Entitlements or a Federal Republic

As the extension to the Bush Era Tax Cuts draws to an end nearing the 2012 Presidential Elections and coinciding with the Great Debt Ceiling Compromise; the rhetoric for government funded social welfare programs will continue to heat up.  Top Republican, Conservative presidential contenders like Michele Bachman, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney continue to lambaste what they refer to as out dated programs of "entitlements." 

Conservatives fault our overgrowing debt centered economy that must support "lazy" Americans reliant on government hand outs.  Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, Food Stamps, Houseing Subsidies, Veterans Benefits, Veterans Hospitals, University Grants and Student Loans all face the ire of GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists acting as the mouth piece for Big Business threatened by a leader willing to make the decisions necessary for the betterment of our growing Democracy. 

I am alluding to President Obama's ability to begin taxing the wealthy, which would be an unprecedented turn from the previous forty year class war.  Conservative ideologues have sacrificed the common citizens welfare (note: we can refer to corporations as Super Citizens), for decades shifting a tax code that once inordinately taxed the wealthy and now places its burden on the middle and lower classes.

The truth is a bitter pill, in fact it is the wealthy who are the greatest government welfare recipients in our economy.  The ability to declare capital gains, to move U.S. dollars to offshore tax havens, to navigate corporate loopholes in which billion dollar industries all pay a yearly net tax of $0.  Citizens for Tax Justice estimated less than a 18% percent of most large corporations revenue go to taxes as of 2011. 

Raymond Johnson, the 26 year old breast cancer patient who has been denied coverage over a heavily restricted medicare program,  stands as a tragic example of the GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists goal to alienate a large portion of United States citizenry.  Mr. Johnson, a tradesman earns $9 an hour on a job that employed for barely 30 hours a week.  His story is a common narrative in an economy facing hostile actors who wish to only share the great American Dream with their own next door neighbors, congregation members, and family.  It is a sad show of ignorance, the hoards of Tea Party-ites marching in unison, demanding rights for themselves under the guise of state rights, and state sovereignty while claiming to be patriots of our ferderal republic. The GOP and the Tea Party sponsor political philosophy grounded on patron politics and patrimonialism.  Fortunately for America, we still have four more years of our beloved President Barack Obama.