Booing and froing

Republican US Representative Paul “I love Ayn Rand so much I could plotz” Ryan held town meetings in his Congressional District in southern Wisconsin. In the video above from Think Progress, we see he was actually booed when he tried to defend the rich and their tax cuts—booed by his own constituents!

The US budget deficit exists in large part because of tax cuts aimed at the wealthy (a similar situation is here in New Zealand). Ryan wants to cut taxes for the rich even more, and use that as an excuse for ending Medicare—among other programmes that benefit ordinary Americans.

The problem for Ryan and the Republicans is that between 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected president, and 2005, the top 1% received more than 80% of the increase in income. So, Ryan and the Republicans want to take the already extremely well-off and make them even MORE well-off by taking even more from the people who got little or nothing during those 25 years, making them worse off still.

It’s not just Ryan’s own constituents who see through the bullshit in Ryan’s agenda: The link above says a “Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 72 percent of Americans wanted Congress to raise taxes on wealthy Americans making more than $250,000 per year.” [emphasis added]

The Republicans are completely wrong in their agenda and their class warfare against mainstream Americans. The question is, will American voters be disgusted enough to vote out the Republicans/Teapublicans in 2012?