There have been plenty of cases where the GOP hypocrisy about reducing deficits and eliminating frivolous spending have been exposed. One of the mostly costly examples was the Prescription Drug bill passed by a GOP dominated Congress and signed by then President George Bush for $400 billion. This legislation essentially did nothing to lower costs for a senior’s drug bill and to a degree even increased it with the “donut hole”, something the Democrat’s health care reform bill eliminated this year. It did increase profits for Big Pharma and prevented Medicare from negotiating lower prices for their clients as the V.A. does for military personnel.
Then at the end of last year there was the refusal to continue tax cuts for 98% of Americans unless the wealthiest 2% were on board. Allowing this to happen would have generated about $700 billion to help reduce our debt. Lord knows those millionaires and billionaires would suffer if their tax rate went from 35% back up to 38% where it was during the economic boom times under Bill Clinton.
During this same period the GOP was also refusing to extend unemployment benefits to about 2 million hard hit workers who had yet been able to climb back into the job market and were only able to meet basic needs of rent and food for their families with these benefits. Now we have our latest callous example of how phony Republican lawmaker claims are about cutting wasteful spending.
Under pressure from minority leader Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker John Boehner has revealed he was willing to pay $520 an hour of taxpayer money to attorney Paul Clement to defend the GOP’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Clement was working for the law firm of King and Spalding, (until he recently resigned) who have major offices around the country and around the globe. DOMA is the effort of christian conservatives in and out of Congress to ensure that gays do not gain legal status to wed one another in this country.
What kind of human being would fight tooth and nail to prevent hard-working Americans to get meager unemployment benefits that their wages actually contribute to while setting no reasonable limits on a lawyer’s fee to defend something that polls show most Americans disagree with?
Oh yeah, the same ones who want seniors on fixed incomes to start paying more on their Medicare insurance down the road as they allow corporations and wealthy individuals to forego paying their fair share of taxes today.
