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John Podhoretz

“Eat your veggies”: The Republican messaging crisis

The “fiscal cliff” coming on Dec. 31 will automatically cause everyone’s taxes to rise and draconian defense cuts to go into effect. That leaves Republicans and conservatives having to fight a very public battle on these matters only weeks after a national defeat.

And they’ve somehow been maneuvered into arguing that benefits must be cut and taxes on the wealthy must not be raised — without having a single populist argument in their favor.

The only one that comes close is the invocation of the pain small businesses will experience from a tax hike. Fine, but unless you yourself are a small businessman or employed by one, you might not care all that much.

Thus, the political movement that came to maturity by advocating for dynamic American optimism has morphed into what it was at its most pinched and parched in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s: the eat-your-vegetables-and-shut-up party.

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The Republican messaging crisis

Not to worry. Jim DeMint and Heritage will save us.

steebo77 on December 7, 2012 at 3:12 PM

Obama’s Famous Tax ‘Victory’
Top marginal income tax rates may go up. But the president’s second-term spending wish list will be history.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324640104578163463238620682.html?mod=hp_opinion

Let us assume that Mr. Obama is correct in his bet that the GOP will prove more responsible than he is and won’t cliff-dive.
If Republicans have to fold on the top tax rates, it’s a decent bet they will do only that—and nothing more.

Republicans will make clear they sent that bill under duress—that they wanted to extend tax rates for everyone—and that Mr. Obama is responsible for the consequences. The president claims that raising taxes on job creators won’t hurt the economy. Fine, but if he’s wrong, he alone owns it. There will be no GOP fingerprints on this.

The president will also finally have to show his math. He has argued his entire presidency that America’s debt hole could be filled by soaking the rich. He’ll now get his way, in a bill that likely provides $800 billion in revenue over 10 years, or $80 billion a year. To repeat: $80 billion a year. That is 7% of the $1.1 trillion deficit Mr. Obama ran in fiscal year 2012 alone. His tax hikes in hand, he can now explain why the hole keeps getting bigger.

So, that Obama “victory”: On Jan. 1, the president gets to give a news conference gloating over his tax win. He then faces four years and 20 days of a presidency marked by his ownership of a faltering economy, a spiraling debt problem, automatic sequester cuts, no prospect of further spending or tax revenue, and a debt-ceiling time bomb. If that’s this president’s idea of “victory,” maybe it’s what he deserves.

Galt2009 on December 7, 2012 at 3:12 PM

“Eat your veggies”: The Republican messaging crisis

If it’s good enough for the First Lady …

Paul-Cincy on December 7, 2012 at 3:14 PM

Thanks to the work of big gov GOP’ers like GWB and Tom DeLay, the GOP is heading off to irrelevancy.

Bitter Clinger on December 7, 2012 at 3:18 PM

The thing is, post-70s “dynamic American optimism” meant, as a practical matter, cut taxes, borrow and don’t sweat the spending. So to that extent it’s a little unfair to make invidious comparisons.

Seth Halpern on December 7, 2012 at 3:19 PM

Is it my imagination or is the trend in the “conservative” punditry is to cave to The Won? It just goes to show, that no one really cares about spending cuts.

Cindy Munford on December 7, 2012 at 3:35 PM

I wouldn’t have to eat my veggies if I had an EBT card.
I could eat steak.

NeoKong on December 7, 2012 at 3:38 PM

You GOTTA be kidding me! Michell has threatened to show up at you door and smack that bag of Doritos out of your hand and WE’RE the “eat your veggies” party???

mugged on December 7, 2012 at 3:46 PM

Great. Whats popular in this country is poor fiscal policy which leads to high inflation, high unemployment, etc.

Let Obama have the populist agenda, pass it all. Lets get this collapse over with…Obama voters will suffer the most, and I am just fine with that. once collapse is done, we can rebuild…a more civilized version of refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Ca97 on December 7, 2012 at 4:08 PM