Well, Adam, maybe it’s time for you to stop writing and start doing . I have always voted Democratic but my husband is and was a Republican, not a MAGA Republican, and he voted Democratic for the first time. He would love to find a Republican leader he can follow. You gave up your career once to do the right thing. Maybe it’s time for you to reclaim your career to do the right thing. I know others feel the same way he does and would support you
I’m a democrat and I support you. I never ever had a problem with a principled republican. I supported McCain when he first ran. It’s or was a two party system.
He will have to run as an Independent and caucus with the Dems. It’s the ONLY way he can win. Or if he goes full Democrat, but I like my first suggestion.
He won’t stand a chance if he runs as a Republican. The wound is too raw.
*I’m talking President here. Not Congress. He would have to run as a Dem to go back there. He did his time (12 years is plenty) and I don’t think he really wants to go back.
But they won't. What's left in congress now is a small, highly concentrated form of MAGA - the craziest of the crazies. Any new Republican Party needs to rebuild without them.
Personally, I'm rooting for Jockstrap Jordan. The guy simply redefines 'dumb-ass bantam-weight sleaze bag.' I wonder are Republicans dumb enough to do the dumbest thing imaginable?
As an Ohioan I can’t look the other way the way he did when a pedophile was preying on young wrestlers. Starting with the rotten head, it seems that this regime just doesn’t think sexual assault is a big deal. And if Gym Jordan could look the other way then, he surly won’t stop any corruption now.
I agree. But you didn't add the middle part. You didn't explain why that 'might' be the only way this cancer of greed and corruption is cured: How the election of a total sleaze bag like Jockstrap Jordan might be the answer we're searching for.
Go back just seven days and think about just why so many Americans did their best to purge the rot in Congress (and other offices). Adam got that right. The 'greed and corruption' majority had finally gone too far. But enough of the rot has not been purged yet. Just like Miller has reinforced our understanding of how horrible Trump is, the election of Jockstrap Jordan could do that too.
The problem is that cancer is such a terrible disease that people sometimes die of the cure before they can die of the disease. If we don't purge Jockstrap Jordan AND Trump soon enough, the America we love and cherish will die too.
"The country didn’t turn liberal overnight. Voters in Texas didn’t suddenly stop believing in low taxes and a secure border. Voters in Kansas didn’t wake up on Tuesday wanting to be California."
The first thing to do to rebuild a conservative party would be to finally become honest about what the left actually achieved and continues to stand for, rather than doing what you do here.
Californians just REJECTED a 5% tax on billionaires.
The ONLY presidents ever to be passionate about and have succeeded in negotiating a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform and border security bill are Democrats (Obama and Biden), not Republicans. And time and again, it's a handful of Republicans who block these bills in the Senate. NOT Democrats.
You also mention the debt: for decades now, ONLY Democrats work with the "pay-as-you-go" rule in Congress (which stipulates that you can't pass any new bill unless it's fully paid for). Ever since Democrats adopted it, the GOP has abandoned it as soon as it takes control of DC again.
And then there is the fact that poll after poll shows that a majority of even registered Republicans continues to actually support the Democratic agenda on major issues.
So you're right, the country didn't turn blue overnight. It has been for years already, only this time, the GOP fake news no longer worked.
I do agree that for a democracy to survive, we need more than one serious and morally integer political party. But what solutions do genuine conservatives actually still have, for the problems facing us, and that are not already proposed by Democrats... ? That's my main question for you.
Thanks for your comment on the debt. I do not know enough about pay as you go. Did Dems abide by pay-as-you-go when they controlled Congress last? Does pay-as-you-go apply to reconciliation bills? The Social Security Fairness Act was a bipartisan bill that increased social security benefits without legislating any new revenues/payroll taxes to cover the additional benefits, meaning the SS trust fund will be depleted sooner. Does that violate the spirit of pay-as-you-go?
The only president to balance a budget was Bill Clinton. Obama got us out of a ‘mortgage ’ crisis’ caused by Republicans, Biden brought Americans the Infrastructure Act after Covid.
What have any Republicans ever done for the American people?
