"Just Say No" surfaced a decade or two ago as an anti-drug use slogan, which was fine. But these days it seems to be the platform of the Republican party and it isn't nearly as good at that.
What are the Republicans for nowadays? No new tax increases. Yes, but they're also for cutting the deficit. You can't do that without either increasing taxes or cutting spending. The GOP is for the second part of that equation, in theory. But to really cut spending you have to go after entitlements like Social Security, or defense spending, or both, because they make up most of the budget. I haven't heard the Republicans come out for cutting either of those.
Ross Douthat points out in yesterday's New York Times that we face three main problems: a jobless recovery, entitlement spending and an economy that wasn't helping the middle class even before the recession hit. The Democratic Party, he correctly notes, may have the wrong answers to these problems, but the Republicans don't seem to have any at all.
Come on, GOP! President Obama is vulnerable, but you're not going to beat him in '12 by Just Saying No. Some suggestions, please, on how to deal with the very real problems we face.
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