Yet, if media analysts are to be believedalways adubious propositionthat conscious Republican strategy is improving the party’sprospects of winning in the November midterm elections.
Last week we witnessed the spectacle of Republicansfilibusteringyes, filibusteringto prevent more than 2 million unemployedpeople across the country, including 69,000 in Wisconsin, from receiving any moreunemployment benefits.
Not only did Republicans repeatedly vote againstunemployment compensation to help those who have used up their benefits to feedtheir families, but many went out of their way to insult people without jobs.
Philosophically, Republicans say they are opposed toproviding unemployment benefits because if people who lose their jobs receivemoney from the government, they won’t try as hard to find new jobs.
Never mind that, as a result of the nationaleconomic collapse under Republican President George W. Bush, there aren’t anyjobs for four out of five of those looking for work.
President Barack Obama won an overwhelming electionvictory in large part because of the disastrous Bush presidency that turnedrecord budget surpluses under Democrat Bill Clinton into record budget deficitsand the worst economic plunge since the Great Depression.
Logically, for their disastrous economic policies,Republicans deserve to be wandering in the electoral wilderness for years tocome.
Yet, just two years after Obama’s election, themedia repeatedly trumpet the election prospects for Republicans in Novemberamid what they call “a dismal climate for Democrats.”
Benefit the GOP At All Costs
Republicans appear to be getting away with one ofthe most brazenly anti-American political strategies in history.
Realizing voters blame the party in power for badtimes, Republicans turned their back on the American ideal of everybody pullingtogether to get us through tough times.
Unbelievably, Republicans have repeatedly votedagainst measures by President Obama to speed economic recovery. Republicansfigure the longer millions of Americans are miserable, the more likely they areto be angry at the Democrats or possibly too disheartened to vote at all.
Opposing unemployment compensation as well asconsumer protections and regulations for Wall Street that were part of a majorfinancial reform law passed last week were just the latest examples.
Every time President Obama has reached across theaisle for Republican votes to create jobs or reduce economic hardship onAmericans, the response of Republicans has been to stomp on his fingers.
Less than a handful of Republican senators havevoted for any measure to lift Americaout of this historic recession. Many important efforts have not received asingle Republican vote.
It began with the much-pilloried economic stimuluspackage that most economic experts, including Republican economists, agreesaved or created more than 3 million jobs.
Republicans actually are proud of voting againstdoing anything to stimulate the economy. They routinely refer to it as “thefailed economic stimulus.” They proudly repeat ridiculously untrue statementssuch as “the stimulus package failed to create a single job.”
It may be annoying to have so many city streets andstate roads blocked off for construction this summer, but these are real jobsproviding real income that allow people to provide for their families and spendmoney at other businesses. Republicans can’t deny these people out ofexistence.
Schools opening in September will be facing a majoreducational crisis with hundreds of teachers being laid off in Milwaukee and around the state. The onlyreason classrooms weren’t already gutted a year ago was the economic stimulus.
Retiring Wisconsin Congressman David Obey includedfunds to retain teachers in a House bill. So far Senate Republicans havestopped any consideration of funds to prevent the massive teacher layoffs.
Of course, Republicans can’t openly admit they arevoting against economic recovery so that miserable Americans might be morelikely to vote against Democrats in November. So they have come up with a philosophicalreason to oppose every effort to create jobs and improve the economy: They’reagainst adding to that growing government deficit.
Yes, that’s the same deficit Republicans couldn’tcare less about when they passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy whilestarting two wars. In fact, Republicans now want to extend those tax cuts forthe wealthy again and add the cost to the deficit.
It’s just spending that would lead to economicrecovery and benefit the 95% of Americans who aren’t wealthy that Republicansrefuse to add to the deficit.
Of course, the best way to reduce the deficit wouldbe to end the recession and put Americaback to work.
Sometime before the election, the media should makeclear which party is trying to do that and which party opposes economicrecovery because it believes extending American misery will benefit Republicansin November.
