How Ryan set up Obama's comeback
"The Republican plan to cut taxes and slash government health care spending gives the president prime opportunities for political victory:
“Whatever you do, don’t serve to his backhand.”
“Don’t be nervous. I have the new Ryan serve. It’s bold!”
“Trust me on this. Don’t serve to his backhand.”
Thomp. Wham.
Here’s a basic fact of American politics. The American people like Medicare. They are not so enthusiastic about tax cuts for the rich.
Those of us on the political right have different preferences. We believe that low rates for high earners accelerate economic growth. We believe that the cost of Medicare must be restrained. And I think we have a lot of good arguments on our side.
But we must never deceive ourselves: We are arguing for policies with a lot of political negatives attached to them. Which means we have to take some basic political precautions.
In the current Republican mood, however, precautions are for girlie-men. Republicans have succumbed to a strange mood of simultaneous euphoria and paranoia. Republicans have convinced themselves both that: (1) American freedom stands in imminent danger of disappearing into totalitarian night; and (2) that the vast majority of the great and good American people are yearning for a mighty rollback of big government, even at considerable personal sacrifice.
And so Republicans have united around Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposal that for the first time in modern conservative history explicitly joins a big tax cut for the rich to big cuts in health care spending for virtually everybody else. If this were a tennis game, the Republicans would be placing the ball in exactly the spot on the court where it must never, ever go."
Why the GOP is insisting on giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans while putting more of a burden on middle and lower income Americans is a mystery. In a recent survey an overwhelming majority of Americans favor raising taxes as a tool to bring the deficit under control. And the American people DO NOT want any changes to Medicare. As Frum wrote: "Medicare remains hugely popular. By 2-to-1 margins, Americans reject changes to Medicare. Even among self-identified Republicans, one-third reject changes to Medicare."
Mr. Obama's speech energized his base, and it signaled that the president may very well fight for what the American people really want, not what the corporatists and the GOP, who are NOT listening to the people, want.
Frum concludes with this observation on how the GOP mishandled this debate and how the president framed it:
"The Republican insistence on joining two negatives in hopes of producing one positive opened the way to President Obama’s speech Wednesday.
That speech was not so especially eloquent. It was, however, very effective. It frames the debate in a way that is maximally useful for Democrats. This framing was made possible by the efforts of Republicans themselves, blinded by their own hopes, misdirected by their own messaging.
It’s exactly like what happened on health care reform, where Republicans persuaded themselves they had Obama on the ropes even as he succeeded in enacting the most important new entitlement since 1965. We went for all the marbles, and ended with none. Now I fear we are doing it again."
THE LAST DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT TO BALANCE THE BUDGET WAS BILL CLINTON. THE LAST REPUBLICAN TO BALANCE THE BUDGET? DWIGHT EISENHOWER!
DON'T LET THE GOP FOOL YOU INTO BELIEVING THEY ARE THE FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE PARTY.
THEY ARE NOT:
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