Bush got us into a war for 20 years.
Trump is robbing us blind right in front of our eyes- and Republicans have not challenged one thing.
Republicans spout the idea of conservative spending? So Trump’s ballroom, UFC match, destruction of Rose Garden, building a helipad, rebuilding a gold course for himself is Conservative spending and we haven’t even mentioned the conflict of interest by his kids.
I agree Clinton and the Republican Congress of the 1990s balanced the budget and created a surplus. But 26 years and $40 trillion dollars later and we have to solve the impending crisis of today. Both parties got us here with wars, crisis management, failure to pass an actual budget in a quarter century. and the failure to restructure our largest programs as baby boomers retire and the workforce shrinks. Yes, Bush "started" the wars, but I vividly remember being scared after 9/11. It is easy in hindsight to say the wars should not have happened. With all the information Obama had about the situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East, he did not pull us out. I appreciate the Americans who gave their lives in those conflicts. It should be noted that George W. Bush created the largest Medicare expansion this century with Medicare Part D, which Americans appreciate.
I do not approve of any of Trump's wasteful spending, pocket recissions or failure to pay for his tax cuts for the rich. Yet the response from Democrats cannot be to increase spending without increasing revenues to match. That is the spirit of pay-as-you-go (put into effect by Obama and a GOP Congress, I believe), and about which I asked my question.
Yes, they have systematically done so. The only exception is national emergencies (passed through reconciliation or otherwise). But even then, Democrats try to make sure that in the end, the bill is paid.
Let's take the bank bailout after Bush left in the midst of the Great Recession, for instance. These were part of the Obama Stimulus designed to limit the damage of the recession to Main Street as much as possible (since those were not the people who caused it in the first place). The only way to have a fast recovery was to learn from the 1929 crash and NOT let all the big banks fail at the same time. So the only solution was a huge government loan to keep them all afloat.
This is basically what the Tea Party rejected, but what they SOLD as a huge debt increase, which was 100% false. As the nonpartisan CBO had perfectly shown, at the time, the Stimulus would, overall, LOWER the debt increase compared to not passing it during such a big crisis. On top of that, Obama made sure that banks paid back their loans in two years, and with interests. Netto result: the government/American people received $400 million more than what was paid to banks in loans.
The whole Tea Party "movement" was a scam (yet another one). Republicans voted against the stimulus, and if they had succeeded, it would not only have inflicted tremendously more harm on the 99%, but also massively increased the debt.
Aside from that, when Democrats adopt an emergency measure that does increase the debt (such as the bill Biden passed to stop the global post-covid 2022 inflation - which he indeed stopped faster than any other Western country, all while using it to lay the groundwork for a robust post-inflation economy for the next decade (in an evidence-based way)), these debt increases are temporary, not structural.
The massive GOP tax cuts, round after round, for the wealthiest 1%, for instance, created a huge structural debt. "Structural" debt means: there is no way for a future president to just eliminate it, since it's part of the law of the land. It's not one-time spending; it keeps eating at the budget and increasing the annual deficit.
So yes, for decades now already, the ONLY ones to refuse fiscal responsibility, and systematically, have been Republicans. Not Democrats. And it started long before Trump arrived.
As to the Social Security Fairness Act: indeed, this was an exception to the rule. It was passed by 76 Senators (when Democrats only had 47 Senators) and four out of five members of Congress. The bill adds about $200 billion to the $40 trillion debt (CBO numbers) over a ten-year period (so about $20 billion a year... compared to the $1 trillion a year added due to interest only). Democrats supported it because they argued that those who would receive the additional average monthly $360 increase had already paid for it and that Congress was withholding benefits they had earned.
Democrats want to pay for the Social Security funding gap by increasing taxes on the wealthiest, but since the GOP opposes that idea, they went along with the bill anyway.
Thanks for the thorough response! I am not sure I understand the "structural debt" concept. I followed closely the debate about current policy baseline versus current law baseline and I was angry when the GOP used the current policy baseline (do I have that right?) ploy in the OBBB that added trillions to our debt. Hypothetically, if the Dems used reconciliation to pay for 3 years of enhanced/Covid era subsidies at $35 billion per year, under the current policy device Republicans used, could Democrats just continue the $35 billion per year in subsidies without having to pay for them in their next reconciliation bill? Now that Republicans have broken the norms on current policy, do you think Democrats will follow suit?
