Perhaps it should have been titled "Road to Republican Electoral Ruin." (Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS)
What happens when an essentially ideas-bankrupt, lazy bunch of Republicans suddenly gain control over one chamber in Congress? And when they got there by making ridiculous campaign promises to an extreme lunatic fringe? And when it's compounded by some of those same lunatics actually being elected? Chaos.
The Republicans have no coherent governing strategy, very few actual policy ideas, and no plan other than undo everything that the other guys did. Into this vacuum steps Rep. Paul Ryan, who's half-baked Ayn Rand-inspired "Roadmap" was the closest thing GOP leadership could find to actual policy. Rather than buckling down to create some, they decide to go with Ryan's proposal. Which has inevitably led to this:
A deep rift is opening wider and wider in the Republican Party over controversial proposals to cut Medicare.
Senate Republicans have decided to avoid jeopardizing their chances of capturing the upper chamber in next year’s elections and will not echo the House GOP’s call for a major overhaul of the popular health entitlement for seniors....
The Medicare split is the first indication of major differences on the budget between Republicans in the House and Senate during the 112th Congress. There was no daylight between Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) during the fiscal 2011 spending battle, which bolstered GOP leverage in the government shutdown debate.
Which, incidentally, is why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should force a vote on the Ryan plan in the Senate which could still happen. It would help if Sen. Kent Conrad and some of the other deficit peacocks got out of the way with their disastrous proposals. When there's a split on the other side, exploit it.
Which is what is happening in New York, incidentally, and being noticed.
GOP strategists have watched with alarm as Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has made a surprising run in the special election for New York’s open 26th district, a seat Republicans were expected to win easily.
A new Daily Kos/SEIU poll showed Hochul leading her Republican opponent by four points. Hochul’s campaign has been helped by a Tea Party candidate who previously ran as a Democrat, effectively splitting the GOP vote.
A senior Senate Republican strategist said the House plan is an “honest stab” at trying to extend the program’s solvency but the politics of the moment are all wrong.
“The real problem is the Democrats are out there beating the crap out of Republicans because they’re saying we’re privatizing Medicare,” said the GOP strategist. “It’s a problem because Republicans haven’t messaged it well.”
Sorry, senior Republican strategist. There's no way to put enough messaging lipstick on this pig of a Medicare proposal to bamboozle anybody but the teabaggers. It's a stinker, any way you look at.