They presumably believed it was worth spending wildly on two of their favorite initiatives: the war in Iraq and tax cuts for the rich.

Yes, our national debt is a major problem if uncorrected over the coming years.

But the recession we’re trying to climb out of is also very dangerous. It will be disastrous for millions of suffering people, as well as for the country’s future prosperity, if the economy stays in the doldrums.

How can we significantly reduce the budget deficit unless many more people can find adequate work?

Once people are getting paid, and not living in constant fear of losing their jobs or their houses, they’ll be spending more money, and when individuals and companies are earning more, government revenues will increase, thereby reducing the deficit.

The escalating cost of health care to our overall economy will still be a challenge, but thanks to healthcare reform brought about by President Obama and the Democratic Congress, access to decent health care should gradually improve for most Americans, and the staggering burden of insurance premiums on employers should gradually be reduced.

That is, the healthcare cost problem is manageable given the political will to solve it in a way that is good for Americans’ physical and fiscal health.

It’s amazing that some of the fiercest critics of the deficit seem uninterested in avoiding waste in healthcare spending. They haven’t minded healthcare costs as long as private-sector insurers, pharmaceuticals, and other companies are making big profits, often at the expense of our well-being. (Witness the Republican-engineered Medicare Part D, with its prohibition against Medicare’s bargaining for prescription drugs, and the infamous doughnut hole. Fortunately the healthcare reform legislation of 2010 will improve Medicare.)

State budgets across the country are undergoing severe cuts as a result of tax revenues lost because workers and employers aren’t making enough money. (By law, most states are forced to balance their budgets.)

When enough revenue isn’t coming in, states must make painful cuts. Cuts that affect each of us in some way, whether it’s larger class sizes for our kids; slower response by EMTs, fire, and police; deteriorating public buildings and parks; unrepaired roads; weakened public health initiatives; excessive college fees; lack of investment in projects that would improve quality of life; more people suffering from insufficient food, shelter, and other basic necessities.

The budget reductions in many states (and note that the fiscal woes of big states, like California, have economic impacts on the rest of us) will add to the number of Americans who are unemployed. That will further depress economic activity.

The constant drumbeat — led by Republicans in Congress, followed by some Democrats in Republican-leaning states — at this moment about the country’s deficit (admittedly a serious problem) is weakening the political will to extend unemployment benefits and to continue stimulating job growth.

Somehow the foolish idea of “cutting off your nose to spite your face” has taken hold with some citizens frustrated by current economic conditions.

Especially in times like this, we need government policies that protect people from disaster and that invest in America’s future prosperity.

We won’t climb out of the hole if we adopt the Republican philosophy of tax cuts for the rich (it’s the rich who mostly benefit from tax cutting), trickle-down on everyone else.

As President Obama said recently, “After they drove the car into the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back. No! You can’t drive. We don’t want to have to go back into the ditch. We just got the car out.”

All Americans have reasons to be grateful for Democratic initiatives that to date have prevented this economic collapse from becoming another Great Depression.

If you don’t know what misery the Great Depression brought about, ask your grandparents or watch a movie about the 1930s.

In those years, they didn’t have unemployment insurance, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, FDIC insurance to protect people from bank failures.

Thanks to FDR and other Democratic presidents, Democratic congresses, Democratic governors, and Democratic state legislatures, these and other programs for the common good have prevented much of the desperate hunger and widespread homelessness of the 1930s from recurring today.

Don’t hand the keys over in November.

Or, as John Kenneth Galbraith said, “Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”

We can probably agree that politics is not the art of perfection.  It’s not for purists.

But it’s the only way that citizens of a democracy can bring about a better future.

The untiring efforts – over decades of service — of people of good will are occasionally rewarded by an inching forward of progressive legislation.  It has been painful to follow the developments, but the health care legislation passed first in the House of Representatives, and then in the Senate on Christmas Eve, may become law early this year, if difficult compromises can be made between the House and Senate versions.

If it is does become law, once all the provisions are implemented (which will occur over several years) it will provide a significant relief for millions of Americans who now can barely pay their health insurance premiums, or can’t afford any insurance, or are denied insurance because of ill health, or who must stay in a terrible job just to maintain insurance for their families.  It will also mean that the rest of us don’t fall into those categories in the future. Many lives will be happier, healthier, and longer.

