That GOP Pledge Is Lemon Scented

As John Boehner and 11 other Republicans exited the backroom of a hardware store in their shirtsleeves (oh, how hardworking they are!) to unveil their new "Pledge To America" on September 23rd, our great nation awaited this grand new plan with bated breath (ok, maybe not).

So what did the masses get for all their anticipation? Not much. The 21 page pamphlet (that's 1.75 pages per hardware store Republican if you're scoring at home) that the GOP unleashed on the populous sounds a whole lot like the crap that you've been hearing from them for the last 10 years. Tax cuts, spending freezes, and repealing "Obamacare" are the vague hallmarks of this latest conservative opus. I guess when it came to the "fresh new ideas" that Boehner had once promised us, they were, well, fresh out.

Let's start with the tax cuts. The Pledge would extend the George Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of our population at a cost of at least $700 billion over the next ten years. Their somewhat clever argument is that they will be extending the tax cuts for all Americans as opposed to the President who wants to continue the law for the middle class and down. The Republican argument is that one: you shouldn't raise taxes in a recession, and two: keeping taxes low for the wealthy will create jobs.

But would raising taxes on the rich really hurt the economy? Most economists will tell you different. Tax cuts for the rich are historically one of the least stimulative maneuvers you can make during a downturn. The wealthy are more likely to keep that extra cash in their pockets or bank accounts as opposed those of lower income levels. And as for the job creation myth, well, we've lost 8,467,000 private sector jobs since the George Bush tax cuts of 2001. If you believe that a sensible definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over while expecting a different result, then this pledge should have come with a straight jacket.

Let's move on to the spending freezes/cuts. The Pledge promotes $4 trillion in spending cuts. All while retaining the tax cuts for the wealthy, funding a missile defense system, and freezing spending on all domestic programs except for the military, homeland security, aid for veterans, and social security as well as other entitlements that affect our seniors. Programs which take up about 70% of the national budget as it stands now. So what is the price tag for the pledge? About $3.7 trillion. So at best, they would save tax payers $300 billion. Or, 7.5% of what they are promising.

Of course, there is no greater scourge in conservative circles than the Health Care Reform Bill. The Republicans have been talking about repealing it since the moment it passed. Even if you throw out the possibility that it will ever happen (it won't), what do they plan to replace it with? Well, according to the Pledge, they will put into action the ability to buy insurance across state lines, create high risk insurance pools, end denials of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, eliminate lifetime and annual caps on insurance benefits, end the ability of insurance companies to drop people when they get sick, and outlaw the government funding of abortion. Sounds great, right? But here's the thing, all that stuff is already in the bill. So they intend on replacing the bill with the same bill? Ladies and gentlemen, your tax dollars at work.

Now to be fair, they do want to include tort reform as a part of their "replace" strategy. And that's fine, but you don't need to repeal the whole bill to do so. As well, they want to remove the "individual mandate" part of the bill. However, anyone who understands health care reform will tell you that you can't remove the individual mandate and retain coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. Without the mandate on the young and healthy--who don't always buy insurance--the overall cost of health insurance would go through the roof.

Another fascinating aspect of the Pledge is their desire to create a process that would require the certification of all bills as "constitutional" before they could be voted on. There are at least two problems with this idea. First, we have a whole other branch of government that decides on what laws are constitutional. It's called the judiciary. We've even got a Supreme Court and everything. Secondly, isn't it hard enough for congress to get anything done now without adding another layer of process?

Obviously, the Pledge is modeled on the GOP's "Contract With America" from 1994. A comparatively superior document that had the first rate intellect of Newt Gingrich behind it. The Pledge--like the Contract--is designed to be the exclamation point for the mid-terms. Something that if the polls are to be believed, they won't need to make huge congressional gains. Which is a good thing for them, because this document isn't worth the time it would take to shred all 21 pages of it.

In fact, if you really want to know what we can expect from Republicans after the mid-terms, you only need to read this quote from House Minority Leader Boehner, taken from the hardware store itself: "We aren't going to be any different than what we've been."

As Roger Daltrey once sang: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

God help us.

Sumo-Pop
September 30, 2010