate by without paying, and on millionaires who hide their money in foreign banks, and then ask everyone else to pay a little more we can help fix this problem.  We quickly forget that the tax rate is a fraction of what it was, in 1950 the tax rate on the top 1% of Americans was 91%.

On a personal note, people may call me a Socialist for asking to be taxed more and asked for a responsible overhaul of our entitlement programs to make them more fair and streamlined.  However, I do not think its fair that my father who travels 4 months out of the year gets taxed twice as much as Warren Buffet without getting paid a fraction of Mr. Buffet.  I don’t think its fair that average working Americans are being asked to foot the bill for a refusal to solve the problems.  

The problem is the political machine has manipulated people into thinking they are the targets of a government takeover.  The problem is that people have become greedy and afraid that they are being shorted by Democrats.  The irony is, the party the GOP are voting for, is a party that defends the loopholes, the tax cuts on the rich, and have no problem passing the blame on NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood, and those who are struggling.  Mr. Buffet starts the ball rolling in his Op-Ed in the NY Times from August 15, 2011:

I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class, who need every break they can get.

But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/piechart_2011_US_fed

This is me. I was convinced to make one of these to ‘impress upon people your vast knowledge, creativity, and intellect to people’ (Professor at Montclair State University) Something good should be coming soon….I hope I’m doing this right.