Stephan: The Congress has cut food programs for the elderly and young, has no time for programs for vets or the handicapped. But tax breaks for those who own jets, special tax status for billionaire hedge fund managers, and a complete resistance to cutting a defense budget that is twice as big as all the rest of the world combined must be protected.
Increasingly I question whether it is possible to vote for a Republican and remain an ethical person. This is not meant as a partisan comment. I make it on the basis of data, and actual performance, and would say the same if it were the Democrats behaving this way. There is something deeply sick and life denying in the Republican party as it is currently configured. The Democrats are frequently bumbling and sometimes craven, but that is not an equivalency. I think it is important to realize that prominent modern Republicans like Eisenhower, or Ford would find no home in the present day party. In fact for all their blather about him, Reagan would find little support in the event.
After months of tough talk, House Republicans ran away from defense cuts last week -and that spells more trouble now for deficit reduction talks at the White House, already beset by differences over taxes.
In three days of floor debate, even modest reductions at the expense of military bands or the Pentagon’s sponsorship of NASCAR races to promote recruitment were opposed by the majority of GOP lawmakers. And the $649.2 billion appropriations bill, including $118.6 billion for wars overseas, sailed through Friday with only a dozen Republicans in opposition.
When conservative freshman Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina proposed to freeze core Pentagon spending at 2011 levels, he was run over by almost three-quarters of his party. A bipartisan compromise, which would have preserved an $8.5 billion increase, fared no better, getting just 47 Republicans – less than half the number that voted to wipe out the entire
‘The military budget is not on the table,
