The American Debt: The Destruction

If too much tax kills tax, then no tax kills the state. Thanks to the recent unveiling of their budgetary policy, it is ever so clear that the Republican Party agitates in favor of reducing the weight of taxes down to the width of cigarette paper. At the risk of compromising — to borrow the word from President Obama — the American social pact. Nothing less.

On the morning of April 18, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s gave one heck of a jolt when it claimed that the downgrade of the U.S. was possible within two years. Its principal argument? The incapacity of congressmen to agree, not on the amount of savings that must be made, but rather on the choices that this exercise would entail. Standard dreads that in between the situation that prevails in Congress and the presidential campaign, the deadlock will last beyond 2012.

The Republicans are the engine of this deadlock. They nourish it by putting forward claims that go beyond comprehension. To convince oneself, it suffices to linger — six months after the legislative elections — on actions adopted by governors of certain states. Many among them have axed social insurance programs, education and mental health programs, trimmed the number of people benefiting from Medicaid and dedicated themselves to the destruction of private and public unions.

On the federal scene, the elected Republicans of the House of Representatives, spearheaded by libertarians such as Paul Ryan and Rand Paul, have unanimously voted on a budgetary project that sends shivers down the spine. The project is funded by the Heritage Foundation, an ultraconservative lobby group.

They promise to diminish the number of elderly people and the poor from having access to health programs and to cut the number scholarships and educational programs geared toward the unemployed. Actually, their objective is simply this: We decrease taxes for the rich, we increase defense spending and we cut in every other field.

In this story, which is all about liberating the rich people from the inconvenience of taxes and regulation, we cannot prevent ourselves from repeating for the umpteenth time how much their main proposition derives from stupidity. Every time they agitate to spoil the most fortunate, they insist again and again that this will translate into economic growth, employment, etc.

Ever since Bush the father and Bush the son multiplied their gifts to millionaires, their promises have never come true. According to a study conducted by a British economist at the University of Warwick, tax deductions are actually a way of giving subsidies to the luxury goods industry, which are all foreign and mostly French. Put it another way, the rich buy Dior, Dom Pérignon, Hermès and other brands. Particularly, they have filled the safe of the champion in this sector: Bernard Arnault, who is, since last year, the richest man in Europe and the fourth richest in the world.

In acting in this fashion, the Republicans are attempting to destroy anything that resembles the shadow of a state. Pitiful!