That's a far cry from leverage. Yet it's becoming clearer that their latest leverage is just as much a mirage as previous incantations-the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, etc.
We often hear the Dems need to worry as the House GOP doesn't care. Many of them come from very Right wing very safe districts and they don't care much about the party's national fortunes. Of course, you can only take unconcern with the "brand' so far before it can tarnish everyone in the party.
In any case, the Dems don't need the majority of Republicans for a path to citizenship or in this case to defuse the sequester-just the small handful needed to go with near unanimous Democratic House support.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-sequester-latest-gop-paper-elephant.html
A couple of things to remember about these older, whiter, often more rural Republican districts. They are opposed to "out of control government spending on welfare" but mostly in the abstract. Actually, when you consider the large movement of the elderly to the GOP over the last few years you can't get away from the suspicion that much of it is racial-Obama hatred-and social conservative issues more general-opposition to gay marriage, immigration, abortion.
After all, the elderly are the the biggest beneficiaries of entitlements. They sure don't want anyone touching them. Many of these districts are also military. That's why it makes no sense to claim as many GOP Congressmen do, that the military cuts are no big deal. They are for their districts and after hearing the way some like Lindsay Graham talked about the cuts as emboldening Al Qaeda and driving up membership at training camps it's hard to believe they're simply going to refuse to defuse these cuts to protect Chevron's tax credits.
"Republicans open to letting billions in sequester cuts go through figure they can blame the president if the economy goes south."
"But Democrats are betting they can shift that blame right back to the GOP."
"They’re so confident, in fact, that they’re already eyeing at least 10 Republican-held seats with strong military connections from Florida to California to target in 2014, after sequester cuts have trickled down to local bases where jobs are lost and voters notice."
"Republicans who are unwilling to compromise, unwilling to find solutions and are responsible for cuts to defense and jobs in their districts are going to find an unwelcome reception from voters,” said Jesse Ferguson, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee."
"Republicans who are unwilling to compromise, unwilling to find solutions and are responsible for cuts to defense and jobs in their districts are going to find an unwelcome reception from voters,” said Jesse Ferguson, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/sequester-cuts-ticking-time-bomb-87363.html#ixzz2KKs7TA5G
It will be interesting to see what the next piece of GOP leverage is.
"racial-Obama hatred" ... I actually think it has as much to do with his name as it does his "half-breed" racial status. His name just plain sounds foreign... .. and not "good" foreign... but foreign like "countries where they burn American flags" foreign, or "plot terrorism" foreign. Plus the fact that he's from Hawaii and his Dad was foreign. The racial aspect doesn't help, but I think it's this sense that "he's not one of us" that really fires up the paranoids.
ReplyDelete