Crazy is not a word that encourages dispassionate discussion, but may be appropriate for beliefs that are counter to the lessons of history. In today's NY Times Steven Rattner talks about these ideas espoused by Republicans:
* Bachmann, Paul and Romney: opposed raising the debt ceiling
* Bachmann and Paul: will never vote to raise the debt ceiling
* Cut, cap and balance bill: cut government spending by 25%, taking US back to 1966 level
* Balanced budget amendment: no government flexibility to manage
* Ryan budget proposal: replace Medicare with vouchers
* Perry: would not have supported TARP financial rescue
* Perry: repeal 16th amendment to eliminate income tax (80% of federal revenue)
* Paul: abolish Federal Reserve to prevents previous panics and busts
* Bachmann: no extension of unemployment insurance for jobless
* Bachmann and Romney and others: repeal Obama health care plan
* Bachmann: repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform
* Bachmann: General Motors and Citigroup should have not received government support, should have gone bankrupt
Rattner quotes UCal professor who found idealogical divergence in Congress the greatest in 120 yrs - since the decade that led up to the Civil War. And the increased polarization is from Republicans moving further to the right than ever before.
In general, Republicans want to remove all the protections that have grown up over the last 100 years that attempt to prevent business abuses, protect the poor, stabilize the economy, and support a government of a size necessary for a vastly large economy. I wonder if they defend the Gilded Age when large corporations - trusts - did whatever they wanted, the working week was 50-60 hr, child labor was common, full time workers lived nearly in poverty, and retirement meant instant poverty. Are any of those conditions ones we should try to re-establish?
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