About 80% of today's $40 trillion debt is called "structural", by economists.
The opposite of "structural" debt is temporary debt.
For instance, when I pass a bill that gives you and your family $100,000, and that bill isn't paid for, it will add $ 100,000 to the overall federal debt ONCE (only that year).
However, when I pass a bill that gives you a $100,000 tax cut based on your income (and again without paying for that bill), then EACH YEAR the federal debt will increase by the same amount (plus growing interest). So now, we don't have a one-time increase, but $1 million added to the debt over the next ten years, even though we're still talking about just one single bill. When one bill keeps on adding to the debt, year after year, it creates a structural debt. When it only adds an amount of money to the debt once, it's a temporary debt.
Tax cuts that aren't paid for create structural debt (eg., the Bush tax cuts and then the two Trump tax cuts).
Emergency spending is usually temporary, and, in many cases, it increases revenue in the long run (Biden's Infrastructure bill for instance is good for the economy, so a higher GDP automatically results in increased revenue).
Then there are bills such as Obamacare, which REDUCE the HC costs for the federal government (compared to where we'd be without it) all while expanding insurance to millions more Americans.
CURRENT POLICY BASELINE
That's just a budget gimmick. It makes it seem as if the Big Beautiful Bill would save $500 billion over ten years, whereas the CBO has proven that it will, overall, ADD more than $3 TRILLION to the debt over the next ten years.
None of this has anything to do with whether you "have" to pay for a bill or not. That will always be a political choice. For decades now, Republicans have decided to pass bills without paying for them. In general, Democrats do the exact opposite, or, where that is not possible, make sure to at least lower the debt increase compared to where it would be without passing that bill.
Finally, no, Democrats won't imitate the GOP and reject fiscal responsibility too. They vowed to repeal the BBB, so that cannot but result in a LOWER debt, compared to letting it continue.
For years, Democrats have been called the party of purity tests. Aided of course by the current administration, the Democrats showed during the midterm that openness to a broader range of ideologies works. I'd love to return to a time when I'm able to vote by candidate, and not by party.
The Republican Party is dead. It is now MAGA. They are the real RINO’s.
PS Adam - need to add well paid jobs and immigration reform. Both were happening in a bipartisan form previously with the CHIPS and Science act, the Infrastructure act and the bipartisan immigration reform act. All tanked by Trump and the MAGA’s.
You’re being too kind to the Republicans who know very well who and what they’ve become. They have had plenty of time to reflect and I don’t see any ah’ha moments. Just more doubling down. Nice try, but they stopped listening to you six years ago. Let’s figure something out without them.
New leadership is a must for Republicans. Jordan or Scalise will be more of the same . More Trump bullshit. Break away from him or expect more loses in 28.
Adam, still remembering Regan fondly, still ignoring the racism, misogyny, and trickle up economics. Why would you suggest that Republicans return to a system that favors white men, a system rigged for the rich (REGAN). You are getting old man. Your views show it too.
This is wisdom, GOP folks, listen to it!
They won’t listen, but good try Adam. I’m proud of you.
Well, Adam, maybe it’s time for you to stop writing and start doing . I have always voted Democratic but my husband is and was a Republican, not a MAGA Republican, and he voted Democratic for the first time. He would love to find a Republican leader he can follow. You gave up your career once to do the right thing. Maybe it’s time for you to reclaim your career to do the right thing. I know others feel the same way he does and would support you
I’m a democrat and I support you. I never ever had a problem with a principled republican. I supported McCain when he first ran. It’s or was a two party system.
the only problem is adam going back to congress won't do anything to help NOW!
He will have to run as an Independent and caucus with the Dems. It’s the ONLY way he can win. Or if he goes full Democrat, but I like my first suggestion.
He won’t stand a chance if he runs as a Republican. The wound is too raw.
