Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  I keep thinking of that famous saying as I’m pondering another big push by the republican party to shackle us with another “phase” of the “cut your taxes and balance the budget” voodoo economics made famous by Ronald Reagan.  The problem is there is no “fool me thrice” to the saying.  We’ve already been fooled twice – SHAME ON US!  But as George W Bush once famously said as he was butchering this saying (as he did with so many sayings) “we won’t get fooled again.”  Or will we?  Well, I certainly hope not.  But, if you listen to the pundits, the possibility exists that we could get “fooled” again.  And by what this time?  Glenn Beck? Rush Limbaugh? (OK, Rush has been around since the first “fooling”) Sarah Palin?  Rupert Murdoch?  I have friends who call themselves “conservatives.”  I wonder daily if ANY of them have checked out these people who are trying to “fool” them for the third time.

The real irony of it all, is that the people buying into the “conservative” lie are at the forefront of those clamoring about the lack of jobs in America, the national debt, the trade deficit, the jobs overseas, the immigration problem, and on and on.  What they seem to be unable to do is CONNECT the republican party with its responsibility in all those areas.  Let’s just focus on the debt here – as long as the “getting fooled again” topic is front and center.  Now, I’m just going on memory here and I’m getting up there in years (OK, I’m admitting to being a bit forgetful on occasion) but I still remember Jimmy Carter HALFING the budget deficits left behind by the Nixon/Ford administrations – mostly Nixon, of course.  If memory serves me correct, I believe Carter cut the deficit from about 75 BILLION to 35 BILLION in his four years in office.  (both numbers miniscule by today’s standards) Carter is still ridiculed by many politicians because he REALLY wasn’t a member of the BELTWAY crowd.  However, he did some great things and had Reagan not reversed his CAFE standards for the auto industry and his “example” for a “green” energy future this country would be a darned sight better off today than we are.  Republicans are still arguing against the foresight Carter showed in the 1970’s.  If you can’t figure out why, well Carter was not the friend of “Big Oil.”  (Compare that to Bush/Cheney, Bush Senior, or Reagan – that in itself should explain a few things to even the most casual of political observer)

Reagan not only reversed the CAFE standards (even going so far as to encourage Detriot to build more gas guzzlers) but ridiculed Carter as the solar panels were removed from the White House shortly after he took up residency – just one of the many examples that Reagan SHOULD be remembered for (another would be UNION BUSTING).  To this day I can’t understand how any working American can even consider Reagan anything but a piriah as far as presidents are concerned.  (there’s a plethora of reasons for that last statement, but let’s just focus on the economic ones tonight)  Reagan won the White House using the normal republican trickery (funding John Anderson, the disenchanted “liberal” republican who took many votes away from Carter) and promising to “balance the budget and cut taxes.”  Of course, Reagan’s tax cuts benefitted – MOSTLY – the wealthiest of Americans as we got “fooled” the first time with the “trickle down theory.”  Reagan proceeded to take the budget inherited from Carter which was a year or two away from surplus and turned it into a HUGE deficit somewhere in the neigborhood of $250 BILLION per year over the last 5 or 6 years Reagan was in office.  (an increase of more than 5 fold from what Carter left him)  And, of course, George Bush senior took those deficits up another sizeable notch in his term as president.

So, the American people had apparently had enough of this skullduggery and elected the unknown Bill Clinton in 1992.  Now, to be fair based on my John Anderson statement regarding Reagan, I don’t believe Clinton would have won without Ross Perot’s entry in the race as an independent.  I was always convinced Perot took more votes from Bush senior than Clinton, but I have to admit never researching this because it was always a “moot” point in my mind.  To me, Clinton was too conservative in that he went along with a lot of republican proposals – despite their obvious and OVERT disdain for him and his wife.  The number of investigations during the Clinton years was mind numbing.  Again, you would have thought it would have sent a message to the American people of exactly where these republicans were coming from.  However, once Clinton started fooling around with Monica Lewinsky, he lost all credibility with just about everyone.  Clinton did leave us with a budget surplus of $250 BILLION – but, he also signed NAFTA, GATT, the Telecommunications act of 1996 (possibly the largest blunder), and the Graham, Leach, Bliley Act of 1999 which repealed Glass Steagall – the depression era law which prevented banks from getting “too big to fail.”  I’m adding most of this to make sure anyone who reads this understands I have some real issues with Clinton.  The bottom line though is there were 20+ MILLION jobs created during his two terms in office and the United States was on course to repay the deficit in 10 years when he left office.  Remember – and this is important – it took about 5 – 6 years before the deficit was “turned around” under Clinton and he showed a lot more will to do so than I’m seeing from President Obama at this point in Obama’s first term.

Now, we come to “fool me twice, shame on me.”  I realize that George W Bush probably didn’t even win the presidency.  He was annointed by the Supreme Court at the expense of 200+  years of voters choosing our leaders in America.  The circumstances surrounding the Florida debacle are such that at some point in this nation’s history the TRUTH will need to come out.  I believe that someone, somewhere, actually did recount the votes and it’s a big secret because we don’t like to make “waves” in American politics.  Despite the FACT Bush STOLE the presidency (and, was the WORST president EVER!) we got another HUGE dose of “cut taxes and balance the budget.”  Of course, in Bush’s case, the budget was already projected to end the deficit in 10 years the day he took office – so he had to CREATE a new budget DEFICIT!  And, boy did he create one.  With the help of Dick Cheney, who famously was quoted as saying “Ronald Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” Bush left Barack Obama with a deficit of 1.3 TRILLION dollars PER YEAR when he left office.  And, of course, on top of that he left with the country teetering on the brink of depression so Obama had little choice but to increase government spending – to mitigate the damage all the while as people like Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, and the others were laying the blame of BUSH’S deficit at Obama’s doorstep.  This was just plain LYING in it’s purest form.  Unfortunately, for various reasons – many of which I’ve shared on this site over the past two years – many Americans are choosing to believe these unconscienable liars.