The disastrous choice is what we have today for a health insurance “system” for those not old enough for Medicare. Without the new legislation, in the coming years our health and our country’s economic well-being would be further threatened.

In future it may be possible to pass laws that do more to improve access to appropriate health care. (Other advanced countries have done it, with far less political turmoil.) Historians point out that when Social Security was first enacted, many Americans were not entitled to its benefits. In later years, as the public became more conscious of its positive effects, Social Security was expanded.

One of the clear lessons of the present health care debate is that political parties do matter. 

Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to block progress on health care. This isn’t new. Republicans have traditionally voted in large numbers against legislation that would improve the lives of millions–such as Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and Medicare–when it was first introduced.  After programs become popular with voters, Republican opposition is less vocal, but it’s always lurking (remember that our last Republican President tried to “privatize” Social Security).

Another lesson is how hard it is to get progressive legislation through the Senate even after it has passed in the House.

It takes 60 votes in the Senate to prevent a Republican filibuster. Currently the Senate has 58 Democrats and 2 independents. One independent is Sanders of Vermont, always a progressive voice; the other is Lieberman of Connecticut, who left the Democratic Party during the last election but whose vote was desperately sought in order to prevent Senate Republicans from blocking the legislation.

Another staggering fact about the Senate is that every single state has two senators and therefore gets two of the hundred possible votes.

Rural states get two votes. Industrial states get two votes. Heavily populated states get two votes (for example California, with almost 37 million residents). States with almost no one living there get two votes (for example Wyoming, with half a million people). Southern states get two votes. Northern states get two votes. States with more Republicans get two votes. States with more Democrats get two votes.  And so on.

Massachusetts has two precious votes. We must keep our two Senators in the Democratic column, working and voting – like Kennedy and Kerry –for the common good, for improving the lives of people, for a more just and compassionate society.

Don’t forget to go to your polling location on January 19 to vote for Martha Coakley, Democratic candidate for Senate in the special election to fill the seat formerly held by Kennedy. Polls are open from 7am to 8pm.

If you know that you won’t be able to get there on January 19, call or visit your town /city hall today to make arrangements for an absentee ballot:

Gloucester City Clerk, Dale Avenue, 978-281-9720

Manchester Town Clerk, 10 Central Street, 978-526-2040

Rockport Town Clerk, 34 Broadway, 978-546-6894

Your vote affects what gets done – or not done – in Washington. Many close elections have been lost because a few supporters stayed home.  Circle Tuesday, January 19, on your new calendar now!

He was the governor who seemed to have done good things in Texas and claimed a “bipartisan” approach to governing. He looked genial and good-humored—the folksy candidate most voters preferred to have a beer with.

Now that we have experienced the Bush Presidency, it’s interesting to reexamine what the Republican candidate said during an October 2000 debate with Democrat Al Gore:

“Spending money is one thing, but spending money without a strategic plan can often times be wasted…”

“I want to rebuild the military to keep the peace. I want to make sure the public school system in America fulfills its promise so that no child, not one child, is left behind. And after setting priorities, I want to give some of the — some of your money back. See, I don’t think the surplus is the government’s money. I think it’s the people’s money. I don’t think the surplus exists because of the ingenuity and hard work of the federal government. I think it exists because of the ingenuity and hard work of the American people, and you ought to have some of the surplus so you can save and dream and build.”

The contrast between Bush’s words and his actual “leadership” is painful—

Lives lost and many irreversibly damaged as a result of a reckless “war on terror.” Extreme mismanagement of the Defense Department. Soldiers sent off without adequate equipment while military contractors making millions were inadequately supervised. The budget surplus left behind by Democrat Bill Clinton squandered, leaving our next President with a deficit as far as the eye can see. Enormous tax cuts for the richest. Millions of children left behind. Many more Americans without adequate health care. Transportation systems crumbling. Tainted food supplies. “Home ownership” replaced with home foreclosure.

An even more colossal deficit than was anticipated just a month ago.

Now we see the results of out-of-control deregulation and the consequences of fixating on private-sector solutions to public services, as well as the Republican Party’s perennial hostility to the United Nations.

But make no mistake. The conditions our country is suffering from now are not the result of one misguided, reckless, and incompetent leader.

For most of Bush’s Presidency, Republicans held all the reins of power, since they also had a majority in both houses of Congress. They appointed thousands of people sharing their ideology, including judges who will rule on the bench for years to come.

