Obama and the Democrats appear headed for a few small victories against the Republican theology of tax cuts FOR the rich and spending cuts FROM the poor. But, while we may have won a handful of skirmishes--a temporary debt ceiling increase and some modest tax increases--make no mistake, we are still facing a protracted and grueling war. Republicans remain as irrationally devoted as ever to their Cut & Gut Gospel: Cutting the safety net and Gutting the tax base.
So, how do we meet this challenge? What we need to do now is to truly attack and defeat the core of their anti-tax, anti-government, and ultimately, anti-democratic philosophy. We need to begin by creating the right narratives, slogans, poetry, and prose that will finally win this war for the good guys. This diary will attempt to open a can of poetic whoop on the collective Republican booty; and if inflicting my poetry on the world doesn't defeat the Republicans through artful turns of phrase, perhaps it will bring them to their knees by making them say: "Geez! Would somebody please pay that guy to stop writing poems?" Hey, either way, it's a win.
So, trickle down the page with me, dear reader, below the squiggly, orange Laffer Curve, and the poetic secret weapon shall be unveiled.
What the Hell Do You Mean Cut Government Spending?
You say we must cut government spending
But your taste for war has no end.
Your death merchants peddle constant conflict
And tell us we must always horde more weapons
To hide us from our latest fears.
So, we can’t cut spending for that, of course,
Just let the poor and the elderly pay ever more.
Weapons the military doesn’t even want or need,
You bankroll them freely
A corporate welfare greed to feed.
While welfare to feed actual people,
Well, that doesn’t even exist anymore,
Just temporary assistance to needy families,
Limited to five years in your entire life,
But permanent assistance for Greed, Inc.
And you say you want small government,
But you give the biggest handouts to the biggest pigs.
And you say cut the deficit and fix the debt,
But cut taxes on the rich at the same time.
Cut education budgets to fill the gap
And build more prisons to pick up the slack.
So stop pretending you don’t like spending.
You just don’t like it BY the rich and FOR the poor.