Cruel and Unusual Politics Cruel and Unusual Politics
The US Capitol Building. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) The words most frequently used to describe House Republicans these days are “crazy” and “stupid.” And it’s not just liberal columnists and Democratic politicians who are questioning the GOP’s basic sanity and IQ. No less than the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal characterized the latest scheme to defund Obamacare by threatening an imminent government shutdown as “inept” and a “kamikaze mission”; Karl Rove called it “ill-conceived”; and North Carolina’s Richard Burr castigated it as “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of,” which says quite a lot coming from a senator who once introduced a bill to abolish the EPA. The name-calling makes for good TV, and the GOP crack-up no doubt thrills many a progressive with a jolt of schadenfreude. All the Senate Democrats and several Republicans are opposed to this latest Tea Party hostage-taking plot, so the chances it will succeed in gutting Obamacare are nonexistent—though we may see a government shutdown before the rest of the GOP realizes the futility of this gambit and the damage it would do to their electoral odds. But all this attention to congressional procedures and electoral point-scoring misses something quite profound about what the GOP has proposed in the past few months: a chillingly cruel vision of society in which tens of millions struggle to survive in abject misery while the richest of the rich get richer. Call it Elysium in the real world, 2013. Indeed, the day before the House voted to defund the Affordable Care Act, it passed a farm bill that would cut $40 billion from the federal food stamp program, which helps feed 48 million Americans, 3 million of whom would immediately lose their benefits should the GOP get its way. Conservatives like Paul Ryan berated the program for lulling “able-bodied” Americans into a “culture of dependency.” The program, however, provides on average just $4.45 a day, and most of its beneficiaries are children, the elderly and the disabled. The GOP demanded that food stamp recipients find jobs or participate in job-training programs. But it’s these same House Republicans who have failed to pass a single jobs bill, while also voting to cut job-training programs. The message, then, to the 17 million Americans who struggle to find enough food to eat is quite simple: time to starve. Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50! Likewise, if the Affordable Care Act were to be scrapped, the GOP has no solution for Americans who lack affordable coverage or have pre-existing conditions. Once again, the implicit message is that people should simply submit to the vicissitudes of the free market—that society should just let the uninsured die. And the recent campaign to persuade young Americans not to enroll in Obamacare, while derided for its clownish execution, has a dark intent: actively encouraging young people not to seek healthcare. Republicans may not succeed in enacting these miserable policies, but they are winning the larger debate: the Democratic counteroffer to the GOP food stamp proposal was a “modest” $4.5 billion reduction. There has been zero discussion of the need to expand benefits. Similarly, Democrats have failed to mount a credible challenge to the crippling sequester cuts. In short, the debate in Washington still accepts the false framework that government is spending too much, with Democrats relegated to doing damage control. With the GOP threatening a debt ceiling breach later this fall, it’s time for more Democrats to join the Progressive Caucus, supporting its powerful case for an active government that fights for ordinary Americans. George Zornick lays out just how callous the Republican-controlled House is in a blog post that examines the federal food stamp program.
Sep 25, 2013 / The Editors
Happy 50th Anniversary, IPS! Happy 50th Anniversary, IPS!
For half a century, the Institute for Policy Studies has been an invaluable font of progressive ideas and action. We look forward to the next half-century.
Sep 25, 2013 / The Editors
Can Pope Francis Change the Church? Can Pope Francis Change the Church?
He’s saying the right things. Will the US Conference of Catholic Bishops listen?
Sep 25, 2013 / Frances Kissling
A Reboot for the AFL-CIO? A Reboot for the AFL-CIO?
At its LA convention, organized labor vowed to reinvigorate organizing and strengthen progressive alliances. And not a moment too soon.
Sep 25, 2013 / Josh Eidelson
Summers Bails, Progressives Celebrate Summers Bails, Progressives Celebrate
His withdrawal from consideration as Fed chair could mark a watershed for the left wing of the Democratic Party.
Sep 18, 2013 / William Greider
America’s Shameful Poverty Stats America’s Shameful Poverty Stats
That so many of our political leaders tolerate so much misery amid so much plenty is one of the great scandals of our age.
Sep 18, 2013 / Sasha Abramsky
How Chicago Killed an Innocent Man How Chicago Killed an Innocent Man
As an investigative journalism student, I helped uncover proof that should have cleared Anthony McKinney’s name. Instead, he died in prison.
Sep 18, 2013 / Ari Berman
Will California Choose Prisons Over Schools—Again? Will California Choose Prisons Over Schools—Again?
Progressives supported Prop 30 to send more money to schools but now the funds are headed to prisons. How could this happen—and can it be stopped?
Sep 18, 2013 / Lori Bezahler
A Win for Diplomacy A Win for Diplomacy
President Obama can now embark on a new foreign policy, one that rejects military interventionism in favor of an engaged internationalism.
Sep 11, 2013 / The Editors
Bill de Blasio, Liberal and Proud Bill de Blasio, Liberal and Proud
Why his campaign for NYC mayor has ignited the passion of New York’s progressives.
Sep 11, 2013 / The Editors