I recently saw a bumper sticker in Hannaford parking lot that read “Working Men Vote Republican.” I felt that there should have been a second sticker explaining the first – that would either read: “Because I Make Over Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars a Year” or, “Because I Am A Moron.”
The Republicans took the House in the last election with a promise to create jobs. Since they have been in power the only thing they have done is pass tax cuts that favor the wealthy, try to kill the health care bill, propose ideological cuts to discretionary spending and attempt to legislate restrictive abortions laws against women.
The abortion issue is the Republicans’ hypocrisy. They love a fetus. From conception to birth is holy for Republicans; but after a child is born they don’t give a damn.
Some of the cuts the Republican Congress are pushing for are to de-fund prenatal care, cuts to wellness programs and cuts to WIC (Women Infants and Children) which provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.
They wish to cut food stamps; aid to dependent children; Head Start; the school milk program and the school lunch and breakfast programs. They plan to repeal the Health Care Law; to cut student aid for college.
They can’t wait until the child is old enough to go into the military and be sent into unnecessary wars. They celebrate the dead and wounded soldiers while at the same time proposing cuts to VA Hospital funding.
If you are out of work – tough: they would like to do away with the minimum wage and unions. They plan to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. They do, of course, want to remove estate taxes so if you are mega-wealthy you can pass along your estate, tax free.
Republicans pretend that tax cuts don’t affect the national debt. They tell you that tax cuts are not the same as spending. In reality taxes are income. A tax cut reduces the nation’s income. A 3 percent tax cut for me amounts to about $250 – a 3 percent tax cut for a billionaire is another yacht.
Republicans openly support huge expensive tax breaks for the wealthiest 1 percent of the nation and giant subsidies for mega oil companies which increases the national debt by decreasing revenue. They are fine with placing the burden on the working middle class.
Working Men Vote Republican… why?
William Gilliland
Farmington, Maine
R-Rated indeed. I would add another R-word to the far right response we are currently experiencing. That would be “reactionary.”
The current legislative majority and governor are reacting without any apparent thought or logic. In doing so, they are taking Maine back 50 years. LePage continues to say he’s using a scalpel, but in reality he’s bull-dozing over progress.
In all candor, the current majority looks more like a bunch of anarchists dismantling Maine than anything else.
It takes more than “no” to govern properly.
If Democrats were so adroit at handling things, then why in two years of Democrat control, did the President amass more national debt than the the last four Presidents combined. The (unnecessary) wars continue, unemployment which was not supposed to go above 8% with the passage of the stimulus hovered for months at near 10%, states across the nation continue to go broke. Additionally, the election of President Obama was supposed to increase our standing in the world, instead we are quickly becoming a hollow shell a laughing stock in the face of an ongoing global crisis. One of the most telling statements of the way things are was pictures of Libyan Rebels calling for President Bush to save them. It was short lived as the Democrat controlled media could not let that be heard.
What is wrong with a hand up not a hand out. What is wrong with individual responsibility rather than a nanny state controlling life from the cradle to the grave. Why can’t Democrats just once assume responsibility for something rather than blaming someone else.
Please stop this tax cuts for the wealthy nonsense. If it is such a concern let’s change the system to a sales tax approach and reduce the size of government whose sole job is collect taxes. Read the Fair Tax by Neal Boortz and Congressman Linder. How much does it cost the federal government out of each dollar just to collect taxes? I find it so interesting when Warren Buffet says raise the income tax rates because he pays less tax than his secretary. The left shouts in agreement but you don’t see Buffet offer to pay more, his income is unearned income meaning it is derived from investments and taxed differently and he has far too many write-offs. More questions no answers!
If my calculations are correct, the 3% tax cut of $250.00 from your income would indicate your yearly income to be about $8500.00. Now it is well known that we wealthy Republicans are willing to help those who are truely in need, but it is the abuse of all of our social systems that cost us all to much monies. It really bothers me when I see a person buy some small grocery item with their EBT card that I’m paying for, then fork over cash to buy their much needed beer and cigarettes.
You will probably be horrified to discover that although I am a registered Republican, and a conservative, I am also a dues paying union member. You complain about large companies and the wealthy getting tax breaks; to this I reply I am glad I work for a wealthy company that is making a profit , they will be around for a long time.
As I go off to work tomorrow, I will be thankfull that the Republicans have taken over the State Of Maine and can work towards turning it around into a State of Working People, rather then the State that the Democrats have turned us into over the last 30 plus years.
As to the bumber sticker you saw on the back of a vehicle, I believe it reads ” Working People Vote Republican”, not” Working Men Vote Republican”. At least that’ what the one on the back of my vehicle says!
