The President-elect asks, in good faith, for GOP input on how to stimulate our faltering economy. The GOP responds by recommending that the Obama administration destroy Social Security.
A couple of things need to be emphasized here. One the GOP is fast becoming a caricature of itself. Their only response to this economic crisis has been to cut taxes on a small and wealthy subset of Americans and/or destroy a hugely successful, popular and necessary social insurance program. Second, if it wasn't clear before it should be now - there's no point in even talking to Mitch McConnell or John Boehner about serious policy issues. They are fundamentally un-serious men, little more than party hacks. Engage with the the handful of Republican moderates in the Senate directly and bypass the GOP in the House completely. They have no interest in being helpful or in finding solutions so cut they should be cut out of the process.
I understand how the legsilative process is supposed to work and that there is a sense that it should be a high-minded bipartisan process. What I am proposing certainly runs counter to that but frankly to do things the "right" way requires two parties and two groups of leaders who are genuinely interested in working together to solve the issues of the day. In 2009 the United States doesn't have two functioning parties, we have one party interested in addressing the everyday concerns of Americans and steering the economy back on target and we have the Republican Party. There's no reason for Democrats to pretend like Republicans are interested in governing, the Republicans themselves gave up that game long ago.
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