Saturday, February 14, 2009

More GOP Disingenuousness

It drives me crazy at times that the MSM NEVER counters the GOP talking points by asking some hard questions and pointing out that for the last eight years under the Chimperator, these disingenuous folks did anything but what they are now preaching. Instead of serious reporting the MSM all too often just gives the members of the Congressional GOP a platform from which they disseminate untruths. The same phenomenon occurs with delusional Christianist talking heads who are NEVER challenged as to their utter lack of real credentials or the truth of their statements. In terms of the stimulus bill passed last night with basically no GOP support, I firmly believe something had to be done - and not just in the form of more tax breaks for those who are already well off. Given the disingenuousness and lack of meaningful ideas within the GOP, Obama and the Democrats need to forge on alone and if the program works - I certainly hope that it will - they need to hammer the GOP over and over again as the party that wanted to do nothing. Andrew Sullivan has a take on the GOP with which I agree. Here are some highlights:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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One can only hope that through all the GOP noise the majority of voters will see the truth of Andrew's analysis and punish the GOP yet again at the polls.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Michael:

I couldn't agree with you and Andrew more. The Republican members of Congress have simply acted in the same way they have acted for the past 30 years without seeming to realize that we have a crisis on our hands and that the "old politics" just won't cut it anymore.

Spending? Give me a break. We have the largest federal deficits ever as a result of that mis-guided Iraq war and yet these guys fools are now crying crocodile tears because the Stimulus Bill spends money. And what the Republicans cut out of the House Bill -- more money for unemployment insurance, food stamps and the like -- are just the kind of help that people need in these times.

As far as I'm concerned, I hope that every single Republican member of the House and the Senate who voted against the Bill gets defeated.

But then Dorothy believed the Wizard didn't she.

Scott