Can we just admit the GOP is 100% vaporware now?

[Indy Texas]

Seven years of talking about their "better ideas" for healthcare. Absolutely nothing to show for it.

No infrastructure. No tax reform. No border wall.

Just cannibalistic House and Senate caucuses and the most disengaged president since Calvin Coolidge.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

They had now 8 years to come up with a better HC system, yet couldn't.

[Arturo Belano]

Read the title as "vaporwave" and was prepared to fight somebody

[Skunk]

Read the title as "vaporwave" and was prepared to fight somebody

[Yank2133]

They have been bankrupt for years.

[ProudModerate2]

They're a disaster.
I'm glad there are only 52 Republican Senators. This keeps them in check, for the most maddening of "ideas" that they come up with.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Nah. Vaporware, at it's worst, takes your money and leaves you with nothing. That would be an improvement over what the GOP is doing.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Most of politics in this country is vaporaware.

[JA]

ObamaCare was largely a ripoff of existing Republican ideas on health care reform. Since that proved unpopular and they had to position themselves in absolute opposition to Obama, the party had to rally against its own health care proposals. That left them with no other ideas to adopt. Combine that with the redefinition of successful health care policy in America to include the number of insured and it leaves them nowhere to go without triggering a backlash, especially since it is largely Republican states and districts that have benefited the most.

After years of screaming about budgets and deficits, while championing tax reduction, they're now faced with the reality of trying to implement their promises. Not only is tax reduction, especially for the wealthy, very unpopular, but they also realize that Trump was elected in large part because of promises to protect the costliest aspects of the welfare state. So, how do you square tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses with not touching Medicare or Social Security, while also not blowing up the deficit? It can't be done. They'll lie about the CBO numbers and try to spin them, but they know that only goes so far.

Where will border wall funding come from without angering the public? Cuts in food stamps and other social welfare provisions? Expect angry constituents. Plus, they see the polling and know that a border wall is not popular. So, make those sacrifices for an unpopular proposal? How is that beneficial?

The Republican agenda has come into conflict with public opinion. It has also come into conflict with CBO budgeting and reality itself. They've relied so heavily on inciting their base, suppressing voter turnout, gerrymandering, and lack of enthusiasm among Democratic voters to win elections.  Hell, even their base is against them on many cuts to the welfare state. They've mastered the art of objection and being a powerful opposition party, but their cynical opportunism has painted them into a corner. They can't fulfill what promises they've made without inciting backlash or reveal that their promises were lies all along (i.e. you can't both provide massive tax cuts and protect the two largest entitlement programs).

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

No but we can just admit that the GOP is 100% Vaporwave now.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Careful, they could be like Duke Nukem Forever, and seem like the ultimate vaporware, only to really be Duke Nukem 15 year wait.

[136or142]

They are an opposition party only capable of saying 'no.'

I'm sure there are some Republicans who could actually put together  coherent (or semi coherent) governing legislation as obviously many Republicans still do in the states, but the national Republican party is clearly too fractured to be able to do this, and Trump is basically a child who can not lead them.

[mvd10]

If they had more seats and a more competent president they would have passed a lot of things by now (let's just say Rubio with 250+ seats in the house and 54 senate seats ), but I agree that this congress probably will go down as one of the most hilariously incompetent congresses of all time.

Anyway, I still think tax reform will pass (it's probably just going to be a tax cut with some small base-broadeners...) so they'll probably atleast get something major done. Again the small majorities + an incompetent president (who clearly opposes some necessary measures in tax reform because they will hurt his business) will make it much less ambitious and much more expensive than it should be.

[cvparty]

Read the title as "vaporwave" and was prepared to fight somebody

I was soo confused

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Reaganism won so much that Republicans have nothing left to accomplish legislatively.

[darklordoftech]

Reaganism won so much that Republicans have nothing left to accomplish legislatively.

Indeed, Reganism won to the point that the Republicans have had to define themselves by opposing a healthcare plan that Reagan would have championed.

[Pericles]

The Republican Party has proved that it lacks the capacity to govern. It is only a party of opposition. And that is where it belongs, in opposition, in opposition to a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President.

[Dr. Arch]

The Republican Party has proved that it lacks the capacity to govern. It is only a party of opposition. And that is where it belongs, in opposition, in opposition to a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Read the title as "vaporwave" and was prepared to fight somebody

I was soo confused