tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post337750878664721458..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: The Party of No AgendaJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-16560933226204963252010-11-07T01:28:27.832-05:002010-11-07T01:28:27.832-05:00Keep believing it is just the messaging and not t...Keep believing it is just the messaging and not the policy. The American people want opportunity not the government controlling their lives. I believe Boehner is smart enough to make the case for the dems being the party of more government, more spending and more taxes. 2012 will be the year for rolling back all of the Obama socialism and government over reach.cesplinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-19550892109375622252010-11-06T11:28:04.488-05:002010-11-06T11:28:04.488-05:00As an Obama supporter, I have to confess that I am...As an Obama supporter, I have to confess that I am rooting for either an Individual Mandate repeal, or a nullification in the courts.<br /><br />Private health insurance deserves to die on the vine.<br /><br />Shame on Obama for caving into the Big Insurance: they get both a captive market and no competition from the government??<br /><br />This is bad policy and horrible politics.Concerned Americannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-2731238612527388612010-11-06T08:47:34.965-05:002010-11-06T08:47:34.965-05:00The interesting thing about passing just an indivi...The interesting thing about passing just an individual mandate repeal is that the unstated assumption is that it would be blocked by the Senate or vetoed by Obama. But just because it's bad policy doesn't necessarily mean that the Senate won't pass it and Obama won't sign it -- if they did, it would move the HCR debate into a completely new place, with the insurance companies desperate for further changes and no consensus on what those changes should be. Gridlock, in this case, would be the death knell for private health insurance in the US. I'm really not sure that the GOP want to risk getting into this game of chicken, so I'd be shocked to see them pass just an individual mandate repeal in the House.Paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-90479899203416848552010-11-06T03:29:25.138-05:002010-11-06T03:29:25.138-05:00The Tea Baggers are the Useful Idiots of corporate...The Tea Baggers are the Useful Idiots of corporate America, the Koch Brothers and the Wall Street plutocrats who funded Boehner.Concerned American.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-91461299318371431202010-11-05T23:43:40.079-05:002010-11-05T23:43:40.079-05:00I've read dozens of analyses of the Tea Party ...I've read dozens of analyses of the Tea Party movement(s). I think they focus too much on the empty vessels and not enough on who's pouring the water. My conclusion is that the TP can be kept as useful tools and no more if, and only if, the people that explain the world to them are willing to play ball with the GOP leadership's agenda -- whatever it is.<br /><br />Fox News -- and talk radio, sure, but mainly Fox -- created these people. It did not create the historical moment or opportunity, but it seized it, organized it$, and I think it still determines how it evolves. The trust that Fox has built up will remain, I think, because it is so string now and TPers' distrust of anyone else is so intense. <br /><br />So, will Beck et. al. continue to be loyal soldiers manipulating the Tea Partiers for hidden ends? If so, they can explain away pretty nmuch any GOP "failure,"whether contrived for their benefit or real. But, what if Fox News or its marquee stars really fancy themselves leaders in something other than the GOP? A Republican civil war could then become more than a lazy metaphor.<br /><br />With all due respect to the historical-analogists, the vote number-crunchers, and the legislative-proceduralists, the Tea Party is and will continue to be about the elites and the message they make.DavidGhttp://civilizedconversation.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-78655038971320175522010-11-05T19:53:58.722-05:002010-11-05T19:53:58.722-05:00So long as the current environment persists, What ...So long as the current environment persists, What does the House GOP have to lose? <br /><br />There will be quiet bipartisan cooperation, as there always is, on noncontroversial measures. No one but the beneficiaries will care. But any 'grand bargain' of the sort pundits love would mainly benefit Obama, because presidents have a bigger megaphone and 2012 will be a referendum on him, not the GOP House. <br /><br />The only environment in which the GOP House would have a motive to do a deal with Obama is if he is successfully demonizing them as wingnuts and they need to look respectable. But we are certainly not in that environment now. Being the Party of No may not help the GOP, but it is hard to see how it hurts them.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-34002454068950561842010-11-05T18:46:55.551-05:002010-11-05T18:46:55.551-05:00I think the "Party of No" in 2009-2010 c...I think the "Party of No" in 2009-2010 contributed but was not central to the gains in the recent election.