The New York Times must be pretty desperate. Clearly they have adopted the “any publicity is good publicity” strategy, so publishing absolutely ridiculous opinion pieces that compare conservatives to suicide bombers–fingers crossed for a Drudge link!–is their best marketing plan.
Joe Nocera’s oped “Tea Party’s War on America” would be offensive, if it wasn’t so laughably stupid.
Members supported by the Tea Party, who had been elected to shrink the size of government, tried to keep their word to their constituents, and didn’t want to rubber stamp the largest increase in the debt ceiling in history. They used the power that they had, as set forth in the Constitution, to try to push for legislation that they lived up to their principles.
No, they didn’t go hide outside of Washington, to make it impossible for Congress to meet, as a band of Democrats did in Wisconsin when they didn’t like legislation pending in the legislature, breaking the law and their oath of office.
No, they didn’t seek millions of dollars in special interest carve outs, which border on illegal (you remember the Cornhusker kickback, Mr. Nocera?) as Democrats did when ramming ObamaCare through Congress.
No. They just said they weren’t going to vote for a bill that continued business-as-usual in Washington, believing that our ballooning debt threatens the country’s economic health.
You can disagree with those on the Right on this point and perspective on the economy. Nocera clearly believes that what the economy needs is more stimulus spending and that reducing government spending is the road to disaster. I disagree. Obviously in the last two years, we’ve dumped trillions in to the economy based on the idea that more government spending will create jobs. Hasn’t exactly worked out.
Yet I get that some serious people think that more stimulus spending is what the economy needs. Nocera argues that debt isn’t the biggest problem we face; joblessness is. Fair enough. I think that most people worry not just about the debt itself, but how debt impacts the economy. And those of us on the Right-those crazed terrorist Tea Party types-believe that big government, excessive regulation, government-directed spending, high taxes, and too much debt are a drag on the private sector and hinder job creation.
Nocera can disagree with this, but comparing supporters of limited government to terrorists waging a “jihad” on America is absurd.
It’s funny that the Left, including the Times, was calling for an end in heightened political rhetoric and implying that the Tea Party somehow was responsible for the attack on Rep. Giffords. That lasted about two weeks and now they cheerfully publish absurd, hateful screeds against millions of law-abiding Americans. It would be infuriating, if it wasn’t so pathetic.