Checking Up on the Fools on The Hill | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Checking Up on the Fools on The Hill

Update from The Loony Bin, aka the Republican congressional delegation: The House on Friday rejected a move to fight the current economic crisis by imposing

Update from The Loony Bin, aka the Republican congressional delegation: The House on Friday rejected a move to fight the current economic crisis by imposing a freeze on federal spending.


According to The Associated Press, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio (voted "Best Tan in the House" for three consecutive sessions) "said the jump in unemployment to 8.1 percent and the loss of 651,000 jobs in February is a sign of a worsening recession that demands better solutions from both parties."

So what's the Republicans' better solution? Freeze federal spending, which means taking more money out of circulation and creating more unemployment. Yeah, that's the ticket!

The measure failed on a vote of 160-218, with every Republican - including our own Rep. Greg Walden - voting for it and all but eight Democrats voting against it. A similar measure sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was defeated in the Senate on Tuesday.

On a TV talking-heads show this morning, New York Times columnist David Brooks, speaking for what remains of the rational wing of the GOP, said the spending freeze idea was just plain nuts.

"The problem with [Republican congressional leaders] and the problem with [radio gasbag Rush] Limbaugh in terms of intellectual philosophy is they are stuck with Reagan," Brooks said on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "They are stuck with the idea that government is always the problem. A lot of Republicans up in Capitol Hill right now are calling for a spending freeze in a middle of a recession/depression. That is insane."

George H.W. Bush famously referred to Ronald Reagan's trickle-down tax policy as "voodoo economics." The mind simply boggles when trying to come up with an appropriate description for Boehnernomics.

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