Manchester without the stimulus - not a good scene

For some time... (0.00 / 0)

Not just the next two years of No Compromise (per John Boehner), but the next decade as well as the Republican governors gerrymander the districts in favor of the regressive party.  

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by: mevansnh @ Sun Oct 31, 2010 at 08:48:09 AM CDT

Speaking of which (0.00 / 0)

was there any push over the last four years to change the redistricting process in New Hampshire?  It seems like it would be in everyone's best interest to set up an independent, non-partisan commission to determine districts in the state based on several factors, including geography and demographics, but excluding party registration.  I'm guessing it's too late to do this, but if it was attempted I didn't hear anything about, and if not I don't understand why this wouldn't be done?

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by: FrankLloydMike @ Sun Oct 31, 2010 at 12:55:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

None other than conservative economist (0.00 / 0)

Bruce Bartlett concurs, Lucy.  In comparing Tuesday's expected watershed electoral moment to 1994, Bartlett sees critical and troubling differences:

The point is that gridlock under today's circumstances will not be benign, as it was in the late 1990s, but toxic, preventing our political system from grappling with problems that demand action and will only get worse the longer it is delayed.

Furthermore, in the 1990s there were still a few Republicans in Congress like Sens. Bob Dole and Pete Domenici who put the national interest above blind partisanship, and had long records of supporting politically painful policies to get deficits under control by both cutting spending and raising taxes. Today, I do not see a single Republican anywhere with their stature and sense of responsibility. Republicans now oppose deficits only in theory and care more about defeating Obama in 2012 than rescuing the nation from bankruptcy, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently admitted.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't see any prospect of meaningful action by a Republican Congress that would reduce the deficit, and much reason to think it will get worse if they have their way by enacting massive new tax cuts while protecting Medicare from cuts. And as I have previously warned, I am very fearful that it will be impossible to raise the debt limit, which would bring about a default and real, honest-to-God bankruptcy - something many Tea Party-types have openly called for in an insane belief that this will somehow or other impose fiscal discipline on out-of-control government spending without forcing them to vote either for spending cuts or tax increases.

Bartlett's conclusion is eerily similar to the UL article:

Republicans should savor the period from Election Day to the first day of the new Congress on January 3, 2011. That will be as good as it gets for them; afterwards, it's all downhill once they have to act, take responsibility, and can no longer blame Democrats for everything bad that happens anywhere. That goes for their allies in the business community, who naively assume that every action of the last two years that they opposed will magically disappear. And it goes double for the Tea Partiers, who have never had to take responsibility for anything. It's a whole new ballgame in January.

If you don't do politics, politics will do you.

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by: StraffordDem @ Sun Oct 31, 2010 at 10:24:30 AM CDT