"Sabotage: The New GOP Plan" by Andrew Leonard at Salon

[applegrove]

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/04/sabotage_the_new_gop_plan/?source=newsletter

Sabotage: The New GOP Plan
Paul Ryan and the Republicans' latest tactic is outright treachery: They want to break the government
By Andrew Leonard

"SNIP...........................................

Paul Ryan is nothing if not indefatigable. On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Republican introduced yet another budget bill. The targets of his cuts — a long list of Democratic priorities — are painfully familiar. But this time around Ryan wrapped them up in a new package of urgency: preserving national security!

Ryan and his fellow Republicans (and a not inconsiderable number of Democrats) are desperate to find a way to avoid the dreaded ”sequester” — a package of around $600 billion in defense spending cuts that are scheduled to start kicking in at the end of this year. Never mind the holy grail of deficit reduction: When the beggar with his hand stuck out is the Pentagon, “entitlement” isn’t such a dirty word, after all.

As usual, the suffocating stench of Washington kabuki permeates the whole affair. The only reason defense cuts are on the table in the first place dates back to the failure of Republicans and Democrats to come to a real agreement on long-term deficit reduction at the end of last summer’s debt ceiling debacle. The threat of looming defense cuts that would automatically take effect in 2013 was supposed to force a bipartisan agreement before that dire day arrived. But the chances that Ryan’s newest salvo will get through the Democratic-controlled Senate during an election year are even more unlikely now than they were a year ago. The most realistic scenario? After the election, a lame-duck Congress will kick the can forward, again, to the new Congress and whomever inhabits the White House in 2013.

But a close look at the insidious nature of proposed cuts is still revealing, even in the midst of all the posturing. Ever since the midterm elections of 2010, House Republicans have been honing a new approach to government. Forget about old school “starve the beast” politics, the simple-minded belief that lowering taxes and depriving the government of revenue will ultimately topple the social welfare state. The new school tactic is sabotage. Break the government. Pour sugar into the gas tank. Steal the spark plugs.

...............................SNIP"

[Adsos Letter]

1. "Sabotage: The New GOP Plan"

New Plan? I thought sabotage was the order of the day for the GOP the minute President Obama was elected.

[Ebadlun]

2. I thought Gingrich invented it

in 1994. There's nothing new about it, anyway.