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04/12/2005: "So Who’s the REAL Party of No?!"

News item: “During last month's Senate debate on Bush's request to extend his $1.85 trillion in tax cuts, only five Republican senators joined the chamber's 44 Democrats and one independent to demand that further reductions be offset by tax increases or spending cuts.” What we have here is a case of the dented, scratched up, rusty, muddy, dirty, grimy, sooty, foul, and polluted pot calling the kettle black. Specifically, the GOP is doing attack ads because Democrats have been effective in countering Bush’s weakly-argued positions on Social Security, calling the Dems “the party of no.” They apparently expect Democrats to be as worked up as they are about fiscal challenges in a single Federal program that will begin to surface in 2042. (As an aside, I don’t count Social Security’s earlier drawing from its trust fund as a “problem,” even when our President described this situation as being “flat broke” and “bankrupt.” I’m going to have to agree to disagree with him over the intrinsic value of the term “full faith and credit of the United States of America.” I happen to think that the phrase has some meaning, while he apparently doesn’t). With the above news item, the extraordinary hypocrisy of the GOP, and its offensive patronization of all citizens, is out there for all to see. Let me spell it out. Republicans say that Democrats are irresponsible for not being on board with extreme right wing solutions to a problem that will only begin happening almost forty years from now. And even then the majority of benefits (70%) will continue to be paid. It may well be that in 2042 the wealth of society will be such that it’s a non-problem. SherWright.com has helpfully offered a number of workable solutions that don’t happen to match the extreme right wing world view. In the meantime, while Reps are branding Dems as irresponsible over a single-program issue four decades out, Republicans are this very day showing breathtaking levels of irresponsibility by being completely unwilling to admit that their own two decade ride on the promise of free lunch must finally come to an end. Just consider that every single Democratic Senator was willing to stand up and say that it’s immoral to further increase the rate at which our current spending on government benefits services is pushed off onto future generations. Less than one out of every ten Republican Senators was willing make even that very basic commitment. And we’re not talking about paying down the debt or even reducing the deficit. When the topic is tax cuts, balancing these cuts only keeps them revenue neutral – another way of saying that the deficit clicks along adding to the debt at the current historically high rate. It’s thus outrageous that we’re getting lectures from the GOP about fiscal conscientiousness, and it’s equally outrageous that they’re getting away with doing it! The GOP is the REAL party of no – the party of absolutely no fiscal responsibility whatsoever, with absolutely no limits on their shameless hypocrisy.