{"id":292103,"date":"2017-01-28T06:04:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T05:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/nyt-amazed-that-republicans-are-embracing-republican-ideas\/"},"modified":"2017-01-28T06:04:04","modified_gmt":"2017-01-28T05:04:04","slug":"nyt-amazed-that-republicans-are-embracing-republican-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/nyt-amazed-that-republicans-are-embracing-republican-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT Amazed That Republicans Are Embracing Republican Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5585109\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/NYTGOPMarching.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5585109\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/NYTGOPMarching.png\" alt=\"NYT: Republicans Now Marching With Trump on Ideas They Had Opposed\" width=\"350\" height=\"372\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Readers who are familiar with the Republican Party wil be surprised to learn the it previously &#8220;opposed&#8221; such policies as increasing the size of the military and making unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <strong>New York Times<\/strong> seems intent on exaggerating the ideological space between Donald Trump and traditional Republican Party policies (<strong>FAIR.org<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/hey-nyt-the-relentless-populist-relented-long-ago\/\">1\/22\/17<\/a>). The latest example is a piece by congressional reporter <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/media_criticism\/corporations-want-to-create-jobs-and-other-myths\/\">Jennifer Steinhauer<\/a>, &#8220;Republicans Now Marching With Trump on Ideas They Had Opposed&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/26\/us\/politics\/trump-republican-retreat.html\">1\/26\/17<\/a>), that expresses amazement that Republicans in Congress seem to accept Trump&#8217;s ideas\u2014most of which are longstanding GOP policies.<\/p>\n<p>Asserting that Trump&#8217;s policy pronouncements are &#8220;largely out of step with Republican dogma,&#8221; Steinhauer wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The question of whether congressional Republicans would change President Trump or Mr. Trump would change them has an early answer. Mr. Trump cheerfully addressed the group here at their policy retreat on Thursday, and they responded with applause to many proposals they have long opposed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>She then proceeded to list a number of Trump proposals, most of which would have been unsurprising coming from Republican presidents like Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;The sudden embrace of federal spending that represents perhaps the most striking departure, with Republicans backing the concept of starting the financing for the border wall with a new appropriation&#8221;; &#8220;Republican lawmakers appear more than ready to open up the coffers for a $12 billion to $15 billion border wall.&#8221; Republicans have traditionally been eager to greatly expand spending on anything that can be described as national security. In his eight budgets (1982\u201389), Reagan added $958 billion in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpo.gov\/fdsys\/search\/pagedetails.action?collectionCode=BUDGET&amp;granuleId=BUDGET-2015-TAB-5-1&amp;packageId=BUDGET-2015-TAB&amp;fromBrowse=true\">military spending<\/a> above the 1981 baseline (in <a href=\"https:\/\/data.bls.gov\/cgi-bin\/cpicalc.pl?\">2016 dollars<\/a>)\u2014enough to build 64 to 80 border walls. George W. Bush increased the Pentagon budget by $1.6 trillion, or 107\u2013134 walls.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;They also seem to back a swelling of the federal payroll that Mr. Trump has called for in the form of a larger military and 5,000 more border patrol agents.&#8221; George W. Bush <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politifact.com\/truth-o-meter\/statements\/2011\/may\/10\/barack-obama\/obama-says-border-patrol-has-doubled-number-agents\/\">added<\/a> 7,000 more border agents between 2004 and 2008. As for military personnel, Trump has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/articles\/donald-trump-military-spending\">said<\/a> he wants to add 72,000 troops; by 1987, Reagan had increased the <a href=\"http:\/\/historyinpieces.com\/research\/us-military-personnel-1954-2014\">military roster<\/a> by 124,000 over 1980 levels.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;They have stayed oddly silent as Mr. Trump and Senate Democrats push a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, larger than one they rejected from President Barack Obama.&#8221; Republicans are not necessarily averse to big infrastructure spending\u2014George W. Bush <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/8894520\/ns\/politics\/t\/bush-signs-billion-highway-bill\/#.WIsgIH-6-Uk\">signed<\/a> a six-year, $286 billion transportation bill in 2005, which would be $351 billion in 2016 dollars\u2014but Trump is not proposing to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure; rather, he wants to offer tax breaks to for-profit developers ($137 billion worth, according to a campaign <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/moneybox\/2016\/11\/04\/donald_trump_s_plan_to_privatize_america_s_roads_and_bridges.html\">report<\/a>) that he claims would result in a trillion dollars of private spending (paid for, eventually, by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/blogs\/gulliver\/2017\/01\/pay-you-go\">tolls and other user fees<\/a>). The Democrats, meanwhile, have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/how-will-trumps-infrastructure-plan-be-paid-for-2017-1\">proposed<\/a> an actual $1 trillion public-spending bill\u2014an idea Senate Republicans have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/mcconnell-trillion-stimulus-trump_us_584ec5d4e4b04c8e2bb09e2c\">rejected<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Also notable is the Republicans\u2019 acceptance of something they have despised: the use of the executive pen to make policy&#8221;; &#8220;Republicans are now embracing Mr. Trump\u2019s early governing by executive order, something they loudly decried during Mr. Obama\u2019s second term.