We know what Republicans do not want. But what is the alternative?
It’s axiomatic that the Republican message in this election year is all about small government and lower taxes.
President Barack Obama’s deficits have frightened a lot of people — including key independent voters — into searching for an alternative.
But this is precisely where the GOP’s platform is beginning to look a little shaky. When pressed for what they would actually do if given the reins of power, Republicans haven’t exactly lit up the scoreboard.
This week, the GOP pushed through a draconian immigration law in Arizona that even many conservatives see as a civil rights nightmare.
Meanwhile, a prominent GOP candidate in Nevada argued that good old fashioned bartering — yes, including chickens — is one viable fix for the health care crisis.
And Republicans are filibustering a very popular bank-and-Wall-Street reform package, without offering a clear alternative for cleaning up our precarious financial sector.
Claims that the bill would actually foster future bank bailouts turned out to be blarney — as false as last winter’s death panel claims.
Closer to home, NCPR reporter David Sommerstein questioned local Republicans about how they would actually shrink big government.
If their answers are any indication, it won’t be easy, especially in this North Country region where taxpayer-funded jobs are prized, and where demand for services like Medicaid is high. Here’s an excerpt from David’s report:
Congressional candidate Doug Hoffman says more cuts need to happen somewhere else.
If they’re going to cut, the cuts have to be throughout the state, and not just focused on four prisons in this area and state parks and everything that drives our economy.
Congressional candidate Matt Doheny says the cuts are somewhere else, too. He argues the government jobs and services in the North Country are core spending, things like education and roads, FortDrum and the prisons.
I mean, there’s so many other programs that we can wean off. I mean, everything like corporate welfare in the commerce department to programs that are served by some other private sector need. And then you have a crazy, out of control entitlement situation that needs to be started to be addressed.
Answering these questions is thorny, in part because Americans seem to want two contradictory things: plenty of government and very low taxes.
Reconciling those impulses is one of the challenges of modern politics.
But there are plenty of areas where Republicans could innovate, delivering smart, effective government without spending a lot of money.
So far, those ideas seem few and far between. I’m guessing that will have to change before November.
.png)
This is EXACTLY the comment I made on the original piece. All of these so-called conservatives reassured people that the cuts would come from (hold hand over heart) somewhere else, not from OUR beloved taxpayer-funded programs. When one of the interviewees pretended to get specific by citing Medicaid, she could not name one Medicaid program she’d cut. All this showed the complete and utter intellectual bankruptcy of so-called fiscal conservativism. It’s nothing more than hypocrisy at worst, NIMBYism at best and empty rhetoric either way.
The truth is, the republicans have never been able to shrink government. Did Pataki make the new york government smaller in his 8 years? No.
Did Bush make the federal government smaller in his 8 years? No.
And has anyone asked what smaller means lately? If you reduce federal jobs but hire out subcontractors, does that mean smaller or less expensive?
Are they Republicans going to pull our troops out of the Middle East and reduce the defense budget? What a stupid question and there is no need to ask.
So, they have their sacred cows, don’t they?
They will cut prisons and schools before they will bring troops home, reduce the military, or cut defense.
That is why they have few ideas on how to save money. They have ideas on how to cut social programs but they can’t say them too loud in an election year.
That’s the problem, these candidates are usually allowed a pass when, surprise, they can’t name specific programs that would be cut. Most media pundits who interview these candidates go right on to the next question and never demand an answer. And here we have two local candidates for the House who simply distract by saying the obvious, “Well, there should be cuts other places as well.” No kidding, Capt. Obvious! So Mr. Doheny, why didn’t you name the specific entitlement you were referring to?
When was the last time government spending was actually reduced in real terms either in NYS or the US? Certainly under Clinton we were able to grow out of our deficits, but I don’t think the actual size of spending decreased.
Does anyone really believe that we would allow our leaders to intentionally reduce spending since we have never done it in the past why do we think we will do it in the future? The most promising way for spending reductions will be if they are forced upon our leaders through the international capital markets. Greece did not reduce spending voluntarily they needed a crisis and even now it will be interesting to see if they end up simply borrowing their way out of their mess and continue on as before.
