Hot Air Political Punditry

Commentary By Ron Beasley

It was just two years ago that the political punditry was placing the Republican party in the grave of history.  It was just two years ago that many were saying John Boehner should step down from his leadership postion -  wait, I don't think that happened.  Oh well I don't think that hypocrisy and being wrong is a new thing for the talking heads.  Just two years latter we hear the funeral dirge being played for the Democrats and indignation that Nancy Pelosi won't step down.  No surprise here - in tabloid journalism that's what sells  and we have very little journalism left that is not of the tabloid nature.

The Republicans see a mandate where there is none and their policy still is nothing more than unrealistic talking points.  So let us take a look at those talking points:

• Smaller governemt.


• Reduced spending


• Lower taxes

Great talking points all - but realistic?  As I noted here conservatives are really people who want government beifits they just don't want to pay for them.  So what spending to conservatives want to cut?  Not much.

The only thing 50 percent of conservatives agree should be cut is foreign aide which represents  less than one percent of the budget.

If you take Social Security out of the budget, which is separate and pays for itself,  defense is 24 percent of the budget.  The military industrial complex will not tolerate a cut in defense spending .  The following chart demonstrates the problem:

That's right, nearly 50 percent of the world military spending comes out of the pocket of the US tax payer.  Note that we are borrowing the the money so the Chinese are obviously winning the economic war. While it's true the lobbyists from the military industrial complex will not allow a cut in military spending it's also true that the Republican base will not tolerate  a downsizing of American exceptionalism AKA killing non Christian brown people. 

Medicare is also off limits since many of the Tea Baggers are on Medicare.  But it's even more complex - any reductions in Medicare will reduce the number of "paying " customers.  So you have the both the recipient's and the the medical industrial complex who will fight changes.

The Republican base insists on cuts in government spending  without really cutting anything.  Of course the Republicans won't balance the budget.  They can't cut anything that will make a difference and the most important Republican agenda is tax cuts for the wealthy.

Most of the nation, including the tea party, realize that the banksters and Wall Street are responsible for our current financial woes.  Well thanks to Republican gains those very greedy incompetent criminals have a new friend in a position of power in the congress.  Dave Cohen explains:

When Americans went to the polls last Tuesday, they were in a mood for change. Throw the bums out! And there was a "change"�Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives. A subtlety lost upon most voters is that there is a seniority system in Congress which upholds the status quo, regardless of who most of them vote for.

Over at Baseline Scenario, former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson and Yale's James Kwak continue to push for financial reform. One might think they would have given up at this point, but that's not their style. They continue to fight the good fight despite overwhelming evidence of incurable political corruption. Kwak is disturbed at a new development following the mid-term election�

Spencer Bachus, the likely new chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has announced that he is planning to use whatever powers he can to gut the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. Why? According to the Financial Times, Bachus �expressed concern that shareholders of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase will be hurt because the banks will be less profitable.�

So one major effect of the Tea Party movement will be to further enrich Wall Street banks and the bankers who work there. (Which, I guess, is consistent with the common Tea Party insistence on reducing taxes for the rich.)

Is this what you voted for?

Did the tea party know this is what they were voting for?  Yes, they were voting to get rid of the godless democrats and that black man in the White House.