PAUL KRUGMAN: Beware Republican Party’s death throes
December 15, 2012 at 11:54 pm in Grand Forks Herald
We are not having a debt crisis. No, what we’re having is a political crisis, born of the fact that one of our two great political parties has reached the end of a 30-year road. Continue Reading
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What about the violent environment Hollywood creates? Its the same people that say Pro-American films and songs after 9/11 military propaganda and caused kids to sign up for military service. So if Pro-American films can increase military service, why wouldn’t all the violent films and violent video games have an effect? Blame the gun. Blame booze for accidents. Blame everything but ourselves!!! It’s time in this country to start taking responsibility for ourselves our families and our own actions.
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Agreed. Quit blaming the dealer for the kid’s death & blame the kid . I wrote an editorial to that effect & was denounced in no uncertain terms.
Personal responsibility is out of vogue.
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Personal responsibility is out of vogue because it clashes with the culture of victimhood.
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Victimhood and sex both sell. You are correct. Look at the GOP. They have lost two national elections. When Lombardi lost a game he went back to the basics. Remember the famous speech where he started with “this is a football?”
No such vision from the GOP. They simply blame everyone and everything besides themselves.
After running a campaign that said people vote for Obama because they all want to be the victim, to listen to the Woa is Me rhetoric is kind of hard to swallow
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Very much like this post if I could thumb it up more than once I would. Our society as a whole stopped taking responsibility for their actions back when the first real lawyer boom occurred. I believe it was in the late 70′s (don’t quote me on those dates as I can’t find statistics to back it up).. But in my opinion it started occurring around that time and not long after is when we started hearing about all of those obnoxious rulings by Judges that awarded huge sums of money to people who basically are window lickers. They started chiseling away a little by little until we started to see really large law suits filed for what I consider someone just being plain and simple brain dead.
While I have no doubt that there are unscrupulous business practices out there, and a more than a fair share of people willing to take advantage of someone else, when do you own up to the fact that you placed the hot cup of coffee between your legs when you were driving? Such things are what changed the mentality of this nation to believe that it was somebody else’s fault but their own.
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How in the heck did Forum Communications elect to publish this dimwit in their papers. He is so far left that even liberals think he is a dork. When you start putting New York times garbage in the heartland, you know the culture is changing.
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He won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
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And Mickey Mouse won an Oscar. Awards from small committees mean nothing. Look at the sad history of who one other Nobels.
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Nobel Prize? Remember… they gave one to BHO. That forever discredits that prize as being anything worthy. What a joke it is.
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Why is it it’s so convenient to forget is mother is white?
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Obama won a Nobel Prize too.
Whats your point?
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And he won it for what he might do, not for what he had done.
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He got for getting elected in historic fashion. What an accomplishment.
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“It’s a dangerous situation. The GOP is lost and rudderless, bitter and angry, but it still controls the House and, therefore, retains the ability to do a lot of harm, as it lashes out in the death throes of the conservative dream.”
He is partially correct. What he is ignoring is the cyclical nature of politics. The GOP is rudderless because it is leaderless. That will change then it will be game on!
The new leader will effectively marginalize the more radical ideologues while unifying the base & attracting enough women & Hispanics to win nationally. It is inevitable.
He is correct; as presently constituted the GOP is on the way out. For 30 years they have won elections by courting angry white men who resent their institutionalized prerogatives being taken away from them.
Demographically that group is no longer large enough to win on the national stage. When the GOP gets a new leader who accepts this fact, & can attract those people that refuse to play with the radical right, they will return to power.
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“The new leader will effectively marginalize the more radical ideologues while unifying the base & attracting enough women & Hispanics to win nationally. It is inevitable. ”
I can only hope that the radical wing of the party to which I was affiliated in my youth can take some lithium and maintain some semblance of sanity.
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What he misses on is that the GOP still represents a vast amount of people in this nation and their actions, while frowned upon by Liberals and Democrats, are exactly what we who voted for them expect from them.
I for one do not vote GOP to have them go to DC and bow down to every liberal plan tossed on the table.