When has NYS government spending gone done in the past?
If a politician wants to get elected, they can’t say specifically where they would make cuts. They will lose votes. Personally, I think no candidate should be elected unless they can identify specific spending cuts or tax increases.
The fossil fuel driven occupation of Iraq and the like-wise war in Afghanistan, are draining our nation’s resources at a critical juncture in history – made all the more ironic since we are seemingly at the brink of poisoning ourselves out of existence due to our utter dependency upon ancient carbon.
Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen, are not the only Americans who have given their lives in the pursuit of ancient carbon. Twenty-nine miners in Appalachia and eleven rough-neckers out in the Gulf of Mexico gave their lives these past weeks in the pursuit ancient carbon.
Drill Baby Drill, was the Repub/Con “Moonie” like mantra in 2008.
And President Obama bought into the chant.
I can forgive him. I believe he did so perhaps to deflect criticisms made by fellow Americans that were too severe for even a past President of the Harvard Law Review (renouned for being a unifier) could endure. The death threats from right-wing extremists. The crazy doubts of the Birthers. The wackos – Gingrich, Rev. Robertson, Palin, etc., making legitimate the imaginings of the crazies, bigots and worse.
Ooops, and now we are witnessing a potentially major catastrophy in the making and Gov. Crist is reconsidering the wisdom of drilling off of Florida’s coasts.
But Crist is a ‘moderate’ Republican, belonging to a Party that has few answers but many criticisms, esp. against moderates.
This article isn’t slanted heavily towards the left or anything. Would be nice to see fair & balanced journalism come back again.
The obvious has been stated. The GOP is just a bunch of Democrats with “R” behind their names. This is news? They either don’t have ideas or they don’t have the backbone to present them. It’s past time for tough decisions to be made. We’re all going to hurt sooner or later, no two ways about it. So the choice now is who do you want driving this bus off the cliff- the smarmy slick haired Democrat lawyer or the smarmy slick haired Republican lawyer?
You guys want ideas? Bring ALL the troops home-today. Better jack up the DefCon, but there’s one idea. (Sorry Taiwan and S. Korea, nice knowing ya) Audit the Fed, audit Congress, public executions for those involved in malfeasance, corruption and illegal activity. (Okay, prison at least) Adopt a line by line recorded vote on each and every item in the US Budget. No more hiding behind “I voted for the package, not the item”. That’d reduce pork right there. Outlaw lobbying as we know it- zero funds/influence/etc between politicians and special interest groups. Informing or presenting your concerns to a Congressman doesn’t require fine wine, call girls and corporate jets. TERM LIMITS, TERM LIMITS, TERM LIMITS. Eliminate the dept of Energy, Education and reduce HHS, Interior and maybe some others from Cabinet level positions. Across the board 10% reduction in payroll every year for 5 years through attrition and retirement and returning responsibility to the States where it’s appropriate (that’s most places). Send out questionnaires to the top 20,000 employers in the nation asking THEM what THEY NEED to be able to grow and increase employment as long as it doesn’t involve getting taxpayer funds. Renegotiate any and all trade agreements that give other countries a clear advantage over the US. (We’re hurting but we’re still the worlds marketplace) End duplication of State and Federal programs. End Federal Subsidies to all areas of the economy over a 10 year period. (Yes- that includes farms, corporations, higher ed, student loans, etc.) End artificial price supports and controls- a free market means FREE. (yes your milk will cost more, but the farmer may be able to hire your kid part time AND pay his bills). Eliminate many excise taxes. (At one point people were complaining mightily about Exxon making $.09 a gallon, but not about the Gov’t making $.26 a gallon!) Make the Line Item Veto permanent. Freeze the budget-NOW! Enact a balanced budget requirement except in times of (declared) war.
Hey, I’m just a sheep farmer. I have to work with a very limited budget. Gov’t is no different really, we’ve just let them get away with it for decades. Now we come face to face with the reality of having to pay the piper. We can do it the hard way or the really, really, really hard way. I doubt there are more than 10% of politicians of any stripe willing to say that publicly. Darn sure it won’t be coming from any of our clowns currently in Washington.