Cynical Demagougery

TW: This piece summarizes the Republican candidate for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat's views. What exactly do folks think they are going to get with a person like Scott Brown. Apparently many folks buy into the fantasies of cut taxes in order to cut the deficit, let Medicare spending continue rise far above inflation but somehow provide universal care, and that all of the government action to stave off GD 2.0 was a waste of $ because the economy would have magically corrected itself despite the fact that by the end of September last year we were on the verge of a completely locked up financial system.

I realize folks like to bitch and whine and think if they just keep throwing the bums out nirvana will arrive but really. You think these type folks would do better?

From Andrew Sullivan:
"His Globe piece is presumably a good way to assess his platform. And it highlights all the bankruptcy of the current conservative establishment. Take a couple of issues. He starts by listing national problems:

'Public debt has reached $12 trillion and counting, and Washington politicians want to borrow trillions more. '

His solution?
'My plan for the economy is simple: an across-the-board tax cut - in the tradition of John F. Kennedy - for families and businesses that will increase investment and lead to immediate new job growth. More tax increases will hurt our recovery. That’s why I have taken a no-new-tax pledge. My opponent will raise taxes.'

Does anyone see the contradiction here? Without any tax increases, indeed with more tax cuts, the spending reductions required to reduce the debt will be fantastic: massive cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and defense. Where does he outline these spending measures? Nowhere. Fiscally, he's as fraudulent as Bush.

More absurdity here:
'It’s time to admit that while the $787 billion stimulus had the best of intentions, it failed to create one new job.'

Even if you believe that stimuli are wasteful or inefficient, I know of no sane economist who believes that $800 billion did not create one new job.

Then he's in favor of the Massachusetts universal health insurance reform, on which Obama's is based, but for some reason against the one for the country. Why?

But the healthcare bill under discussion in Washington is not good. It will raise taxes and increase spending. If you are a senior on Medicare, it will lead to a half trillion dollars in cuts to your care.

So Brown supports health care exchanges, a mandate, and universal care ... but opposes healthcare exhcanges, a mandate and universal care. He is worried about the debt but actually opposes the proposed cuts in Medicare that can make universal insurance affordable - let alone the cuts necessary to bring us back from the fiscal abyss.

He is, in other words, a parody of the brainless bush Republican, mixed with Romney-like cynicism. "
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/01/scott-browns-mindless-oped.html#more