Republicans used to talk about reducing government deficits. That's a very bad idea at times like these, but at least it's an idea. Now many of their proposals actually increase it. And while they resist direct government spending, they're often eager to give taxpayer money to private corporations (as the TSA deal in this budget agreement demonstrates).
Republicans claim they support economic growth, which if done right leads to private-sector jobs. But consider this sentence, from a Republican description of the party's budget?
"While the scoring models that the CBO and JCT use will not account for it, this legislation, if enacted, would boost economic growth."
Wait. What? Did they just say that neither the Congressional Budget Office nor the Joint Committee for Taxation believes that their budget will "boost economic growth"? This hard-hitting takedown of GOP claims doesn't come from The Huffington Post, CounterPunch, or Salon. It was written by Republican staffers for the House/Senate Joint Economic Committee, and promoted on the website of the House Republican Conference.
Republicans insist their plan will boost growth anyway. They "prove" it by filling their staffers' "report" with voodoo-ized language that's the economic equivalent of those old maps that said "Here there be dragons."
The mendacity and deception are no longer surprising. What is surprising is the seeming listlessness of it all, the sense that party leaders and operatives are just going through the motions. Watching senior GOP politicians nowadays is like watching a road company of Cats after four or five years of playing mid-sized towns. They can still sing "The Rum Tum Tugger," but they can't really put their hearts into it.
The Republican Party may not have an ideology anymore, but it still has an agenda: the continued enrichment of the corporations and billionaires that finance it, at the expense of everyone else. Democrats would be wise to stop celebrating the deals they strike with these folks, at least until they explain the absurd things they were forced to do to get those deals.
Of course, there are politicians in both parties who live to serve the interests of corporations and the wealthy. But at least the Democrats have a core ideology, even if some of them are routinely untrue to it. It says that government has an important and constructive role to play in the life of a people. Elected Republicans claim to disagree -- then use government as an ATM for themselves and their sponsors.
That's not an ideology. It's a racket.
It's harrowing to watch the GOP's leading politicians shed even the pretense of principle in its pursuit of campaign cash and cushy post-political gigs. There's no creed left in this party, not even a conservative one. There's only an Abyss. You can stare into it, and you can let it stare into you, but trust me: Neither one of you will like what you see.
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