What did the men who would be president talk about during last week’s prime-time Republican debate? Well, there were 19 references to God, while the economy rated only 10 mentions. Republicans in Congress have voted dozens of times to repeal all or part of Obamacare, but the candidates only named President Obama’s signature policy nine times over the course of two hours. And energy, another erstwhile G.O.P. favorite, came up only four times.
Now granted, the shape of the debate was largely determined by the questions asked by the interrogators, Wallace, Baer and Kelly, but the candidates did have the opportunity to choose HOW they answered, and clearly for many God was more important than how the economy is doing, including the issues of health care and energy.
But consider what Krugman says next:
Strange, isn’t it? The shared premise of everyone on the Republican side is that the Obama years have been a time of policy disaster on every front. Yet the candidates on that stage had almost nothing to say about any of the supposed disaster areas.
And that is the problem. It is the "supposed" disaster areas, which for all the rhetoric of Republicans on the Hill and elsewhere, and all the pointless (except to rile up the base) votes to repeal the affordable care act, increasing numbers of people -nincluding some self-identified Republicans and many, many independents - are coming to recognize that the actions of the administration are very far from being a disaster.
And there was a good reason they seemed so tongue-tied: Out there in the real world, none of the disasters their party predicted have actually come to pass. President Obama just keeps failing to fail. And that’s a big problem for the G.O.P. — even bigger than Donald Trump.
Well, maybe. First let's point out several reasons why Trump is still a very big problem for Republicans:
1. immigration: his remarks on the subject, on Mexicans in particular, are not only making it almost impossible for Republicans to improve their performance among Hispanics, but they are also energizing them to participate. The folks at Latino Decisions have run the numbers and unless Republicans substantial improve their performance with this demographic they cannot win the Presidency. Oh, and as our own Markos has reminded us, 50,000 Hispanics become eligible to vote every month.
2. women - yes, some of Trump's remarks are totally obnoxious, and that's putting it mildly. But that only serves to highlight how bad the Republican field is on issues relating to women, all of them.
3. political corruption - Trump'r remarks about why he gives money and what he gets taps into an anger that is palpable, that the system is failing the people, and many people know it, which is also why Sanders is doing so well. Those remarks are a perfect set-up to Democratic attacks on role of the Koch Brothers and similar big bucks donors, including their attempt to designate the candidate.
Even with all that, and with other issues as well, however, Krugman is actually correct. Increasing numbers of people are recognizing that for all its flaws, the Affordable Care Act has done them good. The news keeps reinforcing that point, for example, the word from its trustees that Medicare has slowed its acceleration of growth to the point where in fact it is pretty close to sustainable. Do Republicans insist that it - and Social Security - are so broken that they have to be replaced? In wanting to get rid of Medicare have they forgotten the tea=party types who now represent the heart of their base insisting in 2009 that they wanted to keep government hands off their Medicare?
As for the idea that Obamacare would be a job-killer, a point to which Marco Rubio has returned, Krugman points out that
in the year and a half since Obamacare went fully into effect, the U.S. economy has added an average of 237,000 private-sector jobs per month. That’s pretty good. In fact, it’s better than anything we’ve seen since the 1990s.
Since the 1990s.
The last time a Democrat was President.
In contrast to the 8 years of Republican leadership under a man whose last name was Bush.
Krugman does not say that, but I thought it worth mentioning.
And speaking of Bush, Krugman reminds us that JEB! governed during a housing bubble in Florida, having the good fortune to leave office before it burst. Oh, and as for "St. Ronnie?" A comparison of Obama's administration with his shows that Obama entered office with higher unemployment that that notable and that his unemployment rate now is lower than it was at the equivalent moment in Reagan's second term.after reading this article what's left to say i don't recall someone better laying out the facts of republican misinformation better than those who should be doing it the Dem politicians we are here largely because they don't have Pres.'s back and fear a minority of radical voters fooled by republicans and concentrated on you know like G W Bush said, "you can fool some of the people all of the time and those are the ones you want to concentrate on"
that is those who happen to get elected in a red state but if they are not going to be true to the Progressive agenda why do we need them they just as well can be counted as republican votes. i could not understand how they just kicked back and let the republican rhetoric take front page while running from Pres. instead of informing those being misled by right wing propaganda.
history will look fondly on Pres. and disdain on the Dem party of cowards when you think about it they maybe did less than the do nothing congress. in action is no action is where we are today and the republicans well they are in action it's time to steal another election from American voters.