So now, what are we faced with?  “Fool me thrice?”  I realize the saying doesn’t go that far – and, well it shouldn’t.  After two times, shouldn’t that be enough?  Do we start questioning whether we’re STUPID or not – if we go the “thrice” route?  Is there anyone out there who can explain to me why “cutting taxes” will “balance the budget” this time?  I actually heard on the radio the other day a very genuine person call into the Ed Schultz show who was a conservative and confessed to listening to Beck and Limbaugh (and the others on the “right”).   The guy said he makes around $50 grand per year and correctly placed himself in the “middle class.”  What was shocking to me was his attempt to justify cutting taxes “for the rich” so that they can produce jobs for people like him.  I hate to say what I’m thinking about the guy, because he sounded like a great example of the unsuspecting American who believes people like Beck, Limbaugh and the others (around where I live the local blow hard is Lars Larson – these people will say ANYTHING for money) are telling the truth.  He also sounded like an excellent family man, a hard worker, responsible, everything good – except he hasn’t bothered to FACT CHECK these people.  He referred to the government as “them” – as if the government is the enemy – this because people like Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, and the others are referencing it as such.

WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT!  And, we’ve done a great job of being the government over the past 200 + years.  I don’t know where these people come off trying to destroy the government – maybe the “tea partiers” really want an anarchist society.  But, as far as I’m concerned, NO THANKS!  I’ve been putting up with the arrogance of republicans for far too long and it is very bothersome that when a democrat gets into the White House the “gloves” come off with these people.  Never mind all the racist rhetoric, or the mean spirited divisive talk, these people are trying to ruin our government as we know it with unabashed LYING.  The large corporate “heads” are sitting in the background licking their chops as the rest of us turn America into one huge mindless argument over irrelevent stuff.  It really is UNBELIEVABLE to me that it’s all come down to this.  Somehow, the “progressives” need to take to the polls in the fall and put a stop to these republicans once and for all.  I’ve been saying almost since the day President Obama was inaugurated that his decisions were turning his “base” off in droves and the result would be a mid-term election where MILLIONS stayed home.  (Obama’s chief of staff referred to me as a “f__king retard”) That is now a REAL possibility – but, if you’re thinking like me (I’m not that inspired by Obama’s centrist positions – plus I HATE that he pardoned Bush/Cheney et al) it makes sense to think of the alternative – and, that is nauseating.  Seriously, do you really want John Boehner as the Speaker of the House?  Third in line to the Presidency?  Ughhhhh!  (and, what if their vision of the next president is Sarah Palin?)

I’m going to “bite my lip” and, once again, vote against EVERY republican.  I have yet to hear ONE OF THEM stand up and repudiate the racist, mean spirited, disengenuous rhetoric of their leaders.  If the democrats allow the “Bush tax cuts” to be extended, I may never vote again – I will be sick to my stomach!  And, then we’ll have to listen to who knows how many years of the republicans blaming Obama for the deficits.  Really, are WE – the American people – REALLY THAT STUPID?  The other day I tuned into the Glenn Beck fiasco on the Washington Mall for about 5 minutes.  I’m serious when I say that I thought I was listening to a lay preacher going off on how America will be saved when we turn back to God!  Now, as one who’s been turning to God for years, I was a bit confused.  Was he talking about Jesus?  Was he talking about the same God I worship?  Or is there a special God for republicans or Fox viewers?  It really was very confusing – I had to turn it off (the same reaction whenever I attempt to force myself to listen to Beck, Limbaugh, or any of the rest of them).  I will tell you this, when the right wing starts using the term “God” in their proselytizing, hold on to you hats!  They’re rounding up the “troops” for an all out assault on our electoral process where a huge block of well meaning Americans are going to be voting against their own best self interests – guaranteed.  (yes Lars, these people would fall into the “low information” voters)  I’d really like to know how many in Beck’s audience would benefit from an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts for the top 2%.

These people have something like $500 Million to spend on a mid term election thanks to “Citizens United.”  I’ve pointed out the danger of that Supreme Court decision many times on this site and challenged the democrats to do something about it while they can.  True to form, NOTHING is apparently going to happen – except that the corporate interests are going to be WELL REPRESENTED in November’s election.  The FACT Karl Rove has his hands on $300 MILLION should be enough to get the democrat’s attention.  I’m getting a lot of emails from dems asking for “grass roots” money right now, but what they should be doing is cramming some legislation through Congress that puts some limits and accountability on corporations who choose to attempt to influence our elections.  At the very least, “We the People” should know who’s doing what!  I really am wanting President Obama to succeed, but I’m not sure he understands the importance of these next couple of months.  It’s time for a showdown with the republicans.  BUSINESS AS USUAL will result in devestation for those of us who are committed to a return to prominence of America’s middle class – millions of which are jobless.  The depression in Black Communities across America is unacceptable – but, it will take our president and the democratic Congress to do something about it – and waiting until the next congress is too late (and probably too little).  The 99ers?  Waiting to help them out until the next congress is also too late.  In fact, I wouldn’t have allowed a vacation for a single congress person without dealing with the plight of the 99ers at the beginning of August.  There are millions of Americans suffering financial hardship right now.  It will take agressive action from President Obama and the democrats in Congress – while they still hold the majority – to take a stand for what Jesus would call “the least of these.”  America, please don’t allow the republicans to fool us a THIRD time!  And, it appears that this time people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are going to be claiming God is in favor of the Bush Tax Cuts.