Polarization and the Fetishization of the Mythical Center

Paul Krugman on: "Reasonable Republicans?"

"Several commenters have asked that I provide examples of Republicans making reasonable economic arguments; some of them seem to be saying that I’m proving my bias if I don’t provide such examples. 

But it doesn’t work that way: if all Republicans are saying unreasonable things, then it’s a distortion — indeed, a form of bias — to insist that there must be reasonable Republicans. 

Now, what you can quite easily find are examples of people who used to be Republicans, or even still consider themselves Republicans, saying reasonable things — say, Bruce Bartlett or David Frum. But the very fact that they’re reasonable has led to their excommunication from the movement! 

It’s kind of the “treason never prospers” argument (“for if it prospers, none dare call it treason”); if someone declares--

• that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves, or 

• that printing money when you’re in a liquidity trap isn’t deeply inflationary, or 

• that fear of Obamacare isn’t holding the economy back, 

--he ceases to be considered a member in good standing of the GOP. There are, therefore, no reasonable Republicans on these issues."

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Medicare: It's Socialized Medicine and It Works.

The reason Medicare costs are growing is because it covers ONLY the *most expensive*, sickest population: elderly people.  There are no healthier (less costly) enrollees (younger people) to spread out the costs.

Also... Like medicine ACROSS THE BOARD, for everyone, costs have been rising for decades, and they seriously need to be put in check.

But the problem isn't that we're spending too much on Medicare: the problem is that US medical care costs too much. (Other countries get much more out of every medical-dollar--they spend less and  have better health outcomes!).

"Obamacare" made a noble first pass at fixing the obvious problems that slow this too-fast growth of Medicare (which every conservative complains about) over the next decade:

• eliminate overpayments to private insurers, 
• reform provider payments to encourage greater efficiency, 
• tie reimbursements to improvements in economic productivity, 
• and reduce fraud and abuse.
• (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)

These changes are where the "$700billion" comes from.

Very, very cynically, Romney/Ryan are savaging Obama for "robbing Medicare of $700billlion"---but THEIR Medicare plan preserves those very "cuts"/savings!! AND then uses them to pay for their massive tax cuts!

• The Ryan-backed GOP budget maintains these cuts, but rather than using them to improve the Medicare program, it applies the savings to pay for massive tax cuts. As the budget chairman himself admitted during an April 5, 2011 speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), “We retain the Medicare savings” — and that’s not all. The Republican blueprint transforms the existing Medicare benefit guarantee into a premium support program that would provide seniors with depreciating vouchers to buy insurance from private plans. (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)
• (Ezra Klein, in the 5th paragraph, gives plan details/citations in the legislation)

This kind of massive whopper of a lie is par for the course with the conservative chatterers and the Romney (Now Romney/Ryan) campaign. But it's a biggie, because Medicare is a major issue for the electorate.  And it turns out that a massive majority of Americans do not like the Ryan and Romney plans to voucherize Medicare. 

And: on top of the savings ("cuts" as Romney/Ryan call it) from Obamacare (which Romney/Ryan keep)--Romney's plan would institute another $2 BILLION IN CUTS (Klein, last paragraph). ??!! They can't have it both ways--complaining about the "cuts"/savings then keeping them AND ADDING TO THEM. 

The truth hurts Romney/Ryan. Which is why they are lying, distorting, obfuscating and muddying to keep the less-informed voter confused.  

They cannot be allowed to get away with it.

Ayn Rand. Sociopath.

Now that we have a real live Ayn Rand worshiper running for vice president of the United States, I'm excising this short Rand reading list from the Teaparty entry elsewhere on this blog, in anticipation of more Rand gems to add in the coming months.

What a sad, broken and destructive woman. Our curse that she has infected our political id so inextricably.

for an a good primer on Rand herself and a great listen--play the AUDIO ONLY youtube clip--it's just audio, press play and browse in another window while you listen.

The woman, her life/story and philosophy

• I, me, mine: the unholy trinity to ayn rand « Tomfoolery - (1/23/2011) http://bit.ly/PddnGb
• Slate Book Review: "The Perverse Allure of a Damaged Woman"(Nov 2009
• " thrilling psychological portraits of a horribly damaged woman who deserves the one thing she spent her life raging against: compassion."
• Stranded in New Mexico - AYN RAND: SOCIOPATH, ATHEIST, PHILOSOPHER OF SELFISHNESS (7/1/2012)  http://bit.ly/MRC9t8
• Ayn Rand was fascinated w/ a gruesome serial killer (AlterNet, 1/2011)

