Here is a bit from a post by Brian Beutler in the Talking Points Memo web site that raises the question of whether the Republicans are purposefully sabotaging the US economy before the 2012 elections to ensure that Americans will be in a mood to punish Obama and all Democrats for the crappy economic situation:
Democrats are increasingly concerned that Republicans are setting them up to endorse large spending cuts in a deal to raise the national debt limit without giving ground on anything -- even GOP-friendly policy measures like tax cuts for business owners -- to stimulate the economy in the near-term.Called be biased, but it sure seems clear to me that the political right is 100% behind this nefarious scheme to "destroy this village in order to save it". The same crazy logic used by the political right in Vietnam.
The concern arises as numerous top Republicans react coldly to the prospect of temporarily reducing the payroll tax burden on employers and employees -- to juice the economy before federal spending draws down in the years ahead.
Traditionally, and particularly in tough economic times, this and a handful of other stimulative policies have enjoyed bipartisan support. But with the outcome of the 2012 election likely to hinge on the nation's economic trajectory, the GOP is mysteriously rethinking those positions. And Democrats are starting to note of the suspicious timing.
"I don't like to question my colleagues' motives," noted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) during his weekly Capitol press conference Tuesday, "but whether work with us to pass these policies, or continue opposing ideas they once supported, will tell us a lot."
...
"We don't need short-term gestures," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the chair of the Senate Republican conference. "We need long-term fundamental changes in our tax-structure, in our regulatory structure that people who create jobs can rely on."
Last week, House Speaker John Boehner declined to weigh on the merits of the payroll tax cut, but. But his sights are clearly elsewhere. "The uncertainty that's out there is not going to be overcome by, you know, another little short-term gimmick," he said of traditionally bipartisan stimulus measures.
2 comments:
Harry Reid needs to be voted out of office in the primaries and replaced with someone who understands the rules of political warfare. The man talks like a toady. That the Democrats are being snookered by people not acting in good faith should be a given by now. Perhaps the leadership is too full of good faith intentions itself to imagine the other side is not. (Pollyanna, where are you when we need you most?) If so, they've either had their heads where the sun don't shine for the last thirty odd years, or they've been thoroughly complicit with the class warfare the Plutocrats and their political chum have waged since the Carter years, and are worse hypocrites than Republicans are. Am I the only one who has noticed that the surest way for a Republican to shut off debate with a Democrat is to say the words "class warfare?"
Tim:
I agree that many of the Democrats have been complicit. My view is that they have been bought by the Wall Street lobbyists and other corporate interests. They mostly started their careers with a tilt "toward the people" but after spending so many year bowing and scraping to collect funds for re-election, they compromise themselves into positions that satisfy their corporate patrons.
The difference between what Senator Bernie Sanders says and what Democratic "leaders" like Harry Reid says is night and day. Sanders is "independent" but he talks the talk and walks the walk of progressive politics.
I wouldn't say that Democrats are "worse hypocrites" than Republicans. That has the danger that you savage your own. You'll need most if not all the Democrats if you want to do something useful, so you shouldn't declare them pariahs. You need to call them sinners and demand that they repent and come back into the fold.
Most politics is "class warfare" but the trick is to keep it as a "low intensity" conflict. When people go hyperbolic you get destructive rampages called "revolutions" where it is a crapshoot whether what comes after is any better than what was before. The best social change is incremental. It is painful and glacial, but it is the least destructive.
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