Note to GOP Voters: You're Being Played for Suckers

There is no more perfect example of just how off-kilter -- morally and economically -- the Republican Party has become than yesterday's floor statement by Sen. Orrin Hatch.


[Huffington Post:]

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) voted against beginning debate on a measure that would have the Senate declare the rich should share the pain of debt reduction Thursday, a day after arguing that it's the poor and middle class who need to do more.

"I hear how they're so caring for the poor and so forth," Hatch said in remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, in reference to Democrats. "The poor need jobs! And they also need to share some of the responsibility."

Hatch's comments were aimed at a motion that passed 74 to 22 to start debating a non-binding resolution that says millionaires and billionaires should play a more meaningful role in reducing the nation's debt.


Yes, let's not tax people who can afford it, let's tax people who can't afford it. Let's add an extra burden to working families and reduce consumer demand, because that's just such a freakin' smart freakin' thing to freakin' do. Sen. Hatch, I say this with all the respect you are due -- which at this point is close to none -- but you may have said the stupidest thing anyone in the world said yesterday.

And the outrage on the right over a suggestion that we raise taxes? Nonexistent. If you want proof that Republicans represent only the privileged elite, there ya go. If you want to raise taxes, you can go ahead and raise them on anyone but the elite, because no one else in the world matters. And this argument was made without shame -- either because Hatch is shameless or because he's so far gone he has no idea where the line between moral and immoral is anymore.

If you're a Republican voter and you're not part of that privileged elite, then you're a fool. A sucker. A patsy. A stooge. Hatch is arguing that those who have little -- meaning you -- should pay more, so that those who have plenty can keep plenty more. Republicans are against raising taxes? Give me a second to engage in derisive laughter... They aren't. If they were, Hatch would be facing a firestorm of criticism today from his own party. Instead, he's enjoying silence.

Republicans want to take things that are yours away from you; Social Security, Medicare -- you've paid for that. You own those. And the reason they want to take what you've bought from you is so that the very wealthy can continue to enjoy the lowest tax rates in recent history.

And the argument that this tax rate creates jobs? Look around you -- you living in a free market paradise right now, with hot and cold running jobs and high salaries trickling down from on high? I hate to break it to you, but you're not. If lower taxes on the rich creates jobs, where are they? Why was the economy better under a higher tax rate?

Seriously Republican voter, you're being had. And of all the silent voices Hatch faces today, yours speaks the loudest.

-Wisco