Before the election, the Republicans talked “jobs jobs jobs.”
No word on jobs, since the election.
Now they’re talking “health care repeal, health care repeal, health care repeal.”
I guess they want to stop it before it starts — afraid that millions of people might prefer having a doctor instead of going to the ER for every little thing.
They’re also talking about tax cuts.
And deficit reduction.
Tax cuts and deficit reduction just don’t go together. Clinton erased the deficit and created a surplus by raising taxes AND cutting the budget.
Of course they do want spending cuts (although they won’t say what spending they want to cut).
A couple more thoughts:
The economy will improve in 2011.
Why do the new members of Congress talk like they’ve got all the power? Why do they talk like they can get things done without compromise? According to Mr. Basinger, my ninth grade civics teacher, a bill cannot become a law unless it’s passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President.
Can Obama get things done without compromise? That is, can the President do things without passing legislation?
Yes — a hell of a lot. And he will.
The Republicans didn’t get the mandate they think they got. Why not?
It’s the social networking, stupid.
With online networking, messages can spread very quickly.
YouTube has only been around five years.
Facebook has been open to the public less than five years.
The past election was a seismic shift in the American political spectrum.
Two years after the previous seismic shift.
And we’ll probably have another one in 2012. And another after that.
The days of ten and twenty and thirty year political cycles is over.
Things go fast now.
I think many of the members of Congress think they’re still operating under the old media system, where money, gridlock, and time is a valid strategy.
Money will become less important. Gridlock will get them voted out. They don’t have as much time as they think.
Obama seems to understand this.
The last Congress got a lot done.
It might be wise for the newbies in Congress to realize that political lives these days are short — and get some work done with the time they’ve got.
Just my opinion.