Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, December 4, 2012
2016 Two Youngish Men Will Try to Sell the Bush Economy to Republicans Tonight
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Tonight, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan will be giving important speeches at the Jack Kemp Foundation dinner, Politico tells us. The speeches are important because they're framing how the two young stars of the Republican Party plan to move forward.
Rubio also plans new ideas on immigration, aimed not at broad citizenship but at creating a bigger Hispanic middle class. “The answer,” Rubio will say in his after-dinner remarks, “is not to make rich people poorer. The answer is to make poor people richer.” If he makes the sale in countless such appearances over the next two years, he’ll begin a formal presidential campaign shortly after the midterm elections of November 2014, Rubio sources tell us.
Ryan, 42, will kick off his own drive to redefine the party — and himself — as the pre-dinner keynote speaker before 300-plus conservative faithful on the same stage, detailing his thinking on how people of all classes can rise up economically and improve socially. Top Republicans tell us Ryan tried to push his ideas for a more creative “war on poverty” during the presidential campaign but was muzzled by nervous Nellies at Mitt Romney’s Boston headquarters who didn’t see an immediate political payoff. So Ryan seethed when the “47 percent” tape emerged, convinced that the impact was worse because the campaign had no record on issues relating to inclusion or poverty, exacerbating the out-of-touch image that the hidden camera cemented.
I don't think these two guys can just chime in with the same "tax cuts for the rich will benefit the poor" bullshit, because I think the American people are finally, blessedly, sick of hearing it. But Republicans (especially the kind of wealthy Republicans who'd attend something as stuffy as a Jack Kemp Foundation dinner) don't seem to be sick of it yet. And if you need proof of the fact that Republicans haven't learned anything in the wake of the 2012 election, you can't do much better than the knowledge that Paul Ryan—the most hated VP candidate since Dan Quayle—is considered the leader of his party now.
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*whispers to Rubio*
Psst... if you make poor people richer, then by definition, you're making rich people poorer.
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@ 8, it wasn't being a failed VP candidate that ended Edwards' career. Remember, he was actually up there with Obama and HRC in the early stages of the Democratic nomination process. Also, Bentson was old and still got to be an important senator. Same with Lieberman, who was a major power in the Senate during most of the Bush years and who won re-election in 2006 after he lost the primary. So at least safely entrenched senators can continue to have a decent career if they lose.
Top Republicans tell us Ryan tried to push his ideas for a more creative “war on poverty” during the presidential campaign but was muzzled by nervous Nellies at Mitt Romney’s Boston headquarters who didn’t see an immediate political payoff. So Ryan seethed when the “47 percent” tape emerged, convinced that the impact was worse because the campaign had no record on issues relating to inclusion or poverty, exacerbating the out-of-touch image that the hidden camera cemented.
What an idiot.
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According to the conservatives if you grow the economy fast enough then rich people can be ridiculously rich and poor people can have enough that they won't die in the street(which is good enough because poor people are poor because they aren't virtuous enough). The thing is that conservatives have said this since at least Reagan.
According to liberal economists, otoh, no matter how fast you grow the pie capitalism naturally trends towards concentration of wealth. Rich people get richer and poor people get more poor.
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Maybe we should try fighting Eurasia instead.
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So how does that explain concentration of wealth in societies that used gold coins? And societies that outlawed usury?
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The best line of Mitt Romney's, one that should have been his major theme was "Republicans are the party for people who want to get rich".
If the Republicans could do that, for even a significant portion of Obama voters who really just want to climb the wealth and status ladder -- not merely get education credit voucher, we could easily retake majority status.
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Now, what probably would appeal strongly enough to the average, mostly decent but flawed individual's greed is if they announced a lottery in which one lucky Republican voter would win a billion dollars. That'd be a fucking landslide, because people are terrible at math.
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Take all the wanting to be upwardly mobile families in Renton, Kent, Auburn.
Give them a combination of tax breaks, business incentives, education grants, but also real stuff, like contracts, jobs, consultancies...the real meat of what the BigWigs get, but maybe on a reduced basis. Start awarding $50,000 contacts, buy more from small business.
Even if we could get 10% of the people onto the wealth track we'd get a majority.
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For what? To whom?
And with whose $1.5 trillion?
And... have you noticed that what you're describing is profoundly socialist?
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The DNC needs to address our tax code and simplify it in a way that's more fair and easy enough that people aren't scared to start a business.
The GOP have been running on the fear that our current system is just to soak the little guy and then creates a narrative and twists it into a structure that benefits the rich.
The way the GOP have used social issues to get themselves in a corner, will allow them over time to come back with 'new ideas' to simplify the tax code. Which we all know what that means... Cato, kiss your SS goodbye.
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