Krugman: Republicans Against Reality

[ProSense]

Republicans Against Reality

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Last week House Republicans voted for the 40th time to repeal Obamacare. Like the previous 39 votes, this action will have no effect whatsoever. But it was a stand-in for what Republicans really want to do: repeal reality, and the laws of arithmetic in particular. The sad truth is that the modern G.O.P. is lost in fantasy, unable to participate in actual governing...I’m talking about their apparent inability to accept very basic reality constraints, like the fact that you can’t cut overall spending without cutting spending on particular programs, or the fact that voting to repeal legislation doesn’t change the law when the other party controls the Senate and the White House.

Am I exaggerating? Consider what went down in Congress last week.

First, House leaders had to cancel planned voting on a transportation bill, because not enough representatives were willing to vote for the bill’s steep spending cuts. Now, just a few months ago House Republicans approved an extreme austerity budget, mandating severe overall cuts in federal spending — and each specific bill will have to involve large cuts in order to meet that target. But it turned out that a significant number of representatives, while willing to vote for huge spending cuts as long as there weren’t any specifics, balked at the details...Then House leaders announced plans to hold a vote cutting spending on food stamps in half — a demand that is likely to sink the already struggling effort to agree with the Senate on a farm bill.

Then they held the pointless vote on Obamacare, apparently just to make themselves feel better. (It’s curious how comforting they find the idea of denying health care to millions of Americans.) And then they went home for recess, even though the end of the fiscal year is looming and hardly any of the legislation needed to run the federal government has passed...Republicans, confronted with the responsibilities of governing, essentially threw a tantrum, then ran off to sulk.

<...>

At this point, however, the establishment has lost control. Meanwhile, base voters actually believe the stories they were told — for example, that the government is spending vast sums on things that are a complete waste or at any rate don’t do anything for people like them. (Don’t let the government get its hands on Medicare!) And the party establishment can’t get the base to accept fiscal or political reality without, in effect, admitting to those base voters that they were lied to.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/opinion/krugman-republicans-against-reality.html

[sheshe2]

1. Love Krugman's OP title!

How did the G.O.P. get to this point? On budget issues, the proximate source of the party’s troubles lies in the decision to turn the formulation of fiscal policy over to a con man. Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has always been a magic-asterisk kind of guy — someone who makes big claims about having a plan to slash deficits but refuses to spell out any of the all-important details. Back in 2011 the Congressional Budget Office, in evaluating one of Mr. Ryan’s plans, came close to open sarcasm; it described the extreme spending cuts Mr. Ryan was assuming, then remarked, tersely, “No proposals were specified that would generate that path.”

What’s happening now is that the G.O.P. is trying to convert Mr. Ryan’s big talk into actual legislation — and is finding, unsurprisingly, that it can’t be done. Yet Republicans aren’t willing to face up to that reality. Instead, they’re just running away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/opinion/krugman-republicans-against-reality.html?_r=0

Thanks ProSense.

[ProSense]

4. Obamacare is working so they hope the voting to repeal it 40 times

will create the impression that something is wrong. They're stuck on stupid.

[Android3.14]

11. And, consequently,

you must be willing to let other children go without healthcare. Gotta practice those Christian values, Bully, not just use them to stoke anger at a black President.
But seriously, the cost of healthcare has slowed in its growth. That's one hint it is probably working.

[zipplewrath]

19. "slowed in growth"

Not sure what you are claiming here, but I suspect it is something that not even the White House is claiming. Health care SPENDING has slowed in growth, and it isn't clear that it has anything to do with Obamacare, but even if it does, it is known that this is primarily because people are buying less health care, not that the cost has gone down.

The inflation rate is still high, it may have changed from 7 to 6.5 % or something, but since Obamacare hasn't particularly started anywhere, one can't particularly credit it for that. And really, a momentary change in the inflation rate of this size really isn't indicative of ANYTHING.

