I saw this cartoon this morning on Facebook, and I thought "wow, what a bunch of fallacies." This cartoon embodies the majority of Democratic Talking Points since 2008 (with a notable absence of the "War on Women" theme... hmm... wonder why).
The thing with this cartoon is, many of these arguments can't be boiled down into signs. They aren't bumper sticker slogans. They are real issues, with much deeper thought processes. I'm going to take just a few.
1) We want dirtier air and water so CEO's can make more money.
This issue has to do with the Environment. It stems from things like the Kyoto Protocol, and various other internationally pushed treaties to help prevent Global Warming, er um... sorry, Climate Change. Recently our President made a deal with China, whereby we cut our Greenhouse Gas Emissions, while they commit to maybe, possibly, making changes 20 years down the road. The problem with all of these solutions is that they cost the American Taxpayer a lot of money, while the benefits are a lowering of Global Temperatures by less than half a degree.
NOBODY wants dirtier air and dirtier water, and contrary to popular opinion it has nothing to do with CEO's making more money. (For instance, are you aware that both the Federal Government and the State Governments make more money off a gallon of gas than the Oil Companies?) It has to do with Americans not wishing to be punished at the pump, or at their natural gas lines that heat their houses, for regulations that do little to combat the so-called pollution everyone is screaming about. If we are going to have to pay astronomically more money, we'd like a larger return on our investment, than say, the EPA declaring the puddle in my backyard a "wetland".
2)Send our jobs overseas.
Recently, there was a huge flap in the news when the Burger King Corporation bought out Canadian chain Tim Hortons, and proceeded to decide they were going to move their corporate headquarters to Canada. How un-patriotic of them. Of course, the un-patriotic part was that Burger King was taking their profits to a more friendly tax zone. Canada's corporate tax rate is 26.7%. The United States? 40%. We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Also, jobs being sent overseas has a lot to do with onerous regulation in the United States. I think we need to elect people willing to give incentive for having businesses in the US, whoever those people are.
3)Stop giving us benefits from our tax money.
This is the most ridiculous of the signs up there. 90% of the taxes I pay don't equal a single benefit for me. Social Security and Medicare come out separate from the federal tax rate. The ACA? raised my rates, my deductible, and my willingness to seek medical treatment. 2 years ago? I didn't have any of those problems. I don't qualify for a single government benefit. So my tax money is paying for benefits for other people, not me. I'd rather keep my money. Not all of it mind you. I realize a need for some social safety net, and of course, I'd happily pay more if we raised the salaries of our military. But the surfer dude in California who doesn't want to get a job and lives off food stamps? No thanks.
4) Pave our farmlands.
What? You do realize that of industrialized nations, the US has quite a bit of open space? Like vast swaths of the middle of the country and the northern part of the country, and... There is the reason the East Coast is considered a population center. There is a reason that we jokingly refer to everything west of Pittsburgh and East of Los Angeles "Flyover Country". As a matter of fact, there are states where the Feds own more land than the rest of the residents combined. Please explain to me what politician has advocated paving over farm land? Is this even a serious argument?
5)Yes to costly healthcare.
I'm so over this one it's not even funny. The ACA was supposed to bend the cost curve down, which no one now even admits to saying it was going to do. Not only that, but my healthcare has become more expensive and needed medications have been tossed out. Yes, needed medications. My husband is not on his last legs. He works 3 jobs, plays softball, and still does all the work around the house. He's not dying anytime soon. He's a productive member of society. And his needed medication has been denied ever since the ACA took effect. They don't think he needs the medicine he's been taking for 4 years. But my daughter can get her birth control for free! As Mr. Gruber reminded us Healthy people have to pay more into the system so the sicker people don't. That's right. If you are healthy you are now paying for someone else's healthcare, and I'm doing it at the expense of my own. (See, my unwillingness to go see a Doctor since my $8K deductible ensures I have to pay for it.) And now, you can just pay the penalty for not having healthcare, wait until you get sick, and not only will you get coverage, but you won't have to pay a dime more than the person who's been paying for coverage for 20 years. What a plan. It didn't make healthcare cheaper, it really didn't insure that many uninsured people, and everyone else has sub-par healthcare.
That's just five of those signs. Other ones I can't even respond to, because at no point has it been an issue, raised by a single politician. Just because Tom Steyer thinks "Climate Change" is the number one issue, doesn't mean it is, as his last election track record shows. (His "dark money" track record... to the tune of 60 million dollars.)
What people who don't live here don't understand, and may NEVER understand, is that the United States was founded on one major principle. Freedom. That principle runs through every phrase in our constitution. Just because it's not your governing philosophy doesn't mean it's wrong, and honestly, if our philosophy is so bad, why do so many people risk their lives to come here? They raft across open water, crawl through ditches and tunnels, and risk getting shot at by unhappy property owners, just for the chance to be here. Freedom. This country, and it's ruling philosophy is unique, and I get that it leaves socialistic Europeans scratching their heads, but you don't live here. And it appears that your arguments against our ruling philosophy are boiled down to a cartoon with a bunch of signs that are meaningless in US political debate. Dude, they aren't even good arguments.
