I was listening to Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania and
Governor Barbour of Mississippi on "Meet the Press" with David Gregory this
morning while they discussed the Democratic and Republican Parties and the
upcoming election in 2010. They were
debating who would best benefit in 2010 over the issue of health care, government
spending and the unemployment rate.
David Gregory pointed out some people saying that the
Democrats projected spending this year and the unemployment rate of 10.2% would,
in one example, cause a "Tidal Wave" for the GOP in 2010. I would argue that the "Tidal Wave" would
instead, be a great "Tsunami" for the Democratic Party.
We recently saw a "Tidal Wave" for the Democratic Party in
the 2008 election. Not only did
Republicans lose the White House, they lost a great deal of seats in the House
and in the Senate during that election.
The Republican base wasn't enough to get them over the
hurdles they faced back then. Their
refusal to admit to any failures during the Bush/Cheney years, both in the
White House and with Congressional actions caused the voters to swarm over to
the Democratic Party. Their failure to
admit that they blew it when it came to the economy - allowing our nation to
come within a hair's breathe away from another Great Depression hurt them. Their failure to admit that we indeed have
not won the war in Afghanistan and that the war in Iraq was in no way 'over' as
they claimed the "surge" caused, also hurt them.
I also happen to think that Americans realized that tax
rebates and tax cuts aren't the only solution to making our nation thrive. After all, we were all given at least 5
different tax rebates or cuts over the past 8 years during the Bush
administration yet instead of having a booming economy we ended up in the
biggest recession since the 30s and 40s.
Commentators on "Meet the Press" also discussed whether
President Obama was taking on too much and not spending enough time on the
economy and whether that would hurt the Democrats in 2010.
As one of the commentators pointed out, Obama came into
office planning on stopping the Iraq war, getting health care for all and getting
control of our energy sources. Those
were his goals and what he ran on in 2008.
He inherited those other things like the "Great Recession", a corrupt Wall
Street that was failing, businesses going belly up, car dealers threatening to
die and two wars that we were falsely led to believe we were winning, and a
world that lost their respect and admiration for the U.S.
Americans know these facts, they aren't blind. Americans also know that jobs are scarce
because of all the above. Now the
question becomes, what will pull employment back to at least where it was in
the early 90's?
Keep in mind, the Bush/Cheney administration and Republican
Party, after 8 years in office and 5 tax cuts, still left behind a 7.2%
unemployment figure as of January 1, 2009 before leaving office. These facts will and should be repeated
during the 2010 election cycle. It was
the Bush/Cheney administration and not the Obama administration that originally
designed the 750 Billion dollar bailout for large insurance companies like AIG
and the car industry, will and should be repeated during the 2010 election
cycle. The GOP is trying their level
best to change that history in the minds of Americans but they won't succeed.
Let's take a look at what's happened since January 20th
of this year. The Democratic Party came
into power and immediately wrote the Recovery and Reinvestment package that was
passed and signed into law within 30 days in office on February 17, 2009. This bill included a historical tax cut for
Americans. Only three republicans voted
for this relief (stimulus) package, and those same three Republicans helped to
gut what was initially asked for by the Democrats.
President Obama immediately ordered an additional 33,000
troops be sent to Afghanistan to help try and stabilize that war. This decision was made within a couple of
months of taking office. The Bush/Cheney
administration had been asked by the Generals on the ground for more troops a
full year before this yet date --they still hadn't made up their minds when
they left office in January of 2009.
President Obama
announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized -- and the
Pentagon is deploying -- at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according
to defense officials.
Today the President and his administration are trying to
produce a new strategy, one that will work in Afghanistan instead of one we
were lied to about.
The health care reform bills that the Democrats have been
trying to put together is finally coming around, the House passed their final version
of their bill last night that would not only cover millions of additional
Americans, it is paid for and would cut the deficit by billions over 10 years.
They did this with only one vote from a Republican. Now the Senate must do the same and then both
bills will be merged into one final bill.
CBO says the GOP provisions would cut
the deficit by $68 billion over ten years, less than the Democratic bill, which
cuts the deficit $104 billion over the same time frame. That's largely
because the Democrats raise taxes and cut Medicare benefits while the GOP
doesn't (although the GOP plan does include some small revenue growth of about
$27 billion over ten years.)
The CBO also says the
Republican plan would leave 52 million people uninsured in 2019, more than
the 46 million uninsured today (the percentage of Americans without insurance,
about 17 percent, would remain basically unchanged, CBO says.)
CBO earlier said the
Democrats' bill would leave about 18 million uninsured.
My point is this, millions of potential voters will finally
get the health care they need for their families.
The economy grew 3.5% the last quarter, instead of being in
the negative as it was before.
Unemployment may still be high, but the numbers each month keeps
dropping. Only a third of the economic
stimulus package has been used which means thousands of future jobs will become
available during the spring and summer of 2010.
The Republican Party was given a warning with a "Tidal Wave"
during the November 2008 election. In
some ways you could call this the 'drawback' step (first step of a Tsunami - the
water along the shoreline recedes dramatically, exposing normally submerged
areas - unaware of the danger sometimes people remain) it was a huge warning of
sorts.
By becoming the Party of 'No' since January 20, 2009; the
Republican Party has put themselves in the position of being the Party that was
'wiped out' by a Tsunami in November of 2010.
When voters see that they will soon have health care
coverage and won't lose what they have.
When they see that the economy is growing instead of melting and that
jobs are finally coming around and the risk of losing their own is less. When they see our roads, bridges, electric
grids and infrastructure have all been improved since the Democratic Party took
control - I predict there will be the greatest political Tsunami in
history. This "Tsunami wave" will wipe out
what is left of, what is today known as, the Republican Party.
