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The Biggest Losers?
Calls for unity among our bribed, corrupt, political class have indeed got them together. This insider love fest fails to address any of our underlying issues and potentially wastes the last chance in our lifetime for conservative legislation.
- Every member of the GOP needs to scream at the camera every day that this Russia garbage and the witch hunt need to stop. We are witnessing a potential coup and it will end very poorly for the conspirators as well as those who just watched. The American political class has never been so despised in modern times and if the GOP fails to prevent the coup or actively takes part I shudder to think what comes next.
- The GOP needs to ram home as much legislation as possible as fast as possible. The clock is ticking. They will never have another opportunity like this.
The GOP need to quit being scared little girls about the media. Their pocketbooks are not more important than their duty to our country.- Ryan and McConnell need to be men and if they can’t be we might as well make them use the ladies bathroom. They are now rich because of their time in DC and have gone soft. Their test is now and they either grow a pair or they don’t. Nobody gives a darn about their faux unity in this polarized country.
- We won this election and they either step up and lead or they need to be swept away like mice for they are certainly not men. Many of their insider friends want them to stand down as the coup happens. If they cannot lead this country then they surely are the biggest losers.
Do I count? I’m 65, and I want to see SS and Medicare reformed so that they don’t bankrupt the country.
I am orders of magnitude more frustrated with congressional Republicans than I am Donald Trump.
Spot on, Doc.
Oh, and get some freaking legislation on his desk already!!!! Start distracting the Russia propagandists with real news!!
Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowsi, John McCain, Bob Corker, those Republican Senators are not going to support the kind of legislation that conservatives want.
And they aren’t going to support getting rid of the legislative filibuster. This means that since you can’t get Democrat Senators to support conservative legislation, no conservative legislation is going to pass, with the possible exception of health care and tax reform because this can be done though reconciliation, which can be filibustered.
If one is realistic, expectations for this Congress must be extremely low.
No, they didn’t.
Trump said that it’s called the Republican party, not the conservative party.
Trump praised single payer health care during the 1st Republican presidential debate.
Trump promised in the 1st Republican presidential debate that he would not touch Medicare or Social Security.
Maybe these guys are all great. However, none of them can command a wide audience. Trump can do that. Doc is correct, though, that the Russia silliness is preventing him from doing it effectively. So what can all these good people do? Exactly what Doc suggests: squeak and squeal about the Russia thing until it loses legitimacy and goes away. Secondarily, they can put together some legislation that moves the ball in our direction and Trump will sign it. Warning: it won’t be perfect conservative legislation; it can’t be. It also won’t be the last and permanent word – politics keeps going into infinity. Doesn’t matter. The problem has never been the half a loaf approach – it’s always been that our half of the loaf kept getting eaten by the left with hardly a response from our list of good guy leaders.
Hungover. Phone has poor reception. Arguments that ” well Trump is this that or the other ” or “his supporters are this that or the other” are not going to get bills passed
If you knew this was the last chance in your lifetimes you’d transcend your dislike of the above thoughts and root for the people I’m calling out to act boldly.
But if you want to throw in the towel because he’s such a tool and some of his supporters disgust you then it’s OK to give up too.
Meanwhile , I’ll chastise out leaders to fight the Russia thing and pass some bills.
Coffee. I need coffee. I had some dreams. They were clouds in my covfefe.
True. Has always been true and will continue to be true. It’s a big tent.
True, but I’m not sure that means what you think it means.
True, but then again no one has touched those and no one was promising to do so either – and no one was actually going to do anything no matter what speaches were given. I’d prefer the clarity of Trump’s upfront honesty.
Overall, Trump has said many things, some not conservative some conservative. He’s far from perfect ideologically speaking, but he’s governed conservatively so far and looks like he’s poised to keep doing that provided the congress gets in the game and does its part. I’m not going to relitigate the campaign or Trump’s true nature, though, so you can save further recitations of Trump quotes for someone else because I don’t think those are interesting or useful topics.
If the GOP does not accomplish #2 it will be the biggest choke job in the history of blown opportunities.
It may be strange to have Donald Trump signing major healthcare and tax reform legislation, but he will sign it, and these Republican majorities in both houses may never happen again ….
Don’t Eff up what could be your only shot, by never getting off the shot.
I’ve been saying that for years! Also, when you’re in the minority, you’re better able to fund-raise off the actions of the majority.
I’m thinking they are more like battered women: making excuses for, and trying to win the favor of, their tormentors. They have been beaten up for so long they think it’s normal. Adapted from here:
These folks need an intervention or something.
@spiral- Re comments 64 and 66- What you’ve noted is basically a variation on what Milton Friedman said: “It’s nice to elect the right people, but that isn’t the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.” Mark Steyn recently noted that this is what the Brits did to get Brexit.
The question is, absent an economic crisis, how do we get support for an affordable Obamacare replacement, and how do we reform entitlements?
Any ideas?
@docjay– Great post!
This is great confirmation of a main point in the OP that these folks occupying congressional leadership positions are merely doing just that, occupying. They should be doing all they can to shut down those pushing these investigations that cannot serve any other purpose beyond an attempted coup and overthrow of a duly elected POTUS. We need new legislative leaders.