It has taken time for the gross mismanagement, suppression of scientific knowledge, and myriad falsehoods to come to light.

It was only when Democrats gained a slim majority in Congress that many basic questions could be raised there. At best the questions are now being partially answered (Republicans can still filibuster in the Senate).

This fall, as in every election, the essential choice is not between the candidates’ personalities or styles. It’s a choice between the Republican and Democratic political philosophy.

A President and his party may occasionally be at odds, but that is the exception to the rule.

Republicans stick together. Remember—after McCain lost the Republican primary in 2000, he campaigned for the Republican nominee, saying Bush was ”fully prepared to restore integrity and respect to the White House.”

But when Bush entered the White House, he brought back to Washington shiploads of former Republican officials, including Dick Cheney, and newcomers like the Republican lawyer for the International Arabian Horse Association who did a “heck of a job” in New Orleans.

If McCain should win the Presidency, expect more of the same.

Consider a candidate who would select as the person next-in-line to lead our country someone as inexperienced as Palin.

What does that show about the kind of appointments McCain would make to the Supreme Court, Environmental Protection Agency, FEMA, heads of Social Security and Medicare, IRS, Food and Drug Administration, Secretaries of State and Defense, Ambassador to the United Nations…the list goes on.

The Republican philosophy in a nutshell is “You’re on your own” — unless you’re rich and powerful and suddenly feel a need for government’s helping hand.

The Democratic philosophy is to work for the common good, and Democrats have a record of concrete steps toward economic fairness and prosperity for all.

Be sure to review the actual accomplishments of each party before you vote on November 4.

Kennedy was defending traditional Medicare, not the type called “Medicare Advantage,” which is offered by private insurers, usually for-profit corporations.

Medicare Advantage is the result of the “Medicare Modernization Act of 2003,” enacted by President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress of Bush’s first term.

This is the legislation that led to the Medicare prescription drug program with its infamous “doughnut hole.”

You may recall that the 2003 law prohibits the government from negotiating drug prices. (Why would Republicans, who rail about the cost of government programs, want to avoid the best deal for taxpayers?)

The 2003 law also increased the privatization of Medicare by paying insurers to offer health plans.

Medicare Advantage has been an extremely expensive program, costing far more than the Bush administration had forecast to Congress. (The administration threatened an official with termination if he revealed the true estimate before Congress voted. A month later, the cost estimate was revealed to be $100 billion more than the administration had told Congress.)

Medicare Advantage offers managed-care plans in which Medicare pays private insurance companies to provide care rather than paying doctors and hospitals directly.

The private-sector plans cost the government an average of 12 percent more than traditional Medicare for the same services, and they have been taking up a larger and larger slice of Medicare funding.

Senator Obama has expressed concern about “the exploitation of senior citizens by private insurers participating in the Medicare Advantage program. According to an analysis by the New York Times, tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been the victims of deceptive sales practices by these private insurance companies, had claims improperly denied or denied without explanation, and received poor customer service in trying to get their questions answered. In some cases, the practices of these companies were found to have affected the health of patients by delaying access to urgently needed health care services and medications.”

(Obama has said that as president, “I will reduce costs in the Medicare program by enacting reforms to lower the price of prescription drugs, ending the subsidies for private insurers in the Medicare Advantage program and focusing resources on prevention and effective chronic disease management.”)

One of the biggest companies in the business is UnitedHealth, whose shares are traded on Wall Street. The firm’s president had total compensation in 2007 of $5 million and was recently charged in court as having had a role in the backdating of stock options. (His predecessor “stepped down” as a result of that scandal.)

One of UnitedHealth’s divisions offers the Evercare Special Needs Plan for People with Limited Income. The Boston Globe recently reported that Massachusetts officials have received numerous complaints about the plan’s marketing techniques.

The Globe quoted an attorney for Greater Boston Legal Services: “We’ve heard of cases where brokers have signed up people who don’t speak English … They didn’t tell seniors that there are networks, and they may not be able to see their own doctors. They promise that taxi rides to doctors’ offices and bingo games are part of the program. Some said they were from Medicare itself and that it was going under and they needed to sign up.”

As a result of the state’s review, UnitedHealth has decided to temporarily stop sales of the plan in Massachusetts. Will they now train brokers not to use misleading sales tactics?

