In the next two weeks you will hear all manner of scenarios about who will win, by what margin and what all of it means. In the last 15 days before an election, gaming out possibilities is what there is to do. Nobody knows the answers. Everybody is brewing more water and throwing in the tea leaves, before they go to the back yard and start reading chicken entrails.
So consider the plight of Kevin McCarthy. He could realize his life’s dream in a couple of weeks and become Speaker of the House — and maybe lose it that quickly. How, you say? Because he’s stuck in the same stone age as Newt Gingrich, as evidenced recently by his dusting off Gingrich’s Contract With America and deciding to put that forth as some kind of a political platform.
McCarthy is the front man for a band that that has no tunes. Here’s some interesting insight from the American Prospect:
The six-week reign of the U.K.’s PM makes clear that Reaganomics is a disaster in the real world—but Republicans don’t live in the real world.
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Well, that was quick. Henceforth, the musical accompaniment that’s set to footage of Liz Truss should be the Groucho Marx ballad “Hello, I Must Be Going.”
What the blink-and-you-miss-it rise and fall of Britain’s six-week wonder demonstrates is that even by the standards of the markets, much less those of people’s lives, Reaganomics is a complete disaster. To combat the U.K.’s myriad economic woes, Truss exhumed the policies of both Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: huge tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of business, on the already disproven theory that such measures can revive an economy. The markets, not to mention people themselves, responded by pointing out that such policies swell deficits, immiserate the poor, damage the middle class, enrich the already-rich, and do nothing to fight inflation—indeed, by compelling central banks to raise interest rates, they compound it.
Truss’s policies were taken whole from a range of London-based libertarian “think tanks,” which had cocooned themselves, along with such playmates as The Wall Street Journal’s editorialists, in a plutocratic hall of mirrors that admitted no light or data from the real world. Now that those policies have met as decisive a real-world rejection as can be imagined, it would be comforting to think that our own Republican Party, which appears poised to take over the House after the midterm elections, would learn from the Truss debacle.
It would be comforting, but it’s not happening. Instead, Republicans are planning to cut back on Social Security and Medicare by refusing to extend the debt ceiling, which would plunge an already beleaguered global economy into much deeper disarray. As my colleague Ryan Cooper has noted today,
All four GOP representatives running to head the House Budget Committee have promised that they are going to take the debt ceiling hostage to get big cuts. “Our main focus has got to be on nondiscretionary—it’s got to be on entitlements,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA). Specifically, they mentioned increasing the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare, and adding means tests or work requirements. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who will probably be Speaker of the House if Republicans take control, endorsed the strategy. “You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt,” he said.
In other words, the stake has yet to be driven through Reaganomics’ putrid heart. If ever it is to be, Democrats must make clear why this zombie doctrine needs to be destroyed, a task to which they should particularly address themselves between now and Election Day.
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This is not all that far fetched. Not at all. You know McCarthy faces stiff opposition from members of his own caucus. It is not inconceivable that either McCarthy does become Speaker and then goes down the exact same path as Liz Truss, although there’s no way he would resign in six weeks. He would just keep going down the same dark and desperate path as long as he could. Nor is it inconceivable that one of the MAGA crazies gets hold of the gavel — assuming for the sake of argument that the GOP retakes the House — and McCarthy is toast, as quickly as Truss was.
Then it could get wild. If you see a Jim Jordan or God forbid Matt Gaetz handling the gavel, then it could be Revengenomics, forget about Reagan. Then it’s the witch hunt of Fauci and Hunter Biden and all of that lunacy, and forget about governing. Which, if you stop to think about it, since we’re talking about a party that has long since elevated political theater way above governance, makes perfect sense. That was the message of 2016: welcome, political theater, bread and circus for the masses, performative jackassery, goodbye to whatever was left of the GOP.
We will know more in a few short weeks. Keep this image in the back of your mind, something along these lines may very well come to fruition.
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I dunno…..but threatening to hold senior’s Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid monies hostage through political extortion is not a wining strategy……but just me though.
Even more strange is running on that as a platform……”Vote for us and we promise to screw you and introduce you to the cat food diet. NOM NOM NOM……”
*scratches head*
They’re in a blind panic, Blue. Figure they’re trying to scare the shit out of us to demoralize us because it worked before…maybe. Problem: you can only get with that club so many times before people buck you. “Kick me like you kicked before,/I can’t even feel the pain no more…” Jagger/Richards, “Rocks Off”
I have not heard the cat food diet. But I have Gaetz and party get in control, its all about investigations and not legislation.
Things are going to get nuts? You mean deez nutz? lol
Back in the day, I went to speakers corner in Hyde Park, London. Everyone who wanted to could stand up on a box and spout off whatever they wanted. Mostly political, some religious. Lots of jeering and stuff. A bit like what we see with social media, but with real people having to defend their ideas to real people.
British politics is much more hands on and engaged. Prime minister question time is a full contact sport. In the US we are more subtle. The opposition party never really gets to engage the president in power directly.
McCarthy may be done, but there are two republican parties, the sort of normal party and the crazy party. McCarthy is the sort of normal party potential speaker. The crazy party will never be close to the gavel. jordan, bobo, greene, the child molester they can cry out all they want but they will never be close to the gavel.
We reap what we sow and dumb dumb kevin has sown some pretty bad seeds! Threatening the seniors of America, Threatening to shut the country down, Threatening to hand Ukraine over to poo poo putin to get his way is NOT A SOLID MOVE!
It really riles me when people call social security an entitlement. We pay into it our entire working lives and collect at retirement. More political shading to the message they want to convey.