General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWOW. Talk about an EYE-OPENER. Phew.
Lets first imagine that, on January 20, Romney takes the oath of office. Of the many secret post-victory plans floating around in the inner circles of the campaigns, the least secret is Romneys intention to implement Paul Ryans budget. The Ryan budget has come to be almost synonymous with the Republican Party agenda, and Romney has embraced it with only slight variations. It would repeal Obamacare, cut income-tax rates, turn Medicare for people under 55 years old into subsidized private insurance, increase defense spending, and cut domestic spending, with especially large cuts for Medicaid, food stamps, and other programs targeted to the very poor.
Few voters understand just how rapidly Romney could achieve this, rewriting the American social compact in one swift stroke. Ryans plan has never attracted Democratic support, but it is not designed for bipartisanship. Ryan deliberately built it to circumvent a Senate filibuster, stocking the plan with budget legislation that is allowed, under Senate budget reconciliation procedures, to pass with a simple majority. Republicans have been planning the mechanics of the vote for many months, and Republican insiders expect Romney to use reconciliation to pass the bill. Republicans would still need to control 50 votes in the Senate (Ryan, as vice-president, would cast the tiebreaking vote), but if Romney wins the presidency, hell likely precipitate a partywide tail wind that would extend to the GOPs Senate slate.
One might suppose that at least a handful of Republicans might blanch at the prospect of reshaping the entire face of government unilaterally. But Ryans careful organizing of the party agenda has all taken place with this vote as the end point, and with the clear goal of sidestepping any such objection. When Republicans won control of Congress during the 2010 elections, Ryan successfully lobbied the party to take a vote on his budget plan the following April. The plan stood no chance of passage (given Obamas certain veto) and exposed dozens of vulnerable House members to withering attacks over its unpopular provisions. So why hold a vote carrying huge potential risk and no chance of immediate success? So Ryan could get the party on record supporting his plan, depriving quiet dissidents of any future excuse to defect should the real vote come in 2013.
PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING:
[link:http://nymag.com/news/politics/elections-2012/obama-romney-economic-plans-2012-10/|
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Thanks for posting.
2on2u
(1,843 posts)likely will need it once these lightweights reverse the direction of all things important.
oldbanjo
(690 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,320 posts)Nate Silver puts it under 20%, and says that Romney's gains have not been spreading to Senate races.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/
muriel_volestrangler
(101,320 posts)"In fact, shortly after the next Inaugural Ballperhaps very, very shortly afterthe great stalemate between socialism and social Darwinism will break open and likely turn decisively in one direction or the other."
No. Nothing Obama, nor the Democrats in general, has proposed can be called 'socialism'. The Democratic plan is for roughly what has been the direction or reality of the USA since FDR, averaged out. A few of FDR's moves might have been seen as socialism, but really they were temporary Keynesian measures to keep employment up, and build infrastructure. They did not try to take over the means of production, nor banking. Reforms about social security and healthcare since then have been no more socialist than they were when Bismarck introduced them in Germany.
Chait is too intelligent and informed to believe what he wrote. Why the hell he did write it, I can't tell. But it puts the rest of the article in a very bad light, whatever he writes after it.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)Now we really know what is at stake. And for me, it gives me a lot more faith in President Obama.
BigBearJohn
(11,410 posts)brindis_desala
(907 posts)she explained this on her radio show a long time ago.