Is the conservative dream in its death throes?
Liberal critics gleefully gloat that the Right's 30-year project to end the welfare state may be in shambles
As negotiations over the fiscal cliff drag on (and on), Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is facing criticism for refusing to specify what exactly would go on the chopping block in his proposed $1.2 trillion in spending cuts. President Obama hasn't outlined any specific cuts either, though he has at least made clear that he would raise revenue by hiking tax rates for the wealthy. That is one side of the equation, and reflects a Democratic priority; cutting spending would naturally seem to be in the GOP's wheelhouse.
There are several theories for why Boehner is being so demure. Brian Montopoli at CBS News says Boehner wants Obama to take the heat for proposing unpopular cuts to Medicare. Jonathan Chait at New York takes the argument a little further, saying that, despite Republican assertions to the contrary, there just aren't that many cuts to be had: "When the only cuts on the table would inflict real harm on people with modest incomes and save small amounts of money, that is a sign that there's just not much money to save." And Paul Krugman at The New York Times goes epic, linking Boehner's reticence to the death of a 30-year conservative project to end "the whole legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society":
With that voter base waning in influence, Krugman argues, the GOP has entered "the death throes of the conservative dream."
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Conservatives obviously disagree with that liberal characterization of their movement, though Peggy Noonan at The Wall Street Journal agrees that the GOP is perilously close to death:
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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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