<br />That being said, the campaign rhetoric used has made "Party of No" untenable for the House; too much was promised that could never be delivered in terms that made compromise impossible.<br />I think the only way forward for the GOP in this next Congress is to only have the House lead to the extent that it is Constitutional required, i.e. the budget, and to follow the Senate as possible. <br />Conversely, the Democrats' best strategy is to let the House take the lead and have the GOP take on very silly, extreme and/or unpopular measures and then bring those measures to a vote in the Senate, even if they vote against them.<br />With luck (for the Democrats) this will set up a dynamic where the Tea Party is denied the confrontations they seek until the budget rolls around and the House is forced to take the lead. Democrats should insist that it is budget-neutral and is read, in full, during normal House hours.<br /><br />I think what the Democrats need to remember when dealing with Boehner is the saying, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-89071036003723780732010-11-05T14:57:22.513-05:002010-11-05T14:57:22.513-05:00Further to this, see Jonathan Chait's latest p...Further to this, see Jonathan Chait's <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/78960/what-everybody-misunderstands-about-the-gops-choice" rel="nofollow">latest post.</a> He says the political logic points to a big confrontation as soon as next month.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-9756053806801348152010-11-05T14:03:34.807-05:002010-11-05T14:03:34.807-05:00I appreciate this careful analysis. It all sounds ...I appreciate this careful analysis. It all sounds right to me, although I would add that since attempts to do things like repeal HCR or remove the individual mandate would just be symbolic (and I do think the GOP is all but committed now to holding some such votes), they're basically "free" votes for House Democrats, some of whom will just vote with the powerless majority if need be to fend off later attacks. Won't make any practical difference anyway, unlike the original votes on HCR where every Dem was desperately needed. For the same reason, it's generally going to be hard for the new House leadership to stage votes that divide or put Democrats in a difficult position: It's the House D's who now have the luxury of sitting back and deciding when and whether to be the Party of No.<br /><br />Where the rubber's really going to hit the road is on the debt ceiling and appropriations, because those votes are not just symbolic. If Republicans vote against raising the debt ceiling, I would hope -- though am not confident -- that there are Dem candidates out there ready to run against them with attack ads saying, "Call Congressmen Whackadoodle. Ask him why he voted to force the United States of America <i>into bankruptcy</i> for the first and only time since the Founding Fathers." And I would likewise hope that any Republican who voted against an appropriations bill would be attacked in 2012 for being "against" any item in that bill, however tiny, that Americans and/or his constituents obviously like. If I'm a Dem planning my run against Rep. Whackadoodle, for instance, I wait for him to vote against funding the Department of Education, then find some DOE grant that benefited the schools in his district and slam him unmercifully for voting to cut funding to local schools.<br /><br />Dems, of course, are usually too stupid or timid to mount such attacks. But if they do, I'm starting to think this could actually be kinda fun. :-)Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-27053094812032941812010-11-05T10:07:23.970-05:002010-11-05T10:07:23.970-05:00I think you are overestimating the risk in the GOP...I think you are overestimating the risk in the GOP house passing a straight-repeal bill. Just like your "repeal plus unworkable replacement" example, a straight-repeal bill would have no chance of getting Senate or White House approval. So the consequences of such a bill (like people getting kicked off insurance rolls for getting sick) would never become apparent, and the GOP wouldn't have to pay the price for those consequences.<br /><br />Just like your example, a straight-repeal bill would be designed to fend off attack ads; it would not be designed to work in the real world, and it wouldn't need to, because it would never become law.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15913245096162048743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-43767740762156344442010-11-05T10:05:44.495-05:002010-11-05T10:05:44.495-05:00republicans will be united......the tea partiers a...republicans will be united......the tea partiers and others will all get on board with whatever boner does.....that's the way republicans always are and always will be. they'll do a bunch of silly stuff and the msm will parrot whatever line they put out. the economy will get a little bit better due to nothing they do but they will get credit for it. And obama will cave in to whatever they want.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com