The hidden Republican agenda

If Republican voters would pay attention to what their party really does when they have power, they would never vote the way they do. The Republican Legislative agenda has actively worked against the interests of American working families since the 1930s.

The modern American right was born to defend the anti-majoritarian preferences of reactionary business elites. And although it has undergone many transformations in the 90 years since FDR’s election, maximizing the wealth and power of such elites remains the movement’s core commitment. If anything, the myriad culture war concerns that have displaced “small government” themes in the right’s messaging have only increased the legislative centrality of its plutocratic project.

Eric Levitz

Modern American “conservatism” was born as a reaction against President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programs. After Republican Presidents Coolidge and Hoover had destroyed the economy of the United States in 1929, Roosevelt defeated Hoover (in 1932) and immediately began to implement policies to help the nation recover from the Great Depression.

With the help of a liberal Congress, President Roosevelt enacted a series of government regulations, financial reforms, and public works projects that were collectively known as the “New Deal.”

Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth… I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932

The wealthy despised Roosevelt and opposed, at every turn, his efforts to create economic fairness and protect the most vulnerable. Those who supported Roosevelt’s programs were called “progressives” and those who opposed him were called “conservatives.”

These labels continue today. What most people don’t recognize is that the meanings are still the same. Progressives still support and work for rules, regulation, and economic fairness, while conservatives consistently oppose policies that promote economic fairness. Essentially, conservatives prefer the law of the jungle. Republicans like to call heartless economic ruthlessness “freedom.”

And many more such things did he [Korihor] say unto them, telling them that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.

Alma 30:17

Cut taxes for the wealthy

In the Trump era, congressional Republicans could not agree on immigration policy or the propriety of the president’s Twitter feed. What gave the party common purpose and a governing agenda was its unifying desire to slash taxes on the wealthy and corporations, at a time of historically high inequality and corporate profits.

Eric Levitz

Year after year, the one thing elected Republicans can agree on is the need to cut taxes on the wealthy and on large corporations. Mitch McConnell and Orrin Hatch’s 2017 tax cut bill lowered the maximum corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

In Utah, the Republican-dominated State Legislature tries to cut taxes in some fashion nearly every session.

The House’s new Republican majority is coalescing behind a plan to lower taxes for the rich while gutting social spending on the poor and elderly.

Eric Levitz

Of course, reducing government revenue makes it more difficult for the government to provide the services working people need and expect. But for wealthy Republicans that is exactly the point. They do not believe the government should help people.

Republicans believe people should have the “freedom” to be homeless, hungry, and ill. After all, they argue, if “they” want to be happy and healthy “they” should get a job and “work hard” so “they,” too, can be rich!

Accepting this heartless line of thought requires one to ignore the cruel realities of the world. What bothers me the most is that the majority of American “Christians” apparently believe this evil, anti-Christian nonsense.

Increase taxes on the poor and working-class

Meanwhile, House Republicans have already voted to slash funding for the Internal Revenue Service, a policy that would increase the federal deficit by undermining tax collections. Kevin McCarthy’s caucus is also preparing to vote on legislation that would abolish the federal income, payroll, and estate taxes, and replace them with a single national sales tax. Such a reform would shift the burden of financing the government away from the rich and onto the poor and working-class, as the latter spend a much higher share of their income on consumption than the wealthy do.

Eric Levitz

As the Republicans increasingly reduce government revenue through tax cuts, they increasingly insist that government programs that help people be defunded or eliminated. At the same time, they expect poor and working-class Americans to pay a far higher share of their income to taxes than the wealthy.

Cut or eliminate programs for the sick and elderly

Balancing the federal budget in 10 years would require draconian cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, even if existing tax rates were sustained. Erasing the federal deficit while cutting taxes on the rich and corporations would almost certainly necessitate large benefit cuts for Social Security and Medicare’s existing beneficiaries.

Eric Levitz

The Republicans have been trying to cripple or eliminate Social Security and Medicare since they were first created. They have always labeled those popular programs “socialist.” Depending upon one’s understanding and definition of socialism, this is not necessarily incorrect. But it doesn’t matter. Republicans never define what they mean when they accuse a program of being “socialist.” They just use it as a scary “bogeyman” label.

The fact is that these programs are extremely popular and have helped millions of Americans for decades. Without them, many people will suffer. Is THAT what the Republicans really want?

Plenty of blue-collar Americans are skeptical of unconditional welfare benefits for the poor and/or hostile to many aspects of social liberalism. But precious few believe that they should pay higher taxes so that the rich can pay lower ones, or that the federal budget should be balanced on the backs of Social Security beneficiaries. In a well-functioning republic, a Republican who supported such positions would not survive a primary.

Eric Levitz

Republicans depend on voter ignorance

All of the major Republican policy priorities are hugely unpopular – even among self-identified Republicans. This is why Republican candidates never discuss policy. They prefer to run on divisive, hyped-up, cultural issues. It is also why they invest so much money and effort to gerrymander Congressional districts, and to make it harder for people to vote.

In a remotely healthy democracy, there would be no way to reconcile the Republican Party’s voting base with its fiscal priorities. If Americans had an accurate understanding of their elected representatives’ policy goals, and the interest and resources necessary for holding those representatives accountable to their own preferences, the GOP as we know it could not exist.

Eric Levitz

If Republican voters really knew and understood what their elected “representatives” were up to, they would never vote Republican again.

Sources:
Eric Levitz, “The GOP Is More Dependent Than Ever on Democratic Dysfunction,” Intelligencer, New York magazine, January 16, 2013.
or
Eric Levitz, “The GOP Is More Dependent Than Ever on Democratic Dysfunction,” msn.com.