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We love to watch Joe Scarborough’s MSNBC “Morning Joe” weekday program. Joe is a political barometer in many ways … a man who calls himself a “small government conservative” — and even admits to having cast a protest vote for Ron Paul in the GOP primary — but who appears to have embraced the Obama plan for America’s economy. Not sure he actually “gets” that he’s supporting Obama on fiscal issues, but he IS!

This Ron Paul voter has been saying for months now that Washington needs to come together to pass long-range budget fixes to entitlements, and simultaneously enact short-term stimulus — in the form of infrastructure spending and education for the nation’s future.

So, who’s going to tell him that it’s Obama’s plan that he’s promoting … NOT Romney’s — much less Ron Paul’s?

This clear and obvious contradiction in just one American voter really clarifies what is happening in our society as a whole. That is: Voters often identify themselves as belonging in a certain category, but their belief system is quite different.

Hence: Joe Scarborough sees himself as a small government conservative, but in reality he wants to stimulate the economy by SPENDING federal dollars as investments in the country’s infrastructure and education.

Another prime example is the public’s view on Obamacare. The majority of Americans disapprove of Obamacare — YET they support the components of the act!

The country as a whole approves of what Obamacare will accomplish, yet identify themselves as belonging to the group that claims the Affordable Care Act is socialism.

Full of contradictions, we are — as Yoda might say!

An uninformed citizenry is all that’s necessary for a handful of billionaires to mold the thinking of a nation. These successful businessmen understand marketing — and marketing their politics to serve their own interests is an easy step.

Beginning with the Reagan presidency right-wing marketing has promoted the idea that labor unions are bad. Workers banding together to get safer working conditions and living wages is a bad thing. It’s a bad thing because those union negotiations harm the bottom line … and of course, corporate profits are sacrosanct!

The deal struck with the American people was that if voters rewarded corporations with minimal regulations and massive profits safe from even taxes, that the corporations would reward the people with good jobs. They took the profits alright, then shipped the jobs overseas and the jobs that remain in our country are minimum wage jobs that no one can raise a family on.

Let’s be clear here: The public unions in Wisconsin negotiated brand new contracts with the new GOP Governor Walker when he first came to power. The unions gave the new governor everything he asked for. He won in the negotiations. But that was not enough for Governor Walker, because the state’s budget was NOT his goal … no, his goal was to further undermine labor unions for political gain. And, it worked.

The Master Puppeteers came out from behind the curtain only briefly, but it was long enough to see their faces and the smug look on them.

Everything is not as it seems. Uninformed voters are blindly moving to their Master’s Puppeteering!

America is being bought and sold to the New Tycoons. The Supreme Court, with the Citizens United decision, has given free rein to the uber wealthy to purchase our government for their own benefit — and the 1% is moving quickly to exercise their new freedom to shape our nation to line their own pockets.

It is no longer “One person, one vote” and has become “One dollar, one vote.”

The old adage, “Never let a crisis go to waste” is in full force! The economy has been on life support due to small-government and trickle-down economics, and the GOP and their financiers are using the fear in the electorate to convince voters that it was big-government and debt that caused the economic melt-down.

“Look over here at the shiny object,” the Right sings out, “your problems are caused by liberal ideas,” because they don’t want us to be informed and make decisions based in FACTS. And the way they “sell and market” that idea? With MONEY!

Voters can stand up, become informed and armed with FACTS, and see clearly that the ideology being sold to the public by the few does not benefit our society as a whole. I’m no longer sure that even they believe their ideology … it seems to just be a marketing vehicle to garner votes.

Think about it: If you give me lower taxes than you pay and give me the freedom to regulate myself without interference from you, then you will reap the benefits. That’s trickle-down economics and small-government in a nutshell.

What they’re selling, we already bought and tried … it failed miserably and gave us our current economic conditions. The world is now desperately trying to bail out of this mess, while the GOP House of Representatives refuses to do anything to get our economy kick-started.

Their working idea seems to be that if they can keep the President from being able to do anything to grow our economy, then the American voter will blame him and give the reins of government back to the GOP and Wall Street — and maybe, just maybe trickle-down and small-government will work this time!

THEY THINK YOU’RE STUPID!

So, you’re really confused now … is Obama the right leader for our country, or should we try a new guy?

We think there are many reasons to stick with President Obama, but one of the strongest arguments may just be: Financial Regulations. Yeah, we know … BORING!

But, we should stop for a moment and consider HOW we got into this economic slide in the first place. It wasn’t “big government,” or “deficits and debt,” or even Social Security and Medicare … much less Food Stamps! See previous CLN post.

The cause of the economic crisis is the financial deregulation in 1999, when the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed and replaced with much weaker regulations of the big banks. The Glass-Steagall Act was put into law following The Great Depression in order to reign in Wall Street greed and ensure that such a financial crisis would never happen again. When The Glass–Steagall Act is mentioned, it is most often in reference to four provisions of that act which separated commercial banking from investment banking. Many believe that separation is what kept our financial sector safe from itself.

