Senate GOP Happy to Let That 'Party of No' Budget Clock Run Indefinitely
The Democratic National Committee released a "Party of No" clock today that tallies how much time Republicans have spent criticizing President Obama's budget without offering an alternative of their own.
And it's a good thing that there's no limit on how high the clock can go, because Senate GOPers have no intention of ever offering an alternative budget this year. As senior Budget Committee Republican Judd Gregg (NH) tells the Times:
The responsibility of the majority is to produce the budget, and we think it is more constructive to point out how we would improve their budget.
Good plan! Seriously, though, the senators' task may be complicated by their House GOP counterparts, who -- to their credit -- are planning to unveil an alternative budget proposal.
This all may sound like political back-and-forth, but alternative plans put forward by the minority party often get an actual vote; Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) alterna-stimulus, for example, won the support of all but four Republican senators last month.
It's too bad that Senate Republicans aren't prepared to come together on a budget they can believe in ... but perhaps a Democratic senator would be kind enough to submit the House GOP's alterna-budget to a vote in the upper chamber? I'd love to see how many on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) team would be willing to vote for it.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Hmmm ...
Nah. Here's the narrative I like: "Senate Republicans are so unserious about governing that they won't even propose a budget of their own. Why should we elevate this lack of seriousness to majority status?" Just proves as Austan Goolsbee says: There's less substance to Republican policies than there is on the back of a Froot Loops box.
March 13, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
SABOTAGING AMERICA
Republicans are practicing seditious DEMAGOGUERY and insurrectionary OBSTRUCTIONISM intended to destabilize our economy for purposes of political exploitation.
Republicans AREN’T making a sincere effort to STOP the bleeding THEIR incompetent leadership and failed policies created. Instead, they’re using conflicting economic theories as a smokescreen to conceal their subversive agenda, which is to cause President Obama and America to fail so they can blame Democrats for the consequences of THEIR calamitous mismanagement.
Republicans are preposterously professing that THEIR disgraceful political WHORING had nothing to do with the banking, real estate, stock market and employment catastrophes that resulted.
Republicans are trying to hamstring Democrats to prevent them from exposing the damage caused during a Republican presidency.
Republicans are offering controversial arguments they know no one can agree on to disrupt and prevent progressive change. They’d rather divide America and create political gridlock than endure the political consequences of effective Democratic governance. That’s how they gained power and that’s how they’re trying to retain it.
Republicans are not the LOYAL OPPOSITION. They are the ENEMY WITHIN whose personal priorities have eroded their moral and ethical standards to the point that treachery and betrayal are their preferred modus operandi.
It’s one thing to advocate their conservative beliefs; it’s another thing entirely to willfully sabotage America’s government because a successful Democratic presidency would not be vulnerable to the fears and hatreds that have produced and sustained the radical Republican corporatism and extremism that have poisoned and crippled America.
March 13, 2009 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. President, clean up this mess we made.
March 14, 2009 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
...more evidence of a bitter Republican scorched earth campaign?
If they can't own it all, they would rather see it collapse?
This potential scenario is rising up the list as an explanation for their actions.
March 14, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I believe historically sometimes the minority party puts out an alternative budget and sometimes they don't. It's not a necessity by many accounts.
Blech, I threw up in my mouth a little after being devil's advocate/apologist there.
What is not acceptable is the doomsday demagoguery being heedlessly lobbed around. Loyal opposition they ain't.
March 24, 2009 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink