We're happy and thankful to be moving forward with the Meet The Press Opinion in 2011, and we hope this post finds everyone well. So let's get down to business and even though it's a new year, we're getting the same stories, be it there is a slight bit of hope for cooperation, but make no mistake the divisions remain deep between the Republicans and the Democrats.
Today's first guest, an exclusive with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), showed that Republicans have no intention of compromising their positions for what is perceived as the greater good to bring everyone of board with consensus ideas to move the country forward. Mr. Graham banally predicted that the recovery would be slow in the coming year. Certainly not an intellectual stretch to say that because of the conditions that have been set through the tax cut deal.
There was much talk of sacrifice during the panel discussion and the concept of what that actually means, but the sacrifice of the tax revenue given up in the tax deal isn't going to help with the murky problem of state pensions as Yale law professor and author Stephen Carter (first time on Meet The Press) pointed out.
Mr. Graham emphatically stated that entitlement reform is essential to get spending under control and it's not that we disagree with that stance, it's just that when you push for tax cuts for the richest 2% of citizens and then tell us that we have to raise the retirement age to receive the benefits. And who does that effect the least, the people with the most money, to which Mr. Graham also mentioned a 'means test' for benefits among older citizens.
What does that mean exactly? If you don't need it, you don't get it? Also, who will determine who has the means and who doesn't, the government? What Mr. Graham is suggesting here goes directly against Republican principles that staunchly advocate for government to get out of the way. A what point in one's life will it be determined that you no longer need the benefits?
That hint of cooperation could come through reform of the Prescription Part D benefit put in place during the Bush Administration, where it is accepted common knowledge that it was a big give away to the pharmaceutical companies. Hopefully, everyone can agree that closing the doughnut hole is in the best interest of all seniors to keep their individual costs down, but we fear that the ability to negotiate prices for drugs with these companies will be taken off the table.
Mr. Graham said that Republicans have been given a new lease on life by the electorate. He also stated that he hope the party have learned the lessons the Democrats' mistakes from the last Congress. He didn't articulate what those lessons were, but given his answers leading up to that point, we have to conclude that he means government overreach. Mr. Graham wasted no time in his interview to remind viewers of the battle coming over health care, and the Republicans' new domestic boogieman deemed 'Obamacare.'
And here's where Republicans organize much better than Democrats. The House will vote to defund the new law, one which goes straight down party lines. The first thing Mr. Graham mentioned, 'defund and start over.' The second course of action would be for the states to opt out of the individual mandates, like the ones in place in Massachusetts. With 33 Republican governors running the states, most will opt out, making for unanimous party philosophy at all levels. What the proposed solutions are is anyone's guess at this point, but as with past Republican-controlled Congresses, they'll only say what they are going to do when they are in a position of solidified strength. So we'll wait and see.
So that new lease on life that Mr. Graham referred to, we also have to conclude that doesn't mean that the Republican agenda/philosophy will change. We're trying to stay optimistic on the first Sunday of the year, but after listening to Mr. Graham's answers, it's awfully difficult.
David Brooks, during today's panel, said that the number that matters the most is the percentage of people who believe can be a positive influence in their lives. In the 60's and 70's, he said, that number was around 80%, but now it's down around 19%. Mr. Brooks still believes that his party's politicians (make the clear designation between party politicians and the common electorate) think there is a balance between government involvement versus them staying out of the way. However, Republican politicians are about limited government, period.
Senator-elect Pat Toomey (R-PA), on today's panel as well, said that there are things that both parties can agree on such as trade and tax reform, but said regulatory overreach will be tough. Mr. Toomey, a Tea-Party Republican, advocates for less government regulation of business and industry as part of the overall conservative philosophy of market freedom. A free market is what we want but not at the expense of the country as a whole. Lax regulation lead to the severe housing crisis that we still face, one in which Mr. Graham said today, could be helped by privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We're not for government ownership of the housing industry or the automotive industry or any industry for that matter, but what we've seen is that left to its own devices, the private sector will bend and break rules for the sake of profit.
All of these fiscal matters are going to be hashed out between establishment Republicans and the Tea-Party wing of the Republicans, and it will be difficult. Even if it's not articulated in this way by the pundits or the Democrats, what you are going to see is the Republican party enacting policies that in actuality go against the Tea Party Republican electorate's own best interest.
Mr. Graham that he needed to see an actual financial reform plan before he would vote for a raising of the debt ceiling, a veiled threat really. This vote comes up in the spring and there will not be a consensus plan in place by that time. This isn't the balance of philosophies, at which the panel was later driving.
What was missing from the panel was the Democratic party line guy, which we could say is Mr. Dionne from the Washington Post, but we're thinking an elected official. We harp on the Republicans pretty good in this column, but that doesn't mean the Democrats get a free pass.
Lastly, Senator Graham called for the United States to construct permanent military bases in Afghanistan, a declarative sentence. He said that these are required and if the Afghans want to have a serious relationship with the United States, they have to earn it. We find this second part much more misguided than the first part. How in the world could Senator Graham actually think that the Karzai Government of Afghanistan wants a serious relationship with us? President Karzai is waiting for us to get out of the way so he can then take to full dictator mode. Then we have to decide whether we want to support that dictatorship. Regardless, our embassy in Kabul might as well be the permanent base.
"What do you win if you win?" as Mr. Gregory asked. Mr. Carter: What counts as victory? The answer to these is nothing. We win nothing. Mr. Dionne summed it up by saying that the focus would go back to weakening the Taliban and fighting terrorism - the Biden approach. That should have been the mission all along, not to build some version of Afghanistan that we can tolerate at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and the lives of American and N.A.T.O. soldiers.
At this point, we should just state it for what it is. We're in Afghanistan so that we have a launching place for attacks we're conducting in Pakistan on Al Qaeda and Islamic Extremists. We're killing the Taliban, who are working with the Pakistani ISI, because they both are trying to prevent us from these operations. There it is.
If you want a time line, here's one: Deliver the heads of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri on a stick [read simply: bring to justice in custody or... ok, verified dead] and that will give the U.S. a legitimate excuse to get out.
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