The reason that Kennedy went to Washington while undergoing brain-cancer treatment was to prevent the private-sector plans from taking funding away from traditional Medicare.

When Medicare spending exceeds certain limits, automatic cuts are triggered. This year, the cuts could have meant a steep drop in payments to physicians.

The Democratic leadership proposed instead to reduce the excessive subsidies to private insurance companies. President Bush and Congressional Republicans wanted to protect the insurance companies.

At first Democrats couldn’t prevent a Republican filibuster because they needed one more vote — hence Kennedy’s selfless return to the Senate.

With our courageous lion in action, a few Republicans were persuaded to switch their position and voted with Democrats, ensuring passage of the bill.

This vote illustrates fundamental philosophical differences between the parties. Democratic plans usually emphasize the common good. Republican plans usually favor private profit, often at enormous cost to taxpayers.

That was the question asked by Congressman Henry Waxman, Democrat from California, at the start of a hearing last week on AEY, Inc.

A tiny Miami Beach munitions dealer, AEY is now under indictment. Awarded an Army contract in early 2007, it was paid over $60 million. It apparently sold the Army cartridges manufactured in China that were disguised as products from Albania. (It’s against the law for military contracts to deliver ammunition acquired, directly or indirectly, from a Communist Chinese military company.)

The indictment lists a devastating email to AEY’s president from his business advisor. A photograph attached to the message shows someone scraping the words “MADE IN CHINA” off a wooden crate!

It’s likely, according to Congressional investigators, that AEY got its product from stockpiles in Albania and other countries that have been trying to give away or destroy aging munitions.

It turns out that Pentagon procurement officials never consulted a list that the State Department maintains of individuals and companies suspected of illegal arms. The president of AEY was on that list.

This is only one of the smaller – but easier to describe — scandals of uncontrolled military contracting during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

In January of this year, Congress passed legislation creating an independent and bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting which is now beginning its work.

Our Congressman, John Tierney, was instrumental in establishing this commission. He credits the oversight work being done by the standing committees in Congress—now that Democrats, because of their majority, are finally permitted to initiate hearings—as follows:

“These good efforts have exposed the magnitude of waste, mismanagement, and abuse associated with wartime contracts and evidenced the need for this special commission … to ensure that taxpayer money is well-spent and contractors are held accountable.”

In May, the Department of Defense’s Inspector General issued a report on mismanagement of payments made in Iraq, Kuwait, and Egypt. Among its findings:

“We estimated that the Army made $1.4 billion in commercial payments that lacked the minimum supporting documentation and information for a valid payment, such as certified vouchers, proper receiving reports, and invoices. Payments that are not properly supported do not provide the necessary assurance that funds were used as intended.”

During a hearing on “Accountability Lapses in Multiple Funds for Iraq,” Congressman Waxman acknowledged that “normal accounting standards aren’t always possible in war zones…but some actions—like our government’s decision to hand out $12 billion in cash at the beginning of the war—defy logic…nearly $9 billion of that money was distributed with no accounting standards at all.”

Waxman went on to say: “There is something very wrong when our wounded troops have to fill out forms in triplicate for meal money while billions of dollars in cash are handed out in Iraq with no accountability.”

You can learn more, and even watch a video of the hearing, at http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1980. Copies of unitemized vouchers can be seen at at http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1965, including the July 2003 authorization of $320,800.000.00 in cash with the three-word description “Iraqi Salary Payment.”

Because of such grossly inadequate accounting, we will probably never learn the full scope of waste or outright fraud.

The central Government Accountability Office recently issued a report on the Department of Defense (DOD) noting its “concerns about DOD’s reliance on contractors to perform roles that have in the past been performed by government employees. Without the right-sized workforce, with the right skills, we believe this could place greater risk on the government for fraud, waste, and abuse. In part, this increased reliance has occurred because DOD is experiencing a critical shortage of certain acquisition professionals with technical skills as it has downsized its workforce over the last decade.”

When Republicans held the chairmanships of Congressional committees, they refused to investigate military procurement and accounting disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they represent the party that boasts its superiority in frugal management of taxpayers’ money! And they’re quick to use the phrase “waste, fraud, and abuse” when it comes to vital budgets for ordinary public services.

Is it time to give the Republican Party an F on financial management and military procurement—as well as on war planning, health care, education, the environment, and the economy?

