Why the Republicans are pissing me off
The famous quote of Libertarians and Republicans when they try to claim that they're the adult party is, "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." They like to attribute that to Ben Franklin but there's no reference that he actually wrote that. Whatever. The point of the quote is that democracy can be gamed, that you can offer people all reward and no sacrifice and if you do that, you'll get votes. This is why we have representative government, to prevent our nation becoming like California where people vote for goodies and also vote against tax increases and also vote for a balanced budget.
The problem is that the only way this system works is if elected officials are willing to take problems seriously. People can disagree with the right course of action, but you have to look at your legislation to see what potential downside your proposals can have. We have to act like adults here.
Now look at the day after comments from Republicans with respect to healthcare such as Senator John Cornyn:
There is non-controversial stuff here like the preexisting conditions exclusion and those sorts of things," the Texas Republican said. "Now we are not interested in repealing that. And that is frankly a distraction."
What the GOP will work to repeal, Cornyn explained, are provisions that result in "tax increases on middle class families," language that forced "an increase in the premium costs for people who have insurance now" and the "cuts to Medicare" included in the legislation.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/nrscs-cornyn-we-wont-call_n_510232.html)
So look at that. What do the Republicans want? They want all of the benefits of the bill, only without the bits that explain how we will pay for it or how insurance companies will stay in business. Democrats may propose spending but they at least talk about how they'll pay for it. Republicans right now want all of the advantages of spending with none of the disadvantages of voting for the ugly parts that fund everything.
We need a real conservative party. Despite leaning to the liberal side myself, I am not naive enough to think that everything the left wants is the right thing. You need to have intelligent opposition both on the left and the right to push policy in better directions. The problem is that one party has completely given up in taking governing seriously at all, working solely on political gimmicks to whip up their voters. In a system where it's hard for new parties to gain power, this is very dangerous.
The problem is that the only way this system works is if elected officials are willing to take problems seriously. People can disagree with the right course of action, but you have to look at your legislation to see what potential downside your proposals can have. We have to act like adults here.
Now look at the day after comments from Republicans with respect to healthcare such as Senator John Cornyn:
There is non-controversial stuff here like the preexisting conditions exclusion and those sorts of things," the Texas Republican said. "Now we are not interested in repealing that. And that is frankly a distraction."
What the GOP will work to repeal, Cornyn explained, are provisions that result in "tax increases on middle class families," language that forced "an increase in the premium costs for people who have insurance now" and the "cuts to Medicare" included in the legislation.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/nrscs-cornyn-we-wont-call_n_510232.html)
So look at that. What do the Republicans want? They want all of the benefits of the bill, only without the bits that explain how we will pay for it or how insurance companies will stay in business. Democrats may propose spending but they at least talk about how they'll pay for it. Republicans right now want all of the advantages of spending with none of the disadvantages of voting for the ugly parts that fund everything.
We need a real conservative party. Despite leaning to the liberal side myself, I am not naive enough to think that everything the left wants is the right thing. You need to have intelligent opposition both on the left and the right to push policy in better directions. The problem is that one party has completely given up in taking governing seriously at all, working solely on political gimmicks to whip up their voters. In a system where it's hard for new parties to gain power, this is very dangerous.