The GOP's Hooey to America
By Eugene Robinson
WashPost
Friday, September 24, 2010
The Republicans were doing pretty well as the Party of No. So why did they decide to rebrand themselves as the Party of Nonsense?
All right, I'm being slightly disingenuous. Inquiring minds demanded to know just what the GOP proposed to do if voters entrusted it with control of one or both houses of Congress. But if the "Pledge to America" unveiled Thursday is the best that House Republicans can come up with, they'd have been better off continuing to froth and foam about "creeping socialism" while stonewalling on specifics.
The problem with the pledge is that the numbers don't remotely add up. The document is such a jumble of contradictions that it's hard to imagine how it could possibly pass muster with anyone who survived eighth-grade arithmetic -- unless, perhaps, the Republicans have something in mind that they're not prepared to talk about quite yet.
The pledge bills itself as a plan to "create jobs, end economic uncertainty, and make America more competitive." These sound like worthy initiatives, but the GOP also promises to "stop out-of-control spending and reduce the size of government." Most economists would contend that right now, given the level of economic distress throughout the nation, those goals are mutually exclusive. No matter, I suppose, since the pledge wouldn't really do either.
(More here.)
WashPost
Friday, September 24, 2010
The Republicans were doing pretty well as the Party of No. So why did they decide to rebrand themselves as the Party of Nonsense?
All right, I'm being slightly disingenuous. Inquiring minds demanded to know just what the GOP proposed to do if voters entrusted it with control of one or both houses of Congress. But if the "Pledge to America" unveiled Thursday is the best that House Republicans can come up with, they'd have been better off continuing to froth and foam about "creeping socialism" while stonewalling on specifics.
The problem with the pledge is that the numbers don't remotely add up. The document is such a jumble of contradictions that it's hard to imagine how it could possibly pass muster with anyone who survived eighth-grade arithmetic -- unless, perhaps, the Republicans have something in mind that they're not prepared to talk about quite yet.
The pledge bills itself as a plan to "create jobs, end economic uncertainty, and make America more competitive." These sound like worthy initiatives, but the GOP also promises to "stop out-of-control spending and reduce the size of government." Most economists would contend that right now, given the level of economic distress throughout the nation, those goals are mutually exclusive. No matter, I suppose, since the pledge wouldn't really do either.
(More here.)
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