EDITOR: The following was forwarded to NewsLanc by a reader.
source = Laurie Ulrich Fuller, who used to write for the Lancaster Post
April 11, 2011
They may be calling it the Path to Prosperity, but for 99% of us, it’s really the Road to Ruin. If you’re not the CEO of GE or Exxon, the budget, designed not to free the US from its deficit but to pursue a very specific social and religious agenda, will hurt you. You’ll pay more and get less, from the grocery store and the gas pump to your health care and retirement benefits. And it doesn’t have to happen – our country is not broke, and spending isn’t the reason we’re staring down the barrel at a huge deficit. It’s lost revenue. You can’t cut taxes on the only people making any money – and allow corporations to pay little or no tax – and not run out of money. People on unemployment understand the concept – you have a certain household budget that works when you’ve got a job. Then you’re laid off and your income goes down, and even though you’re not spending more, you have less money to pay your bills. So you turn to credit for essentials, and next thing you know, you owe more than you could ever possibly earn to pay it back. NOW… you have to know this concept isn’t lost on the perpetrators of the Path to Prosperity – they’ve balanced a checkbook before and know what happens when deposits are light. The Government Shutdown was a hoax, a scare tactic, the GOP’s “Shock Doctrine” at work. It was designed to leave us so relieved that the gears didn’t come to a grinding halt that we’d take the cuts and think we’re fortunate. That is until we look closely at the list of cuts and then try to live with them.
So what do we do? We’d better start making a lot of noise and heating up the phone lines at our Senators and House Reps’ offices, letting them know “we’ll remember in November” – and that anyone looking to axe Medicare or cut Social Security or eviscerate the EPA or shut down Planned Parenthood is going to be ousted. The VAST majority of Americans don’t favor the cuts they’re making. Let’s stand up and demand the change we were promised but didn’t get. Let’s make a noise as vast as our numbers. Join a US Uncut group in your state or city. Take time to read the real news every day so you know what’s going on. Make sure you’re registered to vote. Look up your legislators’ phone numbers and keep ‘em handy. Every time they step out of line, call them. Write to them. If we don’t rise up, we deserve what we get.