For over 50 years our economy thrived, with no depression in sight, and the financial sector did just fine. The American economy enjoyed the very best growth in our history with The Glass-Steagall Act in place — and by the way, during that time the top marginal tax rate was much higher than 50%; it was up to 90% at one time. Under Ronald Reagan the top rates were over 50% — eight years of a presidency that the GOP claim was the economic zenith that they wish to replicate!

The new deregulation in 1999 once again unleashed Wall Street —> and the greed of the 1930s returned, but this time — because of a globalized economy — the financial collapse brought down the world’s economy.

Many Americans believe that the Dodd-Frank Act was not strong enough to actually keep these forces in total check (commercial banking and investment banking are NOT separated) … and yet: Mitt Romney wants to repeal even these mild reforms.

ARE YOU REALLY READY TO UNLEASH WALL STREET GREED?

The US economy is holding up much better than the economies of many other countries in this worldwide recession triggered by Wall Street banks. Clearly, big business has not jumped in to get the economy and employment kick-started, but our nation has been bumping along above the double-dip territory … not so with countries that adopted “slash-and-burn” cuts to government spending, otherwise known as austerity.

A global economy does not give any country the opportunity to actually break out on its own. We’re all interdependent now — all in it together. And, that’s why we need to stop the bickering and get our act together. We ARE the United States of America, and the world needs us to lead, not fall apart in partisan destructiveness.

The GOP games of “Let’s destroy Obama” is leading not just our nation off a cliff, but also the rest of the world. Even Romney this week decried the government slashing actions of the House led austerity plan for America that is in place for the end of 2012.

What we don’t know is whether or not Romney would, as president, stick with his initial honest assessment … or be led by the House and its deficit hawks who are demanding that government spending be slashed even deeper, and further deep tax-cuts for the wealthy implemented. A prescription that would destroy any hopes for a recovery in the near future.

Based on his actions a good bet would be that a President Romney would follow the Tea Party leaders in order to keep the right-wing of his party happy and ready to vote for him again in 2016. I don’t somehow see him willing to take on the base of his party. He has shown zero inclination to challenge anyone with wild Tea Party assertions — from supporters who claim Obama should be impeached, to Donald Trump and his hair-brained “birtherism!”

Somehow, I have to believe that with a second term President Obama will have more of an ability to move our country forward and get things done for us — and for the world.

I betcha that some out there will quickly reply, “government overspending.” But, that’s not right. The worldwide, economic meltdown was caused by the deregulation of Wall Street — leading to risky, greedy gambling with tax-payer backed money: Heads — Wall Street wins; Tails — Wall Street wins. They couldn’t lose, and they didn’t.

To continue to allow Wall Street to gamble with our money is foolish — but, that’s what the GOP wants to do. And to convince voters that deregulating Wall Street would unleash economic growth, rather than lead to more financial meltdowns, is the alternative reality they’re attempting to sell.

To cast Wall Street gamblers as job-creators goes against the facts; but that’s how Mitt Romney wants to sell himself — as a job creator, when the reality does not match with the claim.

To further muddy the waters, the alternate reality they’re putting out there is that since “government overspending” is the cause of the economic woes, then it stands to reason that to fix the problem we must cut government spending.

Reality is stood on its head — to fix a problem, we must first acknowledge the cause.

Vote with logic and reasoning in 2012, and answer the question for yourself: WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR US ECONOMIC CRISIS?

Democrats and the GOP truly have two different visions for our country — one based in theory and ideology, the other in pragmatism and evidence.

Republicans have imbedded their theories deep in their souls, as almost a religion. This explains why they get so angry if they are questioned or challenged about their political positions, and why they refuse to compromise. If you have a religious belief that your political positions are THE TRUTH rather than an idea that would be pragmatic, then you cannot compromise. To do so would be selling out THE TRUTH.

In fact, just listening to the GOP candidates you can see that they have conflated their interpretation of the U.S. Constitution along with their political ideology, with their religious beliefs. A very dangerous blending of church and state that our founders warned us against.

Democrats want to move in a proven, fact-based direction — take the practical, pragmatic course of action. The Republicans want to be victorious in their crusade for THE TRUTH.

TWO DIFFERING VISIONS.

In a bizarre twist, the GOP is hanging the debt and deficit around Obama’s neck. “The President should have endorsed the Simpson Bowles Commission,” the GOP screams — without bothering to mention that the Republican Party does not endorse it because it calls for increasing taxes to help address the deficit.

They bemoan the lack of presidential leadership on the deficit without mentioning that President Obama tried mightily to reach a deal with Speaker Boehner, but couldn’t because Republicans walked away from it because it would raise taxes on millionaires.

“The President didn’t lead on this issue,” but they don’t mention that he endorsed the deficit plan that was developed in the Senate — which was very close to the Simpson Bowles plan.

While trying to saddle Obama with the deficit/debt they continue to offer solutions that would ADD to the deficit and debt … i.e. more and deeper tax cuts for the already-wealthy and spend, spend on Defense!

If you repeat a lie often enough …

We need to be skeptical when Mitt Romney tells us that HE has the answers to turning our economy around. For starters, there are forces from outside our nation — primarily in Europe, including Greece, Spain and Portugal … and also China — that are impacting our ability to bounce back quickly from this Great Recession. For better or for worse, America is a part of the global economy.

