Freedom of Press is limited to those who own one - H.L. Mencken

Obama, the GOP and Partisans

by Hal_10000

Sullivan does have a legitimate point to make on the GOP’s opposition:

The GOP has passed what amounts to a spending and tax-cutting and borrowing stimulus package every year since George W. Bush came to office. They have added tens of trillions to future liabilities and they turned a surplus into a trillion dollar deficit - all in a time of growth. They then pick the one moment when demand is collapsing in an alarming spiral to argue that fiscal conservatism is non-negotiable. I mean: seriously.

The bad faith and refusal to be accountable for their own conduct for the last eight years is simply inescapable. There is no reason for the GOP to have done what they have done for the last eight years and to say what they are saying now except pure, cynical partisanship, and a desire to wound and damage the new presidency. The rest is transparent cant.

...

The GOP is not interested in the long term fiscal health of this country. Their reckless stewardship over the last eight years proves that. They are not interested in helping this new president, who has done everything he can to create a civil atmosphere, to use this moment to prevent the worst in the short term and move to improve matters in the long term. Instead, they spin.

I would agree that the Republican opposition to the stimulus has more to do with bitterness over the last two elections and less to do with principle.  But I would follow that with: so what? That the Republicans are morons does not make Obama a genius.  That they oppose the stimulus for stupid reasons does not make the stimulus a good idea.  If, as I suspect, the “temporary” spending hikes indeed become permanent, we are talking about $3 trillion in new spending.  That’s a lot to ask for a spirit of bipartisanship.  And that’s a lot to gamble on the vague predictions of economists.

(I would also add that the mere existence of tax cuts in the stimulus does not mean the Democrats have given the GOP anything of value.  These “tax cuts” are partially handouts—tax cuts for people who pay little to no taxes.  Are there tax cuts for businesses?  Capital gains?  What about the double taxation of foreign earnings?)

So maybe they could be working with Obama on tax simplification or entitlement reform.  But I’m disinclined to hand over $3 trillion in exchange for vague promises of future cooperation.  We’ve been down this road before in 1991 and 1993, when Democrat Congresses raised taxes and promised to cut spending in the future.  Those spending cuts never materialized.

I’m also increasingly suspicious that entitlement reform will be a good idea with the Pelosi/Reid gang in charge.  Liberals are already on message saying that (1) Social Security doesn’t have any problems; (2) the real way to reform Medicare is through national healthcare reform—i.e, socialized medicine.  Apparently, we’re going to cut Medicare costs by putting more people into the system.

I guess it makes about as much sense as stopping a debt-driven recession with more debt.

Comments

Posted by mikeguas on 02/13/09 at 06:16 PM from

Excellent post as usual. This is the point. The argument about how crappy Republicans are is also old and tired. We know they are a bunch of fuckups.  But this does not mean continuing down the same path of pissing away money unchecked is suddenly a good thing now that a different group is doing it.

I don’t know about the rest of you here, and some of you have already suggested this, but why bother with commenting on WVR posts? It’s pointless. He’s too busy searching for his next cut and paste target to offer any responses of his own. Stick with quality, and perhaps we’ll get more on this blog.

Posted by on 02/14/09 at 03:47 PM from

How exactly has Obama reached out to conservatives or republicans? By having Pelosi and Ried write the government stimulus bill?

Right!

Posted by josparke on 02/14/09 at 04:17 PM from

He fed them Wagyu steak and told them to Obey… They weren’t cheap dates it turned out…

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