Health INSURANCE rates have gone down for some people, alot really. But it is also true that some folks are paying more. They're often getting more as well, but none the less their costs are going up. Others are having rates go down, but their out of pocket is going WAY up. And the some of the union folks are going to probably see their rates flatten, or go down, but that's predominately because they'll be adjusting out of their "cadillac" plans.

So what is it you're claiming?

[Bradical79]

13. why are you afraid your child's care would deminish?

What specifically in the law has led to that fear?

[gollygee]

17. I know people who live in Europe

and their children get good care, and as quickly and efficiently as we do. At least as efficient. We have an incredibly inefficient health care system.

[tabasco]

20. Hahahahahaha - what a load.

I'd like to see some data on how many Europeans come here for health care.

Your talking points are laughable and transparent.

[KitSileya]

24. Most Europeans that go outside their own country for health care,

do it because their own country isn't big enough to sustain a research center for every disease - like Norway, with 5 million inhabitants, can't be cutting edge in everything. And yes, the health care systems in these countries have to prioritize one patient over another sometimes, but not nearly as often as the health insurance industry in the US prioritizes in favor of profit. Having the equipment too is costly in smaller populations. The question is this, tho' - these Europeans, do they have to bankrupt themselves to get this care? Would they end up bankrupt if they themselves needed care? The answer, of course, is that no, in most cases Europeans won't end up bankrupt if they tumble down the stairs, or have a child with cancer. These children will not be denied health care when they become adults - should they be cured, it will not follow them forever, and make it more difficult for them to get jobs, or change jobs, or move. In the US it will.

As someone who has experienced treatment in one European health care system, I can definitely say that it is much, much better overall than the US system. That doesn't mean that there aren't people who fall through the cracks, or that some aren't satisfied with their treatment, but they don't live in fear that it will destroy their whole family financially! No health care system will ever be perfect, and it will never be able to save everyone, but most European systems are miles ahead of the treatment opportunities most Americans have.

[KitSileya]

35. Well, I understand that you prioritize your family and their health care.

The difference is that in most European countries, the value system is to make sure everyone has health care, and not just those who can pay. The emphasis is on giving every child with cystic fibrosis health care, and yes, that often means that nobody can get the very, very best, gold-plated care, but it also means that there aren't hundreds of kids that aren't getting any care or are ruining their families with that care. I'm not saying that you personally would accept that others won't get care if it would diminish your family's care, but that is the founding principle of the US health care system, so that's how it works out right now.

[Swagman]

37. sorry but your are posting absolute b/s and i question your motives

I live most of the year in France and Spain. The socialised health care in both countries makes US healthcare look like something out of the Third World.

Lats year my brother got a knee replacement in Turkey under their national healthcare..superb.

You are posting Tea Bag and Republican nonsense.

go away.

[sheshe2]

23. This!

This is only the tip of the iceberg. So much more information if you follow the links!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform



http://www.whitehouse.gov/infographics/medicare-fraud-0512

[sheshe2]

28. No, it is not a sales pitch, it's facts. It's the law!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/08/01/one-stop-shop-health-care-law-businesses-big-and-small

A One-Stop-Shop on the Health Care Law for Businesses Big and Small

As we implement the Affordable Care Act, we continue listening to the needs of the business community. Based on our many conversations with leaders of our nation’s businesses, large and small, today we are launching Business.USA.gov/healthcare, a one-stop-shop where employers of all sizes can go for information on the Affordable Care Act.

The new site includes a web-based tool that allows employers to get tailored information on how the health law may affect them based on their business’ size, location, and plans for offering health benefits to their workers next year. From tax credits for small businesses to help make coverage affordable, to measures to help slow the growth of health care costs, there are a variety of ways that the Affordable Care Act can help businesses expand health care coverage and compete.

Check out what the GOP are doing about Obamacare, besides trying to repeal it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110212929

[zipplewrath]

34. Well, not really

What you posted is in fact a "sales pitch" or more technically, propoganda. Doesn't mean it's wrong of course, but the law is in fact still being worked out. Like all laws, the functioning aspects will be worked out over time. There's what's written, what the government will do, and how the courts will rule. As we've seen, the executive branch is still working things out.