Ryanomics = Romneyomics

5 Things Paul Ryan Actually Believes:

1. Really believes in ending Medicare as we know it
2. Really believes in ending Medicaid as we know it
3. Really pushed for privatizing Social Security
4. Really would decimate government funding to the point of failure to perform routine operations
5. Really wants to enact the biggest transfer of wealth in modern US history--from the middle-class and poor to the rich

Read more about these 5 items at the link

David Axis-of-Evil Frum (W's speechwriter) maps Ryan's Plan out for us:

• He's wrong to believe that today's economic problems are caused by fears of tomorrow's debts. Ryan's plan implies a promise that we can create jobs in 2013 by restraining Medicare costs after 2023. That's ideology talking, not economics.
• He's wrong to say that the US faces an imminent debt crisis. Today's big deficits are the consequence, not the cause, of the weak economy.
• He's wrong to treat the Medicare cost problem in isolation from other aspects of the healthcare cost problem. You can't force healthcare costs down generally by dealing with Medicare alone. And if you do deal with Medicare alone, you risk stranding seniors with inadequate resources as healthcare inflation continues to rage.
• He's wrong to bet the house on premium support without any certainty that it will work. We 
• should test whether this idea will deliver as promised. (Calling Jim Manzi, author of the new book about the need for public-policy testing, Uncontrolled!)
• Above all: Paul Ryan is wrong, wrong, wrong to imagine that a society can deal with rising social-insurance costs while entirely exempting Republican-voting age cohorts and without asking for anything from its richest people—in fact while simultaneously delivering those people a huge tax cut.
• Read more: David Frum - What's Right and Wrong in the Ryan Plan - The Daily Beast (8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/Sa3DfV

Top 10 Ways Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class

1. It caters to the 1 percent. 
2. It ends Medicare as we know it. 
3. It eliminates the health care safety net. 
4. It increases unemployment. 
5. It threatens our economic competitiveness. 
6. It showers money on Big Oil. 
7. It devastates Social Security. 
8. It shortchanges K–12 education. 
9. It shortchanges higher education. 
10. It ignores the wishes of the American people.

Read more at: Center for American Progress: Top 10 Ways the Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class - (3/21/2012)



12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan
(8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/R06n4x

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. 
2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires. 
3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. 
4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.”
5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years. 
6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil. 
8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .
9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.”
10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.” 
11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget. 
12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.

Disenfranchisement and race and poverty

Scott Brown objects to registering poor people

• By the way: the cosst of implementing voterID in MA? $23Million:  http://www.democrats.org/the-real-cost-of-photo-id-laws
• Romney Passes Welfare-Queen Card To Scott Brown For Voter-Registration Gambit | The New Republic (8/10/2012)  http://bit.ly/PL7fCY
• "In many other states, Republican-dominated legislatures have been moving in the opposite direction, trying to make the voting process more burdensome either by cancelling early voting or requiring government-issued picture IDs. Those rules — which disproportionately affect poor people, who lack cars and driver’s licenses — are aimed at keeping people away from the polls; in that context, it’s easy to see why Brown would assume that any move to increase registration would be politically motivated. / But even in a politically charged environment, making it easier for qualified voting-age adults to register to vote and making it harder for them to do so are not equivalent: The state government should be doing all it can to increase participation by qualified voters. There’s nothing sinister in Massachusetts’s commitment to send voter registration forms to poor people, especially to remedy its past failure to follow federal law.making it easier for qualified voting-age adults to register and making it harder for them to do so are not equivalent -- Massachusetts is justified in mailing voting forms to aid recipients - Editorials - The Boston Globe (8/10/2012) http://b.globe.com/OQAVjx
• Deval Rigs Vote For... GOP? - Talking Politics  http://bit.ly/PFBHhV
• Scott Brown: Encouraging the Base by Discouraging the Vote, Take Two | HesterPrynne (8/9/2012)- http://bit.ly/OQznGd
• Massachusetts is justified in mailing voting forms to aid recipients - Editorials - The Boston Globe (8/10/2012) http://b.globe.com/OQAVjx
• Massachusetts the only state that agreed to send mass mailings in the wake of lawsuits - The Boston Globe [NOT TRUE: ALSO MICHIGAN]- (8/10/2012) http://bo.st/OQBcDd
Watchdog Slams New Scott Brown Attack on Voting Rights of Welfare Recipients | Public Campaign Action (8/8/2012) Fund - http://bit.ly/OQzIca
• Scott Brown demands Elizabeth Warren reimburse taxpayers for vote registration mailings - Political Intelligence - Boston.com (8/10/2012) http://bo.st/OQzPo4
• Brown criticizes voter mailings - Boston.com -(8/9/2012) http://bo.st/MYKGvV
• USAprogressive: DEMOS President Fires Back At Baseless Partisan Attacks (8/9/2012) http://bit.ly/OQzWjg
• Scott Brown Decries Legally Mandated Voter Registration Effort (8/8/2012) http://bit.ly/O9MYwm
• Deb In the City: The cost of politics (8/2012) http://bit.ly/NyUH26
• I believe a democracy is better when more (all?) people participate, so I really like this law. 
•  Because when you can't actually suppress votes, the next best thing is to blow a dog whistle signaling that you regret that you can't.  

