Vote Republican and Wave Bye-Bye to Paved Roads and Clean Water

Via Zandar, proof from the repugs themselves what their new contract on America really means:

Paul Krugman takes a look at the economic proposals inside the GOP Pledge To America and nearly blows a Snark Capacitor.

On Thursday, House Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” supposedly outlining their policy agenda. In essence, what they say is, “Deficits are a terrible thing. Let’s make them much bigger.” The document repeatedly condemns federal debt — 16 times, by my count. But the main substantive policy proposal is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which independent estimates say would add about $3.7 trillion to the debt over the next decade — about $700 billion more than the Obama administration’s tax proposals.

True, the document talks about the need to cut spending. But as far as I can see, there’s only one specific cut proposed — canceling the rest of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which Republicans claim (implausibly) would save $16 billion. That’s less than half of 1 percent of the budget cost of those tax cuts. As for the rest, everything must be cut, in ways not specified — “except for common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops.” In other words, Social Security, Medicare and the defense budget are off-limits.

So what’s left? Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.”

Kroog's right. Republicans are hoping that you'll fall for their same old crap again, the exact same budget-busting deficits created by tax breaks to the wealthy that created our current economic catastrophe. No, President Obama has not been able to fix everything in 20 months. He's laid the groundwork for some serious improvements but getting out of the Bush disaster is going to take years.

Meanwhile the Republicans are trying to sabotage the recovery in every way possible so that voters will get annoyed enough to put them back in charge. Well, this is what awaits us if they are back in charge, straight from the elephant's own mouth, even more economic catastrophe and higher deficit spending than Obama.

It's spelled out right there in this lemon of a pledge. "Vote for us. We think you're stupid enough to put us right back on the Bush economic plan."

The stupidity of admitting they plan to destroy the American economy eventually sank even into repug "brains;" Steve Benen catches them backpedaling:

So, on Thursday, House GOP leaders said they were presenting an agenda and providing a blueprint of how Republicans would use their majority. By Sunday, House GOP leaders were saying their agenda isn't really an agenda, and it's premature to "get to the potential solutions."

When host Chris Wallace pressed further, looking for details on the kinds of cuts Americans can expect to see from Republicans, Boehner replied that specifics on this "invite all kinds of problems."

Yes, "problems" like "losing."

Look, we're not dealing with a complete mystery here. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has released his budget blueprint -- which has drawn support from a variety of far-right members and candidates -- and it calls for radical cuts to Social Security and Medicare. It's the only way Republicans could even try to pay for their trillions of dollars in tax cuts, and it's an approach Americans would fundamentally reject.

Which is exactly why Boehner doesn't want to talk about it. Instead, we're stuck with GOP leaders trying to convince Americans to take a leap of faith -- vote for the folks whose policies created this mess, whose numbers don't add up, and whose agenda will remain deliberately vague until they're in office and it's too late for voters to register their disapproval.

And if the Democratic base is prepared to sit out the elections, Boehner's game plan will likely work pretty effectively.

Thirty days to Election Day. Spread the word.