*I’m talking President here. Not Congress. He would have to run as a Dem to go back there. He did his time (12 years is plenty) and I don’t think he really wants to go back.
But they won't. What's left in congress now is a small, highly concentrated form of MAGA - the craziest of the crazies. Any new Republican Party needs to rebuild without them.
Yes, and rebrand too. The name “Republican” has become too tarnished by its association with the orange felon and those who continue to enable him.
A "return" to before the felon in our White House is just asking for this to happen all over again.
As long as whatever party they come up with still includes the MAGAe, yep.
Most won’t, but don’t stop pushing, Adam. I hope you’ve sent this message to their inboxes, in addition to posting here.
Exactly! Very wise words.
I hope they listen.
So they chose between sleazy Scalise & mad dog Jordan? Have they learned nothing from these elections?? I guess not.
Personally, I'm rooting for Jockstrap Jordan. The guy simply redefines 'dumb-ass bantam-weight sleaze bag.' I wonder are Republicans dumb enough to do the dumbest thing imaginable?
As an Ohioan I can’t look the other way the way he did when a pedophile was preying on young wrestlers. Starting with the rotten head, it seems that this regime just doesn’t think sexual assault is a big deal. And if Gym Jordan could look the other way then, he surly won’t stop any corruption now.
As a fellow Ohioan, I heartily agree with you.
He’s hideous.
He’s even sleazier than Vance & more hated!
I agree. But you didn't add the middle part. You didn't explain why that 'might' be the only way this cancer of greed and corruption is cured: How the election of a total sleaze bag like Jockstrap Jordan might be the answer we're searching for.
Go back just seven days and think about just why so many Americans did their best to purge the rot in Congress (and other offices). Adam got that right. The 'greed and corruption' majority had finally gone too far. But enough of the rot has not been purged yet. Just like Miller has reinforced our understanding of how horrible Trump is, the election of Jockstrap Jordan could do that too.
The problem is that cancer is such a terrible disease that people sometimes die of the cure before they can die of the disease. If we don't purge Jockstrap Jordan AND Trump soon enough, the America we love and cherish will die too.
Apparently they are, and they did🙄
They are in denial, and they believe they can convince their voters that they didn't lose on merit. That's their way.
Bravo, Adam!
"The country didn’t turn liberal overnight. Voters in Texas didn’t suddenly stop believing in low taxes and a secure border. Voters in Kansas didn’t wake up on Tuesday wanting to be California."
The first thing to do to rebuild a conservative party would be to finally become honest about what the left actually achieved and continues to stand for, rather than doing what you do here.
Californians just REJECTED a 5% tax on billionaires.
The ONLY presidents ever to be passionate about and have succeeded in negotiating a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform and border security bill are Democrats (Obama and Biden), not Republicans. And time and again, it's a handful of Republicans who block these bills in the Senate. NOT Democrats.
You also mention the debt: for decades now, ONLY Democrats work with the "pay-as-you-go" rule in Congress (which stipulates that you can't pass any new bill unless it's fully paid for). Ever since Democrats adopted it, the GOP has abandoned it as soon as it takes control of DC again.
And then there is the fact that poll after poll shows that a majority of even registered Republicans continues to actually support the Democratic agenda on major issues.
So you're right, the country didn't turn blue overnight. It has been for years already, only this time, the GOP fake news no longer worked.
I do agree that for a democracy to survive, we need more than one serious and morally integer political party. But what solutions do genuine conservatives actually still have, for the problems facing us, and that are not already proposed by Democrats... ? That's my main question for you.
Thanks for your comment on the debt. I do not know enough about pay as you go. Did Dems abide by pay-as-you-go when they controlled Congress last? Does pay-as-you-go apply to reconciliation bills? The Social Security Fairness Act was a bipartisan bill that increased social security benefits without legislating any new revenues/payroll taxes to cover the additional benefits, meaning the SS trust fund will be depleted sooner. Does that violate the spirit of pay-as-you-go?
The only president to balance a budget was Bill Clinton. Obama got us out of a ‘mortgage ’ crisis’ caused by Republicans, Biden brought Americans the Infrastructure Act after Covid.
