What Does The Tea Party Want?….The New Litmus Test
Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen argue that the Tea Party redefined the purpose of the GOP as opposition to spending:
The Republican Party is undergoing a messy but unmistakable 20-month transformation from fanatically anti-Obama to fanatically anti-spending, providing top party officials a new and intriguing playbook for recapturing the White House in 2012.
To understand the current evolution, flash back to late spring of 2009. The GOP was disoriented and adrift, its leadership void filled by the bombastic voices of Palin, Beck and Rush Limbaugh. There was no common conservative cause, beyond fear and loathing of Obama. No wonder swing voters were so down on them.
But the tea party, treated at first by the media as exotics, forced Republicans to focus almost exclusively on the size of government. By the time the 2010 elections rolled around, tea party activists and most independent voters were completely aligned on the need to cut, cut, cut.
Midterm election results showed that this approach offers the GOP its best – and maybe only – hope of keeping the interests of independents and tea party activists aligned enough to beat Obama.
The new litmus tests for GOP presidential hopefuls are support for repealing “Obamacare” and taking a cleaver to government spending. If a presidential candidate could harness the smaller-government conservatism, temper it enough to avoid a blatant overreach and articulate a vision for a prosperous future for the country, it’s not hard to imagine swing voters finding such a person appealing.
There’s a superficial appeal to this story. But the evidence that Tea Party activists want to cut spending — at least actual spending programs — is sparse. Polls show that Tea Party supports overwhelmingly oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The main thrust of Tea Party opinion is not the belief that Obama has spent too much money, but the belief that Obama has spent too much money on people unlike them:
More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.
They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.
Here’s another cut, showing the Tea Party’s greater comfort with inequality of opportunity and stronger belief that the government devotes too many resources to minorities:
It’s a revolt against the composition of government much more than the level.
Now, it’s true that Republicans aren’t exactly translating this blueprint into action, but they’re not exactly flouting it, either. There is always a generalized antipathy toward spending amongst Republican and swing voters, but it disappears when the subject turns to actual government programs. Usually Republicans decide to just cut taxes for the rich instead. Here’s is the one part of the article proposing a defined policy change:
Even Ralph Reed, the Republican operative most tapped in to evangelicals, reflected the new GOP mindset when he gave this surprising wish list for the next presidential race: “In a perfect world, I’d like to hear the Republican nominee run on a platform that takes the capital gains tax to zero over five years.” Reed, who summoned several of the presidential candidates to Iowa for his Faith & Freedom Coalition this week, made it clear that Christian conservatives will still need to be catered to, but added that his side will understand the nominee’s need to focus on swing voters.
So an article putatively about the GOP redefining itself as an anti-spending party has one actual programmatic detail, and it’s: a zeroing out of the capital gains tax. In the name of appealing to swing voters — who, in fact, oppose tax cuts for the rich. Meet the new boss…
By: Jonathan Chait, The New Republic, March 14, 2011
Health Reform-If Not Now, When?
Yesterday, Sen Ben Nelson of Nebraska indicated that he was throwing his support behind the Senate reform package, in effect providing the 60th vote to keep the reform process going forward. With Nelson’s announcement followed by the press conference of Majority Leader Harry Reid, it did not take very long for the “diarrhea of the mouth” to begin flowing. One would have thought that all of the teens had just scaled the chain link fence at the local reform school and were now running through the streets yelling and screaming in a state of complete chaos. And yes, the Party of No surfaced in their usual choreographed splendor, foaming and seething at the mouth. Over the last couple of months, just about everyone on the planet has griped and moaned about not getting exactly what they wanted. Progressives are unhappy, anti-abortionists are unhappy, pro-choice groups are unhappy, those for gay rights are unhappy, Ed Schultz is unhappy, Keith Olbermann is unhappy, Racheal Maddow is unhappy and republications…well, they are just themselves…Mitch McConnell, Tom Coburn, John McCain. Theodore Roosevelt aptly noted that “Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe”.
This morning I watched the usual television pundits join the fray. There was George Will, Joe Scarborough, John Kyle, Tavis Smiley, David Gregory, George Stephanopoulos, the cast of CNN and the buffoons over at Fox. The interesting thing in all of this is that everyone seems to have forgotten that we are suppose to be talking about health reform, the same topic that we have been talking about for at least the last forty years. No wonder everyone is so up in arms.
Today, Maine Senators Snowe and Collins went on record indicating their non-support for the Senate bill. In her press release today, Sen Snowe stated that “ I deeply regret that I cannot support the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands, given my continued concerns with the measure and an artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas that is shortchanging the process on this monumental and trans-generational effort”. “There is absolutely no reason to be hurtling headlong to a Christmas deadline”. Sen Collins , god bless her, noted in her press statement “That is why I am so disappointed that the partisan legislation before the Senate falls far short of what should be the goals of reform.” It is unfair that republicans were allowed to offer only seven amendments to a bill that affects every single citizen and one-sixth of our nation’s economy.” She went on to say that “The health legislation before the Senate has enormous consequences for our economy and our society. The Senate missed the opportunity to produce true, bipartisan health reform.”
Reform…a very interesting word, a transitive verb that means 1) to put or change into an improved form or condition 2) to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses 3) to induce or cause to abandon evil ways. As one who has been for a public option from the start and thus far not getting exactly what I wanted either, I venture to believe that the current Senate bill is about reform. The bill establishes a framework of exchanges that will go a long way for many who cannot afford health insurance by making billions of dollars available in federal help to allow people to buy coverage through these exchanges and through expanded Medicaid. The bill also places new regulations on private insurers that reduces their ability to discriminate against the sick while at the same time, preventing the insurers from undermining the security of these same people. Additionally, insurers will be required to spend more of their premium revenues on clinical services and quality activities. There will be an immediate ban on pre-existing condition exclusions for children, patient protections for choice of doctors, restrictions on annual limits of benefits and accountability for excessive rate increases. By definition, this is reform…a change to improve.
Unfortunately Senators Snowe and Collins, you are on the wrong side of this issue. You both are intelligent and learned people. Sen Snowe, how many more generations must pass before you feel you have had enough time to make an informed decision. Are 40 plus years not enough? It’s not as though you are a first time Senator. And Senator Collins, the words “unfair, true reform, and bipartisan health reform” are just not going to cut it. Health and costs go hand-in-hand. Fixing healthcare goes a long way towards fixing the economy. At every turn, the “process” has been bastardized by your Republican party. I am far more interested in results than in process. I am certain that all of those people who do not have health insurance, all of those who are under-insured, all of those who are paying extortion- like insurance premiums, all of those who are paying exorbitant out-of -pocket expenses, and all of those who are being denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions would like to see their nightmare come to an end. The consequences of your “No” is the continuation of fear and insecurity for millions and millions of Americans.
As in triage, the goal of reform is to do the greatest good for the greatest number. So I ask you, if not health reform now, when?
AARP Announces Support for Senate Health Reform Bill | The White House
AARP Announces Support for Senate Health Reform Bill | The White House.
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