Republican policies overwhelmingly benefit the rich. Tax cuts based on a percentage of earnings usually reduce taxes of the rich by many thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, not the tens or hundreds the rest of us get.

On second thought, it’s not accurate to say that Republican tax cuts “benefit” the rich.

All Americans (including the rich) suffer in the long term—though in varying degrees of pain—from the kind of tax cuts Republicans have been giving out.

How? Because not enough revenue is coming into the federal, state, or municipal levels of government to provide basic services or to invest in projects that will contribute to our country’s long-term prosperity. (The budgetary situation is made far worse by the reckless planning and poor management of the current wars.)

Wherever you look, there’s not enough investment to protect the public.

It took the bridge collapse in Minneapolis to make us acutely conscious of the fragile state of public infrastructure. We now notice rusted girders and netting on the underside of a bridge as we pass below and realize that some engineer must be worried about the potential of falling objects.

The inspection and maintenance of bridges and highways are vital public functions that require adequate public funding and public supervision.

The well-publicized incidents about e.coli contamination of spinach have made us more aware of the need for food-safety inspection and regulation.

But between 2003 and 2006, the major government agency responsible for food safety (Food and Drug Administration) conducted 47 percent fewer inspections, according to an analysis of federal records by the Associated Press.

Even the very richest Americans would find it impractical to set up their own private food inspections.
Public health programs have been cut. Flu and other communicable diseases don’t ask how much you earn when they invade your body (though you’ll likely have access to better medical treatment if you’re rich).
All Americans benefit from clean air and clean water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs adequate funding to do its job, but under Republican management its resources (as well as diligence) have shrunk. The Bush Administration proposed a budget for 2009 that would mean a 26% decline in overall EPA funding since the administration’s first budget was enacted, when adjusted for inflation.

Infrastructure maintenance, food safety, public health, and clean air and water are just four of the many ways our government should be protecting us, whatever our income.

Remember Republican guru Grover Norquist (who grew up in Weston, Massachusetts)?

He said he wanted to shrink government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” This influential Republican also reportedly said: “My ideal citizen is the self-employed, homeschooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit. Because that person doesn’t need the goddamn government for anything.”

When you hear Republican John McCain talking about all the good things he wants to do for us, keep in mind that he believes in the Republican philosophy of government. But he’s not going to straight-talk like Norquist during his campaign.

McCain has taken Grover Norquist’s “no new taxes” pledge, which states, “ I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.”

McCain’s website says “John McCain believes taxes should be low, simple, and fair.” It sounds good, but it’s the typical Republican Trojan horse. The reality is the rich getting richer, the middle class shrinking, the poor neglected, and public services deteriorating.

Let’s not get taken in again by Republican campaign promises about jobs, health care, education, or the environment. If McCain is elected in November this year, expect further cuts in public services and further deterioration in the quality of all Americans’ lives.

The captain proudly takes you on tours of spacious, light-filled cabins and sparkling recreational facilities. You join him and his officers for delicious meals, spend afternoons by the pool and relax with fellow passengers over cocktails. The service is excellent, and everyone is in a good mood.

As you sit down to write your review, you realize you haven’t seen the whole ship, so you shut down the computer and begin a long hike through the various decks, nooks, and crannies of the huge ship.

You soon realize that the cabins you first saw aren’t representative — on the lower levels they are cramped, with tiny portholes. Even farther down, there is no natural light, and the air smells bad.

You finally make your way into the very bowels of the ship and, in the stifling heat, you see sweaty men operating pumping machines. They tell you the hull is leaking but the officers have decided not to stop for repairs.

The exhausted men are working extra shifts to keep the ship from sinking. The pumps are old and haven’t been well maintained so the men worry what will happen if there’s a major storm.

Passengers on the upper decks aren’t concerned about what’s happening lower down. Most have never given thought to what the rest of the ship is like, or whether the hull is seaworthy. They are enjoying the amenities and the attentive service.

The seamen at the pumps wonder why the captain doesn’t send officers down to inspect what’s happening and take action.

They wonder why the hull wasn’t adequately repaired when the ship was last in port, and why the aging machinery hasn’t been replaced.

Those on the lower levels will probably be the first to drown if there’s a hurricane, or if the ship hits one of the icebergs floating off from the polar icecap. Those on the upper decks will likely not survive either, and in any case their vacation will certainly be ruined.

