Bob Herbert: When the GOP talks, no one should listen

[babylonsister]

The Same Old Song

By BOB HERBERT
Published: January 26, 2009


What’s up with the Republicans? Have they no sense that their policies have sent the country hurtling down the road to ruin? Are they so divorced from reality that in their delusionary state they honestly believe we need more of their tax cuts for the rich and their other forms of plutocratic irresponsibility, the very things that got us to this deplorable state?

The G.O.P.’s latest campaign is aimed at undermining President Obama’s effort to cope with the national economic emergency by attacking the spending in his stimulus package and repeating ad nauseam the Republican mantra for ever more tax cuts.

“Right now, given the concerns that we have over the size of this package and all the spending in this package, we don’t think it’s going to work,” said Representative John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who is House minority leader. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Boehner said of the plan: “Put me down in the ‘no’ column.”

If anything, the stimulus package is not large enough. Less than 24 hours after Mr. Boehner’s televised exercise in obstructionism, the heavy-equipment company Caterpillar announced that it was cutting 20,000 jobs, Sprint Nextel said it was eliminating 8,000, and Home Depot 7,000.

Maybe the Republicans don’t think there is an emergency. After all, it was Phil Gramm, John McCain’s economic guru, who told us last summer that the pain was all in our heads, that this was a “mental recession.”

The truth, of course, is that the country is hemorrhaging jobs and Americans are heading to the poorhouse by the millions. The stock markets and the value of the family home have collapsed, and there is virtual across-the-board agreement that the country is caught up in the worst economic disaster since at least World War II.

The Republican answer to this turmoil?

Tax cuts.

They need to go into rehab.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/opinion/27herbert.html?_r=1

[KharmaTrain]

1. The Battle For The Beltway Has Been Joined...

Bob has written some great stuff over the past year...and again is spot on.

Here's the real problem the Obama administration is fighting...and one I'm sure they knew they would have to. The beltway culture has long been a refuge of egos and ass-kissers...and for the most part of the past 30 years, the asses that mattered had an (R) on them. It's like a pavlovian reflex many of the cable bobbleheads have to play the "balance" game...assuming that GOOP talking points have to be interjected into all debates and their spinners granted unfettered access to spew the lastest bullshit. This somehow turns a John McCain...who was soundly defeated in last November's election as some kind of "kingmaker" to a budget deal. It's as though the bobbleheads forgot about election day...selective memory has always been a problem inside the beltway.

With 60,000 more people losing jobs in the past few days...what's a tax break gonna do? Stupid is as stupid does...but the beltway bobbleheads can't quit 'em.

Cheers...

[babylonsister]

2. Good morning, Kharma Train. I just hope

Americans are smart enough to see whose interests the rethugs seem to be working for, because it's surely not ours.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Good Morning...

I like to think we're still in a transition period. The reality still hasn't sunk in. Only 3 years ago, the GOOP had total control...both with the government and the media. Any Democrat who spoke out was attacked cause the corporate media knew which side their bread was buttered. Now it's all up in the air. We saw it on full display in their horrid coverage of last year's elections. To them "lipstick on pigs" and Joe the Dumber was an issue...so was Reverend Wright and middle names. And they still haven't figured it out. They know there's been a change...they saw it on the streets of DC last week...and for many, that was the first real splash that a new day is here.

The fun here is to see how goofy the GOOP gets...as the ones who survived last year were the batshit wing...the Inhoffes and Michelle Bachamanns...the moderate were the big losers and the party still hasn't realized how out of power it really is. The only thing they have left is the media...and you can see they're gonna play it for all its worth.

Yes, I think the American people are smart to see through the special interests...it's why we won last Noevmber...I'm hoping that the Obama Administration sees this as well...trying to reach out, but to a point...and when that point is reached, out comes the steamroller. We shall see.

Cheers...

:hi:

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

3. Bob is always right. Here's the problem: The President and Dems continue

to cave in and give them what they want. It is so very frustrating. SOOOOO FRUSTRATING!!!

