Are Sacred Cows About To Be Butchered? | By Louie Overstreet

BY LOUIE OVERSTREET

This column will be published around the time of the Nov. 8 midterm elections. When the new Congress is seated in January, the losing party’s sacred cows will be offered up for sacrifice on both sides of the Capitol as if it were a butcher shop.

If the Repugs gain control of both chambers, they will turn the place into packing plants that put Smithfield and Tyson to shame — by butchering education, the social safety net, healthcare, and initiatives to combat the devastation caused by climate change.

If the Dims hold on, they will begin cutting into the Repugs’ sacred cow herds of tax cuts for the wealthy, corporate subsidies, bias in the criminal justice system, and resistance to banning assault weapons of war.

The Repugs will be faced with butchering tougher cuts of beef.. Even if they gain complete control of Congress, Biden’s presidential veto will prevent them from placing their red meat on the scale.

The Dims are not likely to lose control of both houses of Congress. However, even if they lose one, their butcher knives will be dulled by the bone-hard opposition of Repugs in the House of Representatives, which controls the budget.

Most of us should recall that the $1.7 trillion tax break given to wealthy Americans in December 2017 caused the largest deficit in American history: $3.3 trillion (236% higher than the previous largest deficit of $1.4 trillion in 2009 — caused by the previous year’s economic collapse).

Just to illustrate how screwed up our national budget priorities are, the current federal budget contains $79 billion for the Department of Education and $157 billion in corporate subsidies.

With no great foresight, merely based on experience, I predict that when the 118th Congress is seated on January 3, 2023, you can expect the immediate goring of the other party’s oxen.