11.08.2010

GOP...What Cha Gonna Do Now?

Okay, it's been six days since the country vented its economic frustrations on the Democrats in last Tuesday's election and what has been accomplished so far?

Well, Michele Bachmann is plotting how to crack the old boys leadership club and bring her bratty teabag family with her....Mitch McConnell is plotting overthrow of President Obama in 2012, seemingly not worried about any alleged mandate from the people to fix the economy and find some jobs......John Boehner the new boss of the House of Representatives is a bit more subdued, because he seems to be celebrating where most of us can't find him, although we can hear it in his voice.

The arrogant smirk on the newly elected teabag darling from Kentucky, Rand Paul has taken up permanent residence on his face. He is plotting outright takeover of the country.

As he has been saying from jump, “he wants HIS country back”.........not really understandable since he is to the manner born...a tried and true master of the universe, who has had absolutely nothing to worry about ever.

The people of Kentucky simply freed Rand Paul up to be the 400 pound gorilla in the china shop that he came into this world being.  If anyone is living the American dream, it is Senator elect Randal Paul smack inside his own personal Norman Rockwell painting, with his three towed headed boys, a bottle blond trophy of a wife, his medical degree and his father's name. What else is there except world or at least country domination?

These guys spent less than two years in exile after trashing the country. Under the law that amounts to probation for being caught with a joint cocked behind your ear. They didn't have enough time to figure out what it is that they did wrong, before they are back in power, with crazy riding shotgun.

The GOP is great at winning elections because the Democrats haven't figured out how to talk to its constituents and deliver a coherent message about their accomplishments.

The Dems did more for the people of this country than any other administration in history. But you'd never know it by looking at and listening to the average American.

At least John Boy Boehner is smarter than Newt Gingrich, in that he is not making any brash promises about what his party intends to do. Probably because they don't really know what they intend to do with the exception of beating Obama in two years.

Their Pledge to America is empty. There is nothing in it, written between the front and back covers except empty words that echo what the GOP has been telling us for the past ten years. Heck, it's unchanged since the days of their patron Saint Ronald of Reagan more than 30 years ago.

The Pledge to America basically promises to hold the line on government spending while assuming that lower spending is all that's needed to bring back the country from the brink of destruction. In other words, keep government small and the situation will take care of itself.

This Pledge is not a plan. It is not a method of governance and sidesteps the real reasons why the GOP was kicked out of power back in 2008. Yes, the Bush Administration screwed up the spending, drastically increased the deficits with its two illegal wars, but the main problem was that it did not address the problem of the struggling and shrinking middle class, which teetered off the deep end long before the Black man took over the White House.

In addition, amidst the unchecked corporate quest for massive personal riches, the United States was allowed to fall out of competition with the rest of the world. The USA became like the Muhammed Ali who fought George Foreman rather than the man who destroyed Sonny Liston-still effective in the ring, but only a shadow of the magnificent heavyweight champion of the world that he once was.

There are three problems that need solving: Jobs and the current quagmire of the jobless recovery in which we find ourselves, the disappearing middle class, drowning in an unperforming economy, and the very long term problem of spending on entitlements like social security and medicare. This problem brought about by the increasing numbers of people who are simply living longer.

The GOP/teabag hyrbrid that took over the House of Representatives has presented no answers. Not one solution for these problems. Furthermore, they are not united on any of these fronts. There are a few ideas floating around, from individual Congressmen. However they have no power to make it happen, nor do they have the ear of the White House with its veto power still intact.

Shutting down the government and freezing spending is dangerous and not the answer. It is just another temper tantrum because they can.

Impeaching or attempting to impeach Obama is a mistake, period.

Repealing healthcare and returning even more power to the insurance industry is not a solution.

Failing to address basic tax code reform is again not a viable way to return to prosperity.


Nor is privatizing social security and medicare while doing away with medicaid, thereby sentencing millions of Americans literally to death, as the State of Texas is apparently mulling over as a way to handle its budget short falls.

Working to defeat Obama in two years is also not the answer despite the dreams of Mitch McConnell, because at least Obama's programs are working, right now.   It is crazy to spend the next two years working to remove what may be an immovable object by the time you get there.

It is time for the GOP to get serious about policy, if it can, because what it is showing now is confusion and too much willingness to rely on the proven failed policy of the past ten years.

And this time, we don't have a parachute to cushion our fall.

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