It’s GOP engaging in class warfare

Republicans cry about “class warfare” when the president searches for compromise and shared sacrifice while trying to fix the recession, reduce budget deficits and rebuild our infrastructure after a decade of Bush blunders. The tea party militants held Obama hostage on the debt ceiling.

In reality, it was Bush and the GOP that cut taxes for the rich in 2001 and again in 2003 while starting unfunded wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Capital gains taxes were lowered to 15 percent for the hedge fund managers who bet against the economy. We bailed out the Wall Street banks after they caused the Great Recession by repackaging and selling toxic mortgages. We keep giving tax breaks to multinational corporations that move jobs overseas while refusing to bring profits back to the U.S. The GOP wants to turn Social Security into a voucher system that will penalize seniors and gut Medicare.

The truth is that Republicans support tax cuts for the rich and loopholes for big oil while the middle class faces unemployment and foreclosures. The real class warfare is the top 2 percent growing wealthier while the rest of us pay the price.

Tom Minnerick

Elgin