Perhaps I have been influenced by Senator Rand Paul, because I have plagiarized the title and idea for this post from Paul Krugman. His original New York Times op-ed can be read here:
http://query.nytimes.com/...
The key point to the column is that from an ideological point of view, government cannot solve problems. Therefore, when government is needed to solve a problem, it must fail. As a result, when Republicans are in charge of government solving problems, their solutions fail. This allows them to further their argument that government cannot solve problems.
Follow me below the fold.
There is a famous story about a Ronald Reagan campaign line about the scariest words being, "I'm form the government, and I'm here to help." The philosophy behind that sentence is that government is always the problem. If you share that philosophy, and you run for a government office, you should be honest. Your ad should say, "I'm running to be part of the problem."
Okay, here's a bit of mental gymnastics for you. The Republicans are claiming that Obamacare has created a huge problem. They also say that government cannot solve the problem that the law created. The only solution is to repeal the law. Government is the only way to repeal the law. Therefore, government action is the only way to solve a problem that government cannot solve. I think that is reverse tautology.
I have family on the right side of the political spectrum. We often agree that there are problems that need to be solved. Whenever I propose solutions, they don't offer counters, they only tell me what's wrong with my proposals. When I mention that we could write corrections to the new problems into legislation, they look for other problems.
A large majority of Americans, Republican and Democrat, believe that government plays some role in solving problems. In Washington, one party actually fund raises against its own role of governing. The Republican Party and the PACS they associate with now unabashedly say, "please send us money to elect candidates who will do nothing!"