I have yet to see the Democrats accept a single plan the GOP has set forth, nor have i seen them even look at one of their plans and try to meet in the middle.
But the GOP gets the shaft because “Who controls the media”? thats right, The Democrats.
So the labels go to the GOP and the poor Dems look like they are trying oh so hard but them darn repubs just keep obstructing them.
GOP is not in a death throe.
Its just a matter of time until the youth in this country get a reality check and find out that they really dont get things for free and when they see the taxes removed from their checks continue to climb they will be looking for an alternative to paying the way for welfare rats.
Those who work for a living would like to keep that which they work hard for.
I dont elect a government to act as a charity organization.
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“What he misses on is that the GOP still represents a vast amount of people in this nation and their actions”
Do they really? According to your own party’s talking heads the last election was the GOP’s to lose, and it did.
I would argue the angry white man strategy is wearing thin.
Barry could not have been elected on the backs of Democrats alone. There simply are not enough of them. He was elected by people that used to vote Republican. People like me.
No one expects the GOP to roll over and play dead, but unless they have something more to offer than supply side policies (corporate America is too big to fail, decrease taxes on those who earn more in the hopes they reinvest it and not send it oversees, etc) they will stay in the wilderness.
People have rejected that reasoning twice. They also have rejected the social policies that most of the GOP believes in.
The GOP needs to return to its roots. It needs to move back towards Reagan era policies.
If it does that it might win. If it does not, it will not.
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Agreed on returning to Reagan era policies. It will be interesting to see if the Republicans have picked up on the cue that they have lost their way and make the necessary changes. Rove and Norquist are quickly becoming irrelevant and Republicans are beginning to turn on them. Marco Rubio and Chris Christie are the closest to “getting it”. Moderate politics is where its at. You could even see it at debate #1 where Romney went moderate (“there’s plenty in Obamacare that makes sense”, etc) and his poll numbers jumped. Reagan succeeded because while he was conservative, (for that time-a moderate now), he worked to compromise across party lines and we ended up with some great bi-partisan policies. Clinton was a sleaze, but he was also good about reaching across the aisle and we ended up with exceptional economic growth and funny, NO debt. .
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He was elected by people who expect something for nothing. period!
Its easy to promise Free entitlements when the printing press is running full speed 24/7.
Dont bother trying to figure out how to pay for it though, you will be long gone by time the 20 Trillion dollar debt comes to haunt us. Right?
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Then send back your monthly government checks and refuse your free healthcare you taker.
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That’s why this country is so screwed up. Krugman refuses to see the obvious. No budget in how many years? No spending cuts proposed, but more spending on the table? And yet it is all the Republicans fault. No leadership from Barry on anything. Just insulting proposals and name calling. Typical.
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And yet it is the Republicans who just went home after being unable to get enough votes for Boehner’s proposal to deal with the fiscal cliff. Who’s not taking care of business?
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Everytime I see that picture of Krugman, I think Mephistopheles.
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Two words come immediately to mind when it comes to Krugman: Moronic Idiot!
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What’s ironic is that some of the ugly anti Krugman comments here make his case!
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I wouldn’t feel too much pity of Krugman. He’s part of a cadre of print and TV talking heads whose job is to rile people up, for which they all receive handsome compensation. The serious commentaors have been dead for decades
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Exactly Gene! It’s along the same lines as Fox and MSNBC . Those are entertainment outlets poorly disguised as “media”. They are built on commentators that fan and flame particular political leanings. It’s frightening just how many cling to the words of shills like Hannity and Maddow as “fact”.
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I hope in 2014 that the voters toss out the GOP House members that have blocked reasonable solutions to our problems and elect those who will work to right the nations ship. That’s what MN did this election. It took power away from the GOP that tried to implement a radical social agenda in MN.
They were tossed out and I predict MN will get allot done in the upcoming session without all the obstructionist conservatives. The voters showed they wanted less work on social change and wanted more problem solving regarding how to run the state’s business. The same needs to happen in the mid term election in 2014 for the US House. We need people who can work for practical solutions to our problems.
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How can you get negative votes for saying politics is cyclical?
