House Minority Leader John Boehner said that struggling American families "don't see government tightening its belt," and argued for a spending freeze because government, he said, should "lead by example."
Boehner: Government Needs To Tighten Its Belt
What happened to the party of "go shopping"? They were happy enough to expand government spending when they were in power. The libertarian Reason Online wrote this about Bush's spending back in October, 2005:
"After 11 years of Republican majority we've pared [the budget] down pretty good," Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) crowed a few weeks back during ongoing budget deliberations. But nothing could be farther from the truth, at least since the GOP gained the White House in 2001. During his five years at the helm of the nation's budget, the president has expanded a wide array of "compassionate" welfare-state, defense, and nondefense programs. When it comes to spending, Bush is no Reagan. Alas, he is also no Clinton and not even Nixon. The recent president he most resembles is in fact fellow Texan and legendary spendthrift Lyndon Baines Johnson—except that Bush is in many ways even more profligate with the public till.
Bush the Budget Buster
Am I to believe they suddenly got religion now? If there was ever a time for extra government spending, it's now. As Paul Krugman explains, the GOP is so far out of its mind it's having an out-of-body experience:
What’s insane about Boehner’s remark? He’s talking about the current economic crisis as if it were a harvest failure — as if we faced a shortage of goods, so that the more you consume the less is left for me. In reality — even most conservatives understand this, when they think about it — we’re in a world desperately short of demand. If you consume more, that’s GOOD for me, because it helps create jobs and raise incomes. It’s in my personal disinterest to have you tighten your belt — and that’s just as true if you’re “the government” as if you’re my neighbor.
Can America be saved?
Krugman's question is a good one. Can America be saved? I really doubt it at times. When the people who run one of the major parties alternate between spewing nonsense like this, and openly hoping the Obama Administration, however hamfistedly it might be trying, fails to fix the economic crisis we are in, you really have to wonder. What's worse, the changes the GOP insisted on so it wouldn't filibuster the bill made it far less effective than it might have been otherwise.
Boehners' efforts have managed to acheive something I thought would be impossible: make the Democrats in Congress look good in comparison.
If these are the kind of leaders we come up with, you have to wonder if we're worth saving. One thing's for sure, John Boehner's constituents should be ashamed of him. If they're not, then they sure aren't worth saving.
4 comments:
I have some serious doubts too about the economy. It's surprising anything gets done in congress and what they pass is a reflection of the mentality in those two houses.
Boner supposedly is a leader? We are in such a world of shit!
In the sense that the Republicans in Congress elected them to lead him, he's a leader. Beyond that, I think we'd be stretching the term, wouldn't we?
Leading America into a new era of prosperity would actually be easy. First, listen to everything John Boenher says. Then, do precisely the opposite of what he recommends.
I wonder if this is what Obama had in mind when he said he'd listen to Cons? Heh.
When someone's as delusional as Boehner appears to be, even doing the exact opposite is probably the wrong approach.
What I'd recommend is that the Obama Administration say what they think they want to do, and if the Republicans oppose it, consider that a point in its favor.
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