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[Note from SJS: Don't forget, in reading this, that I just got a master's degree in business management. I nonetheless think 'We Can Do Better' is on to something here -- tho' I don't see it as exclusively a 'Republican' phenomenon; it is more a 'Haves' (vs. Have-nots) phenomenon.]

Myth[:] Taxation is theft.

To a republican, paying the government a fee for services is theft. Paying corporations for a service, paying fee upon fee, paying a profit margin on top of cost, is not theft. It is holy writ. This is a stupid idea, but is one of the founding principles of the tea party, and has been the war cry of republicans for decades. The "free market" is anything but free if you are on the consumer end.

The real reason republicans are standing so firm against a deal to raise the debt ceiling is that they KNOW the only way to fix the economy is to raise taxes. They also know that the only logical place left to raise taxes is on the corporations and wealthy individuals who are the ONLY ones currently not struggling to pay their bills. But they all signed that pledge not to raise taxes. They ALL signed the pledge to Grover Norquist that they wouldn't raise taxes, period, no matter what.

The truth is that republicans really truly would rather see the economy of the US (and the world, if necessary) crash and burn than renege on this pledge. And there is good reason for that. The whole point of the pledge is to strangle the government and prevent it functioning AT ALL, so that it can't regulate business in any way, ever.

The republican utopia is a world in which there is no middle class, only hungry, frightened, financially insecure drones who will gouge each other's eyes out for the crappiest job in the crappiest working conditions, with little pay, no benefits, and no prospects for improvement. In this utopia, there is no regulation, so the corporations can plunder, pillage, despoil, abuse, and take, take, take resources (human and material), and not worry about pollution or dangerous working conditions.

The republicans know exactly what they are doing, and they are getting everything they want. They do NOT want to "fix" this economy. They WANT it to go down in flames, because they know who will end up on top of the stinking trash heap that remains: THEY will. And we will be left to beg for whatever measly scraps they are willing to let us pay through the nose for.