A Response to Harry's GOP Hand Wringing Article - By Talferris

We have talked about this many times, but reading this piece inspired me to respond. First of all, I don’t see it as middle class neglect as it is middle class destruction. When you sit and see the likes of Mitch McConnell willing to throw a huge number of people under the bus by denying or delaying unemployment, or willing to let the tax rate increase on all people and the austerity cuts that are waiting in the wings that will, in all likelihood, send us into another depression, just to not increase the rate on the top 2% of earners, that says something to me.

The Republican party, by in large have never been about or for the middle or lower classes. And lest we forget, there is an entire class of people under the middle and upper classes that fight and struggle to survive each and every day. Sure, we can say that about everyone at the present, but it rings more so with them than others. The ones it rarely affects, those at the top, are too busy looking at things as they were, as they used to be, and how to keep their wealth and grow it under the guise of being “job creators” by investing their excess wealth in the stock market or hiding it off shore in tax havens and shelters.

As an economist, you know that the way to grow any economy is to keep money circulating. A mass of people that have purchasing power are a better engine for the economy than a few at the top that buys high end cars, mansions, vacation homes, and expensive baubles to adorn themselves with. Demand for consumer goods generates manufacturing, improving wages, working conditions, and keeps that money circulating throughout the entire population.

When you have a few at the top that now have the accumulated wealth of over half of the rest of the population, that translates into power. The power to control trade regulation that is beneficial to themselves, the power to change labor and import laws to benefit themselves and their endeavors. And the ability to put out the propaganda to garner support for those over-riding goals to convince enough people that they should buy in this premise as well, giving Republicans the ability to accomplish what is best for them.