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The party that can’t govern

Forgive me for not having an informed position on the payroll tax issue, but I’ve been busy moving across the country. I’ve had the news on the radio and on TV these past few days, and I cannot for the life of me understand why the House Republicans are doing what they’re doing about the […]

Forgive me for not having an informed position on the payroll tax issue, but I’ve been busy moving across the country. I’ve had the news on the radio and on TV these past few days, and I cannot for the life of me understand why the House Republicans are doing what they’re doing about the payroll tax. I found myself thinking yesterday, “These people have no business governing.” But I also know that perhaps I’ve missed something in the debate. However, Ross Douthat, who has been watching and thinking about this, writes something about it that makes intuitive sense to me, and that fits what I’ve been able to follow in bits and pieces. Excerpt:

The White House’s embrace of payroll tax cut, properly understood, should be a boon to the right, since it involves a Democratic president tacitly admitting that Social Security isn’t really pay-as-you-go, that the trust fund is more a gimmick than a lockbox, and that America’s retirement system could be just as easily paid for out of general revenue rather than through a counterproductive tax on employment and work. Instead, the debate as it’s unfolded has made the Republicans look ideologically confused, politically disorganized, and loath to champion policies that directly benefit the middle class. As the overture to an election year, it’s been the poorest possible advertisement for conservative governance.

I told my wife the other day that as far as I can tell, one of the only ideological constants in the GOP as it exists today is that whatever Obama supports, they oppose. This is intelligent government, or principled government? I don’t get these people. At all.

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