I watched “Meet the Press” this morning. The Republicans need to get their message right or just not do these interviews. Rep. Boehner threw out just about every trite saying in the book and managed to contridict most of them by the end of the interview. Boehner doesn’t want the republicans to be the “party of no” but he started off the interview by saying that Obama’s economic plan won’t work. He doesn’t want to give any of the money to the states (the implication is that they’re not competent to spend it) but he also doesn’t want to have Washington waste it. He wants tax cuts, not spending (I understand the nuance but we’ll have to borrow the money to pay for either). He doesn’t like deficits but he wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
I do realize that the R’s at the national level just spent 8 years perfecting big government conservatism and are now trying to differentiate the party from the democrats but I fear it will take new leadership. America is not now nor will it ever be “post-partisan”. Indeed, the only reason it seems that way now is that the two parties have essentially the same fiscal policy – the part that workaday Americans worry most about. Americans know that different politicians will come and go along with their plans and crazy ideas but that debt is hung around our collective necks long after the politicians have gone over to K street or to a new job with an incoming administration.
I urge the Republicans in Washington to forget about going toe to toe with Obama – they’re not good at it. Instead, lead with a plan. Tell the nation why our plan is good, don’t bother blathering on about why Obama’s plan sucks b/c people aren’t going to listen. Like someone once said about how to get a good batting record: hit ’em where they ain’t. For the Republicans, this will take awhile, we can’t just go into the closet and come back out touting our newfound fiscal restraint but it is a path that we need to get the party back onto.
January 25, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Andy,
The first place to start to show the GOP has returned to fiscal restraint is to come out against too much spending and then back it up by not voting for the spending. It makes no sense to talk against spending(as they did for many of Cabinet nominees this past week) and then vote for it anyway.
Obama and the Dems are setting themselves up to fail big time because they are going to over reach in pushing socialism.
One argument I really do not understand why the GOP does not use is to look at the States that are run by liberals and have similar programs that Obama and the Dems in Congress support. While most if not all States are in financial trouble, it seems the States that are the least business friendly, the less freedom friendly, and therefore the worst off are those that are run by liberals.
Look at the California, New York, Rhode Island etc. There is a reason why California is in bad shape, too many social programs, too many taxes, too much spending, and too much Government control. New York is the same way, and they are looking at even more taxes and spending.
January 26, 2009 at 11:04 am
In terms of the current public stimulus debate, Boehner will do well to keep the R message simple: “The stimulus package should only pertain to matters that will directly stimulate the economy; the rest should be cut out.”
The Rs should then vote that way. Even if the Rs lose the vote, they will be later be able to successfully point to elements that were unecessary, because there undoubtedly will be several such provisions; Another safe reason for voting against the stimulus package is that the package is likely to be unsuccessful — or at least not as successful as we would like — given the deep hole we are in.
Regardless of whether it’s being called “socialism” or whatever, corporate America is not exactly having the stimulus package shoved down its throat. Rather, it’s absolutely begging for the package and is holding its mouth wide open.
It’s the kind of socialism corporate America loves. Companies are happy to get money from the government or from consumers. Either way, it’s the people who end up paying for it.
Remember: Corporate America calls something “socialism” only when they don’t want it. The same companies that will benefit from the stimulus package will only call socialistic those portions of the package that have regulations telling them what they can’t do with the money (i.e. pay themselves large bonuses).
This is something we all know. It is as close to a tautology as a political policy discussion is going to get.
January 26, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Yup, the companies are all to happy to collect the money, but do not want to be told what to do. Another reason to keep Government off our backs.
January 27, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Andy, this is a link to one of many editorials that have appeared since Meet The Press and that are consistent with your observations:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/27/zelizer.republicans/index.html