GOP fears backlash on Bush budget

[cal04]

With crucial midterm elections less than nine months away, Republicans are expressing deep skepticism about President Bush's plans to cut social programs while promoting the extension of his tax cuts, saying the juxtaposition of the two GOP priorities could spur an election-year backlash. The budget proposal Bush unveiled last week is increasingly being met with criticism from both ideological poles of his party. Moderates are expressing concern about slashing popular programs that benefit the poor at the same time they're being asked to cut taxes on the rich, and conservatives are saying the proposal does not go far enough in controlling the record budget deficit.

Those cross-pressures present an election-year conundrum for Republicans. Some fear that the tough choices Bush is forcing on the Republican-controlled House and Senate could feed into Democrats' attempts to make gains in this fall's elections, when all House members and a third of senators are up for reelection. Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, said that if the president's budget proposals become law, dozens of Republicans who represent closely divided districts could be more vulnerable in this year's elections.

''He's not running for reelection -- we are," she said. ''We live in swing districts, where the president is
not polling well." Senator Lincoln D. Chafee, a moderate Republican from Rhode Island who is up for
reelection in a heavily Democratic state this fall, said he can't support further tax cuts in the current
environment of gaping deficits. He said the federal government has taken on vast new costs in recent years,
including the war in Iraq and a new Medicare prescription drug program.

''To try to reconcile that with expensive tax cuts just doesn't make sense to me," Chafee said. ''Every politician wants to cut taxes, but I've articulated to my voters back home that there comes some responsibility with budgeting. We've lost our discipline, and once you lose that, the dam is breached."


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/02/12/gop_fears_backlash_on_bush_budget/

I hope the democrats will add Louisiana, our troops body armor, and our Constitution, to the list of disgraceful things these people are doing to our country

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Even those who are rather slow mentally

can see that this reverse Robin Hood budget is unfair and unjust.

[Kierkegaard]

2. Isn't it telling...

that they would be more concerned with the impact these disastrous plans may have on their careers than what it is doing to the American citizens?

[Olney Blue]

6. It is indeed very telling. Screw the poor-will I get re-elected?

[acmejack]

8. It says a lot about priorities.

They could give a plugged nickle about all those freezing cold & hungry seniors, untreated children, uneducated teens, maimed sons and daughters. No, it's my cushy elected job. screw all these jerks!

[savemefromdumbya]

3. their war on the poor will not go unnoticed in the 2006 elections

however if votes are not going to be counted fairly.........

[Auntie Bush]

13. "War on the Poor" I like that!

Bush = War on the Poor. Would make a great button, campaign slogan, meme...just a plain old comment Dems can toss into the conversation.
Yeah! Let's stop bush's war on the poor! You nailed it!

[savemefromdumbya]

14. GWB a terrorist who wages war on the poor

war on the poor (repeat after me - war on the poor)

[MichiganVote]

4. Read our lips Republicans--NO! to tax cuts, YES! to social responsibility

I am sick of the wealthy being deemed the only ones to "benefit" this society. Pure bullshit, economically and otherwise.

[liberalitch]

5. Haven't you heard?

the public now supports domestic spying.....

[bluerum]

7. Gee - do ya think? The proposed budget is a national embarassment. eom

[gizmo1979]

9. Both our local paper and the local tv

ran the story as all the programs getting more money as if there no cuts.Not getting into all that is being cut.It really pissed me off.It was like it was the best thing since sliced bread.

[cantstandbush]

10. Why should they worry? The Dem aren't making it a big issue? n/t

[calimary]

11. No to mention the sneaky-ass scheme to bury Social Security piratization

in the budget when people are unsuspecting, not looking, and not paying attention.

Newsweek article "Sleight of Hand":


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11235990/site/newsweek/from/RSS

Interesting how Lincoln Chafee admits to feeling the heat. Is he perhaps also feeling the noose tightening around his neck and the floorboards being pulled away, board by board (calling Carl Sheeler! See link in my sigline below...)? :evilgrin:

[Hidden Stillness]

12. The Propaganda has Already Started

I think if you read the whole article, it has a strange tone that is not like a newspaper report of what Republicans are worrying about, but instead a strategic posturing before-the-fact, to distance themselves from their acts and get cover from their media, redesigning themselves before these things actually start happening during their upcoming campaigns. The tone is entirely favorable to these people, there is no criticism, no Democrat appears at any point during the article to make a point rebuffing any Republican claim, and all these Republicans who will be running are all lined up, one after the other, with these pretty, reassuring quotes that are unanswered by the facts of the situation. The Boston Globe used to be a great newspaper; it has not been for some years now.

"Even conservative Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the GOP's third-ranking senator, issued a statement saying that while he applauds Bush's goal of restraining spending, he will fight to preserve money for housing programs, social services, and heating assistance for the poor.

" 'I will continue to be a strong advocate for these programs, among many others,' said Santorum," etc. If anyone can find one second of any day when this evil bastard tried to help the middle class and poor, I will keel over and faint. This was allowed to go unchallenged, as if Republicans--alone and unopposed--did not cause the entire problem themselves, just by being themselves, with their theories about government and the economy; and this is what we call "a clue."

Of course, as always, Democrats and their lobbyist/"D"LC "consultants" will let them get away with everything, and we will lose yet another opportunity to set this country back on track, as the meaning of everything is drowned completely, yet again, in "framing" and slogans. There is growing anger and panic in this country as people are unable to pay their bills anymore. It is not "difficult"; it is not possible anymore. Suddenly, a few months ago, gas and oil corporations, pharmaceuticals, many types of insurance, etc., etc., and before that, unregulated price-gouging on food, clothes, appliances, etc. etc., have sent the American population into unheard-of debt, spending more on bills and fees alone, than they have coming in, unable to pay off credit cards ever, not buying new cars or repairing old ones--it is a goddamned crisis out here, as we get no raises but all prices shoot up, and no one does anything! It is as if they all live in a different country. It does not need "cool," "tested" slogans and phraseology--Damn it, show some understanding of the problem, and fight!

After every single Depression and Panic has been caused by Republican corruption and stupidity, and every reconstruction of society, and every good, stable economy, has been on only Democratic principles (General Accounting Office, Congressional Budget Office, etc.), the article claims this: " 'I hope we don't have to get back in the minority to discover our roots,' said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who said the president's budget should have called for more cuts. 'We do best as Republicans when we outline the clear differences with Democrats. When we blur the lines, we don't do well.' " This current, totally corporate, archconservative, anti-government Republican Party, perhaps the most corrupt group of grafting criminals ever to run the country, and still they attempt to blame this disaster on us, with the help of their media. If Democrats--as they have ever since they turned "D"LC and got totally inept--allow this to stand, and will not get angry and shoot these things down, (not calmly "frame" like an idiot), and tell people as they have not for years, what Republicans are and what we are, and that we will solve the problems of the middle class and poor--not investors and stockholders--then it is the end of everything. Still, however, all these clueless Democratic strategists will have their jobs--unlike us.