In Pursuit Of Selfishness

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created [almost] equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of [Selfishness].” This is the Republican Party's interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. They think “the buck stops here” means they get to keep all the money they can lay their hands on, and that no blame or shame should be visited upon they who strive to take it all. One must do what it takes to be happy, don't you know? And God knows you would not be happy if any of that money went to the wrong people; meaning anyone you do not know or the “[almost] equal people” who are different than you and I. The attitude of the typical Republican is: “Let the rest of the damn world take care of itself. No one is going to be here that long anyhow!”

All right, as my mother used to say, I have a bee under my bonnet. What the Republicans are doing is beyond outrageous. And I am not the only one who thinks so. In a May 15, 2015 post entitled “Why Do Republicans Really Oppose Infrastructure Spending?" Daily Kos answered that question as follows:  

"The most accepted (or easily reported) explanation is that today's Republican party is dominated by Southern states, the center of heavy infrastructure (and costs) is located in the Northeast, and Republicans refuse to spend on states that don't vote Republican. There is truth to this explanation and, frankly, it is not properly reported as part of the wider partisan scandal that it is. For example, although federal disaster relief is uniformly passed in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc., the Hurricane Sandy relief bill was passed only when (as one of a few instances) the "Boehner Rule" was lifted to allow a bill to pass with largely Democratic votes. Why? Because only 70 House Republicans could be found who were willing to vote for federal emergency hurricane relief if the affected area was the East Coast. Nice."

While that might be the most accepted explanation it is not the only one, nor is it necessarily the best one. As Daily Kos points out, one of the reasons for opposing spending on our infrastructure is the old “Starve the Beast” tactic, which has become so much a part of right wing ideology. In other words, withholding the funding for much needed work on our infrastructure is taking advantage of an “opportunity to extort draconian cuts to social, regulatory, non-defense spending.” And holding hostage any and all necessary government spending for cuts to spending the Republicans deem unfavorable appeals very much to the selfish, short sighted, paranoid, government hating base of the Republican Party. As Daily Kos so aptly put it: “The goal here is not to invest in the country, but to seize upon any vulnerability to 'drown the government in a bathtub.'"

My own observations tell me this is a tactic that can involve quite a bit of risk to the Plutocrats who support the Republican Party. The problem is that the bellicose, ignoramuses Republican politicians exploit on behalf of the Plutocrats often push the Republican Politicians to go too far. There is a reason why even the Koch brothers put pressure on Republicans legislators to back down when it became apparent that President Obama was not going pay the ransom the Republicans demanded in order to get them to rise the debt ceiling! What I find so dangerous about this game of chicken is the fact that the Plutocrats believe the potential rewards are great enough to justify the risks. And they believe this even when they complain about the danger posed by lunatics who primary any Republican that is not extreme enough to suit them.

So what reward, other than lower taxes, could be great enough to make the plutocrats take the risks associated with empowering people who are so angry and unreasonable, and therefore unpredictable?

According to Daily Kos the Republicans want to Privatize the Infrastructure and “...turn such public resources into privately owned profit centers.” They also want to fund projects through use of Private Equity Bonds, which means that local and state governments would “delegate the ability to issue tax-free bonds to private corporations and investors.” Talk about a boondoggle! Daily Kos is absolutely correct in saying: “Privatization is not just a golden opportunity, but a tax-payer subsidized, tax-free opportunity - - with no demonstrated public benefit[.]” Finally, the party of the Greedy Old Plutocrats wants to repeal the labor and environmental laws.

This Daily Kos post is something everyone should read. But they should not be surprised that no main stream news organization is revealing this outrageous Republican agenda. After all, the media moguls are also Plutocrats and part of the Oligopoly.  Ain't Deregulation Grand?