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All one needs to know about the awesomeness of Krugmans Economical plans is this:
He believes every single American needs to send 90% of their income to the Government and allow the Government to provide for our needs Health, Food, Transportation and Housing.
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Captain, Krugman’s policies are actually closer to Romney’s than Barrry’s. He supported the too big too fail mindset, just like Bush. You really should try reading some of his stuff before flapping your keyboard.
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He supports “Barry” just fine.
You and Obama on a first name basis now? How quaint.
I have read Krugmans policies and youre out of your mind.
The guy is a Communist through and through.
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I am glad you agree GWB was a closet communist (I would have preferred a closet transvestite myself; safer for the country). He believed in totalitarian government control (the Patriot Act) and that because GOP donors had become too big too fail, they must be centrally controlled and funded instead of allowed to go bankrupt.
Barry has some big shoes to fill
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And you live off what? That nasty socialist Social Security check? That government funded pension? That free medicare and military health insurance? Be a maker and not a taker there Capt.Amerika.
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Maybe Social Security is a Socialist program to you greatday, but I have been paying in for almost thirty years, I started paying taxes at sixteen. So I have been paying into SS. I like to think of it as a savings account, well a savings account that our politicians feel is open to barrow from to pay for socialist programs. Oh and give to illegal aliens, and people that don’t work. But if you work and pay in, you can think of it as a savings account also.
Come to think of it, I think SS should be a personal deduction, same as charity.
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I see you missed the sarcasm.
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You may as well consider it Charity, i too have paid into it since i was sixteen and i dont expect to ever see a dime of it.
Ahhh, the awesomeness of Socialists programs, take from the working to care for the non-working.
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Scole. Hate to burst your bubble bro, but SS is not a savings account. It is a ponzi scheme. The same thing that sent Madoff to jail.
The people working to day are paying for today’s retirees. Your SS (if it still exists) will be paid for by your children and grandchildren.
The reason it is in trouble is there are too many retirees (boomers). This is not news. This was not unexpected. Anyone who can do simple math has been saying this day will come.
The trouble is everyone pretends like they are owed something. Their money has already been spent. The government made a promise that it simply will not be able to keep.
The greatest generation won WWII then came home and lost all their courage. They have been kicking this problem down the line until there is nowhere else for it to go.
In order for SS to meet its obligations you are talking a 25% tax (up from the 15% it now is). That is at a minimum.
Trust me. That is enough to make your kids decide you might not be worth the effort.
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Not at all SS is easy to save; raise the retirement age to 75, medicare to 72, take the cap off taxable income and make it means tested. Bingo! SS is then solid and will continue to work.
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I see you have no clue who i am.
I work for a living and pay taxes. Not he pay in 2000 bucks and get a 5000 dollar refund kind of paying taxes that you and the other 47% manage to pull off.
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“So we are not having a debt crisis”?
That is so untrue. The research I have done shows the Federal Gov’t is borrowing 46 cents of every dollar spent.
Putting almost half of your spending on a credit card is financial suicide. Especially when we are talking hundreds of billions here and there.
WE, that is all of us US citizens are on the hook for all this debt. The country (WE) are mortgaged past oblivian.
Just saying “there is no debt problem”, causes his credibility to flush. Debt in the trillions is not healthy to the economy.
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The national economy doesn’t function like the individual person’s budget except in certain areas like car & home purchase. The need for us as a country to put even more on a credit card is enormous. The national infrastructure we have built is made possible by the use of credit. The economy is so big that what appears to be unmanagable debt is actually not as Krugman says.
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So what were you saying about the national debt when George Bush was president?
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You can’t cut taxes like Bush did & not develop an unmanageable debt. When I say Krugman is right it means that the taxes that make it manageable are available if we just enact them as Obama wants to do.
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So taxes and only taxes will solve the debt problem? Hmmm, that’s all we hear from Obama. Nice job of parroting democrat talking points.
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Sure you can.
You just stop spending money like a drunken teenager at the mall.
Would love to hear you explain why its okay to keep taking money from working Americans and yet not have to cut back on spending.
That makes so little sense that if the GOP had done the same you would scream from the mountains that they were killing the American dream.
