Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Paul Ryan (R-WI)
The Republican's have yet to come up with a coherent answer to the argument that they prefer tax cuts for the wealthy over medicare cuts for the elderly. Obviously, any even semi-sophisticated analysis will note that tax cuts and medicare are not a zero-sum game. They do not trade-off with each other directly.
The Clarion Content, while willing to see taxes raised for the highest earners and the biggest estates, is just as earnestly interested in seeing the defense budget cut, along with the expenditures on foreign wars and futile nation building exercises.
The Republicans are going to have to develop some kind of narrative for when their electoral opponents accuse them of being willing to bargain off Granny's health care and retirement for their fat cat friends' tax cuts.
As yet, they have been unable to produce one. Read here a transcript of how a freshman Republican Representative from Arkansas, Rick Crawford, fails to handle this question in a town hall meeting with constituents. Representative Crawford starts out with the tack that, well, Medicare is broke anyway, but is unable to stick to this line of reasoning. John Q. Public points out, if Medicare is broke, it is hardly fair to give tax cuts to the richest of the rich in such a moment.
Time for a better answer, time to come up with it soon, or the Republicans will face Congressional trouncing in November of 2012, regardless of what happens at the top of the ticket.
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2 comments:
This is actually surprising to me because the Republicans are usually masters at controlling the narrative. I think they got in over their heads in cutting medicare and now hubris has gotten the best of them. As usual, the Democrats don't have a great narrative right now, but being in the White House allows more play with this; ownership of the office creates more of a defacto narrative.
AC- Agreed on all counts. It is odd the Republicans are allowing themselves to hammered with the club of Medicare benefit cutting. The White House affords some control of the narrative. President Obama should make the Republicans pay for playing with fire over the debt ceiling.
Many ideologues in the Republican Party would prefer failure and a crash. They see an opportunity to remake the nation in their image should a major crises erupt.
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