Our country, under this Republican administration, is a lot like this ocean liner. It brags about the views from the upper decks and the first-class service.

Meanwhile, the nation is operating under dangerous debt; we’re cutting investment in infrastructure and giving enormous tax breaks to those who have everything.

Those closer to the hull are working longer hours just to survive, and most don’t even have time to be outraged at the unfairness.

An objective travel writer would never give this ocean liner a good review. The dangers to everyone — from the first-class cabin dwellers to the workers in the engine room — are apparent if one looks at the whole ship carefully.

It’s risky for everyone aboard if the infrastructure, including the men operating the pumps, are neglected. How can the company justify devoting so much staff time to fine dining and attentive service while the hull is in disrepair, the pumps are aging and the men are becoming too tired to work them effectively?

Realists see through the exaggerated statements of our nation’s prosperity. They believe we should take steps now to prevent or at least minimize the effects of likely hurricanes ahead, storms that threaten everyone’s future standard of living: flu pandemics, terrorism, the nation’s debt, international conflicts over oil and water and food, global warming.

And yet our Republican administration cuts investment in public health, does little to protect our infrastructure from sabotage, increases the national debt even further by giving more tax breaks to the wealthy, is reckless in its international policies, and refuses to take real steps to conserve energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Unfortunately we have Republican administrations not only in Washington but also in a majority of state capitols.

Our Massachusetts ship’s captain and his officers paint rosy pictures of progress while infrastructure deteriorates and many who have full-time jobs can’t afford to live here, get preventive medical care or send their kids to public colleges. In some neighborhoods we can’t even depend on prompt assistance in case of fire or other emergency.

Because the Democratic Party works for the common good, if we were in charge we’d instruct the ocean liner’s captain to stop at the nearest port and make the ship seaworthy, not run the risk of drowning passengers and crew.

That would be the moral course of action, as well as the sensible way to proceed for all concerned, including the corporate owners.

• The cost of food, transportation, and heat has risen dramatically. Most Americans are struggling to balance their budgets. Many are in debt. Those on fixed incomes are hit especially hard.
• Wages have not kept pace with the cost of living. More workers have low-paid jobs without benefits. Many workers with good jobs are receiving reduced benefits.
• The middle-aged are finding it harder to save for retirement while conserving money for their children’s continuing education.
• Rents and mortgages are high. Homelessness has continued to rise. Shelters don’t have enough room for all the families in need. The subprime mortgage disaster is compounding the problem.
• Food banks report increased numbers of applicants. Charities can meet only a fraction of truly desperate calls for help. Programs like federal home fuel assistance have been cut to the bone.
• Many are suffering needlessly from illness because they couldn’t obtain timely preventive health and dental care.
• In many schools, there are too few teachers for optimal learning. Schools (except in wealthy communities) have been forced to cut academic, athletic, and cultural programs, impose new fees, or both. Many are crumbling from age or postponed maintenance.
• Higher education has become too expensive. Student grants have declined.
• Graduate programs – especially in science and math – have fewer and fewer American students. Many medical students graduate with such debt they can’t practice in poor communities. There’s a shortage of primary care physicians because too many doctors need the higher incomes of specialists.
• Public health and safety programs have been reduced or eliminated.
• Food and drug safety has deteriorated because of a political ideology that opposes almost all regulation.
• The richest Americans are even richer. Their taxes have been reduced beyond all reason.
• Many municipalities have been forced to cut basic services. Bridges, highways, and public buildings are in disrepair.
• The national credit card is dependent on foreign investors. We’re transferring the burden of repaying the debt onto young Americans.
• The purchasing power of the dollar has declined abroad.
• Federal agencies charged with protecting the public are increasingly administered by people with much more concern for short-term corporate profits than for what our Constitution calls the “general Welfare.”
• Rapid climate change has begun, and our national government takes no serious action.
• An avoidable and badly planned war continues to take a tragic toll on American and foreign families. Returning soldiers suffer from inadequate government support.
• America’s reputation around the world for fairness and moral leadership has been reversed.

Some voters who agree with Democrats on domestic issues such as health care and education have traditionally given Republicans the benefit of the doubt on economics, managerial competence, and national security. But after unfettered Republican government for almost seven years, how can anyone credit its claim to superiority in any of these public functions?

