GOP Priorities

As if we were in any doubt, we now know the real and absolute priority of the Republican party – tax cuts for the super-rich. They are now on record as saying that everything else will be held up until these cuts are extended.

They have callously refused to extend unemployment benefits to the most vulnerable in the greatest downturn since the Great Depression, on the fallacious grounds of cost (the cost is a mere drop in the bucket next to the cost of upper-income tax cuts). Already, 800,000 people have been cut off. This will rise to 2 million by January, and 6 million by the Spring. As always, the voice of the poor holds no sway in political deliberations.

What else is being held hostage? How about the DREAM Act, the plan to give citizenship to children bought to the United States by their parents. This pro-family piece of legislation is strongly supported by the USCCB.

It gets far worse. The START treaty is also caught in the crosshairs, with the GOP willing to sacrifice nuclear arms reduction for rewarding the wealthy. This issue is regarded by the Church as a core pro-life issue, relating to the sanctity of human life. And yet the so-called pro-life party doesn’t seem to care.

This goes way beyond ideology. This is wicked.