Chris Jepson: Republicans have an agenda but no plan

Ah, so sweet the irrational mind, That grasps a dogma to humans unkind. Extolling a creed, creating the line, That somehow their faith is superior to mine.

My biggest complaint — gripe, if you will — about Republicans is that they unambiguously have an agenda but no plan. Wait, clearly the Republican agenda is smaller government. Is the Republican plan then to simply cut taxes and regulations? Starve the beast (government) so to speak. If that is the case, who in their right mind subscribes to such childish nonsense?

Let’s establish some common ground. I’ve asked before, what is the appropriate number of impoverished Americans? How many millions? How many poor and marginalized are sufficient to do the scut work that many of us would rather avoid? Lawn maintenance, roofing, fast food kitchen work, retail clerking, etc. Basically, I’m looking at low-income work (poverty wages) providing no benefits. It’s been widely reported that you can work 40-hour weeks at such big box retailers as Wal-Mart and still be eligible for government assistance.

Now at this point we can have all sorts of philosophical discussions. For example, how responsible are we (collectively) for the bad decisions of our fellow citizens? You didn’t finish high school? Your mother’s a drunk, your father a parasite? You entered the military to have a career and all you got was PTSD. You’re old, poor and alone. You’re grossly over weight or an alcoholic or addicted to painkillers or fundamentally, you’re born into a long lineage of poverty and are now coming-of-age in an impoverished, blighted community.

We, collectively as Americans, have determined that we will have a “safety net” to assist our unfortunate citizens. This chaps Republicans no end. Assisting the poor was the grist for that “takers vs. makers” canard that Mitt Romney so ill-advisedly trotted-out during his 2012 presidential effort.

Obviously — through word and deed — Congressional Republicans have less interest in the marginalized than they do their own pocketbook. Believe me, I understand that perspective. I, quite candidly, don’t want to support deadbeats either. The dim-witted, the racists, the simpletons, the uninformed war-mongering fools. Wait! Am I describing Republicans? I joke on the ’Pubs. Poor dahlins’ are so misunderstood.

Congressional Republicans — to again state the obvious — have less interest in the welfare of marginalized Americans than they do for their handlers and funders. You would think, working from that perspective that Republicans would be all over having fewer poor people by making birth control safe, affordable and universally accessible. That is so clearly logical that, over the next 35 to 50 years, by enabling the poor themselves to wisely have fewer children, that such a public policy would unequivocally benefit America.

You want to deal with poverty in America? And do so in the most cost effective manner? I recommend we empower our impoverished citizens (all Americans for that matter) to have fewer children. I reiterate: Make birth control safe, affordable and universally accessible. Poverty unequivocally begets more poverty. Those unborn to poverty will not become the alleged dollar drain that Republicans so abhor in America’s federal budget.

What prevents the rational from becoming sound public policy? The same superstitious gibberish that passes for moral rectitude, that for example, ignorantly substitutes abstinence-only-programs for comprehensive sex education for all our children.

The irrational mind is the one irrefutable impediment to American greatness, concomitant to having an agenda but no plan.