Meeting your opponents halfway is not an inherently good solution. Rep. Paul Ryan and Intern Kristi Noem are staking out right-wing positions so extreme, toward destructive privatization of vital social functions and abandonment of moral obligations to the old, sick, and poor that even the "middle ground" they might define is too far off the map of popular, practical, or decent policy.
At least that's what Robert Reich says:
According to the most recent Washington Post-ABC poll, 78 percent of Americans oppose cutting spending on Medicare as a way to reduce the debt, and 72 percent support raising taxes on the rich &ndash including 68 percent of Independents and 54 percent of Republicans.
In other words, the center of America isn't near halfway between the two sides. It's overwhelmingly on the side of the President and the Democrats.
I'd wager if Americans also knew two-thirds of Ryan's budget cuts come from programs serving lower and moderate-income Americans and over 70 percent of the savings fund tax cuts for the rich &ndash meaning it's really just a giant transfer from the less advantaged to the super advantaged without much deficit reduction at all &ndash far more would be against it.
And if people knew that the Ryan plan would channel hundreds of billions of their Medicare dollars into the pockets of private for-profit heath insurers, almost everyone would be against it.
The Republican plan shouldn't be considered one side of a great debate. It shouldn't be considered at all. Americans don't want it [Robert Reich, "Beware the 'Middle Ground' of the Great Budget Debate," blog, 2011.04.21].
I'm sure someone is coaching Intern Noem right now on how to defend the Ryan plan, which she voted for last week, by saying something about how we're a republic, not a democracy.
The GOP budget isn't about fixing the deficit. It's about wielding their sword of righteous punishment on people they think deserve it for not being sufficiently faithful and fruitful cogs in the capitalist machine. ("Must work harder," said Boxer... and never mind that Ryan, Noem, et al. won't whack the rich guys at the top who broke the machine to the glue factory.)
If Kristi Noem ever brings a good idea to the table, we should be happy to meet her halfway, or even fullway. But when she prescribes chopping off our arms and legs, we shouldn't be duped into thinking that chopping off our legs is our moral obligation. I know this trick; you should to. If you see Kristi, tell her so. it's time to give her and her radical ideas some Tea Party town hall treatment.
I'm still trying to figure out Ryan's strategy by bringing this bill forward. The GOP doesn't have the Senate or the presidency.
If I was in the GOP I'd sit on my hands or go after Obama on Gas prices and energy until after 2012.
Noem is in a sticky situation because the base likes this idea the middle will decide later and the left hates it.
My prediction is that Noem will try to have it both ways and be very vague as long as she can.
Donald Trump going after Obama and his birth certificate is a smarter political ploy than Ryan's plan at this stage of the game.
It does not surprise me that this is what SD gets when it rewards someone with no education finished and her lack of Exp. with a congressional seat. What did they expect? She is vague for reasons, because she does not know the answers until she is coached. She is a puppet for the GOP and just nailed she will be a one term one with her voting to cut the Seniors and the poorest in this state who need medicaid. That should tell you something about her.
It really doesn't bother me that she doesn't have a college degree. What bothers me is that she doesn't give a specific answer on anything and she is rarely called on it.
She'll vote to raise the debt ceiling if she gets serious cuts etc. but what is a serious cut? $100 Billion, 61 billion, 38 billion or $358 million? It seems to me she is willing to vote for anything and isn't called on it.
So far Mitchell and Rapid have held her accountable. The Argus has been very lacking.
Thinkin' about gettin' out to the field, Mike, or is it still to wet to disk?
You are right Mike. She is not held accountable it seems by the Argus and many Republicans, no all here.
She is being used as a puppet by the GOP and she will do what ever they say as far as voting. She has no mind of her own here. If she did she would use it. I do feel though that to oust a very well educated and class act Herseth for this was a huge mistake on the part of the voters in this state and it is not just because Herseth is A Democrat. It is that she out smarts this Noem by leaps and bounds. She also knows how to conduct herself and is not swayed by anything but what she feels is best for this state and also what her people want here. Noem is not educated but also not near the brains or where with all to see she is being totally used by the GOP. Some of the major money that came in to get her elected should have given her a clue, but she either knows and just wants her 15 mins, or doesn't and either way it will continue that she will vote whatever way the Gop tells her to do. Until the next election she will be doing alot of damage to the very people who put her in her much loved spot light.