Political Animal
Blog
Ezra Klein has an excellent point to make about Republicans and policy this morning. He’s writing about how many policies Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich once supported that turned out to be Kenyan socialism once Barack Obama adopted them. Jonathan Cohn has yet another excellent example: Newt was an enthusiastic backer (with John Kerry!) of comparative effectiveness research — that is, having the government collect data about which medical treatments actually work. That was way back in 2008, but as Cohn points out, after it became part of ACA a few months later it immediately became evil socialist rationing, something that Gingrich can now get in trouble for with conservatives on the campaign trail.
Klein concludes that the reason that Romney and Gingrich are stuck with having supported so many now-forbidden policies is because they are “wonks.” I think that’s too strong, however, or perhaps not strong enough, depending on your perspective. Klein provides a long list of Republicans who once supported an individual mandate on health insurance, but surely they weren’t all wonks? Nope. Most of them were just Republicans following the standard Republican line of the time, a line that was good enough until Barack Obama and the Democrats adopted a kitchen sink to health care reform and tossed in any decent idea that they could find (remember all that rhetoric back then about all the Republican-sponsored ideas included in ACA? It was true!).
No wonder that House Republicans are spending much of their energy repealing non-existent regulations about farm dust or affirming the US motto. Or why Romney’s entire foreign policy program appears to be a pledge not to go on an “apology tour” that never happened. It’s a lot easier to be certain that you always completely oppose the president’s program when you write your own fictional version of the president.
But Klein’s conclusion is right on the mark:
At the end of the day, the GOP will nominate somebody for president…The bigger problem will be if that individual wins. At that point, they’ll need actual solutions for the problems facing the nation. But the Republican Party has ruled out an individual mandate to help with health-care reform, a cap-and-trade program to mitigate global warming and speed the development of renewable energy options, tax increases to help reduce the deficit, and stimulus to help boost the economy. That leaves a potential GOP president with a lot of problems to solve, but few workable policies with which to solve them.
Well, they still have tax cuts for rich people.
Facebook
Twitter
kindness on December 14, 2011 11:08 AM:
"Well, they still have tax cuts for rich people."
You act like there are more Republican priorities. I'm sorry but gutting environmental law, protections for citizens and evisceration or regulations all are just the same thing. More tax cuts for rich people.
Wake up dude.
c u n d gulag on December 14, 2011 11:12 AM:
"The bigger problem will be if that individual wins."
Winning is what counts.
Winning is the ONLY thing that counts!
Governing is for pussies and Democrats.
Besides, there's no problem - the next Republican President won't need to govern, he/she will Dictate!
After the next Republican Presidential victory, expect a lot more whole horses, and not just their asses, occupying that side of the Senate.
I wonder if anyone will notice?
Okie on December 14, 2011 11:15 AM:
I don't think that reversing course will be such a big problem for Republicans if (God forbid) one of them wins the presidency. Everything said during the campaign will be declared inoperative - just like everything that they said Before Obama is inoperative now.
PRKL8R on December 14, 2011 11:18 AM:
This is an easy one, Jonathan. If the Republican wins in 2012 look for a big stimulus package such as infrastructure construction, enacted under a different name. Congressional R's will split between the True Believers that are actually stupid enough to think all we have to do is balance the budget to please the confidence fairy and the economy will take off and those R's who know better but want to sabotage Obama right now. The D's will join with the latter, running even greater deficits than we've seen and the economy will chug back to life. Much like the practiced forgetting in "1984" the R's who vote to help the economy under a POTUS of their own party, will not even notice the contradiction.
chi res on December 14, 2011 11:19 AM:
At the end of the day, the GOP will nominate somebody for president…The bigger problem will be if that individual wins.
"Problem" doesn't even begin to describe what will happen if one of these republiclowns becomes president.
Let's talk about something else... my stomach's starting to turn.
ahoy polloi on December 14, 2011 11:21 AM:
PRKL8R FTW
(captcha says "liberalizing ringstru"...i'll agree with that!)
sick-n-effn-tired. on December 14, 2011 11:21 AM:
And we will be sold their line of Bullshit by an ever compliant MSM.
I was thinking about it last night when they showed the clip of Bohner touting their passing of payroll tax, spout how it was a compromise . If you listened to it on its face it sounded very reasonable payroll tax cut , pipeline with 1000's of jobs, unemployment insurance REFORM and....no new taxes. Whats not to like and those dastardly Democrats rejected our fine offer of compromise. If you are Joe lunch-bucket are you going to research it ? This was passed on by many news outlets with no analysis whatsoever.
Gol Durn Librul Media!
j on December 14, 2011 11:25 AM:
About now my anger is rising, the republicans pass a bill for the continuation of the unemployment pay, they also add all those amendments that the people just hate,they were told that the president would veto it but put it through anyway. All I am seeing now are republicans on TV saying Obama does not want to pass unemployment extensions or the tax cut for the workers. Why don't these useless TV moderators tackle the rethugs on their lies?
