I’ve been reading all the\u00a0editorials and letters to the editor about\u00a0bills in my state legislature that aim to further diminish the economic power of the working and middle classes in Missouri. It seems each week the writers are getting a tiny bit closer to the bull’s eye but are still missing the main point.<\/p>\n

Whether it is defunding health services and public education, or undermining the unions that\u00a0protect workers’ benefits, whether it is skewing the political process to favor corporate campaign donors or shifting the tax burden down the income scale, or whether it’s just\u00a0down and dirty dishonest fact manipulation, the goal is the same. The real goal is to bankrupt the state so the pretense of “lack of funding” can be used while destroying all public programs and services. Privatize everything. Let private companies offer those services for a profit. Pay no attention to the obvious financial problems when 20% to 30% of a program’s income has to go for overhead as opposed to 3%-7% for a public run program. The goal is not delivery of the best product. It’s delivery of the greatest profit for the investors.<\/p>\n

One letter-writer comes closest to the bull’s eye when he says that the American Legislative Exchange Council is behind the draining of resources from public education. The “free market” extremists in control of the current Republican Party, both in Jeff City and in Washington,\u00a0do not believe it is government’s job to help individuals. Anyone who wants to understand the common thread running through all of the attempts to reduce government services should go to www.alecexposed.org<\/a> and read all about it. The goal is to move the country away from the\u00a0progressive political philosophy that produced the social programs of the mid-20^{th<\/sup> century, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,\u00a0 OSHA, the EPA, and\u00a0Head Start. Reducing taxes is not just about fiscal conservatism; it is about “starving the beast” so there is no money for social programs. \u00a0Hysteria over federal deficits was not a problem when \u201cbig government\u201d meant boatloads of money to defense contractors. Any honest fiscal conservative would know better than to start two wars and cut taxes simultaneously.<\/p>\n}

No, the real agenda is something much baser. And this is the political choice we are going to have to make. Do we value each other enough to “just say no” to the Republican leaders pushing us further and further down\u00a0into the kind of poverty where we have no power to defend ourselves?\u00a0Do we really want\u00a0to go back to the days when\u00a0only the rich could afford to go to school?\u00a0Or when elderly grandparents slept in the cellar near the furnace?\u00a0Or when the air was so black with coal soot that no amount of power washing could clean out\u00a0our lungs?\u00a0This is the “vision” of the people currently in control of the Republican Party. The Speaker of the Missouri House, Rep. Tim Jones of Eureka, is co-chair of the Missouri delegation to the American Legislative Exchange Council.<\/p>\n

Let’s at least force them to say openly and honestly what their real intentions are. All of their arguments for not expanding Medicaid have been knocked down\u00a0by professionals who know more than they do. What’s left is the\u00a0ugly truth. They can’t expand Medicaid when their real goal is to destroy it and all the other social safety net programs. Bull’s eye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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