E. J. Dionne: Can’t We All Just Get Along? No

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/cant_we_all_just_get_along_no_20100228/

Can’t We All Just Get Along? No
Posted on Mar 1, 2010
By E.J. Dionne


The word partisanship is typically accompanied by the word mindless. That’s not simply insulting to partisans; it’s also untrue.

If we learn nothing else in 2010, can we please finally acknowledge that our partisan divisions are about authentic principles that lead to very different approaches to governing?

Last week’s health care summit was a daylong seminar that should make it impossible for anyone to pretend otherwise. But before we get to that, let’s examine the Senate debate over whether to extend unemployment insurance coverage. The matter is rather urgent for jobless workers because 1.1 million of them are scheduled to lose their benefits this month, and 2.7 million are slated to lose them by April.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., has put a hold on the extension bill, but one of the key reasons the measure is blocked is the effort of Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to use it as a way of forcing a cut in the estate tax. Kyl is essentially leveraging the unemployed to get a deal on estate tax relief that would cost $138 billion over the next decade, according to estimates by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The estate tax has already been cut sharply, so the reduction Kyl is pushing along with Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., would affect the estates of fewer than three out of every 1,000 people who die, according to the Tax Policy Center.

The proposal helps estates worth more than $7 million in the case of couples. I guess struggling millionaires deserve the same empathy we feel for those without a job.

And notice this: Especially in the Senate, what passes for “bipartisanship” too often involves a Democrat such as Lincoln allying with a Republican on behalf of the wealthiest interests in the country. And we’re supposed to cheer this?

snip//

The point is not that Republicans are heartless and Democrats are compassionate. It’s that Democrats on the whole believe in using government to correct the inequities and inefficiencies the market creates, while Republicans on the whole think market outcomes are almost always better than anything government can produce.

That’s not cheap partisanship. It’s a fundamental divide. The paradox is that our understanding of politics would be more realistic if we were less cynical and came to see the battle for what it really is.

[Demit]

1. The deficit matters, except when it doesn't.

I am so tired of people not being able to see Republican philosophy for what it is. Country club for the few. Except they want the rest of us to pay their membership dues.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Totally despicable! And, shame on the Dems fighting for estate tax relief for multimillionaires!

[Solomon]

3. I work in estate tax. And I can tell you, it would be a huge

mistake to do away with estate tax. The whole income tax structure would fall if there were no estate and gift tax because the rich would game the system in a way that the only income tax left would be what we get off the paychecks of the working class.

Every time I see somebody advocating repeal of estate tax, I see ignorance walking and talking.

[flpoljunkie]

5. The greed is astounding. Good for Bill Gates for opposing this estate tax giveaway!

[Supersedeas]

8. and yet the National Media Outlets keep repeating the same talking points

[totodeinhere]

4. Of course I am not surprised that dinosaurs like Bunning and Kyle are doing this.

But what really gets my blood boiling is a DINO like Lincoln who is also signing off on this. That's inexcusable for a senator who calls herself a Democrat.

Yes, I understand the big tenet philosophy, and the idea is we need so-called moderate Dems because they are the only ones who can win in some red states. But for Christ's sake, we have a Dem participating in holding up badly needed unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. It's totally unacceptable for anyone with a "D" behind their name.

[BeyondGeography]

6. What a piss poor and incomplete view of things that is

Republicans don't give a fuck about market outcomes, they want to use power to influence specific market outcomes. Wanna know why no one talks about Main Street Republicans anymore? Because there's no money in it for Republicans.

People like EJ have been getting it wrong for three decades now. The Republicans cleared the way for capital with Reagan, who weakened regulatory structures across the board. Capital hates competition and is dedicated to eliminating it. The Republican Party has been driving the predatory crony capitalist bandwagon since 1980. Why else would it fight so hard for power? To preserve the beauty of market outcomes? They want to dismantle Social Security and Medicare, protect our monstrous defense budget, roll back all forms of income and wealth taxation on the rich and hand all the winnings off to their friends, their contributors and to themselves. How's that for a market outcome, EJ?

One more round of this and they will plunder all that is left to steal in this country. I wish someone would write that column.

[TwilightGardener]

7. Excellent article, thanks.

[Phx_Dem]

9. E.J., do the Republicans seem to you like they want to get along?

Have you been on vacation for the past year?