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I once had a boss who told me it is easy to criticize. He insisted, whenever I felt the need to criticize an operating procedure, he would stand by me so long as I offered a reasonable solution. The Republicans undoubtedly have scored political points opposing the president, now it is time to back up their complaints with solutions. It is your job as a voter to insist upon it.
A positive sign is five Republicans stood up to Democrats on a jobs-bill compromise that will help put Americans back to work. One of those Republicans is Scott Brown, the senator from Massachusetts. How long before the extreme right puts Brown on its hit list as it has done with Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for his willingness to work with Democrats to help solve climate change? That’s the problem. The Tea Party that promises to help put Republicans back in charge of Congress in 2010 sees compromise as weakness. Better to sink the president than help the country is its credo.
At the recent Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Sarah Palin claimed it’s time for a real commander-in-chief (presumably herself). She offered no solutions to fighting global terrorism (not even written on her hand), just sound bites and bumper-sticker slogans. Palin criticizes Mr. Obama because he was once a law professor, implying he is too effete for the job. Yet, here are some real facts — source: Slate online Feb. 8 — the president has tripled the number of troops in Afghanistan and authorized twice as many airstrikes against the Taliban than Bush did in his final year (65, Obama to 36, Bush). Mr. Obama also authorized SEAL sharpshooters to kill armed pirates who had hijacked our ship and were holding Americans hostage.
What about the charge we should have placed the underwear bomber under military arrest rather than have the FBI arrest him and read him his Miranda rights? Dick Cheney, Palin and right-wing talking heads have been furious about that. Yet, in a Feb. 7 “Meet the Press” interview, White House Terrorism Czar John Brennan indicated key Republican leaders never objected to the administration’s decision when they were briefed.
Maybe it was because shoe bomber Richard Reid was handled the very same way by the Bush administration with nary a peep from Republicans. Further, the underwear bomber continues to freely provide information to the FBI while some suspects have clammed up under military interrogation.
Where Republicans have stepped up and offered solutions with their criticisms, they have not exactly aligned themselves with their new-found friends in the Tea Party. Example: Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic (Feb. 25) reveals Republican alternatives to the administration’s health-care reform plan would cover only about three million of the 52 million uninsured. Congressman Paul Ryan’s idea is to convert Medicare into a voucher system where seniors would find themselves shopping for the coverage they now automatically get from (if you’ll pardon the expression) “government-run” Medicare. These are the same seniors who most often have pre-existing conditions, something the Republicans would not do anything about. In short, Republican Ryan’s solution would destroy Medicare without reducing costs and almost certainly reduce coverage. Incidentally, Ryan also wants to revive the Bush plan to privatize Social Security, which would tie your retirement to the stock market. As Palin says, is that “hopey” and “changey” enough for you?
Republicans have come out united to curb government spending. This is the same party that turned the budget surplus of the Clinton years into a yawning deficit by the time Obama took office. The Republican recipe for reviving the economy is disingenuous. They rail against the Obama stimulus, but passed the first stimulus during the Bush administration and with good reason because without the two stimulus packages teachers, firefighters and police would have been laid off en masse. The American auto industry would have collapsed and banks would have gone under. In short, it was government action by both the Bush and Obama administrations that headed off a repeat of the Depression.
While Republicans have suddenly found religion and scorn budget deficits, they oppose the “pay-as-you-go” legislation proposed by the president, not because they oppose it philosophically, but because they are more interested in inflicting another defeat on the presidency.
The free ride for Republicans is over. If they insist you need 60 votes to pass any legislation (a recipe for doing nothing in a time of crisis), then they have to offer solutions. The public will get a chance to compare Republican solutions with the Democrats’ instead of being fed a steady diet of empty criticism.
Brown and four other Republicans seem to have realized, in joining Democrats to pass a jobs bill, along with opposition comes responsibility. But will other Republicans follow? In the meantime, we’ll get to see whether converting Social Security and Medicare into iffy alternatives is really what Americans want, or whether it is even what the Tea Party bargained for.
The ball is in the Republicans’ court.
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