Republicans are rushing out their new “Rebuild the Gilded Age” bill. It’s a breathtaking, multi-trillion dollar fiscal disaster. (Remember when Republicans at least pretended they weren’t just sucking up to their rich patrons?) And Republicans are shoveling out this massive fraud now, long after we really needed stimulus, when it’s too late to do much good.

As I write this, the Republicans were frantic rushing to vote on this flaming trash-pile. They wanted it passed before anyone could see it, but that rush unexpectedly stalled. Things may have changed by the time you read this, of course.

I can talk about how non-partisan groups (the CBO, the Tax Policy Center, and not the Treasure Department) now say Republicans will raise the deficit by around $1.4 trillion.

Yeah, the ‘T’ word. Good thing Republicans are fiscal conservatives, right?

 

Remember back when Obama took office during the massive 2007 collapse? The US financial markets were piles of rubble, millions of Americans were losing their homes as corporate jackals were sucking down all their savings, and those filthy rich bankers were parachuting out of their protected positions of wealth to land in soft piles of money. Remember that recession?

I don’t want to get all macroeconomic on you, but the answer for the recession was deficit spending by the feds. How much? Keynesian economics had the answer: roughly $1.3 trillion. Sure, an awful number, but that’s what it was. And Republicans, reliably, shrieked like un-oiled bearings. ‘NO NO NO!‘ they squealed. It would be so bad for the economy to run any deficit whatsoever, ever, for any reason! After extensive negotiations, Republicans finally capitulated to half the recovery money, to ensure that Obama wouldn’t get for success—

Ahem. Because running any deficit, even in a depression, would be bad! Yeah. Terrible policy. Really. Ignore all that evidence to the contrary.

So Obama settled on just under $800 billion. (And we made most of that back, but forget that part.) Anyway, when you only pay half the money, you only get get half a recovery. Yes, markets did stabilize, but most big companies sat on their cash; investments dropped to nothing; loans disappeared; employment dropped; wages dropped; the economy kind of died for year after year. Most big corporations used their extra money to buy back their own stock (boosting investment for rich people) and obscene executive bonuses.

And tons of ordinary people who’d unknowingly signed predatory loans they couldn’t get out of lost their jobs, their homes, and everything good in their lives. Republicans like Greenspan watched this disaster building up ahead of time, and after it happened, Republicans tried to undercut every action Obama took to get the economy moving again. They openly worked to make our country fail, so they could blame the liberal, Democratic black guy. The sheer, vicious, quantity of evil they showed was appalling. They were willing to hurt millions of Americans just to score political points. Oh, and let their fat cats buddies earn obscene piles of money.

Oh yeah, and it worked like a champ. Americans are kind of morons that way. Nobody went to jail, nobody was found to have made any mistakes, and the bone-stupid Wall Street bankers who gutted our security and savings were all bailed out. Poor, sensitive babies. Republicans won more seats in the next several elections by railing against Obama and the failing economy that they had just sabotaged. Points for chutzpah.

Cut from then to now.  The U.S. economy is finally — finally! — starting to grow at close to a normal rate, employment is approaching normal, and financial markets are doing OK, NOW is when Republicans decided we really need a massive new stimulus?

And guess what? They found a spare $1.4 trillion by selling us and our children into debt! What were the odds?

Hey, Rich People! You’re welcome, and remember to give generously to Republican politicians!

I could argue that the bill sucks rocks — and it really, really does suck, even worse than you know — but the big question is: why a tax cut? And why a huge stimulus now, when we don’t need it anymore. Republicans wouldn’t give us the fucking time of day when even a little would have helped everyone. Nope! Not even a little, tiny bit of help.

Because the modern Republican Party aren’t ethical, rational conservatives.  No actual conservative would vote for such a radical, disruptive, fiscally bankrupt bill.  No, Republicans don’t have an ideology, they deny any consistent policy, hell, they’re not even a political party anymore. Not after all this.

They’re an ongoing criminal enterprise. It’s all about the money.