The Eclipse of American Democracy, Part Sixteen: Republican Congressional Leaders (Are Terrible)

How did I get through fifteen posts about how Republicans and self-identified conservatives are wrecking American democracy, and yet I haven't even started on Republican members of Congress? Furthermore, how can I possibly give justice to the topic? I might as well start a blog post called, "A Description of Everything in the Smithsonian Museum."

Let's begin with some ideas as building blocks. For democracy to function, elected officials have to do their jobs. Politicians can, within the existing framework of the republic, believe that government should be made smaller and less intrusive. But there's no argument to be made that democracy is made stronger when government is gridlocked, dysfunctional and on its way to financial bankruptcy.

Submitted for your approval, a sequence of events.

First, at the end of 2017, the Republican Congress passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut. 83% of the tax cut's benefits go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Within the next few years, the bill actually raises taxes on poor and middle Americans.

Second, robbing the poor to give to the rich is bad enough for democracy, but there's also the not-at-all small problem of the federal deficit to consider. At the time the tax bill was under consideration, the non-partisan Congressional  Budget Office calculated that the bill would add $1.4 trillion to the national debt. Republicans dismissed this finding, claiming (without evidence) that not only would the tax bill pay for itself through increased economic activity, but that it would generate so much new taxable income that it would actually reduce the federal deficit. Republicans also claimed the bill would create a stock market boom.

Third, fast forward one year. The federal deficit has increased 17% over the previous year, and the stock market indexes have fallen. And the CBO has increased its estimate of the increase in the national debt as a result of the bill from $1.4 trillion to $1.9 trillion.

Finally, consider this: The same Republicans who showed indifference to the dire warnings regarding the deficit-hole their tax cut would create are now reluctant to ensure that government performs its most basic and necessary functions... because of their alleged concern about the deficit.

From Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos:

"In June, the House voted 382-0 to pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, which would extend veterans’ benefits to the numerous men who served off the coast of Vietnam during the war. Many of these men have had to spend a considerable part of their lives trying to prove that they were exposed to Agent Orange, leading to some, if not most, of their health problems. Since June, the act has been stuck in the Republican-led Senate. Last Monday, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) attempted to get the unanimous consent of the Senate to pass the bill."

"The only drawback to asking for a unanimous approval on the Senate floor is that the moment a single senator opposes the bill, the entire unanimous consent enterprise is scuttled. Of course, who would object to extending healthcare benefits to Vietnam veterans? Like, for real? Who? According to the Stars and Stripes, that would be Senator Mike Enzi (WY-R), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee."

""There’s clearly more work to do just on figuring out the spending and administration of this and the deficit impacts this bill will have," Enzi said on the Senate floor."

"Yup. The man that ignored the enormous deficit cost estimates the CBO calculated for his tax cuts is suddenly worried about how much paying for care for veterans with terminal illnesses—the result of them going to war for our country."

So why do Republicans do these things? For one thing, for congressional Republicans to prove their philosophy that the federal government can't do anything right, they only have to keep getting elected and keep doing their jobs badly. But the problem goes deeper than that. Next time we'll dig further into the Republican penchant for what author Garrison Keillor called, "generous tax cuts for the well-fixed, hoping to lead us into a box canyon of debt that will render government impotent".

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