[roseBudd]

4. Great columnist, DUers click through to reward the gray Lady for employing him & no longer employing

Kristol

[madrchsod]

6. the democrats are as bad as a battered spouse

that keeps coming back thinking it will be ok this time...

we are one vote short in the senate to pass anything he wants..

if we can not get one republican and keep the democrats in line then welcome to the worse depression in this country's history.

[conscious evolution]

7. K&R

[myrna minx]

8. K&R n/t

[FloridaJudy]

9. Step One: We admitted we were Republicans

And our policies had made the country unmanageable...

[dynasaw]

10. Sit Down, Shut Up

To the Republicans:

You held the reins. Every single one of your policies, ideologies and agendas has failed, so sit down, shut up and let others do what they can to clean up your mess without your interfering.

[spanone]

11. thugs are definitely a one trick pony...tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts.....

[gratuitous]

12. The only people who take these dimwits seriously

There are only two groups of people who take these dimwits seriously: The popular media and our elected Democratic officials. And both groups should know better. Folks in the media and Congress, we the people didn't turn out the Republicans in record numbers just because Sarah Palin is dumb or John McCain is old. We voted them out because their policies have ruined the country. You don't hand the keys to the heavy equipment to the guy who's been swinging the wrecking ball.

[glitch]

15. Anybody who takes them seriously is paid to do so.

As soon as they realize we all realize it they may actually be shamed into not being bought and sold.
Maybe. Depends on how deeply they are corrupted.

[1776Forever]

13. Bob Herbert: IS the man! I really think he is saying what is the heart of the problem.

Politics! Get the Hell out of the way Rebup's and let's get the country moving!!!



"Good-bye W" by cartoonist Markyze

[DainBramaged]

14. Why does anyone listen to a Boehner?

:shrug:

[starroute]

16. I'd love to see Obama use this as a wedge issue to divide the GOP

Trying to reach across the aisle to people who are determined to sabotage him at every step is not going to work -- and Obama is smart enough to have already realized that.

Plan B ought to be for Obama to cherry-pick a handful of Republican senators who are relatively moderate, or relatively sane, or who represent states that now give Obama majority support and convince them that their future -- or even the future of the GOP as a whole -- lies with him and not with the bitter-ender extremists in the Senate.

I hope that will happen. I'd like to think it is already happening -- and that we just can't see it because the media keeps going into a tizzy over old-line Republican talking-points. I'd particularly like to see signs that the Obama people are going to use their exceptional grassroots networks to encourage people with GOP Senators to put pressure on them, call their offices, write to the local newspapers, etc.

These GOP diehards are essentially suicide bombers -- willing to blow up themselves, their party, and even their country in the service of a failed ideology. And that is a meme I wouldn't at all mind seeing get some traction.

[farmboy]

17. This is what I've been saying for a long time, especially since the financial crisis hit.

The Republicans who are demanding a seat at the table are the very ones (and all of their voters and supporters) who gave us George W. for eight years. They fought like attack dogs in 2000 for the US Supreme Court to seat Bush in the White House and they fought for his tax policies and war policies and environment policies and energy policies and education policies and foreign policies, all which have been disastrous for our country.

They have proven over and over again what horrible judgment they have in every facet of American leadership. They should now reap what they have sown, not out of spite or bitterness, but out of true evaluation of what they have offered and supported for a long, long time.

Unless they offer something completely different than before, tell them how sorry you are that they have proven to be so ineffective, their ideas so poisonous for America that they have lost the trust of the rest of us for positive input in the current decision making. It is unfortunate that the enormity of their incompetence and previous failures have led us to where we all are at this moment, but we make this choice, to ignore their same old destructive ideas, for the betterment of the US and all of her citizens.

[nilram]

18. "They need to go into rehab." Thank you...

I needed to snort coffee up my nose...

[polichick]

19. So true! It's one thing to include Republicans, it's another to do what they want...

This should be an infrastructure bill!