Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: GOP inept on economic problems
By Brian Murphy
The Lantern (Ohio State U.)
04/14/2008

(U-WIRE) COLUMBUS, Ohio — As John McCain has said before, the economy is not his strong suit. Recently, he offered a quote that proves his assertion fully. According to the LA Times, the exact quote was, "I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers." Even more recently, McCain flip-flopped and gave a speech discussing how the government should play a greater role in handling the mortgage crisis. Apparently McCain realized that the American people are not about to vote for more Republican insensitivity on the issue of the economy.

McCain's original statement perfectly reflects the Republican Party's general consensus on economic issues. They believe that any economic trouble you find yourself in is your own fault. To the GOP, overall economic conditions have nothing to do with the problems of any given family. Those problems are always the fault of that family, and never the fault of inept Republican lawmakers and executives.

Despite what Republicans want us to believe, they are all like McCain. They generally have no idea how the economy works. Every four years, they feed us the same garbage about tax cuts for the rich and how they help stimulate the economy. Well, Bush's tax cuts sure are not doing anything for the economy right now, are they? Republicans generally do not know how the economy works, and their economic platform these last few elections has been wrong to say the least and evil to say the most.

On economic issues, Republicans realize that they cannot earn any middle or lower class votes, so they attempt to drive wedges into the electorate with utterly unimportant issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Whenever it appears that the majority of Americans agree with the Democrats on those issues, the Republicans bring up issues of war and the military. That was the strategy in 2004, and it worked like a charm.

If the two parties were forced to talk only about economic issues, the Republicans would either have to tell the truth or attempt to hide the truth about their opinions on economic policy. Either way, the Democrats would win every time. If the Republicans told the truth, the American people would be shocked. If they attempted to hide the truth, people would assume that they were lying and they still would not vote for them.

We can ridicule John McCain for his flip-flop, but in the end, we cannot really blame him. After all, imagine yourself as part of a political party that wants the rich to go without paying taxes, and the poor to take the blame for any kind of recession that might happen on their watch. If I were a Republican, I would want to hide my true views as well.

[ Back to Student Voices ]