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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe Can Finally See the Real Source of Washington Gridlock
Deep into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Republican leaders had one question for President Barack Obama, as his administration sought nearly $1 trillion in funds from Congress: How are you going to pay for this?
The unemployment rate was greater than 7 percent in January 2009, and would rise above 8 percent by February. Mitch McConnell, then the Senate minority leader, insisted, The question is not doing nothing versus doing something, but the appropriateness of an almost $1 trillion spending bill to address the problem.
Others in his caucus made similar points. If you believe this is a good process to spend $800 billion, were on different planets, Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, declared. Chuck Grassley of Iowa complained that the package's massive government spending and long-term entitlement commitments
will leave the next generation with trillion dollar deficits. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee demanded, Should we ask every American family to increase their $531,000 debt in order to spend money for a stimulus package to try to restart the economy?
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As for McConnell, his opposition to the Obama administration was identifiable as partisan rather than ideological even at the time. As one Republican aide later told Grunwald, If this thing works and the economy is booming and everybody is happy, your vote against the stimulus wont be held against you. In good times, people get reelected. On the flip side, Grunwald noted, if the economy wasnt booming by 2010, Republicans could return from the wilderness. Republicans went home and bragged to their constituencies about the projects funded by the stimulus they had voted against.
... snip ...
McConnell and the Republican leadership saw prolonging the Great Recession as a political opportunity to be exploited. The longer and more grueling the economic recovery, the easier it would be to evict Obama from the White House and Democrats from Congress, even if their own constituents suffered as a result. Democrats, by contrast, did not attempt to block help for Americans navigating the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus. On the contrary, they sought more generous provisions, despite the knowledge that the president they had recently impeached for trying to coerce a foreign country into framing his prospective Democratic challenger would take the credit and use the aid as an argument for his own reelection. At the signing ceremony for the CARES Act, Trump was flanked exclusively by Republican leaders; Democrats were not invited.
https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/609244/
House of Roberts
(5,168 posts)Little bit late, don't you think?
It was KKKarl Rove who referred to the 'permanent Republican majority' almost 20 years ago.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,999 posts)UpInArms
(51,282 posts)"I gotta meet Rove," Jack Abramoff told Schwartz one afternoon as they talked in the backseat of the lobbyist's car. Abramoff's driver, Joseph, was working his way through the crowded streets of Washington. The lobbyist gave Joseph a location for a rendezvous, and he set a course in the direction of the White House.
"Really?" Schwartz asked. "We're going to the White House?"
"No. No. We don't do that," Abramoff answered.
"Why not?" Schwartz joked. "I'm sure George would want to see me."
He explained to Schwartz why they were not going to see Karl Rove at the White House.
"They've got movement logs over there and everything, and we like to keep things kind of quiet. So just watch. You'll really get a kick out of it."
A few minutes later, Abramoff pointed through the front windshield at an approaching street corner and turned to smile at Schwartz.
"You recognize him?" the lobbyist asked his client.
"Son of a bitch," Schwartz muttered. "He's just out in the middle of the street."
"Uh-huh."
Laelth
(32,017 posts)The Republicans have been operating out of this playbook since 1981.
Jude Wanniski - The Two Santa Claus Theory
-Laelth
usaf-vet
(6,181 posts)Fiscal conservatives, indeed.
cstanleytech
(26,284 posts)gutting most federal spending to the deep red states and redirecting it to purple and pink states such as Texas that we can win away from the Republicans.
After we've done that and secured them we can gradually go after the deeper red Republican stronghold states.
keithbvadu2
(36,778 posts)Ad Infinitum
(74 posts)The very best sanitation.
Time to stir the compost
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)JHB
(37,158 posts)This has been plain as day for over a decade. The Republicans were telegraphing complete obstruction for a Democratic president in 2008 even before any primary votes were cast.
Hell, take it back to the Clinton administration and how Republicans and conservative media manufactured a new "Clinton scandal" to raise a hue & cry over practically every week.
Republican "complete reversals" have been a recurring feature of every presidential party switch for at least 30 years.