This is the most ridiculous article I’ve ever read….I am a working, educated woman who works very hard for my $56,000 annual salary….I’m a Republican. I never got help for my two kids going to college; I’ve been paying $18,000 per year for 7 years now! I get out of work and stand behind tattooed 20-year old girls with a baby in line and wait while they buy their cigarettes and complain because their Maine Card doesn’t have sufficient funds. Yup, that does make me mad, and yes, it does make me seriously wonder why we haven’t explored welfare reform.
I have a heart. I’m all for helping people, but our society is enabling people. That helps no one.
Working women vote Republican!!!!!!
“They can’t wait until the child is old enough to go into the military and be sent into unnecessary wars.”
FYI: no one is forced to join the armed forces –
and, who is “they”?????
Gee,
Everytime I see an old Obama Biden bumper sticker on a vehicle I wonder if the moron driving it has finally realized that he was suckered, conned, flimflamed, by the “Chicago Mob” called the Democratic Party who are the same as a dope dealer only they get the poor addicted to welfare and social programs.
Wake up William! Your socialists had three decades in power and look at what they have done to Maine. A destroyed work ethic, Single mothers listed as the birth parent in the newspapers so they can qualify for welfare, an industry of welfare distribution that employs social workers to administer the benwelefits paid for by the tax paying workers who will soon be outnumbered by those collecting the benefits and those administering the benefits.
It had to end eventually because we cannot afford it but that just doesn’t compute in the feeble liberal minds. If they are so benevolent towards the welfare system then I suggest that they don’t take any deductions on their income tax forms and simply pay it all based on their gross salary and feel good about helping their fellow man. I on the other hand will object to being taxed to death and donate to the charities of my choice and keep the government out of it to the best of my ability.
One simple statement: Gas Prices! The silence from the left concerning this hot button issue for former President Bush has been deafening! Where are the Daily Kos, CNN, MSNBC, and MoveOn.org and why are they not calling for congressional investigations!
The ignorance and arrogance of liberalism shows its ugly head again.
Did you see that Obama is cutting the heating assistance program, he must want the poor people to freeze to death.
How is the closing of Guantanamo Bay going.
How is that cap and trade system going?
How did that stimulus work out, $250,000 for ever “job saved or created”
Didn’t Obama agree not to raise taxes on people making over 250,000, his signature is on the legislation.
I love this quote or lie: “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” Obama
People vote republican because they are educated voters, plain and simple.
About that term used used the first response, “reactionary”. It is defined as: “of, pertaining to, marked by, or favoring reaction, especially extreme conservatism or rightism in politics; opposing political or social change.”
What the Left hasn’t figured out yet is that THEY are the upholders of the status quo. THEY are the conservatives. THEY are opposing meaningful reform.
Those protesting change in Wisconsin were the very form and feature of a reactionary mob. So The Left is reactionary. Amazing but true…
Let me if I’ve got this right.
Republicans hate women, William Gilliland likes ‘em.
Republicans hate children, W.G. loves ‘em.
Republicans hate nutrition, W.G. loves it.
Republicans hate college kids, W.G. likes ‘em
Republicans hate vets, W.G. likes ‘em.
Republicans love war, William Gilliland hates war.
Republicans love the wealthy, W.G. hates ‘em..
Above all, William Gilliland hates Republicans. I welcome this urgent, breathless news bulletin about his festering fury. As the old proverb has it: “The loathing of the loathsome is more precious than the love of the lovely.”
O.K., the proverb isn’t so old. I just made it up. But I’m pretty old, so it might pass on as an old proverb.
If I were a nervous Republican I’d be locking my doors, pulling the shades and arming myself against the man’s exterminating rage, but I realize poor Bill is just venting (from the Latin noun ventus, wind). His hatred is as harmless as his benevolence is meaningless; he expects other people, e.g., the wicked rich, to foot the bill for his many loves..
No need to reply to most of his standard “ranting points, “but one of them requires some attention. He offers a garbled version of the “tax expenditure” concept, which I first heard in 1968. A tax expenditure is a person’s take-home pay, i.e., what the government allow us to keep. And the rich are allowed to keep far too much of the government’s money.. They never invest, they only buy yachts depriving the government of its fair share and forcing it to go $14,000,000,000 in debt.
As for Dennis: “reactionary…taking Maine back 50 years…bulldozing over progress…anarchists dismantling Maine…party of no.” Does anything resembling an actual thought ever disturb the motionless fog inside the lad’s skull. Logic is as mysterious to him as astrophysics is to a 17th century Melanesian.
“Reactionary anarchists” good Lord!
There shouldn’t be any question why I am a registered independant. Just read the trash spewed out by the article and Dennis’s response. Both Dems and Repubs are so busy playing the blame game that they never accomplish anything.
The LePage administration has been in office for only a couple of months, and according to Dennis and William, they have already destroyed everything good about Maine. They haven’t created jobs. News for you–the government doesn’t create jobs ! The evil rich do.
What Jo said….