An interesting thing about politics is how you can distill so many nuanced policies down to a few core ideological opinions.
Republican economic policy somehow gets a lot of flashy & colorful wrapping, but it boils down to one or two things. How can I genuinely and confidently conclude that? Well, Republicans have controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House for two years. What did they do in that time? Essentially, the only significant legislation they passed was a decision to give millionaires and billionaires a gigantic tax cut. They also tried hard to cut a popular health care program, but their voters revolted and the idea was barely blocked by one sane Republican (now deceased). The middle class got a tiny tax cut as well, but that will quickly be washed away by reduced government services and higher costs of living.
A supposed billionaire (I would actually presume millionaire) from Queens who now lives part time in a gold-plated penthouse, part-time in the White House, and part-time on a golf course bragged to his millionaire and billionaire friends right after the tax cuts were passed, “You all just got a lot richer.” Oddly, members of the poor white working class that voted Trump into office weren’t standing around him at the time, or if they were, they were serving him some food.
The idea that a rich guy from NYC would come and con poor rural folk out of much of their small earnings is so cliche it’s boring, but we’ve gotten a real-life example of it — an example still playing out as Donald goes to rural states, flips on a red baseball cap, entertains the locals for an hour with incorrect story after incorrect story, and then hops on a fancy plane again, leaving them to go back to their much improved lives. Oh, wait, their lives haven’t improved? And health care costs are going up now that Republicans killed key aspects of Obamacare? Well, at least they got free entertainment at the rally.
The economy is doing great right now … for rich people. Republican policies have made sure to boost Wall Street where possible. But Main Street is not top of mind when Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham are golfing at Mar-a-Lago.
Democratic policy under Obama involved grants for solar and wind energy to boost US companies in these nascent markets as they turn into massive global markets. Democratic policy under Obama involved workplace electric vehicle charging initiatives, other EV charging initiatives, and EV battery initiatives that again focused on building key 21st century industries — and hundreds of thousands of jobs — as efficiently and as quickly as possible.
A cap-and-trade program for global warming pollution, once a Republican idea but now almost universally opposed by Republican politicians, would help to shift US resources from dying, out-of-date industries and into a cleantech leadership position globally. California has led with such a program and now has massive cleantech industries supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. Republican politicians have shot down attempts to bring such benefits to much more of the country. Why?
Well, money talks. Coal, oil, and gas companies fund Republican political campaigns, and elected Republicans pay them back — instead of focusing on the core solutions of the coming century that could give hard-working Americans millions of solid jobs while cleaning the air and water for them.
Charts courtesy Open Secrets
What do Republicans have to show common Americans, normal people, after two years of essentially full control of the federal government?
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