The Other McCain

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Ezra Klein: The Wetness At Your Ankle Is Progressive Flooding

Posted on | November 24, 2011 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

In this sense, we mean:

Progressive flooding is the additional flooding of spaces which were not previously assumed to be damaged. Such additional flooding may occur through openings or pipes as indicated. . .progressive indeed

Ezra, the Juice Box Mafioso and Senate Democrat Briefer, outdoes himself in today’s exercise in Not Getting It. Or maybe he does, and just phones in today’s attempt to flog the Republican wing of the sinking ship’s bridge.

Klein offers up two paragraphs of context for his point, that the GOP has a ‘dual trigger nightmare’, before touching on the Blame Bush theme in para 3. Para 4 gives us:

So now there are two triggers. One is an extremely progressive spending trigger worth $1.2 trillion that goes off on January 1, 2013. The other is an extremely progressive tax trigger worth $3.8 trillion that goes off on…January 1, 2013. If you count reduced interest payments, the two policies alone would reduce future deficits by about $6 trillion. That’s far more than anything the supercommittee came close to discussing. It’s distributed far more progressively than anything the Democrats have even considered proposing. And all that needs to happen for it to pass is, well, nothing.

Congress has been doing nothing like its job since 2008, Ezra. It’s not even worth worrying whether the ship of state has been on the current course as a diabolical plot or due to incompetence: she’s stacked up on a sea mount and sinking. The Stupor Committee was dead on arrival this Spring; the only real improvement is that we can now chuck the corpses overboard an allusion to The Camp of the Saints. Further along:

So the GOP is not without options. But the Democrats are in the driver’s seat. Gridlock means a deficit deal that they could never have imagined getting any other way. Basic negotiating theory would suggest that whatever the Republicans offer them must somehow be better even than that. And yet, that’s not how either party is acting. Republicans don’t seem particularly worried about the triggers and Democrats don’t seem particularly interested in pressing their advantage. At least for now.

Basic negotiating theory would be predicated on having something to negotiate about. The stock market is capsizing, the economy is parked on the sea bottom, and you want to discuss the finer points of negotiation? Congresscritters have eleven more months before the next election. Look for them to be more worried about stock scandals and inflating their rubber duckies.

You want to know what Congress is going to do about tax reform, Ezra? No more than it already has. The Constitution, that ancient document you don’t think anyone understands, has performed its essential task of slowing tyranny, with a restraining order in 2010. And we’re less than a year from another round of help arriving. With some more exceptional, patriotic American effort, we can (a) remove you and your ilk to a safer distance from the controls and (b) set about doing useful damage control. Eventually, we’ll float ‘er again and get back on our proper course toward liberty.

But thanks, Ezra. It’s always a source of an inspirational pep talk to peer into your twisted little mind. You always seem to be the guy who thinks himself too smart, knowing all of these Important People, and standing too close to the problem. In short, Ezra, your column might be better titled ‘Wankbook’.

Update: welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: Democrats

Comments

15 Responses to “Ezra Klein: The Wetness At Your Ankle Is Progressive Flooding”

  1. Anonymous
    November 24th, 2011 @ 12:23 pm

    Even setting aside the likelihood that the Democrats will retain the White House and increase their seats in both houses of Congress next year, it’s a stretch to assume that in victory the GOP would suddenly go 180 degrees against its history as the party of big government.

  2. Instapundit » Blog Archive » WASHINGTON POST REPORTER BRIEFING DEMOCRATS: From JournoList to activist, it appears that WaPo‘…
    November 24th, 2011 @ 12:29 pm

    […] UPDATE: Maybe this is a case of “progressive flooding.” […]

  3. smitty
    November 24th, 2011 @ 12:43 pm

    In and of itself, the GOP is just the Dems going more slowly in the wrong direction.
    The Tea Party boot against the GOP backside, however, may calibrate the GOP.

  4. Steve in TN
    November 24th, 2011 @ 12:46 pm

    I disagree. The #GOP is what we make it. If cons get busy and elect more Ryans and Rubios we have a chance.

  5. edward royce
    November 24th, 2011 @ 1:16 pm

    That’s the ticket! 

    Nothing like a completely unreasonable and illogical point of view to carry you through the eventual and predictable agony of disappointment.

  6. edward royce
    November 24th, 2011 @ 1:20 pm

    If cons continue being busy electing establishment Republicans, so-called “conservatives” whose conservatism consists of a barely comprehensible pretense and political opportunists then we’ll continue to stay right where we are now. 

    In the conservative ghetto.

    If we continue to allow establishment and machine Republicans to determine who our candidates are then we’ll continue to have the political relevancy of a daffodil.

    But what the hell right?  Romney anybody?

  7. Anonymous
    November 24th, 2011 @ 1:29 pm

    “Nothing like a completely unreasonable and illogical point of view to carry you through the eventual and predictable agony of disappointment.”

    I bet that’s on one of those motivational posters on a wall somewhere at RNC headquarters.

    Review your history. The Republicans, from the inception of their party, have ALWAYS been the party of big government. The Democrats have, on occasion, been the party of even BIGGER government, but the next small government Republican administration will be the first.

  8. Anonymous
    November 24th, 2011 @ 2:02 pm

    Actually, Republicans were conceived on the idea that slavery was a bad thing and should be killed where found. Either it returns to those roots or it will be replaced as its’ predecessor was.

  9. Anonymous
    November 24th, 2011 @ 2:11 pm

    SDN,

    Yes, ending chattel slavery in the south was one of the three big goals of the Republican Party. The other two were imposition of a federal tariff, and the launch of a massive national public works agenda.

    Later on — after creating the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and Anti-Trust, Republican congressional majorities passed the Federal Reserve Act and the 16th Amendment for a federal income tax.

    Then in 1932, Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for president on a platform of cutting the size of the federal government by 25% and balancing the budget, versus incumbent Herbert Hoover’s embryonic version of the New Deal. FDR’s first term turned out to be essentially Hoover’s third term instead.

  10. Donald Douglas
    November 24th, 2011 @ 3:16 pm

    Nice posting, Smitty!

  11. observant
    November 24th, 2011 @ 11:05 pm

    cute…i of course always vote on historical actions so lets admit republicans raised taxes that one time while democrats perpetuated slavery that one time…or we could be contemporary…i still like my chances

  12. Anonymous
    November 25th, 2011 @ 12:01 am

    “Like your chances” of what?

    Only one Republican presidential candidate (Ron Paul) is even suggesting any actual cuts in the federal budget, and he’s not looking good for the nomination. The rest of them merely promise to grow things a little slower  — and if you believe those promises, I’d like to sell you some real estate.

  13. Anonymous
    November 25th, 2011 @ 7:22 am

    The Democrats have always wanted us to look to Europe for guidance in dealing with our future. Now we are. And suddenly they want us to ignore what is going on across the pond and keep spending like there’s no tomorrow. I just don’t get it.

  14. Zilla of the Resistance
    November 25th, 2011 @ 10:20 am

    I commend you for reading & excerpting Ezra’s idiocy so we don’t have to, also, nobody does nautical themed posts better than you, Sir.
    Linked:
    http://zillablog.marezilla.com/2011/11/its-only-fair-please-vote-in-poll.html

  15. Smitty – Post of the Day « Obi's Sister
    November 25th, 2011 @ 11:39 am

    […] Smitty takes Ezra Klein to the woodshed and thrashes him with a turkey drumstick. It still baffles me that such a liberal-bleating gasbag is able to draw a paycheck. […]