The Republicans Page

(Republicans the plural, not Republican's the possesive)

From the WCDC Newsletter Hot Rhetoric Department:

Leonard G. Barton, Ed.

Note: These facts and viewpoints are here to illustrate the worldviews of the persons mentioned.

Dick Armey

Dick Armey is the House Republican Majority Leader.

Minimum wage, the Earned Income Credit and Food Stamps:

Congressman Richard Armey (R-Texas) thinks the minimum wage is a bad idea because it (according to his anecdote) forces people out of work and onto food stamps. His solution? No minimum wage and no food stamps! Not only that, the Republican tax policy proposals would eliminate the earned income tax credit, which is a way of enabling a person working at minimum wage (the "working poor") to at least be able to live. The earned income tax credit is a compensation for the highly regressive payroll taxes paid by a low wage worker and could be considered a roundabout subsidy to those who employ people at the minimum wage (by subsidizing the employees), but since it goes to the "wrong" people the Republicans want to axe it to help pay for tax breaks for the well off and wealthy, and even bigger breaks and continuing subsidies for the super wealthy and the big corporations.

John McCain

John McCain is a Republican Senator from Arizona.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous (and/or powerful):

Note the key word "convincing". Now perhaps Senator McCain lives like everybody he knows, but I doubt that he lives like most of the American people. Why won't he admit that Senators are not like most people, they have a completely different set of problems and responsibilities, mostly come from privileged backgrounds, and that they certainly don't live like us. I'll allow them a few perks, for they have heavy responsibilities, are pulled in every direction, and have had to jump through hoops I wouldn't wish on a dog, but at least they should be realistic about their own lifestyle relative to that of the common folk, even without the free golfing trips.

Phil Gramm

Phil Gramm is a Republican Senator from Texas and recent presidential candidate.

Dueling Quotations:

"The economy is a wholy owned subsidiary of the ecology." - Paul Erlich, heard in an address to the Commonwealth Club of California broadcast on KQED-FM.