Better yet, why don't they have as many democrats on TV?
ploeg on December 14, 2011 11:25 AM:
PRKL8R, I don't think so. One alternative reading of all this is that the Republicans are savvy enough to know that they have to put up some sort of proposal as an alternative to what the Democrats want to do, but the Republicans never intended to enact any of the things that they suggest. If you want to see what the Republicans intend to do in 2012, just look at what they're doing right now. It's going to be upper-class tax cuts, looting, and pillaging, all the time.
Chris on December 14, 2011 11:25 AM:
Everything said during the campaign will be declared inoperative - just like everything that they said Before Obama is inoperative now.
So true.
Let's be clear... Conservative politicians, pundits, and opinion leaders aren't conservative. They don't care about small government. They don't care about states' rights. They don't care about individual freedom. They don't care about lowering regulations (they'll add regulations to protect their benefactors from competition). They don't care about free markets where transparency is required. They certainly don't care about deficits and debt. They don't care about earmarks and wars on Christmas. And they definitely don't care about low taxes (they never met a regressive sales taxes they didn't like).
Their mission is simple--enrich the rich. Everything else is a smoke screen.
JMG on December 14, 2011 11:26 AM:
"Problems" which will be almost instanteously solved by a Republican President and Congress will include the Clean Air, Clean Water and Voting Rights Acts.
eahoppi on December 14, 2011 11:33 AM:
Well, they still have tax cuts for rich people.
That is the only policy that works in Republican La-La-Land!
Derek on December 14, 2011 11:35 AM:
Attaching Keystone to the payroll tax cut is a political maneuver with the sole purpose of countering the "House Republicans are being obstructionist to an unprecedented level" meme. They can say they offered a meaningful option and it was shot down by the obstructionist Dems and Obama's agenda to ruin the country.
Unfortunately, for a large group of people, this ploy works. The question is not only, how to counter, but also how to convince. Hopefully the lib think tanks will start winning (we are undoubtedly losing the PR war these days).
T2 on December 14, 2011 11:35 AM:
I'll second most of the above comments. The GOP doesn't care about "problems to be solved". They simply want Power and with that the ability to create enrichment for the ruling class. And they want it short-term...they don't care about the future. They want their Power and Money now. And the sad fact is that they already have the Power and Money (Conservative Corporate Control of the Media and Military/Industrial Complex). They just want to codify it by having control over Government regulations and our personal lives and beliefs. That comes with the GOP setting at least two more Supreme Court Justices.
It is that last point that means re-electing Barack Obama is the most crucial issue facing this country at this time.
j on December 14, 2011 11:39 AM:
Mittens is calling Obama weak for not blowing up the drone, how about Mittens running away to France as a missionary to avoid the Viet Nam drat.
Cheney is also calling Obama weak for bringing the troops home from Iraq, this from a man who got 5 deferments from the Viet Nam draft.Also who outed a CIA operative, who wants to fight as long as some other poor person does the fighting (and dying)
ckelly on December 14, 2011 11:45 AM:
This is how the policies shift ever rightward. Obama and the Democrats adopt and push moderate, Republican policies and suddenly the Republicans move to the right extreme and oppose previously Republican policy. It's a lose-lose for progressives and liberal policies of course.
Josef K on December 14, 2011 11:47 AM:
But Klein’s conclusion is right on the mark:
File this under "Well, duh!"
While I appreciate journalists like Klein finally stating the painfully obvious, publically at least, I'd appreciate still more if they'd have sounded the warning gong a bit earlier. Like back in 2009 when McConnell was shooting his mouth off about GOP priorities (such as they were).
It likely wouldn't have made a blessed bit of difference, policy-wise, but our political discourse might've improved somewhat.
SYSPROG on December 14, 2011 11:48 AM:
The thing that KILLS me is the GOP touting Newt as 'the thinking man's Republican', 'He's so SMART', 'He was a PROFESSOR', etc. etc. If that's TRUE then why when the FACTS that these guys spouted go up against their BELIEFS don't they BELIEVE THEM? They are amazing LIARS and panderers...and the GOP electorate are just a bunch of tools and the RNC thinks so TOO!
iyoumeweus on December 14, 2011 11:49 AM:
If elected just watch how fast they flip/flop back to many of these solutions. They are flip/floppers and one flip is another flop. When you have no core convictions it is easy.
RepublicanPointOfView on December 14, 2011 12:20 PM:
Bernstein must be another liberal idiot who refuses to accept reality.
Everyone knows that the only problems with our economy is that:
- The wealthy do not have enough wealth
- We have too big a middle class
- The poor do not pay enough taxes
All of our republicans candidates have proposed solutions to our real economic problems.
Mr. Bernstein...
You need to learn and understand the mottos of those of us of the wealthy, funding wing of the republican party!
- More is never enough!
- I've got mine, f*ck you!
Roddy McCorley on December 14, 2011 12:52 PM:
At that point, they’ll need actual solutions for the problems facing the nation.
