On Thursday night, Oct. 19, the Republican-controlled Senate passed a budget measure that cuts Medicaid by $1 trillion and Medicare by $500 billion, so that millionaires and corporations can get a tax cut.
Like the walking dead, trickle-down economic theory keeps raising its head and slouching forward, even though it's been thoroughly discredited by the inequality and immiseration that results each time it's implemented.
What trickles down is austerity for the many while the obscene wealth of those at the very top of the economic scale grows exponentially. Some of this obscene wealth gets distributed to the politicians, who then show their fealty to their big money sponsors with votes like the one on Thursday night.
The vote was on a budget resolution that is non-binding, but it opens the door to begin a reconciliation process with Republicans in the House, which means the GOP can go for a tax bill without a single Democratic vote. As Sen. Jeff Merkley said, "In what world does it make sense to rob trillions from the national treasury, all to grant a massive windfall to the very richest individuals?"
And, as Lord Acton famously wrote, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Michael Lawton
Ocean View
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