Growth rate 3% of GDP?
To the editor:
I’m sure all of you good folks have heard the well-used term” the devil is in the details.” Right? We’ll take a hard look at that idea in a minute. The lead up to my point today is the fact that the Republicans are trying to get away with an old rancid technique they have used throughout the ages, only this time, if successful they will hurt or kill hundreds of thousands of our beloved citizens, men, women and children. This of course is the health care solution they have come up with to fix the anticipated problems predicted with Obamacare.
The technique I’m referring to is the one where the Republicans start the conversation with a non-fact better known as a lie. Oh let’s take for example Trump’s fixation with this myth of his, that he won the popular vote by three to five million votes. The next step in this con game is to proclaim over and over again that what he or she said should be taken as the absolute truth. Over and over this lie must be repeated. Oh, by the way this is a tried and true part of any brainwashing program. When it becomes obvious to the master of this fabrication that the hook has been set properly and the mark is now a believer of the original lie, the once non-factual statement suddenly turns into the truth. Then, Wala the conman is at liberty to put the original lie out there as the truth and use it to his advantage. Get it?
OK let’s take a hard look at my “the devil is in the details” comment. What I’m talking about is the basic premise the Republicans are using to promote their latest health care bill. That premise would be that our country’s economy must be growing at 3% of GDP to pay for their tax cut give away to the wealthiest 2% of our citizens. My friends, this 3% growth rate hasn’t happened since 2005 when Bush went nuts with his deregulation of banks and insurance companies, anything tied to lending including using derivatives and bundling of mortgages, no real restrictions or guide lines. About the only thing required to secure a real-estate loan was to fog up a mirror placed under your nose. We can now look back at those dark days and see what these kinds of policies truly do to our economy. The numbers and results of Bush’s policies; while in control the best the Republicans could do with the GDP was -2.8%, that’s not a typo, it was -2.8. Eight years later the best the Democrats could do was 1.5 % of the GDP. Nothing to brag about, but respectable, considering the big picture.
Remember, this was accomplished with a strong head wind from the Republicans who vowed to block anything and everything Obama. It was also accomplished with the starting point handed to Obama by the Republicans which was at the bottom of the worst recession in our history. How dare this hypocritical President you bone heads give us call this situation a “mess.” Please note that none of these facts bold well for a Congress who is constructing a health care bill that must have an economy that is cruising along at 3% of GDP. This is just not going to happen.
I would ask you to refer back to the start of my letter and help me put a name on the game the Republicans are playing. On the streets it’s called “bait and switch.” Nobody can play this game better than the President you put in office.
Jim Healy
North Fort Myers