What Do Republicans Want?

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bob-burnett/58290/what-do-republicans-want

What Do Republicans Want?
2014 Elections | Republicans
by Bob Burnett | September 13, 2014 - 8:11am

Although negative political ads take a toll, in most elections voters respond to positive messages. 2014 may prove to be an exception to this rule, as Republicans have waged a relentlessly negative campaign. Their strategy is to fire up their base, drag in a few independents, and win based upon voter turnout. Republicans are assuming that most Independents and many Democrats won't show up because they are turned off by politics. Suppose this strategy works and Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives. What can we expect?

The core Republican message is paradoxical: elect us because we don't like government. This was Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign pitch: "As President... I will cut marginal tax rates across the board for individuals and corporations... I will repeal burdensome regulations, and prevent the bureaucracy from writing new ones... Instead of growing the federal government, I will shrink it."

Romney's blanket solution to America's problems was a reprise of the discredited maxims of Reaganomics: government is the problem; helping the rich get richer will inevitably help everyone else; and markets are inherently self correcting and therefore there's no need for government regulation -- whether the problem is bank fraud or polluted water. Republicans have continued these same themes in 2014.

Of course, in a midterm election, Republicans can't elect a new president. But if they control the House and Senate, they believe they can hobble Obama and the Federal government. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell explained that if Republicans were in charge of the Senate, "We're going to pass spending bills, and they're going to have a lot of restrictions on the activities of the bureaucracy." McConnell said the president could either sign these Republican-sponsored bills or face a government shutdown.