What have any Republicans ever done for the American people?
Bush got us into a war for 20 years.
Trump is robbing us blind right in front of our eyes- and Republicans have not challenged one thing.
Republicans spout the idea of conservative spending? So Trump’s ballroom, UFC match, destruction of Rose Garden, building a helipad, rebuilding a gold course for himself is Conservative spending and we haven’t even mentioned the conflict of interest by his kids.
Eisenhower was a good president, as I recall.
I agree Clinton and the Republican Congress of the 1990s balanced the budget and created a surplus. But 26 years and $40 trillion dollars later and we have to solve the impending crisis of today. Both parties got us here with wars, crisis management, failure to pass an actual budget in a quarter century. and the failure to restructure our largest programs as baby boomers retire and the workforce shrinks. Yes, Bush "started" the wars, but I vividly remember being scared after 9/11. It is easy in hindsight to say the wars should not have happened. With all the information Obama had about the situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East, he did not pull us out. I appreciate the Americans who gave their lives in those conflicts. It should be noted that George W. Bush created the largest Medicare expansion this century with Medicare Part D, which Americans appreciate.
I do not approve of any of Trump's wasteful spending, pocket recissions or failure to pay for his tax cuts for the rich. Yet the response from Democrats cannot be to increase spending without increasing revenues to match. That is the spirit of pay-as-you-go (put into effect by Obama and a GOP Congress, I believe), and about which I asked my question.
False. If you want to go for "both parties got us here," please explain how, concretely.
If not, you're just spreading GOP fake news.
Yes, they have systematically done so. The only exception is national emergencies (passed through reconciliation or otherwise). But even then, Democrats try to make sure that in the end, the bill is paid.
Let's take the bank bailout after Bush left in the midst of the Great Recession, for instance. These were part of the Obama Stimulus designed to limit the damage of the recession to Main Street as much as possible (since those were not the people who caused it in the first place). The only way to have a fast recovery was to learn from the 1929 crash and NOT let all the big banks fail at the same time. So the only solution was a huge government loan to keep them all afloat.
This is basically what the Tea Party rejected, but what they SOLD as a huge debt increase, which was 100% false. As the nonpartisan CBO had perfectly shown, at the time, the Stimulus would, overall, LOWER the debt increase compared to not passing it during such a big crisis. On top of that, Obama made sure that banks paid back their loans in two years, and with interests. Netto result: the government/American people received $400 million more than what was paid to banks in loans.
The whole Tea Party "movement" was a scam (yet another one). Republicans voted against the stimulus, and if they had succeeded, it would not only have inflicted tremendously more harm on the 99%, but also massively increased the debt.
Aside from that, when Democrats adopt an emergency measure that does increase the debt (such as the bill Biden passed to stop the global post-covid 2022 inflation - which he indeed stopped faster than any other Western country, all while using it to lay the groundwork for a robust post-inflation economy for the next decade (in an evidence-based way)), these debt increases are temporary, not structural.
The massive GOP tax cuts, round after round, for the wealthiest 1%, for instance, created a huge structural debt. "Structural" debt means: there is no way for a future president to just eliminate it, since it's part of the law of the land. It's not one-time spending; it keeps eating at the budget and increasing the annual deficit.
So yes, for decades now already, the ONLY ones to refuse fiscal responsibility, and systematically, have been Republicans. Not Democrats. And it started long before Trump arrived.
As to the Social Security Fairness Act: indeed, this was an exception to the rule. It was passed by 76 Senators (when Democrats only had 47 Senators) and four out of five members of Congress. The bill adds about $200 billion to the $40 trillion debt (CBO numbers) over a ten-year period (so about $20 billion a year... compared to the $1 trillion a year added due to interest only). Democrats supported it because they argued that those who would receive the additional average monthly $360 increase had already paid for it and that Congress was withholding benefits they had earned.
Democrats want to pay for the Social Security funding gap by increasing taxes on the wealthiest, but since the GOP opposes that idea, they went along with the bill anyway.
