GOP = Gonads Outta Play?

What is it with the US Republican Party, otherwise known as the GOP?

Does GOP stand for Gonads Outta Play?  It certainly seems that many GOP members in the Senate display an amazing lack of courage and they are joined by their spineless colleagues in the House of Representatives.

Of course these folks will be looking at the mid-term elections but is that it?  A potential threat to job security means that principle and integrity is cast aside?

Surely there are some Senators and Representatives (you listening Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan?) who will filibuster any attempt at a deal that doesn't include a reduction in US debt  and the US budget deficit. 

The October 17th deadline is bogus.  The key date is November 1st because that's when big payments become due and maybe the US won't have the money, at that time so there is not the urgency that the White House have concocted.

So why are the GOP playing into Obama's hand?  

Linking the budget approval with Obamacare was surely short-sighted.  All indications are that this programme already contains the seeds of its own destruction (see the numerous stories on the multiplying of premiums that people are encountering and the failing, and failed, online registration system).  However, now things have moved on.

My advice to GOP members is don't get tied-up with Obamacare.  The real, indeed the only, issue, is America's addiction.  The drug of choice is debt or other people's money (taxes to you and me!)

When Obamacare is long-dead and buried the American people will still be suffering  from the spending splurge and debt-overdosing that is occurring day after day.  We are not talking about going 'cold turkey', of completely stopping government spending, but rather of weaning the government of their over-indulgence in spending money that they don't have. 

That should be the whole focus of the GOP and it's activities around the budget impasse and the debt ceiling.  Giving any addict greater and greater access to their drug of choice is never a good idea. 

Einstein said that insanity is  doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

 So this time, do something different - don't pass the budget, make cuts, don't increase the debt ceiling, stop feeding the beast!

Ryan/Biden Debate - A view

I am currently in the Middle East and so had the opportunity to see the VP debate 'live'.  Some observations.

Generally this was a good debate - arguments were put forward and countered and so on.  I have seen that some commentators have referred to Joe Biden's interruptions as rude.  I am not so sure.  I would classify them as dis-respectful.  He doesn't come across as naturally rude (but I suppose he wouldn't).

There were four substantive issues - Health/Medicare, the Economy, Foreign Affairs and Abortion.

Health/Medicare - I won't pretend to understand the minutiae of this issue but I didn't hear Biden offering a strong defence of 'Obamacare' nor refuting Ryan's claim about the double counting of spending or showing savings on one programme and then shifting the same funds to another.  Maybe he spent time at the feet of the multi-times spender Gordon Brown?  GB managed to spend and spend but (fortunately) some of the promised spending was simply the same promised money, again and again.

The Economy - Got less attention than I expected, given the at best anemic 'recovery'.   Ryan is obviously strong on this and did land punches on the '43 months of greater than 8% unemployment'  but I guess his strongest point here was the emphasis on where employment growth will come from - the small business throughout the USA - and the need to reduce the tax burden on these.  Biden's response of trying to paint hedge fund companies as small companies looked a little desperate.

Foreign Affairs - Ryan defied expectations and was well informed on the topic (so no Sarah Palin moments) and projected a coherent strategy especially concerning the withdrawal from Afghanistan.  Biden seemed to rely on the fact that the other international participants want out by 2014 and so the US approach is right - kind of a strange defence to me and the fact that withdrawal is so fixed must surely undermine the talks that are taking place with the Afghan Taliban.

Abortion - Both are practicing Roman Catholics but though they each claim that their politics and integrity is shaped by their faith, Biden seems to have a very liberal view of that shaping, as it comes to abortion.  Ryan put forward a compelling argument for a review of US abortion legislation, when he spoke of such laws should be made by politicians following the will of the electorate rather than by unelected judges.  They didn't touch on 'gay' marriage but Biden's very liberal views are in direct contrast to the traditional and staunchly Catholic views of Ryan.

One thread that ran through the debate was the respect and admiration that the 'middle class' have in the US psyche.  In the UK, 'middle class' is almost a pejorative term whereas in the US this is aspirational. 

Polls seem to suggest that Ryan narrowly 'won' the debate but you can expect the Obama-loving media to paint this as a draw. 

The American Election of 2012

So through this primary process, Mitt Romney emerged as the winning Republican candidate.  Not a popular candidate with many, including in his own party, but he managed to outspend and outgun his opponents.

I have my reservations about him and some of his prior policy activity but  his inspired choice of running mate, Paul Ryan, gives America a really great opportunity to elect a real no-nonsense conservative.  The key will be how the partnership between Romney and Ryan will function.

If Romney is foolish enough to restrict Ryan to the largely ceremonial role normally reserved for VPs, then he will miss a great opportunity to exploit a great mind and a person recognised for his integrity and common sense approach and for his 'right-thinking' ways as regards taxes and the US deficit and debt.

I wonder if there is any restriction on Ryan serving in a dual capacity - VP and Treasury Secretary?  Starting off with a cost saving measure - two jobs for the price of one - wouldn't hurt!

So what about Obama? Will he ditch Biden (or will Joe stand down) and then pick Hillary as a running mate?

Reading the partisan and widely pro-Obama press, one gets the idea that the Romney-Ryan ticket has got the Obama campaign rattled.  Romney was pushing Obama but now that Ryan is on-board, I think that the Republican ticket will start to pull marginally ahead.

Obama can't look to the economy for help.  While US Federal spending remains high and, if Obama has his way, goes higher still, the only solution is to raise taxes - and we are not talking about on rich people, we are talking about on the huge swathe of middle class Americans  - that's the only place where the revenues raised can start to make any kind of impact on the deficit numbers.

Then there's Obama's failed foreign policy initiatives and promises - what did he say about troop levels in Afghanistan?  They are higher now, than when Bush left the White House.  Dialogue with Iran? How did that work out? I still don't get how this 'leading from behind' is supposed to work.  Don't recall seeing Obama being feted in Tripoli!  Can see him (and America) being castigated for inaction over Syria, where the Assad regime and their Iranian backers pursue a 'slaughter of the innocents' policy.  Meanwhile China is flexing its muscles in the South China Sea and angering neighbours in Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines and where is America?  And all the time, Chavez and the 'loco lefties' in Latin America nip and pinch at American interests, with impunity.

To go back to the start of this post, it is perhaps a measure of Romney's previously shaky support, that the Republicans are not 'streets ahead' in the polls, given the idealistic incompetence of Obama and his team.  Let's hope for Romney's sake and especially for the sake of America (and right thinking folks, everywhere) that the addition of Ryan, to the ticket, brings political and economic competency to the White House to allow the world to see that fine words and speeches a la Obama don't amount to much if they are not backed-up with action.

Here though is a question for Democrat party supporters.  Okay so Obama got his health care bill through and he continues to suck-up to Public Service unions but in your heart of hearts, in the dark of night, when you are alone and quietly thinking, do you not see that the last 4 years have been a wasted opportunity?  Be honest now!