{"id":1930,"date":"2010-04-27T14:03:58","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T18:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2010-04-28T09:39:04","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T13:39:04","slug":"we-know-what-republicans-dont-want-but-whats-the-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/04\/27\/we-know-what-republicans-dont-want-but-whats-the-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"We know what Republicans do not want. But what is the alternative?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s axiomatic that the Republican message in this election year is all about small government and lower taxes.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama’s deficits have frightened a lot of people — including key independent voters — into searching for an alternative.<\/p>\n

But this is precisely where the GOP’s platform is beginning to look a little shaky.\u00a0 When pressed for what they would actually do if given the reins of power, Republicans haven’t exactly lit up the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

This week, the GOP pushed through a draconian immigration law in Arizona that even many conservatives see as a civil rights nightmare.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Claims that the bill would actually foster future bank bailouts turned out to be blarney — as false as last winter’s death panel claims.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, NCPR reporter David Sommerstein questioned local Republicans<\/a> about how they would actually shrink big government.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Here’s an excerpt from David’s report:<\/p>\n

Congressional candidate Doug Hoffman says more cuts need to happen somewhere else.<\/p>\n

If they\u2019re 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

Congressional candidate Matt Doheny says the cuts are somewhere else, too.\u00a0 He argues the government jobs and services in the North Country are core spending, things like education and roads, FortDrum and the prisons.<\/p>\n

I mean, there\u2019s so many other programs that we can wean off.\u00a0 I mean, everything like corporate welfare in the commerce department to programs that are served by some other private sector need.\u00a0 And then you have a crazy, out of control entitlement situation that needs to be started to be addressed.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Answering these questions is thorny, in part because Americans seem to want two contradictory things:\u00a0 plenty of government and very low taxes.<\/p>\n

Reconciling those impulses is one of the challenges of modern politics.<\/p>\n

But there are plenty of areas where Republicans could innovate, delivering smart, effective government without spending a lot of money.<\/p>\n

So far, those ideas seem few and far between.\u00a0 I’m guessing that will have to change before November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s axiomatic that the Republican message in this election year is all about small government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}