Thanks for the thorough response! I am not sure I understand the "structural debt" concept. I followed closely the debate about current policy baseline versus current law baseline and I was angry when the GOP used the current policy baseline (do I have that right?) ploy in the OBBB that added trillions to our debt. Hypothetically, if the Dems used reconciliation to pay for 3 years of enhanced/Covid era subsidies at $35 billion per year, under the current policy device Republicans used, could Democrats just continue the $35 billion per year in subsidies without having to pay for them in their next reconciliation bill? Now that Republicans have broken the norms on current policy, do you think Democrats will follow suit?
STRUCTURAL DEBT
About 80% of today's $40 trillion debt is called "structural", by economists.
The opposite of "structural" debt is temporary debt.
For instance, when I pass a bill that gives you and your family $100,000, and that bill isn't paid for, it will add $ 100,000 to the overall federal debt ONCE (only that year).
However, when I pass a bill that gives you a $100,000 tax cut based on your income (and again without paying for that bill), then EACH YEAR the federal debt will increase by the same amount (plus growing interest). So now, we don't have a one-time increase, but $1 million added to the debt over the next ten years, even though we're still talking about just one single bill. When one bill keeps on adding to the debt, year after year, it creates a structural debt. When it only adds an amount of money to the debt once, it's a temporary debt.
Tax cuts that aren't paid for create structural debt (eg., the Bush tax cuts and then the two Trump tax cuts).
Emergency spending is usually temporary, and, in many cases, it increases revenue in the long run (Biden's Infrastructure bill for instance is good for the economy, so a higher GDP automatically results in increased revenue).
Then there are bills such as Obamacare, which REDUCE the HC costs for the federal government (compared to where we'd be without it) all while expanding insurance to millions more Americans.
CURRENT POLICY BASELINE
That's just a budget gimmick. It makes it seem as if the Big Beautiful Bill would save $500 billion over ten years, whereas the CBO has proven that it will, overall, ADD more than $3 TRILLION to the debt over the next ten years.
None of this has anything to do with whether you "have" to pay for a bill or not. That will always be a political choice. For decades now, Republicans have decided to pass bills without paying for them. In general, Democrats do the exact opposite, or, where that is not possible, make sure to at least lower the debt increase compared to where it would be without passing that bill.
Finally, no, Democrats won't imitate the GOP and reject fiscal responsibility too. They vowed to repeal the BBB, so that cannot but result in a LOWER debt, compared to letting it continue.
Well stated, Adam. So are these two too arrogant or too dense to actually understand? Or are they in full denial mode, just like Trump??
Arrogant and self serving
Denial mode
they still think trump is their way to more power.
Well said, Adam
For years, Democrats have been called the party of purity tests. Aided of course by the current administration, the Democrats showed during the midterm that openness to a broader range of ideologies works. I'd love to return to a time when I'm able to vote by candidate, and not by party.
Amen
Thank you Adam for that very wise advice to the Republican congress! If they are smart and have any dignity left they will take it!
And they don't, so they won't, that's my guess.
Great article Adam. Now if they will listen and do what’s right!
The Republican Party is dead. It is now MAGA. They are the real RINO’s.
PS Adam - need to add well paid jobs and immigration reform. Both were happening in a bipartisan form previously with the CHIPS and Science act, the Infrastructure act and the bipartisan immigration reform act. All tanked by Trump and the MAGA’s.
I wish you were running!
You’re being too kind to the Republicans who know very well who and what they’ve become. They have had plenty of time to reflect and I don’t see any ah’ha moments. Just more doubling down. Nice try, but they stopped listening to you six years ago. Let’s figure something out without them.
New leadership is a must for Republicans. Jordan or Scalise will be more of the same . More Trump bullshit. Break away from him or expect more loses in 28.
They haven’t learned and will repeat their stupidity.
Adam, still remembering Regan fondly, still ignoring the racism, misogyny, and trickle up economics. Why would you suggest that Republicans return to a system that favors white men, a system rigged for the rich (REGAN). You are getting old man. Your views show it too.
i don't think adam wants a return to all that negative stuff. that's basically what we have now.
read what he writes
Well said, Adam. However I have little hope the Republicans will listen to it .