Why Some People Don't Vote, Register

• Voting’s Outcasts: Why One in Five Blacks in Kentucky Can’t Cast a Ballot | The Nation (9/18/2012) http://bit.ly/Ob54is
• An abridged history of Conservative voter suppression | Dirt & Seeds (3/28/2011)- http://bit.ly/RHckCM
• Survey Shows Why Many Americans Fail to Vote in Elections - http://bit.ly/OXhGYs -
• Who are the non-voters? : The survey found that nonvoters are disproportionately young, single, less educated and more likely to be of an ethnic minority than infrequent and frequent voters. 40 percent of nonvoters are under 30 years old, compared to 29 percent of infrequent voters and 14 percent of frequent voters. Infrequent voters are much more likely to be married than nonvoters, with 50 percent of infrequent voters married compared to only 34 percent of nonvoters. 76% of nonvoters have less than a college degree, compared to 61 percent of infrequent voters and 50 percent of frequent voters. Among nonvoters, 54 percent are white or Caucasian compared to 60 percent of infrequent voters and 70 percent of frequent voters.
• USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll: Stay-at-home Americans disgusted: why 90 Million Americans Won't Vote in November. – USATODAY.com (8/15/2012) http://usat.ly/PdeqZg
• (Washington): sociological evidence overturns felon voting ban » Citings and Sightings - http://bit.ly/RH59ub (1/2010)
• The surprising ruling, by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, said the law violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act by disenfranchising minority voters.  The decision is the first in the country’s federal appeals courts to equate a prohibition against voting by incarcerated felons with practices outlawed under the federal Voting Rights Act, such as poll taxes or literacy tests.
• drunkbrad: Poor people choose to be poor--and choose not to register for same reasons (what?) http://bit.ly/OQzul3

Big Lies, False Equivalency, and How Do They Get Away With It?!

BIG LIES

"In the last 30+ years the left has been at a disadvantage because while the Right has always been willing to make bold unsubstantiated statements, some that may have been true but most not, the left has always been science and evidence based. 

While Republicans categorically stated that their policies would work unsubstantiated, Democrats and Liberals seem to be always waiting for data to substantiate. Moreover the media seem to expect more substantiation from the left than the right. How then could President Obama’s birthplace stay in the media as a serious story? How else could the characterization of Obamacare “killing your grandma” be taken seriously? How else could the Romney/Ryan budget be accepted as a viable budget when it fails the simple test of basic arithmetic?" 

{from Senator Harry Reid, A Patriot Ensuring Americans Vote With Eyes Wide Open (8/7/2012)  http://goo.gl/EBVmb }

FALSE EQUIVALENCY

"In modern politics it is cool for pundits to breathlessly claim "Both sides do it" because they are too lazy or dishonest to point out the very big obvious differences. Pundits love to throw their hands up in the air and say that Republicans and Democrats are the same, and people who are frustrated with a broken political system believe it. They are not the same. They are very different. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either intellectually lazy, uninformed or lying to you."
{from Jesse La Greca/Daily Kos: STOP telling me "Both sides do it" - (7/3/2012) http://goo.gl/WmGAF }

this audio clip (above) strips away the lie of "centrism"

HOW DO THEY GET AWAY WITH IT?

"Mitt Romney’s tax and spending plans are so irresponsible, so cruel, so extreme that they are literally incredible. Voters may find it hard to believe anyone would support such things, so they are likely to discount even factual descriptions as partisan distortion. 

The pro-Obama New Priorities PAC stumbled across this phenomena early in 2012 in its focus group testing. When they informed a focus group that Romney supported the budget plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and thus championed ending Medicare as we know it while also championing tax cuts for the wealthy, focus group participants simply didn’t believe it. No politician could be so clueless." 

