The American Spectator : That '90s Show

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That '90s Show

By W. James Antle, III from the June 2010 issue

A Republican House bets this isn't the Clinton years all over again.

(Page 3 of 3)

Which is exactly why it is never stated honestly and directly: Democrats benefit politically by pointing out the costs of Republican proposals in forgone benefits while never acknowledging the costs of their policy preferences in forgone income and economic growth. In other words, Republicans are taking a risk by admitting what the American people will have to give up. Democrats are playing it safe by pretending only plutocrats and defense contractors will have to give up anything. It's a game older than Louisiana Democrat Russell Long's quip, "Don't tax me, don't tax thee, tax that man behind the tree."

AT SOME POINT, I and thee will eventually become that man behind the tree. But politicians -- and all too often the voters who will elect them -- aren't known for long time horizons. Which brings us to the final risk for Republicans: despite long-standing GOP rhetoric to the contrary, their recent fiscal track record isn't very good and their previous bouts of budgetary discipline have always been short-lived. If the argument that Republicans plan to shred the social contract fails, Democrats can trot out the argument that Republicans don't really mean it. "We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program but we didn't pay for any of this new spending," Obama said in his deficit reduction speech. "Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts."

Here Obama has a point, even if he is dishonest about the new spending and tax cut extensions he signed into law himself -- the result of unexpected hardships that "led us to temporarily borrow even more" -- and did not pay for. To win the budget battle, this time the Republicans have to mean what they say. And to avoid the mistakes of the 1990s, the GOP will need to do more than avert a government shutdown. They must lead the country away from decades of bipartisan mendacity about government spending. That would be a show no one in Washington has ever seen before.

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About the Author

W. James Antle, III is associate editor of The American Spectator. You can follow him on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/Jimantle.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment

Alan Brooks| 6.29.11 @ 8:40AM

TRANSLATION:
After the dust settles next year you will elect a POTUS:
a) good enough to do Viagra commercials.
b) good enough to be tortured at the Hanoi Hilton.

You are by far your own worst enemies.

Alan Brooks| 6.29.11 @ 9:20AM

"Bob Dole ineffectually..."

oh no kidding?
you don't say
you don't say
you don't say.

'who is it, dear?'

He don't say.

lydia| 6.30.11 @ 1:50PM

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because of changed demographics, the eventual outcome will be another Bush. You are all merely going through the motions.

hardcard| 6.29.11 @ 9:31AM

The 90's ??? Please read "Reckless Endangerment" by Morgenson and Rosner.

Pete| 6.29.11 @ 10:21AM

I would harp on the wasted "stimulus" package over and over and over, detailing where these funds went and how little they produced in terms of results. Force Dumbo to insult everyone's intelligence by repeating his retarded defense - "It could have been so much worse." The ridicule he brings on himself by repeating something so demonstrably false will eventually cause him to fold up shop and take his ball home, crying racism all the way.

CalMark| 6.29.11 @ 11:37AM

Lots of tired conventional wisdom in this piece.

Mr. Antle, the GOP Congress did NOT overreach. They cravenly let themselves get demagogued into abandoning the ideas they were elected to implement.

They were energetically doing what they got elected to do, until they got blindsided on school lunches, causing them to lose their momentum and their way. After two decades of hindsight, it's obvious Newt Gingrich was a lousy leader without the focus, tactical smarts, or judgment to fight back and win.

Speaking of Newt. His demonization was the result of inept self-defense and inability to counter-attack, inept squandering of a political position that politicians dream about (leave it to the GOP), and stupid mismanagement of his caucus.

In short, the GOP Class of '94 were doing what they got elected to do. They failed from incompetence, timidity, and lack of leadership. It was not for being "out of touch." To say anything else is to enable Leftist spin to redefine history and demonize conservatism.

Alan Brooks| 6.29.11 @ 1:47PM

No Calmark,
Newt WAS out of touch. He tried to square a circle with his syncretization of futurism with conservatism.

Alan Brooks| 6.29.11 @ 1:49PM

...not he, but his beliefs, were all over the road.

Michael L. Hauschild| 6.29.11 @ 1:41PM

"They must lead the country away from decades of bipartisan mendacity....."
"They" will be gone.

Alan Brooks| 6.29.11 @ 1:51PM

But because of changed demographics, the eventual outcome will be another Bush. You are all merely going through the motions.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 6.29.11 @ 2:00PM

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Madison - A GOP candidate from Green Bay running in a Senate recall race has been convicted of two misdemeanor counts, arrested on other occasions, and now faces another probe by the Oconto County Sheriff's Department.

The incidents involving David VanderLeest, which were raised by Democrats Wednesday, stem from domestic violence allegations. VanderLeest, 34, helped organize the recall against Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) and is the only Republican on the ballot challenging Hansen in the July 19 election.

"It's an open investigation at the current time. It has also been shared with our human services department," Clark Longsine, chief deputy at the Oconto County Sheriff's Department, said Wednesday of the latest investigation. Longsine said he couldn't provide more details.

VanderLeest, a Green Bay wind farm developer with a history of other legal troubles, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges in 2007 as part of a plea deal. Also Wednesday, Democrats pointed to at least two other dates in which VanderLeest was arrested for alleged domestic abuse involving his ex-wife in 2006 and 2009 but was not convicted.

His former wife also obtained restraining orders against him in 2005 and again in 2006.

Seems to me that Clinton isn't the only bad actor out there on the public stage.

C'mon - this is the best you got?

