So the big Republican tidal wave came in. Not as big overall as they thought but still a very large House swing. But they didn't touch the Senate and Harry Reid stayed in. Add in the Tea Partiers who the Republican Establishment is assuming will fall in line and the Republicans will not likely pass any right-wing legislation. I still don't really understand what is going on with the voters. The economy was decimated by the deregulation of the corporate world and the shoddy work by the investment rating sector. The Democrats have just now gotten some stability back in the system and are working to eliminate these problems. We are back to economic growth and that is a great achievement. Even if you had a crystal ball and did everything right, emerging from a true recession to solid job creation would take about 3 years and 6 months. Normally closer to 4 1/2 years. So this means that due to how severe the recession was we are looking at about mid year 2012 when stuff really heats back up. But with our electorates short memory and unrealistic expectations tossed the Dems out and brought the old guard (in control when all the problems happened, voted out as the first signs of symptoms appeared, brought back in because the symptoms were still occuring) back. So here are my predictions for 2 years from now.
I am proud of Boehner for saying that this wasn't a mandate but a second chance. Thats true. People are so sick of being jobless or severely underemployed, including me, that they tossed out reason and just voted for something different than they had right now. Now I didn't vote for many conservatives (except for Colorado DA) but I will give them a chance to show they are actually working for the country. What I have heard so far hasn't been promising.
First off, impeachment. I have heard a few sprinklings of this. Where does this come from? You conservatives hate Obama so much you are trying to impeach him? For what? I have heard the stuff but it isn't anything that hurts the people, so stop your automatic witch hunts for all Democratic leaders and do what you were appointed for. So my guess of the GOPs agenda for the coming period. They know there is likely to be a good economy coming into view just about the time for the next elections. This will likely lead to the GOP upping its House control by 15, Senate will loose a few GOP and go more Democratic and Obama will win re-election. Tons of people who did not vote in this election will show up in two years to re-elect Barrack and they will kick out some Senators for the GOP but will keep the GOP House thinking (as is usually correct) giving one party control over every branch is not good. Sarah Palin will get the nomination from a growing Tea Party mania and she will get slaughtered by an electorate that is reactionary but not stupid. They won't want someone no smarter than them in the White House.
So how about actual policy decisions? Well the first thing they will do is push for an extension of Bush tax cuts for the Uber wealthy. This is of course insane because it will continue to allow someone making $500 million a year to only pay 9% more than you if you earn about $90,000. Why should they pay more? Mostly because they are the ones who sit on the boards who decide to cut your wages, lay you off, or severely cut benefits every year to give you less and less and less a piece of the pie, while theirs explodes, especially in capital gains (money from investments) which they don't think should be touched at all. Ok, i will bend some on Captial Gains. How about the first $100,000 of each year isn't subject to taxes? This means most retirement accounts will not pay a tax. Only the Uber Wealthy. They other reason they get to pay more is they have much more to lose. Call it insurance, it might be a ripoff but so is all insurance. Its a cash cow that does everything not to pay out. And by much more to lose I mean the fact that they have the most material to lose but also that they live completely different lives from us. They have a bubble you can't imagine. Everything is done for them. Finest schools with outstanding teacher to child ratios, servants in all aspects of life, don't have to worry about real punishment for breaking laws, and the like. I would take that for a tax raise. No problem. And if you pass these tax rate extensions we add $4 trillion MORE to the debt. You the think so many said was a major issue? So this goes up more than all the Bush War and Obama economic spending. And once that's done they will say< "look how broke we are, gonna have to start slashing entitlements like Social Security and Medicare." And suddenly the elderly will act shocked even though they voted overwhelming for the GOP. Get what you asked for. As for solvency, if you charged social security tax for all 1040 income. You know that small amount on your check, it only gets charged up to $102,000 dollars. Then it stops. If we charged it to all income equally Social Security would be solvent for the next 150 years. And thats WITH the government spending all the interest on the account each year.
Next will be unemployment. They will as fast as possible cut unemployment for those over the original alloted time (won't matter much if they wait a year) saying it is too expensive and irresponsible. This will happen after the Rich get another tax cut of course. More people will default on their bill and mortgages, and after the GOP repeals the financial reform including Credit Card Predatory practices your interest % will raise immediately making it twice as hard to turn things around, not to mention harder to get a job and get off the unemployment. Of course them spending is what churns the economic engine, but we aren't looking for logic here, this is the Republican Party.
Next is Health Care, now none of this has or will even go into effect for years (aside from not getting to drop you if you get really sick. Hope you don't get something like Cancer. You'll be lucky to have a dollar left if you beat it.). Yet the GOP claims this is damaging to the economy. Even with almost nothing in effect. But apparently it is the reason the Corporations are hanging on to their coffers instead of hiring more workers in the face of decline productivity increases due to work overload. Then again, maybe they are just waiting for Capital Gains tax cuts to make up for the losses of hiring workers to make conditions livable and helping the huddled masses get off the ground. Remember, you mean nothing but the CEO who oversaw a massive loss of revenue for the company gets a $50 million bonus for their good work. This won't be overturned but they will send at least one vote to the President to force a veto to help run on for the next election.
Next will be legal and tort reforms. This is to reduce the ability of the average citizen to sue a business or professional for not doing their job or for violating the terms of a contract. So like if your doctor amputated the wrong leg, or if the Debt Resolution company took a fee but never rendered services. These things would be hard to sue over to make sure more responsibility by corporations is not taken, because this kind of regulation hurts businesses. According to the GOP you should find every obstacle in the world to emerging from a bad decision. But if a business makes bad decisions or is unethical, they should be able to file Bankruptcy, keep your money and start a new business. This is GOP responsibility.
Overall I think very little will happen. The whole works will be frozen but this still means good things for business and with the GOP on all chairmanships they will just muck up the works to slow down regulations and keep tax cuts. The economy will improve because that happens over time anyway and we will end up with a GOP House (gaining a few more seats) a firm Democratic Senate (around 57, 60 with the independents) and a reelected Obama. Well, let's see how close I get.
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