Should-Read: James Pethokoukis: Why can’t the GOP come up with any serious ideas?

Should-Read: James Pethokoukis: Why can’t the GOP come up with any serious ideas?: “This is proving to be a monumental week in the 163-year history of the Republican Party. And so far, it isn’t going very well… http://www.aei.org/publication/why-cant-the-gop-come-up-with-any-serious-ideas/

…Republicans should be uncomfortable with any tax plan that reduces federal revenue. The national debt as a share of the economy has tripled over the past decade to a historically high level. Meanwhile, the country faces a tidal wave of increased spending on retirees. So whatever the benefits of some individual pieces of this tax plan, it is fiscally and intellectually incoherent in its totality. It also makes a joke of the GOP’s supposed deficit worries during the Obama years.

Both the GOP’s health care and tax efforts show, if not an intellectually fatigued party, then one unwilling to speak truth to its voters: Tax cuts almost never pay for themselves. Universal health insurance coverage is a proper societal goal. ObamaCare isn’t to blame for slow economic growth. The future U.S. tax burden is far more likely to rise than fall. Trying to maintain policy fictions — whether to appease Fox News, talk radio, or voters with misplaced expectations — gets you a week like this one, a week full of bad politics and bad policy. And with little sign that GOPers are ready to acknowledge these hard truths, this bad week is unlikely to be the last one.