“Everyone’s got their spin on it — there’s no consensus,” says former congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.). “The parties are very dug in.”
For instance, even if everyone agreed that the United States desperately needed help to revive its economy in the short term, it would simply reinforce the GOP’s line against the Democrats, Davis asserts. Most Democratic proposals for short-term help have centered on injecting immediate spending into the economy, the underlying argument being that the stimulus dropped off too early and didn’t go far enough. For Republicans, however, “the narrative is: ‘We tried your way, we’re worse off. Now you’re going to waste more and draw up the deficit more?’ ” Davis says.
Every time a Republican utters that talking point, Jebus kills a kitten. This is obviously their marching orders, and I would say its effective politically because it cleverly draws a contrast between the two parties, implies the opposition's policies failed, and it makes good use of the fact that most people are too ill informed to know any better.
But it's also a deeply cynical and ignorant line. By my watch, we tried it the Republican way for the better part of the last decade. They got their three trillion dollars in tax cuts that were heavily weighted towards the wealthy with grand promises of money and jobs raining from the skies, compliments of our plutocrat overlords. And we were told further that these same monstrous tax cuts would actually create more revenue! Because you know, when you unchain the hands of the plutocrats and free them from the heavy burden of the already lowest tax rates in the developed world, they give free money and jobs to poor people and don't just keep it for themselves.
Needless to say, none of that happened. The Bush tax cuts have become the single largest contributor to the OMGdeficit that Republicans have spent the last two years screeching about, and in some cases, holding the country hostage until it is reduced through draconian spending cuts. Job creation was so dismal that even the hyper conservative WSJ dubbed it the "worst track record on record."
Fast forward to 2009. Barack Obama is elected president and immediately calls for a significant spending bill to prop up a rapidly deteriorating economy. The Republicans immediately bitch and moan about deficit spending, how government can't create jobs, and demand a bunch of useless tax cuts (again) in exchange for the vague promise of their support for the bill. The final bill that passes both chambers of Congress contains over 40% of non-stimulative tax cuts, and by the conclusions of numerous prominent economists, is far too small in its scope to properly deal with the magnitude of the recession that faces the country. Oh, and it is passed with zero Republican votes in the House and only three in the Senate, despite their empty promises for votes in exchange for the fact that almost half of it is comprised of tax cuts.
The stimulus bill didn't singlehandedly return the country to full unemployment and 5% GDP growth, but that was never going to happen. It was essentially hamstrung by the lack of political will within the Obama White House to push for a larger bill, and the ridiculous amount of tax cuts it contained. And despite those shortcomings, it provided a backstop to a faltering economy and prevented things from getting much worse than they would have in its absence.
So after all the promises of the capitalist utopia to be ushered in by Bush economic policies and ball pits full of $100 bills for us to swim in and the complete and total lack thereof, the Republican answer is to tell Democrats "you had your chance" after they enact a single piece of Keynesian legislation in the face of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.
Epic hypocrisy notwithstanding, that's some balls if you ask me.
No comments:
Post a Comment