Government is Broken

The Washington Post wrote ‘Gang of Six’ on verge of collapse as Republican Sen. Coburn withdraws "Those close to the talks said trouble has been brewing for weeks. Earlier this month, the group appeared to be tantalizingly close to an agreement. But then, Democratic sources said, Coburn started bringing up new issues at every meeting, or demanding that old ones be reconsidered. For example, Coburn began pressing for sharper cuts to Social Security than had been previously agreed to, according to sources familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the negotiations. And during a three-hour session late Monday, the sources said, Coburn demanded deep and immediate cuts to Medicare that went beyond anything previously proposed."

Mathew Yglesias sums up, You Can’t Make A Deal If People Don’t Want A Deal "This is a familiar pattern in the Obama administration. Bipartisan talks begin on the Hill. They make progress. Sometimes a little progress, and sometimes a lot of progress. Then at some point during the progress-making, the conservative participants in the talks realize that they have a problem—the talks are making progress! So then they start casting around for new demands or new reasons to break off the talks. Eventually, Lucy yanks the football away and we’re back to square one."

Ezra Klein says "But perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. Gangs, groups and gaggles haven't had much success at bridging broad partisan gaps in recent years."

I think it's just the Republican party, or maybe their leadership (and the rank and file just go along like sheep). There's just no intellectual honesty going on here. Lies and mistruths are spread by Fox and Rush and the constituents call to make sure their representatives don't make deals and hold the party line. Even if it's it factually wrong. You want to debate small vs large government, fine but don't say things like the deficit is the cause of our economic problems and then go on to continue to subsidize the most profitable companies' taxes while saying raising taxes can't solve things.

So Paul Ryan's plan does in fact end Medicare as we know it, even if he won't admit it. Newt Gingrich, now infamously called it social engineering from the right and he's been back peddling ever since.

Kevin Drum brilliantly sums up the back peddling, Quote of the Day: Truth is Libel: "You have to give the guy credit for stones, I guess. On Sunday he called Ryan's plan "right-wing social engineering" and said he was opposed to it. Within hours he was getting hammered by just about every conservative luminary in the country and watching his presidential campaign go up in smoke. So first he tried to pretend that host David Gregory had somehow tricked him, even though Gregory's question was a pretty straightforward softball and Gingrich's answer was obviously a considered one. Then he explained that his language had probably been a wee bit "too strong." Then he blamed the liberal media for taking his comments "out of context." Then he suggested that his views were "evolving" and the press really needed to keep up. Then he "clarified" that what he really supported was a voluntary version of the Ryan plan that could be implemented right now, instead of ten years from now. Then he called Paul Ryan to apologize. Finally, tonight, having apparently convinced himself that 48 hours of abject abasement had literally erased what he said on Sunday, he declared that anyone who accurately quotes his Sunday statement in the future is a liar."

Ezra Klein wonders "if this is the sort of advice the people who sign up for his ”transformational leadership” seminars are receiving. There is, after all, a lot of transforming going on here."

But it gets even better. Gingrich press secretary Rick Tyler responded with this unbelievable missive. "The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding,” Tyler wrote. “Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces."

Seriously?!?!! I was going to say that if New Gingrich has become the reasonable voice in GOP party that's evidence that things have gotten seriously bad, but with the crap I just listed, I can't bring myself to say it.

Ezra Klein wrote, Ryan 1, Newt 0. "Newt Gingrich’s attack on Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan as “right-wing social engineering” could have resolved itself one of two ways. The first is that Gingrich could have stood his ground, proposed a different Medicare plan, and provoked a healthy debate among GOP presidential candidates about the role of government in health care. The second is that he could have apologized and groveled at Ryan’s feet for forgiveness. And groveling it is...The three main Democratic candidates in 2008 had very, very similar health care plans, but they at least argued vigorously over what few differences there were between them. The 2012 Republican field doesn’t seem likely to feature even that much disagreement."

And he wrote You can’t save Medicare by raising taxes. "That’s why Ryan’s plan isn’t real health-care reform: it has no plausible strategy for slowing the growth in health-care costs, and instead just cuts federal spending on the program. Simply raising taxes, however, is the mirror image of that. It just tosses more money into the maw of Medicare, and leaves less for everything else. What we need is to cut the actual growth in health-care costs, so there's room for us to make needed investments elsewhere, and, while I’m on the subject, so private businesses can give their workers larger raises rather than diverting every spare dollar to health-care insurance. The Affordable Care Act makes a good start on that, and a series of committed, attentive Congresses could finish the job. But let’s not get distracted by a debate over spending cuts or tax increases. Both are wrong. In the long run, reform is the only way forward."

Government is broken.