Don’t make the mistake of believing that our unfortunate situation is just the result of one bad President. Remember that he had enthusiastic support from Republican Senators, Representatives, and Governors until recently, when a very few – especially those facing reelection – have distanced themselves because of his personal unpopularity. If you vote
for any of them you are empowering all of them.

The hardships faced by many Americans today are not caused by an unavoidable act of nature like an earthquake. The paltry investment in public education, infrastructure, and sustainable energy is not forced upon us by outsiders or just bad luck.

We the People, through our voices and votes, can change our future by changing the country’s priorities. Let’s move away from the Republican philosophy: “You’re on your own.”

If you look at our country’s progress during recent Democratic Presidencies (Clinton, Carter, Johnson, Kennedy, Truman, Roosevelt), you’ll see an entirely different philosophy at work: “We’re all in this together.”

Given the enormous debt run up by Republican leaders (remember that Democrats’ precarious majority in Congress didn’t begin until this year), it will take time to get our country moving forward on all fronts even if Democrats win the Presidency and pick up seats in Congress.

But if we elect a Democratic President and more Democratic Senators and
Representatives, we’ll start to reverse the damage. Even if Democrats don’t always agree on relative priorities and tactics, you can be sure that a Democratic administration will work for the common good.

From day one of a Democratic Presidency, America will begin rebuilding its reputation for fairness, tolerance, and liberty.

Twenty-six years ago, Republican Ronald Reagan became President; he was likeable and easy to listen to. But In his inaugural speech he proclaimed: “Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” Backed by a Republican Senate for six years, he left behind a huge national deficit and weakened federal agencies.

Then came Republican George Bush the First, who probably won the presidency because of his catchy phrase “Read my lips: no new taxes.” (That must have embarrassed him later, since he did approve new taxes to reduce a budget deficit.) He wasn’t able to pass conservative legislation because he faced a Democratic Congress, but he controlled the powerful executive branch and continued the Republican tilt in our national priorities.

Next – thankfully — was Democratic President Bill Clinton.  Unfortunately, Republicans controlled the Senate for six of his years in office. That’s why his legislative initiatives were usually blocked. Still, he is known for presiding over the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in American history. Under Clinton, we got not only a balanced budget but a federal surplus! Who knows what Clinton could have accomplished if he had had a Democratic Senate to work with for more than a couple of years.

Now we are suffering through Bush the Second, who has had an extremely supportive Republican Congress backing him almost every step of the way. (Only since January have Democrats chaired the Congressional committees, and the Senate is basically tied between Democrats and Republicans.)

In addition to his catastrophic invasion of Iraq, this President will probably be best known to future generations for his refusal to deal in any meaningful way with global warming, and for running up an enormous national debt while giving massive tax cuts to the rich.

(The irony about the last quarter-century of Republican power is that in spite of campaign rhetoric, the Republican Party has a tendency to get us into debt — without any national benefit to show for it — and leave the next President and the rest of us to cope with the problem.)

What situation do we find ourselves in now, after this generation of Republican politics?

• Global warming getting worse, threatening human beings and other species around the planet.
• Greater Inequities in health care, and a grossly inefficient and costly medical “system.”
• Scandalous deterioration of roads and bridges.
• Handguns everywhere.
• A tax structure that favors the rich.
• Fewer grants and low-interest loans for college expenses.
• Weakened public health services.
• Schools crumbling.
• Reductions in government funding of scientific research.
• Fire station closures.
• Struggling public libraries.
• Dangerous cutbacks in food and drug inspection.
• Teacher layoffs.
• Degradation of public parks.
• Extremely expensive prescription drugs.
• Rich getting richer, middle class shrinking.
• Increases in family homelessness.
• Reductions in the care of veterans and their families.
• Rising cost of living.
• Fewer good-paying jobs with decent benefits.
• Reduced mine and workplace safety.
• Higher property taxes and reduced municipal services.
• Mismanaged emergency services (remember New Orleans).

This is a list (in random order) that shows some of the results of Republican policies – based on the “You’re on your own” philosophy that benefits those who already have much and proclaims that less regulation is the solution to almost all public needs.

We’ve been affected at the federal, state, and local levels.

The contrast between the parties in management of government is clear. Republicans today can’t even manage their own policies efficiently.