Not if they don't consider them problems. Republicans don't consider, for example, unemployment to be a problem. Instead, they consider wages to be a problem. We've already seen their solution.
c00p on December 14, 2011 1:34 PM:
I agree with ploeg. I don't think a Romney or Gingrich in the White House will do a cotton-pickin' (as we say in the South) thing to try to solve the US's problems with health care, the shrinking middle class, income inequality, etc. Tax cuts for the wealthy and a lot of finger-wagging about being lazy for the rest of us.
schtick on December 14, 2011 1:45 PM:
c u n d gulag on December 14, 2011 11:12 AM:
......I wonder if anyone will notice?
Only if they can get past the smell.
If anyone believes those 1000's of jobs will hire area locals for that pipeline, (just like the fracking), I've got a winning lotto ticket from Nigeria with your name on it. Just send me your name, address, and bank routing number so I can direct deposit your winnings.
crapcha....The Dplandg....Da Plan danggit?
rea on December 14, 2011 1:49 PM:
Mittens is calling Obama weak for not blowing up the drone
Now how the hell is the President of the United States supposed to do that? Is he supposed to take personal command of every drone recon mission?
dang on December 14, 2011 1:50 PM:
2 words. bust out. from the wikipedia: A "bust out" is a common tactic in the organized crime world, wherein a business' assets and lines of credit are exploited and exhausted to the point of bankruptcy. Richie and Tony profit from busting out Davey Scatino's sporting goods store in this episode." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_Out
2 other words. shock doctrine.
that's all you need to know.
N.Wells on December 14, 2011 1:54 PM:
Romney probably spoke the truth (for once) when he said that if elected he would apply what he learned at Bain. What he learned how to do is asset stripping, which to those on the strippee end is basically the efficient capitalist version of looting and pillaging. Bush & Cheney were pretty good at this, but the next round of Republicans should make them look like novices.
nynick on December 14, 2011 2:36 PM:
"At the end of the day, the GOP will nominate somebody for president…The bigger problem will be if that individual wins. At that point, they’ll need actual solutions for the problems facing the nation."
No they don't. Republicans have never cared about policy outcomes. Policies are props that they use to drive their politics. I am old enough to remember way back to 2007 when deficits didn't matter. Republicans have a record. That record does not include anything remotely resembling fiscal responsibility, smaller government or effective foreign policies. In spite of their record, they are seen by many as the party of fiscal responsibility, small government and strong foreign policy. Republican doctrine can be summed up in two short sentences.
1). Tax cuts solve everything
2). It's the liberal's fault
Those two phrases work in tandem. Pick any problem facing the nation. The GOP solution is always tax cuts for the wealthy. When the country realizes tax cuts haven't actually solved the problem, they apply phrase #2.
jjm on December 14, 2011 3:13 PM:
Well, today Bill O'Reilly was AMAZED that the GOVERNMENT CONTROLS THE MILITARY rather than vice versa. He kept repeating, "The Pentagon calls the shots, right?"
How many Americans have been softened up by fascist propagandists like O'Reilly to complete misunderstand the nature of our democracy, and the structure of our government?
His repeated misreading of the military's relation to the Commander in Chief, our President, shows up all the GOP candidates who keep saying that as president 'they would listen to the generals' to formulate their policies not the other way around.
Fascism has always pretended to simple solutions to every complex problem, and in troubled times, people have often eaten them up.
But Obama is very clever, and the GOP has shown its fascist leaning so blatantly these past two-three years (and even back into the Cheney era...) that the public is beginning to see them for what they really are, ripping off the veil of their culture wars, their pretended moral superiority and their false claims of fiscal responsibility. And the public does not really like what they see.
Michael on December 14, 2011 4:23 PM:
Mr. Bernstein
The Republican base are not influenced by history or facts if it does not support the current stance.
In other words what is "Kenyan Socialism" today will be American Capitalism once Republicans are in power.
You wrote...
"Most of them were just Republicans following the standard Republican line of the time, a line that was good enough until [President] and the [Presidents Party]..."
Which will also be true in another ten years.
They are playing ping-pong politics
ET on December 14, 2011 8:35 PM:
Other than lower taxes (mostly for the wealthy) the believe that the free market fixes all problems.
Skip on December 15, 2011 10:15 AM:
"At that point, they’ll need actual solutions for the problems facing the nation."
Like the Bush Administration? Great, two more wars will solve everything.
Given how dichotomous right and left thinking has become, any solutions to critical issues the left would view as sensible and workable, the right will do the opposite...ie: there is no such thing as global warming, regulation is bad for free markets, and safety nets for the poor and less fortunate creates a moocher class.
Republican leadership won't save the economy, they'll save themselves and those like them. Meanwhile, those who voted the cretins into office will have to be content with feeding excuses like "It's the liberals fault" to hungry kids as the US standard of living plummets.
Is this the point where conservative ideology turns into national self-flagellation?
Jon on December 16, 2011 1:00 AM:
Skip nailed it. Who needs policy solutions when you have wars?