One lie that they always use is that tax increases for the top 1% will hurt small businesses.
The article “11 Facts You Need To Know About The Nation’s Biggest Banks” looks at the cold hard facts and labels this as another GOP lie.
The article states “Big banks don’t lend to small businesses: The New Rules Project notes that the country’s 20 biggest banks “devote only 18 percent of their commercial loan portfolios to small business.”
These bank CEOs are a subset of the top 1% and they have been shafting small businesses which are a subset of the bottom 99%. President Obama’s policies haven’t been hurting small businesses, and the GOP knows it-so what would Karl Rove do? He attacks an opponent’s strong suit, as he did with John Kerry being a decorated war hero, and laughs as the opponent consumes time and capital protecting himself against the “politics of personal destruction”.
The article states “The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City more than three weeks ago have now spread across the country. The choice of Wall Street as the focal point for the protests – as even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said – makes sense due to the big bank malfeasance that led to the Great Recession.
While the Dodd-Frank financial reform law did a lot to ensure that a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis won’t occur – through regulation of derivatives, a new consumer protection agency, and new powers for the government to dismantle failing banks – the biggest banks still have a firm grip on the financial system, even more so than before the 2008 financial crisis.”
The GOP ruined our economy. An example of this is that the GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s advisor, Phil Gramm, passed legislation that deregulated derivatives and the financial services industry. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act – was significantly to blame for the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis and 2008 global economic crisis. The Act is most widely known for repealing portions of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had regulated the financial services industry.
Gramm’s support was later critical in the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which kept derivatives transactions, including those involving credit default swaps, free of government regulation.
The article, regarding how the GOP fought for the banking industry to ruin the bottom 99%, states “In the last few decades, regulations on the biggest banks have been systematically eliminated, while those banks engineered more and more ways to both rip off customers and turn ever-more complex trading instruments into ever-higher profits. It makes perfect sense, then, that a movement calling for an economy that works for everyone would center its efforts on an industry that exemplifies the opposite.”
The article states “Bank profits are highest since before the recession, even though, as the article states “the banks plan thousands of layoffs: Banks, including Bank of America, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse, are planning to lay off tens of thousands of workers.”
We are paying for the fat cats in the banking industry to rape us as the article states “Banks cost households nearly $20 trillion in wealth: Almost $20 trillion in wealth was destroyed by the Great Recession, and total family wealth is still down “$12.8 trillion (in 2011 dollars) from June 2007 – its last peak.”
Tea Partiers carried guns to town hall meetings a few summers ago. Occupy Wall Street members have not incited any violence, in contrast to the arsenal toting Tea Partiers, who could have caused instantaneous death to Democratic leaders and participants in the town hall meeting.
Facts and objective reality don’t matter to GOP propagandists though as the following Cantor quote exemplifies.
“I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country… Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans.” – Eric Cantor, Teaparty House Leader, Oct. 7, 2011
The article “Study: Wealthy Stockbrokers More Dangerous Than Psychopaths” describes how the GOP is helping insanely greedy oligarchs ruin our country.
The article states “The findings are a reminder of why now — more than ever — we must refuse to succumb to political apathy and laissez-faire demagoguery. …
The first revelation came from Dr. Nassir Ghaemi of Tufts University. In his recent book, “A First-Rate Madness,” he went beyond merely restating the old adage that anyone crazy enough to run for public office probably shouldn’t occupy that office. Instead, the book sheds light on what Ghaemi calls an “inverse law of sanity,” whereby tumultuous times like these actually reward and promote political figures who are “mentally abnormal (or) even ill.”
Now comes a new study from Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen showing that the most successful of the global financial elite probably pose more of a menace to society than known psychopaths.
As the website Newser reported, the researchers “pitted a group of stockbrokers against a group of actual psychopaths in various computer simulations and intelligence tests and found that the money men were significantly more reckless, competitive, and manipulative.” Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive “to damage their opponents.”
The findings build on similar research in the recent past. In 1996, investigators at Glasgow Caledonian University discovered connections between psychopathy and successful financial speculation, concluding that “with the right parenting, (psychopaths) can become successful stockbrokers instead of serial killers.”
People can become addicted to almost anything. We have the GOP helping fat cats. Why would the GOP do that? The fat cats, who Bush 43 called Pioneer and Ranger contributors, help the GOP maintain political power, which is what the GOP is addicted to.
The article states “However, the findings are a reminder of why now — more than ever — we must refuse to succumb to political apathy and laissez-faire demagoguery. Indeed, it’s time to redouble our commitment to strengthening checks on political and corporate power because that power is often being wielded by the most unstable among us.”
The article “Van Jones on America’s Uprising: It’s Going To Be an Epic Battle” shows that progressives can organize.
The article states “As the grassroots sit-ins and marches that originated as Occupy Wall Street spread to other cities, Van Jones, lead evangelist for the American Dream movement, took the stage Monday at a Washington, DC hotel where organizers of the institutional element of the progressive movement converged at Take Back the American Dream. The gathering was organized by the Campaign for America’s Future in partnership with Jones’ new organization, Rebuild the Dream. Jones voiced his support for the spontaneous Wall Street uprising, and for the U.S. Marines who agreed, he said, to protect the protesters while wearing dress blues….
Rebuild the Dream has already facilitated some 1,600 house meetings of like-minded people who aim to build a grassroots movement on a par with the Tea Party. Rebuild the Dream has also issued a “Contract For the American Dream,” built on the model of past right-wing contracts, which politicians are being asked to sign in order to signify their willingness to support movement goals in their political and legislative work. At Monday’s event, Jones brought to the stage members and leaders of some 25 organizations, representing issues ranging from workers’ rights, LGBT rights, corporate accountability, financial reform — many from the longstanding l organizations of the progressive and liberal movement, including labor unions.”
The GOP is addicted to power and remain there they need huge contributions from the top 1% who are addicted to stealing every last penny from the rest of us. One sickness feeds the other and we are all its victims.