Thomas Friedman in today's NY Times, on the battles being waged by Republicans on President Obama's policies:
Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.
Our one-party democracy is worse. The fact is, on both the energy/climate legislation and health care legislation, only the Democrats are really playing. With a few notable exceptions, the Republican Party is standing, arms folded and saying “no.” Many of them just want President Obama to fail. Such a waste. Mr. Obama is not a socialist; he’s a centrist. But if he’s forced to depend entirely on his own party to pass legislation, he will be whipsawed by its different factions.
Look at the climate/energy bill that came out of the House. Its sponsors had to work twice as hard to produce this breakthrough cap-and-trade legislation. Why? Because with basically no G.O.P. representatives willing to vote for any price on carbon that would stimulate investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, the sponsors had to rely entirely on Democrats — and that meant paying off coal-state and agriculture Democrats with pork. Thank goodness, it is still a bill worth passing. But it could have been much better — and can be in the Senate. Just give me 8 to 10 Republicans ready to impose some price on carbon, and they can be leveraged against Democrats who want to water down the bill.
“China is going to eat our lunch and take our jobs on clean energy — an industry that we largely invented — and they are going to do it with a managed economy we don’t have and don’t want,” said Joe Romm, who writes the blog, climateprogress.org.
The only way for us to match them is by legislating a rising carbon price along with efficiency and renewable standards that will stimulate massive private investment in clean-tech. Hard to do with a one-party democracy.
The same is true on health care. “The central mechanism through which Obama seeks to extend coverage and restrain costs is via new ‘exchanges,’ insurance clearinghouses, modeled on the plan Mitt Romney enacted when he was governor of Massachusetts,” noted Matt Miller, a former Clinton budget official and author of “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas.” “The idea is to let individuals access group coverage from private insurers, with subsidies for low earners.”
And it is possible the president will seek to fund those subsidies, at least in part, with the idea John McCain ran on — by reducing the tax exemption for employer-provided health care. Can the Republicans even say yes to their own ideas, if they are absorbed by Obama? Without Obama being able to leverage some Republican votes, it is going to be very hard to get a good plan to cover all Americans with health care.
“Just because Obama is on a path to give America the Romney health plan with McCain-style financing, does not mean the Republicans will embrace it — if it seems politically more attractive to scream ‘socialist,’ ” said Miller.
The G.O.P. used to be the party of business. Well, to compete and win in a globalized world, no one needs the burden of health insurance shifted from business to government more than American business. No one needs immigration reform — so the world’s best brainpower can come here without restrictions — more than American business. No one needs a push for clean-tech — the world’s next great global manufacturing industry — more than American business. Yet the G.O.P. today resists national health care, immigration reform and wants to just drill, baby, drill.
“Globalization has neutered the
Republican Party, leaving it to represent not the have-nots of the
recession but the have-nots of globalized America, the people who have
been left behind either in reality or in their fears,” said Edward
Goldberg, a global trade consultant who teaches at Baruch College. “The
need to compete in a globalized world has forced the meritocracy, the
multinational corporate manager, the eastern financier and the
technology entrepreneur to reconsider what the Republican Party has to
offer. In principle, they have left the party, leaving behind not a
pragmatic coalition but a group of ideological naysayers.”
Lest I be accused of obsessing about America, I'll just say this: The United States is on its way to becoming Brazil or Mexico because the middle class will disappear and the disparities between rich and poor have become chasms. The middle class is what made America different, every country in history has had rich people and poor people; what made America work was a large and growing middle class that knew it could aspire to better its station by working hard and playing by the rules. That day seems to be over. If you're rich in America today, the deck is stacked against you to such a degree you'd better win the lottery or invent the iPod because otherwise, your kids lives will not be as good as yours. And for this, you can thank the Republican Party, which puts winning elections and taking care of its own against the country's best interests. A friend once described, with some pride, that what makes Republicans so much more successful every election cycle is that they will do whatever it takes to win. Well, congratulations GOP, you're on the verge of tearing down the country's last chance to right the ship before it is too late. The Reagan foot-soldiers have twisted his agenda so that any idea that doesn't include an immediate tax-break for the well-to-do is hysterically shouted down. The irony is all the middle class dopes who support this party, with no hope of ever being rich themselves, promote a party that doesn't give a hoot about them or their needs. Americans apparently love winning elections more than their country because bringing Obama down has been Job One since Day One. And they hide behind their flag pins. Country First, my ass.
And yet, Republicans are not alone. Democrats & Independents need to make themselves heard above the din of stupidity being propagated by the GOP. I've said for years that the West can only help Iraqis and Afghans so much: people get the government they deserve. And this applies to Democrats and Independents. If after the massive call for change last November, enough Americans allow themselves to get distracted by talk of Death Panels put forth by unemployed morons, then these Americans deserve the government and health care and environmental standards and financial markets they deserve.
America lost ground under the Republicans and now we have to see if there is enough guts in the remaining sixty percent to work toward undoing the damage. The world is not waiting: economies in Europe and Asia have zoomed ahead in their recovery while the US is still limping along, hoping things will stop getting worse soon.
I hope Obama can get enough Democrat votes to get his legislation passed to move his country ahead. I hope America gets its act together soon but I have to say, tonight, I'm not optimistic.
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