{K vanden Heuvel: Romney’s incredible extremes WaPo (8/2012)  http://goo.gl/VYlX1 }

"This is as loathsome a lie as Romney has told all year -- and given his record, that's not an easy threshold to meet. It's important to realize that this isn't a matter of opinion. CNN's headline over the weekend said, "Romney campaign jabs at Obama over voting rights suit." The headline on the Politico homepage yesterday said, "Obama, Mitt camps spar on military voting." No. Wrong. No one is "jabbing" or "sparring." One candidate lied and got caught. Full stop." 

{Romney gets caught lying about Obama, military voters - The Maddow Blog (8/2012) - http://goo.gl/L748b }

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Romney Campaign Attacks Obama For Medicare Cuts That Ryan And Romney Have Endorsed | The New Republic (8/2012) http://bit.ly/RFxU8X

• Capturing the cynicism on display here isn't easy. I'm going to try anyway. Yes, the Affordable Care Act includes substantial cuts to Medicare. But Ryan's own budget, which nearly every House Republican voted to pass and which Romney has said he would sign as president, leaves those cuts in place and uses them to finance other priorities.  In other words, the Romney campaign is attacking a proposal that Romney and his allies endorse. The most significant difference between the two sides, at least for the short- to medium-term, is how they handle the savings these cuts generate.

Sabotage!

It's no secret that the day Obama was elected, the Republicans went to work jamming his agenda, to make their number 1 priority, as Senator Mitch McConnell said, unseating him in 2012.

Not jobs.
Not the war.
Not the economy.
Not children.
Not puppies.

Nope. Job #1: Undermining the president and making him a one-termer.

Let's just call it what it is: sabotage.
__

• Biden: McConnell decided to withhold all cooperation even before we took office - The Plum Line - The Washington Post -(8/10/2012) http://wapo.st/OQxZ6E
• "page 207:Biden says that during the transition, he was warned not to expect any cooperation on many votes. “I spoke to seven different Republican Senators, who said, `Joe, I’m not going to be able to help you on anything,’ he recalls. His informants said McConnell had demanded unified resistance. “The way it was characterized to me was: `For the next two years, we can’t let you succeed in anything. That’s our ticket to coming back,’” Biden says."
• (confirmed by Bob Bennett and Arlen Specter)
• "The Republicans' 2012 election strategy is perversely brilliant: Sabotage President Barack Obama's job-creation efforts, then blame him for the wreckage. This strategy was in action the other day, when Mitt Romney assailed Mr. Obama on the stump. Mr. Romney said that "with America in crisis, with 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work, he hasn't put forth a plan to get us working again. // Mr. Romney conveniently omitted the fact that Mr. Obama put forth such a jobs plan last autumn. The American Jobs Act would have put as many as 2 million construction workers, cops, teachers and firefighters back to work -- so said economic forecasters -- if only congressional Republicans hadn't dynamited it. // Yes, sabotage was required. Republicans knew their prospects for beating Mr. Obama would be damaged if they signed on to a plan that got more Americans working again. They're far too invested in economic misery to let that happen. As Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell candidly remarked in 2010, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."" (Sabotage Obama: The GOP's Job-Killing Political Strategy is Working Just Fine, July 2012)
• The Guardian: Did Republicans deliberately crash the US economy? Be it ideology or stratagem, the GOP has blocked pro-growth policy and backed job-killing austerity – all while blaming Obama (June 2012)
• 87/2012 @thinkprogress: Herman Cain is hoping for much higher gas prices to improve Romney's chances http://thkpr.gs/RmevK7
• Ryan shunned debt-ceiling standoff "Grand Bargain" bc feared a boost for Obama : Family, Faith and Politics Describe Life of Paul Ryan - NYTimes.com - http://nyti.ms/Nl6hDa
  • Ryan’s enormous influence was apparent last summer when Representative Eric Cantor, the second most powerful House Republican, told Mr. Obama during negotiations over an attempted bipartisan “grand bargain” that Mr. Ryan disliked its policy and was concerned that a deal would pave the way for Mr. Obama’s easy re-election, according to a Democrat and a Republican who were briefed on the conversation.
  • (more on debt deal: Matt Bai - Obama vs. Boehner - Who Killed the Debt Deal? - NYTimes.com (3/28/2012) http://nyti.ms/GTj3Bj )

Big, Big Government!!

"As conservatives continue to decry supposed booming growth in the size of the American government, the public sector lost another 9,000 jobs in July, according to the Labor Department report released Friday. The public sector, comprised of federal, state, and local government employees, has now cut more than 680,000 jobs since 2009, the worst three-year period on record. Without those public sector cuts, the unemployment rate would be a full-point lower. And that growing American government? It is now smaller than it has been since 1968, according to a Federal Reserve Economic Data chart published by The Atlantic’s Jordan Weissman: