Boehner: Republicans to keep voters ignorant of their highly unpopular "solutions"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I wrote yesterday that Republicans thrive off an uninformed, uneducated electorate and try to keep it that way.

As if on cue, House Minority Leader John Boehner, appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (hardly an unfriendly host), put the Republican plan out there for all to see and hear:

WALLACE: Congressman Boehner, as Willie Sutton said about banks, entitlements are where the money is. More than 40% of the budget. Yet, I've looked through this pledge and there is not one single proposal to cut social security, medicare, medicaid.

BOEHNER: Chris, we make it clear in there that we're going to lay out a plan to work toward a balanced budget and deal with the entitlement crisis. Chris, it's time for us as americans to have an adult conversation with each other about the serious challenges our country faces. And we can't have that serious conversation until we lay out the size of the problem. Once Americans understand how big the problem is, then we can begin to talk about potential solutions. [...]

WALLACE: Forgive me, sir, isn't the right time to have the adult conversation now before the election when you have this document? Why not make a single proposal to cut social security, medicare and medicaid?

BOEHNER: Chris, this is what happens here in washington. When you start down that path, you just invite all kind of problems. I know. I've been there. I think we need to do this in a more systemic way and have this conversation first. Let's not get to the potential solutions. Let's make sure americans understand how big the problem is. Then we can talk about possible solutions and then work ourselves into those solutions that are doable.

This is bad enough. What Boehner is saying is that Republicans won't talk about "possible solutions" during an election campaign, at precisely the time when voters are examining their positions and judging them, and want to know what they'd do in power. Republicans will talk about "the problem," and blame Obama, but that's it. What this would suggest is that Republicans are simply not prepared to govern.

What's worse, though, as Think Progress rightly points out, is that Republicans actually do have "solutions":

[N]umerous Republicans, including Boehner, have proposed plans to deal with Social Security and Medicare: cut benefits. All of their proposals -- from raising the retirement age, to privatization, to declaring the entire social safety net unconstitutional -- are deeply unpopular with the American people, hence Boehner's apprehension to delve into the issue.

Conservatives continually fear monger about the sustainability of these vital social programs, falsely insisting they are "bankrupt" or a "Ponzi scheme." So Boehner seems to be saying that he won't lay out his plan to deal with this supposedly imminent danger until he's had enough time to deceive the American people into thinking his "solutions" are needed.

In other words: Vote for us. We'll tell you what the problem is (and we'll lie about it to make Obama and the Democrats look bad), but we won't tell you what we'll do about it because if we did you wouldn't vote for us. (And we don't really intend to try to fix the "problem" anyway, even if there is one. Which there isn't, if we're being honest with ourselves. Our "solutions" are really just about helping the rich get richer and the powerful get more powerful.)

Brilliant, eh?

What was that about keeping the electorate in the dark?