Consider the ground-breaking achievements for the common good when we elected a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President: unemployment insurance, Social Security, low-interest college loans, United Nations, Medicare, anti-poverty programs, civil rights, energy conservation, an expanding middle class.
And don’t forget that some of the progress credited to Republican Presidents (such as Nixon on the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency) was possible only because of Democratic support in Congress. 

We the People must reverse our beloved country’s decline.

We need to communicate that our most fundamental political value is what’s best for the common good.
Here are some ways to make that happen:

• Register as a Democrat, to make it clear to politicians that you support working for the common good. (Currently voters not affiliated with a party are far more numerous than Democrats or Republicans.) Think how differently our leaders would respond if Democrats were a majority of voters!)
• Make it a habit to vote in every election.
• Learn more about politics and government from objective newspapers or reputable news shows (such as those on PBS).
• Share your views.
• If you can spare some time, get involved with Democratic groups.
• If you can spare money, give to Democratic committees.

We the People urgently need to restore a government that works for the common good.

You’ll hear Republican candidates debating sympathetically about health care, education, jobs, and so forth. But take a close look at the Republican Party’s actual record since the Roaring Twenties and you’ll see that its fundamental philosophy is “You’re on your own.”

Here are a few of the real consequences of Republican policies:

• You can’t afford to buy a house? Try a condo.
• You’re unable to pay for a doctor? Maybe a nonprofit clinic will treat you for free.
• You haven’t found decent-paying work? We’re very sorry.
• A dam broke and ruined your house? You’re free to rebuild.  If you can’t pay a contractor, maybe a nonprofit organization will help. Private charity is the best way to solve these problems.
• The kids down the street don’t have adequate textbooks and library facilities? We just don’t have the money.
• Suffering from a war injury? Talented surgeons patched you up already. Now you’re free to get on with your life.
• Spending a fortune on gas? Take public transportation. If the schedule’s too spotty, find a job closer to home.
• Your children aren’t learning? Move to a richer town, send the kids to a private school with small classes, or hire a tutor.
• Your neighbor’s house burned down because it took extra time for firefighters to arrive? Good thing it wasn’t your house!
• Your husband’s retirement fund vanished? You should have built up your own portfolio when you were younger. You’re free to make your own choices!
• The roads and sidewalks haven’t been repaired? We need to address that, but right now we don’t have the money.
• Concerned about food safety? The budget doesn’t allow for more inspectors.
• Your mother’s prescriptions cost too much? She’d better cut down on expenses. We can’t negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for a better deal – they need to be free to charge what they want.
• Too exhausted at night to read to your kids? Why not reduce your hours at work?
• College expenses are worrying you? Refinance your house so your child has a chance. If you don’t own a house, let your 18-year-old borrow the money.
• Paying too much in taxes? We’ll be glad to cut further. (The richest will benefit by several hundred thousand dollars while most people will see a reduction of a few hundred, plus rising fees and declining public services.)
• Worried for your kids’ sakes about housing, jobs, the national debt, international conflicts, environmental dangers? Remember, they’re on their own.

“You’re On Your Own” is what one analyst calls the YO-YO economy. (Do you remember how the yo-yo gets stuck after a few smooth spins?)

Some Americans are so upset with our current President that they focus on him as the reason our country is slipping backwards. He may be the most reckless President, but the reason he’s been able to do so much damage is that – until a few months ago – Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.

Although a handful of Republicans are distancing themselves from him now on the war, on almost every other crucial issue they stand together. They voted enthusiastically for those enormous tax cuts given to billionaires while cutting the budget for virtually everything except the war.

When they controlled Congress, Republicans prevented positive legislation from being voted on. They refused to investigate the scandals now coming to light. They were complicit in the suppression of scientists’ research.

You may wonder why Democratic President Clinton didn’t accomplish more in two terms. During his last six years in office, Republicans controlled Congress and blocked needed legislation. (They had plenty of time for unending investigations of impropriety!) Still, he reduced the national deficit and expanded jobs. Poverty diminished under Clinton.

Before Clinton, our country was led by Republicans George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Bush Senior was stymied from doing too much damage by a Democratic majority in Congress, but Reagan had a Republican Senate for six years. Tax cuts for the rich and “you’re on your own” were highlights of that amiable Presidency.

The devastating effects of Republican policies at the federal level have trickled down to state and local government during the past quarter-century. Let’s put an end to yo-yo politics and adopt the Democratic philosophy: “We’re all in this together.” 2008 can be the turning point.