The late great Luther Vandross starts his stirring rendition of A House Is Not a Home, singing, ‘A chair is still a chair even when there’s no one sitting there.’ Who knew it would become Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz’s fight song? As I watched Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Tom Cole (R-OK) volley the now former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s short and inglorious term as Speaker back and forth like Borg and McEnroe, all my mind’s ear could hear was Luther’s fabulous voice. Gaetz approached the dais in the well of the House as McEnroe approached the chair umpire’s elevated perch at Wimbledon. For the effect, and if he could have gotten away with it, Gaetz would have smashed the mic in faux anger like a tennis racket to play to the cameras.
As satisfying as the moment was for Democrats, moments are short-lived and generally are followed by a big letdown. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is probably laundering his shirts in anticipation of rolling up his sleeves after submitting his name for Speaker. Troy Nehls (R-TX) promised to nominate Donald Trump. While Marjorie Taylor Greene continued her unhinged Trump groveling, suggesting him for the new Speaker. The severe aspects of yesterday’s change are not being discussed. We are on a 40-plus-day countdown until the next threat of a government shutdown, which is undoubtedly coming, happens. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is probably in a cramping clinch, hoping the next GOP Speaker does not try to leave his country in the lurch. Unbelievably, a poll released yesterday stated that Republicans are more trusted with the economy. Despite the last Republican President adding over seven trillion dollars in debt, the GOP stranglehold on messaging continues.
The only President in modern history to lower the deficit was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, who successfully ended his term with a 128.2 billion dollar surplus. Although Barack Obama did not have a surplus, by one estimate, he lowered the deficit by 71 percent using a formula with the gross domestic product as a base. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published a figure of a 66 percent reduction with figures that showed a decrease from 1.4 trillion in 2009 to 486 billion in 2014. President Biden lowered the deficit by roughly 360 billion in his first eight months in office despite having to pull the country and the economy out of a botched handling of the pandemic by the previous administration, record job losses, and business closings.
The inconsistencies of Republican orthodoxy are a puzzle that even they cannot explain. They insist on making every woman of childbearing age human incubators with or against their will while at the same time proposing cuts to social programs to feed babies. The GOP is willing to end health care insurance for at least 30 million Americans, promising to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Once they held the reins of power, they had no plan which would have left millions without affordable care. The Trump tax cut added two trillion dollars to the debt, with the promise of CEOs—being bestowed a heart by Oz’s Wizard— trickling down their wealth to workers.
The GOP has relied on a racial element to sell its programs. When Republicans talk about entitlements, most recognize that is code for people of color. Ronald Reagan sold that notion by creating the welfare queen as truth, not an anecdote. Women pulling up to the welfare office in a Cadillac and wearing a fur coat became a meme before it existed. Rush Limbaugh floated the idea that women seeking an abortion or using contraceptives were sluts. Now we are dealing with a Republican party that labeled people of color as invading vermin, wholesale rapists, and murderers. Admittedly, playing on Americans’ fears has worked, but at some point, as demonstrated by yesterday’s Republican breakup, ‘when it ends, it ends in tears.’
Vote Against Guns
