Newt's return sign of GOP's failures
Newt Gingrich has reared his ugly head again. You remember him, the former Republican speaker of the house, the man who got his terminally ill wife to sign their divorce papers while she was on her death bed in a hospital room?
He came back just to criticize Hillary Clinton's health care plan. He is oblivious to the 47 million who are uninsured, 9 million of whom are children. Catastrophic illnesses are the number one cause of bankruptcies in this country.
His reason is the same old reason -- Democrats like to tax and spend, tax and spend. With the Bush administration just about to raise the debt limit to $9.82 trillion, he should shut his mouth.
Gingrich is a main line Republican, a party of privilege, anti-education (an ignorant populace is more easily led and fooled), anti-union, anti-OSHA, anti-consumer protection, and just generally anti-little people or just about anyone who is more or less powerless to stop this insensitive lout. We are just a rabble to be used for labor and as a source of revenue.
With the Republicans you are on your own (YOYO). The latest, of course, is the failed increase in SChips that insures more children are not covered by any insurance. (The cost of broader coverage is about one month's worth of bullets in Iraq).
Dubya says that insurance is the realm of the private sector. As he gets all his medical care free, he wouldn't know anything about "pre-existing conditions" that automatically make it impossible to get insurance at any price.
When you can get it, it is so expensive that no one making less that $100,000 per year can afford it. For minimum wage people, it is only a dream. Republicans also fight tooth and nail to forestall any worthwhile cost of living increases to the minimum wage and Social Security while giving themselves huge raises.
Medical costs are increasing much faster than inflation and in the last 10 years, everyone's earning power has diminished considerably. The Republican presidential candidates are running on the basis of how much more conservative they are than the other guy.
This motley crew of candidates is vying among themselves as to who is more Christian. It is amazing to me that any conservative Republican can be much of a Christian when there are many, many passages in the Bible that demand that the poor be taken care of.
This unprincipled rabble are perfect examples of how the rich consider themselves put upon by the underclass. The poor may want to put food on the table or a roof over their heads. The nerve! Let them eat cake!
I know a lot of people who are Republicans and are generous to a fault, donating time and money for public projects, the needy and the underprivileged. Frankly, I cannot understand how they can support the Republican Party and sleep at night.
Raleigh Sutton
Elgin