We often hear Republican leaders make the claim that there
are a group of people who are completely dependent on big government and,
consequently, fail to take responsibility for their lives. They take advantage
of government services like welfare and healthcare, and continue taking from
society without giving back.
But this only proves that the Republican Party is simply blind
to the struggles of most Americans. And that’s why they lost this past election
in such a huge and devastating way.
They need to understand that, in addition to
having the best organized grassroots campaign in history, the primary reason
President Obama won by a landslide is because of his persistence to helping the
driving force of this economy: the middle and working class.
The middle and working class of this country are the true
engine of economic growth. They are the true job creators because they are the
ones that end up spending money. They are the ones that create demand for a
business’s products. They are the ones that use the services a company
provides. When they prosper, as evidenced in the '90s, we all prosper.
The
basic, underlining point – one that today’s Republican Party fails to
understand – is this: No one in this country is completely
self-reliant. Therefore, we need to government to ensure equality of
opportunity (not outcome).
And that’s exactly what President
Obama proposed in his deficit-reduction plan.
In 2011, the President went farther
than the political middle by compromising
into law targeted spending cuts that amounted to $2 trillion (via entitlement
savings in Healthcare, Medicare, and Student Loans) without including any
revenue increases in order to win Republican support.
But
as every economist understands, you need a balanced approach of both spending
cuts AND revenue increases to spur economic growth.
Last
week, however, when it came time for Republicans to hold up on their end of the
deal, they refused to increase revenues from the wealthiest few.
These individuals (the “givers”), Republicans claim, should not
be forced to pay their fair share, even if that comes at the expense of
programs that serve to benefit the middle and working class (the “takers”).
This is unacceptable.
When a business chooses to invest in a new machine, pay its
employees higher wages, or purchase more merchandise, everyone understands that
– even if these choices result in lower short-term profits – the long-term
success of the company is dependent on such decisions.
In the same way, our government cannot cut our way to
prosperity.
My mother came to America when she
was 18. She worked a full-time job at a nursing home for minimum wage ($3.25 an
hour) while enrolled full-time at a community college. To help pay for her
education, she also took student loans. After graduating, she got married to my
dad and found work for a meager salary of $20,000 a year. While I was born and
my father continued struggling to find work, my mother became the head
breadwinner of our family. She also needed to take advantage of certain tax
breaks aimed at working families, such as the earned income tax credit and the
child tax credit. After seven years of working hard, however, her company laid
her off because of downsizing. She then had to survive off unemployment
benefits for 6 months as she had her second child, my younger sister.
Today
my parents are both successful small business owners. They are the “job
creators” who “built that”. But they understand that they needed “big government”
every step of the way.
The
sooner Republican leaders understand this, the sooner they will return to “The
Party of Lincoln.”
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