Monday, February 11, 2013
Arkansas Politics Vice President Cotton sounds the welfare Cadillac trumpet
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 9:25 AM
I heard this last night and groaned. U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, the Club for Growth's ambassador to Arkansas, said it on Fox News:
Well, I obviously disagree with Nancy Pelosi's call for more tax increases, as well as Barack Obama's. We just increased taxes by over $600 billion last month. We can't keep increasing taxes every three months just because Barack Obama wants more welfare spending.
Crooks and Liars took notice of this bodaciously dishonest messaging. What welfare spending? Unless he means medical assistance to working poor and elderly in nursing homes, millions of them working people who've exhausted assets.
Washington Monthly also has Cotton figured out.
Cotton is emblematic of a brand of movement conservatism that has slowly taken over the Republican Party after decades of struggle; saw its ultimate validation in the 2010 midterm elections; and isn’t about to loosen its grip on its trophy of ideological war. Its shock troops believe in a rigid, permanent model of governance that is impervious not only to Washington power games and deal-making, but to the social and economic consequences of its preferred policies and indeed to all contrary empirical evidence. Most of them believe the destruction of the Welfare State is the only path consistent with patriotism and constitutional government; many (I don’t know enough about Cotton to know if he shares this particular motivation) believe their ideology reflects obedience to the eternal laws of Almighty God.So yeah, it kind of matters that so many people like Cotton carry so much weight in the House Republican Caucus. Asking them to be “realistic” is like staring into the eyes of a goat and expecting to find a glimmer of comprehension. It just ain’t happening, and the punditocracy had best remember that next time it is surprised by right wing intransigence, which will shine on brightly through all the haze of conventional politics.
Again, he is replicated many times over in the Arkansas legislature's Ignorance Caucus.
Bill Kristol like Cotton for VP? Why not president, with Sarah Palin back riding shotgun.
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