But polls are showing that, at this point anyway, America is buying the idea that Romney would be a better president for the economy. Some voters who are looking for easy answers seem to be attracted to the idea that Romney’s business background would make him a better choice for turning the economy around and creating jobs.

When he presided as Governor of Massachusetts his state was number 47 out of 50 in job creation. And his record as a “vulture capitalist,” as one of his opponents in his own GOP primary called him, does not support his claim of having created 100,000 jobs … not even close. Mitt Romney’s brand of capitalism is not illegal, but it is predatory … and it certainly is not in the business of creating jobs for Americans.

Eugene Robinson wrote for The Washington Post this morning a column titled, Romney is no economic savior. I highly recommend it, as it makes many of the same points I’ve made in this article. Eugene says, “Let’s have this discussion.”

To kick off the discussion, I offer the following question: Do businessmen actually make better presidents? Here’s a detailed, informative article on the history of businessmen/presidents: US News article, Sorry Mitt Romney, Good Businessmen Rarely Make Good Presidents.

But, even without the historic perspective of how well our nation fares under the leadership of a businessman, a quick perusal of Romney’s and the GOP economic plan for today’s America gives rise to plenty of eyebrow raising moments.

To begin with, it is agreed by everyone on both political sides that the most effective way to eliminate budget deficits is to start with creating more jobs. More jobs will result in more tax revenues and the budget deficits can come down, AND more jobs will mean more money in the economy and a higher GDP. A virtuous cycle will begin — you know, the way President Clinton did it!

Democrats have concrete plans to produce more jobs and get our economy moving — rebuilding our infrastructure, re-hiring fire fighters and school teachers, enacting tax cuts for small businesses to spur business growth, and letting the Bush Tax Cuts for the already-wealthy lapse to help close the budget gap — while the GOP’s jobs plan is the George W. Bush Plan.

That’s right: The GOP plan for the economy is still the same old plan as George W. Bush’s, i.e. cut taxes for the already-wealthy and cut government spending. We need to be clear that cutting government spending means cutting jobs. Cutting jobs means less money in the economy and a faltering recovery, followed by bigger deficits and a vicious cycle. Check out a previous CLN post for more detail on the subject HERE.

And yet, taking more money out of the economy and giving it to the already-wealthy is only one of the questionable points in Romney’s economic plan. He is also running on rolling back the minimal financial regulations that were enacted, following the financial meltdown, to protect the economy.

The news this week that J.P. Morgan Chase has recently lost $2B with risky investments tells us that the big banks have NOT learned the lesson of the Great Recession. If the financial regulations passed by Congress had been implemented, instead of watered down by lobbyists, this risky gambling by J.P. Morgan wouldn’t have happened. And yet, that’s their plan — roll back financial regulations and unleash the greed of Wall Street.

These re-hashed and failed GOP theories are what Romney and GOP candidates continue to run on. The evidence proves that cutting taxes for the rich only leads to devastating budget deficits for the country, and big fat Swiss bank accounts for the rich. And unfettered capitalism with minimal regulations leads to financial meltdown.

Democrats and the GOP truly have two different visions for our country; one is based in theory and ideology, the other in pragmatism and evidence.

The austerity economic plan that Romney is planning has already been tested in Great Britain. The results: They are slipping into another recession, deficits are soaring, and joblessness is going in the wrong direction. Real life laboratory: The US had a stimulus and the economy bounced up off of the bottom and continues to grow; England instituted an austerity plan and they’re in a 2nd recession.

The claim that if America votes Republicans into power once again that they will balance the budget and produce jobs is a fantasy and just plain false. They will do exactly what they did before when they were in control in D.C. They will wreck the economy, plunge what’s left of the middleclass into poverty and cut off government services, set the financial sector up to fail once again, and if all the Neocon advisors in the Romney campaign have anything to say about it we’ll surely invade Iran and Syria!

AND YET … THAT’S THEIR PLAN!

There’s a new definition of bi-partisanship in governance. Richard Mourdock, a two-term state treasurer who had the backing of the Tea Party and national anti-tax groups, just defeated 36-year GOP Senator in the Republican primary in Indiana. Mr. Mourdock recently said, “To achieve bi-artisanship in D.C. the Democrats have to come OUR way.”

I’m sorry, Mr. Mourdock, but Dems tried it your way. The President said in the last State of the Union speech that his administration has cracked down on border control and almost eliminated illegal crossings. Republicans had said that if we addressed the border issues FIRST, that we could do Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

AND then Lucy jerked the football away again! There will NOT be immigration reform. The administration and Democrats compromised and gave your side many concessions on Healthcare Reform; and after all these concessions not ONE Republican voted for it. There is example after example where the Dems conceded to GOP demands … and got NOTHING in return.

No, Mr. Mourdock, in the infamous words of W. “Fool me once, shame on ????, well it means you can’t get fooled again!”

Working together for the good of our country means always getting OUR OWN WAY, to the “new GOP.” And the word “compromise” is now a dirty word in the Republican Party.

Actually, dear fellow Americans, the ability to compromise is a mark of maturity. I fear this party has gone off the rails!