Republican vice presidential choice Paul Ryan calls himself a devout Catholic, but his right-wing politics would divert more wealth to the rich at the expense of the poor, the opposite of both the teachings of Jesus and the recommendations of the Vatican, notes Catholic ethicist Daniel C. Maguire.
Exclusive: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were quick to assure U.S. seniors that they will be grandfathered in to today’s Medicare – even if younger Americans get stuck with an inferior system – a bet that the selfishness of “greedy geezers” will grease the way to a Republican victory, writes Robert Parry.
Despite rhetorical suggestions about a shift in U.S. geopolitical strategy, the pre-placement of military stockpiles indicates that America’s security interests will remain focused on protecting oil supplies, writes the Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland.
While advocating more tax cuts tilted to the rich, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also wants to expand military spending, meaning that social programs would take a big hit. But polls indicate Americans prefer cutting Pentagon dollars rather than Social Security and Medicare, writes Lawrence S. Wittner.
Despite economic recession and government austerity, the world’s military spending continued to grow last year, exceeding $1.7 trillion, with the United States accounting for more than two-fifths of that money, as Lawrence S. Wittner reports.
Since the early supply-side days of Ronald Reagan, the Right has pretended that slashing taxes on the rich will generate extra revenue, thus more than paying for itself. The reality has turned out differently, but Michael Winship says that hasn’t changed the determination to bend reality to politics.
Exclusive: Any rational assessment of America’s economic troubles would identify Ronald Reagan’s reckless “supply-side” economics as a chief culprit, but that hasn’t stopped Republican presidential hopefuls, led by Newt Gingrich, from selling this discredited theory to a gullible GOP base, reports Robert Parry.
The Wall Street banks may have crawled back from the cliff of 2008 – and may have trimmed their bonuses a bit as they adjust to a more austere America – but they still get to place ex-employees in key government jobs, close to the ear of power, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship note.
Exclusive: Delivering the GOP rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is hailed as a “fiscal conservative,” but his actual record as George W. Bush’s budget director was one of fiscal recklessness, taking America from surpluses to massive deficits, as Robert Parry reports.
Neocons and their political allies are often called “chicken hawks” because few have fought in the wars that they’ve advocated, which means America’s chief war proponents have very little concept of the short- and long-term consequences for soldiers, what ex-CIA official Paul R. Pillar describes.
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