Today is the 75th anniversary of Social Security and Unemployment insurance. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law 75 years ago today in 1935.
To celebrate, the Republicans (especially those new candidates associated with the Tea Parties) want to privatize or end Social Security. They and sitting GOP Senators and Congressmen have also been hating on the unemployed by calling unemployment insurance a welfare handout that is making them lazy and spoiled, and they’re probably taking the money and doing drugs with it (TRMS). Unconscionable.
The GOP seems to have forgotten:
- We’re in a serious recession
- Unemployment is close to 10%
- There are 5-7 people for every job that is created or opens up
- Unemployment is insurance that employees pay into so they have a cushion should they become unemployed because of an economic down-turn or lay-off (or both)
- Laid-off people with a mortgage and family can’t live on the minimum wage; it is nowhere comparable to the paychecks they lost
- Unemployed middle-class people vote
It is abundantly clear to me that none of these block-heads has suffered hard times any time in the past 40 or 50 years, if ever. In fact, most are quite wealthy and have no clue what struggling without a job is like. I seriously doubt they even know anyone who is unemployed or have met with anyone who is unemployed and really listened to that person.
The GOP seems to have no empathy for anyone who needs any help at all, except huge corporations. I wouldn’t be surprised if Orin Hatch, Jon Kyle, Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, John Boehner, or Paul Ryan kicked someone lying on the sidewalk instead of helping them up. They’re sure good at kicking the unemployed when they’re down.
The GOP also seems to want to kick old people in retirement by taking away the program they paid into all their working lives, Social Security. (See Social Security Scorecard here) Forget the health care death panel myth. Instead of unplugging her, the GOP just wants Grandma to starve in poverty.
Has the GOP forgotten that the majority of people who vote in mid-term elections are 45 and over?
President Eisenhower realized the folly of mucking with good policy and programs that protect the people:
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower (R) wrote a letter to his brother. “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history,” Ike said. The president acknowledged in the letter that there are some who advocate such nonsense, but added, “Their number is negligible and they are stupid.” — Steve Benen, Testing the Limits of Grabbing the 3rd Rail, Washington Monthly, Aug. 13, 2010
If Ike is right, the Republican party may disappear entirely if they keep this crap up. That would cause another major problem in U.S. Government. Our system is based on a two-party system of adversarial debate and compromise. Just as we have a balance of power between three equal branches of government, we have a 4th check on excessive power with a two-party system. If we end up with only one party as a major party, I’m not sure what will happen to our system. There doesn’t seem to be a third party that can step in and take the GOP’s place right now. Maybe another William F. Buckley Jr. will appear and straighten the GOP out?
So thanks, GOP, for such a great present for the upcoming mid-term elections. You’re pissing off a lot of your own voters. Those voters may vote for a Democrat just because you’re so far off the cliff that they can’t trust you, or they’ll vote in Independents, like Florida Governor Charlie Crist who left the GOP to remain moderate, and frankly, sane.
Bonus video on the Social Security anniversary from TRMS (7:22):
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\\ tags: Democratic Party, Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt, Politics, Republican party problems, Social Security, Social Security 75th Anniversary, Unemployment Insurance
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