Tyler Cowen has referred a couple of times to a book by Philip Klein on Republican politics and health care reform. I am not a political analyst, but here is my impression:
1. The most important Republican divide is between the Tea Party and McBoehner. The Tea Party wants policies to change, and McBoehner want most of all to be Senate Majority Leader and House Speaker, respectively.
2. The Tea Party wants to overturn Obama’s policies on immigration and health care. McBoehner wants to loosen environmental regulations and tweak Dodd-Frank, because that is what their friends in business are telling them are priority issues.
3. I think that a conservative consensus on health care reform is there to be formed, but McBoehner are not the ones to form it. I think that the Tea Party is likely to be shafted both on immigration and on health care reform. That might make them a bit ornery during primary season in 2016.
That doesn’t seem very charitable to John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.
Beyond just calling them “McBoehner”, surely they have motivations beyond what their “friends in business are telling them”.
Come on, Arnold. You can do better.
I think Ted Cruz’s entry into the presidential race will be very helpful. Not that I think that a Senator makes a good president, but Cruz should be very helpful in smoking out the differences between the establishment candidates and the very different voting base of the GOP.
BTW David, there is a clear split between the GOP base and the donors that McBoehner are paying attention to – the friends in business that AK refers to. He’s right, whether or not you think it is “charitable”.
I agree with you on the split.
But reducing McConnell’s and Boehner’s motives to merely parroting the views of their “friends in business” – that is neither correct nor charitable.
I love Arnold’s blog, and I am reluctant to criticize like this. But part of why I love the blog is he works hard to avoid those kind of cheap shots.
We seem to be at a point where Republicans and Democrats don’t see benefit from negotiating compromises with each other. Is there a soft landing out of ths predicament?