You Dems are so hypocritical that its ridiculous.
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You are correct Captain, you stop spending money. The question is where? If I remember correctly I suggested closing GFAFB and stop making M1A1 tanks and you acted like I had suggested shooting the Pope and desecrating the Virgin.
100% NIMBY.
You talk a good game Captain but I have yet to hear anything but a Fox sound bite from you.
You are correct. We need to stop spending. That is why I hope we go over the cliff. Where I call BS on you is you want it to occur anywhere but NIMBY
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If revenue is down for 8 yrs. because Bush cut taxes the debt will grow exponentially. The non discretionary budget still needs to be paid. That’s why we went from a surplus with Clinton to debt with Bush.
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The false premise is that everything the democrats do is the legitimate path to utopia and we would be in a land of milk and honey where nobody has to do anything for themselves if it just wasn’t for those rascally republicans standing in the way.
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You mean those Republicans that needed bailed out when they were too big to fail? Or those ND farmers who demand cuts to everything except the farm program? Or the ND GOP who along with the Dems are staging another full court press to insure 2 unwanted & unneeded air bases stay open & ND remains one of the 8 states that gets back more from the Feds than it pays in?
Those Republicans?
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The false premise is that farmers are republicans. The crop farmers I know are predominantly democrat. Another false premise is that the “too big to fail” (I’m assuming you mean Wall Street, banks, etc.) are republicans, where what I see is they are predominantely democrat if we look at political contributions to Obama.
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Give me a break… farmers are Republicans by at least 2 or 3 to 1. Look at a precinct results map for the rural areas.
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So everyone has to divulge their occupation and political affiliation when they vote? When did the democrats slip that one through? A leftist decrees that farmers are republicans because many leftists don’t like farmers because they think farmers are rich and therefore evil, so it must be true.The last I checked there is a lot of non-farmers living in rural areas.
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So what you are saying is that without Republicans you Liberals would starve?
Makes sense to me.
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Distort the facts…
Marginalize any attempts at being corrected…
Attach straw man arguments and further obfuscations…
Glee in arrogance..
Repeat…
Smart@nus and Captain KKK are the masters.
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I’m feeling some negative vibes
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Smartimus: No false assumptions. Look at the political contributions. The banks and insurance companies that were bailed out gave to the GOP 2:1 over the Dems. Remember it was GWB who initiated the program and pushed it through congress.
As for farmers do the same. Look at the donor lists.
The scary thing is those donor lists are just those that chose to give to the parties or specific candidates. They do not show the contributions to the superpacs on both sides. That is where the power is.
Wallstreet was solidly behind Ramney. He was one of theirs.
Individual bankers gave to Barrry, but the corporations gave to Romney
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You’re telling me that the farmers are looking for their handout from the republicans. That is pretty funny. The policies that put us where we are today were initiated by democrats. You’re telling me that bankers getting money for nearly zero cost because of those policies are supporting republicans. I doubt it.
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Smartimus: not as psychotic as you are making it out to be. ND has always talked conservative then acted liberal. Remember we are one of a handful of states that gets more than it gives, even with oil revenue.
When is the last time ND voted for a Democratic president?
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North Dakota last voted for a democrat president in 1964. Minnesota last voted for a republican in 1972. I guess there isn’t quite enough farmers looking for a handout in North Dakota.
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Can we expect the almighty Heidi to fix this problem you speak of?
Since she isnt one of the EVIL REPUBLICANS, I will be watching for the following action items to happen.
If they fail to happen then i expect to hear your DNC loving rear on here apologizing for the idiocrocy which you are trying to perpetuate.
1.) ND Bases closed. – No need to have them here, close them.
2.) Farm Aid severed. – Immediately, no more crop insurance payouts without an actual disaster
3.) No pork spending on ND – I will expect ZERO money requested from the Feds to build things in ND like airports etc.
4.) No votes for any bailouts of any form – Period!
5.) Will be looking for votes that do not fall directly along Party Lines, after all, wasnt that her biggest gripe about Berg?
