Yesterday, Michael Tomasky published a wonderfully paranoid piece in the Daily Beast. He is certain that Republicans will try to “wreck the economy” for their own political gain. If only the GOP would allow President Obama to save America:
Then Obama tries to clean up mess number one, and they do everything they can to block every step he’s taken. It’s worked pretty well for them politically because the jobless rate has been high, and as long as that was the case, they could say no, choosing whatever weapon was handy and wagging their collective finger at the president.
Could it be that Republicans believe the president’s economic remedies are actually detrimental to the economy? This possibility does not cross Tomasky’s mind; instead, the GOP are impeding Obama solely for political gain.
What’s more worrisome is what the Republicans on Capitol Hill will do in policy terms to try to blunt the recovery. They’re doing little things as they can manage them. Last week, the House Budget Committee approved a bill that would inflate the cost of federal programs. But what about the big things? Let’s watch what happens on the payroll tax-decrease extension the White House wants. The current reduction expires February 29. It would not exactly shock me to see Republicans start throwing new poison pills into the final negotiations.
But don’t worry, Tomasky doesn’t think all Republicans are evil, just most of them.
There are decent and honorable individual Republicans. Probably many of them. I even know some. But as a collective entity—as a party and a movement that includes the media wing and the base that boos a gay soldier at a debate and cheers executions—they are toxic destroyers, their minds infected by the idea that any cooperation with the president for the sake of the country is the moral equivalent of Munich (yes, with all that analogy implies). They will do anything.
It is ad hominem rhetoric like this that prevents us from having sensible debates over how to fix the economy.