Though they acknowledge that cuts to government spending caused the gross domestic product to drop in the fourth quarter, GOP members of Congress are still pushing to cut Social Security, Medicare and education.
So that means ... Congressional Republicans want to slow business activity in the U.S.
It's hard to understand why. Well, unless you consider they're being bankrolled by billionaires and CEOs who don't care about the U.S. economy, and who want all government largess to go to them, not to middle-class Americans.
Congressional Republicans already pushed for massive spending cuts that threw Americans out of work. They strangled proposals to create jobs. Now they're trying to force more cuts. They won't back off the automatic spending cuts that will take place on March 1 under the so-called "sequester" unless Democrats agree to different cuts.
The Hill explains:
The sequester, adopted in 2011 as an incentive to force both parties to identify spending cuts, would chop domestic discretionary and defense programs by $1.2 trillion over the next year.
Republicans vow they will not turn off the sequester unless the cost of doing so — $12 billion per month — is offset.Here's how well government austerity worked in Europe:
- Cuts under the Conservative-led government are resulting in a triple-dip recession in the U.K.
- Budget cuts sent Spain to the brink of collapse with 26 percent unemployment, falling home sales and record defaults on loans.
- Austerity battered Greece's economy for six years, caused massive social unrest and increased mental illness and suicide.
- In Ireland, broad layers of the population cannot obtain many of the basic necessities of life.
Angry Bear calls it Romneyism:
The flagrant lying, con artistry, as the chief modus operandi--is now at the very heart of what the Republican Party is.Sounds about right.