This (Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bail outs, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes? Yeah, me neither… Pass it on.) is going around the internet right now and MoveOn.org would like it to go viral according to their blog post here.
So, let me set the record straight for everyone who would rather listen to policy wonks than think for themselves. First of all, this post was originally a tongue in cheek post that I saw months ago protesting the Republican cuts to the federal budget. So, it is really about funding priorities. That said, here are some additional comments to consider when reading this post.
First, teachers are public employees, so the writer isn’t very smart to begin with.
Second, Planned Parenthood hasn’t done any of the things eluded to by the author, they are just directly responsible for the death of nearly a million unborn children every single year.
Third, NPR and PBS are largely funded by contributions and telethons. Only 11 percent of their budget comes from public funding…therefore, they don’t actually need tax money to operate and survive, it just makes it easier for them.
Fourth, the stock market is fickle and can crash because an elk sneezed in Zimbabwe, so this is kind of a useless point to anyone who understands the stock market.
Fifth, my wiped out 401K is well on its way to recovery and when it was down, I was able to buy additional shares at lower prices, thus once the recovery is complete (and it will be), I’ll be in a better position than I was beforehand.
Sixth, the trillions in taxpayer funded bail outs were passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by Bush (a conservative in name only) and Obama (a liberal Democrat)…therefore, who is MoveOn trying to blame for bailouts here? Sure, the Republicans supported them too, but didn’t have the power to stop them even if they had the will.
Seventh, the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico by BP was a tragedy. The official report determined the causes to be a combination of factors including a breakdown of procedures, a lack of proper oversight, and failure to properly maintain equipment. A tragedy like this can be avoided and should have been avoided. However, we are fortunate that the impact, both environmentally and economically, wasn’t worse than it was. Also, since MoveOn is pushing this, are the liberals trying to blame this on the Republicans and conservatives? Maybe so. Think about it though. Tradition in this country is that the fault of something like this is directed at the administration in office at the time. Huh…a liberal Democrat. Strange, you’d have thought it was Bush.
Eighth, the corporate bigwigs who gave themselves billions in bonuses answer only to their stockholders who often must vote to approve such bonuses. That is the essence of free enterprise. I don’t think they should get that kind of money, I’m just saying that is how it works. The reason there is a problem with this at all is because a company that took bailout money proceeded to give big bonuses. This is one of the BEST reasons why corporations should NOT get bailout money from the government. If it makes mistakes and screws up to the point where it needs bailing out, it should fail. Our government still hasn’t figure this out yet.
Finally, paying no taxes is not the norm. In fact, the most prominent example of this in recent years is GE. The post makes it sound like a LOT of people and companies aren’t paying taxes…this is simply untrue. GE did not because they got a whole lot of tax breaks for their efforts in producing green energy. Hmm…doesn’t MoveOn support all these tax breaks for "green" efforts? Wonder why they are now so against this (GE not paying taxes) since it is a direct result of policies they support? Convenient huh?
So just try to think about reality for a moment. Pithy statements are funny and can be effective in advertising campaigns and as campaign slogans, but they remain insufficient for anything more than that. Remember, ad campaigns and campaign slogans are trying to do one thing and one thing only. Sell you something you may or may not want or need. That’s all this slogan is doing. Selling you a point of view, that, as it turns out, isn’t even a very well thought out one.
