Both houses of Congress passed budgets very similar to President Obama’s blueprint this week, despite a grand total of zero Republican votes in both the House and the Senate.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, apparently unaware the bill passed, applauded what he called a “bipartisan rejection of a partisan bill,” echoing the GOP line from when they last failed to matter with zero votes, after passage of the stimulus bill in February.
McConnell conveniently overlooks the fact that 38 Republican representatives voted against Congressman Paul Ryan’s over-hyped and under-delivered alternative GOP budget, compared to the 20 Democrats who voted against the Obama plan. He also overlooks the fact that no budget in the last decade has received as many “yes” votes in the House as this one did on Thursday night.
But the reality of the matter has long since stopped being an issue to McConnell and his ilk. Their strategic decision was made months ago, and it’s a very tough one to back out of – the GOP is betting on failure, or at least a slower than anticipated recovery. The one and only hope of the Republican party right now is that things do not improve, or – even better – that things get worse!
This is not a simple matter of wanting policies to fail because of ideological differences, and it’s not just a political Hail Mary pass. These Senators and Representatives who have unanimously said “no” every step of the way have created a profound conflict of interest. When giving people what they voted for is ridiculed as buying off voters, the Republicans in Congress have no choice but to ignore their constituents’ needs if this plan is to work out.
We still have over a year and a half until the midterm elections, and during that time the GOP’s elected officials have no incentive – in fact, have a strong disincentive – to allow any legislation to pass that will improve the lives of the voters. If things get better, they won’t be able to run their “I told you so” ads in 2010.
In this light, the attempts of several Republican governors to refuse stimulus money for their states could appear sinister. Starve and abuse your people, and blame their suffering on the evil American government… it’s a time-tested method of tin-pot tyrants for staying in power while providing no actual benefits to your people.
As if betting on the failure of the nation wasn’t bad enough, some in the GOP appear to be betting on the failure of the party itself. Newt Gingrich, in the latest in a string of great “new ideas,” is predicting the formation of a new, more conservative, third party.
1 Response
“Starve and abuse your people, and blame their suffering on the evil American government… ”
….. Let them eat cake.
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
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