Republican Fact Sheet

I just get so mad whenever I read the news. It just pisses me off to no end. What makes me the angriest is listening to people like Bill O'Reilly and others, who make the Republican Party out to be the great voice for the people, while calling the Democrats a bunch of rich wasps from Massachusetts.

They can say all they want, but they can't deny these facts. They'll try to explain them, sure, but they can't deny them:

FACT: The Republican Party supports the interests of Big Business and Industry over the interests of the people.

EVIDENCE: A new bankruptcy law that makes it harder for individuals to pay back their creditors. If a guy spends $500 on his Visa card, and can't pay it, late fees and charges over time can double, even triple his initial purchase. He'll owe $1,500, despite the credit card company being out only $500. The guy decides to declare bankruptcy, because he's poor and can't pay. But the new laws say that he can't. The new laws say that when he gets a job, his paychecks go to Visa, instead of his kids.

Meanwhile, Philip Morris gets slammed with a 500 million dollar judgment in a class action suit. They can't afford it (im being hypothetical, PM has more money than God). They declare bankruptcy, restructure, and become Phil Murris, a brand new company which is still #1 in making cigarettes, but no longer has to pay 500 million dollars. This is still legal under the new bankruptcy law, pushed through by the GOP

The Republicans think this is fair.

FACT: The Republican Party Wants Old People To Live In Poverty

EVIDENCE: They want to dismantle social security, decrease Medicare funds, cut veterans' benefits, and disparage the AARP.

Bush's new SS plan would put Social Security into debt NOW instead of four decades from now. The decreases in Medicare and veterans benefits are keystones of Bush's new budget. White House PR has begun a campaign to destroy the AARP, the elderly lobby, stopping just short of calling them terrorists.

FACT: The Republican Party Loves The Rich, Hates The Poor

EVIDENCE: They plan to repeal the estate tax, which prevents rich people from giving all their money to their kids, rather than put it into the economy. This would cost the federal government millions upon millions of dollars a year, while making Paris Hilton slightly richer. Meanwhile, they continue to resist any talk of raising the minimum wage, from just over five bucks an hour. In fact, they have the nerve to say that raising the minimum wage would actually HURT poor people-- despite the fact that, when Clinton raised it, the economy improved more than it has in decades. Also, dozens of programs aimed at improving education in inner city public schools are to be axed in Bush's new budget, while vouchers for rich, private schools and money for parochial and religious schools will be increased. It's not the poor that benefit from these vouchers-- meanwhile, school closings are up, and the vastly underfunded No Child Left Behind Act neglects the children of the poor and lower class by requiring their poor schools to reach unrealistic goals and providing next to nothing to reach them.

FACT: The Republican Party Hates Civil Rights, Privacy, and Free Speech.

EVIDENCE: The Patriot Act means Joe FBI knows what you had for breakfast. "Enemy Combatants" are held without trial, and worse, without even being charged with a crime (even if they were captured as citizens in this country). Still worse, they're tortured until they confess (anyone read 1984?). They've shot down every affirmative action law there is-- as if putting Condi as secretary of State fixes over a century of Republican sponsored slavery (ironically, they were called Democrats then. Weird, huh?). They want Cable TV and Satellite Radio to fall under FCC jurisdiction. They release propaganda videos as real news, while restricting access to mainstream journalists. They put thousands of African-Americans on a list of convicted felons, denying them the right to vote in the last two elections, even though they never committed any crimes (Florida). They celebrate protests in Lebanon, but here, throw protesters in jail... even close the President's public appearances to anyone who may disagree with him.

FACT: The Republicans Hate The Environment

EVIDENCE: Actually, that's not true. They love the environment. If by environment you mean just oil, gas, timber, and CO2. EPA head Christine Whitman (who was no great environmentalist while governor of New Jersey [see:ocean dumping]) quit, because Bush undermined all her policy recommendations. Even the new head of the EPA's recommendations didn't fly with Bush-- they recommended that mercury levels and CO2 output be cut across the board-- Bush recommended that they should be cut in some places, increased in others. So it balances out. Sheesh. Clear Skies actually repeals earlier, better cleaner air laws, and Healthy Forests is the Timber Industries best friend. The Superfund, aimed at cleaning up industrial waste, has been cut and cut again as part of Bush's budget. Meanwhile, Bush has recommended allowing companies to produce more industrial waste, as long as other places reduce it (known as "trading pollution credits"). The Alaska Wildlife Refuge, "the last frontier" of America, is vulnerable to being opened up to developers and oil companies (they've done wonders in the past for Alaska-- Exxon Valdez anyone?). Finally, Bush approves of putting all our nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, just above the water table that provides sustenance for all of the Southwest (San Diego, time to stock up on Poland Spring).

These are facts. Tell me I'm wrong. Please. I beg you. Tell me. Cause I don't want to believe the Republicans are evil. I don't, really.

They just do such a great job showing me.