Class War Redux: Top Congressonal Repubs Urge Bernanke to Do Nothing to Help Economy
What’s that old saying about when you point your finger at somebody there are four fingers pointing back at you? Despite Republican claims that Obama is fomenting class warfare by having the nerve to ask the wealthy to pay the same proportionate share of their income in taxes as middle class taxpayers, it’s becoming crystal clear that the real class warfare is being waged by Republicans on lower and middle income Americans.
In addition to resurrecting the meme that people who don’t make enough money to have a federal tax liability are somehow “lucky” and therefore need to get more “skin in the game” (like, maybe, a pound of skin?) they are today asking Fed Chair Ben Bernanke not to do anything that could conceivably improve the economy.
Monday the top four Congressional Republicans (John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl and Eric Cantor) signed a letter to the Chairman saying in part:
It is not clear that the recent round of quantitative easing undertaken by the Federal Reserve has facilitated economic growth or reduced the unemployment rate. To the contrary, there has been significant concern expressed by Federal Reserve Board Members, academics, business leaders, Members of Congress and the public. Although the goal of quantitative easing was, in part, to stabilize the price level against deflationary fears, the Federal Reserve’s actions have likely led to more fluctuations and uncertainty in our already weak economy.
We have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy. Such steps may erode the already weakened U.S. dollar or promote more borrowing by overleveraged consumers. To date, we have seen no evidence that further monetary stimulus will create jobs or provide a sustainable path towards economic recovery.
Not only is this political meddling in the decisions of the independent Federal Reserve Board unprecedented, it is just further proof that the Republican leadership does not want the economy to improve. Full stop period.
Combine this with the upcoming threat to shut down the government again over the issue of whether disaster relief spending should be offset by cuts elsewhere and it doesn’t require a whole lot of deduction to conclude that the Rethugs are truly waging a class war and won’t stop until we’ve become a feudal society. Because, apparently, this is what the Founders had in mind, or something.
Posted by marindenver on 09/21/11 at 02:25 PM • Permalink
Categories: Politics • Election '12 • Election '10 • Barack Obama • Nutters • Teabaggery •
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