alms for the rich...alms for the rich...

This article in the Times this morning got me to remembering.  When I was a kid growing up in Cincinnati and we went to Crosley Field to watch the Reds play baseball, we parked in a somewhat "tough" part of town as that was where the ballpark was.  One spot my dad liked was in the parking lot of a catholic church where a nun took the parking fee and she said, I remember distinctly "thank you sir and now some alms for the poor".  I knew of quarters and dimes and dollar bills but what was an "alm"?  We know it to be, of course, a gift or charity to those less fortunate. 

On the hierarchy of things, to be truly charitable, giving should be in some sort of pecking order, from those needing it the most to those needing it the least...like if you lined everyone up in "order of need".  Not so the republicans this time out.

Nearly a decade ago huge tax cuts were provided to the ones needing it the least.  The "theory" (other than a blatant reward to rich friends) was that these are the people who put the money to good use (meaning hiring other people to do their work). Well that didn't happen. When this "theory" has been trotted out in the past it didn't work then. In fact, it has never worked. More to the point, these tax 'gifrts" to the wealthy were given an expiration date of "now". We wondered at the time why 2010? Well it is mid-term election time and the party then in control knew full well that it would be an issue and they could call it "raising taxes" instead of just letting these "alms to the rich" expire naturally and things go back to square one.

My party, the democrats, have done and absolutely woeful job of getting this right and explaining to the populace that they were played like suckers and are being fed a line currently.  If he just got on TV and said "Hey, you have kids. Remember when they wanted a treat before dinner and you said no it would spoil your appetite and the kid whined and begged (alms for the kid) and you finally said look here, you ate cookies all afternoon now I would like a cookie, Mrs. Jones next door would like a cookie, everyone wants a cookie, but we don't have any more in the cookie jar and you have to eat 'real food' for dinner..end of story".