Lets face it, not a single thing listed above will be different. Heidi Berg is the exact same person just a different symbol.
The only difference is i havent had as much kool-aid as you have and can still see the truth.
Now why dont you go about telling us whats best for us here in ND, it never gets old listening to your vast knowledge of everything under the sun and how it works.
Who knew Liberal Arts degrees were so all encompassing? And i thought they were just for people who didnt want to get a real education.
My bad.
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You are overheating again Captain. I suggested 1-3 on your list and you thought I was public enemy # 1.
Our elected representatives will not do their jobs. We need some mechanism to do it for them. Falling off the cliff is the best we have right now.
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Of course i’m overheating.
The nation i care so much for is falling apart at the seams and we have people left and rtight willing to sacrifice their rights and freedoms to get the govt to provide for their welfare.
You want to fix the deficit and not screw over our future generations?
How about we stop Congress? No more pay hikes, Strip their pension and enroll them in a 401k just like everyone else.
Stop their top flight medical and let them buy insurance, and for gods sake limit them to 8 – 10 years max with ZERO earmarks for them to send home.
Just go to DC and represent us.
Next up, lets strip ALL welfare programs. Let the states decide how to care for the people in their states.
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I agree with term limits and even pensions. Although realize we are talking a drop in the bucket.
As for welfare, most is already in the hands of the states. Medicaid, AFDC (whatever it is called now), etc are joint state/local programs.
Like education, there has to be a certain baseline you are guaranteed because you are alive. You cannot have wide disparity between the states. That is unfair and to some extent unconstitutional.
You are still missing the point. How do you define welfare? Are you talking corporations (farm subsidies, tax breaks) people (traditional welfare, tax breaks) or both.
“Welfare” as you describe could disappear tomorrow and have only a marginal impact on the budget. Unless you address SS and Medicare you will never achieve a balanced budget.
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Keep it up republicans. If nothing changes nothing changes…no matter how much louder you whine your base is still shrinking…what are you doing to reverse that…? Not a thing-zilch-nada-zip. Unless you find a way to make rich old white males votes count double your future is very predictable….
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what i believe allows this person press time is the degree to which his ideas mesh with what our government is attempting to do with our country. subliminally what he is trying to tell us is with his opening sentence is that we “are not creating” a debt crisis. this is categorically false and the point he makes about borrowing costs being at all-time lows actually belies that as obviously that cannot continue. this artificial suppression of interest rates is unsustainable just as is our spending levels.
it seems also when he rails against the GOP he attempts to marginalize all american citizens who belong to that party. i wonder how he feels about independents? hey-people know in their heart of hearts that what is happening is not right and cannot be sustained-lets not kid ourselves. the govt balance sheets of all major western countries have doubled in just 7 years-we are not creating a debt crisis? finally, many of the descriptions of radical right wingers fit to a T the basic life tenets of our society just 50 or 60 years ago. is this change we can believe in? is it possible to
simply dislike something and not be called a “hater” in todays public discourse. i would much rather we call these people “disagreers”.
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Kruegman is a pretty smart guy. I think he’s right. We are witnessing the destruction of the GOP power structure, at least in the US House. It’s likley Beohner will not survive as Speaker of the House. Ryan, the next in line, is worse than Boehner and would fail too. They need to dump Boehner and Ryan and appoint a more moderate Republican that will be able to rally enough votes to get a deal done in the House. A friend believes the GOP is about to split in two with the ultra conservative GOP legislators on the outs and the more moderate fraction will rise to the occasion to get the deal done. Pretty soon alot of GOP legislators are going to be saying Grover who?
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You’re right. The GOP is already split into very different groups. The far right is keeping Boehner from getting this deal done. I believe it’s possible that the far right will be left behind and the moderate Republicans will vote with the Democrats to pass something before the cliff hits us. This will create even more animosity among GOP’ers. The party is a mess and most with any sense know it. Obama is playing chess and he will win out on this as he has in the past. The result will be a more isolated far right wing. If they continue to primary their moderate candidates, at some point they won’t be able to get enough support and then it’s just a matter of time before the GOP is a minor party that can only win at the local level.
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