Here is the choice voters face today.
Do you want a Congress that works with the President, or a Congress that doesn’t let the President work?
Do you want continued wonky debates between liberals and moderates that result in actual policy accomplishments. Or renewed clashes with far right Tea Party extremists
There are disagreements between self-described liberals and moderates about the scope of government action and the level of public investment. But both continue agree on the fundamental point that our government should do things, while the right-wing does not. That is why the majority of the country says the size of the stimulus was either “about right” or “too little.”
Does it make sense to give the reins to the minority that wants the stimulus to prematurely end and wants to invest less in America? Especially since it is indisputable that we are all better off than we were two years ago, when the economy was in free fall and we lost nearly 800,000 jobs in one month alone.
The right-wing austerity posse won’t even detail what it is they plan to cut, because they know to share it with voters will make plain how cuts in infrastructure, clean energy, health and education would jeopardize our future and our children’s future.
The health reform haters won’t run the numbers on repeal because repeal would junk new cost controls and explode the deficit. Instead, they are incoherently complaining about “reckless spending” while distorting cost savings as “cutting Medicare by $500 billion.”
The past failures and present weaknesses of conservatism are not news to voters. any Republican victory would come without any policy mandate. The CBS/NYT poll continues to find that the Republican Party is still less popular than the Democratic Party.
But voters may elect right-wing conservatives anyway, despite disagreeing with them, in hopes that a different congressional makeup would lead to more compromises, more problem-solving and more action.
The truth is we’ve had more compromises, more problem-solving and more action with this Congress than any Congress in the last four decades. Many of the reforms are long-term and aren’t felt right away, but that only makes them more significant.
True, some problems aren’t solved yet.
The solution to that frustrating reality is not to elect more problem-makers who would prevent the President from taking more action, but to keep those who have been diligently working with the President through the pile of problems accumulated for decades.
