Yes, we realize given most of the political talk this last week that this week's title is a little dubious, but rest assured it's more benign than you would originally assume. But it's apt given the debate in the opening part of today's program between the new DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and RNC Chair Reince Priebus.
The discussion lead off with what the respective players thought on the ultimate fate of Anthony Weiner. The newsworthiness of which is that Ms. Schultz said that even though he needs to resign, it is ultimately up to the Congressman. Mr. Priebus, on the other hand, has called Mr. Weiner a creep on several occasions this week, but deferred from that term on Meet The Press. He said that Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader in the House, didn't call for his resignation. However, that's completely false. Once she learned of his lying, she called for him to resign and an ethics investigation to start. Her position has been very clear. But it's the scandal in and of itself that Mr. Priebus wants people to focus on - the red meat, that Democrats are creeps. The reason is that the Republicans, who are focusing on the economy and which we'll get to shortly, don't have popular platforms to run on. Mr. Ryan's budget proposal changes Medicare to the dislike of most all seniors and now Social Security, which Rick Santorum, former Senator (R-PA), spoke about later on today's program.
Yet, when Ms. Schultz brought up the case of David Vitter, the Louisiana Senator who hired prostitutes and was not called on by any Republicans to resign, Mr. Priebus dismissed it as an old case. Republicans do not answer well, as Mr. Priebus couldn't today, to the double standard obviously at play, but what we have in the present needs to be dealt with. Richard Wolffe, during the round table put it best in questioning, "How can he be at all effective with that level of embarrassment?" And how it will be dealt with, given this weekend's announcement by Mr. Weiner that he'll be taking leave, is something they touched on in the round table as well, which is redistricting. And yes, probably while he's on leave, the Congressman will be redistricted out so that the story will in effect go away.
And for the record, this column hasn't weighed in either way on whether or not Mr. Weiner should resign, but make no mistake that we've gone back and forth about it, weighing heavily. The conclusion, to which we've come and we believe is the right thing is to not make a call on it. What would a call like that from this column do? Nothing, it would have no effect so there's no reason. However, if it turns out that Mr. Weiner may have broken the law in some way, then he should definitely resign - no one is above.... well... (let's not go there.)
As we mentioned above, another large part of the Republican's Atkins diet is the economy, in which Mr. Gregory pointed out that unemployment, debt, and gasoline prices are all up significantly since Mr. Obama took office, whose disapproval rating on the economy is at a bulging 59%, a downright ugly number. Mr. Priebus lead with the loss of 2 million jobs since Mr. Obama took office in his rhetoric. Conversely, Ms. Schultz lead with "we've (Democrats) have turned the economy around."
To which the response is that they're both wrong. The Democrats haven't turned the economy around and we saw today that when Ms. Schultz said it, she reacted to want to pull that one back a bit. It is true however that Mr. Obama's actions saved this country some catastrophic economy pain, actions which Republicans criticize. As for the 2 million lost jobs, those were all lost in the first months of Mr. Obama taking office, a residual effect of the last Administration so laying that at the feet of President Obama is wrong and frankly a weak argument considering that there has been job growth, though modest, for the last 15 months. But it sounds great to the Republican base - it plays as a reassuring fact that Democrats aren't good for the economy and that Republican politicians can do better.
However, when Mr. Gregory asked about a specific proposal that should come from the Republican-controlled House, Mr. Priebus offered small business tax cuts. What is so frustrating about this is 1) Republicans have no other solutions other than tax cuts, 2) the Democrats since Mr. Obama has been in office have passed many tax cut bills for small business already, and 3) over the past 30 years tax cuts have never lead to any sort of respectable job growth in this country - a statistical fact. Small business tax cuts just equal to more roast beef on the plate.
This is all not to mention that Mr. Priebus was on the attack, in a hyperbolic degree, looking up to make the argument, which is body language that speaks of an inherently weak position. Speaking of weak positions, we feel that Mr. Gregory missed a big opportunity during this debate, which was to ask, Mr. Priebus in particular, about the staunch Republican support, all but 4 Senators, for the Paul Ryan budget plan, which would change Medicare in a way that it would be controlled by private insurance companies. Given this, Mr. Priebus is correct when he said that the President has a tough 'road to hoe,' as a CBS poll indicates that he's running even with Mitt Romney, 47% a piece.
