Republicans Are Not Economically-Intelligent

     One single graphic shows an astonishing source of America's national debt: 36% of our budget goes to the military. Considering that is more than the next 15 nations put together, most of which are allies, it is obvious that no major threat to America's national security warrants this extravagant level of spending. Granted, Democrats are mostly in favor of maintaining the current spending. However, the Republicans tend to favor an increase in spending. In 2012, in fact, Mitt Romney advocated giving the military billions of dollars that they did not request, citing the state of the Navy while ignoring the fact the nature of warfare has changed drastically toward aerial and special-ops work. This came at a proposed cost of crucial funding for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs.

     This is not the only display of the Republican Party's fiscal recklessness. Despite claims that Joe Biden is in bed with China (he is actually in favor of cutting reliance on China), Republicans have done so consistently for the sake of cheaper American goods at the expense of human rights, fair wages, and employment. Ivanka Trump has all of the goods for her company shipped from China, and Scott Walker famously brought FoxConn to steal from the world's largest source of fresh water, Lake Michigan.

     Even more heinously, the Republicans, who proclaim their disdain for taxes and a high federal budget, pass tax breaks only for the rich and, as aforementioned, fail to cut the most odious sources of the national debt. Social programs are peanuts compared to the massive cost of the military, and the party that claims to oppose international intervention fails to see the logic in ending the means to these ends. During the COVID pandemic, of the $4.2 trillion in relief, $3 trillion was given to corporations who pocketed the money and laid off employees anyway. Trump's tax cut in 2017 did not affect anyone in the lower or middle class.

     One more subtle note is the cost of the death penalty. Many suspect that life imprisonment is far too costly and suggest merely using a bullet in the head to serve justice. This is hypocritical talk from the party that believes in strict interpretation of the Constitution and the rights to due process it bestows. However, the death penalty is actually more expensive due to the calling of witnesses and executioners, the appeal process, the special security for death row inmates, and the increasingly-rare supply of the lethal drugs used.

     Finally, a simple look at history will tell one that the Democrats have superior economic policies. Franklin D. Roosevelt pulled the nation out of the Great Depression and reformed Wall Street, Lyndon B. Johnson halved poverty and created Medicare and Medicaid, Bill Clinton presided over the largest peacetime economic growth in American history, and Barack Obama pulled the U.S. out of the 2008 recession.

     Economics are a key concern in any nation, and the Republicans simply have economics wrong.