There has been speculation that the Republican Party will take back seats in both the House and Senate this mid-term election. This even though their sole purpose seems to be waging an all-out blitzkrieg on the Obama administration and all Democrats on the Hill.
The Republicans scorched earth approach has given them a false sense of security seeing that many are willing to and even saying anything about anyone or any policy. In RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s most recent gaffe, he rewrote history by asserting that Afghanistan was Obama’s war. But there are many more examples of GOP leaders making contradictory or ridiculous statements.
Take Congressman John Boehner, the current House minority leader. He has announced that he will seek in the future to raise the retirement age to 70 years old. Then there is Congressman Paul Ryan who is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. He has openly advocated that Medicare should be abolished and replaced with vouchers for private insurance. Yet, Ryan was also staunchly opposed to Obama’s health care reform and even accused the Democrats of wanting to end the federal Medicare program.
Republicans have also voiced through their votes, their opposition to extending unemployment benefits to workers who have been laid off, mostly due to the Bush administration’s policies and the avarice of Wall Street. They also desire to lower the minimum wage, while at the same time offer no specific policy that will create jobs and decrease unemployment. For the average American, the GOP agenda does not speak to the concerns of the person who drives a school bus, or unloads trucks or works a daily 9 to 5 job their entire lives, but rather to the people who will benefit from their push for a permanent extension of the Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthy.
The Republicans have what I like to call foot-in-mouth disease. They put more energy into attacking the opposition than the problems that confront Americans. In this process they often talk out the side of their necks or worse, put their foot in their mouths. They do not reveal that their fiscal approach would lead to an increase in the federal budget deficit of trillions of dollars over the next 10 years. To put it simply, this is the GOP way — overlook the most desperate people in our economy and provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest people in America. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
