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Anybody Seen Any Republicans Around Here?
By DALE McFEATTERS
Jul 1, 2004, 07:10
Whatever happened to all the Republicans? They used to be all over the nation's capital, sitting in the Oval Office and running Congress. But now they're gone.
Oh, there are middle-aged white guys in blue suits and red ties still here, but something strange is going on. A "Stepford Wives" sort of thing, or "The Night of the Living Spenders." Maybe it's a case of demonic possession, with Franklin D. Roosevelt's evil twin seizing control of their brains. Or, given their average age, some kind of '60s-flashback stuff.
Take reliable, staid, self-effacing Vice President Dick Cheney. The other day he told a Democratic senator to commit what is circumspectly described as an anatomical impossibility -- on the Senate floor! Republicans are supposed to respect our institutions so much they don't enter the Oval Office without a coat and tie.
There's more. The vice president said he was glad he did it and that it felt good. Wait a second. If it feels good, do it? Aren't those the other guys? Cigars, interns, Hollywood friends, that sort of thing? Dick Cheney, you ol' hippie, you.
Was it just 10 years ago that the Republicans took control of Congress? There was a lot of talk -- and more than a little action -- on balancing budgets, restraining spending, passing a line-item veto and cutting government, and abolishing the departments of Commerce and Education and maybe Energy for good measure.
Last Friday, the House took up the Republican-sponsored and very Republican-sounding Family Budget Protection Act, intended to rein in the huge budget deficits run up in the last three years -- by Republicans, needless to say. Holy Great Society! It got whomped, absolutely whomped, 326 to 88.
When the other Republicans, the budget-cutting ones, were running Congress, they managed to pass a line-item veto, giving the president, who then happened to be a Democrat, the power to kill single spending items. The Supreme Court overturned it, but the idea remained a Republican fixture. Among the fatalities last Friday was giving the president, who is said to be a Republican, the power of rescission, requiring Congress to take a second look at certain spending items.
The old-timey Republicans said people ought to look out for themselves and not be turning to the government for handouts. Whoever those people in Congress are now were sure in a handout mood earlier this month. While trying to make a simple fix in the trade laws, they somehow wound up showering billions -- $155 billion in the House version -- on rum distillers, makers of bows and arrows, fishing-tackle boxes, small planes, ethanol producers, timber companies, moviemakers and restaurants.
And those are just the little guys in the bill.
Eight years ago, those other Republicans decided that farm subsidies and crop supports were a bad idea, and they passed the Freedom to Farm Act to phase out the federal farm largesse. Then the Stepford Republicans took over and decided what American farmers really needed was $92 billion from the taxpayers. The guy in the White House agreed. But wait! There's more! They just added another $10 billion for taxpayers. Add it all up, and sooner or later you're looking at a cumulative $1.7 trillion deficit.
One thing you could say about Republicans was that, unlike the messy Democrats, they could make the legislative trains run on time. Except that this year they have been unable to perform one of Congress' basic duties, pass a budget. And it doesn't look like they will because of a dispute over provisions that would impede Congress' ability to drive the country even more deeply into debt.
Somehow along the way, they've created a huge new Cabinet department, Homeland Security, now the third-largest bureaucracy in the federal government. And Commerce, Energy and Education are doing fine; Education has even grown considerably the last three years.
All very strange. We're not in Republican Land anymore.
www.capitolhillblue.com
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Anybody Seen Any Republicans Around Here?
By DALE McFEATTERS
Jul 1, 2004, 07:10
Whatever happened to all the Republicans? They used to be all over the nation's capital, sitting in the Oval Office and running Congress. But now they're gone.
Oh, there are middle-aged white guys in blue suits and red ties still here, but something strange is going on. A "Stepford Wives" sort of thing, or "The Night of the Living Spenders." Maybe it's a case of demonic possession, with Franklin D. Roosevelt's evil twin seizing control of their brains. Or, given their average age, some kind of '60s-flashback stuff.
Take reliable, staid, self-effacing Vice President Dick Cheney. The other day he told a Democratic senator to commit what is circumspectly described as an anatomical impossibility -- on the Senate floor! Republicans are supposed to respect our institutions so much they don't enter the Oval Office without a coat and tie.
There's more. The vice president said he was glad he did it and that it felt good. Wait a second. If it feels good, do it? Aren't those the other guys? Cigars, interns, Hollywood friends, that sort of thing? Dick Cheney, you ol' hippie, you.
Was it just 10 years ago that the Republicans took control of Congress? There was a lot of talk -- and more than a little action -- on balancing budgets, restraining spending, passing a line-item veto and cutting government, and abolishing the departments of Commerce and Education and maybe Energy for good measure.
Last Friday, the House took up the Republican-sponsored and very Republican-sounding Family Budget Protection Act, intended to rein in the huge budget deficits run up in the last three years -- by Republicans, needless to say. Holy Great Society! It got whomped, absolutely whomped, 326 to 88.
When the other Republicans, the budget-cutting ones, were running Congress, they managed to pass a line-item veto, giving the president, who then happened to be a Democrat, the power to kill single spending items. The Supreme Court overturned it, but the idea remained a Republican fixture. Among the fatalities last Friday was giving the president, who is said to be a Republican, the power of rescission, requiring Congress to take a second look at certain spending items.
The old-timey Republicans said people ought to look out for themselves and not be turning to the government for handouts. Whoever those people in Congress are now were sure in a handout mood earlier this month. While trying to make a simple fix in the trade laws, they somehow wound up showering billions -- $155 billion in the House version -- on rum distillers, makers of bows and arrows, fishing-tackle boxes, small planes, ethanol producers, timber companies, moviemakers and restaurants.
And those are just the little guys in the bill.
Eight years ago, those other Republicans decided that farm subsidies and crop supports were a bad idea, and they passed the Freedom to Farm Act to phase out the federal farm largesse. Then the Stepford Republicans took over and decided what American farmers really needed was $92 billion from the taxpayers. The guy in the White House agreed. But wait! There's more! They just added another $10 billion for taxpayers. Add it all up, and sooner or later you're looking at a cumulative $1.7 trillion deficit.
One thing you could say about Republicans was that, unlike the messy Democrats, they could make the legislative trains run on time. Except that this year they have been unable to perform one of Congress' basic duties, pass a budget. And it doesn't look like they will because of a dispute over provisions that would impede Congress' ability to drive the country even more deeply into debt.
Somehow along the way, they've created a huge new Cabinet department, Homeland Security, now the third-largest bureaucracy in the federal government. And Commerce, Energy and Education are doing fine; Education has even grown considerably the last three years.
All very strange. We're not in Republican Land anymore.
www.capitolhillblue.com
