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A BuzzFlash Reader Tells Super-Sanctimonious Hall of Fame Republican Hypocrite Orrin Hatch to Stuff It

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by MC

After watching Orrin Hatch on CSPAN on Veteran's Day, I'd like to nominate him as Poster Boy for the Bush Administration. Never have I heard such a pack of misleading, distorted "spin." He even puts GW himself to shame. Hatch, however, unlike his glorious leader, delivers his lies and distortions with a whiny, mewling, patronizing attitude that I find extremely distasteful. It's as if he finds it difficult to understand how anyone could possible disagree with all the wonderful policies the Bushies are trying to cram down our throats. How can we be so ungrateful and disagreeable when they are just looking out for our welfare and trying to create a better life for all of us? Ugh!!

To give just one example, he answered a caller's question about the economy by saying that it was imperative that Congress control spending. Didn't the caller know that fully 70% of the federal budget is entitlements? This is the old Republican trick of referring to Social Security as an "entitlement." Hey, fellow Americans, Social Security is your money and my money. Look at your next paycheck. That FICA deduction is your contribution to the Social Security fund, matched by your employer's contribution as part of your compensation for your labor. You entrust that money to the government so when you're ready to retire you have a guaranteed income (and medical care), hopefully supplemented by your own savings. But guess what? After decimating the Clinton era budget surplus in record time with massive tax cuts for wealthy political contributors, Bush and his cronies are now funding additional massive tax cuts with your Social Security contributions. You may get a couple hundred or thousand (or nothing) a year out of this largess, but the Ken Lays and Dick Cheneys of the world will get hundreds of thousands. So, that's only fair you say. They pay more in taxes, so they should get more back. Think again. The tax system for the very wealthy and for corporations in the US is so riddled with write-offs and exemptions and incentives and off-shore tax dodges that the percentage of taxes they pay is at an all-time low. So, proportionately, you and I, and other middle and lower income taxpayers, are shouldering the burden of keeping this government and economy ticking. Think about that the next time Orrin Hatch or one of his clones starts whining about "entitlements."

The Republican plan is that you and I and the other poor schmucks of this country will eventually be "entitled" to nothing for the tax dollars we cough up every pay day. Remember, the goal, according to Grover Norquist, is to "make government small enough to drown in the bathtub." That translates into substandard public schools; inadequate or non-existent health care for children, the elderly, and the indigent; crumbling and antiquated infrastructure; underfunded "homeland security"; the list goes on and on. If they "drown" the federal government, they "drown" the services it provides to you and me and the other citizens of this country. So here's a message for Orrin Hatch. Those are our tax dollars you're talking about. American taxpayers are "entitled" to have those dollars used in our best interests. And quit whining about it.

MC
A BuzzFlash Reader

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY