Greed Over Principles or: the G.O.P.'s attitude toward Americans

Remember John McCain's slogan he used back in 2008, Country First? Remember how all of the GOP talking heads repeated how that, under a McCain-Palin administration, he was going to put "Country First"? When all Senate Republicans and one conservative Democrat stood together to block a jobs bill that would have reinstated many financial aid programs, including unemployment benefits to those currently out of work and/or looking for a job, is this what they had in mind when it comes to "Country First"?

Reid and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), in an effort to mollify a handful of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans, have spent the past several weeks trimming the bill to reduce its deficit impact. But after jettisoning several provisions to help the old, the poor and the jobless, reducing the bill's ten-year deficit impact down from $134 billion to just $33 billion, the bill is still sinking. Not a single Republican is willing to lend support and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson is still holding out, leaving Democrats two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.

Extended unemployment benefits lapsed at the beginning of June. By Friday, more than 1.2 million people out of work for longer than six months will have found themselves ineligible for the next tier of extended benefits, which were originally provided by the stimulus bill to fight the recession. Other programs that lapsed include elevated federal aid for state Medicaid programs and a "Doc Fix" that prevents doctors from a 21-percent drop in reimbursement for seeing Medicare patients.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a statement put out today said the reason the Republicans in the Senate blocked this important piece of legislation for millions of Americans is because they're worried about what this will do to the deficit.

That's complete bullshit!

If these so-called "fiscal conservatives" were so concerned about the deficit, then why did the GOP rubber stamp Bush Jr.'s tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans and to big business? If the Republicans were that concerned about bringing some fiscal discipline, then they wouldn't have allowed Reagan to balloon defense spending from $134 billion to $290 billion within the 8-year tenure of his presidency, or hold firm on Bush and the neoconservatives' push to drag America into an unnecessary war with Iraq. Now these self-righteous pricks have the stones to tell us that now they're worried about the national deficit they helped create over the last eight years, only after they were bounced out of power!?

Let's cut the fucking bullshit and get to the real reason the Senate Republicans are giving the proverbial middle finger to Americans who are desperately trying to find work: they've made the cynical bet that the only way they'll get back into power is to block, de-rail, and oppose every scrap of legislation the Democrats and President Obama try to push through in order to help middle-class Americans. They don't care if America has to face another near-economic crass, or if kids on the streets of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have been reduced to begging for food because the parents can't afford a damn meal, let 'em starve; hungry kids are not they're problem. To the GOP, the ends will always justify their means.

So, I revert to my original question: back in 2008, when McCain's slogan was "Country First", and all the right-wing talking heads said that under a McCain-Palin administration the pair would put "Country First"...did they mean this one? Because they've got a funny way of showing it.