Nihilism is the watchword from the congressional Republican leadership. On Sunday's Meet the Press, Dick Armey, GOP Majority Leader, broke faith with the words of John Kasich just one week earlier. Armey announced that there would be no clean debt ceiling extension passed in Congress before our next debt crunch comes due on or about February 15. The GOP, in so doing, has shown perfidy and bad faith. What is wrong with these people?
Right now, the polls are clear: in the public's mind, the congressional GOP is more to blame for the budget stalemate than President Clinton's Democratic Administration. Their tactic of shutting down the government over Christmas backfired badly, and seriously weakened their credibility in the eyes of the average voter. So what do these fire-breathers do? Why, instead of shutting down the government, they decide to shut down the country! Their intention apparently is to find and use anything as an excuse to vent their fury and show their frustration with an Administration which refuses to roll over and play dead.
Never mind the fact that Bill Clinton has finally signed on to the concept of a balanced budget. Never mind that he's now agreed to a seven-year timetable. Never mind that he now agrees to abide by CBO numbers. These congressional GOPers apparently exist solely for the sake of fighting to the death for each and every point. They obviously now have no interest in accomplishing anything. They just want to keep a fight going for the greater glory of right-wing conservatism; it's all about just feeling good, feeling principled, feeling martyred. Basically, all they want to do, apparently, is throw temper tantrums.
It's increasingly difficult to fathom what other goal they could possible have. They should know that certain items on their agenda are simply dead. The idea, for example, of killing Medicaid and welfare as an entitlement -- the block grant approach -- is obviously not going to happen. Even the centrist Senate group working on their own alternative budget, led by Democrat John Breaux and Republican John Chafee (two Johns...hmmm), have agreed to retain both of them as an entitlement. With their own party split on the issue, how can the GOP ever hope to get enough Democrats to win this point?
Odd as it may sound, I can see only one explanation for their actions. Insanity is sometimes defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This would seem to be a classic case. Fail to get the public on your side? Repeated government shutdowns damaged your case? Why, then, use the same tactic with the nation's credit. Boy, that'll sure show them! It's almost as if they want to lose; martyrdom is everything.
Three cheers for autistic idealism.
Meanwhile, they allow all of their considerable accomplishments this session to go down the toilet - - passage of the Shays act (the act applying all laws equally to the public and to Congress), lobby reform, relief to the states from unfunded mandates, and, most dramatic of all, their success in forcing a Democratic President to produce a balanced budget. It would have been so easy to call a victory and make a deal; it would have been so easy to claim the rhetorical upper hand and the final credit for that deal; but no, they had to throw out the baby with the bathwater, and ruin everything they were on the verge of accomplishing. Now, that is insanity.
Of course, you may feel differently. You may feel any insanity is located closer to home...Whether you feel that way or not, write to me at