"As it is, the Republicans have passed their ENTIRE economic agenda, and have wavered on the ONLY part of their agenda that is truly pro-life: the nuclear option."
They have achieved their economic agenda, while America is still a welfare state? And with the largest federal government in history? You must have an interesting set of measures.
I wrote: "As it is, the Republicans have passed their ENTIRE economic agenda, and have wavered on the ONLY part of their agenda that is truly pro-life: the nuclear option."
You responded: "They have achieved their economic agenda, while America is still a welfare state? And with the largest federal government in history? You must have an interesting set of measures."
Welfare reform was passed by a Republican Congress. So, we have the Welfare system that Newt Gingrich and the Republican Party in Congress wanted. Perhaps YOU think that Republicans should abolish welfare completely. But that is not and was not their agenda. They got their agenda through the Congress they controlled. Bill Clinton signed that bill, but the Welfare System of the United States as it currently exists was devised by the Republican Party. That IS their agenda. Just not yours.
The Republican Congress, at the behest of a Republican President, expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs. Perhaps you don't like the Medicare/Medicaid welfare state philosophically. Understandable. But the Medicare/Medicaid welfare state paying for prescription drugs is a REPUBLICAN agenda item, proposed by and passed by a Republican White House and Republican Congress. Again, that IS their agenda. Just not yours.
Three rounds of income tax cuts.
Elimination of the death tax.
Dramatic reduction of capital gains and dividends taxation: this was the Republican agenda and was passed. I assume you approve.
Social Security partial - not complete, and certainly not abolition! - is the Republican Party agenda. Again, you may philosophically be opposed to the concept of government pensions and Social Security, but that's YOUR agenda. The REPUBLICAN PARTY agenda is that Social Security is good and necessary, and should be left alone for everybody over 55. For everyone else, a PORTION, only of Social Security taxes should be able to be set aside in private accounts, but all the rest should still go to regular old Social Security, with its government pensions and social insurance.
I don't have an interesting set of measures. I look at what the Republicans actually propose, legislate, and state they are for as a party in actual power. I think perhaps you have a set of philosophical beliefs about what government should be and should do, and believe that the Republican Party agenda is those believes. But it seems to me a strange and subjective set of measures to complain that the Republicans haven't gotten their agenda because there's still a welfare state, when actually the current Welfare Law, and Medicare Drug law, are Republican laws drafted by Republican Congresses.
Perhaps you discern a hidden INTENT among Republicans, and think that these good intentions you perceive are the REAL Republican agenda. I'd say, first, that good intentions are good for nothing, what matters is execution and carry through. But more importantly, I'd say that the Republicans actually intended the bills they drafted and passed. They never intended to end welfare or Medicare, but only to reform them somewhat. I think what you want philosophically is something other than what Republicanism is.
Pro-lifers are waking up to that same reality on a different vector this week.