The Grand Zero Party
That the Republican Party would so overwhelmingly oppose the stimulus package has never been a surprise. This is the moment when America officially drives the nail in the coffin of Reaganism. A political movement that came into power in 1980 and pledged to lower taxes, lift regulations, and shrink the domestic spending agenda of the Federal government has now effectively run its course. Just as New Deal liberalism had become ossified, corrupt and stagnant by the 1970s – paving the way for the Reaganite conservative revival – so today we have witnessed decades of deregulation and regressive tax “reform” push our economy to the brink of depression. No, Michael Reagan , the Republic is not being “murdered.” But your dad’s day in the sun has, indeed, passed.
Nearly all of the younger and middle age crop of Republicans in Congress developed their political positions as a celebration of Reaganism; a brief listen to the RNC candidates and the GOP primary campaign shows the hagiography at work. Of course, the Democrats glorified all things FDR for decades after his passing too, so the Republicans are hardly alone in extolling the virtues of a long dead leader.
But ZERO votes for the stimulus?
Even Joseph Cao of New Orleans? Michael Castle of Delaware? Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania?
What’s troublesome about this is that, if Senator Arlen Specter is to be believed, many Republicans DID in fact want to vote for the stimulus…but were scared away from doing so because of right-wing vultures like the Club for Growth and Limbaugh-led talk radio mob.
“When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today,” said Specter, “one of my colleagues said, ‘Arlen, I’m proud of you.’ My Republican colleague said, ‘Arlen, I’m proud of you.’ I said, ‘Are you going to vote with me?’ And he said, ‘No, I might have a primary.’ And I said, ‘Well, you know very well I’m going to have a primary.’… “I think there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation,”
In other words, a handful of moderately conservative Republicans viewed the stimulus package as an appropriate response to the economic crisis and were scared away from voting for it by the GOP base.
Folks, that’s called cowardice.
For some perspective, in 2001 as many as 28 Democrats in the House and 12 Senate Democrats voted for Bush’s 2001 tax cut. The cost of that tax cut was $1.3 trillion – far more than this stimulus package.
Instead, the Republicans voted “No” this time. Contrary to their protestations, they really did offer no real alternative, other than extending Bushian tax cuts.
The Republican Party has turned inward, speaking only to the base.
And now, if the economy improves, they will be on the outside looking in. Again. I’m sure Rush Limbaugh is pleased.
9 Responses to “The Grand Zero Party”
While I would agree that any Republican who thought the bill was a good idea but voted against it for political reasons is something of a coward I would point out that there are also Democrats who did not like the bill but voted for it for political reasons.
Playing politics goes both ways.
If Specter is to be believed, Elrod, if. Of course Republican votes were hard to find: this package goes against fundamental republican beliefs about how the economy works. You can disagree with that position, but to cast it as anything but sincere disagreement on how to best serve America is to say what even the President admitted was baseless in his press conference.
The trouble with the theory that “if the economy improves, they will be on the outside looking in” is that the economy will improve – stimulus or no. Those who are intellectually honest – which I assume excludes yourself, given your recitation the bizarre trope that a crisis that began in one of the most heavily regulated sectors of the economy was a failure of deregulation – will have to ask not only “has the economy recovered” but “why did it recover” before drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of the stimulus and who was right about it.
SimonDodd,
Presumably you are unaware of the fact that one of the “most regulated sectors of the economy” was deliberately regulates LESS over the last several years. And, yes, both parties are guilty of that. Glass-Steagel repeal anyone?
Heavily regulated??? The CDS market was specifically excluded from any and all regulations and oversight.
OK…something happened the first time I tried to post this but I just wanted to point out that the truth is that the CDS market was completely unregulated.
Spector's hair-plugs have grown into what was left of his brain. He never did have a backbone.
David Brooks has a “worst-case scenario” up in today's Op-Ed in the NYT of the results of this disastrous abortion of a bill. The grab-bag of scams and pork projects the Democrats have filled as though they were their own Santa putting the presents under their own tree is not likely to work, implies the Brooks scenario.
Looks like Friday the 13th is the appropriate day to pass a bill pushed through by crazed madwoman Pelosi in the H[ous]ive of Drones. Reid is just as unbalanced, as the US takes on obligations surpassing the world's GDP. Norman Thomas said it best: “The American people will vote for socialism without the word ever being used,” and it appears the infrastructure of the USA is now paved with many roads to serfdom.
I wanted a stimulus. But if were going to spend 800 Billion dollars I would have much perferred that it was invested in the future rather then burned in the back alleys for heat to keep us warm tonight and tomorrow be damned.
It is painful for me as an economist to watch this nuclear melt down as those with political agendas advise our politicians when the real truth of the matter is that while we are facing crisis and something must be done, the one and only true way to address the present and the future is with the wise spending of our limited credit on long lasting and self sustaining new technology that will provide millions of jobs going forward.
This bill is a disaster. It is beyond a disaster. We have just taken out our 5th mortgage on our home while the boss is threatening to fire us and our bank account is empty.
This was our last chance at getting it right and all we did was rush thru a pork laden, political hacked up bill that will not provide jobs going forward. It is only a stop gap measure designed to make us feel good about tomorrow and the future can go to hell.
While the democrats have “crafted” and passed a bill that is both less and more than what it could be, it still gives us a better shot at getting our economy out of the garage and back on the road that anything the republicans have proposed. I think we would all agree that any rational, objective comparison of the two parties over the years would necessarily reveal many warts and failures all the way around, but I also think it's clear the lions share of misery when it comes to dearth of leadership and vision for the future in this century must go in no hesitant way to the R's. This reality robs them of credibility when it comes to their negative responses to the efforts of the D's to find solutions to so many of the problems that came to fruition on thier watch. I hope the same won't be said of the democrats in 2012, because if it is, then we will by then be rapidly achieiving 3rd world country status.
Given what so many know what should work the best, and that this consists mainly of new or increased spending, anyway, I'm surprised at how bad the bill ended up being. The House Dems in particular have been surprisingly badly behaved. This was a chance for them to do very well and they simply let their egos and ambitions run away with them. Now we have the precedent set of a huge, bloated, ugly, pork-laden bill. The GOP was smart not to put their stamp on this thing. They may not gain in a year or two from this, but at least they won't be as tainted by the bill as the Dems are. It's the Dems' bill. Yeech. The precedent implies more is to come, too. Imagine what they can do “long-term” programs with “long-term” spending.
Is anyone yet betting on entitlement reform and making Social Security solvent? [chuckle]