A cruel and pointless exercise

What Gaetz and his cronies really stand for

For the first time in American history, a House Speaker has been stripped of his gavel. By the nature of their enterprise, politicians are opportunists. Even mindful of that baseline reality, however, deposed Speaker Kevin McCarthy stands out for his career-long and abject cravenness, someone lacking in any discernible principle except an incessantly uttered and substantively meaningless "conservatism."

But it doesn't follow that those who wanted his ouster, above all Florida representative Matt Gaetz, and the Freedom Caucus of which he is a part, stand on any real principles of their own. They don't. Indeed, this entire drama, from the drawn out battle for Speaker in January through McCarthy's ouster yesterday was, despite what Gaetz and his cronies would have you believe, devoid of policy substance. The Freedom Caucus represents warmed-over Reaganomics, but with a sneer and with the preposterous conceit that its ongoing effort to make life better for the haves at the expense of everyone else somehow represents a righteous, defiant fight by “rebels” against establishment Washington.

Since its inception, the Freedom Caucus’ major policy plank has been a supposed fealty committed to fiscal responsibility. What has that meant in practical terms?

It has meant insisting on slashing government spending, particularly spending directed toward helping the less well off. At times, some FC members have made noises about cutting Pentagon spending. But when push comes to shove, most are not serious about that. Gaetz himself favored the July appropriation of $886 billion in Pentagon spending for the coming fiscal year. Last year, the $750 billion allocated to the Pentagon represented some 45% of all discretionary Federal spending. This year, depending on how things shake out, it could be over 50%. Most FC members are unabashed in insisting that only non-military discretionary spending be on the chopping block.

But these same beacons of fiscal rectitude also insist on lightening the tax bill of the wealthy as much as possible, regardless of its impact on debt and deficits.¹ Indeed, virtually all identifiable FC members voted in favor of the Trump tax cuts of 2017, a measure that has already cost the Treasury some two trillion dollars, while predominantly benefiting the wealthy.

In the meantime, life is becoming measurably harsher for a significant slice of Americans. The Washington Post has just published a comprehensive analysis of life expectancy in the United States, accompanied by an examination of various policies associated with greater or less longevity. Their analysis, like a raft of other studies, shows that ordinary Americans, especially those aged 35-64, are dying at increasingly high rates relative to our wealthy peers, not only because of the much-discussed deaths of despair, but also because of the scourge of chronic diseases. Furthermore, there is clear evidence that Red state policies are exacerbating the problem. 

Here's the Post discussing the deteriorating health picture in an Ohio county, compared to similar counties in New York and Pennsylvania:

Public health officials say Ohio could save lives by adopting measures such as a higher tobacco tax or stricter seat-belt rules, initiatives supported by Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican generally friendly to their cause.

“I told the legislature, ‘I’m going to ask you to invest in things where you’re not going to see the results during your term in office and I’m not going to see it during my term in office,’” DeWine said in an interview in the governor’s mansion.

But those proposals have repeatedly stalled in a state legislature controlled by Republicans for 27 of the past 29 years and whose leaders show little inclination to move aggressively now.

DeWine has a “nanny state” mentality, said Ohio state Rep. Bill Seitz, the state House majority floor leader and fellow Republican who has helped block tobacco tax increases amid aggressive lobbying by industry interests. The 68-year-old Seitz, who smoked for 50 years before developing kidney cancer and having a kidney removed this summer, said he’s unmoved by his own brush with the health system — even if it led him to finally kick the habit.

“I’m not going to turn into a smoke Nazi just because I used to smoke and I don’t anymore,” Seitz said.

If this is what you think it means to be a Nazi, you're a moron and an ignoramus. But the larger point is how this reflects a deeply punitive, indeed vicious mindset that Gaetz and his allies embody at the national level. Indeed, in his rant on the House floor yesterday against business as usual, Gaetz mocked his opponents for supposedly wanting to expand Medicaid. In North Carolina, before finally relenting this year, the GOP-controlled legislature spent a decade thwarting Medicaid expansion, a move that would have cost the state little, contributed to economic growth and saved thousands of lives. About ten other states, all Republican, are still expansion holdouts. So, in the midst of a national crisis of health and well-being, exemplified by the disastrous decline in life expectancy of the very constituencies Gaetz and his ilk claim to champion, the very idea of expanding health access is the punchline to a joke for Gaetz.

I bring this up in connection with the fights that have roiled Congress over the past few months (and will continue to) because it’s easy to lose sight of what is actually being fought over. Matt Gaetz and his allies want to cut the spending that is a lifeline for many Americans, while making it that much easier for the already wealthy to secure and maintain their wealth.² It makes all the political drama, Gaetz’ stock in trade, a sick joke.

1. Without credible evidence and after decades of debunking, they still insist that tax cuts will actually reduce deficits.

2. Gaetz himself comes from a very wealthy family.