"The G.O.P.’s Existential Crisis"

Paul Krugman has written a good op-ed in the NY Times outlining his thoughts as to why the Republicans in Congress -- and perhaps generally -- are acting as they are in the negotiations surrounding the bypass of the sequestration agreement.

And look at where we are now in terms of the welfare state: far from killing it, Republicans now have to watch as Mr. Obama implements the biggest expansion of social insurance since the creation of Medicare.So Republicans have suffered more than an election defeat, they’ve seen the collapse of a decades-long project. And with their grandiose goals now out of reach, they literally have no idea what they want — hence their inability to make specific demands.It’s a dangerous situation. The G.O.P. is lost and rudderless, bitter and angry, but it still controls the House and, therefore, retains the ability to do a lot of harm, as it lashes out in the death throes of the conservative dream.Our best hope is that business interests will use their influence to limit the damage. But the odds are that the next few years will be very, very ugly.

It is worth a read.

14 December 2012