The economic tsunami, which is washing away home values, stock
portfolios, jobs and economic growth, may be the root cause of
Senator John McCain’s present electoral difficulties; but that is
not inhibiting the round of recriminations within Republican and
conservative circles.
The Arena on Politico’s website offered a range of opinions
on McCain’s recent blast at the past eight years of Republican
governance.
Saturday’s New York Times ran a
story relating arguments, back and forth, on whether or not
the McCain campaign took Florida for granted by remaining silent
on TV far too long.
There are also reports of sniping back and forth between the
staffs of Senator McCain and Governor Palin. One of McCain’s
staffers unhelpfully called her a “Diva,” which is the genteel
form of the “B” word. You would hope that kind of snark would be
left to MSNBC’s on-air personalities.
And in Sunday’s Washington Post, neoconservative
commentator and former Bush speechwriter David Frum, citing grim
polling data, the worst for the GOP since Watergate,
recommended that the national party apparatus quit pouring
money into McCain’s futile effort, including his long-shot
attempt to win Pennsylvania, and put that money into close U.S.
Senate races. Given likely Democratic control of the White House,
the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, argued Frum,
the Republican Senate Caucus will be the only viable political
institution which can fight a rearguard action or execute
blocking maneuvers against the excesses sure to come.
Call this triage on the Potomac.
For political junkies this sort of Monday morning quarterbacking
is great fun and is a relatively harmless way to pass the time, a
bit like wondering what it would have been like if the
Confederacy had won the Civil War or Hitler had occupied England.
OK, but can’t it wait until after the voters actually vote on
Election Day?
But the more serious questions, both for the Republican Party
and, more generally, the conservative movement, really extend to
the last eight years as noted, quite rightly, by Senator McCain
himself, the quintessential party maverick. There will be no
replay of this miserable, late-breaking general election
campaign; but there is all the time necessary, eight years,
actually, to reflect on the matter of recovering core principles
for right-of-center governance during the GOP’s time in the
political wilderness — even if McCain can pull off another
miracle. Republicans are still headed for catastrophe in the
House and Senate.
THE QUESTION, simply stated, is: What is the future path of the
GOP? Will it continue to support outrageous levels of domestic
spending, unsustainable expansion of entitlement programs, and
cascading debt, while fecklessly permitting the build-up of
relentless pressure for higher taxes, which will stifle economic
growth and job creation?
Will the GOP get a grip on itself, recover its historic identity,
and reclaim the role of fiscal grown-up? This is a very difficult
task for the party of Lincoln since it has, of late, supported
high-spending, deficits, and mounting debt normally associated
with Democratic policies. It is hard, maybe impossible, to argue
for fiscal restraint during a recession. But it was unprecedented
that Republicans would throw fiscal constraint to the wind during
the good times just past.
In fact, Republican lawmakers will most certainly have to support
deficit spending, i.e., a “stimulus package,” until the economic
bleeding stops. Everyone from Larry Kudlow to Robert Rubin seems
to be on board for that kind of major tourniquet.
The indefensible Republican spending binge, soon to be followed
by a defensible bipartisan one, could, to the extent that it
becomes a permanent state similar to that persisting in European
countries, lead to more government bureaucracy, higher taxes, a
constricted private sector and much lower economic growth and job
creation.
A permanently, relentlessly growing federal government will also
undermine America’s military strength, the third pillar of the
old Reagan platform. Both traditional Reaganauts and
neoconservatives need to understand that America’s international
standing and military strength are largely dependent on the
nation’s economic vitality.
THE MOST EGREGIOUS SIN of Republican governance, both in the
executive and legislative branches of government, has been one of
omission: the failure to reform entitlement spending, the Death
Star looming over our economy and society. Over the long haul,
this challenge dwarfs any concerns with the one-trillion dollar
bailout package recently passed by Congress and signed by the
President.
According to David M. Walker, former Comptroller General of the
United States, “Social Security and Medicare alone are already
underfunded by about $44 trillion [that’s with a “t”] or $146,000
per American, in today’s dollars, and this number is growing on
autopilot every year by about $2 trillion, or $6,600 per
American.” Throw in interest payments on the debt, and such
mandatory spending already consumes about half of the federal
budget.
If there is any single issue, regarding which congressional
Republicans should look for an honorable way of cooperating with
either an Obama or McCain administration, consistent with fiscal
probity and economic growth, this is it. It is a paramount issue
of inter-generational equity that must be resolved if America is
to avoid an inexorable drift toward becoming a Banana Republic.
Moreover, progress on reducing or substantially restraining the
growth of entitlement liabilities, over time, would compensate
for any short-term economic problems resulting from needed
spending to get us through the present crisis.
As bad as earmarks are, and blessings on Senator Coburn of
Oklahoma as well as John McCain for standing against them, and as
outrageous are such monstrosities as the Farm Bill, entitlement
reform is truly the heart of the matter, the center of gravity in
the battle for the ultimate character of the American polity. One
wonders what the Republican White House and Congress were
thinking when they passed the new drug entitlement bill a few
years back. Well, now is the time to start thinking really,
really hard.
The few bright spots on the horizon are reformers, such as
Republican Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who believe in low
taxes but recognize the imperative of entitlement reform if we
are not to bankrupt our children and grandchildren. Basically,
they recognize that failure to address entitlements will make
further tax reductions or reform nearly impossible.
Ryan in 2016?
