In June of 2006, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh on his way back from the Dominican Republic, was caught with a prescription bottle (not in his name) filled with the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. By fall, 2006 Details Magazine pronounced that ”˜Limbaugh’ was the new slang for the drug. As in, “I just popped a Limbaugh. Now what do I do?”
So isn’t it now fitting that Limbaugh has become the de facto voice for an increasingly impotent Republican Party?Like Viagra, Limbaugh gets a temporary surge of controversy – a boost in rhetoric. Side effects include dizziness, irrational hatred of liberals and erratic knee jerks.
Here’s the thing, we’re in real trouble. As far as our economy goes ”” it’s bad. All the eggheads tell us so. Plus you can drive down the street and take stock of all the going out of business and foreclosure signs to draw your own independent conclusions.
We just endured eight years of Bush economics; cut taxes, dissolve regulation and increase spending to record levels. On January 30, 2009 Bloomberg News reported that the top 400 wealthiest people in the US paid a quarter less taxes than before and their wealth doubled under the Bush presidency. There’s supply-side economics. That’s trickle down.
It’s also simple physics ”” when things are too top heavy they topple. Just as they did the last year of the Bush Administration.But to hear it from Bush’s perspective it was all baddies on Wall Street that buckled the economy. “The SEC is also requiring certain investors to disclose their short selling, and has launched rigorous enforcement actions to detect fraud and manipulation in the market. Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted (sic).” Bush said at the White House last September.
This is not surprising because with Bush it was always rogue individuals at fault (Scooter Libby) and never those in charge (Karl Rove). Those vilified Wall Street people may have pillaged the world economy but it was mostly legal. Buccaneers had a note from the King ”” it didn’t make them any less of pirates. Their legality meant the King was palling around with” well Wall Street types.
Remember this is the manifestation of conservative ideals: free market capitalism. The free market ”” it sounds so liberated from those horrible killjoy laws and regulations. Free at last! Conservatives got their way and now we can see its aftermath all around us.
And Limbaugh wants to see President Obama fail? The guy that touted all of Bush’s policies and ”˜ideas’ unequivocally for eight years? How many times do you let someone sell you a lemon before you stop buying from him? (author’s note: I was going to say ”˜sell you bunk Oxycodone’, too cheap?)
Look, we already saw President Bush fail. His sweeping, unchecked, unprecedented follies have come to fruition.
The only idea that Republicans can come up with in this unparalleled crisis is to call for more tax cuts. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) on Meet the Press last Sunday declared she opposed the recovery plan that passed in the House because of the massive stimulative spending. “On the other hand, on tax cuts, I think tax cuts should be strong, I think they should be a lot and I think they should be something that will have an impact.” Offered Senator Hutchinson.
Impact? Eep.
More tax cuts?! To ”˜trickle down’? To supply side? Really? We just got plundered by privateers and the only answer the Republicans can come up with is putting faith back into the private sector?! We lost 2.6 million jobs in this country last year and that’s all they can offer?
The original is a now tested, previously unimagined flop ”” how will the sequel be better?
Speaking of lame movie references, Limbaugh is the Benjamin Buttons of radio talk show hosts ”” the older he gets the more childish his ideas become. Now he just doesn’t want someone else to win. Next he’ll start picking on more Parkinson patients.
I don’t want the Democrats to be the only voice in the government. Right now that’s up to Republicans. Limbaugh will get a rise out of the GOP faithful (if it last longer than 4 hours” call your doctor). Then he wears off and leaves the party” well” deflated.
Cross posted at the Huffington Post.