A Most Revealing Week for Republicans
Michael Tomasky
The McCutcheon decision, Paul Ryans budget, and Obamacare deniers all say what the GOP cant: We protect the well-off from redistribution of their wealth to those who dont deserve it.
If you havent done so yet, I urge you to take three minutes here with me to reflect on this unusually revealing week. Three big developmentsthe Obamacare enrollment deadline, the Paul Ryan budget, and the Supreme Courts McCutcheon decisionreturn us to first principles, so to speak; remind us of what our two parties (and the philosophical positions behind them) are really and truly about. And they remind me, at least, of why the Republican Party, on a very basic level, cant ever be truthful with the American people about what matters to it most at the end of the day.
So what is it that matters most to the Republican Party? A lot of things do, and for different Republicans, the answer will be different: abhorrence of abortion, disgust at social relativism, hatred of big government. These things matter. But they dont, in my view, matter most. What matters most, especially to elected Republicans in Washington (that is, more so than the rank-and-file), is this: Protect the well-off from redistribution of their wealth to those who dont deserve it.
On what basis do I make this claim? Well, Ive been watching Republicans on Capitol Hill pretty closely for many years now. There are, Lord knows, a number of topics on which they are not exactly what youd call amenable to compromise. The climate-change denialism, the constant attempts to chop away at reproductive rights (which are constitutional rights), et cetera.
But I think its fair and accurate to say that, especially in the Obama era, two issues have obsessed the party more than all the others: opposition to tax increases, especially on the wealthy; and a zeal for cutting the budget, which really means cutting domestic spending programs.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/04/a-most-revealing-week-for-republicans.html