July 24, 2011 12:34 AM UTC

Hair Of The Dog In 2012

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• by: harrydoby

If Republicans succeed in tanking the economy this year by forcing the country into default, perverse as it may seem, the likely result could be to achieve their dream of making Obama a one-term president.

So let’s assume that during a deepening recession, Obama loses his job next year.  I would hope that America doesn’t go completely insane, and elects the least crazy of the current crop of GOP candidates – Mitt Romney.  Further, let’s also assume they maintain control of the House, and even squeak out a 51 seat majority in the Senate.

What would a return to “Conservative” principles (whatever that means anymore) likely result for our nation?

Let’s see…

No new taxes.  Even President Romney would be unable to break the evil spell of Grover Norquist and the Tea Party on the religious chant of “No taxes, No how”. In fact, the pressure to find more taxes to cut would be pretty irresistible. Well, since most of the current budget is mandatory spending for entitlements, while discretionary spending is for the military and infrastructure, without new sources of revenue, trillion dollar deficits will stretch for years to come.  A Republican president and Congress won’t likely trim too much from the military budget, and while they might make several attempts to take a hacksaw to Medicare and Social Security, they would basically have to eliminate both to put a dent in a trillion dollar annual deficit, particularly as the recession deepens as consumer spending continues to plummet, and government spending is reduced.  It becomes a self-perpetuating vicious cycle if you don’t believe in government deficit spending to keep the economy afloat.  Perhaps Romney would perform one of his patented 180’s and put forth another TARP-like rescue package.  But who wants to bet the Tea Party nitwits would allow that to pass?

Repeal and Replace Healthcare Reform.  So now that newly unemployed residents of Hoovervilles popping up across the nation have lost any health insurance they might have had, a repeal of the Affordable Healthcare Act would leave them without any safety net at all.  So off to the emergency room it is for any health issue their kids might have.  Believe it or not, that comes out of taxpayers’ pockets.  So much for cutting government expenditures on healthcare.  I suppose they could eliminate state and federal funds to hospitals, so that the free market can decide if we just have too many darned ER’s and clinics after all!

Deregulation.  Since Republicans are all for “free enterprise – let the market decide” principles, we can be assured that a Republican Congress would push, and CEO Romney would support, massive deregulation of businesses, including likely repeal of anti-trust legislation, either explicitly or defacto, through government decisions in favor of industry consolidation (driven also by the continuing recession and need for “economies of scale”) where the strong feed on the weak.  Not only would monopolies start controlling major segments of the market, leading to less innovation, higher prices, and less need for competition-driven efficiencies in service, you would see an acceleration in media consolidation as well.  So we would get less diversity of opinion, and the few outlets remaining would also gain control over the “facts” such as Fox News has been attempting for several years.

So how would Republicans dig themselves out of this hole (hmm — funny, if you find your self in a hole, aren’t you supposed to stop digging)?  Well, their dire predictions of hyperinflation would probably finally come true, even propagandized by the UniVoice News as a “really good thing”. With the debt probably hitting $20 trillion by 2015 and another election coming up, inflation would provide a short-lived sheen of rising incomes and prosperity, plus rising government receipts to pay down the now “cheaper” national debt.

If we thought the drunken excesses by Republicans during the Bush years, characterized by reckless, unfunded spending on wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and blatant partisanship in illegal hiring practices in the Department of Justice (literally placing a partisan thumb on the scales of justice) was bad, just wait until we try a bit of the “Hair of the Dog”.