With the generic congressional ballot all but even and Democrats trailing big time in key Senate races in red states like Alaska, West Virginia, and Montana, and at significant risk of losing Arkansas, Louisiana, and North Carolina as Obamacare falls apart in the eyes of voters, 2014 is looking to be a good year for the Republican Party.
That is to say, regardless of what they do going forward, they will likely be the beneficiaries of an electorate growing weary of the Obama administration’s constant barrage of ineffective big government schemes that benefit too-big-to-fail corporate elites and the welfare dependency class.
If the election were today, Republicans would win back the Senate.
With that in mind, it is easy to explain the recent Republican surrender on the budget deal that
breached the sequester spending limits by $63 billion in the first two years, raises taxes and fees by over $32 billion over the next decade, and cuts pension benefits for disabled veterans — all with the promise of cuts later down the road that probably will never happen.
Simply put, the GOP does not want to upset the apple cart with any more fights over defunding Obamacare, continuing resolutions to keep the government open, and the debt ceiling they feel they cannot win.
And so, the two-year budget deal is designed to kick most of those fights off until after the 2014 midterms, leaving candidates to campaign without any distractions from Washington, D.C.
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Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government.
25 comments
Purity.
I agree, purity is ridiculous.
Tell it to the Jews.
Simple: It is to do away with the safey net goverment provides in our society. Whether it takes the form of SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security or Unemployment Insurance.
I’m not aware of any national GOP pol advocating the elimination of any of your programs listed…speaking of safety nets, how many millions have lost their health insurance due to Obamacare? Some safety net…
Cutting SNAP is pretty much standard GOP red meat.
Medicaid is something most GOPers want to make into a block grant system, which could be extremely bad. Otherwise, refusing the Medicaid expansion is pretty much standard GOP red meat.
Medicare is something Republicans have attacked for quite some time. Again, I’d point to Paul Ryan for two great examples: Attacking Obama for cutting future Medicare spending even though he himself wanted to cut the exact same spending, and his pursuit of a voucher system to shift those dollars into the private, for-profit market, with no assurance of affordability, nor any assurance of matching the rate of increasing health care costs, which rise beyond inflation.
Social Security is something Republicans have wanted to reform for the longest time, and none of those reforms involves keeping things relatively the same for the seniors who depend on it, often to the point of being destitute without it. Simple reforms like increasing the payroll tax cap would make it solvent for years and years, but those aren’t good enough.
Unemployment extensions have always been attacked by the GOP. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that people are going to stay on the “glorious luxury” that is unemployment rather than look for a job on pretty much any conservative media outlet. Yeah, I’ve known people on unemployment, and for some reason they didn’t get their free caviar and champagne shipped to them via a free Cadillac, they instead got some measly check that barely covered things.
Maybe you should pay closer attention whenever Republicans talk about “entitlement reform.”
Who cut Medicare as abpart of O-care? Democrats. Who just voted a budget which cuts benefits to wounded vets? Democrats. Need I say more?
I like the unemployment insurance argument. Obama says we’re out of a recession so the Reps propose ending the 99 week extension of unemployment insurance and suggest we go back to the number of weeks available since the unemployment insurance program was created. Apparently that means you want to eliminate it altogether.
I think they’re both wrong. It should in no way be 99 weeks, but I do not think that the old ~26 weeks is adequate still. Democrats won’t bring themselves to negotiate a reasonable extension, though, so it never happened, which is why I’d ultimately blame them instead of Republicans.
Safty nets aren’t the big problem. Our bloated defense spendng is totally fucked up. We seem to live in a country that expects us to die to defend it, but can’t even take care of its own. Last month I talked to a vet without his legs about the sub par care from the VA. hospital and it shook me up for the rest of the day.
Tax cut,tax cut ,tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, tax cut tax cut.That about does it!
I would caution anyone predicting that 2014 will be good for the Republicans. Remember all the predictions about how well the Republicans would fare in 2012? The clouds on the horizon for 2014 are a combination of Republican candidates saying and doing things that will damage the party’s overall image and Republican primary voters nominating ridiculously right wing candidates that cannot carry the day in November.
Here’s my prediction: The teaparty will continue to undermine the Republicans
“Wasn’t conservative enough.”
It’s the broken record due for its next skip. Shrink the big tent and wonder why you’re bleeding voters.
The problem for the Republican party isn’t that the party is shrinking, it will simply never be a “big tent”.
If you promise free stuff to people and compete with people that aren’t promising free stuff you will always lose.
The 10% of the Republican party that wants them to truly be fiscally conservative and limited government is irrelevant from that perspective. If the Republicans “kick them out” they simply exacerbate their problems.
Free shit wins every time.
point well-made…hence the push for immigration reform…more legacy democrats with an insatiable appetite for free stuff…repubs will never, ever when a national election…what happens when the free stuff runs out?
As a moderate Democrat, I will have to say that the TEA Party, and it’s group of “wackos’, are the greatest allies the Democratic party has.
Obamacare isn’t a failure. I predict that the Dems will regain control of the House and keep the Senate. People are tired of the Tea Party and obstruction. Well, people other than the minority TP and the extreme right.
If you like your plan you can keep your plan, period. If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor, period.
Actually, yes in my case.
A comment from someone with the moniker “My Doctor Loves Me” is no more credible than the President’s lies on the subject.
Asshole, I have my fucking plan, it’s the same as the old one. It may not happen for everyone, but I have mine.
Are you and “My Doctor Loves Me” one and the same? Lies are lies and the President lied, he is the “asshole”.
Pff, pff. How bout the economy, stupid? Look for more Dems and Independents in Congress.
The GOP is a minority party because it is all white, middle-aged men who are running it.
It is an aging demographic, and young people od not flock to the GOP.
The young, the immigrant, women, all want Democrats. People want more government not limited government.
Shutting down the government will lie heavily on you in 2014.
The GOP has proven inept at governing, and it has terrible polling. You guys actually thought that Mitt Romney won the election in 2012. Ouch!
You hate gays, dark skinned people, immigrants, people on disability, people on unemployment, people getting government help. I am sure the day will come when you despise veterans who get disability from the VA. You want to control women’s reproduction, obliterate public schools, take away the safety net. You heap billions of tax breaks upon yourself by moving offshore. You ruined the economy in the South by shipping factory jobs to other countries, leaving our small towns in South Carolina jobless, decaying, drug-filled skeletons of their former glory.
You hate science. You hate environmental protection. You deny climate change. All you want is the Bible and dirty fossil fuels to reign.
You have no alternative to Obamacare.
By the time November 2014 rolls around, millions will be getting Obamacare and they will be thrilled to vote Democrat.
Who is doing your thinking for you, GOP? Your dreams keep getting dashed over and over. Why can you never face facts or the truth about what an ugly, mean clan you are. I remember when the GOP was a noble party, now it is populated by extreme bizarre nutcakes. Get used to your second class status outside the South !
Preach, preacher, PREACH!
YOU BETCHA!
YOU BETCHA!