So here’s an interesting post from the Economist’s Democracy in America blog. Mr. Bartlett is one of those that you might call a former conservative in today’s political world. He’s conservative, but since the Republicans have gone Tea Bag crazy and Mr. Bartlett doesn’t just parrot whatever Mitch McConnell says, he’s on the outs with the conservative powers that be.

I got a kick out of some of his comments and thought I’d share (any emphasis is mine)…

“Given the likelihood of Republican gains in the November elections and the strong Republican incentive to make the economy as bad as possible going into 2012, I don’t think it would even be possible to pass a stimulus package that was 100% composed of tax cuts—the only stimulus Republicans might support.”

“I would add that I do disagree with the Republican fixation on taxation. Federal taxes as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in two or more generations—14.9% versus a postwar average of 18.2%. There is not one iota of evidence that the economy is suffering from excessive taxation and no evidence that the sorts of tax cuts favoured by Republicans—mainly tax cuts for the wealthy—would do any good given the nature of the economy’s problems.”

“In my view, the Republican obsession with taxes is based on pure dogma, not analysis.”

Question is “More generally, which party do you find more credible when discussing America’s fiscal challenges?”

“The Republicans don’t have any credibility whatsoever. They squandered whatever they had when they enacted a massive UNFUNDED expansion of Medicare in 2003. Yet they had the nerve to complain about Obama’s health plan, WHICH WAS FULLY PAID FOR according to the Congressional Budget Office. The word “chutzpah” is insufficient to describe how utterly indefensible the Republican position is, intellectually.”

“Furthermore, Republicans have a completely indefensible position on taxes.”

“The Democratic Party is now the “adult” party in American politics, willing to do what has to be done for the good of the country. The same cannot be said of Republicans, who seem unwilling to do anything that would interfere with their ambition to retake power so that they can reward their lobbyist friends with more give-aways from the public purse.”

Thanks Mr. Bartlett – that was fun.