Jim DeMint says he's not the leader of the Tea Party, and he may be telling the truth. On today's program, he explained that he doesn't think Americans want to change the health care system we have now. He means the one that consumes 17% of our total GDP and is steadily increasing. The one that keeps the insurance and the pharmaceutical companies on their current obscene profit trajectory; he sounds like a regular Republican to us.
However, he does say that he would vote against increasing debt ceiling, which is very much a consideration of the Tea Party. They could filibuster the increase in the Senate, to which some pundits say would complete crash the economy. Thank you very much for another doomsday scenario.
And let's face, Jim DeMint didn't have to answer any of the 'lay up' questions that Mr. Gregory posed to him today, and he has every right to be smug. The Democrats got 'schlacked,' in the President's words. Where we all need to wait and see is where the Republicans intend to make cuts to the budget.
Given what Governor Chris Christie said in the following interview that he cut New Jersey's state spending 9% across the board in every program. The Republicans will probably look to that, but Jim DeMint also mentioned Paul Ryan's (R-WI) plan for the 'way forward,' which does in fact call for the privatizing of the Social Security system, which wonder in fact render it no longer 'social' nor 'secure.' It should be interesting.
Mr. DeMint also said that he also wants to 'defund' the new Healthcare legislation, try to repeal it, but in the meantime slow the implementation of it. Fundamentally, this is not the correct thing to do. Granted when Democrats do in fact do something, they do it messy, but in the end Americans seem to look back at those initiatives and think, how could we have done without this, like Medicare for example. However, Republicans are corporatists so it stands to reason why they would want to completely scrap the new law.
And the other cuts, Senator DeMint talked about earmarks, which could be a deal-breaker between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party Republicans as Mr. Gregory proposed. Actually, that should be their official moniker - Tea Party Republicans, there aren't any Tea Party Democrats in office.
The Republicans won the day last week and now they feel like they have a mandate despite anyone saying anything to the contrary. The President, last Wednesday, gave a concession press conference, almost literally confirming that he's not in touch with the American people. He better get his act together or frankly, the President is going to get his ass handed to him in the next two years.
Where Senator DeMint truly does represent the far-right of the Republican party, Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) comes off as a moderate Republican, to which of course, Mr. Gregory asked him about the Presidency. Ugh, enough already with the asking everyone if they are running for President on Meet The Press. Mr. Christie, as we said above, is slashing spending across all municipalities for the most part, which includes things like teacher pensions, hence taking money out of retirees' pockets. [And as these are just words on a page and you can say to yourself, "well, that's not me," it's becoming more and more likely that it is or will be you.
So it all sounds and in some case is all sensible, but make no mistake that it makes life for the individual much more difficult. And speaking of sensible, we agree with Governor Christie with regard to the tunnel project in as much as that it can't be a blank check of overruns in costs. He also mentioned that New York City nor state is contributing to the project, which we believe they should. Let's wait and see.
The Panel: Former Obama White House Communications Director Anita Dunn; Former Adviser to Pres. George W. Bush Karen Hughes; President of the National Urban League, Marc Morial and Republican Strategist Mike Murphy.
With regard to the panel, it breaks down like this: Anita Dunn, please... she's one of the reasons why the message didn't get out. She confessed to assume some responsibility for that. You think? Her lack of responsibility translates directly into a lack of credibility so she had nothing to offer.
Karen Hughes, former adviser to President Bush, said the election was a complete repudiation of President Obama's agenda. "Turn that baby around," she repeated. Do the American people dislike the direction the country is going and did their vote confirm that. All yes, but it should not be characterized in the way Ms. Hughes did it. You know that person who is always convinced he or she is always right, but no matter what the person says it's always wrong? That's Karen Hughes. Marc Morial, the only valid voice on today's panel, was correct in refuting that on air.
As for Mike Murphy's opinion today. He admitted that he ran Meg Whitman's campaign in California. He's so DQ'ed from the conversation.
So where does this all leave us? Well, President Obama has great words and he needs to lead with great actions, which he hasn't done. The Republicans don't say anything and that's what's scary, so you have no idea what they're really going to do. We're in a holding pattern. We really need to land this plane as we're running out of fuel so we can't just keep circling like this.
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