How soon they forget

Nobody is surprised that certain Republican state Governors have been posturing for the pundits to distance themselves from the economic stimulus which is becoming firmly associated with Obama and the Democratic party.  The problem for the Palins and Pawlentys navigating 2009 in search of national attention is that part of the plan – the infamous bank bailout – was conceived of and pushed by the previous administration in a desperate attempt to present a Republican-engineered solution to the problems of the U.S. and world economies as Bush’s end-note.

Naturally, most congressional Republicans voted in favor of the bailout as a first step in a needed stimulus, and GOP Governors were unified in their vocal support of Bush’s proposed solution.

President Bush and his administration knew that many of the Republican Senators and Representatives elected in November had been distancing themselves from various Bush policy fiascos during their campaigns, yet if Bush left the economy for Obama and his new team to start the fix the GOP reputation would be stained for years – possibly decades. The Democrats had swept into greater control in the House, and taken a substantial edge in the balance of power in the Senate, while Republicans were left in triple jeopardy: they had to be elected by running against both Senator Obama and President Bush, and not responsible for the worst economic downturn in modern memory even though it was largely a function of policies championed by every Republican media darling since Ronald Reagan fought off the first Bush’s “voodoo economics” epithet and re-branded the movement as “trickle-down” theory to justify lower taxes for the wealthiest citizens.

Now, a few months into Obama’s administration, some in the party may be forgetting that they were trying to distance themselves from all three in November – or at least hoping that voters will have forgotten.  In their zeal to be “not Obama” the GOP has suggested a counter to the current administration budget that might have been penned by Ronald Reagan himself.

Representative Paul Ryan’s budget blueprint would freeze non military spending while insuring that former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts don’t expire at the end of next year as scheduled. Ryan, the ranking GOP member of the House Committee on the Budget, may be just posturing as well, but unlike Governors such as Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford, he’s probably not running for President. Ryan is already a well-established Washington insider; he’s in the very place that many eyes in the country are still looking to for solutions, not double-talk and posturing.

Certainly there are some who don’t trust Washington insiders can solve the problems they created, and countless partisans supporting both major parties out of loyalty and/or habit who can be relied on to vote for their party. The 2008 elections hinged on those coveted swing voters, the ones who didn’t buy the labeling of Obama as a wild-eyed liberal (or worse) but saw instead a moderate relative newcomer to the national scene who didn’t rise to political baiting. How energized they’ll be at the polls over the coming years remains to be seen, but they haven’t all quieted down or stopped paying attention just yet.

Ryan’s district in Wisconsin may be securely his, but the GOP as a whole obviously isn’t feeling very secure under the scrutiny of actively participating citizens in every state.

While it’s appropriate to get some overdue specifics from the loyal opposition, it would have been far better had the GOP leadership offered reality-based solutions stripped of sound-bites rather than a re-packaging of the tired rhetoric and dis-proven policies that brought us to the precipice of economic disaster.

Now the GOP has signaled they have no interest in spending on Education, Health Care, or the energy independence which were GOP themes during the election, they just want taxes cut on wealthy Americans while they make money off Defense spending – evidently the sacred cow of the Republican campaign finance machine.

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