Hagel Is Wrong - Republicans Have An Agenda

Former Republican United States Senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel did an interview with the Washington Diplomat the other day. He told them that the Republican Party didn't have an agenda it wanted to accomplish these days (other than to oppose President Obama and return to power). He said he didn't know what the Republicans wanted to do if they were able to return to power.

He said, "I don't see them presenting any alternatives, any new options or any new thinking. If the Republicans get back in power, what are they going to do? There is no articulation. It's just a 'no no no, I'm against Obama because he's a socialist and he's taking America in the wrong direction.' That's certainly an opinion, but what about you, Mr. Republican? What would you do?"

I understand that the former senator from Nebraska was one of the few moderates in the Republican Party when he was in the Senate. And I can also understand his desire to believe the above statement is true. But the sad fact is that moderates are a rare and dying breed in the Republican Party. The party has been taken over by its angry right-wing teabagger element, and they certainly have an agenda (albeit a distasteful one).

Since the former senator doesn't seem to be able to see the current agenda of his own party, let me enlighten him a little. The agenda is mean-spirited and would hurt this nation and its citizens immeasurably, but the Republicans do have an agenda. Here is some of it:

* They want to overturn the new health care law and return the country to a place where only the rich can receive good health care (because private insurance is pricing itself out of reach of most Americans and companies are paying less of insurance costs for workers as the insurance companies continue to raise rates -- workers are paying 14% more this year than last year).

* They want to abolish Medicare and Medicaid (which would leave the elderly and the poor without any medical care since they can't afford private insurance on their fixed incomes).

* They want to abolish Social Security and create a privatized system (where the elderly would be at the mercy of the giant financial institutions and the volatile stock market).

* They want to continue the two unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (regardless of the fact that nothing is being accomplished except the creation of new enemies for this country).

* They want to abolish the Department of Education (eliminating national standards and funding and leaving children even more at the mercy of state and local school boards -- many of which care more about religion and propaganda than education).

* They want to give the rich more tax breaks (creating an even more unequal distribution of income than the one that caused the Great Depression).

* They want to cut off the unemployment benefits from millions of people out of work (due to the recession caused by their own policies).

* They want to eliminate the minimum wage (and depress the wages of all workers).

* They want to bust and even abolish worker's unions.

* They want to make christianity the nation's official religion (to the detriment of both nonbelievers and the followers of other religions).

* They want to take away the right of women to control their own bodies (and return us to the days of dangerous back-alley abortions and unwanted-unloved children).

* They want to restrict the voting power of the elderly and the poor by imposing onerous ID requirements.

* They want to keep and even extend corporate tax loopholes (thus increasing the tax burden on the working and middle classes).

This is just some of what the right-wing Republicans would like to accomplish if they are returned to power. A moderate like Hagel might not want to admit it, but the Republicans definitely do have an agenda -- a bad agenda, but an agenda nonetheless.