The GOP has a plan if they take over Congress. Hint: no gripe fixing..Since Donald Trump was a candidate for president, the Republicans' platform was a ditto of whatever Donald Trump said it was. I kept waiting for them to tell us how they would correct their list of grievances against the Democrats: inflation, crime, stolen elections. Until now, all they have done is complain and offer no solutions other than to roll back whatever the Democrats have done. However, we are beginning to get a glimpse of what they plan to do if they control Congress, and they plan to hold hostage Congress by refusing to raise the debt ceiling until they get their way on legislative issues. Their platform has little to do with dealing with what their voters say bothers them.
What they plan to do is to get revenge on Democrats by holding hearings on Hunter Biden in an attempt to get at Biden and then try to impeach Biden (reasons not yet defined). Their hope by creating partisan fog, voters will forget or ignore what they plan to do to the majority of voters in the name of fiscal conservativism on public policy issues that are the usual same ol' same old' agenda. Feed the rich and big corporations; it will trickle down. Been there; tried that.
Not all, but most in the GOP have hinted at what sort of public policy issues they will support in the name of cutting debt and deficit. That is a shaky platform to stand on. For the GOP, it is the same old song..stop government spending on foreign stuff and social programs and "government waste," and we will reduce the deficit, a great part of which they engineered themselves with their unfunded tax cuts to the rich when they were in the driver's seat. It is also bad timing since the deficit has decreased dramatically even with the aid the US is giving to Ukraine and even with the Biden administration's spending programs. The 2022 deficit of $1.375 trillion was half of the FY 2021 deficit, $40 billion less than Sforecasted in the President's 2023 Budget and $1.8 trillion lower than the deficit the President inherited. As a percentage of GDP, the FY 2022 deficit was 6.8 percentage points lower than in the previous year. Unlike the unfunded tax breaks to the rich of the GOP's enacted policies, Biden's spending had real pay fors, reducing the costs of Medicare to the government by requiring pharma to compete for bids and tax increases on the rich.
So here is the GOP agenda we can piece together so far.
1. Force the rest of the pro-choice states , to bow down to a federal abortion ban.
2. Put Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block every five years and/or increase the age of eligibility or cut government support of those popular programs to which older Americans have contributed and paid for. Try planning for retirement with that threat hanging over you.
When it comes to fiscal responsibility, the
strangest counterargument from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee on CNN this morning was that" well, Biden cut Medicare government spending on these programs". Who is he fooling? What is the significant number of retirees in Florida? Understand this is a deceptive non-argument. Scott's point: Biden did it, so it is OK we do it, too?: Reality check: Biden's actions had nothing to do with reducing benefits to seniors, but it had to do with requiring competitive bids by big pharma, to lower the cost to the government of having Medicare and Medicaid cover out-of-control costs of prescription drugs.. Republicans have fought to reduce those costs tooth and nail and would fight to restore the blank check big pharma forces the government to swallow by reversing the Biden cost cutting. When it comes to cutting government costs on these popular programs, the GOP placed preferring supporting the profits of big pharma over-soaking taxpayers and consumers. In fact, they want to repeal all of Biden's relief to consumers paying too much for prescriptions. House GOP eyes repeal of Dems' drug pricing law (axios.com)
Pointing to the violence of January 6 and the passive or verbal support of the stack on cops, law n order is only supported by the GOP, if the law enforcers act to support their agenda. Hypocrisy is not unusual in politics. However, that is not the basic issue: the issue is urban, and to a lesser extent, suburban, crime, . Even then, the GOP on Congress opposed more police funding while supporting more guns in the hands of whoever wants them, even those with violent histories or acting out. The GOP then caters to r fears of black people and immigrants committing rape and murder. to gin up elements of their racist base. Suburban women, on the other hand, have other fears: school shootings made mass killings by weapons of war used by the unhinged.
4. Reduce support of Ukraine in their fight against the Russians using the bogus deficit argument (above) as an excuse. This is a further resurrection of the American Firsters' mentality, that American security is not linked to events abroad. We know how that worked out from history in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor. If Russia gets its way, expect the lesson Putin learns is just wait it out; the west will eventually cave. The lesson the West learns: use NATO to protect the Baltics or fight Russia again in the Balkans. The lesson China learns is a green light to take Formosa and increase control over Southeast Asia.
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