Anyone Who Isn’t Against A GOP Takeover In November Needs To Read A History Book |
I came across an article on The Loop 21 today with the title, “Four reasons a GOP takeover isn’t such a bad thing” (hereinafter “Four reasons”) and I felt strongly enough about it to write this rebuttal.
It is quite possible to forget just how bad the Republican Revolution of the 1990s was for the country. I remember it like it was yesterday. “Four reasons” underestimates how poorly Congress was run under Newt Gingrich and fails to even acknowledge the alarming level of extremism present in the 2010 version of the Republican party that will no doubt have a huge influence over the decisions made if there is a Speaker of the House Boehner. Shiver.
I’ve made my own list of four things to keep in mind when considering whether the GOP taking back the House is a good or bad thing.
1) The modern-day Republican party and their propensity to do things that are not in the best interest of the American people (even more so today than even in the 1990s) should never be underestimated.
“Four reasons” cites two reasons why a GOP controlled Congress is no big deal: the President’s veto pen and the lack of Democratic legislation between the years 2006 and 2008. It is important that everyone recall that two extremely important pieces of legislation were passed by the current Congress after 2008: health care reform and financial reform. How powerful will an Elizabeth Warren run Consumer Financial Protection Agency be without the proper funding? What is the president’s veto pen going to do when Congress doesn’t properly fund the specific moving parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? Not a damn thing. “Four reasons” ignores the fact that the GOP has already proposed to not only attempt to repeal health reform and financial reform (which is unlikely to occur) but they have also threatened to DE-FUND these initiatives.
People’s lives are at stake here and the stroke of a veto pen doesn’t give me much confidence given the audacity of the Republican party for doing things for political gain that hurt the country. For example: Medicare Part D resulted in what is known at the “donut hole,” which is responsible for seniors having to pay substantial out-of-pocket fees for needed medications. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka health care reform law) fixed that problem. It was this Congress, led by the Democrats that insisted this issue be addressed in the legislation. The financial reform legislation requires a Consumer Protection Agency be created to ensure Americans are no longer fleeced by businesses. That means that the millions of Americans who are drowning in debt caused by unsustainable mortgages (one of the causes of the financial crisis) and credit cards will not have the protections and oversight the CFPA is expected to provide. Congress holds the purse strings. If it refuses to allocate funding to fulfill provisions of a bill, that law is in fact dead for all intents and purposes because money is needed to implement the legislation. That is a very bad thing.
2) The House of Representatives has the power to impeach the President.
3) The House of Representatives has subpoena power.
Numbers 2 and 3 really go together. The House of Representatives has a lot of power. They have the power to hold hearings where they subpoena witnesses and documents. Does the idea of a “birther” hearing sound like a good idea? Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) will be the new chairman of the Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee if the Republicans take back the House. He has already made very public his desire to investigate very important matters like ACORN (which no longer exists) and the post office. With congress people like Michelle Bachman (R-MN) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX) in the House I have no doubt that we will see an investigation of President Obama’s birth certificate. We’ve heard many months of overblown rhetoric by the Tea Party and elected officials they love, so you really expect me to believe that they will not try to impeach Obama who they regularly claim is a socialist, a Nazi, and a dictator? I’m sorry if I don’t have faith in their leadership who is Oompa Loompa look-a-like with the policy knowledge of a kiddie pool, Congressman John Boehner (R-OH). This modern Republican party is authoritarian in nature and I do not for a second believe they should be trusted to be responsible with the power that a subpoena and articles of impeachment bring.
Furthermore, while they are busy holding hearings on the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate, they are not focusing on the important things the Republicans claim to be should be concerned about – reducing unemployment, reducing the deficit, terrorism, and so much more. An even more polarized Congress is not going to help this country move forward. And while “Four reasons” does make reference to unemployment and bringing down the deficit the article is deplete with any reference to the effects of the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans which adds $700 billion dollars to the deficit conservatives love to rail against. While I agree with the conclusion set forth in “Four reasons” that neither a tax cut nor a stimulus can magically fix the economy, we do have clear evidence as to what hurts the economy and increases the income disparities to historic levels. “Four reasons” included some fun charts and I would like to provide ONLY ONE to prove my point that it matters very much who wins elections. While the chart focuses on the Presidents who are in power I think it cannot be lost on anyone that Congress who is responsible for passing the legislation is responsible for the outcomes represented in this chart as well.
Via The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein: Elections matter.
4) Government Shutdown.
“Four reasons” fails to even acknowledge the government shutdowns of the mid-1990s. This is a glaring omission. For those who are unaware a little background:
In 1995 and 1996, the Republicans made the egregious miscalculation of shutting down the government for a few weeks. When you shut down the government it affects every single American. It is no longer just about Congress versus the President. A shutdown affects physicians being reimbursed for health care services, the disabled and elderly receiving their social security checks, and states receiving their allocated funding for education. Moreover, the ordinary Americans that go to work every day to keep the government running are not paid at all. We’re trying to decrease the unemployment rate, not increase it correct? A number of congressional Republicans along with right leaning publications have already called for another government shutdown once the GOP is back in power. Should the government be shut down, President Obama will look as the mature and responsible leader that he is. He will come out of this victorious and be able to say to the American people: ‘Republicans worked to undermine you and to make you suffer so they could score a few political points.’ And he will be exactly right. Responsible journalists and politicians on the right and the left, have already acknowledged that this would be disastrous for the country and the threats that have already been made to do it again should be taken very seriously.
I don’t know about you, but I want a Congress that will not shut down a government to score political points. If the Republicans read history (or weren’t so gung-ho on revising it in the hopes that Americans suffer from short term amnesia) they would realize that shutting down the government is a horrible strategy. And in the end this government shutdown was partly responsible for the demise of their so-called revolution in the 1990s.
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There is so much more I could write but instead I recommend everyone go pick up former White House Counsel to Richard Nixon, John Dean’s book, Broken Government. Quoting Mr. Dean (who is a himself a Conservative), “I do not believe the Republican party can be trusted with control of the national government…because of its philosophical disposition towards the processes of government which they so easily abuse in their pursuit and exercise of power.” And while many people in their early 20s might only associate John Dean with his appearances on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, it should be noted that John Dean is a Republican. Dean goes on to say “Republicans do not actually govern, but rule the various branches of government when they control them.”
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