[B Calm]

38. Doesn't Obama care force insurance companies to spend at least 80%

of their customers’ premiums on health care... Why yes it does. . .

[B Calm]

41. Whoosh!!!!

[B Calm]

44. So I guess you want it to go back to the way it was with

insurance companies denying you coverage and reaping record profits. No matter what we say to you, your mind is made up. So what's the point of arguing back and forth?

[Ian_rd]

2. Ahhh yes. Voting to Repeal the ACA. The Republican Elite version of public masturbation.

[mindwalker_i]

3. Ouch!

As in, the this particularly bitter illustration of the truth hurts.

[Dustin DeWinde]

5. gop fiscal policy has ALWAYS been run by con men

Supply side, trickle down theories were voodoo economics when Reagan first pushed it 30 years ago, it remains fantasy today.

[Scurrilous]

6. K & R

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Huzzah!

K&R

[Crow73]

9. This is SHOCKING!!!

Wait no it isn't shocking at all...

[Ian_rd]

10. He makes the point that the GOP has started believing in its own bullcrap.

But more specifically I think the GOP base, who they've been lying to for half-a-century, grew up and started running for office.

A pillar of the GOP's power has always been lying to the middle class, or energizing them with social issues, to get them to support economic policies that take money away from themselves and give it to the rich. Well, now those idiot children grew up. A lot is discussed about the differences between the GOP establishment and the Tea Party, and I think another valid difference is that the GOP establishment are the people who know they're screwing the working class to enrich the wealthy, and have been lying about it for years. The Tea Partiers on the other hand believe the bullshit they've been told and are angry that the establishment doesn't act more forcefully on it. They're angry idiots incapable of a train of thought lasting more than 1.5 seconds, usually confined to spewing nonsense at their local bar, but now holding national office.

[AgingAmerican]

12. He has always been good at pointing out the obvious

...very eloquently.

[Rex]

30. Paul is spot on!

HOW many times do they get to vote on the same dam policy? 40 should be criminal and get them kicked out of office. How much money did they waste on 40 sessions to try and repeal ACA?

I HATE Republicans!

[arely staircase]

32. victims of their own con game...."

from the piece:

"What’s happening now is that the G.O.P. is trying to convert Mr. Ryan’s big talk into actual legislation — and is finding, unsurprisingly, that it can’t be done. Yet Republicans aren’t willing to face up to that reality. Instead, they’re just running away.

When it comes to fiscal policy, then, Republicans have fallen victim to their own con game. And I would argue that something similar explains how the party lost its way, not just on fiscal policy, but on everything.

Think of it this way: For a long time the Republican establishment got its way by playing a con game with the party’s base. Voters would be mobilized as soldiers in an ideological crusade, fired up by warnings that liberals were going to turn the country over to gay married terrorists, not to mention taking your hard-earned dollars and giving them to Those People. Then, once the election was over, the establishment would get on with its real priorities — deregulation and lower taxes on the wealthy."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/opinion/krugman-republicans-against-reality.html?_r=0

[DallasNE]

33. We Have Seen This Before

In the late 1940's Senate Majority Leader Robert Taft did much the same thing that is happening in the House today. That allowed President Truman to run against the "do nothing" Congress and pull off an upset victory against the Romney like Thomas Dewey. But Taft continued to be Senate leader until his death in 1953. But that opened the door for the likes of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon so the ride could be a long one. That period even brought us a young Barry Goldwater though he didn't have the severe character flaws of McCarthy and Nixon. Insert Cruz for McCarthy, Rubio for Taft, Paul for Goldwater and maybe throw in Christie for Eisenhower and the stage is set for a rerun -- not exactly the glory days of our nation.

[Jack Rabbit]

36. The government has spent vast sums on things that are a complete waste

Take bank bailouts, for example. Or the War on Terror and the Iraq War. Or Dick Cheney's salary. Or Tim Geithner's. Or Rahm Emanuel's. Or those of all House Republicans. Or the NSA's domestic spying.