Whatever the results of today’s elections, there’s little doubt that the incoming Congress will shift drastically to the Right. How far right?
In a new piece in the Huffington Post, People For’s president, Michael Keegan, examines some of the trends among front-running GOP candidates this year, including extreme anti-government views (to the point of abolishing the Department of Education and phasing out Social Security) and a loyal allegiance to Big Business. We’ll be watching how these issues play out in today’s election…but what about when some of these folks are in office?
Ezra Klein writes today about the “end of the do-something Congress.” Despite GOP obstruction, the 111th Congress has pushed through some huge legislative initiatives—from Health Care Reform to the Stimulus to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Republican leaders have promised that if they retake majorities in Congress, their main goal will be legislative gridlock. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell put it like this: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
It’s a dismal goal for people supposedly in the public service business. But what the focus on the coming GOP gridlock hides is what the new far-right GOP would do if they didn’t face any opposition from a strong progressive presence in Congress or the executive branch. As today’s Huffington Post piece and our Rogues Gallery of right-wing candidates explain, it’s not pretty.
Pat Toomey