More Lies and Distractions

I am a liberal. I was one before Bush the First tried to make it a dirty word. I am one now. I've not seen anything on the right that has persuaded me to change teams. And I'm willing to pay for my pleasure in the form of higher taxes.

So that's my bias.

I don't have a problem with conservatism in general-- I could probably find common ground with a Reagan Republican. Or even a Goldwater Republican. An Eisenhower Republican would be downright pleasant to meet. Remember the term "Loyal Opposition?"

But the current crop of conservatives don't have a lot of sense on their side. They manage to mask rampant gutting of the economy under the either lies or distractions. To be absolutely clear, I don't care about abortion, religion, gun control or other forms of such red meat. When one side says "it's the economy stupid" or "jobs" I expect them to address the economy and jobs. If instead they quickly say "Look! Over there! Gun control and abortion!" I don't turn in that direction. I keep looking at them. Then we get Ted Cruz. At least over in the liberal camp we can look and actually see a problem. (E.g., see here.)

Recently Romney has done a number of things that show the true stripe of his policy. He's proposed a tax plan that doesn't work. (See here, here and here.) Note that the same think tank he liked in one occasion he didn't like when it analyzed his tax plan and found it wanting. Turns out Romney's plan will increase the deficit far more than anything Obama has done.

The whole culture thing has been done to death although I will make a couple of points. All of the countries that he likes (Poland, Israel, UK, etc.) have much, much more governmental intervention in the private sector than we do. All of them have centralized health care though their methods differ.

In contrast, this "liberal" think tank has proposed an interesting plan that just might reduce health care costs.

In a world where the Republicans might actually care about something that matters.