Given that, as head of the Republican party, we would have liked to have heard from the chairman himself, as the party defends that when so much of the American populace is against it. For this column, this is a required answer. Another requirement answer is on what to do with Social Security, which leads us to the Rick Santorum interview.
Mr. Santorum described himself and Jim DeMint (R-SC) as Senators running up the Hill to spearhead Social Security reform when then President Bush called for it. The basic premise of which, if you remember, was to put Social Security into private investment firms. The American public was against it and were then proven right when the market and economy taken in September of 2008. Most would have been wiped out. This was the reason Mr. Santorum lost his Senate reelection by 17 points, however, today he turned it into a positive... and he almost made the argument.
He said that we should change Social Security from a wage-based pay system to a price-based system. He continued by saying that when he asked seniors, they would say that they want to be able to cover their cost of living and that by changing the system in this way would save money. Now, we're not experts here but this is our take on that. By moving the system away from a wage-based system, as Mr. Santorum says it is now, would save money by reducing the Social Security benefit to everyone. In a priced-based system, if prices go down so will benefits even if wages stay the same or go up. It leaves no leeway for a senior to have any extra money on hand or any disposable income of significance for basics outside of food, rental, and utilities. It seems to us that when Mr. Santorum asked the question, frankly, seniors didn't understand what he meant or he's twisting the answer to fit his rhetoric. We're not sure.
Mr. Santorum stands by some troubling convictions like that the President doesn't believe in Americans and is... his words... centralizing power in Washington - he uses health care as the example. He explained that Mr. Obama doesn't believe that Americans can make their own choices with regard to health care. This is the Republican rhetoric for their argument to put control of Medicare in private insurance company hands. It's a false argument, but as we said, Mr. Santorum takes the tact that somehow the President of the United States is against the American people - the "he's not one of us" argument.
Mr. Santorum said his loss did not come at the expense of his principles, which he believes are right for all Americans, and that he showed leadership in going down the way he did. Republican strategist, Mike Murphy, during the round table said that he could see Mr. Santorum's realistic path to the nomination citing name recognition and eluding that even though his extremely social conservative views will play well in Iowa, nationally they wouldn't play well.
On the economy, Mr. Santorum that corporate tax rates should be lowered so that major American companies bring back the trillion dollars in assets from oversees. Aside from making our point again about Republicans and tax cuts, whose to say that those companies will bring back the money. If there's no demand here for that investment then why would those companies make it. For that to happen, Republicans would have to legislate their way to lower overall wages for the American middle class for the jobs to come back in the way they think they will. He talked about maufacturing and the need to rebuilt the sector of our economy, how he used to pass the steel mills and smell the smoke and that said to him that people were working. Was it here that Mr. Santorum made a controversial statement? He said that we don't want the smoke anymore, but we want the people working. Mr. Santorum, why do we not want the smoke anymore if you believe that climate change is in no way caused by human activity. If it isn't then the smoke doesn't matter, correct? He needs to clarify that for us. But to be fair to Mr. Santorum on the economy, he did say that he would be coming out with a more comprehensive plan soon. However, there are some positions of his that are complete fringe, and frankly, stupid.
Mr. Santorum said himself that he believes that life begins at conception, when two cells collide (our positional interjection), and that under the Constitution that life should be protected, even in the case of rape or incest. Furthermore, doctors should be criminally charged for performing an abortion. Who is Mr. Santorum to make these judgements, which are solely based on a belief, a belief as an American, that we don't have to share. Mr. Santorum is completely outside the mainstream and also, this position goes against Republican libertarian thinking, and democratic (small d) thinking in that it dictates that one person has control over another person's body. Mr. Santorum knows what's right for a woman's body and mind... hardly.
The other troubling position is his philosophical opposition to public schooling, but not just that, but the entire premise of school children collectively getting together to learn in favor of home schooling. He said that children going to a place for eight hours to interact with children the same age isn't natural and not how the world works. This is insane thinking - it's exactly how the world works. People interact best mostly with other people their own age. How the world works is that everyone has different opinions, cultural traditions, races, religions, et al. and being home schooled, how is an individual supposed to interact in the world without any exposure to things outside the comfort zone? You can not - it's ultimate not healthy for the individual.
Please... Mr. Santorum speaks well and declarative on his positions, but his are the type that the founding fathers (We're purposely throwing this out there to prove a point.) sought to free themselves from.
Round table: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed (D), GOP strategist Mike Murphy, MSNBC's Richard Wolffe, and the Wall Street Journal's Kim Strassel.
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