&#8221; Barack Obama&#8217;s 275 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_United_States_federal_executive_orders\">executive orders<\/a> were exceeded by George W. Bush (291), Reagan (381), Richard Nixon (346) and Dwight Eisenhower (484).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Even on the subject of Mr. Trump\u2019s call for an investigation into voter fraud, a widely debunked claim, Republicans have often demurred.&#8221; Republicans have been advancing bogus voter fraud claims for years in order to justify widespread voter suppression efforts (<strong>Extra!<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/extra\/voter-fraud-claims-unchecked-by-media\/\">11\u201312\/08<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/extra\/actual-suppression-vs-imaginary-fraud\/\">10\/12<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Steinhauer noted House Speaker Paul Ryan&#8217;s flipflop on TPP, which is fair enough, though congressional Republicans do not seem to have lost their enthusiasm for corporate-friendly trade pacts (<strong>Vox<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2017\/1\/23\/14359196\/paul-ryan-trump-tpp\">1\/23\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Times<\/strong> reporter also wrote that &#8220;many Republicans, who have been longstanding opponents of Russia and written laws that prohibit torture, have chosen to overlook, or even concur with, Mr. Trump\u2019s embrace of both.&#8221; Of course, congressional Republicans were generally staunch supporters of George W. Bush, who authorized waterboarding and other forms of torture after 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican-dominated Congress did pass the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Detainee_Treatment_Act\">Detainee Treatment Act of 2005<\/a>, which barred &#8220;cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment&#8221; but also conferred immunity to government agents who used interrogation techniques that &#8220;were officially authorized and determined to be lawful at the time they were conducted.&#8221; The next year, the GOP Congress passed the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Military_Commissions_Act_of_2006\">Military Commissions Act of 2006<\/a>, which according to a <strong>New York Times<\/strong> editorial (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/09\/28\/opinion\/28thu1.html\">9\/28\/06<\/a>) gave the president the power &#8220;to decide on his own what abusive interrogation methods he considered permissible&#8221; and thus &#8220;to authorize what normal people consider torture.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In any case, current Republicans leaders do not seem eager to echo Trump&#8217;s line on torture. \u201cTorture is not legal, and we agree with it not being legal,\u201d declared House Speaker Paul Ryan; &#8220;I believe virtually all of my members are comfortable with the state of the law on that issue now,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (<strong>Morning Consult<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/morningconsult.com\/2017\/01\/26\/top-congressional-republicans-break-trump-torture\/\" target=\"_blank\">1\/26\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, few Republicans seem inclined to join Trump in an &#8220;embrace&#8221; of Russia\u2014though George W. Bush <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/bush-fishing-with-putin-2016-4\" target=\"_blank\">did invite Vladimir Putin<\/a> to go fishing with him in 2007. &#8220;Putin was the only one who caught anything,&#8221; Bush wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=pIUeBAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PT249&amp;dq=%22Putin%20was%20the%20only%20one%20who%20caught%20anything%2C%22&amp;pg=PT249#v=onepage&amp;q=%22Putin%20was%20the%20only%20one%20who%20caught%20anything,%22&amp;f=false\">memoir<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Jim Naureckas is the editor of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fair.org\">FAIR.org<\/a><\/strong>. You can find him on <strong>Twitter<\/strong> at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jnaureckas\" target=\"_blank\">@JNaureckas<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>You can send a message to the <strong>New York Times<\/strong> at <a href=\"mailto:letters@nytimes.com\">letters@nytimes.com<\/a>, or write to public editor Liz Spayd at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:public@nytimes.com\">public@nytimes.com<\/a>\u00a0(<strong>Twitter<\/strong>:<a title=\"Twitter: New York Times\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nytimes\" target=\"_blank\">@NYTimes<\/a> or <a title=\"Twitter: Margaret Sullivan\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/spaydl\" target=\"_blank\">@SpaydL<\/a>). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/nyt-amazed-that-republicans-are-embracing-republican-ideas\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Readers who are familiar with the Republican Party wil be surprised to learn the it previously &#8220;opposed&#8221; such policies as increasing the size of the military and making unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud. The New York Times seems intent on exaggerating the ideological space between Donald Trump and traditional Republican Party policies (FAIR.org, 1\/22\/17). The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-292103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}