TrueBlue| 6.29.11 @ 2:39PM

At least GOP candidates manage to show shame and step out of the limelight when they get caught (though I'd much prefer they were actually honest, that'll never happen with a politician), unlike the Dems Clinton and Weiner, who proclaim innocence lying the whole way.

TheRightIsAnythingBut| 6.29.11 @ 5:10PM

Ya mean,Republicans like Newt Gingrich who admitted to affairs even as he was maneuvering Clinton toward impeachment? Or Republicans like Larry Craig who definitely did not go gently into that good night? Ya mean THOSE Republicans?

The issue is really not the bad behavior - the issue is that Republicans so smugly assume the moral high ground when face it - it's all such a dirty business.

Anthony| 6.29.11 @ 3:32PM

What these feckless, weak, and timid Rs have learned since the '90s is the question of the ages.
Boehner, thus far, appears to have learned little from Newt. He is weak voiced and completely outmaneuvered by the Ds, who know the game of media spin.
He allowed Obozo to hide behind business as usual by participating in the golf round. Wow, what a horrible capitulation to the insiders game, as opposed to the recognition that the very existence of America is at stake.
Obozo today, revived the '90s with his disgusting false choice between corporate jet tax breaks and medical research.This is how low and reprehensible the Ds are, and how woefully unprepared the Rs are at countering this crap.
Boehner should have held his own presser and exposed Obozo for the lying fraud that he is.
The problem is, business as usual will not work anymore. America is at its end if there is not a systemic change in how we think, act, and govern ourselves as Americans.
If the Rs don't have the guts to take a stand, it will all fall apart and America will devolve into chaos. The greatest nation on earth will have gone the way of Rome.
Frankly, I don't think the Rs have it in them to save America.

Purpleguy| 6.29.11 @ 5:19PM

"First, no current Republican leader has emerged as a PR villain of Gingrich-like proportions." - are you kidding? Paul Ryan and his "Kill Medicare" plan which doesn't even cut the deficit and balance a budget until 2080 is all over the place as Enemy #1. "Pretty Boy Floyd" is in for a rude awakening in his district in Wisconsin in 2012.
As for Boehner, who can be mad at a man who would cry if you yelled at the poor sap? He turns on the waterworks so fast, they should import him to Texas to help ease the drought!

alice moore| 6.29.11 @ 8:30PM

What the writer of this article ignores are the pocketbook issues. In 1996, the average American had a full fridge, an SUV in every garage, a secure job, and plenty of circuses. John Wayne Gacy could have won reelection.

Any GOP nominee in 2012 only has to say, "Are you better off..." you know the rest. Slam and Dunk.

BTW the GOP held on to the House and Senate in 1996. Bill Clinton didn't have very long coat tails.

carnot| 6.29.11 @ 8:50PM

good points.

you know....there was a snippet on Cavuto today in which an analyst noted big Wall Street financial houses are planning on, and have initiated, outsourcing overseas of well paying jobs due to impending, onerous Dodd-Frank regulations. There were yet other pieces on the recurring theme of Obamacare un-affordability. The signs are all there of an inexorable march to disaster. It doesn't matter how the Republicans play the game.....eventually the party in power will be caught in the whipsaw. The only issue is how far the suffering and decline must go before the tidal wave sweeps away the entrenched.

Johnny| 6.30.11 @ 7:14AM

If, per chance, the repubs. allow the dims to decide for them that Romney will be the nominee the end will be nigh. If we don't find the conservative voice that can re-install our values and morals into this government and country we will be done.The Bush era was just as bad as the Obama one with the exception of the pace at which the decline has been facilitated. Bush was, however, a decent person that could not fight the dims majority in congress and was somewhat misguided whereas Obama is out to purposefully change our way of life. Re-distribution of wealth, to him, I believe, is meant from the U.S. to the "less fortunate" countries of the world. Sorry if you deserving folks on the government dole here thought he meant to give it to you.

RCV| 6.30.11 @ 11:17AM

The consequences of not raising the debt ceiling and causing a default would be catastrophic and far reaching - sending interest rates soaring and killing even more jobs. The repercussions for Republicans would be to make the 1995 government shutdown fallout pale in comparison.

Eric Cantor knows this, and has craftily pulled out of the negoatiations at the last minute to leave John Boehner, whose job he wants, holding the bag. If Boehner compromises to avoid the looming catastrophe, he will be toast for tea party Republicans, and Cantor will likely move up to his job. If Boehner doesn't compromise and the catastrophe happens, he will get the blame for the electoral whiplash that will hit the GOP, and Cantor will get his job anyway.

We shall see.

alice moore| 6.30.11 @ 4:44PM

The Republicans held onto both the House and the Senate quite handily in 1996. They only lost an ephemeral PR battle for a few weeks.

We can't kick the can down the road to raise the debt ceiling.

RCV| 6.30.11 @ 7:29PM

We shall see.

POST American| 6.30.11 @ 11:43PM

---The RIIA/CFR Tavistock Institute engineered
and set up, Rockefeller-linked front man Bill Clinton?

Nostalgia for those days of full spectrum
RED China-Globalist sellout, and the first of the
false flag police state operations against
American citizens themselves(WACO).

Of course, along with BOTH Bushes and the
former Kissinger aide, son of CIA linked Ann
Dunham ----Barack Obama, he too is awaiting
RETRO-active impeachment and prison
for TREASON against the sovereignty and
people of this republic.

And this time ALLLLL the Hearst Corp. set-up Arminian heretics in the world (ie Billy Graham) ain't gonna' save his ass-------

NO KIDDING