A few thoughts about the American economy c. 2015 …..

Can we please stop with all the caterwauling about how falling oil prices are ruining the economy? They aren’t ruining anything. And they’re helping tens of millions of Americans save millions of dollars, thereby improving the economy. This is not a rant–it’s factual. The federal government estimates that the typical American household is on track to save an average of $750 on fuel bills in 2015. If you’re a billionaire — or a Republican voter — that apparently won’t enter into your thinking. For the rest of us, however, that’s a huge boost, the equivalent of a major tax break for America’s middle class.

So why the whining? Well, stock market investors in oil companies have taken a hit. Big oil companies have slowed their digging. They have warned of job reductions if low prices continue. And you know what? There’s no way in hell or anywhere else that that is more important than the good news for so many Americans. The savings for American families has more than offset — by ten times at least — the gross domestic product represented by oil and gas industry development, according to The New York Times.

Now a lot of people are celebrating this. Republican congressmen seem to be alarmed by it, expressing fear that a shortfall in production will cause prices to jump. Well, prices are going to go back up because oil prices will rise eventually. The rise and fall is part of the capital market. We’ve all suffered when prices were up (and oil companies were making huge profits) — and those same Republican congressmen griped about it — but now that it’s down and the middle class is reaping benefits, the Republicans (John Boehner, Ted Cruz and the rest of you, I’m talking to you) are sounding concerned.

These are the same party which has reduced federal food stamp benefits for millions of poorer Americans. This is the same party that has fought to stop Obamacare, charging that it will drive up costs for everyone when the facts now show it is lowering costs for millions. That’s not a face — that’s what’s happening. This is the party that hurls its utmost energy into battles to keep the wealthy from having to pay any more in taxes while showing scant concern for the middle class.

This is also the party of the climate change deniers. The party whose platform opposes gay marriages. The party that opposes women’s birth rights. This is the party on the wrong side of almost every important social change in the United States in the last 30 years. And this is the party that controls both houses of the U.S. Congress.

That’s the hardest part to explain — why have voters supported politicians whose interests are so aligned against those of the middle class? These congressmen — admittedly like too many of their Democratic counterparts — have shown their only interest lies in getting re-elected. And in condescending to the basest of their constituents. And their constituents have fallen for it. Thinking about it, you have to bemoan the intellectual state of the Republican voter in this country.

There is no way to connect intelligence and thoughtfulness and compassion with people like Congressmen Louis Gohmert, Ted Yoho, Ted Cruz, Steve King and … well, sadly, it’s way too easy to go on with a listing. It makes for a depressing commentary on the state of American politics and the state of American voters. There’s a dumbness about too many of them that is frightening for this country’s future. And that’s not elitism, either. Far from it. It is rather speaking to a narrowness, a callowness, a willingness to place personal interests far above national interests. Our founding fathers would surely find this almost unimaginable and those who perpetrate it — politicians and voters — to be disgraceful and undeserving.