Ummm let's see... the government can spend billions to bail out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns while their executives have collected multi-million pay packages and left their investors with losses.
OR
The government can actually use taxpayers money to benefit the taxpayer...I must be a Democrat
Oops, what was I thinking, we're using China's money now...
The Republican mantra 'Democrats want the government to take care of them, give them a handout'.
Traditionally, Republicans have higher incomes, support big business and are less diverse than Democrats. Republicans see government programs that help the less fortunate as a hand out rather than a hand up. They would rather those in need be taken care of by charitable organizations and states. Middle class, those that are a job loss away from becoming the less fortunate, are traditionally Democrats. I can hear it already, 'I'm middle class and a Republican and vice versa', but remember I said traditionally. So I have to ask, just what exactly do Republicans expect our tax dollars to be spent on?
We have established that bailing out banks and spending $48 billion on the War in Iraq (while the Iraq government has a budget surplus of up to $80 billion) is ok with Republicans. We all agree that using tax dollars to provide necessary equipment for our soldiers is a top priority; " The issue of inadequate protection for troops was highlighted recently when a U.S. soldier complained to Defense Secretary Donald H.Rumsfeld in Kuwait that troops have to scrounge landfills for scrap metal and discarded bullet-resistant glass to provide armor for their vehicles."
So what about our infrastructure, vital to our economy and national security...should we be spending tax dollars here? The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the United States needs to invest at least $1.6 trillion over the next five years to maintain and expand its infrastructure. Last year, the Federal Highway Administration deemed 72,000 bridges, or more than 12 percent of the country's total, "structurally deficient. But the funds to fix them are melting: By the end of this year, the Highway Trust Fund will have a several billion dollar deficit. But since the early 1990s, the United States has had no comprehensive transportation development+, and responsibilities were increasingly pushed off to states, municipalities".+ "Look at the physical neglect - crumbling bridges, the issue of energy security, environmental concerns," said Robert Puentes, a transportation and metropolitan growth expert at the Brookings Institution. " It's more relevant than ever and we have no vision."
Creating a health system that provides accessible and affordable health care to all of our citizens is unacceptable to Republicans while hospital emergency rooms across the country are bearing the cost of the uninsured, many of them going under not able to bear the costs. "The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 44.8 million (15.3 percent) in 2005 to 47 million (15.8 percent) in 2006" according to the US Census Bureau.
So please tell me, what is it exactly that Republicans think our tax dollars should be spent on .....