Agree, agree, agree. But…actually if they cannot lead this country, than we are the biggest losers.
Late to the lovefest @hoyacon, but your question is moot, I expect, because it isn’t working out at all with regards legislation. I have to agree with you. OTOH, what Trump has been able to accomplish without legislation is, I hope you agree, very significant.
DocJay for Congress!
I have to side with Dennis Prager on the issue of where we are in our country. We really are engaged in a cultural civil war, and after the Scalise shooting, possibly a physical one with arms in the near future. The Left, and the Democrats, have transformed themselves from radical thought to violent action. Like mainstream Islam, mainstream Leftism can easily be radicalized into violence, violence that results in anarchy on our streets.
Maybe divorce is the answer. Look at Yugoslavia. We don’t need a real civil war. Maybe we should let the Leftists establish their own Utopia with a sliver of the left coast, and a chunk of New York.
Call it a political no-fault divorce . . .
People’s Republic.
I always thought , being that the Republicans obviously had no clue what to do about Obamacare, they should have started with tax cuts, not reform, but cuts–broad and immediate. Get the economy humming. Get a win under everyone’s belt. I know they claim that health insurance reform was need to create funds for tax reform. That is exactly the problem in Washington–everything is tied like a gordian knot to everything else. They treat the budget (omnibus) the same way. Just do something–anything–and stop with the hearings.
I don’t know if Republicans in Congress will be able to reach consensus on tax reform. As I see it Republicans are divided into 3 factions on tax reform:
[1] Revenue neutral tax reformers.
These are the guys who want to reduce corporate tax rates (the US currently has the highest rates in the industrialized world) in exchange for closing loopholes. The result would be tax bill that would not lose revenue but would stimulate the economy. Part of this equation is “border adjustment,” which is essentially a value added tax (a.k.a. a national sales tax) on imported goods.
[2] Tax Cutters.
The tax cutters are willing to cut tax rates even if the result is a higher budget deficit. They figure that trying to make the tax reform bill revenue neutral will ultimately result in a bad bill. So, they say, “Deficits don’t matter.” Or at least they don’t matter as much as tax cuts.
[3] Do Nothing.
These are the Republicans that either don’t want to change the tax code or only want to do something that has bi-partisan support. Hopefully there are very few of these people. But given the narrow majorities of the GOP, even a few folks like this could kill tax reform.
It’s going to be tough to get tax reform through. Maybe a little easier than health care reform, but not a walk in the park.
Well said. Unfortunately, these guys do not “lose” in the end. As consummate establishmentarians they know that punishment by the voters is a minor setback. The future is bright on K-Street, where they will have a seven-figure salary awaiting. See Trent Lott and Eric Cantor.
You keep using that word “loser.” Perhaps you do not think it means what they think it menas.
This is why I’m furious. The Democrats would never allow something like that to stand in the way of their agenda. You have to admire their Bolshevik party discipline. That’s why the ratchet is always moving us Left. Meanwhile our prima donnas preen and bow in sickening righteousness.
They have had years to come up with an alternative, and in fact they told us over and over they had a replacement ready to go. But I guess it was all just balloon juice to get reelected. The backlash in the midterms is going to be wicked.
Which is my point. Trump has to lead. He doesn’t understand how Washington works, how to herd these cats. The young guns can help him learn how to do it by giving him the outlines of health and tax changes that make sense and that Trump can sell. He just tosses the policy ball into the scrum, that can’t work.
This. But the Russia thing has no legitimacy involving Trump to start with.
Entitlements: Reform really only means 2 choices: Keep them as is, or reduce them. In both cases, though, you’re going to have to do at least two things:
Otherwise, insolvency continues. And the above will only delay insolvency; it’s like pushing a big wave back, but it’s still coming. A spending tsumani. A tax triceratops. A kajillion Kaiju.
Wait… you mean like Obama did with Obamacare? That can’t work? You think Obama sat down with Congress and hammered out what he wanted on healthcare? Nonsense. He gave it to Pelosi and Reid and they got it done by whatever sleazy means necessary.
I give McConnell credit for holding up Merrick Garland and (I’m being serious) saving the constitutional order of this country by risking his majority on it. But, the utter fecklessness of the Republicans in Congress on the healthcare issue — especially given 6+ years to get their shtuff together — makes me think they really don’t want to fix it.
I fear what Kozak says might be true — the midterms are going to be a bloody massacre.
Of course I will vote in the mid terms. And it is almost as certain as the sun rising in the east that I will vote Republican. But my enthusiasm has diminished to barely being able to make a mark on the ballot.
Concur wholeheartedly. Not only didn’t they have a plan, they didn’t have a plan that was staffed through every Republican, issues and friction points addressed, talking points disseminated, messaging and marketing supporting plans ready to go on day one of a Republican administration. They didn’t have a point paper ready for the Senate parliamentarian giving him a road map to endorsing passing a repeal/replace via budget reconciliation.
The fact that these jackwads didn’t have any of that demonstrates that USG has no business running healthcare.
DJT had an infinitesimal chance of winning the election? Doesn’t matter, that plan should’ve been in the chute, ready to go, before we even had a nominee. Schmucks.