A Gentle Reminder About Rick Santorum

By Charles P. Pierce
Rick Santorum, who is a colossal dick — and have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick Rick Santorum is? — gave a speech the other day in Detroit in praise of income inequality, which you and I may see as a threat to the political commonwealth and to the institutions of the representative democracy through which that commonwealth works, but which Santorum sees as the very essence of the American dream.

“There is income inequality in America. There always has been and hopefully, and I do say that, there always will be,” Santorum said during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. “Why? Because people rise to different levels of success based on what they contribute to society and to the marketplace, and that’s as it should be,” he added. “We should celebrate like we do in the small towns all across America. You celebrate success. Why? Because in their greatness and innovation, yes - they created wealth, but they created wealth for everybody else. And that’s a good thing, not something to be condemned in America,” he said.

Yes, income inequality has been a boon to “small towns all across America,” especially to the entrepreneurial folk there who run their own meth labs. But let’s also talk about how “people rise to different levels of success based on what they contribute to society and to the marketplace.” Here are Rick Santorum’s jobs since he left the Senate.

1) Think-tank layabout.

2) Fox News contributor.

3) Corporate consultant.

4) Republican presidential candidate.

5) Colossal Dick For Hire…at 40Gs a pop.

If people really rose to their level of success based on what they contributed to society, Rick Santorum would be asking me for a quarter from atop a steam grate outside the public library.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rick-santorum-returns-011013

This is not "THE DEAL".

• Joseph O'Shaughnessy
• Downers Grove, Illinois
• NY Times  Krugman column 
• 
  

This is a patch on an elephant's derriere. (I hate these censorial restrictions.)

We couldn't do what we needed to do, which was repeal all the Bush tax cuts and cut the military by the amount that it has been built up.

We couldn't because people have no jobs so we can only tax the rich who have not jobs either but have all the money.

And don't even use the words "monetary policy" because that is a fake and a phony, a shadow argument to stall any real economic activity.

The second reason we can't do what we need to do, cut military spending by 30%, is because the military manufacturers will not let us switch to domestic manufacture of peacetime products.

And so this "deal" is merely a temporary political...not economic...fix to move on to the next crisis. This is merely minor league "Shock Doctrine." Look how many people used the inane term "fiscal cliff."

From 2001 to 2011 we added ten trillion dollars to the debt.

It is really no more complicated than simply reverse engineering that entire fiasco and making all Dick Cheney's disciples return the taxes they should have paid government.

This whole recent exercise was meaningless, a charade.

We know what we need to do. Take the money back. Return it to government. Make multi-millionaires and billionaires live on a budget like everyone else.

Other countries do it. Only they often do it with guns. We can do it with votes if people get up off their increasingly large derrieres.

• Jan. 1, 2013 at 9:51 a.m.